In terms of margin as seen with Ericsson in mobile

He held, revenge, Serge Tchuruk. Last survivor of the golden age of the telecoms bubble, he's playing the masters of House Monday Pavilion Gabriel. At its sides, Patricia Russo, the patron saint of Lucent, looked a little pinch and careful good students. Mired in the remedy without end of the American historical OEM, it is with this marriage emergency exit for his group... and, at the price of exile in Paris. She had douché investors by announcing in January new year virtually no growth. Suddenly, a new diving in the Red spectrum has since returned to soar on the New Jersey society.

It is therefore a very small company form that retrieves Alcatel. A point that some analysts wondered if the French should not wait a bit and retrieve some assets of value, rather than take the risk of a merger. "Everyone hopes that someone will make the big leap, but nobody wants to take the risk to make oneself", explained Serge Tchuruk in June 2005, referring to the consolidation of the sector. And even if Ericsson had preceded him in October last with the acquisition of the Marconi British dying, today is the operation of any magnitude.

Thus, Serge Tchuruk, markets for its strategic opportunism poorly loved, can finish his career in beauty. 68 A will leave on a whim his master with Siemens to his group an ascending key equipment of des soixante-huit ans, il à ses fonctions qui fait la conclusion soixante-huit years, he ses functions qui made the conclusion son. Because, in a trade contracts under the effect of the concentration of clients, including the United States, the size in each market plays in full. In terms of margin, as seen with Ericsson in mobile. This will be the case in network throughput for Alcatel-Lucent. Power research will also be a decisive asset to maintain this leadership and build a stronger barrier against surging Chinese.

End of history There are two caveats of size: this merger is risky, and it does not resolve the issues of this industry in profound upheaval. First of all, OEMs have waited so long to engage in great marriages, if the challenges are considerable. And if, commonly, fusion on two fails to create value, it is not because it overestimated the benefits generally well calculated, but because it underestimates the difficulties, especially cultural. Who was the big winner of successive marriages with Digital Compaq and Compaq with HP in the personal computing It is Dell. Its market share increased in a less competitive market (at least in the United States), and he took advantage of the confusion in the opposing troops. Same observation for the acquisition of PeopleSoft and Siebel by Oracle, currently benefiting mostly the SAP competitor. As they say in the novels, it must be someone to do the dirty work. But, ultimately, it is not always the cleaner who picks up the last. And, in this case, the winners of the Alcatel-Lucent marriage may well be called Ericsson and Cisco. One because it has remarkably out of the crisis of 2000 by strengthening its grip on the market of new generation mobile networks, the other because it embodies the failover from the world of telecoms to the Internet.

Because it is this much: the spectacular Franco-American union this week mark once more the end of a world of telecoms to the former, where OEMs and operators walked hand in hand. At them both, Alcatel and Lucent represent together that 80,000 people and market capitalization EUR 30 billion, is six times less than six years to three times less turnover. Where is the difference a party Step only in pockets of Chinese manufacturers, but in those of actors which yet have nothing to do with the Lords of the PBX. With the advent of the Internet as a language of communication for voice and data, the value is escaped towards the edges of the network, close to the final customer. Google is the emblem. Services company more software, it just explode economic models from Microsoft, but also telephone operators. As some of its competitors, type Yahoo! or eBay, the firm prepares its offensive in the free phone on the Internet by fixed network or mobile. This insignificant business ten years ago is now stock market more than three times the entire Alcatel-Lucent. There is a risk, to the deportation of intelligence, and therefore value, in the heart of the network to the periphery, trivializing traditional suppliers, delivering them the appetites new Chinese competitors.

Therefore, the challenge for major manufacturers in the sector is to reinvent itself to find growth and escape formidable cycle of investment from telecommunications operators. With two options: become a services company, which reduced the margin but provides recurring revenues and expand its customer base to the diktat of the operators. Alcatel is well aware of this problem, and the two operations, in the direction of Lucent and Thales, go in this direction. Lucent is very present in the services, implementation and management of networks, while the French made his hobbyhorse. In emerging countries, it already manages entire networks. In the case of Thales, the idea is also to apply the concept of "importer" civil (designer and Manager of a complex system), which made the fortune of the military electronics. But the most advanced in this area is once again Ericsson, which already achieves 20 of its sales in this activity.

Remains also to broaden its base. And the winner is... Cisco. The American has become, within twenty years (his first machine date of 1986), the champion all categories within the sector. Advantage of network computing in business and on a break, digital and Internet technology, it enters telecoms operators and moves to a new stage. In announcing the acquisition earlier this year of a manufacturer of decoders, it invites the consumer. And he wants to be present on the network, the heart to its periphery. IRAP is risky and is not that of Alcatel, but this merger there was at least the merit to it the hope of a reinvention of the trade, and therefore future growth. A challenge that can evade the successor to Serge Tchuruk.