UPDATE: Nokia (NOK) Considering Potential 'Tie-Up' With Alcatel (ALU) Following Handset Unit Sale
Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE: ALU) and Nokia Corp. (NYSE: NOK) might for a tie-up of some sort, according to Reuters on Wednesday.
Reports have the two sides being in discussions over the last year about Alcatel's wireless business, though nothing formal has been underway.
News comes just weeks after Nokia agreed to sell its Devices & Services unit to Microsoft for $7.3 billion while its former CEO, Stephen Elop, also left the company to join Microsoft. Nokia is looking at what direction to go in next and what to do with its new cash infusion.
Nokia and CEO Risto Siilasmaa have begun hashing plans of what the former mobile giant should do next and a decision could still be months away. One of the sources told Reuters that Nokia is in a
period of reflection trying to figure out what they want to do...[there is even] the option to buy the entire Alcatel-Lucent, or just the wireless business ... Nothing is imminent.
Shares of Alcatel are up 4.7 percent while Nokia is 0.9 percent better in late trading. Alcatel's market cap currently sits around $8 billion.