News In Brief

Lucent Technologies will cut 10,000 jobs by midyear and another 6,000 by Dec. 31, the company announced. It reported losses of $1.02 billion for the past quarter and said it would implement a restructuring plan to try to reduce annual costs by $2 billion. Lucent slashed its growth outlook several times last year as it fell behind rivals in the optical networking market and struggled with declining demand for its core telephone equipment products. The layoffs, representing more than 10 percent of the workforce, primarily will reduce duplicated marketing, sales, and administrative jobs, the company said.

At least 1,000 more jobs - and perhaps as many as 2,400 - will be cut and all 130 of its Warner Brothers retail stores will be closed or sold in a widening shakeup of AOL Time Warner, various reports said. Citing sources who spoke on condition of anonymity, The New York Times, Daily Variety, and other publications said the move also would affect the company's music business, its Time Inc. magazine unit, America Online, the Entertaindom.com Internet portal, and New Line Cinema movie studio. Last week, CNN, the newly merged media giant's cable news channel, announced 400 layoffs.

J.C. Penney's new management is planning to close about 50 department stores and five to seven Eckerd drugstores, officials said. The Plano, Texas-based company has seen its market share slip as it has been outflanked by discounters and trendier retailers. Last year, it also announced a round of shutdowns - 45 department stores and 279 Eckerds, which resulted in about 1,875 layoffs. Overall, Penney's has about 1,100 department stores, 2,600 Eckerds, and 290,000 employees.

Mycal Corp, the fourth-largest supermarket chain in Japan will close 50 stores, lay off 2,700 employees, and sell or liquidate nine other properties by February 2004, the company announced.

(c) Copyright 2001. The Christian Science Publishing Society

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