Shareholders of the telecommunications equipment manufacturers Alcatel and Lucent have approved an $11 billion merger of the two companies. The new company, which will be called Alcatel Lucent, will be the world's largest telecommunications equipment maker. Some shareholders in the Paris-based Alcatel were unsure about the ability of Patricia Russo, current Lucent chief executive, to lead the combined company, because of difficulties at the company since the hi-tech bubble burst in 2000. The American company Lucent grew out of divisions of AT&T that included Bell Labs, the company that invented the transistor, the Unix operating system that led to Linux, and many other important 20th century technical innovations.