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Alcatel and Lucent to Merge

Cappella writes "It is confirmed. Alcatel and Lucent are combining to form a USD $25 billion entity. This marks a new wave of telecommunications company consolidation in the next few months to come." They first tried to work out a merger five years ago, but finally, at long last, it's come to fruition.

28 of 174 comments (clear)

  1. AT&T by HoosierPeschke · · Score: 5, Funny

    Soooooooo will they rename themselves Western Electric and merge with AT&T?

    --
    Mr. Universe: "They can't stop the signal, Mal. They can never stop the signal."
    1. Re:AT&T by fm6 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Since the new company will be headquartered in Paris, it would have to be French Electric.

    2. Re:AT&T by Espectr0 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Since the new company will be headquartered in Paris, it would have to be French Electric.

      Don't worry. The US branch would be called Freedom Electric.

    3. Re:AT&T by HoosierPeschke · · Score: 2, Informative

      which came from Lucent which came from AT&T Technologies which came from Western Electric which came from AT&T. So we're both right.

      --
      Mr. Universe: "They can't stop the signal, Mal. They can never stop the signal."
  2. Bets On The New Name by Draegonis · · Score: 2, Funny

    I was thinking "Lucatel". What else we got?

    1. Re:Bets On The New Name by C.A.+Nony+Mouse · · Score: 5, Funny

      Accident.

      --
      J
    2. Re:Bets On The New Name by stox · · Score: 4, Funny

      Lucatania, a perfect target for the Germans.

      --
      "To those who are overly cautious, everything is impossible. "
    3. Re:Bets On The New Name by cloudofstrife · · Score: 2, Funny

      I've heard Lucratel. Hopefully it won't set the expectations for the new company too high.

  3. Would you call this fruition?! by quadra23 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Cappella: They first tried to work out a merger five years ago, but finally, at long last, it's come to fruition.

    From article: Close to 9,000 jobs, or about 10% of the companies' workforce will lose their jobs as a result of the merger.

    If I was a marketing person I would definitely try to side-step this fact, unless I sugar-coated it by saying how this makes the company more efficient.

    1. Re:Would you call this fruition?! by HoosierPeschke · · Score: 2, Insightful

      My guess is most of those losses will be on the US side of the merger.

      --
      Mr. Universe: "They can't stop the signal, Mal. They can never stop the signal."
    2. Re:Would you call this fruition?! by cubicledrone · · Score: 2, Funny

      Close to 9,000 jobs, or about 10% of the companies' workforce will lose their jobs as a result of the merger.

      Any MOTHER FUCKING QUESTIONS?

      Thank you.

      --
      Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
  4. Re:How long can this consolidation go on for ? by chill · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Lucent is a shadow of what it was. They've laid off over 100,000 people in the past couple of years, and are now looking at another 9,000 or so with this merger. Those aren't exactly "world domination" figures.

      -Charles

    --
    Learning HOW to think is more important than learning WHAT to think.
  5. Now Lucent is a foreign company by the_humeister · · Score: 2, Informative
    Alcatel and Lucent had tried to merge five years ago, but talks collapsed.

    This time round they had to overcome concerns about security because Lucent does work for the US government.

    To smooth the merger's path, Lucent will set up a separate US company to deal with sensitive government contracts.


    Well, I guess we can't trust the French either. I wonder why there isn't a bigger issue made out of this considering the Dubai Ports World deal last month.
    1. Re:Now Lucent is a foreign company by Valdrax · · Score: 4, Informative

      Actually, this is not unusual for companies that have defense contracts, even with very friendly countries. There are laws stating that companies that deal with classified material and classified projects must be American. As a result, foreign-owned companies create American shell companies to handle all the details that the parent company is not allowed to work with.

      My previous employer got bought out by the Swiss, and our Defense Team became a separate corporation owned by the parent company. It's standard operating procedure.

      --
      If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
  6. wtf? by Beuno · · Score: 2, Funny

    fruition???
    Common... you're really going to say "fruition"?

  7. Naperville by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Does anyone know what this means for jobs in Lucent's Naperville location?

  8. Oh goody! by cubicledrone · · Score: 3, Funny

    $25 billion? That should be good for at least ten thousand layoffs. Middle managers are right now compliing lists of people who just bought homes or just re-financed. Hey, Bob over there just got a new car! Oh yeah, he's out with the first group.

    Layoffs for all! Bonuses and parties for the rest! THERE'S CAKE IN THE CONFERENCE ROOM!

