Nokia 2015 Annual Report Download - page 107

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General facts on Nokia
NOKIA IN 2015
Today, our Networks business is conducted through four business
groups: Mobile Networks, Fixed Networks, IP/Optical Networks and
Applications & Analytics. These business groups bring together
deepexpertise and leadership that span the key network technology
areas: smart products and innovative services for mobile, xed
andIPnetworks, and beyond. Additionally, the Networks business
issupported by Bell Labs and Services.
Nokia Technologies’ patents business manages one of the broadest
and strongest IP portfolios in the industry, comprised of approximately
9 900 patent families made up of approximately 30 000 granted
patents and applications.
Bell Labs supplements and complements Nokia Technologies’
innovation capacity eorts. Bell Labs is focused on nding solutions
toproblems in information and communication technology that
require a 10x improvement in the key dimensions of the network,
tosolve problems that have the potential to fundamentally change
theway we communicate, and that reimagine what the world will be
like a decade from now.
Bell Labs is pioneering the Future X projects, which are thirteen
distinct new technology solutions―each of these aims to ensure
thattomorrow’s networks will be high-performing, low-cost, ecient,
personalized and always-on.
The Sale of the HERE Business
The HERE digital mapping and location services business, an arena we
entered in 2006, was a pillar of our operational performance. But in
2015, the Nokia Board held a strategic review of the business in light of
plans to purchase Alcatel Lucent. The result of that meeting led us to
selling the HERE business in a deal agreed with a German automotive
industry consortium valued at EUR 2.8 billion.
The deal was announced August 3, 2015 and closed on
December 4, 2015.
Acquisition of Alcatel Lucent
We announced plans to acquire Alcatel Lucent on April 15, 2015, in an
all-share transaction valued at EUR 15.6 billion on a fully diluted basis,
to create an innovation leader in next generation technology and
services. The deal was agreed on the basis of EUR 0.55 of a new
Nokiashare for every Alcatel Lucent share.
On January 4 and 5, 2016, we published and conrmed that we
hadgained control of Alcatel Lucent through the successful public
exchange oer for all outstanding Alcatel Lucent securities by
holdingnearly 80% of outstanding Alcatel Lucent securities.
Nokiashareholders voted overwhelmingly at the end of 2015 to
approve the Alcatel Lucent acquisition. The transaction was settled
onJanuary 7, 2016.
The addition of Alcatel Lucent opens up abundant opportunities
forus.
Our total addressable market—including mobile radio network, xed
access network, core network and IP routing, and analytics—increased
to around EUR 141 billion, an almost 50% increase relative to
theslower-growing addressable market we faced before the
AlcatelLucent addition.
Alcatel Lucent gives us the opportunity to cross-sell and upsell our
expanded portfolio, and better leverage our global sales channel. From
a geographic perspective, we gain a much stronger position in many
regions. In North America we have become the market leader; in China
we are the largest vendor headquartered outside the country; and in
Europe, Latin America and the Middle East and Africa we have roughly
doubled our size.
The acquisition has given us a total of more than 40 000 research
scientists and engineers focused on inventing and deploying
technologies that are shaping the future of the connected world: 5G,
Cloud-based networks, IP routing, optical ber transport and data
analytics. Our combined R&D expenses of EUR 4.5 billion in 2015
also supports near and longer term scientic research at Bell Labs—
building a strong platform for putting us ahead of the competition.