The wedding is called off

17 Jun 2002

The widely rumoured and protracted merger negotiations between Alcatel and Lucent Technologies have ended without agreement.

A terse joint statement from the two companies read: "Alcatel and Lucent Technologies confirmed that they have been in discussions concerning a possible merger. The discussions have not resulted in any agreement and have been terminated."

This was the first time that the companies had confirmed that the talks were under way and no reason was given for the failure to agree, but media speculation suggests that the talks foundered on the structure of the new company board. Lucent directors wanted a merger of equals, not a take-over as they perceived it. Neither party would comment further.

It was rumored that Alcatel offered 0.2435 of its shares for each Lucent share, making the deal worth around USD 23.5 billion. Shares in both companies fell on news of the collapse in talks.