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{{Infobox_Company| company_name = Alcatel-Lucent| company_logo = | company_type =
Public company (, , )| foundation = 1898| location_country = [France ], CEO and Serge Tchuruk, chairman]| products = provides hardware, software and services to
telecommunications service providers and enterprises] (
2006) (combined from Alcatel (old company) and Lucent Technologies (old company))| num_employees = 79,000 (2006)]-United States company that provides hardware, software, and services to
telecommunications service providers and enterprises all over the globe. The company is incorporated in
France, and has its global executive offices in
Paris. The company does business in 132 countries, with almost equal sales distribution coming from both its
European and
North American regions, and an additional third of its Distribution (business) located elsewhere in the world. Alcatel-Lucent was formed after Alcatel's buyout of
Lucent Technologies (old company) on December 1, 2006.
History
Headquartered in Paris (France), rue de la Boétie, with significant operations in and around Paris, Alcatel-Lucent has a long history beginning in
1898 with the founding of Compagnie Générale d'Électricité (CGE). The original home of the company was the Alsace region and it still maintains R&D operations in the Strasbourg area. The current name, "Alcatel", comes from the acquisition in 1968 of
Société 'Al
sacienne de C
onstructions A
tomiques, de T
élécommunications et d' Él
ectronique.In 1991, CGE changed its name to Alcatel
Alsthom, and in
1998 to Alcatel .
There were a number of mergers and acquisitions, as well as divestments since 1998. To understand the current company and its focus on telecommunications, the most important were the acquisition of the European telecommunications activities of
ITT Corporation in 1986. The combined companies were called Alcatel Alsthom. Alcatel maintains significant R&D presence in France (Paris region, Brittany, South of France),
Antwerp (Belgium), at the former ITT operations there (Bell Telephone), in Stuttgart (Germany), in Italy (
Vimercate, Genoa,
Rieti,Trieste, Battipaglia), in India (
Gurgaon,
New Okhla Industrial Development Authority and Chennai), since
2000 in Shanghai (
China) and since
2005 in Saint-Petersburg (Russia).
Since 1990, various North American companies were acquired – Spatial Wireless, Rockwell Technologies, DSC Communications,
Xylan, Packet Engines, Assured Access, Newbridge Networks, iMagicTV, TiMetra, and eDial – giving Alcatel a strong U.S. and Canadian presence. Alcatel has its North American headquarters in Plano, Texas, and R&D operations in Ottawa, Ontario; Mountain View, California; Petaluma, California; Saint John, New Brunswick;
Calabasas, California and Raleigh, North Carolina.
Earlier this year, Alcatel set up a new joint venture with TCL of China forming a new mobile business, TCL and Alcatel Mobile Phones Limited (TAMP).
Areas of business
It is mostly well known for its Digital Subscriber Line multiplexers, used for high-speed Internet access over
ADSL and VDSL. It had over 40% of the world
Digital subscriber line access multiplexer market in 2007, with more than 143 million lines shipped. It has a partnership with Microsoft
as of 2004 to provide
IPTV services via its TPSDA (Triple Play Services Delivery Architecture) over Digital Subscriber Line and using its 7x50 VPLS/MPLS routers and switches to service providers such as AT&T in the United States. It is also a leading provider of optical transmission equipment, especially for
submarine communications cable. Genesys, a U.S. subsidiary, is a leading provider of
call centre software.
Alcatel was also the world leader in point-to-point microwave radios and wireless transmission; with over 50 years expertise and over 17% of the global market share in
2005. It has a field-proven experience in deploying and managing wireless transmission networks and
2G, 2.5G, and
3G mobile backhauling.
Alcatel-Lucent has several notable non-network-based businesses. For example, Alcatel Space is a leading builder of satellite systems with its
Geosynchronous spacecraft platform, Spacebus 3000 and 4000, and its Low_Earth_Orbit spacecraft platform, Proteus. It also has a Transport Solutions division that provides routing, control and network management for railway and mass transit operators, such as city undergrounds in Berlin, London and New York.
