Can you see John Chambers directing Cisco to buy Alcatel-Lucent?

You know?

As always, good post Brad.

A CSCO buyout of ALU will NEVER happen. At least not anytime in the near future. There are a bazillion reasons as to why, I don't even know where to start (ALU's M-CAP, subsidiary companies like Genesys, CSCO never buys competitors, etc).

Even - if - CSCO was crazy enough to make a bid for ALU, they'd be putting $$$ in to a sinking ship. There's no prospect for a turn around at ALU, especially when both ALU and CSCO lost out to Ericsson on exclusive 4G/LTE contracts to US' biggest service providers: Verizon and AT&T (AT&T is CSCO's biggest customer).

Then again, Cisco's once venerable M&A machine (under the legendary M&A top dog Barry Eaggers and Mike Volpi) is just not what it used to be. In the last few years under the guidance of vacuous clowns like Dan S. and Ned Hooper, theu have done acquisitions that didn't provide any significant ROI and acquisitions that have BOMBED!!! (a la the recent Pure Digital/Flip acquisition which is being dubbed as the "Flop" simply because the iPhone and other smartphones will crush the Flip).

I don't think NSN, Ericsson or anyone else will even bid for ALU.

The rumour that I am hearing is that HPQ's Corporate Development guys were looking at ALU. Take it for what its worth.

Best,

What a joke, ALU is just the worst company to buy in this world. But we never know CEO's can sometimes take stupid decision. As an example mr EB from 3Com he just sunk the company in just few years...

I concur wholeheartedly.

CSCO really needs to up their game or they will end up being like the next Nortel, Alcatel-Lucent, etc. And that is a very realistic possibility, as we move towards convergence between the telcos, cablecos, utility companies (ie. smart-grid, etc). CSCO is being attacked on all fronts from switching equipment (Vyetta) to WAN (Riverbed) to even their shameful performance in the Consumer arena (Apple).

CSCO should just quit with all BS areas that they don't have a standing in and focus on their core vertical -- enterprise telecom. And build on that, making that its first and foremost priority.

Everyone "in the know" full wells knows that the future of enterprise telecom is in Managed Services, SDP, SOA, etc. as we move towards a 4G/LTE (for wireless), IP and Cloud Application Services based environment. Yet in these areas CSCO is a virtual no-show and an unknown.

IMO, Ericsson -- already the global leader in Managed Services -- has set-up shop in CSCO's home turf (the US), and has taken on the "who's who" of the telcos as their customers by way of successful wins (a la AT&T,m Verizon, Sprint-Nextel, T-Mobile, etc.), just might be the behemoth that might put the final nail on CSCO's coffin, at least from an enterprise/services standpoint.

And Ericsson's recent $1.3B acquisition of Nortel's wireless unit, coupled with their new head of M&A, clearly signals that they're out to win, either by way of R&D, new accounts and/or M&A. And so far, they're on a winning path.

Click on the link to extend the stock chart from six months to a year - or better, 2 years. A very different picture! ALU is only accelerating because of the recent takeover speculation. Now it's Huawei touted as the suitor.