Lucent Technologies Inc, the hardware spin-out from AT&T Corp took time out to respond to criticisms of it contained in a report by a Smith Barney analyst, and said that it considers its accounting practices to be conservative. Smith Barney analyst Anthony Langham criticized Lucent’s aggressive accounting practices versus competitors’ practices, sources of some earnings, the difficulty in getting answers to probing questions and apparent problems in gross margin. Langham also downgraded his rating on the stock to neutral from outperform. Lucent shares fell $4.50 to $54.125 on the note. Lucent denied many of the analyst’s claims, and said it was based on an incomplete assessment of its finances.
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