Tchuruk, speaking at a press conference on the company's first-quarter earnings, would not say how much Alcatel bid. Lucent is selling the unit, which analysts say may fetch about US$5 billion, to add cash and focus on its phone equipment businesses.
Lucent, the No 2 maker of optical fiber and cable behind Corning, plans to sell the business that makes optical fibers used in telecommunications networks. Lucent chief executive Henry Schacht said in an interview Tuesday that the company had received initial bids for the unit last week. It will be at least several more weeks before an agreement is reached, he said.
"This is a determining event for all the actors in this market," Tchuruk said. "It's going to reshape the whole fiber industry. It's very premature to say where this is going to land us, but we're paying a lot of attention to this opportunity."
Paris-based Alcatel said Thursday that first-quarter profit fell 19 percent to US$188 million (210 million euros), or US$0.18 a share. Sales rose 21 percent, beating forecasts.
In other news, Reuters reports that Alcatel has booked provisions to cover any losses that might stem from converting bonds issued by debt-ridden fiber-optics company 360networks into shares. Alcatel chief financial officer Jean-Pierre Halbron said the company had 10 to 12 years to convert what amounted to a loan to 360networks into stock, but said 360networks had an option to force the conversion at the end of 2003.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Play video
There are currently no comments for this post.