Rumors: #Nokia to sell #Alcatel Submarine Networks for €800 million

As reported by Finnish media, according to Challenges.fr, Nokia hired a consulting company that is preparing the sales of Alcatel Submarine Networks. ASN is a standalone company fully owned by Nokia, that Nokia acquired with the acquisition of Alcatel-Lucent.

ASN’s core business is deployment of submarine cables, and the unit has over 47% of the submarine network market share. In 2013, French government declared that ANS is a strategic company, and 2 out of 12 factories Nokia owns manufacture submarine cables.

French site Challenges.fr, that broke the story about the sales of Alcatel Submarine Networks, says that the unit will reportedly be sold for €800 million. Other details are hidden behind Challenges’ paywall, and only subscribers can access them.

The only part of Alcatel Lucent that didn’t transform completely into Nokia was Alcatel Lucent Submarine Networks. At the very beginning of new, strengthen Nokia, this indicated clearly a future sale of the division.  Furthermore, Alcatel Submarine Networks doesn’t really fit into Nokia’s core business, that’s mobile and fixed networks, so the sale of ASN seems logical, and the received money from the sale could be used for purchasing companies closer to Nokia’s core business or for further investments in VR or Digital Health in the Technologies unit.