BEC高級閱讀模擬練習(xí)(3)

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 takeover 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 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 change 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，以此來保持競爭力。德意志銀行通過收購銀行家信托公司引入了美國市場，而西門子則希望通過收購法國的軍工企業(yè)馬特拉取得進(jìn)入法國鐵路行業(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因素是股票市場取得了歷史佳績，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。今年年初，英國移動電話營運商沃達(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，從而收購了美國移動通訊巨商：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。隨著管制的解除，生產(chǎn)能力過剩以及單一歐洲貨幣的實行，這種趨勢更是加速發(fā)展。

由于不同 開始運用相同的技術(shù)，所以新技術(shù)也有助于公司實現(xiàn)市場多元化。比如，微軟就忙于向電纜通訊、移動通訊及網(wǎng)絡(luò)電視行業(yè)拓展。這家網(wǎng)絡(luò)巨擘在美國電信電話公司擁有50億美元的股權(quán)，而美國電信電話公司最近又以570億美元的價格收購了有線網(wǎng)絡(luò)運營公司。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)以百萬計的美國和英國家庭。

然而并不是所有的并購都是全球經(jīng)濟(jì)發(fā)展趨勢、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汽車制造公司注入了急需的投資，同時也拓展了寶馬的生產(chǎn)線。當(dāng)英國的英捷利康醫(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)一步增強實力。

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

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家文化融合在一起。這可能會造成雇員隊伍人心渙散，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部和行政部這樣的重復(fù)部門來減少薪酬開支時，進(jìn)一步實行的裁員會進(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)表明并購實際上能提升公司長期的業(yè)績。

練習(xí)：
1、Exxon and Mobil merged in order to （ ）
A、enter new overseas markets. B、reduce costs and improve margins. C、create the world's largest company. D、undercut competitors' prices.
2、Vodafone was able to accquire Air Touch by （ ）
A、selling highly-valued shares to customers. B、obtaining a loan based on its share value. C、exchanging shares as part of the deal. D、buying under-valued Air Touch shares.
3、Merged companies can usually increase short-term profits by （ ）
A、cutting their combined labour costs. B、boosting the company's productivity. C、using a single marketing campaign. D、selling their shares at a high price.

答案：
1、B 答案信息在第一段最后一句“sought to achieve economies of scale”。規(guī)模效益是指隨著經(jīng)營規(guī)模的擴大，單位成本下降從而獲得經(jīng)濟(jì)效益。2、C 答案信息位于第三段中“cash and stock swap”。該方法意味著AirTouch公司的股東除了能拿現(xiàn)金之外，還能拿到沃達(dá)豐公司的股票。3、A 答案信息在最后一段“ reduce their payroll by restructuring duplicated functions such as marketing and administration”在職能重疊的市場和行政。
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