ALA

Lucent, Alcatel in Merger Talks

By DENNIS BERMAN, SARA SILVER and ALMAR LATOURMarch 23, 2006 10:06 p.m.
Lucent Technologies Inc. and France's Alcatel SA are in advanced merger discussions, people familiar with the matter said Thursday, in a potential $33 billion cross-border combination that stands to kick off a huge round of consolidation among suppliers to phone companies.
Such a deal, if successful, would be one of the most long-awaited and deeply complicated couplings in the years following the Internet bubble.

And amid growing protectionist sentiment in both the U.S. and Europe, it would also prove a critical test of how far governments are willing to extend their influence to even block such a transaction.