Alcatel-Lucent (French pronunciation: [alkatɛl lysɛnt]) is a global telecommunications equipment corporation, headquartered in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France. It provides telecommunications solutions to service providers, enterprises, and governments around the world, enabling these customers to deliver voice, data, and video services. The company focuses on fixed, mobile, and converged networking hardware, IP technologies, software, and services. It holds Bell Labs, one of the largest innovation and R&D houses in the communications industry.^{[citation needed]} Bell Labs was awarded 7 Nobel Prizes and holds over 29,000 patents. Alcatel-Lucent has operations in more than 130 countries. In 2011 it was added to the Dow Jones Sustainability Index.^[2] On May 22, 2012, Alcatel-Lucent announced the development of its "7950 XRS," which is an Internet router capable of speeds up to five times faster than speeds offered by the nearest competitor.^[3]

The company is under the leadership of Chief Executive Officer Ben Verwaayen and the non-executive Chairman of the Board is Philippe Camus. Verwaayen and Camus joined the company in the third quarter of 2008 after Alcatel-Lucent's first CEO Patricia Russo and first Chairman Serge Tchuruk resigned.^[4] For 2010, the company posted revenues of €15.996 billion and a reported net loss of €334 million.^[5]

Recent Awards[link]

• March 2012 - Alcatel-Lucent was selected by MIT's Technology Review to its 2012 TR50 List of the World's Most Innovative Companies. The magazine recognized Alcatel-Lucent lightRadio as a "key innovation".^[6]
• Feb.-March 2012 - Alcatel-Lucent wins the Mobile World Congress Best Infrastructure Technology Award for the lightRadio Network.^[7]

History[link]

Alcatel One Touch 535, front side

Alcatel-Lucent was formed when Alcatel merged with Lucent Technologies on December 1, 2006. However, the company as a whole has been a part of telecommunications industry since the late 19th century. The company has roots in two early telecommunications companies: La Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (CGE) and the Western Electric Manufacturing Company.^[8]

Western Electric began in 1869 when Elisha Gray and Enos N. Barton started a small manufacturing firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. By 1880, the company had relocated to Chicago, Illinois and become the largest electrical manufacturing company in the U.S. In 1881 the American Bell Telephone Company — founded by Alexander Graham Bell and forerunner of American Telephone & Telegraph (AT&T) — purchased a controlling interest in Western Electric and made it the exclusive developer and manufacturer of equipment for the Bell telephone companies.^[8]

CGE was formed in 1898 by French engineer Pierre Azaria in the Alsace region of what was then Germany and was a conglomerate involved in industries such as electricity, transportation, electronics and telecommunications. CGE would become a leader in digital communications and would also be known for producing the TGV (train à grande vitesse) high speed trains in France.^[8]

Bell Telephone Laboratories was created in 1925 from the consolidation of the R&D organizations of Western Electric and AT&T. Bell Labs would make significant scientific advances including: the transistor, the laser, the solar cell battery, the digital signal processor chip, the Unix operating system and the cellular concept of mobile telephone service. Bell Labs researchers have won 7 Nobel Prizes.^[8]

Also in 1925, Western Electric sold its International Western Electric Company subsidiary to ITT Corporation. CGE purchased the telecommunications part of ITT in the mid-1980s.^[8]

AT&T re-entered the European telecommunications market in 1984 following the Bell System divestiture. Philips promoted the venture in part because its PRX public switching technology was ageing and it sought a partner to help fund the development costs of digital switching. The joint company used the existing manufacturing and development facilities in The Hague, Hilversum, Brussels and Malmesbury as well as its US resources to adapt the 5ESS system to the European market. The joint venture company AT&T & Philips Telecommunications BV doubled annual turnover between 1984 and 1987, winning major switching and transmission contracts, mainly in the effectively captive Netherlands market. In 1987 AT&T increased its holding to 60% and in 1990 it purchased the remainder of the Philips' holding.

Former Alcatel-Lucent head office

In 1998 Alcatel Alsthom shifted its focus to the telecommunications industry, spinning off its Alsthom activities and changing the company’s name to Alcatel. AT&T spun off Lucent Technologies in April 1996 with an initial public offering.^[8]

In April 2004, TCL Corporation and Alcatel announced the creation of a mobile phone manufacturing joint venture: Alcatel Mobile Phones.

