兼并与收购【外文翻译】

1、本科毕业论文外文翻译外文题目： mergers and acquisitions 出 处： the national interestsummer200 作 者： richard rosecrance 原文：mergers and acquisitions. -richard rosecrance talk about empire has become a cliche. historians and economists busy themselves comparing americas contemporary rolewith rome, napoleonic erance and

2、imperial britain. they assume that empire is the only model for a state seeking to project power and influenceignoring alternatives from the business world. after all, businesses confront many of the same difficulties that states face. when competitors emerge, firms undergo pressure. a corporation m

3、ay reduce the cost of its products by cutting the costs of raw materials and labor, increasing sales and finding new technological fixesjust as a state might try to increase economic growth, enhance productivity or develop new weapons systems. but if a company reaches the hmits of its economic marke

4、t, it may consider a merger with like-minded companies to cope with a competitor. states reaching the limits of their viability as self-sufficient actors can adopt merger strategies, too. indeed, to preserve its global influence throughout the course of the 21st century, this is a path the united st

5、ates must consider. why do companies pursue mergers? mergers give companies greater flexibility.they achieve greater scale without increasing production. if new products are involved in the merger, a combined firm can avoid anti-trust problems. larger scale allows a company to maintain its position

6、in the industry. usually it can invest in new products, run higher advertising budgets and sometimes achieve lower prices. a large producer can get raw materials at reduced cost. wal-mart, the contemporary exemplar of corporate expansion, has not shrunk from plunging into new markets and cutting pri

7、cesthereby forcing the merger between k-mart and sears. now gillette is combining with proctor and gamble to offset wal-marts domination in the household sector. verizons success in communications is provoking a connection between nextel and sprint, and verizon is in turn seeking to acquire mci. ora

8、cle and peoplesoft are merging to counter sap in enterprise software. hewlettt-packard merged with compaq to match dell computers gains and is open to new merger strategies. mergers give nations similar advantages in flexibility,and of course nations do not face antitrust problems. wha t are mergers

9、 among states? they are arrangements that combine political leaderships to project greater power and influence in the world at large. a new superstate is not necessarily created.countries retain separate governments and legislatures. internal elections and democracy continue. but merged nations also

10、 accept a common code of behavior that their electorates sustain. they create merged bureaucracies and common decision-making councils that give effect to their unity. approval by democratic publics lends credibility to the merger commitment on all sides. the european union, for example, has develop

11、ed such institutions and has now become a merged entity of 25 states that boasts a population of 450 million and a combined gdp of over $12 trillion. in the past, nation-states were usually content to form alliances forged through the balance of power. ententes offered quick expedients in crises. so

12、me arrangements, such as nato, have endured even when the reason for their existence has passed. but even the most successful alliances face difficulties when situations change. in addition, alliances are vulnerable to public-goods problems. why shouldnt countries free-ride, letting someone else tak

13、e the lead in opposing an aggressor? within alliances, there are always attempts to shift burdens on to someone else, as nato itself demonstrated. thus, alliance ties may attenuate or become ineffective. the franco-russian alliance did not prevent hitler from rewriting the map of eastern europe. the

14、 little entente did not guarantee help for czechoslovakia from either france or britain when the german dictator upped the ante in 1938. stalins non-aggression treaty with hitler did not prevent the german attack of june 22, 1941. though allies rarely attack one another, typical alliances represent

15、a temporary confluence of interest between parties which rests on shifting historical sands. the legal requirementrebus sic stantibus, things remaining the samemay not always obtain.mergers among states are a different kettle of fish and have advantages over alliances. because they are negotiated on

16、 the basis of contractual commitment and intended long-term relationships, they are not as vulnerable to public-goods problems. instead, interstate mergers provideclub goodsbenefits that only members can enjoy. they emerge as much from historic commonalties as they do from oppositions. common ideolo

17、gies and democratic ideas solidify the union. furthermore, one country cannot politically subsume another, and peoples of the merged states must agree before the union takes place. in fact, political mergers are in some ways more permanent than their industrial counterparts. hewlett-packard may sell

18、 compaq. time-warner may jettison aol. in contrast, the european union reluctantly allowed norway to opt out while sustaining its other membership commitments. the upcoming national ratifications of the new european constitution could go awry, but ultimately they would be repeated and reaffirmed, ju

19、st as irelands acceptance of maastricht was years ago. state mergers still retain an open-ended flexibility. they are partial and not complete. other states may join. participating nations retain sovereignty. coordination of policy frequently remains incomplete. still, mergers forge a relation among

