Is Nokia dead? It just announced a 15.6 billion euro acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent to challenge Huawei?

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It's been a long time since we heard big news about Nokia. It's a pity that it's not the return to the mobile phone market that Nokia fans have been longing for, but the previous rumors of acquiring Alcatel-Lucent have finally been confirmed. Here, Nokia's identity is a telecommunications equipment manufacturer.

Beijing time, April 15th, Nokia announced today that it has signed a memorandum of understanding with French telecommunications equipment manufacturer Alcatel-Lucent to acquire Alcatel-Lucent for 15.6 billion euros.

Let’s take a look at the acquisition details first

The acquisition will be made through a share swap: According to the memorandum of understanding signed by both parties, Nokia will make an offer to acquire all Alcatel-Lucent shares issued by way of a public share swap in France and the U.S. Each Alcatel-Lucent share will be exchanged for 0.55 new Nokia shares.

Premium: The share exchange transaction values ​​Alcatel-Lucent at €15.6 billion on a fully diluted basis. Based on the unaffected weighted average price of Alcatel-Lucent three months ago, the transaction represents a fully diluted premium of 34% (approximately €4.48 per share) and a shareholder premium of 28% (approximately €4.27 per share). The transaction price is based on the unaffected closing price of Nokia shares of €7.77 on April 13, 2015.

Equity situation after the acquisition: If the public exchange offer is accepted, Alcatel-Lucent shareholders will ultimately hold 33.5% of the fully diluted share capital of the merged company and Nokia shareholders will hold 66.5%.

Transaction Closing Time: The boards of directors of Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent have approved the terms of the proposed transaction, which is expected to close in the first half of 2016.

Nokia brand will remain strong

After the merger, the new company will adopt the Nokia brand, but the R&D department will retain Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs brand.

Nokia's current chairman Risto Siilasmaa will serve as chairman of the merged company, and Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri will serve as CEO of the merged company. Alcatel-Lucent CEO Michel Combes hinted in an internal email that he would leave at the appropriate time.

According to Nokia's announcement: the merged company will have a total of 40,000 R&D personnel, and R&D expenditure in 2014 will reach 4.7 billion euros, and will promote the development of technologies such as 5G, IP, software-defined networks, cloud technology, data analysis, and sensing and imaging technology.

After the merger, its share exceeds Huawei and is second only to Ericsson

The combined company would have a 35% share of the global wireless equipment market, second only to Ericsson's 40% and ahead of Huawei's 20%, according to Bernstein Research.

According to data compiled by Phoenix Technology, the online version of the Wall Street Journal reported after the two parties confirmed the start of acquisition negotiations that the completion of this acquisition transaction is expected to give birth to a European telecommunications equipment giant and stimulate a new round of industry reshuffle. The new company after the merger of Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent will have a total of more than 100,000 employees and revenue of nearly 26 billion euros (about 27.7 billion US dollars), becoming a strong rival of Ericsson, the leading company in the communications market. In addition, the marriage between the two companies will also help improve R&D capabilities and technical equipment, providing "firepower" to fight against the Chinese communications giant Huawei.

Addendum: Nokia is still evaluating Here Maps business

According to Sina Technology, Nokia also announced today that it is evaluating its Here map business and considering selling it. "The strategic evaluation of the Here business is ongoing and it is not certain whether there will be any transaction," Nokia's statement said. Nokia also said that the merger with Alcatel-Lucent created the right time to evaluate the future value of the Here business.

Bloomberg reported last week that Nokia is considering selling its Here business, and possible buyers could include Uber and a group of German automakers.