经济学人下载:一周商业要闻

Business this week 

一周商业要闻

Sep 7th 2013 |From the print edition

It was a big week for the mobile-phone industry, with the announcement of two long-mooted deals. In the first, and after years of talks, Verizon agreed to buy the 45% stake held by Vodafone in Verizon Wireless, the pair’s joint venture in America, for $130 billion. It is the third-biggest business transaction yet seen (behind Vodafone’s own purchase of Mannesmann and the merger of AOL and Time Warner) and will reap $5 billion for the American taxman. Vodafone’s investors will also benefit, from an $84 billion payout in cash and shares.

对移动电话行业来说这周很重要，这周公布了两个酝酿已久的交易。第一起交易，经过多年的谈判，Verizon公司同意收购沃达丰在美国的合资公司Verizon无线45%的股份，价值130亿美元。这是迄今为止的第三大交易（仅次于沃达丰自己对曼内斯曼的收购以及AOL和时代华纳的并购），美国会从中收取50亿美元的交易税。沃达丰的投资者也会从840亿美元支出的现金和股份中受益。

Nokia surges, Microsoft drops

诺基亚有所起色，微软继续下跌

In the second big deal of the week Microsoft beefed up its business in mobile devices and services by agreeing to pay euro 3.8 billion ($5 billion) for Nokia’s handset division, which makes smartphones based on Windows. Nokia had tried various turnaround plans to tackle its shrivelling market share. It will still exist, focusing on networks and mapping, but 32,000 of its staff now work for Microsoft, including Stephen Elop, who was its chief executive. He is now a candidate to replace Steve Ballmer when he steps down as Microsoft’s boss.

本周第二起交易是微软加强了其移动设备和服务业务，同意支付38亿欧元（约合50亿美元）购买诺基亚生产基于Windows系统智能手机的手机部门。诺基亚尝试了各种周转计划解决其日益萎缩的市场份额。诺基亚仍然还会存在，专注于网络和地图，但是包括其首席执行官史蒂芬埃洛普在内的32000名员工现在为微软工作。埃洛普现在是鲍尔默下台后接替其职务的候选人之一。

Samsung unveiled its first smartwatch, the Galaxy Gear, beating Apple in bringing the first significant wearable device to market. The watch will cost $300 and can only link to Galaxy phones and tablets; other new smartwatches will work with lots of Android products. It is still unclear how much demand there is from consumers for the gadgets. 

三星发布了其第一款智能手表the Galaxy Gear，击败苹果上市了第一款重要的可穿戴设备。这款手表售价300美元，只能连接Galaxy手机和平板，其他的新智能手表将会支持大量安卓产品。目前还不清楚消费者对这款设备的需求程度。

LinkedIn said it would issue new stock in a secondary offering, through which it should raise $1 billion. The social network for professionals has seen its share price rise by 200% since its IPO in 2011.

LinkedIn表示，将进行第二次公开募股发行新股票，预计能筹集10亿美元。自2011年上市以来，这家专业人士社交网站的股价已经上涨了200%。

Who owns the programmes?

节目的所有权归谁？

Time Warner Cable ended its blackout of CBS channels in several American cities, including New York, after the two sides resolved a dispute over rights. Like other broadcast networks CBS is keen to retain the ability to develop business in the future with blossoming internet-streaming services, such as Netflix, over the heads of the longer-established cable providers.

时代华纳有线在包括纽约在内的多个美国城市结束了其对CBS频道的封杀，此前，双方在版权上存在争端。CBS与其他广播电视网，比如Netflix一样热衷于绕过建立已久的有线供应商，保留未来发展繁荣的互联网流媒体服务业务的能力。

The European Commission turned its sights on money-market funds, with proposals that would require funds guaranteeing a stable share-price to build up capital buffers. American regulators are also eyeing similar restrictions.

