Alcatel[edit]

 1898 – French engineer Pierre Azaria sets up the Compagnie Générale d'Électricité (CGE).
 1919 – Aaron Weil creates the "Téléphone privé" (Private telephone)
 1925 – CGE becomes part of Compagnie Générale des Câbles de Lyon. Bell Telephone
Laboratories is created.
 1927 – The company is growing, and takes the name of "Téléphonie Industrielle et
Commerciale" (TELIC)
 1928 – Alsthom is formed by Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques and
Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston.
 1946 – The CIT is created (Compagnie Industrielle de Téléphone) with CGE (Compagnie
Generale d'Electricité)
 1947 – ALSATEL is created. (Société Alsacienne et Lorraine de Télécommunication et
d'Electronique) to enable sales expansion.
 1950 – See ITT Kellogg > ITT Telecommunications >
Alcatel http://www.encyclopedia.chicagohistory.org/pages/2736.html
 1954 – TELIC acquires COFRATEL (Compagnie Française du Téléphone).
 1960 – TELIC delivers the complex Crossbar technology.
 1965 – CGE acquires TELIC, becoming a subsidiary of CIT.
 1970 – Alcatel is created by merging CIT and ENTE, a department of the SACM (Société
Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques).
 1970 – Ambroise Roux becomes CGE's chairman. He then becomes the honorary chairman
until his death in 1999.
 1977 – First PBX is created, controlled by an electronic CPU.
 1980 – Minitel is launched
 1982 – Jean-Pierre Brunet becomes CGE's chairman.
 1984 – Georges Pebereau becomes CGE's chairman. Thompson telecommunications is
absorbed by CGE.[26] Cables de Lyon buys Thompson Jeumont Cables and Kabelmetal.
 1985 – Alsthom Atlantique becomes Alsthom. Alcatel is formed when CIT-Alcatel and
Thompson telecommunications merge.[27]
 1986 – ITT Corporation sells its European telecommunications business to CGE under its
agreement with Alcatel NV. Cables de Lyon becomes a subsidiary of Alcatel NV. [28] Pierre
Suard becomes CGE Chairman.
 1987 – CGE is privatized.[29] Alsthom wins contract for TGV Atlantique for the Northern TGV
network.
 1989 – CGE and General Electric Company form GEC Alsthom. This allows Alsthom to sells
its products outside France. CGEE-Alsthom becomes Cegelec. AT&T Technologies
reorganizes with the following business units: Network systems, Global Business
Communications, Microelectronics and Consumer Products.
 1991 – CGE changes its name to Alcatel Alsthom. Acquires Rockwell Technologies
transmission equipment division. [30][31][32] Cables de Lyons is renamed Alcatel Cable and takes
over AEG Kabel.
 1991 – Alcatel acquires Telettra, an Italian Telecommunication systems company.
 1992 – Alcatel Alsthom acquires AEG Kabel.
 1993 – Alcatel Alsthom acquires STC Submarine systems from now Nortel Networks.
 1995 – Serge Tchuruk was appointed chairman and CEO of Alcatel Alsthom. He restructured
the company to focus on telecommunications equipment. [33]
 1998 – Alcatel Alsthom split. Alsthom GEC becomes Alstom through an IPO (with Alcatel
retaining 24%). Alcatel sells Cegelec to the newly formed Alstom. Alcatel acquires DSC
Communications for $4.4 billion[34] and Packet Engines[35]
 1999 – Alcatel acquires Xylan, Assured Access and Internet Devices. Alcatel increases its
stake in Thomson CSF to 25.3% and decreases its stake in Framatome to 8.6%.
 2000 – Alcatel sells the DSL modem business to Thomson Multimedia and
acquires Newbridge, Genesys and Innovative Fibers. Alcatel spins off its cable unit into
Nexans.[36] Lucent spins off Avaya Inc.
 2001 – Alcatel sells its stake in Alstom. Alcatel buys back Alcatel Space investment from
Thales, and reduces its stake in Thales to 20.03%. Alcatel sells its 2.2% stake in Areva.
Alcatel sells DSL modem business to Thomson Multimedia. Lucent spins off its
microelectronics business into Agere Systems via an IPO.
 2002 – Alcatel acquires Astral Point Communications Inc., Telera Corporation, and control of
Alcatel Shanghai Bell. Alcatel sells its microelectronic business to STMicroelectronics, its
stake in Thomson, 10.3M shares of Thales, and 1.5M shares of Nexans.
 2003 – Alcatel acquires iMagicTV, and TiMetra Inc. It sells a 50% stake in Atlinks, and its
optical business to Avanex.
 2004 – Alcatel acquires eDial Inc. Alcatel and TCL form a joint venture: Alcatel Mobile
Phones, with Alcatel holding a 45% stake. Alcatel and Draka Holdings form a joint venture:
Draka Comteq B.V. with Alcatel holding a 49.9 stake. [37] Alcatel finalizes its acquisition of
Spatial Wireless but sells 7.1M shares of Avanex.
 2005 – Alcatel sells its 45% stake of the Alcatel Mobile Phones venture back to TCL.[38]
 2006 – Alcatel & Lucent Technologies announce merger to become Alcatel-Lucent
 2014 – China Huaxin Post & Telecommunication Economy Development Center acquires
Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise
AT&T, Lucent Technologies[edit]

