Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent Set to Put Merger to Work
January 04 2016 - 4:10AM
Dow Jones News
Nokia Corp has secured the go-ahead from France's securities
watchdog for its 15.6 billion euro ($17 billion) takeover offer for
Alcatel-Lucent SA, clearing the way for the integration of the two
telecom-equipment suppliers.
Nokia said on the Monday that the companies, which have
previously received approval from U.S. and European antitrust
regulators for the merger, will start working as an operationally
combined group on Jan. 14.
Nokia's deal to buy Alcatel-Lucent, first announced in April
last year, aims to lift the merged companies into the same revenue
league as market leaders, Ericsson AB of Sweden and Huawei
Technologies Co. of China.
Aside from merger-related cost savings, the enlarged company
could get more pricing power to negotiate with big customers.
Nokia said it holds 70.52% of Alcatel-Lucent's share capital on
a fully diluted basis according to the preliminary results of its
successful share offer from France's Autorité des Marché s
Financiers. Nokia plans to reopen its offer for the remaining
Alcatel-Lucent securities it doesn't already own. If Nokia reaches
95% ownership of Alcatel-Lucent's shares and convertible bonds, it
intends to squeeze out the remaining securities.
The deal still requires approval from Nokia shareholders.
Write to Dominic Chopping at dominic.chopping@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 04, 2016 03:55 ET (08:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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