Alcatel-Lucent Timeline
1869 Elisha Gray and Enos N. Barton form Gray and Barton, a small manufacturing firm based in Cleveland, Ohio. Three years later, the then Chicago-based firm is renamed the Western Electric
Manufacturing Company.
1881 American Bell purchases a controlling interest in Western Electric and makes it the exclusive developer and manufacturer of
equipment for the Bell telephone companies.
1898 French engineer Pierre Azaria sets up the Compagnie Générale d'Electricité (CGE) with the aim of taking on the likes of AEG, Siemens and General Electric.
1925 Absorption by CGE of Compagnie Générale des Câbles de Lyon.
BeBell Telephone Laboratories is created from the consolidation of the Western Electric Research Laboratories, formed in 1907, and part of
the Engineering Department of AT&T.
1927 The first long-distance television transmission – from Washington, D.C., to New York City – is a notable first for Bell Labs.
1928 Alsthom by Société Alsacienne de Constructions Mécaniques and Compagnie Française Thomson-Houston are formed.
1937 Dr. Clinton J. Davisson becomes the first of 11 Nobel Prize winners from Bell Laboratories for his experimental confirmation of the wave nature of electrons.
1946 After playing a critical role in providing communications and command equipment for the U.S. military during World War II, Western Electric is able to direct its efforts toward filling the pent-up demand for telephones, producing a record 4 million telephones.
1947 Reuse of radio frequencies among hexagonal "cells" is discovered, leading to cellular communications. In the mid-1940s, Bell Labs creates the cellular concept and developed the first commercial mobile telephone service.
Bell Labs invents the transistor. Three Bell Labs scientists later received the Nobel Prize for their scientific breakthrough.
1948 Claude Shannon quantifies "information" (Information Theory) and gives engineers a math-based theoretical maximum information carrying capacity
for any communications system.
1954 Bell Labs invents the solar cell battery allowing conversion of sunlight directly into electricity.
1956
First trans-Atlantic telephone cable is placed into service, handling up to 36 simultaneous calls.
AT&T signs a consent decree to settle a 1949 antitrust suit brought by the U.S. Department of Justice. The decree limits Western Electric to manufacturing equipment for the Bell System and contract work for the government, so Western quickly sells its small non-telephone subsidiary Westrex to Litton Industries and its holdings in Northern Electric
(now known as Nortel) to the public.
1957 Laser is invented at Bell Laboratories.
1962 Bell Labs builds and successfully launches Telstar I, the first orbiting communications satellite.
1966 Absorption by CGE of the Société Alsacienne de Constructions Atomiques, de Télécommunications et d'Electronique (Alcatel).
1969 UNIX operating system is invented by Ken Thompson and Dennis Ritchie.
A simple but elegant time-share software system for computers, it is designed to run on computers of all sizes, making open systems possible.
UNIX later becomes the foundation for the Internet. The UNIX operating system and the C programming language, closely intertwined in both origin and impact, are created at Bell Labs between 1969 and 1972.
UNIX makes large-scale networking of diverse computing systems – and the Internet -- practical. The C language brings an unprecedented combination of efficiency and expressiveness to programming. Both make computing more "portable." Today, UNIX is the operating system of most large Internet servers, as well as business and university systems;
C and its descendants are the most widely used programming languages in the world.
1970 Ambroise Roux becomes CGE's chairman. At the end his term, he remains honorary chairman until his death in 1999.
1978 First service trial of Bell Labs-developed cellular system is conducted in Chicago.
1980 Bell Labs introduces the digital signal processor chip.
1982 Jean-Pierre Brunet becomes CGE's chairman.
AT&T and the U.S. Justice Department settle a 1974 antitrust suit, with modification of final judgment (MFJ) to the 1956 consent decree.
AT&T agrees to divest its local telephone companies effective Jan. 1, 1984, and in turn is freed from other 1956 restrictions.
As part of divestiture, Western Electric's charter is assumed by a new unit, AT&T Technologies.
AT&T Technologies has separate market-focused business units to manufacture and sell consumer products, network systems, technology systems and information systems.
