OT - ALU

HB,

When I click on the link it just gives me a blank page that says 'untitled' - but it's alright as your summary of the what the merger would yield was quite great. It's probably just me - since I seem to be the only one unable to paste and copy, access to links was probably thrown in for good measure.

lightreading.com/mo...715568

try that link

Sorry for the bad link, thanks for posting it.

Re this merger, I have gone around and around trying to poke holes through my thesis, but the risks I come up with are those that I frankly just do not see happenning, the most obvious one at this point is a busted merger,(because one party walks away or because the antitrust regulators prevent it), and longer integration period.  The former is in my opinion very small, NOK has a great deal, I just do not see that happening, and ALU becomes part of a very financially stable company.  Regulator in Europe will allow this because neither company has a monopoly.  The latter may be more realistic, however, Rajeev Suri (NOK's CEO) has gottent a lot of praise for how he conducted the integration of the Siemens Networks. 

On the other hand, the benefits more than outweight those risks.  NOK will come out with a more diversified portfolio, a cuatomer roster comprised of the who is who among Service Providers, and a very diverse geographical foot print. With NOK's outstanding balance sheet, the financial weakness of ALU is more than offset.

The impending sale of HERE will be jus icing on the cake.