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NEW YORK — Lucent Technologies Inc. lost a bigger than expected $3.69 billion in the just-ended quarter as the communications equipment maker was hit hard by the financial meltdown of a customer, wireless network operator Winstar Communications Inc. 

Agere Systems, the semiconductor business spun off from Lucent, announced Tuesday it will cut 2,000 jobs or 11 percent of its work force, blaming the weak communications market. The cuts primarily will be at manufacturing facilities in Pennsylvania, California and Florida. 

Lucent’s net loss for the first three months of 2001, its second fiscal quarter, was equivalent to $1.08 per share. It included 15 cents per share from bad loans to Winstar, which filed for bankruptcy last week, and investment losses. 

Overall, the loss reflected $2.7 billion in one-time expenses, including 2,000 of the 10,000 job cuts planned under the cost-cutting effort announced earlier this year, Lucent said Tuesday, The $2.7 billion figure was well beyond the range of $1.2 billion to $1.6 billion Lucent had expected. 

Excluding those charges and any financial results from Agere, the Murray Hill, N.J.-based company posted an operating loss of $1.26 billion, or 37 cents per share. 

In the same period a year ago, Lucent posted a net profit of $755 million, or 23 cents. Excluding discontinued operations, the company had an operating loss of $1.31 billion, or 39 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. 

Agere also announced second-quarter earnings loss of $148 million, or 15 cents per share, on $1.19 billion in revenue. The company cited the one-time restructuring costs associated with the break up from Lucent and acquisition expenses made while part of Lucent as well as tax adjustments. 

Revenues from Lucent’s second quarter totaled $5.92 billion, down 18 percent from $7.15 billion in the same period a year ago. Company officials said that revenues actually grew 36 percent compared with the final three months of 2000. 

Industry analysts had expected Lucent to post a per-share operating loss of 23 cents and revenues of $6 billion for the just-ended quarter, according to a survey by Thomson Financial/First Call. 

Lucent, spun off from AT&T Corp. in 1996, is among the most widely held stocks in the country and was a favorite of analysts until last year, when a string of strategic missteps and profit disappointments led to the ouster of Lucent’s chief executive and a major restructuring. 

“As we’ve said, fiscal year 2001 is a transition and rebuilding year for Lucent,” Lucent chairman and chief executive Henry Schacht said in a statement. 

Lucent said it expects to cut the remaining 8,000 jobs under its restructuring plan by the end of the current quarter. 

After the results were announced, shares of Lucent finished up 80 cents a share to close at $10 on the New York Stock Exchange. 

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On the Net: http://www.lucent.com