经济学人92:汤姆森路透 荧屏上的考验

 　　Business Thomson Reuters Screen test

　　商业 汤姆森路透 荧屏上的考验

　　The information company, in danger of losing its top spot, gets a new boss

　　为了防止失去榜首，新上司上位。

　　IN SEVEN years as head of Reuters, Tom Glocer brought the British-based news agency from the verge¹ of bankruptcy² to a state of rude health.

　　汤姆?葛洛瑟在路透社高层工作了7年。在这7年间，他把路透社，这家总部设在英国濒临破产的新闻社重新走上了正轨。

　　But he has done less well as chief executive of Thomson Reuters, the company created when Thomson, a Canadian purveyor³ of professional information for lawyers, accountants and others, bought Reuters in 2008.

　　汤姆森是加拿大一家为律师，会计等提供信息服务的公司,在2008年收购了路透社。汤姆森路透信息公司也随之成立。然而在收购之后，公司首席执行官汤姆?葛洛瑟的表现却不甚理想。

　　Bloomberg, the firm's American rival, has almost wiped out its once-clear lead (see chart).

　　彭博，路透在北美的竞争对手，缩小与路透社曾经的巨大差距，现已与路透的市场份额非常接近。（见图表）

　　On December 1st Mr Glocer said he would step down at the end of the year. His replacement⁴, James Smith, the chief operating officer, is a former Thomson man.

　　葛洛瑟说他会在今年年底辞职。他的继任者詹姆?史密斯，新的首席执行官，曾经也是汤姆森的员工。

　　The revenues of the professional division of Thomson Reuters grew by 10% in the year to the third quarter, but those of the markets division—which provides financial data and services, and accounts for more than half of total sales—managed only 1%.

　　汤姆森路透其专业部（1）今年三季度收入增长率为10%。市场部负责提供金融数据服务，占据公司总销售额超过一半，然而其增长率仅为1%。

　　Last year that division launched a new information platform, Eikon, to compete with the terminals offered by Bloomberg, but just 8,000 customers have taken it up.

　　去年，市场部发布了一个新的信息平台Eikon，以此与彭博的终端产品竞争，可是使用平台顾客只有8，000人。

　　The company has 400,000 financial-data subscribers in all.

　　公司金融数据订购者的人数为400，000。

　　Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg are the big fish in the professional-publishing pond, at least eight times larger than their nearest competitor.

　　汤姆?葛洛瑟和彭博都是专业出版界的巨头。即使是最接近的同类竞争者，汤姆?葛洛瑟和彭博的规模至少也是他们的八倍多。

　　Bloomberg, besides expanding its terminals business, which has over 300,000 customers (at about $20,000 a pop), is pushing into government-related news and data.

　　彭博的顾客数量为300，000，除了继续扩展他的终端业务，彭博也正在进军与政府相关的新闻和数据。

　　In 2010 it launched Bloomberg Government, which competes with Congressional Quarterly, a sister company of The Economist⁵.

　　2010年，彭博发布了"彭博 政府"。它的竞争对手将是经济学人的兄弟企业"国会季刊"。

　　In September it made its biggest purchase ever, spending $990m on BNA, a legal- and tax-information firm.

　　在九月，彭博将花费9.9亿美元完成它最大一次的收购，被收购的公司是BNA，一家有关法律税收的企业。

　　So what happened to Mr Glocer's winning streak⁶?

　　那么葛洛瑟如何延续他的连胜态势？

　　His allies say his departure was always just a matter of time: once a firm buys another, it completes the takeover by putting its own people in charge.

　　其助手认为他的离开只是个时间问题：一旦企业收购一家公司，企业就会让自己的人员来取代之前的公司员工。

　　The Thomson family still owns 55% of the company, and some think the generous price Mr Glocer secured from Thomson for Reuters made him all the more vulnerable.

　　汤姆森家族一共拥有路透的55%。与此同时，葛洛瑟从汤姆森那里获得慷慨的报价，一些人还认为这也会使他备受诟病。

　　But he might have stayed longer were it not for a mix of bad luck and overconfidence.

　　葛洛瑟也可以选择继续高职就位。然而如果是这样，这对自命不凡的葛洛瑟来说，厄运也就将至。

　　Eikon, intended to replace Reuters' grab bag of services with a single offering, was designed to be more user-friendly than Bloomberg's devices,

　　Eikon，意在取代提公司唯一的综合服务供商—路透社，原计划设计成比彭博更加用户友好的平台。

　　but it was launched hastily and with flaws.

　　但是Eikon发布仓促，平台也有一定的缺点。

　　With hindsight, a more gradual upgrade might have been more prudent⁷.

