- Reuters reports Alcatel-Lucent (ALU +2.8%) is once more thinking of selling its struggling enterprise hardware/software unit, as it pushes forward with its goal of unloading €1B ($1.34B) worth of assets by 2015. Lazard has reportedly been hired to help find a buyer.
- Alcatel's enterprise unit is saddled with major pension obligations. It's also contending with weak voice product sales (thanks partly to growing adoption of hosted VoIP solutions), and strong competition in the networking hardware and unified communications markets from firms including Cisco, Microsoft, Dell, and H-P. Reuters' sources think few will be interested in buying the unit in full.
- Alcatel has previously been reported to be mulling the sale of its submarine optical cable unit (another underperformer), Reuters' report comes amid rumors Nokia is considering a tie-up with Alcatel, one that could involve the sale of Alcatel's mobile infrastructure ops.