Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent Merger Talks Confirmed

After quite a bit of media speculation, Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent recently confirmed that they are, in fact, talking about a deal that could bring about the merger of the two companies. Keep in mind that negotiations could still go south at this point, but if the deal would actually materialize, it would allow the firms to expand their respective product portfolios as well as their reach. It’s not difficult to understand why a mobile broadband specialist such as Nokia would seek to join forces with a fixed network specialist such as Alcatel-Lucent. Even though the market is heavily focused on mobile networks right now, fixed broadband networks maintain their usefulness by providing access to high-quality video content while supporting home-based Wi-Fi networks.

Furthermore, as Ericsson and Huawei currently occupy the top two positions in the access networks market, a merger would give Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent a better chance at competing with these giants. Obviously, combining two companies with significant cultural differences brings its own set of difficulties, but this is to be expected when a Finnish-German company buys a French-American one. Just in case you weren’t aware, Nokia is heavily invested 5G research, which is set to become the next mobile telecommunications standard. Purchasing new assets at this time does sound like a good idea, but all we can do now is wait and see what happens next. We’ll keep you posted as the story develops.

Thank you Pcworld for providing us with this information.

Image courtesy of Mobiili.