France-based Alcatel SA has announced it will buy its US-based rival Lucent Technologies Inc to form a new telecommunications equipment manufacturer. About 8,800 jobs will be cut. The combined company, to be based in Paris, expects annual sales of $25 billion - close to the 2005 revenue posted by top telcom equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc - and generate $1.7 billion of savings within three years, the companies said.
The companies said the savings would come from several areas, including consolidating support functions, leveraging research and development and services across a larger base and cutting about 10% of their combined worldwide work force. As of December 31, the companies had about 88,000 employees in total. Alcatel said it agreed to buy Lucent to better combat the intense competition in the telecom equipment market. |