Nokia shareholders on Wednesday voted in favour of the €15.6 billion acquisition of rival vendor Alcatel-Lucent.
The deal still requires more than half of the latter’s shareholders to tender their shares; nonetheless, Wednesday’s development keeps Nokia well on course to completing the transaction during the first quarter of 2016.
"We are delighted that the vast majority of Nokia’s shareholders recognise the long-term value creation opportunity that this proposed combination represents," said Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri, in a statement.
"We now encourage Alcatel-Lucent shareholders and convertible bondholders to help realise this potential by tendering their securities into the public exchange offer. By doing so, they would play an important role in helping to create a new leader in next-generation technology and services for an IP-connected world," he said.
Votes were cast at an extraordinary general meeting convened by Nokia, which was arranged after the vendor received all the necessary regulatory approvals for the acquisition.
The combined business will use the Nokia name, will be headquartered in Nokia’s home country Finland, and will be led by Suri.
Nokia unveiled its post-merger leadership team in early October, revealing that the c-suite would be staffed almost exclusively by Nokia insiders, apart from the CTO role, which it emerged recently will be held by Alcatel-Lucent’s chief technology officer Marcus Weldon.