1983 First high-capacity, long-haul lightwave transmission system between New York City and Washington, D.C.
1984
Georges Pebereau becomes CGE's chairman.
Thomson CSF's public telecommunication and business communication operations are merged into a holding company Thomson
Télécommunications, which is taken over by the CGE group.
Câbles de Lyon buys Thomson Jeumont Câbles and Kabeltel under the CGE-Thomson agreements.
1985 Alsthom Atlantique changes its name to Alsthom.
Merger between CIT-Alcatel and Thomson Télécommunications.
The new entity adopts the name Alcatel.
1986 Alcatel NV formed following an agreement with ITT Corporation, which sells its European telecommunications activities to CGE.
Pierre Suard becomes CGE's chairman.
CGE buys into Framatome (40%).
Câbles de Lyon becomes a subsidiary of Alcatel NV.
1987 CGE is privatized.
Alsthom wins an order to supply equipment for the TGV Atlantique network and leads the consortium of French, Belgian and British companies involved in the building of the northern TGV network.
1988 Link-up of Alsthom and General Electric Company (UK).
Merger of Alsthom's activities and GEC's Power Systems division into a joint company.
1989 Agreement between CGE and General Electric Company and
setting up of GEC Alsthom. CGEE-Alsthom changes its name to Cegelec.
AT&T Technologies branches into several business units, including AT&T Network Systems, AT&T Global Business Communications Systems, AT&T Microelectronics and AT&T
Consumer Products, which later combine with Bell Labs to become Lucent Technologies.
1990 CGE-Fiat agreement. Alcatel takes over Telettra and Fiat acquires a majority stake in CEAC. Acquisition by Câbles de Lyon of Câbleries de Dour (Belgium) and Ericsson's US cable operations.
Agreement on Framatome's capital structure, with CGE holding a 44.12% stake.
1991 Compagnie Générale d'Electricité changes its name to Alcatel Alsthom.
Purchase of the transmission systems division of the American group Rockwell Technologies.
Câbles de Lyon becomes Alcatel Cable and takes over AEG Kabel.
1992 Alcatel Alsthom acquired AEG Kabel (subsequently renamed Kabel Rheydt), a leading cable manufacturer in Germany, strengthening its presence
in this region.
1993 Acquisition of STC Submarine Systems, a division of Northern Telecom
Europe (today Nortel Networks).
1995 Serge Tchuruk becomes chairman and CEO of Alcatel Alsthom.
He restructures the company focusing on telecommunications.
AT&T proposes forming three separate, publicly traded companies to serve the increasingly divergent business needs of its customers.
1996 Lucent Technologies launches its separation from AT&T with an initial public offering, which is at the time the largest ever on the
New York Stock Exchange.
1998 Alcatel Alsthom is renamed Alcatel.
Acquisition of the American DSC which has a solid position in the US access market Initial public offering of
GEC ALSTHOM which becomes Alstom.
Alcatel retains 24% in the newly-formed company.
Alcatel sells Cegelec to Alstom.
Horst Stormer of Bell Labs and two former Bell Labs researchers receive the Nobel Prize in physics for their discovery of the fractional quantum Hall effect.
1999 Acquisition of Xylan, Packet Engines, Assured Access and Internet Devices, specializing in Internet network and solutions.
Alcatel raises its participation in Thomson CSF (now Thales) to 25.3% and reduces its participation in Framatome to 8.6 %.
2000 Acquisition of Newbridge, worldwide leader in ATM technology networks.
Acquisition of the American company Genesys, worldwide leader in contact centers.
Acquisition of Innovative Fibers-world leader in DWDM optical filters.
Alcatel’s cable activities are subsidized and renamed Nexans.
Lucent spins off its enterprise networking group – Avaya Inc.
2001 Alcatel sells its 24% share in Alstom
IPO of a significant part of Cables & Components business (Nexans activity). Alcatel keeps 20% of Nexans shares.
Acquisition of the remaining 48.83% stake held in Alcatel Space by Thales, bringing Alcatel's
ownership of Alcatel Space to 100%. After this transaction, Alcatel's stake in Thales decreased from 25.29% to 20.03%.
