From Agere To Closure
On January 24, 2002, Agere Systems announced that it would be closing the 1,300,000 square feet (120,000 m2) Reading Works in 12 to 18 months. The planned changes involved closing the Breinigsville, Pennsylvania plant in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, which was opened in 1988; selling the Orlando plant in Florida; and consolidating several locations in New Jersey. All operations were consolidated at the Allentown, Pennsylvania, headquarters location and the New Jersey locations. About 1,500 workers were transferred from Reading to Allentown where 3,200 workers were employed prior to the relocation. As Agere was leaving, Legerity, Inc., assumed some of the operations formerly done by the Muhlenberg plant in the old Building 10 on North 13th Street. In this facility Legerity assembled 40 former Agere circuit-design, physical-design, application-design and process development engineers to support the analog line card integrated circuit business it purchased from Agere. Legerity is a design facility that uses other companies foundries to manufacture its products. In May 2003, Agere Systems Inc. ended all manufacturing and began decommissioning its Muhlenberg Township plant. The last 346 manufacturing employees were laid off. About 50 employees — mostly maintenance — remained at the plant until a buyer was found.
Agere built a $165 million World Headquarters building in Hanover Township, Lehigh County, Pennsylvania. This building was started in 2001 and completed in 2003. It brought together research and development facilities from Breinigsville and Muhlenberg Township. It absorbed about 2,000 workers from these two facilities. Agere Systems tried unsuccessfully to sell its Union Boulevard plant in Allentown, where the first commercial production line for transistors was set up in 1951. Agere Systems demolished the manufacturing part of the Union Boulevard facility. The company continues to use the offices and wet labs in the remaining part of the building. Its headquarters building is nearby in Hanover Township, Pennsylvania. In 2003, Agere Systems sold the chip plant and research center in Breinigsville to TriQuint Semiconductor, which also bought the company's fiber-optic components division. The facility, now under different ownership, is a multi-tenant technology park.
At the end of 1999 shares of Lucent stock hit a high of nearly $80. After spinning off Agere Systems, Lucent shares dropped to around $4.50 and later dropped to $0.55 in October 2002. After being spun off, Agere shares were about $4 and dropped to a low of $0.50 in October 2002. Agere started 2000 with 18,000 employees. By the end of the year it had only 10,000 employees. By the end of 2001 the number of employees had dropped to about 7,000. The last wafer starts at the Reading Works were scheduled for April, 2003 and the last shipments were scheduled for May, 2003. The doors locked on May 16, 2003. Starting May 17, the Reading work force consisted of 100 employees who cleaned up the facility and disposed of equipment. In July the work force was down to 50 maintenance employees who manned the 1,300,000-square-foot (120,000 m2) facility while an attempts were made to sell it or at least rent or lease it. On December 13, 2005, it was announced that Agere had signed a sales agreement with a Montgomery County, Pennsylvania, developer to sell the 133-acre (0.5 km2) Agere Systems Inc. property in Muhlenberg Township, Pennsylvania, and projects the return of 1,000 jobs to the site within 18 months, with more jobs to follow.
Read more about this topic: Reading Works, 2003