PARIS – Alcatel SA and Lucent Technologies Inc. said Sunday that the French telecom equipment maker would acquire its U.S. rival in a $13.4 billion (11.1 billion euros) stock swap that would form a major new global player. About 8,800 jobs will be cut.The combined company, to be based in Paris, will have annual sales of 21 billion euros ($25 billion) – close to the 2005 revenue posted by the world’s largest network provider, Cisco Systems Inc. The new company expects to generate 1.4 billion euros ($1.7 billion) of savings within three years, the companies said.The companies said the cost savings would come from several areas, including consolidating support functions, leveraging research and development and services across a larger base and cutting about 10 percent of their combined worldwide work force. As of Dec. 31 the companies had about 88,000 total employees.Alcatel and Lucent said the deal would allow them to better combat the intense competition in the telecom equipment market.”The primary driver of the combination is to generate significant growth in revenues and earnings based on the market opportunities for next-generation networks, services and applications,” the companies said.Analysts have said a tie-up between the two would be a good fit, and that the combined company would be better able to resist pricing pressures from the larger telecom service providers emerging from a new wave of consolidation in the sector.The combined company, whose name is to be decided at a later date, will be led by Patricia Russo, the current chief executive of Lucent, the companies said in a joint statement. Alcatel Chairman and CEO Serge Tchuruk will become non-executive chairman.The 14-member board of directors will include Russo, Tchuruk, five of the current directors from each company and two new independent European directors to be mutually agreed upon, the companies said.Though companies called the deal a “merger of equals,” under the terms of the transaction Alcatel shareholders will hold about 60 percent of the new company and Lucent shareholders about 40 percent, the companies said. Lucent shareholders will receive 0.1952 of an Alcatel American Depositary Share for each common share they own.Paris-based Alcatel has more revenues and employees, but Lucent, based in Murray Hill, New Jersey, is slightly more profitable. The companies did not supply details on where the job cuts would be, but Russo pledged to “take a fair and balanced approach as we manage our way through this.”The companies appeared to have resolved a standoff over Alcatel’s satellite activities, which Alcatel had planned to transfer to Thales SA in return for increasing its stake in the French defense electronics company to about 25 percent from the current 10 percent.The Thales deal, designed to answer French government concerns over sensitive military technologies, hit a snag when European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. intervened – with the reported backing of French President Jacques Chirac – to demand that its own Astrium satellite unit be included in the operation.But the satellite deal between Alcatel and Thales is now poised to go ahead without EADS, a person familiar with the talks said. Thales issued a statement to say it had called a board meeting Tuesday to examine “a project aimed at developing Thales and strengthening the existing partnership between Thales and Alcatel.” The person asked not be identified because the negotiations are confidential.In a move apparently aimed at addressing any U.S. security concerns about Bell Labs – Lucent’s research arm, which does sensitive work for the Pentagon – the companies said they planned to form a separate, independent American subsidiary holding contracts with U.S. government agencies.The unit would be separately managed by a board of three U.S. citizens acceptable to the U.S. government, the companies said.Alcatel and Lucent had said March 23 that they were negotiating a merger. The deal has been approved by the boards of each company and requires regulatory and governmental reviews in the United States, Europe and elsewhere, as well as the approval of shareholders in both companies.Lucent and Alcatel said they expected the deal to be complete in six to twelve months.Vail, Colorado

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HENDERSON, Nev., Aug. 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- 2600Hz, a leading provider of unified business communications and the award-winning KAZOO platform, is proud to announce a new partnership with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise (ALE). This new partnership sees full support for ALE devices in 2600Hz's Advanced Provisioner—a powerful tool designed to speed up deployment and provision most popular SIP endpoints quickly and to auto-provision physical VoIP phones remotely.

"ALE Device is dedicated to making business communication easier and efficient, providing customers with UC terminals that meet and exceed their business needs," said Ba Min SEIN AYE, Head of Product and Marketing at ALE Device. "By combining ALE Device voice solutions with 2600Hz's KAZOO Advanced Provisioner, we will enhance productivity and Excellerate the experience for customers."

Auto-provisioning and certification has been completed on the Myriad and Halo series, including: M3, M5, M7, H3G, H3P, H6. 2600Hz is also offering support for ALE's Easy Deployment Server (EDS) for Zero Touch Provisioning.

"We are happy to support ALE devices in our Advanced Provisioner," explained 2600Hz's Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Patrick Sullivan. "Their innovative hardware offers a real value-add to our partners, and we look forward to continued collaboration with ALE."

About 2600Hz:

2600Hz's cloud communications platform KAZOO modernizes how businesses provide communications services to their customers. With thoughtfully engineered tools built by leaders in the telecom industry, KAZOO offers feature-rich UCaaS, CPaaS, and CCaaS solutions. For developers building their own telephony apps, 2600Hz offers 300+ APIs and provides access to the building blocks of the platform. For more information, visit http://www.2600Hz.com. 2600Hz is a privately owned company with a distributed team worldwide.

