Daily Spin: Evaluating Alcatel, Lucent Hookup

In the networking market these days -- especially at the high end -- it's all about size and scale. So while Alcatel and Lucent spent almost five years contemplating a deal -- in the process quibbling mainly about who would be in control of the combined company -- in the end the combination of these two giants was inevitable. Carriers are merging at an alarming rate; the vendors that supply them need to combine to keep negotiating pace.

A few interesting sidenotes to this deal:

- Even though considered a "merger of equals", Alcatel shareholders will own about 60 percent of the combined company, Lucent 40 percent

- The combined company has sales of just over $25 billion, just about the equal of Cisco Systems. Vendors are consolidating to pursue the massive opportunity of combining voice, data and video traffic on emerging consolidated network infrastructures.