Alcatel, Lucent shareholders approve merger
637570
Alcatel and Lucent shareholders today approved the merger of the two companies, clearing one of the last major hurdles for the corporate marriage.
600796
Alcatel shareholders flocked to vote on   the French telecom equipment firm's $10.9 billion deal to buy   U.S. rival Lucent on Thursday as executives prepared to take on   harsh critics of the move.
639620
By SOPHIE FREEMAN Daily Post Business Staff  THE merger between Carphone Warehouse and the UK arm of AOL was approved by the European Commission yesterday, after the regulatory body decided the move would not "significantly impede" effective competition in the sector.
211571
Shareholders of the company approved a $19.5 billion buyout on Tuesday, more than 10 months after the deal was proposed.
255696
Alcatel has signed a preliminary   agreement to buy Nortel's third generation UMTS cell phone   network unit for $320 million, aiming to achieve greater scale   amid cut-throat price competition.
207892
Alcatel CGEP.PA shareholders on   Thursday approved the French telecoms equipment provider's   all-share acquisition of U.S. rival Lucent LU.N, putting an   end to weeks of debates about the deal's merits.
767151
(InfoWorld) - Alcatel SA and Lucent Technologies Inc.'s plan to form a global communications equipment giant may run into a roadblock next week in a state court in New Jersey. The companies face a showdown Sept. 6 with shareholders who want to postpone Lucent's Sept. 7 shareholder meeting on the merger as they pursue lawsuits to block it. The Superior Court of New Jersey in Union County is set to hear arguments that day on whether to grant an injunction sought in a proposed class-action suit, Resnick vs. Lucent Technologies Inc. On Thursday, the plaintiffs in another suit, filed in New York, agreed to join in on that hearing. Alcatel and Lucent announced in April that they had agreed to merge into a single company, based in Paris, that would have about US$25 billion in annual revenue. Lucent has struggled in the wake of the post-2000 telecom crash, and the deal is also seen as an outgrowth of consolidation among the carriers that buy from big equipment companies such as Alcatel and Lucent. But the merger, now heading for votes by shareholders in both companies, has been criticized and still faces some hurdles. The stocks of both companies have fallen since the deal was announced, and some investment firms have spoken out against the merger. The European Commission and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission have both approved the deal, but it still needs approval from the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. Both companies have scheduled shareholder meetings on Sept. 7 to vote on the deal. In May, the Asa R. Maley Trust sued Lucent and several of its executives in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, alleging they made a deal that would benefit executives and hurt shareholders. The plaintiffs sought class-action status. "In essence, the proposed Acquisition is the product of a hopelessly flawed process that was designed to ensure the sale of Lucent to one buyer, on terms preferential to Alcatel and to subvert the interests of plaintiff and the other public stockholders of Lucent," the plaintiffs said in their complaint. On Thursday, the attorneys in the Maley case agreed to serve as co-counsel for the plaintiffs in the similar Resnick case and will submit their papers for the Sept. 6 hearing in New Jersey. Lucent is based in Murray Hill, New Jersey. In a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing on Tuesday, Lucent said the Resnick suit was without merit and it has substantial defenses to the claims. In a response to the Maley case earlier this month, the company told the New York court that the Maley case should be dismissed.
171724
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer shareholders voted overwhelmingly on Friday to approve the film studio's sale to a Sony Corp.-led consortium that includes cable television giant Comcast Corp.
611970
U.S. President George Bush has accepted a recommendation that he not suspend or prohibit the plannedÂ merger of Alcatel and Lucent TechnologiesÂ on security grounds after an agency that oversees foreign investment said the deal should be allowed, apparently clearing it to go forward.ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
174380
Lucent Technologies has averted a potentially embarrassing delay of its shareholder vote on a merger with Alcatel,Â settling two suits by shareholdersÂ who said the deal doesn't maximize shareholder value.
715668
Network equipment companies Alcatel SA  and Lucent Technologies Inc.  said on Thursday they had completed their merger, creating one of the world's biggest suppliers of network equipment for mobile phones and high-speed Internet communications.
156724
Alcatel SA   completed  its acquisition of Lucent Technologies Inc.  on Thursday,  creating one of the world's biggest suppliers of network  equipment for mobile phones and high-speed Internet.
242830
PARIS, February 27  /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Alcatel-Lucent (Euronext Paris and NYSE: ALU) and E-Plus announced today that the world's leading network integrator will be managing several network business divisions of Germany's third-largest mobile communications provider, E-Plus Mobilfunk.
288
Alcatel-Lucent finished its first full year as a merged company with a net loss of 3.52 billion euros and sales of 17.79 billion euros, a 2.5 percent drop.
70204
Shareholders of telecoms equipment providers Alcatel and Lucent approve their planned $10.7bn merger.
472460
PARIS Alcatel, the world&#39;s largest provider of broadband Internet equipment, won a $1.7 billion order to build a fiber-optic network for SBC Communications, the companies said Thursday.
127232
(InfoWorld) - Alcatel has reached a preliminary agreement to buy Nortel Network's 3G (third-generation) mobile phone network business for $320 million. Under terms of the proposed deal, Alcatel will acquire Nortel's UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications Business) radio access business, including 14 Nortel customer contracts, the companies announced Friday. UMTS is a 3G telecoms standard used in Europe based on W-CDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access). The deal would make Alcatel one of the biggest suppliers of UMTS gear worldwide, giving it contracts with one in four UMTS operators, it said. The companies have signed a nonbinding agreement to merge and hope to close the deal by the end of the year. Closing the merger depends on arriving at a final acquisition agreement, negotiations with works councils, and securing regulatory and other approvals, they said. A "significant majority" of Nortel's employees in the UMTS division would be transferred to Alcatel, the companies said.. The deal appears not to affect Alcatel'sÂ proposed merger with Lucent, announced in April. That deal is due to be voted on by shareholders of both companies on Sept. 7, although some Lucent shareholders opposed the deal and are trying toÂ block the vote in court. Alcatel said it would involve Lucent in the integration of the UMTS business. The sale by Nortel continues aÂ restructuring plan at the companyÂ that has included 1,900 job cuts over the next year. The Canadian company said in a statement its UMTS access business "lacks the scale and momentum needed to become profitable." Nortel said it will continue to develop GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) and other mobile technologies, as the company focuses on emerging 4G mobile video and multimedia services. Alcatel sees the acquisition as a way to build on an expanding UMTS market and increase it technology portfolio for major operators such as Orange and Vodafone.