After the industry's crisis began in 2000, Lucent is thought to have written down almost US$3 billion of debt related to the financing of equipment purchases by its customers, or more than the telecommunications debt exposure recently written down by several large investment banks. Lucent has lowered its vendor-financing commitments to about US$744 million after reaching a high of US$8.4 billion in December 1999.
"Lucent has gone through the painful process of correcting some of things it was doing in the gangbuster days," said Steven D. Levy, a telecommunications equipment analyst with Lehman Brothers.
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