Facing intense competition in the telecommunications industry, Alcatel and Lucent Technologies merged on November 30, 2006.^[9]

At the same time, Alcatel announced that it would swap its shares of Alcatel Alenia Space and Telespazio for €673 million and a 12.1% stake in Thales, a key player in the French defense industry. This increased Alcatel’s stake in Thales to 20.8%.^[8]

Alcatel-Lucent acquired Nortel's UMTS radio access business at the end of 2006. During 2007 the company acquired Canadian metro WDM networking supplier Tropic Networks, Inc.; enterprise services gateway products developer NetDevices; IPTV software company Tamblin; and the telecommunications consulting practice Thompson Advisory Group, Inc. Alcatel-Lucent acquired Motive, Inc., a provider of service management software for broadband and mobile data services in 2008.^[8] They formerly had a joint venture with Dutch company Draka Holding N.V. for manufacturing optical fibre, but Draka bought out Alcatel-Lucent's 49.9% stake for €209 million in December 2007.^[10]

In May 2009 Alcatel-Lucent's stake in Thales was acquired by Dassault Aviation.^[11]

Alcatel-Lucent announced the acquisition of OpenPlug on September 1, 2010.^[12]

In October 2011, Alcatel-Lucent sold its call-center services business Genesys unit to Permira, a private equity group, for $1.5 billion — the same amount the company bought the business for in 2000. Alcatel-Lucent needed funding for the Franco-American business, which made annual losses from 2007 to 2011.^[13]

Alcatel-Lucent Timeline[link]

• 1869 - Elisha Grey and Enos N. Barton formed Western Electric Company.
• 1898 - French engineer Pierre Azaria sets up the Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (CGE).
• 1925 - CGE becomes part of Compagnie Générale des Câbles de Lyon. Bell Telephone Laboratories is created.
• 1927 - Bell Labs makes the first American long distance television transmission between New York and Washington DC.^[14]
• 1928 - Alsthom is formed by Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques and Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston.
• 1937 - Dr. Clinton Davisson becomes the first of 11 Nobel Prize winners from Bell Labs for his experimental confirmation of the wave nature of electrons.
• 1946 - Western Electric produces over 4 million telephones.^[15]
• 1947 - Bell Labs invents the transistor. Bell Labs' Douglas H. Ring and W. Rae Young wrote a memo entitled a Mobile Telephoney - Wide Area Coverage using "hexagonal" cells for radio frequency.^[16]
• 1948 - Claude Shannon, of Bell Labs, publishes a paper on Information Theory.
• 1954 - Bell Labs invents the solar cell battery.
• 1956 - AT&T is involved in the efforts of TAT-1, the first submarine trans-Atlantic telephone cable, handling up to 36 channels. Electric repeaters, created by Bell Labs, were used. To settle anti-trust lawsuit, Western Electric (formerly AT&T) sells off non-networking equipment business.^[17]
• 1957 - Laser is invented at Bell Labs.
• 1962 - Bell Labs builds and launches Telstar1, the first orbiting active communications satellite.
• 1969 - Unix operating system is invented by Dennis Ritchie and Ken Thompson.
• 1970 - Ambroise Roux becomes CGE's chairman. He then becomes the honorary chairman until his death in 1999.
• 1978 - Bell Labs trails the first trial of a commercial cell phone service in Chicago.
• 1980 - Bell Labs announces digital signal processor.^[18]
• 1982 - Jean-Pierre Brunet becomes CGE's chairman.
• 1983 - AT&T installs the first high-capacity, long-haul lightwave transmission system between NYC and Washington DC.^[19]
• 1984 - Georges Pebereau becomes CGE's chairman. Thompson telecommunications is absorbed by CGE.^[20] Cables de Lyon buys Thompson Jeumont Cables and Kabeltel.
• 1985 - Alsthom Atlantique becomes Alsthom. Alcatel is formed when CIT-Alcatel and Thompson telecommunications merge.^[21]
• 1986 - ITT Corporation sells its European telecommunications business to CGE under its agreement with Alcatel NV. Cables de Lyon becomes a subsidiary of Alcatel NV.^[22] Pierre Suard becomes CGE Chairman.
• 1987 - CGE is privatized.^[23] Alsthom wins contract for TGV Atlantique for the Northern TGV network.
• 1989 - CGE and General Electric Company form GEC Alsthom. This allows Alsthom to sells its products outside France. CGEE-Alsthom becomes Cegelec. AT&T Technologies reorganizes with the following business units: Network systems, Global Business Communications, Microelectronics and Consumer Products.
• 1991 - CGE changes its name to Alcatel Alsthom. Acquires Rockwell Technologies transmission equipment division.^[24] Cables de Lyons is renamed Alcatel Cable and takes over AEG Kabel.
• 1992 - Alcatel Alsthom acquires AEG Kabel.
• 1993 - Alcatel Alsthom acquires STC Submarine systems from now Nortel Networks.
• 1995 - Serge Tchuruk appointed chairman and CEO of Alcatel Alsthom. He restructured the company to focus on telecommunications equipment.^[25]
• 1996 - Lucent Technologies launches IPO, the largest at that time.
• 1998 - Alcatel Alsthom split. Alsthom GEC becomes Alstom through an IPO (with Alcatel retaining 24%). Alcatel sells Cegelec to the newly formed Alstom. Alcatel acquires DCS and Packet Engines^[26]
• 1999 - Alcatel acquires Xylan, Assured Access and Internet Devices. Alcatel increases its stake in Thomson CSF to 25.3% and decreases its stake in Framatome to 8.6%.
• 2000 - Alcatel acquires Newbridge, Genesys and Innovative Fibers. Alcatel spins off its cable unit into Nexans.^[27] Lucent spins off Avaya Inc.
• 2001 - Alcatel sells its stake in Alstom. Alcatel buys back Alcatel Space investment from Thales, and reduces its stake in Thales to 20.03%. Alcatel sells its 2.2% stake in Areva. Alcatel sells DSL modem business to Thomson Multimedia. Lucent spins off its microelectronics business into Agere Systems via an IPO.
• 2002 - Alcatel acquires Astral Point Communications Inc., Telera Corporation, and control of Alcatel Shanghai Bell. Alcatel sells its microelectronic business to STMicroelectronics, its stake in Thomson, 10.3M shares of Thales, and 1.5M shares of Nexans. Pat Russo becomes Lucent's CEO.
• 2003 - Patricia Russo becomes Lucent's Chairman. Alcatel acquires iMagicTV, and TiMetra Inc. It sells a 50% stake in Atlinks, and its optical business to Avanex.
• 2004 - Alcatel acquires eDial Inc. Alcatel and TLC form a joint venture: Alcatel Mobile Phones, with Alcatel holding a 45% stake. Alcatel and Draka Holdings form a joint venture: Draka Comteq B.V. with Alcatel holding a 49.9 stake.^[28] Alcatel finalizes its acquisition of Spatial Wireless but sells 7.1M shares of Avanex. Lucent reports its first profitable year and revenue increase since 2000.
• 2005 - Jeong Kim becomes Bell Labs 11th president.
• 2006 - Alcatel sell its satellite, railway signaling and critical security domain to Thales. On November 30th Alcatel and Lucent merge. Alcatel-Lucent is formed. Alcatel Lucent acquires Nortel's UMTS radio access business.
• 2007 - Alcatel-Lucent acquires Tropic Networks, NetDevices, Thompson Advisory Group, and Tamblin.
• 2008 - Alcatel-Lucent acquires Motive Inc. Ben Verwaayen becomes Alcatel-Lucent second CEO.
• 2009 - Alcatel-Lucent sells remaining share of Thales.
• 2011 - Wim Sweldens leads a wireless group to develop lightRadio, a technology to reduce the size of cell towers to tiny cubes.^[29]

