| Type | Société Anonyme |
|---|---|
| Traded as | Euronext: ALU, NYSE: ALU |
| Industry | Telecommunications |
| Founded | 2006 (1898 as Alcatel, 1996 as Lucent Technologies) |
| Headquarters | 7th arrondissement, Paris, France |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Key people | Ben Verwaayen (CEO), Philippe Camus (Chairman) |
| Products | Hardware, software and services to telecommunications service providers and enterprises |
| Revenue | €15.996 billion (2010)[1] |
| Operating income | (€309 million) (2010)[1] |
| Profit | (€334 million) (2010)[1] |
| Total assets | €24.88 billion (end 2010)[1] |
| Total equity | €4.205 billion (end 2010)[1] |
| Employees | 79,800 (end 2010)[1] |
| Website | www.alcatel-lucent.com |
Alcatel-Lucent is a global telecommunications corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services. The company focuses on fixed, mobile, and converged networking hardware, IP technologies, software, and services. It holds Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation and R&D houses in the communications industry. Alcatel-Lucent has operations in more than 130 countries.
The company is under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Ben Verwaayen and the non-executive Chairman of the Board is Philippe Camus. Verwaayen and Camus joined the company in the third quarter of 2008 after Alcatel-Lucent's first CEO Patricia Russo and first Chairman Serge Tchuruk resigned.[2] For 2010, the company posted revenues of €15.996 billion and a reported net loss of €334 million.[3]
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Alcatel-Lucent was formed when Alcatel merged with Lucent Technologies on December 1, 2006. However, the company as a whole has been a part of telecommunications industry since the late 19th century. The company has roots in two early telecommunications companies: La Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (CGE) and the Western Electric Manufacturing Company.[4]
Western Electric began in 1869 when Elisha Gray and Enos N. Barton started a small manufacturing firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. By 1880, the company had relocated to Chicago, Illinois and become the largest electrical manufacturing company in the U.S. In 1881 the American Bell Telephone Company — founded by Alexander Graham Bell and forerunner of American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) — purchased a controlling interest in Western Electric and made it the exclusive developer and manufacturer of equipment for the Bell telephone companies.[4]
CGE was formed in 1898 by French engineer Pierre Azaria in the Alsace region of what was then Germany and was a conglomerate involved in industries such as electricity, transportation, electronics and telecommunications. CGE would become a leader in digital communications and would also be known for producing the TGV (train à grande vitesse) high speed trains in France.[4]
Bell Telephone Laboratories was created in 1925 from the consolidation of the R&D organizations of Western Electric and AT&T. Bell Labs would make significant scientific advances including: the transistor, the laser, the solar cell battery, the digital signal processor chip, the Unix operating system and the cellular concept of mobile telephone service. Bell Labs researchers have won 11 Nobel Prizes.[4]
Also in 1925, Western Electric sold its International Western Electric Company subsidiary to ITT Corporation. CGE purchased the telecommunications part of ITT in the mid-1980s.[4]
AT&T also re-entered the European telecommunications market in 1984 following the break-up of AT&T. Philips promoted the venture in part because its PRX public switching technology was ageing and it sought a partner to help fund the necessary development costs of digital switching. The joint company used the existing manufacturing and development facilities in The Hague, Hilversum, Brussels and Malmesbury as well as its US resources.to adapt the 5ESS system to the European market The joint venture company AT&T & Philips Telecommunications BV doubled annual turnover between 1984 and in 1987 won major switching and transmission contracts, mainly in the effectively captive Netherlands market. In 1987 AT&T increased its holding to 60% and in 1990 it purchased the remainder of the Philips' holding.
In 1998 Alcatel Alsthom shifted its focus to the telecommunications industry — spinning off its Alsthom activities and changing the company’s name to Alcatel. AT&T spun off Lucent Technologies in April 1996 with an initial public offering.[4]
April 2004, TCL Corporation and Alcatel announced the creation of a mobile phone manufacturing joint venture: Alcatel Mobile Phones.
Facing intense competition in the telecommunications industry, Alcatel and Lucent Technologies merged on November 30, 2006.[5]
At the same time, Alcatel announced that it would swap its shares of Alcatel Alenia Space and Telespazio for €673 million and a 12.1% stake in Thales, a key player in the French defense industry. This increased Alcatel’s stake in Thales to 20.8%.[4]
Alcatel-Lucent acquired Nortel's UMTS radio access business at the end of 2006. During 2007 the company acquired Canadian metro WDM networking supplier Tropic Networks, Inc.; enterprise services gateway products developer NetDevices; IPTV software company Tamblin; and the telecommunications consulting practice Thompson Advisory Group, Inc. Alcatel-Lucent acquired Motive, Inc., a provider of service management software for broadband and mobile data services in 2008.[4] They formerly had a joint venture with Dutch company Draka Holding N.V. for manufacturing optical fibre, but Draka bought out Alcatel-Lucent's 49.9% stake for €209 million in December 2007.[6]
In May 2009 Alcatel-Lucent's stake in Thales was acquired by Dassault Aviation.[7]
Alcatel-Lucent announced[8] it had acquired OpenPlug on September, 1 2010.
In October 2011, Alcatel-Lucent has sold its call-center services business of the Genesys unit to Permira, the private equity group, for $1.5 billion or the same amount the company bought the business in 2000. Alcatel-Lucent much-needed funding for the Franco-American business, which has made losses for the past 5 years.[9]
The company's global headquarters is in Paris, France. There are regional groups for the Americas, Asia Pacific & China, and Europe, Middle East & Africa.[10] Middle East and Africa Headquarters are at Smart Village, Giza, Egypt.[11]
Approximately half of the Application Division consists of the enterprise business and Network Applications. Services include subscriber data management, digital media, payment sorting, and customer experience management for telecoms. Content delivery networks (CDN) are becoming a increasingly large part of the Division as network traffic complexity calls for denser routers.
Alcatel-Lucent wireline network services provides optical networking, service provider routing, and broadband access to the telecommunications industry, and other industries that require networking capabilitie, such as the energy and transportation industry. Wireless services emphasize growing backhaul and router businesses as companies like Verizon, AT&T, and Sprint are focused on 4G/LTE rollout.
Lucent Technologies filed suit against Gateway and Dell, claiming they had violated patents on MP3, MPEG and other technologies developed by Bell Labs, a division of predecessor company American Telephone & Telegraph. Microsoft voluntarily joined the lawsuit in April 2003, and Alcatel was added after it acquired Lucent. The case, involving a number of patents, is pending in U.S. District Court in San Diego, California.
The first part of the case involved two audio coding patents that Alcatel-Lucent claimed were infringed by Microsoft's Windows Media Player application. Alcatel-Lucent won the trial and $1.52 billion in damages, but the judge granted[16] Microsoft's motion for judgment and new trial.[17][18] Alcatel-Lucent says it will appeal.[19]
In the second part of the case, the judge ruled that Microsoft had not violated Alcatel-Lucent's patents relating to speech recognition and the case was therefore dismissed before going to trial. Alcatel-Lucent intends to appeal.[20][21]
The third part of the case, involving several user interface-related patents, is scheduled to begin on 21 May 2013.
Additional patent infringement cases, some filed by Microsoft and some filed by Alcatel-Lucent, are pending in the U.S.
Alcatel-Lucent has its head office in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France since June 2010.[22] Its previous head office, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, built between 1912 and 1929, was renovated in 1998. During the renovation the building was decorated with a theme of the cosmos and time.[23]
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