Alcatel-Lucent Drops Plans to Sell Submarine-Cable Division

Alcatel-Lucent SA, the French networking equipment maker that’s being acquired by Nokia Oyj, abandoned a plan to divest its submarine-cables business, having sounded out buyers over the past few years.

The Paris-based company will keep the unit as a wholly owned subsidiary, it said Tuesday. Permira Advisers LLP and PAI Partners SAS, as well as French sovereign fund FSI had weighed bids as early as in 2013, Bloomberg reported at the time. Alcatel-Lucent announced its intention to sell part of the unit in an initial public offering in July 2014, to give the business the firepower to seek acquisitions and expand outside telecommunications.