The transaction aligns strongly with Nokia's strategy, as it is expected to strengthen the company's technological leadership in optics and increase exposure to web-scale customers, the fastest-growing segment of the market.

Nokia believes the transaction has compelling financial and strategic advantages. The combination with Infinera is expected to accelerate Nokia's path to double-digit operating margins in its optical networks business. Nokia aims to achieve €200 million in comparable net operating profit synergies by 2027*. This transaction, together with the recently announced sale of Submarine Networks, will create a reshaped Network Infrastructure business built on three strong pillars: Fixed Networks, IP Networks, and Optical Networks. Nokia aims for single-digit organic growth for its global Network Infrastructure business and to improve its operating margin to between 10 and 20 percentage points.

Pekka Lundmark, President and CEO of Nokia, said: "In 2021, we increased our organic investment in Optical Networks to enhance our competitiveness. This decision has paid off, resulting in greater customer recognition, strong sales growth, and increased profitability. We believe now is the right time to take a compelling inorganic step to further expand Nokia's scale in optical networks. The combined businesses are a strong strategic fit given their highly complementary customer, geographic, and technological profiles. With the opportunity to deliver more than a 10% increase in comparable EPS, we believe this will create significant shareholder value.

Federico Guillén, President of Network Infrastructure at Nokia, stated: "Network Infrastructure currently offers a unique portfolio across fixed access, optical networking, and IP domains, built on leading technological innovation and a strong customer focus. This acquisition will further strengthen the optical pillar of our business, expand our growth opportunities across all our target customer segments, and improve our operating margin. I am delighted to bring together these two highly talented and dedicated teams. Separately, we have long respected each other as competitors. Together, the logic of the combination is irresistible.".

David Heard, CEO of Infinera, stated:We are truly excited about the value this combination will bring to our global customers. We believe Nokia is an excellent partner, and together we will have greater scale and deeper resources to drive innovation and address rapidly evolving customer needs at a time when optics is more important than ever—across telecom networks, between data centers, and now within the data center. This combination will further enhance our vertically integrated optical semiconductor technologies. In addition, our shareholders will have the opportunity to participate in the growth of a global leader in optical networking solutions.