Lucent officially acquires Riverstone assets

The purchase by Lucent Technologies of bankrupt Riverstone Networks’ assets is now official.

Lucent acquired the Cabletron spinoff’s assets – including 400 employees – on April 27 for $206.6 million, though $10 million will be held in escrow for 120 days pending calculation of the final net assets transferred to Lucent. Riverstone’s Web site has now transformed into Lucent’s.

Lucent did not acquire the company’s cash, investments and debt, and the sorting out of all of this will go on for months, at least past June 1, the last day that creditors can file claims in bankruptcy court.

Also on April 27, lawyers representing Riverstone shareholders filed several motions objecting to the use of about $2.4 million of that cash to pay for liability insurance of Riverstone’s executives.

While all this goes on Riverstone shareholders have no choice but to continue wait and see what will be distributed in the end.

Cabletron – once the state’s largest employer — spun off Riverstone and Enterasys Networks, both of which later became targets of federal investigations and lawsuits related to allegations that they inflated revenue and misled stockholders.

The Securities and Exchange Commission dropped its investigation into Riverstone when it revoked its trading certificate, but won’t comment on whether there is ongoing investigation into individuals. – BOB SANDERS