Nokia has announced its intention to acquire the telecoms equipment company Alcatel-Lucent for 15.6 billion EUR (US$16.6bn). The new company will be called Nokia and have its headquarters in Finland, but will retain Alcatel-Lucent's Bell Labs name for its R&D activities. The deal has to be approved by Nokia shareholders.
Nokia has also announced a "strategic review" of its HERE mapping business, which evolved from its acquisition of Navteq back in 2007 for $8.1 billion. It will reportedly sell the mapping division for $2 billion. That price is at the low end of what was previously rumored.
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BBC writes that German carmakers Audi, BMW and Daimler are buying Nokia's "Here" maps business for €2.8bn (£2bn):
"High-precision digital maps are a crucial component of the mobility of the future," said Dieter Zetsche, chairman of the board of Daimler. The carmakers plan to use Here's technology to combine precise digital maps with real-time vehicle data more closely. "For the automotive industry, this is the basis for new assistance systems and ultimately fully autonomous driving," the automakers said in a statement.
The rival automakers each plan to hold an equal stake in Here. The company said vehicle manufacturers are sharing data to make real-time map updates a reality.
Perhaps it's also worth mentioning that Nokia bought Navteq in 2007 for €5.7bn.
takyon: Nokia Intends to Buy Alcatel-Lucent
BMW, Audi, and Mercedes Want to Buy Nokia's Here Mapping Group
Uber Acquires Mapping Assets and Employees From Microsoft/Bing
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Thursday April 16 2015, @11:14PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2015, @09:10AM
They are resurrecting the dead?
(Score: 2, Insightful) by c0lo on Thursday April 16 2015, @11:54PM
FTFY.
Does it have any impact on UNIX copyrights? (Lucent incorporated Bell Labs)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Friday April 17 2015, @12:07AM
I'm pretty sure it's the non-MS part of Nokia that wants ALU.
(Score: 5, Informative) by takyon on Friday April 17 2015, @12:12AM
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Mobile [wikipedia.org]
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(Score: 2) by richtopia on Friday April 17 2015, @02:38AM
I thought the market was basestations for this transaction, not handsets.
NYT includes Cisco as a competitor for example (javascript needed). http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/16/business/dealbook/nokia-and-alcatel-lucent-takeover-deal-announced.html?_r=0 [nytimes.com]
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 17 2015, @09:48AM
You'll need to sacrifice your first born to get a peek at NyT..
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Friday April 17 2015, @06:26AM
Wrong. Nokia is not Microsoft, and Nokia seems not to intend to re-enter the mobile phone business. Nokia is a big player in the area of network infrastructure, and that business has exactly nothing to do with Microsoft. Why is it so hard to understand for people that MS didn't buy the Nokia company, but just one business unit of them?!?
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 17 2015, @12:23AM
First, this is Nokia proper, not the mobile division Nokia sold off to Microsoft, so no MS FUD please*.
Where I work, we just decided to switch to Alcatel Lucent's ethernet switches (they have a Cisco like CLI BUT, they also give you a bash shell, sed, awk, diff, python, etc.). A little worried that Nokia may only be interested in the telecom side of the AL business.
* plenty of reasons to worry about what MS is up to, but this isn't one of them.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Friday April 17 2015, @12:31AM
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(Score: 1) by kadal on Friday April 17 2015, @12:50AM
That's some vague BS.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Friday April 17 2015, @12:52AM
There's all sorts of vague BS before, during, and after a merger.
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