Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent will to start working as integrated group on January 14, 2016

Nokia Corp. has secured the go-ahead from offer for Alcatel-Lucent SA and Nokia Corp. have secured the go-ahead from France's securities watchdog for its 15.6 billion euro ($17 billion) merger. This is clearing the way for the takeover offer of Nokia and the integration of the two companies specialied in manufacturing of telecom-equipment, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The Finnish telecom company Nokia has confirmed that it has gained 80 percent of outstanding shares at the French-American telecom company Alcatel-Lucent in a historic deal. The complete merger of the two once rival companies will be fully operational by January 14, as reported by The Stack.

Nokia now holds 78.9% of its voting rights and 79.3% of Alcatel-Lucent's share capital According to an interim report released by Autorité des Marchés Financiers (AMF), the French stock market authority.

Rejeev Suri, Nokia's president and CEO, declared that he is glad that Alcatel-Lucent's investors share his confidence in the future of the combined company and that the offer of takeover has been succesful. He added that the merger between the two telecom companies will offer a combined portfolio of the scale and scope required to meet the needs of their global customers, according to the Street Insider.

Nokia also urged Alcatel-Lucent shareholders in a released statement to sell more of their remaining stock. In case that Nokia can reach 95 percent ownership of the convertible bonds, share capital and voting rights, it will be able to push out the remaning shares.

Nokia's takeover deal over Alcatel-Lucent was fist announced in April 2015. The completition of the merger will allow Nokia to de-list Alcatel-Lucent in the United States. Among other plans of Nokia are included a program to return excess capital to its shareholders and to streamline its capital structure. The plan does not involve returning any capital to Alcatel-Lucent shareholders.