Alcatel Optronics is to shed a quarter of its staff in plans announced this week. The company's industrial redeployment plan affects all of its manufacturing sites. In Nozay, and Lannion, France, the company will introduce part-time employment, early retirement and prolonged leaves in an effort to reduce headcount. Job cuts will also be made at its Plano, Texas site. In Canada, the fibre Bragg grating (FBG) manufacturing operation in Gatineau (Quebec, Canada) will be closed and the manufacturing activities transferred to Alcatel Optronics UK, based in Livingston, Scotland. Canada's R&D activities and commercial presence will remain.

MEMS and Planar design software activities will be disposed of in the
Netherlands through a management buy-out (MBO), expected to close at the end
of this month.
In the Livingston, Scotland site, the industrial space will be adapted to
incorporate the FBG manufacturing activities while continuing production of
the passive planar lightwave circuit (PLC) product lines. It is hoped that
consolidating the two passive terrestrial manufacturing activities in one
location may result in economies of scale as well as improved technical
synergies.
"We are implementing the industrial redeployment plan in order to further
adjust to the persistent market downturn," said Jean-Christophe Giroux, CEO.

Field emission display developer PixTech has laid off almost all its
workforce and is terminating operations. The company says it has been unable
to obtain financing to allow it to continue in business or to find a buyer,
despite extensive discussions. Its French subsidiary, PixTech SA, has
already filed for bankruptcy protection. The US parent expects to file for
protection in the near future. The company's assets are not sufficient to
satisfy creditors in full, it says. Common stockholders cannot expect to
receive anything out of the bankruptcy settlement.
"Anyone considering an investment in the common stock should consider this
situation carefully," is the comment from the press announcement.
PixTech was delisted from Nasdaq in February of this year and was deleted
from listing on the OTC Bulletin Board effective May 23, 2002. On Nasdaq
Europe, PixTech has been in a "trade halt" status since early April and
expects to be delisted in the near future.

Cree has change the name of its UltraRF subsidiary to Cree Microwave. The
UltraGold brand will continue as the product designation for Cree Microwave.

Lucent Technologies completed its spinoff of its microelectronics interest
as Agere Systems on June 1, 2002. The new company will specialise in ICs,
optoelectronics and subsystems. Agere currently employs 11,500 people in
North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.