Nokia has agreed to acquire French infrastructure player Alcatel-Lucent in a massive deal.
The two companies on Tuesday confirmed they were in discussions, and on Wednesday morning Nokia confirmed details in a press release.
Nokia will make an offer for all of the equity securities issued by Alcatel-Lucent, through a public exchange offer in France and in the United States, on the basis of 0.55 of a new Nokia share for every Alcatel-Lucent share. The deal values Alcatel-Lucent at $16.6 billion, and the deal is expected to close in early 2016.
A merger of Nokia and ALU will create a company with combined revenues of approximately $27.6 billion last year. That will put the new company on par with Swedish telecoms equipment giant Ericsson, which reported full-year 2014 revenues of approximately $26.7 billion.
Nokia also said in a statement Wednesday that it is looking at strategic options for its HERE mapping business. The company said it has “initiated a review of strategic options, including a potential divestment, for its HERE business.” The company also said that the review in ongoing and may not result in any transaction.
Alcatel-Lucent was down 15 percent to $4.93 in pre-market trading as of 8:06 a.m. CT Wednesday. Shares of Nokia remained flat.
