Engaged tone
The Nokia-Alcatel merger represents the triumph of hope over experience
By MS
MERGERS among telecoms-equipment makers have a terrible record. In 2006 Alcatel, a troubled French telecoms conglomerate, was pressed to merge with Lucent Technologies, a descendant of America’s telecoms colossus, AT&T. The messy result burned cash for eight years and caused its share price to tumble by almost 75%. Nokia’s experience of togetherness was hardly happier. In 2007 the Finnish firm formed a joint venture with Siemens which staggered on until Nokia bought out its German partner in 2013. So news on April 15th that Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent had agreed to tie the knot, though not unexpected, caused eyeballs to roll.
This article appeared in the Business section of the print edition under the headline "Engaged tone"
From the April 18th 2015 edition
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