Nokia CEO speeds up Alcatel integration

Helsinki

AFTER gaining control of French network equipment rival Alcatel-Lucent SA in January, Rajeev Suri put his team at Nokia Oyj on a tight schedule: in just 90 days, they had to hash out which products to keep and what to jettison.

While Nokia's 48-year-old chief executive officer admitted that he is no fan of indecision, "procrastinated discussions" and office politics, that pace was extreme even for the fast-moving world of technology. But Mr Suri's urgency had a purpose. He did not want to repeat the mistakes of past mergers at the two network suppliers that dragged on for years and led to billions of dollars in losses.