Tech Business Roundup: Alcatel Slashes Thousands of Jobs, Verizon’s Smartphone Activations

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) will eliminate nearly 5,500 jobs worldwide as part of €1.25 billion in cost reductions that it first announced in July. The company will slash 3,300 positions in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa, along with 1,490 in France, which should quickly get the attention of the government there.

Sprint Nextel Corporation (NYSE:S) has bought control of Clearwire Corporation (NASDAQ:CLWR) through first buying out one of the latter’s other investors, Eagle River Holdings, in an arrangement that gives Sprint an interest of 50.8 percent. Earlier, observers had figured that Sprint might reach a deal through Intel or Comcast in which it would be permitted to name a majority of directors to Clearwire’s board.

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Verizon Communications (NYSE:VZ) reports that it activated 6.8 million smartphones in the third quarter, out of which 3.4 million were Android phones, and many of that number likely being Galaxy S III units and 3.1 million were iPhones. These figures contrast favorably with 2.9 million Android phones and 2.7 million iPhones in the second quarter. The communications major added that 21 percent of its approximate 650,000 iPhone activations involved LTE devices such as the iPhone 5 (NASDAQ:AAPL) for which supply problems are said to be responsible.

Don’t Miss: Here’s How Sprint Will Gain Control of Clearwire.