Two European heavyweights telecoms, Finland’s Nokia and its competitor Franco-American Alcatel-Lucent, want to unite to form an industry giant, an industrial project closely followed by the French government.
Tuesday the two groups confirmed lead discussions about a possible merger, which could take the form of an exchange offer in Nokia shares on Alcatel-Lucent.
L The case was considered important enough by Paris, that President Francois Hollande receives the same day the bosses of both groups, Rajeev and Michel Combes.
This reconciliation must raise a large European champion at both equipment and technology on the mobile phone and fixed with the best of Nokia and Alcatel technology “, welcomed the Minister of Economy Emmanuel Macron, at the end of this interview at the Elysee .
“It is now a new phase in the life of the company that opens, after the work of recovery for two years, is the expansion phase of reconquest is done, “Mr Macron said.
If successful, the deal would create a giant with sales of $ 28.6 billion (about 27 billion) for infrastructure alone.
It should also sign the absorption of Alcatel-Lucent, a member of the CAC 40, the elite of large French companies.
This merger will have no social consequences France, assured the Minister of Economy.
“What is important for us is that on the one hand there will be no job losses in France, and even more. We had all the commitments on the part of Nokia, “he has said on BFM radio.
” A center of excellence for research and development will be developed in France “a- he continued, stating that “the 5G will be developed in France in the new group”
-. Fear of ‘umpteenth social’ –
Nozay (Essonne) The most important site of Alcatel-Lucent in France, concern for employees, however, was palpable Tuesday night, unions fearing “umpteenth socially.”
Cross at the entrance of the site, one of them felt that “Nokia has never been kind” with its employees in Europe.
Alcatel-Lucent has nearly 8,000 employees in France and 53,000 worldwide against about 55,000 for Nokia .
The Finn came to prominence by becoming the world leader in mobile phones in the late 1990s, before being surpassed in 2012 by the South Korean Samsung.
He had given up the following year, announcing the sale of the business phones and tablets in the US software giant Microsoft. Since the sale to Microsoft materialized in April 2014, he kept in his most coffers 5.4 billion derived from it.
Today, Nokia designs and builds infrastructure for telephone and internet networks. Its strategy focuses on innovation in mobile technologies (LTE and 4G) and the development of geolocation systems (HERE subsidiary).
This will allow him to grow up in front of his great rival, the Swedish Ericsson and another competitor who seeks to unravel in the West, China’s Huawei. The Minister Macron actually hope that marriage will create “the great European champion” to confront its Chinese competitors.
But the Finn has supplied no further details Tuesday, citing no no amount nor the reasons that led him to become interested in Alcatel-Lucent.
The Finnish stock advisory firm Inderes stressed the “risk” taken by Nokia, whose stock has lost 3.60% on the Stock Exchange Helsinki, while Alcatel-Lucent jumped 16%. In the technology sector, “the history of mergers scared,” he stressed on Twitter
That of French Alcatel and American Lucent has been a patent failure. N the Franco-American has realized annual losses since the merger in 2006, with the exception of 2011.
Since 2013, Alcatel-Lucent, went through multiple restructuring began to take off thanks to the plan “Shift “which focuses its efforts on the IP (internet-related services), the” cloud “(computer remote storage) and ultra high-speed fixed and mobile.
speculation about a possible merger or transaction between the two groups had already taken over the end of 2014, not materialize.
Freed from home losses that were mobile phones, Nokia is trying to rebuild its finances after accumulating losses at the beginning 2010s The three major rating agencies, however, still rank in the “speculative” category, which means that it presents a significant risk to its creditors.
The Finnish group reported net profit 1.16 billion euros in 2014, five times the previous year, but mainly due to a tax accounting gain
4/14/2015 7:59:10 p.m.. – Paris (AFP ) – By Rebecca Frasquet, Camille BAS-Wohlert – © 2015 AFP
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