Today Nokia announced an all-share takeover, worth €15.6 billion ($16.6 billion), of Alcatel-Lucent. The fusion of the Finnish maker of telecoms equipment-maker with its French rival promises to create an entity similar in scale to Sweden’s Ericsson, the market leader, and fast-growing Huawei of China. Nokia has focused mainly on network gear since it was toppled in the global mobile-phone market (it sold its devices business to Microsoft last year). Alcatel-Lucent has just about recovered from an ill-conceived merger in 2006. The French government, which must give its approval, takes a keen interest in its high-tech telecoms sector. It was in protectionist mode earlier this month, when it objected to the sale of Dailymotion, a video-streaming site, to a Chinese buyer. But yesterday Emmanuel Macron, the economy minister, sounded warm about a Franco-Finnish tie-up. France is also keen that Europe produce big digital champions. Nokia-Alcatel could be just what is wanted.