Lucent, Partner Form Identity-Check Firm

Lucent Technologies and U.S. Venture Partners said they formed a company that will make products to help people prove their identities and protect themselves from impersonators through electronic fingerprinting technology. Veridicom Inc.’s first commercial product will be a postage-stamp-size fingerprint sensor used to retrieve information, authorize purchases or enter restricted areas. The sensor will measure the ridges and valleys on the skin when a finger is pressed against a silicon chip, then check measurements against the user’s profile. Menlo Park-based Veridicom will be owned by the two firms as well as Tom Rowley, who has been named Veridicom’s president. The size of each shareholder’s stake in the new company was not disclosed. Murray Hill, N.J.-based Lucent Technologies makes communications systems, and U.S. Venture Partners, also based in Menlo Park, is a venture capital management firm. Lucent shares lost 75 cents to close at $62.625 on the NYSE.