20、 erstwhile nation-states that is stronger than alliances and much more enduring than ententes. mergers are also superior to the imperial bond. imperialism is based on force and ultimately on the capitulation of the desired colony. state mergers are sanctioned by the parties involved. nor are mergers

21、 vulnerable to the upsand downs of the balance of power, with participants changing sides as power trends alter. sustained by democratic ideas, political mergers have a kind of irrevesibility. and war between merged units is unthinkable. in the european case, merger has ruled out military conflict b

22、etween two long-time enemies, france and germany. the roman empire collapsed because subordinate units were unequally treated and excluded from some of its benefits and rome could not militarily discipline them. the returns from invasions did not rise to cover increasing military costs. this disprop

23、ortion was axiomatic, as it was in the british rule of india. political mergersbased on equalityconfront no such problems.thus, a pax americana is only one responseand an entirely disproportionate one at thatto a foreshadowed inadequacy in power. farsighted corporations would aim instead to find a m

24、erger candidate to remedy the insufficiency. so should nations.the problem of china the greatest long-term foreign policy problem facing both the united states and the european union is what to do with china two decades from now. during that time, chinas economic growth will likelyoutstrip that of b

25、oth powers, though india will also emerge as a major industrial competitor. it is too early to do anything at the moment. china is still an authoritarian nation though its economy is moving in a liberal direction and it may be undergo political change. democratic or not, beijings economic growth wil

26、l likely foreshadow a hegemonic shift in the leadership of the international system just as did the emergence of imperial germany in 1871-1914. the question is whether china will follow bismarckian policies and forego expansionist aims. bismarck tied germany up into a series of pacts, limiting its f

27、uture options and foregoing all but the tidbits of empire. he did not question french or british imperial primacy overseas. nor did he build a german navy to offset british naval primacy, although bythe end of the 19st century, germanys growth surpassed that of britain. had bismarcks successors cont

28、inued these self-limiting policies, there would have been no challenge to england, no rebuff to france, and world war i might have been avoided. as late as 1907, sir eyre crowe of the british foreign office was willing to accept german growth that did not involve territorial expansion in the center

29、of europe. the rise of the united states is another example of growth that did not overturn the status quo or threaten established powers. even though washington emerged from the first world war with the worlds secondlargest navy. great britain did not long view the united states as a primary oppone

30、nt. as a democratic country distant from britain, the united states did not threaten british purposes in europe orinitially in the empire. china, of course, is not democratic, but neither was germany when it laid down its self-limiting regime. then or now, no country has declared war on another simp

31、ly because of the latters growth rate. thus, the key to the future is not chinese growth but what beijing does with it. the upshot is that power transitions have taken place without war in the past, and they can do so again. the balance of power may make this transition easier. if the new leader of

32、the system confronts a series of like-minded balancers, the difference in power between the top two states may not be allimportant even though no new mergers take place. short of mergers, a counterbalancing coalition may link india and japan with the united states. chinas growth will affect those na

33、tions as directly as it will america. thus, chinese primacy may not translate into the power to expand regionally or internationally. the need to formally balance chinas relative strength may not arise, however. an american merger with europe would create an unbreakable combination that provides sim

34、ilar size and scale as corporate mergers do today. if china becomes the wal-mart of world politics, the united states and europe can do better than sears and k-mart. their union would overshadow chinese growth and size, and it would accommodate other rising nations as well. for the united states to

35、find a merger partner to offset china, america must deepen its ties to europe. only a growing combination of the united states and europe would be sufficient to offset the dynamic power of china over the long term. by themselves, neither the american nor the european growth rate will match chinas. c

36、orporations would know what to do in such circumstances, but states are only now becoming aware of the need for combination. china will not remain immobile as europe and the united states begin tomerge their foreign policy fortunes. beijing will turn to neighboring states for support, perhaps negoti

37、ating a special trade bloc with japan, korea and southeast asian states. beijing might seek tofashion a new currency link among the renminbi, the yen and the won to prevent the dollars slide from exporting inflation into far eastern economies. as china sells more to its own consumers and less to the

38、 outside world, a fixed relationship to the u.s. dollar will in any event be less important. at some point china will raise the value of the renminbi to take the economic pressure off its trade relationship with the united states and europe.译文：兼并与收购关于帝国的报道已经是陈词滥调。历史学家和经济学家忙于比较美国与罗马当代的作用以及法国的拿破仑和英国的帝

