2019年经济学人首次公开发行股票(1)（打印版）

On May 10th Uber, the world's biggest ride-hailing firm, listed on the New York Stock Exchange—and promptly tanked.

5月10日，世界最大的打车服务公司优步在纽约证券交易所上市，并迅速跳水。

As The Economist went to press it was trading at $41.29, 8% below its listing price.

在本期《经济学人》出版时，该公司股价为41.29美元，比上市价格低8%。

On the first day of trading investors lost about $650m. Some have called it the worst initial public offering (IPO) ever.

在交易首日，投资者损失约6.5亿美元。一些人称它是有史以来最糟糕的首次公开发行股票（IPO）。

But it could give a boost to fresh thinking on how fast-growing startups should go public.

但这可能会促使人们重新思考快速增长的初创企业应该如何上市。

And even as Uber's first shares were trading, one such innovation got the go-ahead from

即便是在优步第一批股票交易的时候，其中一项这种创新获得了

the Securities and Exchange Commission(SEC), America's main financial regulator.

美国主要金融监管机构，证券交易委员会（SEC）的批准。

The Long-Term Stock Exchange (LTSE) is based in San Francisco and backed by Silicon Valley luminaries

长期证券交易所（LTSE）总部位于旧金山，并得到了硅谷名流的支持

including Marc Andreessen, Reid Hoffman and Peter Thiel.

包括马克·安德森、雷德·霍夫曼以及彼得·蒂尔。

They are animated by the weaknesses of conventional exchanges when it comes to startups.

当说起初创企业，传统交易所的弱点令他们兴奋不已。

Things such as quarterly results, short-sellers and high-frequency trading distract from building businesses for the long term,

季度业绩、卖空者和高频交易等因素会分散建立长期业务的注意力，

says Eric Ries, the LTSE's boss and the author of "The Lean Startup".

LTSE的CEO兼《精益创业》的作者埃里克·莱斯说到。

Such distractions are not all unwelcome. Public markets can bring discipline to badly governed startups.

这样的干扰并非都不受欢迎。公开市场可以规范管理不善的初创企业。

Short-sellers help keep companies honest.

卖空者帮助公司保持诚信。

It would probably not have taken them long to sniff out the fraud at Theranos, for instance, had the blood-testing firm been public.

例如，如果血液检测公司Theranos上市，他们可能不用花很长时间就能嗅出这家公司的欺诈行为。

Nevertheless, the LTSE's backers are onto something. Startups have been staying private as long as possible

尽管如此，LTSE的支持者还是发现了一些问题。初创公司一直尽可能保持私有

and granting shares conferring greater voting rights to their founders when they do finally go public.

并在公司最终上市时，授予他们的创始人更大投票权的股份。

In turn big private investors, including sovereign-wealth and hedge funds,

反过来，大型私人投资者，包括主权财富和对冲基金，

have pumped billions into "unicorns" (private firms valued at more than $1bn),

将数十亿资金注入“独角兽公司”（估值十亿以上的民营企业），

capturing most of the value they create and leaving little for investors in public markets.

获取他们创造的大部分价值，而留给公开市场中投资者的资金所剩无几。