The outfit is trying to think how it can grow after the planned sale of its handset business to Microsoft. While no formal talks are underway with Alcatel-Lucent, Reuters claimed that Nokia held "on again, off again" discussions about buying Alcatel's wireless business as recently as late 2012 and that the two companies could still come back to the table.

Both companies have struggled to compete with market leader Ericsson, and Huawei and ZTE. With Microsoft buying Nokia's phone business and license its patents for $7.3 billion, the former rubber boot maker has said it will evaluate strategy for its remaining operations before the deal closes.