微软的赌博

　　A big phone bill

　　微软天价收购Skype

　　The price that Microsoft is paying for Skype looks high

　　微软将向Skype支付天价收购金

　　May 12th 2011 | SAN FRANCISCO | from The Economist print edition

　　STEVE BALLMER was his usual effervescent self on stage at a press conference in San Francisco this week. Announcing an $8.5 billion purchase of Skype, an internet calling and video service, the boss of Microsoft kept boasting about how “super-ambitious” his company is. The firm’s largest-ever acquisition is proof that Microsoft is indeed willing to place big bets on what it considers to be revolutionary technologies. It also represents a significant victory for some bold technology investors.

　　本周在旧金山举办的一场新闻发布会现场，微软CEO史蒂夫??鲍尔默(Steve Ballmer)一如既往的兴高采烈。他宣布微软将以85亿美元的价格收购网络电话及视频服务公司Skype，并不断吹嘘他的公司是多么得“志向远大”。这起该公司史上最大的收购案证明微软确实意图在它认为的革新性科技上投下大笔赌注，也代表着一些具有冒险精神的科技投资者的重大胜利。

　　Much ink has been spilled on the subject of Skype’s price tag, 400 times the company’s 2010 operating profit. Microsoft claims that this lofty sum is justified because Skype can leverage its new parent’s various platforms, including the Windows Phone 7 mobile operating system and the Xbox gaming platform, to create exciting new services for the 170m customers that use it regularly. It can also take advantage of Microsoft’s substantial presence in the world of corporate computing to win more business there. Microsoft says it will fit neatly with its popular Lync offering, which combines various communications tools such as video chatting and web conferencing in a single package.

　　大幅笔墨都用在85亿美元的标价上，因为这是Skype2010年营业利润的整整400倍。微软宣称这笔巨额标价是合理的，因为Skype使它新的母公司的多种平台得以改变，包括Wp7移动操作系统和Xbox游戏平台，进而为1.7亿它们的常规用户提供令人激动的新服务。同时也能充分利用微软在企业计算领域的重要地位在这方面赢得更多的生意。微软说Skype能与今年推出的Lync企业沟通平台极好地结合，后者把包括视频会话和网络会议在内的多种沟通工具融合进一个单一的软件包中。

　　Mr Ballmer sees other opportunities to boost Skype’s revenues, which hit $860m last year—in particular by helping it to sign up many more online advertisers. The snag with this is that people engrossed in video chatting may well resent being bombarded with ads. And having become accustomed to getting a wonderful service for nothing, they may be reluctant to pay for new products that Skype rolls out unless these are especially compelling.

　　鲍尔默先生注意到还有其他途径可以提高Skype的收益，去年该公司的利润为8.6亿美元——特别是帮助它和更多的网络广告商签订合同。其中潜在的困难是全神贯注于视频聊天的人可能讨厌受到广告的狂轰滥炸。 而且一旦他们已经习惯免费使用某种很棒的服务，也许就不乐意花钱使用Skype推出的新产品，除非新服务非常吸引他们。

　　Some observers think Microsoft may have been motivated by its desire to keep Skype’s know-how out of the hands of rivals such as Cisco and Google. Whether or not this is true, there is little doubt that Mr Ballmer was keen to get his hands on the company. Skype was heading for a stockmarket flotation until Microsoft’s boss lobbed in an unsolicited offer for it a couple of months ago and then moved quickly to close a deal.

　　一些观察者认为微软此举的动机来源于不想让思科、谷歌等竞争对手得知Skype的专业技术。无论真假与否，几乎毋庸置疑的一点是鲍尔默先生非常想掌控公司。几个月前，当Skype正准备股票上市时，微软老板就主动报价然后迅速行动完成交易。

　　The result has been a windfall for several investors in Skype, including Silver Lake, a private-equity firm, and Andreessen Horowitz, a venture-capital firm set up by Marc Andreessen, a co-founder of Netscape, and Ben Horowitz, with whom Mr Andreessen founded another company. Both outfits have made a habit of buying unusually big stakes in hot private companies that they reckon still have plenty of room to grow.

　　结果就是Skype的几位投资人获得一笔意外之财，包括私募股权公司银湖（Silver Lake）、由网景公司（Netscape）创始人之一的马克??安德森(Marc Andreessen)建立的风投公司安德森??霍洛维茨(Andreessen Horowitz)以及该公司的另一位创始人本????霍洛维茨（Ben Horowitz）。 银湖和安德森??霍洛维茨这两家公司都习惯于购买他们认为仍具大幅度增长空间的热门私有公司的大笔大笔的股票。

　　Some critics have accused the firms of inflating the share prices of large web companies, but their bets on Skype, at least, have paid off. Andreessen Horowitz has quadrupled the initial $50m it invested just 18 months ago when Skype’s then owner, eBay, sold a big chunk of its shares. Now other institutions such as hedge funds are piling into the market and hunting for similar opportunities. “The competitive intensity has definitely risen in the big internet brand names,” says Mr Andreessen. It is unlikely that all of these super-ambitious investors will end up making super-impressive returns.

　　某些批评者指责这些公司使大型网络公司的股票大幅上涨，但是至少它们花在在Skype上的投资得到了回报。据安德森??霍洛维茨最初购买Skype股票仅仅18个月后，安德森??霍洛维茨所持的股票价格就借Skype其时的拥有者eBay出售掉它的一大笔股票之际比最初的五千万美元的投资翻了三倍。现在例如对冲基金等其他的机构也挤进这个市场来寻觅类似的机会。“集中在这些大规模互联网知名公司身上的竞争密度绝对提高了”。安德森先生说。不可能所有雄心勃勃的投资者都以获得超高额的回报收场。