U.S. DoJ Clears Nokia - Alcatel-lucent Deal - Quick Facts

(RTTNews) - Nokia corp. (NOK) and Alcatel-Lucent (ALU) announced that the United States Department of Justice has granted early termination of the U.S. antitrust waiting period for the combination of Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent, permitting the transaction to proceed.

Early termination of the U.S. antitrust waiting period takes us one important step closer to the closing of the pending transaction.

The companies continue to make good progress with the regulatory approval processes in the remaining relevant jurisdictions, with the parties having already obtained antitrust clearances in Brazil and Serbia.

Both companies will continue to cooperate with the remaining authorities to close their reviews as quickly as possible.

The transaction remains subject to approval by Nokia shareholders, Nokia holding over 50.00% of the share capital of Alcatel-Lucent on a fully diluted basis upon completion of the public exchange offer, receipt of other regulatory approvals and other customary conditions. The transaction is expected to close in the first half of 2016.

In April, Finnish network equipment maker Nokia and French telecom equipment maker Alcatel-Lucent agreed to a deal whereby Nokia would make an offer for all of the equity securities issued by Alcatel-Lucent, through a public exchange offer in France and in the U.S. in a deal that values Alcatel-Lucent at 15.6 billion euros or $16.6 billion on a fully diluted basis.