Alcatel-Lucent falls, Huawei ascends: new product development makes the difference

摘要

Nokia has launched a 15.6bn agreed all-share takeover offer for Alcatel-Lucent (ALu) aimed at creating a Finnish-French rival to Ericsson and Huawei in the telecom equipment industry (Financial times, 2015, 15 April). ALu, one of the leading telecom equipment manufacturers, was staggering on its way to the end of 2015. The telecom equipment industry, which had been monopolized for decades by a few giants, including Cisco, Nokia, Ericsson and ALu, has been significantly disrupted by the China-based latecomer Huawei in the past years. ALu, for example, has experienced continuous declining revenue since 2007 and its annual growth rate dropped to a historical low of -20 per cent in 2014. In sharp contrast, Huawei enjoyed a boom over the same period. Its annual revenue soared from $2.7bn in 2002 to $46.5bn in 2014. Although there were fluctuations, Huawei's average annual growth rate stabilized at 20 per cent through that period. In 2012, Huawei became the biggest telecom equipment manufacturer in the world.