Disposal of 4.2% stake in Thales.
Alcatel sells its 2.2% participation in Areva.
Alcatel sells its DSL modem activity to Thomson Multimedia.
Agere Systems, Lucent's microelectronics business, completes an initial public offering as a separate company.
2002 Acquisition of Astral Point Communications Inc., a U.S. company and front-runner in next generation SONET Metro Optical Systems.
Alcatel sells its microelectronics activities to STMicroelectronics Alcatel sells its remaining share in Thomson
Alcatel acquires control of Alcatel Shanghai Bell
Alcatel completes the acquisition of the Telera Corporation.
Alcatel sells 10.3 million Thales shares (reduces Alcatel's shareholdings in Thales from 15.83% to 9.7%).
Alcatel sells 1.5 million Nexans shares (reduces Alcatel's shareholding in Nexans from 20% to 15%)
Pat Russo returns to Lucent as chief executive officer and becomes chairman in 2003.
2003 Alcatel sells 50% shareholding in Atlinks, a manufacturer of residential telephones, to Thomson.
Acquisition of iMagicTV, a Canadian supplier of software products and services that enable service providers to create, deliver and
manage digital television and media services over broadband networks.
Acquisition of TiMetra Inc., a privately held, Silicon Valley-based company that produces routers.
Alcatel's optical components business sold to Avanex.
SAFT Batteries subsidiary sold to Doughty Hanson.
2004 The SAFT subsidiary which specialized in battery operations was sold to Doughty Hanson.
Alcatel and TCL Communication Technology Holdings Limited form a joint venture mobile handset company. The joint venture company is 55% owned by TCL and 45% owned by Alcatel.
Alcatel and Draka Holding N.V. ("Draka") combine their respective global optical fiber and communication cable businesses. Draka owns 50.1% and Alcatel owns 49.9% of the new company,
Draka Comteq B.V.
Alcatel acquires privately held, U.S.-based eDial Inc., a leading provider of conferencing and collaboration services for businesses and telephone companies.
Alcatel sells 7.1 million Avanex shares, bringing its stake in this company to below 20%.
Alcatel completes the acquisition of the privately held, U.S.-based Spatial Communications (known as Spatial Wireless), a leading provider of software-based and multi-standard distributed mobile switching solutions.
Lucent reports its first profitable year and first year of revenue growth since fiscal 2000.
2005 2005 was a record year for Alcatel in terms of results, contracts, events, and agreements as operators looked to Alcatel for network transformation solutions.
Jeong Kim becomes 11th president of Bell Labs and Lucent signs a multiyear contract with Sprint worth more than $1.5 billion.
2006 Alcatel announced a deal to increase its shareholding and transfer its satellite subsidiaries, its railway signaling business and its critical security systems domains to Thales, a key player in the French defense industry.
On November 30, 2006, Alcatel and Lucent Technologies merge.
Acquired Nortel's UMTS radio access business to strengthen its leadership position in this technology.
2007
Announced plans to acquire all the assets, including all intellectual property of Canadian metro WDM networking supplier
Tropic Networks, Inc.
Acquired NetDevices, a developer of services gateway products for enterprise branch networks, based in Sunnyvale, California.
Acquired Thompson Advisory Group, Inc. (TAG), one of the largest nationally recognized telecommunications consulting practices in the U.S. As a fully independent subsidiary, TAG will help enterprise customers cut their telecom expenses by leveraging network outsourcing resources.
Acquired Tamblin, a privately held software company that provides applications and tool kits that will enhance Alcatel-Lucent’s solution for enabling IPTV users to easily find, connect and interact with brands and entertainment they care about.
2008 Acquired Motive, Inc., a leading provider of service management software for broadband and mobile data services. The acquisition extends a productive three-year relationship between Alcatel-Lucent and Motive — together the companies jointly developed and sold remote management software solutions for automating the
deployment, configuration and support of advanced home networking devices called residential gateways.
Ben Verwaayen becomes Alcatel-Lucent’s second Chief Executive Officer.
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