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TRENTON, N.J. — Shares of Lucent Technologies Inc. plunged as much as 30 percent Wednesday to an all-time low before the telecommunications giant strongly denied rumors it plans to file for bankruptcy reorganization. 

“Chapter 11 rumors are absolutely false,” said Bill Price, director of corporate media relations at the Murray Hill-based company. “They are ridiculous and (are) pushing people into a panic that does not exist.” 

The market rumors helped send Lucent’s already battered stock plummeting, before it recovered somewhat after the company issued its denial. In heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange, shares of Lucent were off 45 cents, or 6 percent to $7.40. 

In a statement Wednesday morning, Lucent chief financial officer Deborah Hopkins called the rumors “baseless and irresponsible,” 

“We are already seeing positive impacts from our comprehensive restructuring program,” Hopkins said. “Our $6.5 billion lines of credit provide the financial resources and the financial flexibility to execute our turnaround plan.” 

The telecommunications equipment maker declined to say whether or not it has tapped those lines of credit. 

Hopkins said the company would detail its progress on that plan in late April, when it reports the results for its fiscal second quarter, which ended Saturday. 

Lucent’s early drop to $5.50 a share briefly pushed the stock to its lowest level ever since the company’s spinoff from AT&T Corp. in April 1996. In the initial public offering, the stock debuted at the equivalent of $6.38 per share, adjusted for two stock splits and the recent spinoff of Lucent’s telephone-making business, now called Avaya. 

The current stock price is less than 10 percent of Lucent’s $84 high in December 1999. 

The latest downturn for the stock, which is among the most widely held in the country and had been long a favorite of analysts, follows a string of strategic missteps and profit disappointments that has led to the ouster of Lucent’s chief executive and a major restructuring. 

In January, Lucent announced plans to eliminate about 10,000 jobs worldwide through layoffs and attrition, and to remove 6,000 others from its payroll by selling operations at two plants to contract manufacturers. 

“We have the financial flexibility to execute our turnaround,” Price said. “Nothing has changed.” 

In February, Lucent secured the credit lines to help execute its restructuring plan and cover debt payments. Lucent’s debt totaled a whopping $8.1 billion at the end of last year. 

Late last month, Lucent sold 600 million shares of stock in Agere, its network component business that is being spun off, in an initial public offering that brought only $6 per share – just one-third of the price Lucent had initially forecast.  

Then on Monday, Lucent said it would sell 90 million more shares of Agere to retire about $520 million in short-term debt. 

Lucent plans to spin off the 16,500-worker Agere unit, based in Allentown, Pa., by the end of the summer. 

The spinoff, layoffs and attrition are expected to leave the company with a total of about 90,500 employees. 

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On the Net: 

http://www.lucent.com