Nokia is buying the French company Alcatel-Lucent, according to an official announcement made by the Finnish technology company.
Although Nokia claimed until yesterday that the outcome of the talks-negotiations had not progressed, today it announced that it had acquired French telecommunications equipment manufacturer Alcatel-Lucent for over $16.6 billion.
The agreement is expected to be completed in the first half of 2016. The acquisition will help Nokia become a major equipment supplier with further networking. Thus the Finnish company will continue to compete in the market with Ericsson.
The French telecommunications equipment company is expected to start using the Nokia brand, but will also retain the Alcatel-Lucent for R&D (Research and Development) purposes.
«With more than 40,000 employees in Research and Development (R&D) and with funding of 4.7 billion euros in 2014, the combined company will be able to accelerate the development of future technologies such as 5G, IP, networking software, cloud, analytics, as well as imaging sensors”, Nokia says in its official statement.
Nokia also reports that it is in the process of reviewing the HERE maps application, and that it is considering the possibility of selling it. The review is already underway, and according to the company, this may or may not lead to any transaction. We will have to wait to see.
