2021年考研英语二阅读 Text 3 原文翻译及答案解析

When Microsoft bought task management app Wunderlist and mobile calendar Sunrise in 2015, it picked two newcomers that were attacting considerable buzz in Silicon Valley. Microsofts 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 wor'd. Both apps,however, were later scrapped,after Microsoft said it had used their best features in its own products.Their teams of engincers stayed on,making them two of the many"acqui-hires"that the biggest companies have used to feed their great hunger for tech talent. To Microsof'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."They bought the seedlings and closed them down,"complained Paul Arnold, a partner at San Francisco-based Switch Ventures,puttig an end to businesses that might one day turn into competitors. Microsoft declined to comment. 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 resuit: "I think these things are good for me,ifI put my selfish hat on.But are they good for the American economny? I dont know." The US Federal Trade Commission says it wants to find the answer to that question.This week,it asked the five most valuable US tech companies for information about their many small acquisitions over the past decade.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 tillion,rifling through such small deals—many of them much less prominent than Wunderlist and Surise—might seem beside the point. Between them, the five biggest tech companies have spent an average of only ¥3.4 billion a year on sub-¥! bilion 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. However,critics say the big companies use such deals to buy their most threatening potential competitors before their businesses have a chance to gain momentumn,in some cases as part of a"buy and kill"tactic to simply close them down.

2015年，当微软收购任务管理应用Wunderlist和移动日历Sunrise时，它选择了两家在硅谷引起相当关注的新兴公司。微软自己的Office软件主导着“生产力”软件市场，但这些初创公司代表了一种专为智能手机时代从头设计的新技术浪潮。然而，这两款应用后来都被废弃了，微软称已将它们的最佳功能融入自己的产品中。它们的工程师团队留了下来，使它们成为大公司为满足对技术人才的巨大需求而进行的众多“人才收购”中的两个案例。对微软的批评者来说，Wunderlist和Sunrise的命运是大型科技公司无情吞噬任何挡路创新公司的例证。“他们买下幼苗然后关闭它们，”旧金山Switch Ventures的合伙人保罗·阿诺德抱怨道，结束了那些可能有一天会成为竞争对手的企业。微软拒绝置评。像其他初创公司投资者一样，阿诺德先生的业务常常依赖于将初创公司出售给更大的科技公司，尽管他对结果心情复杂：“如果我自私地想，这些事对我有利。但它们对美国经济有利吗？我不知道。”美国联邦贸易委员会表示，它想找到这个问题的答案。本周，它要求五家市值最高的美国科技公司提供过去十年中众多小规模收购的信息。尽管目前只是一个研究项目，但这一请求引发了监管机构介入早期科技市场的可能性，这些市场此前一直超出其监管范围。鉴于它们的总市值超过5.5万亿美元，仔细审查这些小交易——其中许多远不如Wunderlist和Sunrise显眼——可能似乎无关紧要。过去五年中，这五家最大的科技公司平均每年仅花费34亿美元进行低于10亿美元的收购——与它们庞大的财务储备以及去年在美国投资的1300多亿美元风险资本相比，简直是沧海一粟。然而，批评者表示，大公司利用这些交易在潜在竞争对手的业务有机会获得势头之前收购它们，在某些情况下，这是“收购并关闭”策略的一部分，直接将其关闭。