LONDON — It is a paradox of the digital age: Even as smartphones and high-speed Internet access become more crucial to everyday life and commerce, the makers of the equipment that underpins those networks can struggle to make money.
伦敦——这是数字时代的悖论：在智能手机和高速互联网接入在日常生活和商业活动中变得更加重要的同时，这些网络设备的制造商却难以盈利。
Cutthroat competition, particularly between the European and Chinese manufacturers that now dominate the industry, has kept network equipment costs low despite the increasingly sophisticated — and expensive — research and development that go into the technology.
异常残酷的竞争，尤其是在行业占主导地位的欧洲和中国制造商的竞争，压低了网络设备的价格，与此同时，相关技术的研发已经变得越来越复杂和昂贵。

That is why two of the industry’s biggest players, the Finnish company Nokia and its French-American rival, Alcatel-Lucent, are in advanced talks toward a merger that would make the combined companies the world’s second-biggest network equipment maker. Only Ericsson, of Sweden, would be larger.
正是因为以上原因，行业内的两个最大参与者，芬兰公司诺基亚(Nokia)和法美两国合资的竞争对手阿尔卡特朗讯(Alcatel-Lucent)，正在为两家公司的合并进行最后阶段的谈判。合并后的公司将成为世界第二大网络设备制造商，仅次于瑞典的爱立信(Ericsson)。
The Chinese giant Huawei, whose global emergence over the last decade as a cost-cutting juggernaut has played a role in a wave of industry consolidations, would slip to third place.
中国巨头华为将位列第三。过去10年，华为作为成本削减的主要推动力量而崛起，在行业整合的浪潮中扮演了一定角色。
Nokia announced the merger talks on Tuesday morning. Later in the day, the idea received an apparent nod of support from the French government, which has often intervened when local companies have become takeover targets for international competitors.
诺基亚周二上午宣布了举行合并谈判的消息。当天晚些时候，这个想法明显获得了法国政府的支持。在本国企业成为国际竞争者的收购目标时，法国政府常常会插手干预。
If completed, the deal would create a company with combined revenues of about $27 billion and might be better poised to provide telecom hardware and software to some of the world’s largest carriers, including AT&T and Verizon in the United States, Vodafone and Orange in Europe, and SoftBank in Japan.
如果达成这笔交易，合并后公司的总营收将达到270亿美元（约合1670亿元人民币）左右，或许可以更好地为世界上最大的一些电信运营商提供硬件和软件。这些运营商包括美国的AT&T和威瑞森(Verizon)，欧洲的沃达丰(Vodafone)和Orange，以及日本的软银(SoftBank)。
But many of those customers have started to cut back. AT&T and SoftBank, for example, are still catching their breath after investing billions of dollars over the last decade to upgrade to the latest high-speed networks. And as the provision of network equipment has increasingly become a commodity business, manufacturers have been forced to lay off tens of thousands of employees in a bid to stay afloat.
不过，这些公司中有许多已经开始削减设备购买量。比如，AT&T和软银在过去10年投资了数十亿美元升级到最新的高速网络，目前仍在恢复元气。此外，由于网络设备的提供越来越成为一种商品业务，为了维持下去，制造商们不得不裁掉了数万名员工 。
“The industry is in need of consolidation,” said Bengt Nordstrom, co-founder of Northstream, a telecom consulting firm. “After years of growth, the telecom industry is now shrinking. A combination of Nokia and Alcatel was bound to happen at some point.”
“这个行业需要整合，” 电信行业咨询公司Northstream联合创始人本特·努德斯特伦(Bengt Nordstrom)说。“在多年的增长之后，电信行业现在正在缩水。诺基亚和阿尔卡特朗讯的合并是迟早的事。”
Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent are themselves the result of consolidations. Nokia merged its telecommunications network business with that of the German industrial conglomerate Siemens in 2006, before buying out Siemens in 2013. Alcatel and Lucent — the former equipment arm of AT&T — merged in 2006, as both were struggling, and they have trod a fairly rocky path since.
诺基亚和阿尔卡特朗讯本身就是行业整合的结果。2006年，诺基亚与德国工业巨头西门子(Siemens)将各自的电信网络业务合并，而后诺基亚又在2013年收购了西门子的这一部门。阿尔卡特(Alcatel)和朗讯科技(Lucent)——前AT&T硬件设备部门——于2006年合并，两家公司当时都处境艰难，此后也走过了一段坎坷的道路 。
But these were not always troubled companies.
但它们并非一直都身处困境。
In 1996, when AT&T spun off Lucent, the stock quickly became a Wall Street favorite, rising to more than $63 a share and surpassing AT&T in market value by 1998. But in 2000, Lucent was caught wrong-footed by a sudden slowdown in demand for communications equipment and reported a series of disappointing quarterly results. Its chairman and chief executive was ousted, and the Securities and Exchange Commission began an inquiry into its accounting practices. The shares slid to a low of 58 cents in 2002.
