Former rubber boot maker Nokia has gained control of French counterpart Alcatel-Lucent following its $17 billion all-share offer and the two telecom equipment makers are planning to swiftly merge their operations.
Nokia wants to be in a stronger position to give Ericsson and Huawei a good kicking in the telecom network gear markets. To do that it has to absorb Alcatel-Lucent and restructure its channel rather fast.
Formal closure of the deal is not expected unti the first quarter of next year, but the restructuring will happen before that.
Nokia Chief Executive Rajeev Suri said that from 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.
The stock is still down about 10 percent since the announcement of the deal in April as investors have worried about the integration process and special terms negotiated by the French government.
But in October, Nokia brought forward the deal’s 900 million euro cost-saving target by a year to 2018.
The deal, set to become the biggest transaction in Finland’s corporate history, follows a string of M&A moves that have restructured former mobile phone giant Nokia in recent years.
In 2013, it took control of its network business by buying out Siemens from a joint venture, and in 2014 it sold the ailing mobile phone business to Microsoft. Last year it also sold navigation business.
