科技公司

　　Status shift

　　地位逆转

　　Investors have unfriended some high-tech stars

　　投资者对一些高科技明星公司的态度已不再友好

　　GOOGLE splashed out an undisclosed sum of money on April 14th to buy Titan Aerospace, whose solar-powered drones it plans to use to help deliver wireless internet access to remote parts of the world. Like Google's new drones, which can reach impressive heights, tech shares soared in the early part of this year. Then in March a sell-off began that battered the stocks of many Silicon Valley stars. The tech-heavy NASDAQ stockmarket index steadied somewhat early this week, and shares in older tech firms like HP and IBM, which are traded on the main market, have done well. But investors and companies are still jittery.

　　4月14日，谷歌投出一笔数额尚未公开的资金用以收购泰坦航空，计划借助后者的太阳能无人机来为世界上偏远地区提供无线网络接入服务。就像谷歌的新无人机能攀爬到惊人高度，今年年初科技股价格出现了激增。接着在3月份股价开始出现下跌，这打击了许多硅谷明星企业的股票。本周早些时候，以科技股著称的纳斯达克股票市场指数比较稳定，像惠普和IBM这种在主板交易的老牌科技公司的股票表现不错。但投资者和企业仍然战战兢兢。

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　　Those worried that a new internet bubble pumped up by wild dreams and unabashed greed is now deflating will be watching closely to see whether tech firms' latest results give further cause for alarm. On April 15th Yahoo published its quarterly earnings, which showed a tiny increase in revenue after excluding the cost of fees paid to its partner websites. Its shares rose on the news. Google was due to report its results the next day, after The Economistwent to press.

　　有些人担心，由狂野的梦想和毫不掩饰的贪婪所催生的新一轮网络泡沫正在破裂，这些人将密切关注科技公司最近的经营结果是否会进一步引起恐慌。4月15日，雅虎发布了季度收益，数字中显示出，剔除掉支付给合作网站的费用后，其收入有着微幅增长。消息发布后雅虎股价有所上涨。4月16日本刊付印后，谷歌也应该发布了其经营结果。

　　It is not just web firms whose performance is under the microscope. Shares in biotech companies, which adapt and exploit processes found in living organisms to create drugs and other useful products, have also taken a beating. Having risen by 60% last year, the NASDAQ biotech index has fallen by 18% since the middle of March. On April 4th alone investors pulled 372m out of the multi-billion-dollar iShares NASDAQ Biotechnology exchange-traded fund—the biggest one-day withdrawal since the fund's creation in 2001.

　　并非只有网络公司的表现被置于了显微镜下。那些利用活体器官中发现的突起来生产药物或其他有用产品的生物技术公司，其股票也已遭受了打击。纳斯达克生物技术指数去年上涨了60%，但今年自3月中旬以来已经下跌了18%。4月4日，个体的投资者们从拥有几十亿美元的iShares纳斯达克生物技术交易所交易基金中撤出了3.72亿美元，这是自2001年改基金成立以来最大的单日撤资。

　　Other firms developing novel technologies have suffered sagging share prices, too. Tesla Motors, whose snazzy electric vehicles are a must-have in Silicon Valley, had a 350% run-up in its shares last year. This year they kept rising, reaching 240 in mid-March, by which time the market capitalisation of Tesla, which sold only 23,000 cars last year, was more than half that of GM, which sold almost 10m. They then started to slip, and on April 15th they closed at 194, as investors continued to debate the wisdom of the firm's plans to invest 5 billion in a huge battery-making factory.

　　其他发展新科技的公司同样遭遇了股价低迷。特斯拉汽车公司生产的时髦电动汽车是硅谷的必备品，去年该公司的股价上涨了350%，今年其股价仍保持上涨势头，截至3月中旬已达每股240美元，当时，特斯拉公司的市值超过了通用汽车市值的一半—前者去年仅销售了23,000辆汽车，而后者去年销售了近1000万辆。但接着特斯拉的股价开始下滑，4月15日时跌至每股194美元左右，原因在于投资者们不断争论该公司向一家大型电池生产企业投资50亿美元的计划是否够聪明。

　　The shares of social-media companies have been especially badly hit, faring worse than both the NASDAQ and the broader S&P 500 index. This partly reflects concern over their ability to keep growing. Twitter has seen its share price fall from a high of just over 73 in December to around 46, as investors have fretted about falling advertising rates and levels of user engagement at the firm.

　　社交媒体公司的股价受到了特别严重的打击，比纳斯达克指数和覆盖面更广的标准普尔500指数都要更糟。这部分反映了市场对这些公司能力的关注在持续增加。由于投资者已对其广告价格和用户参与水平的下降表示担忧，Twitter的股价从12月的73美元多的的高峰跌落到46美元左右。

　　Say you want a revolution

　　你说你想带来一场革命

　　Questions have also been raised about Facebook's ability to keep growing strongly. “Social networks promised marketers a revolution, but what they have delivered is just boring traditional ads,” argues Nate Elliott of Forrester, a research outfit. That judgment may be a little harsh, but Facebook is certainly casting around for new sources of revenue. Among other things, it is trying to become a “Facebank” that offers services such as electronic money and international payments: it was reported this week that the firm was seeking a licence for such activities in Ireland.

　　投资者同样在质疑Facebook保持强劲增长的能力。市场调研机构福雷斯特公司的内特·艾略特质疑道：“社交网络曾向卖家们承诺会带来一场革命，但它们所提供的只是乏味的传统广告。”这一论断可能有点刺耳，但Facebook确实正在寻找新的收入来源。除了其他手段，Facebook正在努力成为一家能提供诸如电子货币和国际支付相关服务的“脸谱银行”，据报道，本周该公司正在争取获得在爱尔兰从事这类活动的许可证。

　　Shares in some Asian web companies, such as Tencent of China, have fallen, too. But the news is not all bad. Yahoo, which has a stake in Alibaba, a giant e-commerce company, reported that the Chinese firm's revenue soared in the last quarter of 2013. Alibaba is planning to list its shares in America this year.

　　诸如中国的腾讯等一些亚洲网络公司的股票也在下跌，但情况并没那么坏。在电商巨头阿里巴巴中持有股份的雅虎发表报告说，2013年最后一个季度中，中国公司的收入有显著增长。今年阿里巴巴正在计划在美国上市。

　　There are plenty of other tech firms queuing to stage an IPO. Those looking for evidence of a bubble should keep an eye on upcoming listings for firms such as Box, a business founded in 2005 that has made a name for itself in online file-sharing and storage. Like Twitter it has significant revenues, but is not yet in profit. They should also keep a close eye on venture capitalists. American funds raised almost 9 billion in the first quarter of the year, the most since the last quarter of 2007. But plenty of venture money is now pouring into me-too firms and deals with crazy price tags. Recent events may have taken some air out of a tech bubble in the public markets, but financiers are still busy pumping one up behind the scenes.

　　还有其他许多家科技公司正在排队等待IPO。那些寻找泡沫证据的人应该留意一下像Box这种即将上市的公司。Box像Twitter一样，有着巨额的收入，但尚未实现可观的利润。那些人还应该密切关注风险投资家的动向。今年第一季度，美国各基金筹措了近90亿美元，是自2007年最后一季度以来的最大值。但是现在大量的风险资金正在涌向山寨公司，并挂出疯狂的价码。近期的一些时间可能已经把公开市场的科技泡沫中抽出了一些空气，但金融家们仍在幕后忙着给这些泡沫注气。