　　不过有事后之名，因而选择逐渐升级Eikon会比较稳妥。

　　This summer, under pressure from the Thomson family, Mr Glocer fired Devin Wenig, a close ally he had put in charge of creating Eikon, and took it over himself—tying his prospects⁸ even more closely to Eikon's.

　　今年夏天，葛洛瑟在汤姆森家族的压力下，解雇了他之前任命的负责创始Eikon的德温?维尼希。德温?维尼希也是葛洛瑟的一位心腹。葛洛瑟将亲自运营Eikon，把自己的未来前途和Eikon结合的更紧密。

　　Perhaps Mr Smith can do better.

　　也许史密斯会做的更好。

　　He will almost certainly have a freer hand, and some upgrades to Eikon are planned for next year.

　　他肯定会给让路透拥有更大自由空间。他也着手对于Eikon明年进行升级。

　　But these are still stormy seas.

　　然而排在他面前的仍有许多困难。

　　According to Claudio Aspesi, an analyst⁹ at Sanford C. Bernstein, an investment bank, it took most professional-publishing firms three to four years to recover from the 2001 recession.

　　克劳迪奥-埃斯皮西 ，投资银行Sanford C. Bernstein的一个分析师，说在2001年出版业萧条期间，Sanford C. Bernstein挽救了许多出版业企业。

　　This time, Bernstein predicts, revenue growth at Thomson Reuters will not reach pre-crash levels until at least 2015.

　　这次，Bernstein预测，汤姆森路透的收入增长直至2015年才能保有防冲击水平。

　　One area of potential growth, though, is trading services.

　　交易服务是潜在的增长点。

　　Changes in financial regulation in America and Europe will force a lot of trading in derivatives¹⁰ from the murky¹¹ world of private "over-the-counter" deals onto exchanges, where contracts will be standardised and prices quoted.

　　在美国和欧洲的金融法令的变化也使得金融衍生品的交易从"单方面"的销售扩展成互相交易。

　　This presents both Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg with an opportunity to gather and sell data on these markets and perhaps to capture a share of the trade by linking banks and their clients through their own electronic trading platforms.

　　在这些法令下，合同交更加规范并且要引证报价。这也给汤姆森路透和彭博机会来收集市场上的数据并进行销售。之后他们也有可能通过自身的电子商务平台连接银行与客户，从而在交易中占有一定份额。

　　The market for these derivatives is gigantic.

　　金融衍生品的市场无疑是巨大的。

　　A competitive edge there could make a big difference to both companies' fortunes.

　　对于两家公司来说，拥有竞争优势会让他们公司的财富状况截然不同。

1 verge   

n.边，边缘；v.接近，濒临

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• She was on the verge of bursting into tears.她快要哭出来了。

2 bankruptcy   

n.破产；无偿付能力

参考例句：

• You will have to pull in if you want to escape bankruptcy.如果你想避免破产，就必须节省开支。
• His firm is just on thin ice of bankruptcy.他的商号正面临破产的危险。

3 purveyor   

n.承办商，伙食承办商

参考例句：

• Silence, purveyor of gossip, do not spread that report. 快别那样说，新闻记者阁下，别散布那个消息。 来自互联网
• Teaching purpose: To comprehensively understand the role function and consciousness composition of a news purveyor. 教学目的：全面深入的理解新闻传播者的角色功能和意识构成。 来自互联网

4 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

5 economist   

n.经济学家，经济专家，节俭的人

参考例句：

• He cast a professional economist's eyes on the problem.他以经济学行家的眼光审视这个问题。
• He's an economist who thinks he knows all the answers.他是个经济学家，自以为什么都懂。

6 streak   

n.条理，斑纹，倾向，少许，痕迹；v.加条纹，变成条纹，奔驰，快速移动

参考例句：

• The Indians used to streak their faces with paint.印第安人过去常用颜料在脸上涂条纹。
• Why did you streak the tree?你为什么在树上刻条纹？

7 prudent   

adj.谨慎的，有远见的，精打细算的

参考例句：

• A prudent traveller never disparages his own country.聪明的旅行者从不贬低自己的国家。
• You must school yourself to be modest and prudent.你要学会谦虚谨慎。

8 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

9 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

10 derivatives   

n.衍生性金融商品；派生物，引出物( derivative的名词复数 )；导数

参考例句：

• Many English words are derivatives of Latin words. 许多英语词来自拉丁语。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These compounds are nitrosohydroxylamine derivatives. 这类合成物是亚硝基羟胺衍生物。 来自辞典例句

11 murky   

adj.黑暗的，朦胧的；adv.阴暗地，混浊地；n.阴暗；昏暗

参考例句：

• She threw it into the river's murky depths.她把它扔进了混浊的河水深处。
• She had a decidedly murky past.她的历史背景令人捉摸不透。