Ericsson CEO Sees Opportunity From Alcatel/Lucent Deal

STOCKHOLM -(Dow Jones)- Ericsson Chief Executive Carl-Henric Svanberg Monday said he expects the planned merger of Alcatel and Lucent Technologies to give his company an opportunity to grab market share.

Svanberg said the combined Lucent and Alcatel will be a strong, particularly in the US, and believes some US operators will start looking for an alternative supplier if the merged company becomes to dominant.

"We see an interesting opportunity there," Svanberg said at a press briefing.

Svanberg said Lucent is the incumbent supplier to large U.S. operators such as Verizon Communications and AT&T, with Alcatel taking the number two spot in important areas.

"Now they need a new alternative" he said.

The battle to build new converged high-capacity networks capable of delivering services such as television and multimedia is far from over, Svanberg said.

Alcatel and Lucent agreed to merge earlier this month. The combined company will have a market capitalization of around EUR30 billion and sales of around EUR21 billion.

Company Web site: http://www.ericsson.com

-By Magnus Hansson, Dow Jones Newswires; +46 8 545 130 91; magnus.hansson@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires"

Posted to the site on 10th April 2006