Senator Has “Grave Concerns” about Alcatel-Lucent Merger

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Senator Has “Grave Concerns” about Alcatel-Lucent Merger

7:00 am on May 3, 2006 | Category: Business, Wireless Technology, Corporate, Regulation

A key U.S. politician has written a letter to President George W. Bush, expressing serious reservations about Alcatel’s plans to acquire American telecom equipment maker, Lucent Technologies.

California Republican, Duncan Hunter, who is Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee said that the proposed deal would compromise the security of Lucent’s Bell Labs facility, which conducts highly classified research work for the U.S. government. Alcatel is known to have business dealing with several countries affected by American sanctions, including Iran and North Korea, and Hunter worries that the deal could result in sensitive information and technologies being transferred to these countries.

“I have several grave concerns about the potential merger of French-owned Alcatel and American-owned Lucent Technologies,” Hunter said. “Specifically, I am concerned about potential transfers of technology or sensitive information to other countries with which Alcatel has business dealings.”

This contrasts the sentiments of New York Senator, Charles Schumer, who praised Alcatel’s plans to create a separate U.S. subsidiary, operated by Americans, which would handle all potentially sensitive government contracts.

A large number of politicians, however, including Duncan Hunter, are skeptical that such measures will provide any real guarantee that American technologies can’t be shared with enemy nations. This is sure to provide an interesting debate among U.S. lawmakers in the weeks and months to come.