Nokia says it has finalized its acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent – some 19 months after announcing the deal in April 2015 – wrapping up the purchase and integration of the company and giving it added momentum to capture more business inside and outside the telecoms sector as demand for data surges.
The closing of the deal, marked by the purchase of all outstanding Alcatel-Lucent shares, means Nokia will now start eliminating the complexity and costs of running two separate public companies. It caps a radical three-year transformation that started with the purchase of Siemens’ share in Nokia Siemens Networks in 2013 and was followed by the divestments of the Devices & Services and mapping businesses in the next two years.
“While we have been operating as a combined company already since January 2016, we should take a moment to recognize the significance of today’s news,” said Nokia President and CEO, Rajeev Suri. “This acquisition was smoother than many observers thought possible, and I would like to thank all our employees and partners who made it happen.”
Although the integration took over a year and a half, Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent were already working as a combined company just nine months after the deal was announced – shortly after that, Nokia was offering customers its improved product portfolio in a fraction of the time taken in previous integrations.
Nokia says it has accelerated synergy plans for the deal, and expects 1.2 billion euros in annual cost savings to be achieved in full-year 2018.
Nokia says it has been bolstered by Alcatel-Lucent’s fixed, IP, optical and applications and analytics technologies, resulting in an end-to-end portfolio to meet rising data-driven demands.
The acquisitions in 2016 of Withings and Gainspeed, plus a brand-licensing deal with HMD global and expanded intellectual property cross-licensing agreement with Samsung, also show Nokia’s intent to branch into new markets in a way that makes sense not only as a stand-alone activity, but with the aim to create more demand for its Networks business.
“During the last three years, Nokia has reinvented itself, emerging as a leader in the technologies connecting people and things with an unparalleled portfolio that better serves our traditional customers and, critically, new customers in the enterprise, Internet, utilities and transportation sectors. We are focused on playing a central role in a world where everyone and everything will be connected,” Suri added.
The company plans to share more on its future plans at its Capital Markets Day in Barcelona on November 15, 2016.
Be the first to comment