Nokia could soon be the largest telecommunications company in the world ahead of Ericsson and Huawei after purchasing its rival Alcatel-Lucent in an all-share deal. The new deal will propel Nokia second with a global market share of 35 percent, behind Sweden’s Ericsson with 40 percent and ahead of Huawei’s 20 percent. The company will have a total of 114,000 employees and combined sales of around 26 billion euros.
Nokia will give French company Alcatel-Lucent shareholders 0.55 shares in the combined company for each of their old shares, resulting in 33.5 percent of the entity being in Alcatel shareholders. The deal will be finalised in the first half of 2016. Nokia also acquired Alcatel-Lucent’s famous Bell Laboratories (established by Alexander Graham Bell in 1880) along with its numerous patents.
Separately Nokia is planning to sell its maps unit HERE with Uber being one of he prospective buyers.