 1869 – Elisha Gray and Enos N. Barton formed Western Electric Company.

 1927 – Bell Labs makes the first American long distance television transmission between
New York and Washington DC.[39]
 1937 – Clinton Davisson becomes the first of 11 Nobel Prize winners from Bell Labs for his
experimental confirmation of the wave nature of electrons.
 1946 – Western Electric produces over 4 million telephones.[40]
 1947 – Bell Labs invents the transistor. Bell Labs' Douglas H. Ring and W. Rae Young wrote
a memo entitled Mobile Telephony – Wide Area Coverage – Case 20564, using "hexagonal"
cells for radio frequency.[41]
 1948 – Claude Shannon, of Bell Labs, publishes a paper on Information Theory.
 1954 – Bell Labs invents the solar cell battery.
 1956 – AT&T is involved in the efforts of TAT-1, the first submarine trans-Atlantic telephone
cable, handling up to 36 channels. Electric repeaters, created by Bell Labs, were used. To
settle an anti-trust lawsuit, Western Electric (formerly AT&T) sells off non-networking
equipment business.[42]
 1957 – Laser is invented at Bell Labs.
 1962 – Bell Labs builds and launches Telstar1, the first orbiting active communications
satellite.
 1969 – Unix operating system is invented by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie.
 1978 – Bell Labs conducts the first trial of a commercial cell phone service in Chicago.
 1980 – Bell Labs announces digital signal processor.[43]
 1983 – AT&T installs the first high-capacity, long-haul lightwave transmission system
between NYC and Washington DC.[44]
 1996 – Lucent Technologies launches IPO, the largest at that time.
 1998 – Lucent purchases Jeong Kim's Yurie Systems for $1.1 billion.[45][46]
 2000 – Richard McGinn, chairman and CEO, was replaced by former CEO Henry Schacht. [47]
 2002 – Patricia Russo becomes Lucent's CEO.
 2003 – Patricia Russo becomes Lucent's Chairman.
 2004 – Lucent reports its first profitable year and revenue increase since 2000.
 2005 – Jeong Kim becomes Bell Labs 11th president.
Alcatel-Lucent[edit]
 2006 – Alcatel sells its satellite, railway signaling and critical security domain to Thales. On 3
December, Alcatel and Lucent merge to form Alcatel-Lucent. Alcatel-Lucent acquires Nortel's
UMTS radio access business.
 2007 – Alcatel-Lucent acquires Tropic Networks, NetDevices, Thompson Advisory Group,
and Tamblin.
 2008 – Alcatel-Lucent acquires Motive Inc. Ben Verwaayen becomes Alcatel-Lucent's second
CEO.
 2009 – Alcatel-Lucent sells its remaining share of Thales and outsources its IT to HP.
 2011 – Wim Sweldens leads a wireless group to develop lightRadio, a technology to reduce
the size of cell towers to tiny cubes.[48]
 2012 – Alcatel-Lucent sells Genesys Labs to Permira.[49]
 2014 – 1 October, Alcatel-Lucent announces the spin-off of the Enterprise division to China
Huaxin forming the standalone organization of Alcatel-Lucent Enterprise. [50][51]
 2015 – Nokia Corporation announces its intentions to acquire Alcatel-Lucent for $16.6 billion.
[52][53]

