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Nokia confirms 'advanced talks' taking place over bid for Alcatel-Lucent

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By Natalie Mortimer, N/A

April 14, 2015 | 2 min read

Nokia has confirmed that it is in "advanced" merger talks with French telecoms company Alcatel-Lucent in a deal that would create a global network to rival Ericsson and Huawei.

In statement issued today Nokia said a merger of the companies would take the form of a public exchange offer by Nokia for Alcatel-Lucent. However the Finnish company warned that:, "There can be no certainty at this stage that these discussions will result in any agreement or transaction".

Shares in Alcatel, which is worth approximately €11bn (£7.9bn), rose 14 per cent on this morning (14 April), while shares in Nokia, worth about €29bn (£20bn) dropped 6 per cent before this morning's announcement.

Should the merger go ahead, the combined power of the two companies could challenge industry leader Ericsson. According to the Financial Times a combined Nokia-Alcatel would have had revenues of €26bn (£18bn) last year, about the same as Ericsson’s €24.4bn (£17bn).

Nokia last year sold off its struggling handset business to Microsoft.

At the time the American company's chief executive Satya Nadella said the acquisition would “advance our transformation” as Microsoft aimed to deliver more innovation to the market.

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