2600Hz Contact:
Clint Mohs
Head of Marketing
cmohs@2600hz.com

About Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise

ALE China Co., Ltd, operating under the "ALE Device" trade name, is an audio technology expert in the global DeskPhone market, designing and marketing communication devices for enterprises. The company focuses on innovative technologies to develop a wide range of enterprise communication devices such as SIP phones, headsets, audio and video equipment for Unified Communications. These products can be integrated into a variety of solutions with simple provisioning tools, in a cost-effective, secure and flexible manner. Visit our website for more information: www.aledevice.com

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ALE Contact:
Davy Zhang
Area Sales Director
davy.zhang@al-enterprise.com

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SOURCE 2600hz, Inc.

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If SoftBank investors were already feeling shaken by the conglomerate's poor performance this year, a news release out of the company tonight isn't exactly going to assuage their concerns.

The big news? French businessman Michel Combes, who was appointed as CEO of SoftBank Group International in January after longtime SoftBank lieutenant Marcelo Claure left the company over a pay dispute, is now also leaving the company.

Combes has followed Claure's moves before. Claure was previously CEO of SoftBank-controlled Sprint from 2014 until 2018. At that point, Combes took over as CEO until Sprint's merger with T-Mobile received regulatory approval in the spring of 2020. (The deal was a huge relief for SoftBank, which had taken control of a flagging Sprint back in 2012 with the hopes of turning the company around. Combes had earlier logged time as the CEO of Vodafone Europe, Alcatel-Lucent and Altice, so was seemingly a good fit for the role.)

Whether it's deserved, Combes also takes some credit for WeWork's transition into a public company last fall, when WeWork merged with a blank-check company. (Claure was previously involved with WeWork, too, having stepped in as executive chairman of the company in the fall of 2019 when SoftBank, a major investor in the business, gave it a financial lifeline after plans for a traditional IPO collapsed.)

Indeed, in that SoftBank release about the management change-up, Combes takes credit for quite a bit that's been happening over at the outfit.

"It has been a pleasure to work with Masa and the talented teams across SoftBank," reads his statement. "I am departing SoftBank proud of having achieved what I set out to do here, including turning around Sprint and executing its merger with T-Mobile, repositioning WeWork and successfully taking it public, and, most recently, the integration of the SoftBank Latin America Funds into the Vision Fund, as well as overseeing SoftBank’s strategic investments in French and European portfolio companies."

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SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son is meanwhile quoted as saying: “I want to thank Michel for his crucial contributions to SoftBank over the past five years. He has played a critical role in some of our most important investments and assets, and I wish him all the best with his future plans. I’m glad he will remain part of the SoftBank family by continuing to represent us on various portfolio company boards.”

As for why Combes would be leaving so abruptly, the release doesn't offer much other than that he "has decided to leave SoftBank to pursue new opportunities."

While Combes is replaced by yet another SoftBank executive -- Alex Clavel, a managing partner at SoftBank Group International who joined the firm almost seven years ago -- the move is certain to undermine the narrative by SoftBank that it's getting its business back on track after a bruising by external forces, from China's crackdown to rising interest rates to Russia's war on Ukraine.

His departure adds to a growing number of SoftBank employees who've exited the company, including Claure but also, last year, seven managing partners, including its most senior managing partner, Deep Nishar, who subsequently joined General Catalyst as a managing director.

More people have left in 2022, including Ronald Fisher, Son's longest-serving lieutenant (he joined SoftBank in 1995) and two of the three managing partners at SoftBank's Latin America Fund, who announced in spring that they were spinning up their own venture business.

SoftBank appears poised to shrink further still.

In the first half of last month, the company said it lost more money in its last fiscal year than it ever has — $13.2 billion — and that it will cut back its pace of new investments. The market has only sunk lower since, putting more pressure on the firm's many investments.

Sri Lankan students have been provided with direct access through Internet to interact with foreign universities enabling them to obtain necessary information in selecting the course of study.
Aspirations Education (AE), an international career guidance and student placement service centre in Sri Lanka, has launched a web portal providing access for students to directly interact with prominent universities and institutes in Australia, UK, New Zealand, USA, Canada, Malaysia, India and Singapore. www.tweetuni.com creates a platform for undergraduate students to interact directly with academics in selecting the course of study, Ms. Deepamala Abeysekera, General Manager - Aspirations Education told the Business Times.

Students could connect with a range of universities through tweetuni.com. Some of them are University of Sheffield, Monash University, RMIT University, Deakin University, Swinburne University, University of Canterbury, Curtin University Singapore and the Singapore Institute of Management (SIM), she said.
Ms. Deepamala said, “Aspirations Education always believe in innovation, and tweetuni is yet another novel offering to ease the stress of students, parents, and academia.”

She urged students to log into this site and obtain first hand information about study opportunities in world renowned universities. These university representatives are online to provide assistance to students who are in the process of making one of the biggest decisions in their lives, she said. Students also have the option of making appointments with university representatives online.

