Lucent Technologies yesterday received another setback in its efforts to reduce debt and raise capital, with the halving of the price range of its Agere Systems unit, due to be spun off next week.

In addition, Morgan Stanley Dean Witter, lead underwriter, has pulled out of a deal to accept 200 million Agere shares in exchange for about $2.3 billion (€2.6 billion) of Lucent debt.

The Agere IPO is central to Lucent's restructuring efforts and return to profitability after missing product cycles in the optical communications equipment business, and stumbling in other markets.

Lucent employs nearly 1,000 people in Dublin.