 2016 – Nokia gains control of Alcatel-Lucent. As of 16 March Nokia held a 91.8 per cent
stake in Alcatel-Lucent's total shares, and planned to complete the purchase of 100% by 26
April.[54] The Alcatel-Lucent brand is abolished.

Organization[edit]
The company's global headquarters (now a Nokia office) was in Boulogne-Billancourt, France.[55] It
had previous head offices in the 7th arrondissement and 8th arrondissement of Paris, France.
[56]
 Its previous head office, in the 8th arrondissement, was built between 1912 and 1929 and was
renovated in 1998. During the renovation, the building was decorated with materials on the theme
of the cosmos and time.[57]
There were regional groups for the Americas, Asia Pacific & China, and Europe, Middle East &
Africa.[58] Middle East and Africa Headquarters were at Smart Village, Giza, Egypt.[59] Alcatel was
present in Italy with various research
centers: Vimercate (in Lombardy), Rieti, Battipaglia, Trieste, Genova, Bari, Naples, Rome and Se
sto Fiorentino; by 2014, their presence was only in Vimercate, Trieste and Rome. [citation needed]

Board of directors[edit]
 Philippe Camus (Chairman)
 Michel Combes (CEO)
 Stuart Eizenstat
 Louis Hughes
 Carla Cico
 Jean Monty
 Olivier Piou
 Jean-Cyril Spinetta
 Kim Crawford Goodman
 Véronique Morali
 Francesco Caio
[60]

Leadership[edit]
 Basil Alwan, IP routing & IP transport
 Bhaskar Gorti, Software
 David Geary, Wireless
 Sandy Motley, Fixed networks
 Federico Guillen, Operations
 Philippe Keryer, Strategy & Innovation
 Jean Raby, Chief Financial Officer
 Nicole Gionet, Human Resources
 Tim Krause, Chief Marketing Officer
[61]

Operating segments[edit]
The Core Networking segment included three business divisions: IP Routing, IP Transport and IP
Platforms. The Access segment included 4 business divisions: Wireless, Fixed Access, Licensing
and Managed Services.[citation needed]

Research and development[edit]

Bell Labs was Alcatel-Lucent's research and development (R & D) organization.[62]
In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell was awarded the first patent for the telephone, and
subsequently started AT&T.[63] Bell Labs is named in his honor.[citation needed]
In 1937, Clinton Davisson shared the Nobel Prize in Physics for demonstrating the wave nature of
matter. His fundamental work is part of the foundation for much of today's solid-state electronics.
[citation needed]

In 1947, John Bardeen, Walter Brattain, William Shockley of Bell Labs invented the transistor. In
1956, they received a Nobel Prize for their invention. The transistor led to an electronics
revolution during the post-war boom. The transition from vacuum tubes to transistors enabled all
technologies to be built on a smaller scale and use less electricity. Items that before required
large dedicated spaces, could now fit into a home or even on a kitchen counter. [64]
In 1954, Gerald Pearson, Darryl Chapin and Calvin Fuller invented the solar cell. Telstar, the first
active communications satellite also developed by Bell Labs and launched in 1962, used these
solar cell batteries as an external renewable source of power once launched. It was the first to
carry live television over water, between England and the US.[citation needed]
In the late 1950s, Charles Townes and Arthur Shawlow of Bell Labs invented the laser, which has
numerous applications, including measuring/cutting in the manufacturing industry and
research/surgery in the medical industry. Bell Labs was awarded the laser patent in 1960. [citation needed]
In 1964, Arno Allan Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson discovered the cosmic microwave
background radiation. They were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1978.[citation needed]
In 1969, Dennis Ritchie and a team of Bell Labs employees invented the UNIX operating system
and the C programming language.[citation needed]
In 2006, Willard S. Boyle and George E. Smith were awarded the National Academy of
Engineering prize, for work on charge-coupled devices which transform patterns of light into
useful digital information. In 2009, they received a Nobel Prize for their invention. The device is
widely used in digital cameras, video cameras and modern astronomy. [citation needed]
In 2013, there was a Net R&D investment of €2.3 billion (approx. 16% of sales). There are more
than 32,000 active patents, more than 3,000 obtained in 2013, and 14,900 pending patent
applications.[citation needed]