Aspirations Education is a streamlined agent of Australian High Commission. Further AE is registered in the UCAS customer database and is permitted to process the application via UCAS. The centre has been trained and certified as a Singapore Education Specialist by Government owned Singapore Education. It’s also a pioneer member of the former British Education Representatives Association in Sri Lanka, (BERA) established with the British Council. Accredited as one of the leading student placement centers for Malaysian Universities, in addition Aspirations Educations is certified as a New Zealand Education Specialist by the New Zealand Trade and Enterprise.

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Jun 22, 2022 (Market Insight Reports) -- The latest Smart Highway Construction Market Analysis is designed to help clients Excellerate their market position, and in line with this, this report provides a detailed analysis of several leading Smart Highway Construction market Key Players including Continental Engineering, Heijmans, IBM, Cisco, Nippon Koei, Transstroy, VINCI Construction, ABB, Alcatel-Lucent, Colas, Huawei Technologies, Indra, and Others. Also, the Smart Highway Construction market analysis report includes information on upcoming trends and challenges that will influence market growth. This is to help companies strategize and leverage all forthcoming growth opportunities.

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Alcatel-Lucent has a clear role to play in helping developing economies get connected with the global digital world, and that connection can have a significant impact on rising GDP, according to the company’s Asia Pacific President Mr. Rajeev Singh-Molares, who met the Sri Lankan media last week.

Mr. Singh-Molares who holds the chairmanship of the World Economic Forum’s Global ICT Agenda referred to a World Bank study that claims a 10 % increase in mobile penetration leads to a one percent increase in low medium income GDP. "But is this relationship between GDP and mobile growth set, or can we accelerate it? According to a model developed by Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs and the World Economic Forum, with the right combination of actions and investment, we can accelerate the impact of mobility by as much as 36%, measured in GDP,” he said according to a press release issued by the company.

He said this model predicts how mobile policies, applications, technology, and economics can impact the future. “The team found that while mobile broadband is a good thing for economic and social growth, when we combine it with the right applications it gets even better. Mobility is about a lot more than being able to move around with a phone. It is about giving people access to services, information and markets. In short it is about giving people the ability to do more," said Mr. Singh-Molares.

Alcatel-Lucent’s Managing Director for Sri Lanka & the Maldives, Upendra Samaratunge said that the company’s association with Sri Lanka started over three decades ago when the first digital exchange was supplied by them. “Since then we have been a major part of the telecom and infrastructure growth in Sri Lanka. We are a key provider to the major operators here having installed End to End 2G and 3G mobile networks. Alcatel-Lucent has also connected Sri Lanka to the rest of the world by installing the South East Asia-Middle East-Western Europe undersea cable network”.

Mr. Samaratunge added that Alcatel-Lucent Sri Lanka has doubled its revenues in Sri Lanka YoY. “We see huge potential in 2012 and beyond in Sri Lanka, not only in telecommunications but in the public sector such as railways and public safety”.

Almost half (49%) of university students and graduates aged 18 to 22 say the prospect of taking out a student loan made them think twice about attending university, a survey has found.

A third (36%) of people surveyed predicted the situation would worsen and deter future students from attending university, according to the findings from credit reference agency Equifax.

In April, it was announced that 10 years would be added to the repayment period for new entrants next year and the tuition fee cap would be frozen at £9,250 for a further two years – up to and including the 2024 to 2025 academic year.

While student loan repayments might be a cause for worry for many people, it is important to remember that they don’t appear on your credit score, and that repayments vary by income, so people are usually only paying back what they can afford

Paula Roche, Equifax

Paula Roche, managing director of consumer solutions at Equifax, said: “While student loan repayments might be a cause for worry for many people, it is important to remember that they don’t appear on your credit score, and that repayments vary by income, so people are usually only paying back what they can afford.

“But prospective students should be aware that if they are using other forms of credit to supplement their student loan while at university this could affect their ability to get credit after they graduate.”

Equifax’s top five tips for freshers are:

– Pick your student account wisely as some may leave you with a massive overdraft, which will cause problems if you cannot pay it back after graduation.

– Live within your means at university and do not feel pressured into spending more than you can to fit into student culture.

– Remember to make repayments on time if you open a credit card or take out buy now, pay later loans.

– University life can be hectic with deadlines and exams, but make sure to pay your bills on time.

– Always reach out to a trusted friend or family member or organisation for help if trying to tackle finances at university.

Research for the survey was conducted by business-to-business service Opinium among 3,035 UK adults aged between 18 and 40.

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.

Jul 14, 2022 (Alliance News via COMTEX) -- Key Companies Covered in the IT Spending in Energy Market Research are Dell, IBM, Infosys, SAP, ABB, Alcatel-Lucent, Capgemini, Cisco Systems, GE Oil and Gas, Hitachi, Huawei Technologies, HCL Technologies, Oracle, Siemens, TCS and other key market players.

Quadintel published a new report on the IT Spending in Energy Market. The research report consists of thorough information about demand, growth, opportunities, challenges, and restraints. In addition, it delivers an in-depth analysis of the structure and possibility of global and regional industries.

The MarketWatch News Department was not involved in the creation of this content.