Organization[link]

The company's global headquarters is in Paris, France. There are regional groups for the Americas, Asia Pacific & China, and Europe, Middle East & Africa.^[30] Middle East and Africa Headquarters are at Smart Village, Giza, Egypt.^[31] Alcatel is present in Italy with various research centers: Vimercate ( in Lombardy ), Rieti, Battipaglia, Trieste, Genova, Bari, Naples, Rome and Sesto Fiorentino

Business Groups[link]

Software, Services and Solutions[link]

The Software, Services and Solutions group is led by Adolfo Hernandez.^[32] The group consists of software solutions and services offerings for communication network operators and strategic industries. The solutions are: Next Generation Communications, Pay TV Services, Mobile Commerce, Machine to Machine, Application Enablement, Cloud, and Customer Experience Transformation. Maintenance, managed and professional services are also included in this organization.^[33] These segments along with Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise and Strategic Industries businesses, are aligned to support the Alcatel-Lucent High Leverage Network™ architecture.

Network Division[link]

The Networks segment is led by Philippe Keryer.^[34] It is responsible for network products across service providers, industries and enterprises segments. The group's R&D areas include: IP, optics including submarine, fixed broadband access, core networks, wireless, and radio frequency systems. They are within Alcatel-Lucent's High Leverage Network™ framework.^[35]

[edit] Management Committee^[36]

• Tom Burns, Entreprise
• Stephen A. Carter, Europe, Middle East & Africa and Corporate Marketing & Communications
• Robin Dargue, Business and IT Transformation
• John Dickson, Operations
• Kenneth Frank, Reliance Industries Joint Initiative
• Adolfo Hernandez, Software, Services & Solutions and Strategic Industries
• Christel Heydemann, Human Resources & Transformation
• Philippe Keryer, Networks
• Jeong Kim, Bell Labs and Corporate Strategy
• George Nazi, Global Customer Delivery
• Rajeev Singh-Molares, Asia-Pacific
• Paul Tufano, Chief Financial Officer
• Robert Vrij, Americas and Strategic Alliances

Board of Directors[link]