Awards and distinctions[edit]

 July 2013 – In a test conducted on the Villarceaux campus of Alcatel-Lucent
in Nozay (near Paris), the Bell Labs researchers have successfully done Data Transmission
from a speed of 31 terabits per second (T−bps) at a distance of 7,200 km, a capacity more
than three times higher than the most advanced commercial submarine cables that exist
today.[citation needed]
The investigators were able to obtain greater capacity ever obtained in underwater data
transmission with a single fiber. This experiment was based on the pioneering work of Bell Labs
in data channels in a single carrier of 200 gigabits per second (Gbit/s). As speeds and distances
to such noise and signal distortion make recovery of the data a real challenge, the researchers
used innovative detection techniques and applied a new set of technologies modulation,
transmission and processing together with an advanced error correction coding. [65]

 March 2012 – Alcatel-Lucent was selected by MIT's Technology Review to its 2012 TR50 List
of the World's Most Innovative Companies. The magazine recognized Alcatel-Lucent
lightRadio as a "key innovation". [66]
 February–March 2012 – Alcatel-Lucent wins the Mobile World Congress Best Infrastructure
Technology Award for the lightRadio Network.[67]

Lawsuits[edit]
Violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act[edit]
In December 2010, Alcatel-Lucent agreed to pay a total settlement of $137 million for bribing
officials in Costa Rica, Honduras, Malaysia and Taiwan in violation of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt
Practices Act (FCPA).[68] The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) alleged that
Alcatel retained consultants to funnel bribes of over $8 million to government officials in order to
obtain and retain lucrative telecommunications contracts.[69][70] Alcatel admitted that it made profits
of approximately $48 million as a result of the bribes and was ordered to pay $45 million to settle
charges with the SEC and a further $92 million to settle the criminal charges brought by the U.S.
Department of Justice (DOJ).[71]

Alcatel-Lucent v. Microsoft[edit]
Main article: Alcatel-Lucent v. Microsoft
Lucent Technologies filed suit against Gateway and Dell, claiming they had violated patents
on MP3, MPEG and other technologies developed by Bell Labs, a division of predecessor
company American Telephone & Telegraph. Microsoft voluntarily joined the lawsuit in April 2003,
and Alcatel was added after it acquired Lucent.
The first part of the case involved two audio coding patents that Alcatel-Lucent claimed were
infringed by Microsoft's Windows Media Player application. Alcatel-Lucent won the trial and $1.52
billion in damages, but the judge granted [72] Microsoft's motion for judgment and new trial.[73]
[74]
 Alcatel-Lucent appealed.[75]
In the second part of the case, the judge ruled that Microsoft had not violated Alcatel-Lucent's
patents relating to speech recognition and the case was therefore dismissed before going to trial.
Alcatel-Lucent intended to appeal. [76][77]
The third part of the case, involving several user interface-related patents, began on 21 May
2013.[citation needed]
Additional patent infringement cases, some filed by Microsoft and some filed by Alcatel-Lucent,
are pending in the United States.[citation needed]

Alcatel-Lucent v. Newegg and Overstock[edit]

In May 2013, Newegg and Overstock won a victory in United States circuit court in which an
Alcatel-Lucent shopping cart patent was invalidated.[78]

References