1998 was undoubtedly the year of the merger. More companies than ever before joined together in deals that totalled $2.25 trillion and created the world's largest ever bank and the world's biggest oil company. Faced with plummeting^[1] oil prices, oilgiants Exxon and Mobil sought to achieve economies of scale through a 250bn merger.

1998 年无疑是个兼并之年。比以往更多的公司在总计 2.25 万亿美元的交易中合并，创造出有史以来最为庞大的银行和石油公司。面对暴跌的油价，石油巨头埃克森（Exxon）和美孚（Mobil）寻求以 2500 亿美元的兼并交易来实现规模经济。

There are several factors behind the increase in mergers and acquisitions. Firstly, the accelerated rate of globalisation has left companies desperately^[2] seeking overseas acquisitions in order to remain competitive. Deutsche Bank bought its way into the US with its takeover of Bankers Trust, whilst^[3] Siemens hopes that its acquisition of Matra, the French defence group, will allow it to gain access to France's railway business, which is dominated by Alstom, the Anglo-French consortium.

这里有几个隐藏在增多的并购背后的因素。首先，全球化的加速已经使得企业们拼了命地为了保持竞争力而寻求跨境收购。德意志银行（Deutsche Bank）通过收购信孚银行（Bankers Trust）进入了美国市场，同时西门子（Siemens，德国电子电气工程企业）希望它对马特拉（Matra，法国汽车厂）收购案——法国国防集团——会允许它得以进入由阿尔斯通（Alstom，法国交通企业）——英法财团——主导的法国的铁路业务。

Another factor behind the increase in merger activity is the record performance of stock markets, which has enabled companies to finance major acquisitions on the strength of their inflated share prices. Earlier this year Vodafone, the UK mobile telephone operator, acquired its US counterpart AirTouch by making AirTouch shareholders a cash and stock swap offer worth a total of $62bn. The deal created Vodafone AirTouch, the world's largest mobile telecoms group with over 29m customers.

另一个隐藏在增长的兼并活动背后的因素是股市创纪录的表现，使得企业能够通过股价上涨的优势为重大收购案融资。今年早些时候，英国移动电话运营商沃达丰（Vodafone），以与股东进行价值 620 亿美元的现金——股票互换的方式收购了它的美国竞争对手 AirTouch。这项交易造就了服务超过 2900 万客户、全球最大的移动电信集团——沃达丰（Vodafone AirTouch）。

The European banking sector is also seeing a trend towards consolidation^[4], a process accelerated by deregulation^[5], over-capacity and the arrival of the single European currency.

欧洲银行业也出现了由放松管制、生产过剩以及欧洲单一货币到来所共同加快的合并趋势。

New technology is also making it easier for companies to diversify as different industries come to^[6] rely on common technologies. Microsoft, for instance, is busily diversifying into cable and mobile telecommunications as wall 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^[7] cable television software into millions of homes in the US and UK.

当不同的产业变得更加依赖通用科技，新科技也使得企业能更容易地多元化。以微软（Microsoft）为例，它正忙于像 WebTV（美国公司）一样在电缆和移动通信行业进行多元化。这个美国软件巨头已经持有了美国电话电报公司（AT&T）50 亿美元的股份，近期又作价 570 亿美元收购了 MediaOne（美国公司）。经此交易，微软将成功把它近期推出的电缆电视软件引入美国和英国的百万家庭之中。

Not all mergers, however, are the result of global economic trends, political 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^[8] firm Zeneca merged with Swedish drug company Astra, the new company started life with strong combined R&D capabilities, further strengthened by the world's best selling drug Losec in its porfolio of products.

然而，并非所有的兼并都是全球经济趋势、政治变革或科技创新的结果。宝马（BMW，德国汽车公司）对罗孚集团（Rover Group，英国汽车企业）的收购为困境中的英国汽车制造商注入了迫切所需的投资资金，同时还拓展了宝马的产品系列。当英国制药公司捷利康（Zeneca）兼并了瑞典药物公司阿斯特拉（Astra），这家新公司成立伊始便拥有强大的研发能力，并且由其产品组合中全球最畅销的药物洛赛克（Losec，奥美拉唑镁片）而得到进一步强化。

Despite all these potential benefits and their promise of competitive advantage, mergers and acquisitions are not risk-free ventures^[9].

除去全部这些潜在好处和它们对于竞争优势的承诺，并购并非无风险的投机活动。

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^[10] effect on a workforce^[11] and may mean projected^[12] efficiencies are not delivered. Daimler and Chrysler, for example, face the challenge of integrating two very different corporate and national cultures.

如此的联盟不只是金融协议；他们还涉及到不同的企业的融合以及——很多情况下——不同的国家文化。这会对劳动力有一个破坏稳定的效果，并且可能意味着预计效率未被传达。举个例子，戴姆勒-克莱斯勒公司（Daimler and Chrysler，由原德国戴姆勒-奔驰汽车公司与美国克莱斯勒汽车公司合并而成的跨国汽车公司）就面临着整合两个非常不同的企业和国家文化的挑战。

A further destabilising effect is the prospect^[13] of redundancies^[14] as companies look to reduce their payroll by restructuring duplicated^[15] functions such as marketing and administration. Although shareholders are lured^[16] by such short-term savings, there is little evidence to show that mergers and acquisitions actually add long-term value to company performance.

一个长远的破坏稳定的影响是——当企业寻求通过重构如营销和管理等重复职能而减少工资支出——裁员的可能性。尽管股东被这样的短期节约所诱惑，有一些证据表明，并购实际上为企业绩效增添了长期价值。

知识点

1. Plummeting: 直线下降的

2. Desperately: 拼命地；绝望地；不顾一切地；极度地；猛烈地

3. Whilst: 同时；在…时，在…的过程中；虽然，尽管；<古>直到

4. Consolidation: 巩固；（企业、诉讼和诉讼人的）合并；加强；联合；充实；变坚固；（股票等）价格平稳期

5. Deregulation: 违规；解除管制；放松管制

6. come to: 苏醒，恢复知觉；涉及到；被…继承；（形势）成为…，变为…（通常指变糟）；总计为，加起来是；恢复知觉；突然被某人意识到（想起来）

7. Recently-launched: 最近推出

8. Pharmaceutical: 制药的；配药的；卖药的

9. Ventures: （尤指有风险的）企业，商业，投机活动，经营项目

10. Destabilising: de-stabilising，使不稳定

11. Workforce: 劳动力；劳动大军，劳动人口；全体员工

12. Projected: 预计的；投射的

13. Prospect: 前景；展望；希望；前途；可能性；设想；风景；成功的机会；（竞赛中的）有望获胜者

14. Redundancies: 多余；（因劳动力过剩而造成的）裁员，解雇；累赘

15. Duplicated: （尤指不必要时）重复，再做一次；复制；复印；复写

16. Lured: 引诱；诱惑；劝诱

文章来源

《The magic of the merger》