Nokia has officially gained control of troubled French telecom company Alcatel-Lucent, Reuters reported Monday, drawing to a close a $17 billion (15.6 billion Euro) deal that was first announced in April 2015.

According to information released by French financial regulators on Monday, preliminary results of Nokia’s public exchange offer for outstanding shares of Alcatel-Lucent show that “Nokia would hold 76.31% of the share capital and at least 76.01% of the voting rights of Alcatel-Lucent, 89.14% of the outstanding OCEANEs 2018, 24.34% of the outstanding OCEANEs 2019, and 15.11% of the outstanding OCEANEs 2020.”

On a fully diluted basis, the French regulators said Nokia will hold just over 70 percent of Alcatel-Lucent’s share capital if the interim results are confirmed. Assuming the conversion of the OCEANEs at an improved conversion ratio, the deal will pan out with Nokia holding just under 80 percent of Alcatel-Lucent’s share capital and voting rights.

“We are delighted that the Offer has been successful, and that Alcatel-Lucent’s investors share our confidence in the future of the combined company,” said Nokia chief executive Rajeev Suri.

Alcatel-Lucent also expressed pleasure with the results.

“With the Board of directors of Alcatel-Lucent, we are pleased that the combination of Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent has reached a decisive step, since Nokia obtained a large majority of the share capital on a fully diluted basis,” Alcatel-Lucent’s chairman and interim Philippe Camus said in a statement Monday. “We reaffirm our unanimous support to this industrial project which, by creating a global powerhouse in next-generation communications technologies and services, creates value for our shareholders, as well as for all our stakeholders.”

Suri said the companies will “move quickly” to execute integration of the companies, which he said will will begin operating as one on January 14.

Over the past several months the deal has cleared a number of hurdles, securing approval from France, the United States, China and the European Union. The merger also received antitrust clearances in Albania, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Russia and Serbia.

The acquisition will strengthen Nokia’s competitive status, putting it on par with other telecom companies like Ericsson and Huawei.

The new company boasts a combined 2014 revenue of approximately $27.6 billion, putting it just ahead of Ericsson’s 2014 revenues of approximately $26.7 billion.

But the Alcatel-Lucent deal is just one of the moves Nokia has made to reposition itself in the telecom market.

In early December, Nokia completed the $3.07 billion sale of its HERE mapping unit to German automakers.

Prior to the agreement, HERE had remained a bright spot for Nokia’s earnings, generating an operating profit of $30.7 million for the first half of 2015. However, in light of its combination with Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia announced a review of strategic options for HERE in April 2015.