[September 11, 2006] Alcatel-Lucent merger approved (Alcatel-Lucent, le nouveau geant deja sous pression) Tweet (Le Monde Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Shareholders of Alcatel, the French telecoms equipment group, and of Lucent, its US rival, approved the merger of the two groups in separate meetings on Thursday. However, while only 51.97 per cent of Lucent shareholders voted in favour of the operation, the approval rate at Alcatel's general meeting was more than 85 per cent. (The difference stems from the fact that the Lucent vote took all shareholdings into account, while Alcatel's was based only on shareholders present). The new group, which intends to invest 1.9bn euros in research and development each year, will boast turnover of 19bn euros. Europe, North America and the rest of the world should make equal contributions to that sum. Alcatel's chairman, Serge Tchuruk, will be the non-executive chairman of its board for the next four years. He turns 70 next year. Original article by Nathalie Brafman Abstracted from Le Monde Copyright 2006 The Financial Times Ltd. All rights reserved. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]