The latest offers for Lucent Technologies's fibre-optic cable unit are coming in at US$3 billion to US$3.5 billion, even lower than last projected by analysts, sources close to the situation have said.
"Anywhere between US$3 billion and US$4 billion is a valid number, and it will probably sell between US$3 billion and US$3.5 billion because the market is soft and there's excess capacity in the (Lucent fibre-optic cable) plant," one source said.
Lucent, which some analysts once thought would attract bids as high as US$8 billion, has also attracted interest from Ciena, a second source said.
One possibility could include a private equity firm helping Ciena with financing for the deal, the source added.
Lucent officials declined to comment, other than to say the sale process is continuing and includes several bidders.
Ciena officials also declined to comment.
