2021年经济学人 微软--我为"收购狂"(2)（在线收听）

By its relatively timid standard, though, Microsoft has indeed become more acquisitive in recent years. Having provided textbook examples of what not to do, most notably after buying Nokia, a phonemaker, and Skype, an internet phone service, it has learned how to integrate targets successfully. Under Mr Nadella it has taken on a shape that better lends itself to this process.

不过，和曾经相对瞻前顾后的自身相比，微软近年来确实变得收购欲满满。微软曾经也提供了几次有关不要做什么的反面教材的例子，其中最突出的莫过于收购手机制造商诺基亚和网络电话服务商Skype，此后，微软学会了如何成功地并购目标公司。在纳德拉的领导下，微软已经形成了更适应收购进程的形态。

Simply put, it has become a giant computing cloud that can digest any data and offer any service. An acquisition can thus add to the business in more ways than one—and “feed the beast”, in the words of Brent Thill of Jefferies, an investment bank. Even TikTok would have brought new computing tasks for the cloud, provided reams of videos to train artificial-intelligence algorithms and allowed the firm to beef up its consumer business.

简单地说，微软已经成为一个云计算巨头，可以消化任何数据，提供任何服务。因此，收购可以给微软的业务带来多方面的好处，用投资银行Jefferies的布伦特·蒂尔的话说，就是“投喂这头野兽”。甚至毫不相干的TikTok也会为微软云带来新的计算任务，以海量视频训练微软的人工智能算法，并使微软得以加强其消费业务。

Purchases also help Microsoft to keep growing rapidly by allowing it to ride big industry trends. Discord, like GitHub before it, looked to be a bet on the shift toward creating content and related user communities, which Mr Nadella thinks will dominate life online. A bit like LinkedIn, Pinterest would give Microsoft access to data about people’s interests, which could enable new forms of e-commerce.

收购使微软能借助大的行业趋势，保持自身快速增长。与之前GitHub的收购一样，微软收购Discord似乎也是一次赌博，押注于向内容创作和关联用户社群的快速转变，纳德拉认为这将主导互联网生活。Pinterest的收购与领英类似，它们都能为微软提供有关用户喜好的数据，从而实现新形式的电子商务。

The Nuance deal encapsulates all these considerations. The firm is best known for its speech-recognition software and a health-care platform used in 77% of American hospitals. This technology, along with lots of valuable health data, will beef up Microsoft’s “health cloud”. Nuance’s portfolio of patents can be used elsewhere in Mr Nadella’s empire. Though $20bn looks pricey for a firm with a net profit of $29m last year on revenues of $1.5bn, Microsoft can afford it. Discord and Pinterest seem to be off the table for now. But expect Microsoft to surprise with more deals. And don’t be fooled by their apparent randomness.

微软对Nuance的收购涵盖了上述所有考虑。Nuance以其语音识别软件和美国77%的医院都在使用的医疗保健平台而闻名。语音识别软件连同大量宝贵的健康数据将增强微软的“健康云”。Nuance的专利组合可以在纳德拉商业帝国的其他地方使用。尽管对于一家去年净利润为2900万美元、营收为15亿美元的公司来说，200亿美元是笔大价钱，但微软可以负担得起。Discord和Pinterest似乎暂时不在收购之列。但预计微软会以更多的收购交易大跌眼镜。千万不要被它们表面上的随机性所愚弄。