1996年，当AT&T剥离朗讯时，该公司股票迅速成为华尔街的宠儿，朗讯股价涨到每股超过63美元，其市值也在1998年超过了AT&T。但是2000年，由于通讯设备的需求突然降低，朗讯方寸大乱，并拿出了一系列令人失望的季度业绩报告。公司董事长兼首席执行官被解雇，美国证券交易委员会(Securities and Exchange Commission)开始对公司的账目进行调查。2002年，公司股价跌至58美分的低点。
Nokia, for its part, was once the world’s largest maker of cellphones, but rapidly lost its position after the likes of Apple and Samsung entered the smartphone industry. Last year, Nokia completed the sale of its handset business to Microsoft for roughly $7.2 billion to focus on building network equipment.
而诺基亚曾是世界上最大的手机制造商，但是在苹果(Apple)和三星(Samsung)进入智能手机行业以后，它便迅速失去了自己的地位。诺基亚在去年完成了以72亿美元价格，将公司手机业务卖给微软的交易，转而专注于网络设备的制造。
“Nokia has the ambitions, and they have the cash from the Microsoft sale,” said Sylvain Fabre, a telecom analyst at the technology research company Gartner.
科技调研公司高德纳(Gartner)的电信分析师西尔维恩·法布雷(Sylvain Fabre)说，“诺基亚有野心，而且他们也在把业务卖给微软的过程中获得了资金。”
The companies’ chief executives — Michel Combes of Alcatel-Lucent and Rajeev Suri of Nokia — met Tuesday afternoon with President François Hollande of France at the Élysée Palace, and the office of the economy minister indicated it might support a merger.
周二下午，两家公司的首席执行官——阿尔卡特朗讯的米歇尔·孔布(Michel Combes)和诺基亚的拉吉夫·苏瑞(Rajeev Suri)——在爱丽舍宫会见了法国总统弗朗索瓦·奥朗德(François Hollande)，经济部长办公室也表示，可能会支持这两家公司合并。
While Alcatel-Lucent is incorporated in France, its North American operations, based around the legacy Lucent business in Murray Hill, N.J., contributed almost half of its 2014 annual revenue of 13.2 billion euros, or about $14.1 billion. Europe represented about 22 percent, and Asia just under 20 percent.
尽管阿尔卡特朗讯设在法国，但该公司的北美业务在其2014年总计132亿欧元，约合141亿美元的年营收中，贡献了大约一半。欧洲业务约占22%，亚洲业务所占比例略低于20%。阿尔卡特朗讯的北美业务总部，位于朗讯在新泽西州梅山(Murray Hill)的遗留部门附近。
France’s previous economy minister, Arnaud Montebourg, was known for taking a critical view of deals that would lead to French companies passing under foreign control.
众所周知，法国上一任经济部长阿诺·蒙特布尔(Arnaud Montebourg)对于让法国公司受外国控制的交易，一向持批判态度。
This time, however, the state appears to be encouraging a deal. Economy Minister Emmanuel Macron told reporters on Tuesday that combining the companies “would permit the creation of a European champion to take on Chinese competition,” though the world’s largest equipment market is Ericsson.
不过，这一次，法国似乎在鼓励这次交易。经济部长埃马纽埃尔·马克龙(Emmanuel Macron)周二告诉记者，公司的合并“将创造一个欧洲巨头，来与中国抗衡”，尽管世界上最大的设备厂商是爱立信。
Mr. Macron, speaking to the news media after Mr. Hollande’s meeting with the company executives, also addressed one of the government’s main worries, saying that he did not expect any jobs to be lost in France.
奥朗德会见公司高管之后，马克龙在对新闻媒体讲话时也提到了政府担心的一个主要问题，说他不希望法国的就业岗位受到任何损失。
Alcatel-Lucent’s French unions expressed “concern” with the prospect of a merger, in light of job losses that would most likely come with a combination of companies that each employ more than 50,000 people worldwide. They called on Mr. Macron to “be vigilant of the social and industrial consequences, notably on employment in France.”
阿尔卡特朗讯的法国工会对合并的可能性表达了“担忧”，因为这两家公司分别在全球拥有超过5万名员工，它们的合并很可能会削减就业岗位。他们要求马克龙“警惕合并带来的社会和行业影响，尤其是对法国就业情况的影响”。
Some analysts expressed doubts whether Nokia would be able to successfully integrate Alcatel-Lucent’s existing operations if the French government took an active role in the proposed merger.
一些分析人士怀疑，倘若法国政府积极插手拟议的合并，诺基亚是否还能成功整合阿尔卡特朗讯的现有业务。
Nokia said the companies were discussing a deal that would most likely include Nokia offering its own shares in exchange for shares of Alcatel-Lucent.
诺基亚表示，两家公司正在就一项协议进行讨论，该协议很可能包括诺基亚用自己的股份，来交换阿尔卡特朗讯股份的内容。
Nokia shares fell more than 4 percent in Helsinki on Tuesday, while shares of Alcatel-Lucent jumped 16 percent in Paris.
周二，诺基亚股价在赫尔辛基股市下跌超过4%，而阿尔卡特朗讯的股价在巴黎股市上扬16%。
Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent had held talks before, though they stalled after the French company announced a major overhaul, including 10,000 job cuts, in late 2013.
诺基亚和阿尔卡特朗讯之前就曾进行过谈判，但这家法国公司于2013年下半年宣布进行重大调整，包括裁员1万人，之后双方停止了谈判。