Mobile News

Why suppliers get the urge to merge

Mergers appear to be the order of the day. Last month saw the creation of Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN), which was hot on the heels of Alcatel’s $14bn purchase of Lucent. These moves follow last year’s $2bn raid by Ericsson on the remains of Marconi. These mergers have to happen, we’re told, because of low-cost competition from Far Eastern companies such as China’s Huawei. But are mergers really the best way to counter Asian competition? Certainly, they bring scale, but is that enough? [Read]