Nokia incorporation of Alcatel-Lucent officially complete

The protracted process of Nokia acquiring and incorporating fellow networking giant Alcatel-Lucent was formally completed today, with the Alcatel-Lucent brand effectively deleted.

The process has actually been relatively quick, considering the size of the deal, with the bid first announced just nine months ago. Regulatory boxes were ticked relatively quickly and the shareholders of both companies appreciated the value of the move immediately. The new Nokia can now claim to offer complete mobile and fixed network solutions and will expect to take on competitors like Ericsson and Huawei with renewed vigour.

“Nokia has gone through a fundamental transformation,” said Risto Siilasmaa, Nokia Chairman. “Over 99% of our more than 100,000 employees did not carry a Nokia badge just three short years ago. Our earnings, market cap and growth opportunities have multiplied. We have a powerful guiding vision of the Programmable World, an extremely capable management team and a strong ambition to innovate and lead. We move forward with excitement, confidence and an ability to continue to challenge the status quo.”

“Today’s pace of technological change, driven by the transition to 5G, the Internet of Things and the cloud, is demanding extraordinary new capabilities from the network,” said Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri. “Combining with Alcatel-Lucent comes at just the right time: we can align our product and technology roadmaps for the next generation of network technology at the outset, allowing us to take full advantage of the coming opportunities and better serve customers including communication service providers, governments, internet players and large enterprises.”

The combined company would have had net sales of €24.7 billion, net profit of €2.3 billion and an R&D spend of €4.2 billion in 2014 on a pro forma basis, while pro forma combined net cash stood at €8.1 billion at the end of June 2015. On paper the combined company has a great proposition, but putting all those lovely synergies into practice won’t be straightforward, as the Nokia infographic below implies.