Two of the many companies that most of our readers are likely familiar with are the Finnish firm Nokia, who’s been making headlines in the mobile space since before some of our readers were born, and French firm Alcatel-Lucent, who is a French telecommunications equipment company responsible for the hardware found on many wireless networks throughout the world. Not too long ago, Nokia decided to buy up a huge amount of Alcatel’s stock, leaving them with majority ownership. They began merging operations at that point. On February 10, they announced that they had concluded round two of the offer period and, for a grand total of $17.6 billion, now own 91 percent of Alcatel-Lucent.
Although it’s not a full buyout, Nokia owns a significant enough stake in Alcatel to make some decisions regarding their operations. What those decisions may be, Nokia has yet to reveal. Nokia has nearly full control of Alcatel-Lucent, who dabbles in a good few businesses besides manufacturing mobile phones. Networking, Internet of Things and a variety of related applications such as public sector and utilities are all in Alcatel-Lucent’s wheelhouse. With Nokia having a controlling share, Alcatel-Lucent announced on Twitter and their website that Nokia was now sharing control of the company’s operations.
Nokia is not in full control just yet, though. In order for that to happen, they would need at least 95 percent of total Alcatel-Lucent shares. At that point, they would edge out any control or say that other shareholders and Alcatel-Lucent themselves may have. Nokia has not announced a move to acquire the remaining shares necessary for full control at this time. On their website’s “vision” page, Nokia now indicates that it thinks of Alcatel-Lucent as a partner and that their plans are to continue connecting the world as both companies always have, but to do so in the future by combining their technological achievements and expertise. Seemingly, there are no plans for a hostile takeover or phasing out of Alcatel. The page’s tagline now reads, “With the combined strengths of Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent, we are an innovation leader in the technologies that connect people and things.”