    --
    Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
  9. Re:How long can this consolidation go on for ? by cubicledrone · · Score: 2, Interesting

    They've laid off over 100,000 people in the past couple of years, and are now looking at another 9,000 or so with this merger.

    Oh yeah. Now that's free market capitalism at it's best! What? No, that's what "free market" means: shit all over the wage earners.

    Now they can start figuring out ways to fuck over customers.

    --
    Business isn't willing to pay for products, innovation and careers, so we get brands, mortgage commercials and layoffs.
  10. Try Alcacent sir by zappepcs · · Score: 2, Funny

    The cure for all your telecommunications heartburn or upset stomach ???

  11. Alcatel and Lucent to Merge, form Voltron by Gothmolly · · Score: 2, Funny

    Massive blackhole of suckitude to form, news at 11.

    Lets see, what do these guys do...
    make "winmodems"
    produce crappy PBX hardware
    offer "services" ...
    3) lose money!

    --
    I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
    1. Re: Alcatel and Lucent to Merge, form Voltron by timbrown · · Score: 3, Informative

      You forgot "make exceptionally good high end routers". Service routers that can work at layers 2 and 3, excellent HA capabilities that are ideal for building large MPLS clouds. Having had the pleasure of testing these babies, they rock! And they sell pretty well too.

      --
      Tim Brown
  12. Re:How long can this consolidation go on for ? by thePig · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Yep. But think about AT&T ..
    If any company had anything resembling world domination, it was them.

    The irony is that at that time Govt. broke the company up to 7 segments, and now they are trying to survive by merging.

    Fall from grace, indeed.

    --
    rajmohan_h@yahoo.com
  13. Saves on incest costs.. by Mowie_X · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The whole industry is very incestuous. It will save a lot of money from both companies kitty used to lure employees from the other. Don't count this as minor savings either. It was not uncommon at all for Lucent to fly Cisco/Nortel employees from Can to US for an interview at the spur of the moment -- including putting them up in hotel, costs, etc...

    I do suspect this will lead to a lot of layoffs however. Do they really need 2 wireless divisions doing exactly the same thing?

  14. my $0.02 Worth from a former employee of Lucent by ilove2bscrewed · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Alcatel is making a move that may bite them in the ass. Lucent is not worth what they are paying for it, the entire company is worth maybe 1/2 of that price TOPS. As part of the deal I hope that Alcatel gets to execute Patrica Russo by a great french method of 'off with her head'. The first thing that Alcatel needs to do post merger is sack the entire BOD and any other worthless manager still left on the payroll.

    If were a cartoonist, this is the cartoon I would draw.

    Frame #1: A fat PHB with the Red lucent symbol on his back, he is screwing an employee with the caption of "It's just business"
    Frame #2: A french executive from Alcatel is screwing the fat PHB from the first frame with the caption of "How do you like it?"

    The red lucent symbol will always remind me of how my ass felt after the management had their way with me. No romance, no dinner, no flowers, just a royal pounding in the ASCII chart!

  15. Another fish to be fried by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Lucent and Nortel used to be the big rivals. Nowadays, they're both a fraction of what they once were. The rumour says that Nortel is up for grabs as well. Perhaps Huawei will take ownership. That way they can get some real R&D instead of S&D (Steal and Development).

  16. Re:Why? by fred911 · · Score: 3, Informative

    The french government is as protectionist has it gets. The only level field they play on is one slanted twards themselves. I surely didn't intend to sound redneck. Read more here:

    http://money.cnn.com/services/tickerheadlines/djh/ 200603241445DOWJONESDJONLINE000969.htm
    http://www.economist.com/displayStory.cfm?story_id =5476736
    http://www.e-nough.hmdnsgroup.com/archives/001024. html

    --
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  17. Re:How long can this consolidation go on for ? by TheGavster · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually, I think it's "allocate workers and resources in the most efficient manner". Apparently Lucent isn't an efficient place to allocate workers to, thus the market has moved them elsewhere.

    --
    "Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
  18. Does Bush know? by tootlemonde · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Back at the beginning of Clinton's first term, lobbyists from Western Electric alerted him that the White House switchboard was a product of Northern Telecom. NorTel is nominally a Canadian company but this particular switch was made by its Raleigh, N.C. plant that employed 20,000 American workers and was installed by an American company.

    Clinton had the system ripped out and replaced by a good ole Western Electric product. Lucent is the successor company to Western Electric. Unless the something has changed in the intervening years, the French now control the White House telecom system.