- Nokia (NYSE:NOK) and Alcatel-Lucent's (ALU) planned merger could unravel Nokia's R&D partnership/reseller deal with Juniper (NYSE:JNPR). Juniper, which has partnered with Nokia on solutions that pair the former's routers with the latter's base stations and mobile core network gear, counts Alcatel as its second-biggest rival (after Cisco) in the carrier router market, and also squares off against the company in other markets such as carrier SDN software.
- Ruckus (NYSE:RKUS) is another Nokia partner that could be in the crosshairs: The company competes against Alcatel in carrier Wi-Fi hardware, and has a reseller deal with Nokia that goes back to 2012. The deal was recently expanded to cover Wi-Fi/4G small cell systems.
- At the same time, the merger has fueled speculation one or more rivals could respond with acquisitions of their own. A potential acquisition of Juniper by mobile infrastructure giant Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) has especially been the subject of much talk.
- Ericsson is also viewed as a potential suitor for optical networking hardware vendors/fellow Alcatel rivals Ciena and Infinera. Ruckus has been seen as a potential M&A target for a long time. However, it currently competes against Ericsson, which bought Wi-Fi hardware vendor BelAir Networks in 2012.
- RF backhaul hardware maker DragonWave (NASDAQ:DRWI) could also lose business thanks to the merger; it bought Nokia's RF backhaul business in 2012. and maintains a reseller deal. However, H.C. Wainwright recently downplayed those concerns, arguing Alcatel's RF backhaul systems are expensive and clunky.
- Juniper and Ericsson report earnings on April 23, and Ruckus on April 30.