经济学人143:科技公司并购案增多

 　　Business The growth in technology takeovers Moving up the stack

　　商业 科技公司并购案增多 上移堆栈

　　Big deals are back, as is an old acquaintance

　　前几年盛行的大并购重新回潮

　　IT MUST feel good to be back.

　　回来的感觉真好。

　　Frank Quattrone seemed sidelined for good when the rock-star banker, who had taken dozens of technology companies public during the dotcom boom, was prosecuted¹ for obstruction² of justice.

　　当年，网络经济热得烫手，银行家弗兰克?奎特隆将数十家科技公司运作上市，受到了摇滚明星般的拥戴。后来奎特隆遭到妨碍司法的指控，人们以为他再无出头之日。

　　Yet after fighting off the charges, he swiftly founded Qatalyst, a boutique investment bank.

　　然而，奎特隆胜诉，并随即创立了一家小规模的专项投资银行Qatalyst。

　　In a short time it has become a popular adviser³ to tech firms angling for the best offer.

　　很快，这家银行因能够提供最优报价而受到科技公司追捧。

　　It helped Autonomy, a British software firm, sell itself to HP for buckets of cash (see article).

　　它曾帮助英国软件公司Autonomy以高价把自己出售给惠普。

　　Mr Quattrone is in the right place at the right time.

　　奎特隆先生占尽天时地利。

　　According to Ernst & Young, an accounting⁴ firm, the value of technology mergers⁵ and acquisitions, on an upward trajectory⁶ since late 2008, has increased by 75% in the second quarter of this year (see chart).

　　安永会计公司表示，自2008年末以来，科技公司购并价值成上升之势，今年2季度，增长率达75%。

　　The third quarter has already seen two deals of more than $10 billion:

　　3季度已有两项价值超过百亿美元的购并交易：

　　Autonomy and Motorola Mobility⁷, a handset-maker, which Google bought for $12.5 billion (with Motorola also being advised by Mr Quattrone's Qatalyst).

　　一个是Autonomy，另一个是手机制造商摩托罗拉移动公司，后者被谷歌以125亿美元收购(摩托罗拉也接受了奎特隆先生的咨询意见)。

　　Mr Quattrone foretold⁸ this trend.

　　奎特隆先生对这种趋势早有预见。

　　To him, it is a consequence of the computer industry's shifting geology.

　　他认为，这是计算机产业结构变化的结果。

　　For decades, most firms concentrated on one layer of what geeks call the "technology stack": hardware, operating systems, databases and applications.

　　几十年来，多数计算机公司都把注意力放在了极客所说的"技术堆栈"某一层面上：硬件、操作系统、数据库以及应用软件。

　　But they are increasingly moving onto each other's turf—in search of growth and because customers demand everything in one package.

　　但这些公司的业务日渐重合，这既是为了寻找新的增长空间，也是为了满足顾客全方位服务的需要。

　　Buying a company is the fastest way to add to one's technology portfolio⁹.

　　购买另一家公司可能是增加自己技术组合的一条捷径。

　　Yet there is more to the picture than this "reverticalisation", says Joseph Steger of Ernst & Young.

　　安永会计公司的约瑟夫?斯迪格表示，在这种背景下，远远不止 "重新垂直化"这么简单。

　　Many technology giants have plenty of cash: in the second quarter, the 25 largest had amassed¹⁰ $591 billion.

　　许多科技巨头拥有充足的现金，今年二季度，25个最大科技公司的现金总额高达5910亿美元。

　　Many also want to ride the big trends in the industry, in particular mobile technologies and cloud computing¹¹. More recently, patents have become an important rationale for acquisitions, as was the case with Google's takeover of Motorola.

　　许多公司也希望能够借着行业发展潮流，特别是移动技术和云计算，进行企业购并。眼下，专利已成为收购的最基本的条件，比如谷歌收购摩托罗拉一案就是如此。

　　Is the M&A boom a bubble?

　　这种购并热潮是不是一种泡沫？

　　Some see froth, with Google paying more than $510,000 per patent (if one forgets that Motorola also makes mobile phones) and HP doling¹² out the equivalent of 17% of its own market capitalisation for an extra 1% of revenue.

　　谷歌为每项专利支付51万多美元（如果不考虑摩托罗拉还生产手机），惠普为了获得1%的额外收入，而支付了相当于自身市价17%的资金，有人从中看出了泡沫的成份。

　　But the recent stockmarket fall will calm things down.

　　最近股市下跌，让这一切重新归于平静。

　　Even Mr Quattrone may welcome this: he has no interest in being identified with another financial craze.

　　这可能也是奎特隆先生希望看到的，他对新一轮的金融热炒没有什么兴趣。

1 prosecuted   

a.被起诉的

参考例句：

• The editors are being prosecuted for obscenity. 编辑因刊载污秽文字而被起诉。
• The company was prosecuted for breaching the Health and Safety Act. 这家公司被控违反《卫生安全条例》。

2 obstruction   

n.阻塞，堵塞；障碍物

参考例句：

• She was charged with obstruction of a police officer in the execution of his duty.她被指控妨碍警察执行任务。
• The road was cleared from obstruction.那条路已被清除了障碍。

3 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

4 accounting   

n.会计，会计学，借贷对照表

参考例句：

• A job fell vacant in the accounting department.财会部出现了一个空缺。
• There's an accounting error in this entry.这笔账目里有差错。

5 mergers   

n.（两个公司的）合并( merger的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Mergers fall into three categories: horizontal, vertical, and conglomerate. 合并分为以下三种：横向合并，纵向合并和混合合并。 来自辞典例句
• Many recent mergers are concentrated within specific industries, particularly in retailing, airlines and communications. 现代许多合并企业集中进行某些特定业务，在零售业、民航和通讯业中更是如此。 来自英汉非文学 - 政府文件

6 trajectory   

n.弹道，轨道

参考例句：

• It is not difficult to sketch the subsequent trajectory.很容易描绘出它们最终的轨迹。
• The path followed by a projectile is called its trajectory.抛物体所循的路径称为它的轨道。

7 mobility   

n.可动性，变动性，情感不定

参考例句：

• The difference in regional house prices acts as an obstacle to mobility of labour.不同地区房价的差异阻碍了劳动力的流动。
• Mobility is very important in guerrilla warfare.机动性在游击战中至关重要。

8 foretold   

v.预言，预示( foretell的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She foretold that the man would die soon. 她预言那人快要死了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Must lose one joy, by his life's star foretold. 这样注定：他，为了信守一个盟誓／就非得拿牺牲一个喜悦作代价。 来自英汉 - 翻译样例 - 文学

9 portfolio   

n.公事包；文件夹；大臣及部长职位

参考例句：

• He remembered her because she was carrying a large portfolio.他因为她带着一个大公文包而记住了她。
• He resigned his portfolio.他辞去了大臣职务。

10 amassed   

v.积累，积聚( amass的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He amassed a fortune from silver mining. 他靠开采银矿积累了一笔财富。
• They have amassed a fortune in just a few years. 他们在几年的时间里就聚集了一笔财富。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 computing   

n.计算

参考例句：

• to work in computing 从事信息处理
• Back in the dark ages of computing, in about 1980, they started a software company. 早在计算机尚未普及的时代（约1980年），他们就创办了软件公司。

12 doling   

救济物( dole的现在分词 )； 失业救济金

参考例句：

• "What are you doling?'she once demanded over the intercom. 有一次他母亲通过对讲机问他：“你在干什么？ 来自英汉非文学 - 科学史
• Many scrollbars are quite parsimonious in doling out information to users. 很多滚动条都很吝啬，给用户传递的信息太少。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