39、国。他们认为帝国是一个国家寻求项目的权力和影响、忽略商业世界改变的唯一模式。然而，企业面对的是许多国家同样面临的难题。当竞争对手出现时，企业接受压力。一公司可能会通过减少产品原料和劳动力用来降低其成本，增加销售量和寻找新的技术，虽然这些只是作为一个可能会促进经济增长、提高生产力或发展新市场的措施。但是，如果一家公司到达其经济市场的限制，它可能会考虑与志同道合的公司合并，以应付其竞争对手。国家作为自给自足的行动者当受到可行性策略的限制时也可以采取合并。事实上，美国要维护它在整个过程21世纪的全球影响力，这是一个必须考虑路径。为什么会公司奉行合并？因为并购给企业带来更大的灵活性。他们在不增加生产的

40、情况下能获得更大的规模。如果新产品参与合并，合并后的公司可以避免反垄断的问题，较大规模的公司则可以允许维持其在同行业中地位。通常他会投资新产品，花费巨额的广告预算。有时为了抢占市场，产品甚至会以很低的价格出售。一些大型的生产商可以用很低的成本得到原料。沃尔玛是当代企业扩张的典范，通过不进入新的市场和削减价格，从而迫使凯马特和西尔斯的合并。现在，吉列与宝洁合并，以此抵消沃尔玛在消费者中的统治地位；甲骨文和仁科合并以打击企业软件中sap；惠普与康柏的合并是为了与戴尔电脑的收益相匹配，并开发新的并购策略。并购给国家带来类似灵活性的优势，当然这是在国家不面临反垄断问题的前提下。什么是国家间的合并？他们

41、是由政治领导人安排的，结合世界上大型的更大的权力和影响力的项目。一个新的超级大国不一定会被创建，国家仍然保留独立的政府和议会，内部选举和民主仍然继续。但是，合并后的国家也接受了他们的选民的行为，维持公共法规。为了落实团结，他们创造了官僚合并机构和共同决策理事会，民主公众的认可使人们有理由相信各方的合并承诺。例如，欧盟已经发展了这些机构，现已成为一个由25个国家合并成的实体，拥有450万人口，各国国内内生产总值总和超过12万亿美元。在过去，国家民族通常是通过平衡联盟的权力从而进行由内容到形式的改造，在危机中提供快速的协议权宜。一些安排，像北约这样，即使在其存在的理由已经通过了也必须忍受。但无论是

42、多成功的联盟关系当面临困难时也要改变。此外，联盟是一种脆弱的公共物品问题。为什么国家不能“搭便车“，让其他人在参与反对侵略者中占主导作用？北约本身证明了在联盟里，有些人总是企图将一些负担转移给其他人。因此，同盟关系可能会减轻或者变得无效。法俄同盟并没有阻止希特勒改写东欧的地图。当德国独裁者调升1938年赌注时，小协约国并不保证法国或英国帮助捷克斯洛伐克。法律规定情势变迁时，其余的事情不变，但结果可能并不总是相同。国家之间的合并是另一码事，有超过联盟的优势。因为他们是在合同和承诺的基础上达成谈判的，且打算发展长期合作关系，他们没有受到公共物品方面的问题。相反，州际兼并提供“俱乐部产品”效益，只有

43、会员可以享受。他们的出现，有一个历史悠久的共同点，和他们反对的一样多。共同的意识形态和民主思想巩固着联盟。此外，一个国家在不能政治和人民与另一个国家合并之前，各国也必须同意。事实上，政治合并在某些方面超过了工业化同行的永久性。惠普可能出售康柏，时代华纳可能会抛弃美国在线。与此相反，欧洲联盟在维持它对其他成员的承诺的同时勉强允许挪威的退出。即将举行的国家批准的新的欧洲宪法可能会出现差错，但他们最终会被重复，并重申，正如爱尔兰的马斯特里赫特在几年前被接受的那样。国家兼并仍然保留了一个不限成员名额的灵活性。他们是局部的和不完整的，其他国家可以加入，参与国保留其国家主权，频繁的政策协调也仍然不完整的。不过，兼并昔日的民族国家的关系将比联盟更强、比协约更持久。合并也优于为帝国之间的债券。帝国主义是一种强制行为，并最终会使殖民地投降。国家并购是由各方批准的，合并也不容易受权力平衡的起伏与参加者立场改变而改变。持续的民主思想，政治合并有一种不可逆转。合并单位之间的战争是不可想象的。在欧洲，排除了两个长期有军事冲突的敌人的合并，法国和德国。罗马帝国的崩溃是因为附属国家的不平等对待