Alcatel-Lucent shares jump on report of merger talks with Nokia

Paris/Berlin: Alcatel-Lucent SA shares jumped as much as 6.4% after a German magazine reported that the French network-equipment vendor is in merger discussions with Finnish competitor Nokia Oyj.

The companies restarted discussions this fall, Manager Magazin reported, citing unidentified people. The companies are also considering cooperation, the magazine said. An Alcatel-Lucent representative declined to comment. A Nokia representative didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

In 2013, Nokia had evaluated options including a combination with Alcatel-Lucent’s wireless-networks business, a person with knowledge of the matter said at the time. A takeover would help Nokia add business in the US, helping the Finnish company shrink the gap with market leader Ericsson AB.

Alcatel-Lucent added 5.5% to €2.81 at 12:48pm in Paris after rising as high as €2.83. Nokia rose 2.1% to €6.46 in Helsinki.

Nokia, based in Espoo, Finland, sold its money-losing mobile-phone unit to Microsoft Corp. for about $7.5 billion this year. Bloomberg