There were other issues that could stand in the way of a deal, such as the risk of intervention by the French government to protect Alcatel or limit job cuts, one of the sources familiar with Nokia's thinking said. The French state owns 3.6 percent of Alcatel-Lucent. Nokia also may not be the only company interested in buying some of Alcatel's assets. Other network equipment makers such as Juniper Networks and Ericsson have also recently eyed Alcatel-Lucent or some of its assets, one of the sources said. Ericsson and Juniper declined to comment. (Additional reporting by Nicola Leske in New York and Leila Abboud in Paris, Editing by Soyoung Kim and Grant McCool)