听考研真题|2021年英二阅读3:大公司收购小公司?买来就是为了吃掉!

When Microsoft bought task management app Wunderlist and mobile calendar Sunrise in 2015,it picked two newcomers that were attracting considerable buzz in Silicon Valley.

【生词】buzz n.嗡嗡声, （短暂的）兴奋, 时尚氛围

Silicon Valley 硅谷

Microsoft’s own Office dominates the market for “productivity” software, but the start-ups represented a new wave of technology designed from the ground up for the smartphone world.

【翻译】微软自家的 Office 软件在“生产力”软件市场中占据主导地位，而这些初创公司则代表着一波全新的技术浪潮——这些技术从零开始专为智能手机领域量身打造。

Both apps, however, were later scrapped, after Microsoft said it had used their best features in its own products.

【生词】scrap n.废料, 小片, 吵架; vt.废弃, 取消, 抛弃, 报废; vi.吵架，打架

【翻译】然而，这两款应用程序随后被取消，此前微软表示已将其中最优质的功能整合到其自有产品中。

Their teams of engineers stayed on,making them two of the many “acqui-hires” that the biggest companies have used to feed their great hunger for tech talent.

【翻译】他们的工程师团队选择留任，这使他们成为众多“收购后新聘员工”之一——这些员工被大型企业用来满足其对技术人才的迫切需求。

To Microsoft’s critics,the fates of Wunderlist and Sunrise are examples of a remorseless drive by Big Tech to chew up any innovative companies that lie in their path. 

【生词】remorseless adj.持续恶化的, 残酷的, 无情的, 无同情心的

chew up 充分咀嚼, 弄坏, 罚,  申斥

【翻译】对微软的批评者而言，Wunderlist与Sunrise的遭遇，正是大型科技企业无情扼杀所有挡在其发展道路上的创新企业的典型例证。

“They bought the seedlings and closed them down,” complained Paul Arnold, a partner at San Francisco-based Switch Ventures, putting an end to businesses that might one day turn into competitors.Microsoft declined to comment.

【生词】 declinev.谢绝, 下倾, 落下, 降低

【翻译】“他们购买了这些萌芽后便将其关闭，”总部位于旧金山的 Switch Ventures 合伙人保罗·阿诺德（Paul Arnold）如此抱怨道；此举终结了那些未来可能成为竞争对手的企业。微软方面拒绝对此发表评论。

Like other start-up investors, Mr. Arnold’s own business often depends on selling start-ups to larger tech companies, though he admits to mixed feelings about the result: “I think these things are good for me, if I put my selfish hat on.But are they good for the American economy?I don’t know.”

The US Federal Trade Commission says it wants to find the answer to that question.

【翻译】美国联邦贸易委员会表示，希望找到这个问题的答案。

This week, it asked the five most valuable US tech companies for information about their many small acquisitions over the past decade.

【翻译】本周，该机构向美国五大最具价值的科技公司征集了关于其在过去十年间进行的众多小型收购活动的相关信息。

Although only a research project at this stage, the request has raised the prospect of regulators wading into early-stage tech markets that until now have been beyond their reach.

Given their combined market value of more than $5.5 trillion, rifling through such small deals—many of them much less prominent than Wunderlist and Sunrise—might seem beside the point.

【生词】givenprep.考虑到；鉴于

prominentadj.突出的，杰出的, 突起的, 著名的

【翻译】鉴于这些企业的总市值超过 5.5 万亿美元，对这些规模较小的交易——其中许多企业的知名度远不及 Wunderlist 和 Sunrise——进行逐一梳理，似乎并无实际意义。

Between them, the five biggest tech companies have spent an average of only $3.4 billion a year on sub- $ 1 billion acquisitions over the past five years—a drop in the ocean compared with their massive financial reserves, and the more than $130 billion of venture capital that was invested in the US last year.

【生词】venture capital风险资本

【翻译】过去五年间，这五家最大的科技公司每年在低于10亿美元的收购交易中平均仅支出34亿美元——相较于它们庞大的财务储备，以及去年美国境内投入的超过1300亿美元风险资本而言，这一数字简直微不足道。

However, critics say the big companies use such deals to buy their most threatening potential competitors before their businesses have a chance to gain momentum, in some cases as part of a“ buy and kill”tactic to simply close them down.

【生词】momentumn.动量, 势头, 动力, 要素，契机

tacticn.手段, 策略, 战术, 战略

【翻译】然而，批评人士指出，大型企业常利用此类交易在潜在竞争对手尚未获得发展势头之前便将其收购；在某些情况下，这属于一种“收购后淘汰”策略，旨在直接将这些竞争对手彻底清除。