Alcatel to Sell Assets in Bid to End ‘Perpetual’ Restructurings

Alcatel-Lucent SA will sell 1 billion euros ($1.3 billion) of assets and slash costs by another 1 billion euros in a bid by Chief Michel Combes to turn the company around -- something his predecessors tried, and failed, to do for seven years.

The shares jumped as much as 7.4 percent after Combes said that by the time the plan is fully executed in 2015, the network-equipment vendor will have positive free cash flow and be more tightly focused on its most remunerative areas, like ultra-high speed Internet, after cutting out legacy operations.