MICHELLE HAN, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with what could be a $40 billion telecom deal. "The New York Times" reports that France's Alcatel is in advanced talks to buy Lucent Technologies of the U.S. For the very latest, we go to Todd Benjamin at the CNN Financial newsdesk in London -- Todd.</s>TODD BENJAMIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: This is a deal the market doesn't like at all. In fact, Alcatel shares have been down all day. They were down in premarket trading. They are now done 5 percent. Lucent, on the other hand, as you would expect, is higher on Instinet trading at this hour. Those close to the talks say the likelihood of the deal going through is -- quote -- 50-50. Of course, last month Alcatel reportedly bid $5 billion for Lucent's fiberoptic unit after talks of a complete merger had failed, reportedly, at that time. We called Alcatel today. They refused to comment on these latest talks, calling the report in "The New York Tines" speculation. But I have to tell you that there is still a lot of skepticism about the deal. One commentator that CNN Financial News spoke with today said two wrongs don't make a right. He said these are both companies with a lot of problems, and they shouldn't have merged. Obviously, in the business they're in, there's a lot of overcapacity, and of course some people think it would give Alcatel a good presence in United States, in terms of U.S. marketshare, but, in the words of one analysts, we would get -- quote -- "a lot of rubbish with it." We know that Lucent has several problems. Michelle, back to you in Hong Kong.</s>HAN: Todd, thank you for joining us. END TO ORDER VIDEOTAPES AND TRANSCRIPTS OF CNN INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMMING, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE THE SECURE ONLINE ORDER FROM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
France's Alcatel in Advanced Talks to Buy Lucent Technologies of the U.S.