欧盟委员会将目光投向货币市场基金，出台了提议要求各基金保证稳定的股票价格，从而建立资本缓冲。美国监管机构也盯上了类似的限制。

Standard & Poor’s upped the ante in its legal fight with the American government when it asserted that it is being sued in “retaliation” for exercising its right to “free speech” in downgrading America’s AAA credit rating. S&P made the claim in court papers it filed defending itself against the lawsuit, which alleges that S&P gave sound ratings to bad mortgage products to keep its clients in the banking industry happy. 

标准普尔增强了其与美国政府的法律斗争。标普坚持认为在行使其将美国的AAA评级下调的言论自由权后得到了美国政府的报复性起诉。标普在自我辩护的法庭文件中提出这一观点，美国政府起诉其给予不良抵押贷款良好的评级，以此取悦其银行业的客户。

Bank of America decided to sell its remaining 1% stake in China Construction Bank, which should fetch around $1.5 billion. Many big American banks bought stakes in Chinese state banks several years ago, and have been cashing in their lucrative holdings. BofA paid $3 billion for an initial 10% stake in CCB.

美国银行决定出售其在中国建设银行拥有的1%的股份，市值约为15亿美元。许多美国大银行几年前从中国国有银行购买了股份，并从中赚取了现金。美国银行花费30亿美元购买了中国建设银行10%的初始股份。

The OECD revised its growth forecasts to reflect a moderately better outlook in rich countries and the “widespread loss of momentum” in emerging markets. It now expects output in America, Japan and Germany to expand by 2.5% at an annualised rate in the third and fourth quarters. Britain’s GDP is projected to grow by 1.5% this year, 0.7 percentage points higher than the OECD’s previous estimate.

经济合作与发展组织修订了其增长预测，以反映富裕国家更好的前景和新兴市场广泛的动力不足。现在该组织预测美国，日本和德国三四季度的GDP按年利率计算会增长2.5%。英国的GDP今年预计将增长1.5%，比该组织的预测高0.7%。

The latest raft of purchasing-manager surveys suggested that manufacturing in America and the euro zone is growing at the fastest pace in over two years. Britain’s services industry, meanwhile, grew at the quickest rate in six years.

最新的大量采购经理调查表明美国和欧元区的制造业现在以两年多来最快的速度增长。同时，英国的服务业迎来了六年来最快的增速。

Ryanair’s share price fell sharply after it issued a surprise profit warning amid a price-cutting war among Europe’s budget airlines. The carrier said sales were weak during the summer and bookings are down for this autumn.

Ryanair在欧洲廉价航空公司价格战后发布了一个令人惊讶的利润警告，使得其股价大幅下跌。该航空公司表示夏季的销售疲软，今秋的预定额也下降了。

The sweet smell of success

成功的美好滋味

Yankee Candle, which is based in Massachusetts, was bought by Jarden, a consumer-products company that owns a wide range of brands in a $1.8 billion deal. The firm started in 1969 when its teenage founder made a Christmas gift for his mother. According to its “Learning Scentre”, it now produces 200m aromatic candles a year and is expanding in Europe.

总部设在美国马萨诸塞州的扬基蜡烛被贾登收购。贾登是一家拥有交易额达18亿美元的广泛品牌的消费产品公司。扬基蜡烛成立于1969年，十几岁的创始人做了一个圣诞礼物送给她的母亲。根据其说法，现在每年生产200米的芳香蜡烛，在欧洲呈扩张趋势。

The annual Global Competitiveness index placed Switzerland in the top spot for the fifth consecutive year, followed by Singapore, Finland and Germany. America reversed a four-year decline to climb to fifth place and Britain fell to tenth. Among the BRICs, China came in at 29th, Brazil at 56th, India at 60th and Russia 64th. Greece was 91st, behind Iran and Moldova, but ahead of Serbia and Libya.

瑞士连续五年荣登全球竞争力指数榜首宝座，紧随其后的是新加坡，芬兰和德国。美国扭转了连续四年的下跌攀升至第五位，英国下降至第十名。金砖四国中，中国位列29名，巴西位列56名，印度位列60名，俄罗斯位列64名。希腊在伊朗和摩尔多瓦之后，位列第91名，但是领先于塞维利亚和利比亚。