Lucent tipped for shopping spree

NEWS French giant Alcatel, Finland's Nokia and Sweden's Ericsson are several big names that are being mentioned as possible takeover candidates by Lucent Technologies. On 1 October Lucent will celebrate its second anniversary - brought about by its split from AT&T. After that date Lucent will be freed from a US accounting regulation that made huge multibillion dollar takeovers unattractive. Daniel Briere, analyst with research company Telechoice, said: "I've heard rumours along two lines: one, a networking player like Ascend or 3Com, and two, a European vendor - I've heard Nokia, Alcatel, Ericsson as potential names. Any of those would be big events." Most industry watchers agree that a move to bolster its international presence would be one of the priorities. But to merge with Alcatel would cost well in excess of $30bn. Alcatel's shares are well off their 52-week highs - yet the company still has a market capitalisation of nearly $29bn. Of the other companies mentioned, Nokia has a market capitalisation of $36.5bn; Motorola $28bn; Ericsson $35.5bn; Newbridge Networks $3.5bn; Ascend $9bn and 3Com $11bn.