DailyTech - Alcatel and Lucent Merge

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IT Alcatel and Lucent Merge
Tuan Nguyen (Blog) - April 3, 2006 2:01 AM

14 comment(s) - last by masher2.. on Apr 4 at 4:20 PM

Communication companies watch out

Two communications technology giants, Alcatel and Lucent have merged to form a major global player. We previously reported that a merger between the two companies was possible and that would be happening soon.

Alcatel owns significant market share in Europe and Asia, but is not too solid in North America. This is where Lucent will be playing a huge part in the merger. The two companies plan to exploit each other's channel experiences as well as market knowledge. Besides having a much bigger revenue stream, the combined company will have over 20,000 R&D engineers. At this stage however, the new company name has not been announced and it is not known whether or not the Alcatel or Lucent names will stay. According to Alcatel:

The cost synergies are expected to be achieved within three years of closing and will come from several areas, including consolidating support functions, optimizing the supply chain and procurement structure, leveraging R&D and services across a larger base, and reducing the combined worldwide workforce by approximately 10 percent. The merger also will result in approximately Euro 1.4 billion (USD 1.7 billion) in new cash restructuring charges, with the charges to be recorded primarily in the first year. A substantial majority of the restructuring is expected to be completed within 24 months after closing.

Clearly there will be a lot of overlap in terms of jobs, but at this time neither company revealed any details of negative impact. More information here.

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Two Names gone to Create a New one.

By Googer on 4/3/06, Rating: 0

RE: Two Names gone to Create a New one.

By PT2006 on 4/3/2006 2:53:29 AM , Rating: 2

I can't remember the story entirely, but there was a company that paid a consultant like millions of dollars to create a new corporate name for the company. The company switched names and 2 weeks later got sued by a coffee shop 2 blocks from the corporate HQ with the same name.....

or something like that.

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RE: Two Names gone to Create a New one.

By Googer on 4/4/2006 3:19:46 AM , Rating: 2

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?story...

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RE: Two Names gone to Create a New one.

By bunnyfubbles on 4/3/2006 3:20:31 AM , Rating: 2

I believe it has to do with how the industry moves so fast. That's why they need a name that's cutting-edge, like CutCo, EdgeCom, InterSlice...

;)

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RE: Two Names gone to Create a New one.

By The Cheeba on 4/3/2006 3:26:07 AM , Rating: 3

Initech....

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RE: Two Names gone to Create a New one.

By Googer on 4/3/2006 3:54:03 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
I believe it has to do with how the industry moves so fast. That's why they need a name that's cutting-edge, like CutCo, EdgeCom, InterSlice...

CutCO in my opinion is not to bad, they make Cutlery; the name clearly describes what they do.

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RE: Two Names gone to Create a New one.

By masher2

(blog) on 4/3/2006 9:07:34 AM , Rating: 2

> "are corporate names getting to be a bit audacious? ...Do they just stick their hands in to a bag of scabble chips and figure out some random word...What ever happened to corporate names that had real meaning...

Are you sure you know what the word audacious means? From the context of your other remarks, you may have meant something more like 'desultory', 'confusing', 'irresolute', or possibly even 'preposterous'.

In any case, corporations are increasingly difficult to name today, simply because of the sheer number of preexisting trademarks. In short-- all the good names are already taken.

In any

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RE: Two Names gone to Create a New one.

By blackmetalegg on 4/3/2006 10:50:32 AM , Rating: 2

Audacious? Pick one of the many meanings of that word that's applicable here. I sure don't see any.

Alcatel didn't just spring up in the '90s. The name existed as far back as 1968. Alcatel is the acronym of Alsacienne de Constructions Atomiques, de Télécommunications et d'Electronique, NOT some gibberish they made up for the sake of marketing ploy.

Cinergy when spoken sounds the same as "Synergy". IIRC words that exist in dictionary cannot be trademarked, as such they had to resort to making up this word "Cinergy".

BenQ actually means Bringing Enjoyment and Quality to life. Again they didn't just "stick their hands in to a bag of scabble chips and figure out some random word from the pieces they pull out"

And it's Chinese, not Chineese. Learn to spell damn it.

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RE: Two Names gone to Create a New one.

By masher2

(blog) on 4/3/2006 1:47:59 PM , Rating: 2

> "IIRC words that exist in dictionary cannot be trademarked"

They can be, as long as they're not used with the specific associated meaning. For instance, you can trademark Apple if you're selling music or computers, but not if you're selling...apples.

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RE: Two Names gone to Create a New one.

By Googer on 4/4/2006 1:28:43 AM , Rating: 2

quote:
And it's Chinese, not Chineese. Learn to spell damn it.

It's called a Tyypo.

quote:
Are you sure you know what the word audacious means?

Unrestrained by convention or propriety
Fearlessly, often recklessly daring

http://www.answers.com/audacious&r=67

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RE: Two Names gone to Create a New one.

By masher2

(blog) on 4/4/2006 4:20:38 PM , Rating: 2

> "Unrestrained by convention or propriety
Fearlessly, often recklessly daring..."

...and totally inappropriate in the context of your remarks. Understanding is based on more than just quoting a dictionary meaning.

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