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Nokia acquires Alcatel-Lucent for $17 billion

Now, it can compete with China’s Huawei and Sweden’s Ericson for manufacturing telecom networking gear.

Nokia, yesterday’s mobile manufacturing giant, is making a comeback into the scene with it gaining control of its French rival Alcatel-Lucent following its 15.6-billion-euro ($17 billion) all-share offer. The merger is likely to be completed by January 14 2016.

As per filings with authorities in the French stock market, Nokia will be holding around 79% of Alcatel shares.

The offers in France and the United States will be reopened this month, and the final results will be published in February.

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

Nokia has reiterated the fact that the merger is expected to be closed by the first quarter of 2016.

This strategic acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent, is likely to place Nokia in a position in which it can viably compete with players such as Huawei and Ericsson for a share of the telecom network gear market where there is little growth and stiff competition.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Nicolas Menguy .