Alcatel-Lucent’s new CEO, Michel Combes, certainly got his timing right. Since taking the reins from Ben Verwaayen last year, the ‘Shift Plan’ ‘ Combes’ brainchild, but heavily based on initiatives of his predecessor ‘ has been delivering its results. Perhaps for the first time since its troubled merger in 2006, the company is looking viable ‘ even if its improvements are also reigniting rumors that Nokia might make a bid. That would create a far bigger force to challenge Ericsson and Huawei, of course, but would plunge the firms into another disastrous round of merger pains, just after each had started to be functional again ‘ Nokia, having divested its handsets, firmly focused on a mobile broadband strategy, while ALU…