Its official: AT&T is Lucent Technologies

Arlyn S. Powell, Jr.

AT&T (Murray Hill, NJ) has announced that it has selected a new name for its systems and technologies company--Lucent Technologies. The word "lucent" means "marked by clarity" or "glowing with light," according to the dictionary.

Henry Schacht, chief executive officer of the company, commented, "When you bear one of the best known names in communications [AT&T], selecting a new name takes on even more significance."

Unnamed since AT&T restructured into three separate, publicly held companies last September, the systems and technologies company has conducted interviews and focus groups with employees, customers, industry leaders and analysts worldwide as part of the naming process. "The focus groups and interviews told us that Lucent Technologies differentiated us from AT&T and at the same time was a strong, simple, memorable name," added Schacht. "It suggests clarity of thought, purpose and vision, and it has a technological feel."

Lucent unveiled a new symbol to serve as its logo: a red, boldly drawn circle that it has dubbed "the innovation ring." A tag line--Bell Labs Innovations--will at times be added to the logo. (Bell Laboratories [Middletown, NJ] is the research and development arm of the new company.)

Lucent Technologies will design and build public and private networks, communications systems and software, consumer and business telephone systems, and microelectronics components. The second arm of the old AT&T, the communications services company, will retain the AT&T name and logo. The third arm, the business computing company, recently changed its name back to NCR Corp.