News Summary: Alcatel-Lucent plans restructuring

BIG OVERHAUL: Telecommunications equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent launched a major effort Wednesday to boost its fortunes by shedding businesses and jobs as part of a deep cost-cutting program.

PLAN DETAILS: The Paris company plans to sell more than 1 billion euros ($1.33 billion) in assets through 2015, and hopes for 1 billion euros in cost savings. It will also restructure debt.

DEJA VU: The company, which supplies operators such as AT&T, Verizon and Orange, has faced years of nearly uninterrupted losses and successive rounds of cost-cutting and layoffs since the 2006 merger of U.S.-based Lucent Technologies and France's Alcatel.