諾基亞阿爾卡特朗訊談合併 聯手對抗華爲

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.

倫敦——這是數字時代的悖論：在智能手機和高速互聯網接入在日常生活和商業活動中變得更加重要的同時，這些網絡設備的製造商卻難以盈利。

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.

異常殘酷的競爭，尤其是在行業占主導地位的歐洲和中國製造商的競爭，壓低了網絡設備的價格，與此同時，相關技術的研發已經變得越來越複雜和昂貴。

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.

正是因爲以上原因，行業內的兩個最大參與者，芬蘭公司諾基亞(Nokia)和法美兩國合資的競爭對手阿爾卡特朗訊(Alcatel-Lucent)，正在爲兩家公司的合併進行最後階段的談判。合併後的公司將成爲世界第二大網絡設備製造商，僅次於瑞典的愛立信(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.

中國巨頭華爲將位列第三。過去10年，華爲作爲成本削減的主要推動力量而崛起，在行業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.

諾基亞週二上午宣佈了舉行合併談判的消息。當天晚些時候，這個想法明顯獲得了法國政府的支持。在本國企業成爲國際競爭者的收購目標時，法國政府常常會插手干預。

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.

如果達成這筆交易，合併後公司的總營收將達到270億美元（約合1670億元人民幣）左右，或許可以更好地爲世界上最大的一些電信運營商提供硬件和軟件。這些運營商包括美國的AT&T和威瑞森(Verizon)，歐洲的沃達豐(Vodafone)和Orange，以及日本的軟銀(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.

不過，這些公司中有許多已經開始削減設備購買量。比如，AT&T和軟銀在過去10年投資了數十億美元升級到最新的高速網絡，目前仍在恢復元氣。此外，由於網絡設備的提供越來越成爲一種商品業務，爲了維持下去，製造商們不得不裁掉了數萬名員工 。

“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.”

“這個行業需要整合，” 電信行業諮詢公司Northstream聯合創始人本特·努德斯特倫(Bengt Nordstrom)說。“在多年的增長之後，電信行業現在正在縮水。諾基亞和阿爾卡特朗訊的合併是遲早的事。”

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.

諾基亞和阿爾卡特朗訊本身就是行業整合的結果。2006年，諾基亞與德國工業巨頭西門子(Siemens)將各自的電信網絡業務合併，而後諾基亞又在2013年收購了西門子的這一部門。阿爾卡特(Alcatel)和朗訊科技(Lucent)——前AT&T硬件設備部門——於2006年合併，兩家公司當時都處境艱難，此後也走過了一段坎坷的道路 。

But these were not always troubled companies.

但它們並非一直都身處困境。

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，當AT&T剝離朗訊時，該公司股票迅速成爲華爾街的寵兒，朗訊股價漲到每股超過63美元，其市值也在1998年超過了AT&T。但是2000年，由於通訊設備的需求突然降低，朗訊方寸大亂，並拿出了一系列令人失望的季度業績報告。公司董事長兼首席執行官被解僱，美國證券交易委員會(Securities and Exchange Commission)開始對公司的賬目進行調查。2002年，公司股價跌至58美分的低點。

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.

而諾基亞曾是世界上最大的手機制造商，但是在蘋果(Apple)和三星(Samsung)進入智能手機行業以後，它便迅速失去了自己的地位。諾基亞在去年完成了以72億美元價格，將公司手機業務賣給微軟的交易，轉而專注於網絡設備的製造。

“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.

科技調研公司高德納(Gartner)的電信分析師西爾維恩·法佈雷(Sylvain Fabre)說，“諾基亞有野心，而且他們也在把業務賣給微軟的過程中獲得了資金。”

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.

週二下午，兩家公司的首席執行官——阿爾卡特朗訊的米歇爾·孔布(Michel Combes)和諾基亞的拉吉夫·蘇瑞(Rajeev Suri)——在愛麗捨宮會見了法國總統弗朗索瓦·奧朗德(François Hollande)，經濟部長辦公室也表示，可能會支持這兩家公司合併。

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.

儘管阿爾卡特朗訊設在法國，但該公司的北美業務在其2014年總計132億歐元，約合141億美元的年營收中，貢獻了大約一半。歐洲業務約佔22%，亞洲業務所佔比例略低於20%。阿爾卡特朗訊的北美業務總部，位於朗訊在新澤西州梅山(Murray Hill)的遺留部門附近。

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.

衆所周知，法國上一任經濟部長阿諾·蒙特布爾(Arnaud Montebourg)對於讓法國公司受外國控制的交易，一向持批判態度。

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.

不過，這一次，法國似乎在鼓勵這次交易。經濟部長埃馬紐埃爾·馬克龍(Emmanuel Macron)週二告訴記者，公司的合併“將創造一個歐洲巨頭，來與中國抗衡”，儘管世界上最大的設備廠商是愛立信。

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.

奧朗德會見公司高管之後，馬克龍在對新聞媒體講話時也提到了政府擔心的一個主要問題，說他不希望法國的就業崗位受到任何損失。

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.”

阿爾卡特朗訊的法國工會對合並的可能性表達了“擔憂”，因爲這兩家公司分別在全球擁有超過5萬名員工，它們的合併很可能會削減就業崗位。他們要求馬克龍“警惕合併帶來的社會和行業影響，尤其是對法國就業情況的影響”。

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.

一些分析人士懷疑，倘若法國政府積極插手擬議的合併，諾基亞是否還能成功整合阿爾卡特朗訊的現有業務。

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.

諾基亞表示，兩家公司正在就一項協議進行討論，該協議很可能包括諾基亞用自己的股份，來交換阿爾卡特朗訊股份的內容。

Nokia shares fell more than 4 percent in Helsinki on Tuesday, while shares of Alcatel-Lucent jumped 16 percent in Paris.

週二，諾基亞股價在赫爾辛基股市下跌超過4%，而阿爾卡特朗訊的股價在巴黎股市上揚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.

諾基亞和阿爾卡特朗訊之前就曾進行過談判，但這家法國公司於2013年下半年宣佈進行重大調整，包括裁員1萬人，之後雙方停止了談判。