EU approves Nokia acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent

On Friday the European Commission also approved the deal, which is worth 15.6 billion euros in stock shares.

The deal, agreed in April, aims to create a European telecommunications-equipment giant that would allow the companies to fend off rising Chinese rivals.

While giving its nod, the Commission said the deal between Nokia and Alcatel would “not raise competition concerns” because “the parties are not close competitors [and] a number of strong global competitors will remain active”.

Separately, Nokia revealed that its planned acquisition has been green-lighted by competition watchdogs in Canada, Russian Federation and Albania. In particular, Nokia was stronger in the European Economic Area, whereas despite its French headquarters, Alcatel-Lucent’s extensive US heritage made it a bigger player in North America. Plus, with Ericcson still in operation competing with major Asian rivals such as Samsung, Huawei and ZTE, according to the Commission, the competitive market still remains for the telecoms equipment. (0763.HK) of China and Samsung Electronics (005930.SE) of South Korea, the EU said.

Samsung in particular is expected to play a “more significant role” in next-generation mobile telecoms equipment, particularly when 5G networks begin to go live around the early 2020s. At that time the deal was subjected to the approval given by the regulatory authorities.

The EU opened its investigation in mid-June.