The infrastructure sector has been under serious pressure for some time now. Mergers and acquisitions offer an alluring double promise of synergies and cost savings to operations that harbour ambitions to grow in a tightening market. But following a string of disappointing results by certain infrastructure vendors, it could be consolidation rather than ambition that is the last refuge of failure. Nokia Siemens Networks started operations this time last year, while Alcatel Lucent was formed in late 2006. The latter's marriage coming some five years after it was first mooted. Neither of the newly formed entities has done much to dispel the notion that two wrongs don't make a right. By the end of its first reporting period as a merged entity-the final quarter of 2006-Alcatel Lucent had recorded a loss of €618m compared to a profit of €381m in the same quarter a year earlier. As a result, the company pledged to cut €l.7bn in costs over three years, including at least €600m in 2007.
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