• Philippe Camus (Chairman)
• Ben Verwaayen (CEO)
• Daniel Bernard
• W. Frank Blount
• Stuart Eizenstat
• Louis Hughes
• Sylvia Jay
• Carla Cico
• Jean Monty
• Olivier Piou
• Jean-Cyril Spinetta
• Jean Pierre Desbois
• Bertrand Lapraye

Past notable managers[link]

• Luigi Peccia, ex manager and mayor of Olevano sul Tusciano ( town proximity to the Battipaglia's Alcatel factories ) ^[37]

Research[link]

• Bell Labs is Alcatel-Lucent's research & development organization.^[38]
  • Alcatel-Lucent spent €2.5 billion for R&D in 2008.
  • Alcatel-Lucent spent €2.4 billion for R&D in 2009.
  • Alcatel-Lucent Bell-Labs currently has 27,600 active patents.^[39]
  • 2,100 patents granted in 2009 alone.
  • Is involved in 100 worldwide standardization bodies.

In 1876 Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first patent for the telephone, and subsequently started AT&T^[40]. Bell Labs is named in his honor.

In 1937 Clinton Davisson shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for demonstrating the wave nature of matter. His fundamental work is part of the foundation for much of today's solid-state electronics.

In 1947 John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, William Shockley of Bell Labs invented the transistor. In 1956 they received a Nobel Prize for their invention. The transistor led to an electronics revolution during the post-war boom. The transition from vacuum tubes to transistors enabled all technologies to be built on a smaller scale and use less electricity. Items that before required large dedicated spaces, could now fit nicely into a home or even on a kitchen counter. Everyday household items like TVs, radios, stereos, refrigerators and hearing aids were made because of the transistor.^[41]

In 1954 Gerald Pearson, Darryl Chapin, and Calvin Fuller invented the solar cell. Telstar, the first active communications satellite also developed by Bell Labs and launched in 1962, used these solar cell batteries as an external renewable source of power once launched. It was the first to carry live television over water, between England and the US.

In the late 1950's Charles Townes and Arthur Shawlow of Bell Labs invented the laser, which has numerous applications, including measuring/cutting in the manufacturing industry and research/surgery in the medical industry. Bell Labs was awarded the laser patent in 1960.

In 1969 Dennis Ritchie and a team of Bell Labs employees invented the UNIX operating system and the C programming language. Over the years Unix had many variants, including Linux (currently powering the Google Android) and Apple OS (used on the iPhone). C and C++ are still widely used today and are the basis of Java.

In 2006 Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith were awarded the National Academy of Engineering prize, for work on charge-coupled devices which transform patterns of light into useful digital information. In 2009 they received a Nobel Prize for their invention. The device is widely used in digital cameras, video cameras and modern astronomy.

US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act Violations[link]

In December 2010, Alcatel-Lucent agreed to pay a total settlement of $137 million for bribing officials in Costa Rica, Honduras, Malaysia and Taiwan in violation of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA).^[42] The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged that Alcatel retained consultants to funnel bribes of over $8 million to government officials in order to obtain and retain lucrative telecommunications contracts.^[43][44] Alcatel admitted that it made profits of approximately $48 million as a result of the bribes and was ordered to pay $45 million to settle charges with the SEC and a further $92 million to settle the criminal charges brought by the US Department of Justice (DOJ).^[45]

Lawsuits[link]

Alcatel-Lucent v. Microsoft[link]

Lucent Technologies filed suit against Gateway and Dell, claiming they had violated patents on MP3, MPEG and other technologies developed by Bell Labs, a division of predecessor company American Telephone & Telegraph. Microsoft voluntarily joined the lawsuit in April 2003, and Alcatel was added after it acquired Lucent. The case, involving a number of patents, is pending in U.S. District Court in San Diego, California.^[when?]

The first part of the case involved two audio coding patents that Alcatel-Lucent claimed were infringed by Microsoft's Windows Media Player application. Alcatel-Lucent won the trial and $1.52 billion in damages, but the judge granted^[46] Microsoft's motion for judgment and new trial.^[47][48] Alcatel-Lucent says it will appeal.^{[49][dead link]}

In the second part of the case, the judge ruled that Microsoft had not violated Alcatel-Lucent's patents relating to speech recognition and the case was therefore dismissed before going to trial. Alcatel-Lucent intends to appeal.^[50][51]

The third part of the case, involving several user interface-related patents, is scheduled to begin on 21 May 2013.

Additional patent infringement cases, some filed by Microsoft and some filed by Alcatel-Lucent, are pending in the U.S.

Head office[link]

Alcatel-Lucent head office

Alcatel-Lucent has its head office in the 7th arrondissement of Paris, France since June 2010.^[52] Its previous head office, in the 8th arrondissement of Paris, built between 1912 and 1929, was renovated in 1998. During the renovation the building was decorated with a theme of the cosmos and time.^[53]

References[link]