Lucent buyout
On
April 2,
2006, Alcatel announced a merger with its U.S. competitor,
Lucent Technologies (old company). The combined company, Alcatel-Lucent, was expected to have revenues of approximately $25 billion U.S. based on 2005 calendar results.
The acquisition was completed on December 1, 2006.
Organisation
Offices
- Global Executive Offices:
- Regional Executive Offices:
Business Groups
- Carrier Business Groups
- Wireless Business Group
- Wireline Business Group
- Convergence Business Group
- Enterprise Business Group
- Services Business Group
Lawsuits
Alcatel-Lucent v. Microsoft
Lucent Technologies filed suit against Gateway, Inc. 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 of 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 grantedhttp://www.microsoft.com/presspass/download/legal/Other/08-06-07Alcatel-LucentRuling.pdf Microsoft's motion for judgment and new trial.http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6388273.stm,http://news.com.com/Microsoft+hit+with+1.5+billion+patent+verdict/2100-1030_3-6161480.html?tag=nefd.top Alcatel-Lucent says it will appeal.
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.
The third part of the case involves several user interface-related patents, is scheduled to begin on
May 21.
Additional patent infringement cases, some filed by Microsoft and some filed by Lucent, are pending across the U.S..
Alcatel Intellectual Property Lawsuits
Alcatel USA, formerly DSC Communications Corporation, was an extremely litigious company during the 1990s under the direction of former CEO James L. Donald and former General Counsel George Brunt. These lawsuits brought Alcatel hundreds of millions of dollars in settlements. Notable actions include:
- DSC Communications v. Next Level Communications (ND Tex. 1995)
- DSC Communications v. Advanced Fibre Communications (ED Tex. 1996) See DSC vs. Advanced Fiber Trade secrets case
- DSC Communications v. Pulse Communications, Inc. (ED Va. 1997) See DSC vs. Pulsecom All DSC claims and Pulsecom counterclaims were ultimately dismissed.
- DSC Communications v. DGI Communications, Inc. (ND Tex. 1997) See DSC vs. DGI Technologies DSC obtained injunction against DGI, however, DGI ultimately won right to manufacture compatible PC boards.
- DSC Communications Corp. v. Reliance Technology Communications (Reltec), (Collin Co. Tex. 1998)
- Alcatel vs. Samsung Trade secrets case. Prior DSC employees hired by Samsung were individually sued. Baker Botts represented Alcatel, Akin Gump represented Samsung. Many former Alcatel employees did not know each other prior to working at Samsung, but Alcatel claimed Samsung "stole a team of engineers".
- Alcatel vs. Cisco Systems Cisco ultimately prevailed at The Hague. See: Alcatel vs. Cisco Systems
- Alcatel vs. Evan Brown - Alcatel claims ownership of undocumented idea in employee's brain. Texas Courts affirmed right of employers in Texas to force employee disclosure of ideas. State District Judge Curt Henderson allegedly ruled in favor of Alcatel on all issues.
International Lawsuit and Controversy
Alcatel is seriously questioned in
Costa Rica due to bribes to high ranking government officials particularly in the
Instituto Costarricense de Electricidad (
ICE) -the Costa Rican Institute of Electricity- to persuade them to purchase the country's cellular telephone network from them . The issue is still outstanding in Costa Rica's highest courts. Also, there are other issues standing due to the low quality of the equipment and signal of the mentioned equipment.
Corporate Image
The corporate image and brand image of the company was designed by Euro RSCG.
It vaguely represents A and L which stand for Alcatel and Lucent and also symbolizes infinity. According to their website , "It symbolizes infinity. It implies movement. Its colour combines the stability of blue with the energy of red".
See also
- SelTrac, a product of Alcatel-Lucent
References
External links
- Alcatel History
- Alcatel-Lucent company website
- Alcatel-Lucent Company Summary from Yahoo