Alcatel and Lucent have been a combined company for less than a year and Nokia and Siemens are only six months or so into their network equipment joint venture, yet it seems like there could be big changes ahead for both of these M&A--fed giants.
Alcatel-Lucent CEO Patricia Russo is under the gun to produce a viable restructuring plan before the month is out, and now, reports are surfacing that Siemens may considering selling its half of the Nokia Siemens Networks venture.
The initial stumblings of these super-vendors are drawing derisive laughter and cries of I-told-you-so from industry observers, but neither is past being fixed. Both pursued greater scale to better serve larger carrier customers who demanded it. But, they still need to figure out how to manage these massive operations, and the key may lie not in huge staff cuts, product eliminations or factor shutdowns, but in their ability to quickly outsource more aspects of their businesses (Nokia Siemens Networks has begun that effort by outsourcing some efforts to IBM.).
Outsourcing can help them off-load the costs related to some efforts without losing the brand connection to them. Both of these companies have been successful as outsource firms for mobile carriers, going as far as taking on carrier staff as their own as they manage the networks and services of those carriers. Now, they need to do much more of the same. - Light Reading reports on the Siemens sale rumor. - Dan
