Report: Alcatel-Lucent Mulls Unloading Enterprise Gear Unit

Alcatel-Lucent (NYSE:ALU) is reportedly exploring its options for its enterprise telecom-gear business, including potentially selling the business for somewhere around $1.5 billion.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the French-American telecom equipment company recently hired advisers to help determine whether it should sell the unit that sells phones and other telecom gear to corporations. Alternatively, Alcatel-Lucent could decide on an initial public offering.

Possible suitors for the business could include tech giants Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) or other telecom-gear makers and private-equity firms, the Journal reported.

Alcatel-Lucent could receive a valuation of between $1 billion and $2 billion for its enterprise telecom-gear business, which accounts for less than 10% of the entire company’s annual sales, the paper reported.

Shares of Alcatel-Lucent, which was formed by a 2006 combination of France’s Alcatel and the U.S.’s Lucent, fell Thursday morning. Still, the stock has surged more than 100% year-to-date.