Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent Deal Gets Final Go-Ahead

Nokia has cemented its takeover of French telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent, after the £11.5 billion (€15.6bn) deal was announced last April.

The all-share offer made by Nokia will go live from January 14, and will see Nokia hold around 79 percent of Alcatel-Lucent shares.

Integration

Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri said in a statement: “We will move quickly to combine the two companies and execute our integration plans.

“As of January 14, 2016, Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent will offer a combined end-to-end portfolio of the scope and scale to meet the needs of our global customers. We will have unparalleled R&D and innovation capabilities, which we will use to lead the world in creating next-generation technology and services,” he said.

The French stock market authority, Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), today published the interim results of the initial offer period of Nokia’s offer for Alcatel-Lucent in France and in the United States, and declared the deal successful.

The deal will carry Nokia into a better position to compete with Ericsson and Huawei in the telecom network equipment market in Europe.

The combined companies will have around 114,000 workers, and should reach second in the mobile equipment market with a global market share of almost 35 percent. Ericsson holds a 40 percent share and Huawei holds a 20 percent share, according to Bernstein Research. Nokia will also gain access to a lucrative North American market.

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