商務(wù)英語(BEC)高級(jí)：極速閱讀

　　1998 was undoubtedly the year of the merger. More companies than ever before joined together in deals that toatalled $2.25 trillion and created the world's biggest oil company. Faced with plummeting oil prices,oil giants Exxon and Mobil sought to achieve economies of scale through a $250bn merger there are several factors behind increase in mergers and acquisitions. Firstly, the accelerated rate of globalisation has left companies desperately seeking overseas acquisitions in order to remain competitive. Deutsche Bank bought its way into the US with its takerover of the Bankers Trust,whilst Siemens hopes that its acquisition of Matra,the French defense group,will allow it to gain access to France's railway business,which is dominated by Alstom,the Anglo-French consortium.

　　Another factor behind the increase in merger activity is the record performance of the stock markets,which has enabled companies to finance major acquisitions on the strength of their inflated shareprices. Earlier this year Vodafone,the UK mobile telephone operator,acquired its US counterpart AirTorch by by making Airtorch shareholders a cash and stock swap offer worth a total $62bn. The deal created Vodafone AirTorch,the world's largest mobile telecoms group with over 29m customers.the European banking sector is also seeing a trend towards consolidation,a process accelerated by deregulation, over-capacity and the arrival of the single European currency.

　　New technology is also making it easier for companies to diversify as different industries come to rely on common technologies. Microsoft, for instance, is busily diversified into cable and telecommunications as well as WebTV. The US software giant has a $5bn equity stake in AT&T, which recently bought Media One for $57bn. Under the deal, Microsoft will succeed in introducing its recently-launched cable television software into millions of homes in the US and UK.

　　Not all mergers,however,are the result of global economy trends,polical chage or technological innovation. BMW's takeover of the Rover Group injected much needed investment into the struggling UK car manufacturer whilst extending BMW's product range. and when the UK pharmaceutical firm Zeneca merged with Swedish drug company Astra,the new companies started with strong R&D capabilities,further by the world's best selling drug Losec in its portfolio of products.

　　Despite of these potential benefits and their promise of competive advantage,mergers and acquisitions are not risk-free ventures.

　　Such alliances are more than just financial agreements;they also involve the coming together of different corporate and, in many cases,national cultures. This can have a destabilising effect on a workforce and may mean projected efficiencies are not delivered. Daimler and Chrysler, for example, face the challenge of integrating two very different corporate and national cultures.

　　A further destabilising effect is the prospect of redundancies as companies look to reduce their payroll by restructuring duplicated functions such as marketing and administration. Although shareholders are lured by such short-term savings,there is little evidence to show that mergers and acquisitions actually add long-term value to company performance.

　　中文譯稿:

　　企業(yè)檔案：兼并的魔力

　　1998年無疑是個(gè)兼并年。歷史上從來沒有這么多的公司進(jìn)行兼并，交易總值達(dá)到22500億美元，從而產(chǎn)生了全球最大的銀行和石油公司。在石油價(jià)格暴跌的情況下，石油巨擘?？松兔梨跒閷で笠?guī)模經(jīng)濟(jì)的效應(yīng)而達(dá)成了2500億美元的并購交易。

　　許多因素決定了并購的增加。首先，全球化速度的加快使很多公司拼命在海外收購公司，以此來保持競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力。德意志銀行通過收購銀行家信托公司引入了美國(guó)市場(chǎng)，而西門子則希望通過收購法國(guó)的軍工企業(yè)馬特拉取得進(jìn)入法國(guó)鐵路行業(yè)的通行證，該行業(yè)一直被英法合資企業(yè)阿爾斯通所掌控。

　　兼并增加的另外一個(gè)因素是股票市場(chǎng)取得了歷史佳績(jī)，飛漲的股票是許多公司有資金來進(jìn)行大規(guī)模的并購活動(dòng)。今年年初，英國(guó)移動(dòng)電話營(yíng)運(yùn)商沃達(dá)豐向空中通訊的股東提出了總值達(dá)620億美元的現(xiàn)金換股票交易，從而收購了美國(guó)移動(dòng)通訊巨商：空中通訊。這筆交易產(chǎn)生了全球最大，擁有2900萬客戶的移動(dòng)通訊公司：沃達(dá)豐空中通訊集團(tuán)公司。

　　歐洲銀行業(yè)也呈現(xiàn)合并的趨勢(shì)。隨著管制的解除，生產(chǎn)能力過剩以及單一歐洲貨幣的實(shí)行，這種趨勢(shì)更是加速發(fā)展。

　　由于不同 開始運(yùn)用相同的技術(shù)，所以新技術(shù)也有助于公司實(shí)現(xiàn)市場(chǎng)多元化。比如，微軟就忙于向電纜通訊、移動(dòng)通訊及網(wǎng)絡(luò)電視行業(yè)拓展。這家網(wǎng)絡(luò)巨擘在美國(guó)電信電話公司擁有50億美元的股權(quán)，而美國(guó)電信電話公司最近又以570億美元的價(jià)格收購了有線網(wǎng)絡(luò)運(yùn)營(yíng)公司。在這筆交易中，微軟公司成功地將其新發(fā)布的有線電視軟件推向數(shù)以百萬計(jì)的美國(guó)和英國(guó)家庭。

　　然而并不是所有的并購都是全球經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展趨勢(shì)、政治變革或技術(shù)創(chuàng)新的結(jié)果。寶馬收購羅夫汽車集團(tuán)以后給這家奄奄一息的英國(guó)汽車制造公司注入了急需的投資，同時(shí)也拓展了寶馬的生產(chǎn)線。當(dāng)英國(guó)的英捷利康醫(yī)藥公司和瑞典的阿斯特拉醫(yī)藥公司合并后，新的公司由于強(qiáng)大的聯(lián)合研發(fā)能力而起死回生，不僅如此，新公司由于其各類產(chǎn)品中擁有全世界最暢銷的羅塞克爾進(jìn)一步增強(qiáng)實(shí)力。

　　盡管并購有著如此之多的潛在利益以及未來優(yōu)勢(shì)，但并不是毫無風(fēng)險(xiǎn)可言。

　　這種聯(lián)合并不只是經(jīng)濟(jì)合同，他們也需要把不同的公司文化和國(guó)家文化融合在一起。這可能會(huì)造成雇員隊(duì)伍人心渙散，也可能預(yù)示著預(yù)定的效益無法達(dá)到。例如：戴姆斯-克萊斯勒就要面對(duì)如何將兩種不同的公司文化和民族文化融合在一起的挑戰(zhàn)。

　　當(dāng)公司希望通過重組市場(chǎng)部和行政部這樣的重復(fù)部門來減少薪酬開支時(shí)，進(jìn)一步實(shí)行的裁員會(huì)進(jìn)步造成人心惶惶的局面。雖然股東都經(jīng)不起這種短期節(jié)省開支的誘惑，但是沒有證據(jù)表明并購實(shí)際上能提升公司長(zhǎng)期的業(yè)績(jī)。