2022年经济学人 微软以690亿美元收购游戏公司动视暴雪（在线收听）

The world this week -- Business

本周国际要闻——商业

In what is by far the biggest-ever takeover in the gaming industry, Microsoft agreed to buy Activision Blizzard, the company behind the "Call of Duty" series and "Warcraft", for $69bn.

微软同意以690亿美元收购《使命召唤》系列和《魔兽争霸》背后的公司动视暴雪，这是游戏行业有史以来规模最大的一笔收购。

Microsoft is hungry for new content as it seeks to develop a Netflix for games, which can be streamed from any device, such as phones, and not just its Xbox console.

微软渴望获得新的内容，该公司正寻求开发游戏界的Netflix，这些游戏可以在手机等任何设备上呈现，而不仅限于Xbox游戏机。

Gaming "will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms", stated Satya Nadella, Microsoft's boss.

微软老板萨蒂亚·纳德拉表示，游戏“将在元世界平台的发展中发挥关键作用”。

Unilever said it would not increase its 50bn pounds ($68bn) offer for GlaxoSmithKline's consumer health-care business, which in effect ends its pursuit of a deal.

联合利华表示，它不会提高对葛兰素史克消费者保健业务500亿英镑（680亿美元）的收购报价，这实际上结束了其对这笔交易的追求。

Its ambitious play for the business, which includes such familiar brands as Advil, Nicorette, Panadol and Sensodyne, and in which Pfizer owns a 32% stake, didn't go down well with Unilever's investors.

联合利华雄心勃勃展现在它的业务中，其中包括Advil、Nicorette、Panadol和Sensodyne等人们熟悉的品牌，辉瑞拥有联合利华32%的股份，不过投资者们并不看好联合利华在业务上的雄心。

The conglomerate's stock swooned when news of the bid was made public.

收购消息公布后，该集团的股票暴跌。

ExxonMobil laid out its strategy to reduce carbon emissions, with an aim to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and a pledge to reduce them by a fifth by 2030 compared with 2016.

埃克森美孚公布了其减少碳排放的战略，目标是到2050年实现净零排放，并承诺到2030年将碳排放减少五分之一（相比2016年水平）。

But the plan counts only the company's own greenhouse gases from its production of oil and gas, and not the broader category of "Scope 3" emissions, which are generated across a firm's value chain, suppliers and customers.

但该计划仅算入了该公司本身在石油和天然气生产中产生的温室气体，而没有计算更广泛的“范围3”排放，即公司的价值链、供应商和客户产生的排放。

Providing reassurance that pandemic restrictions really do apply to everyone, Antonio Horta-Osorio resigned as chairman of Credit Suisse after the bank's board reportedly found that he broke quarantine rules, including on a trip to the Wimbledon tennis final in July.

瑞士信贷董事长安东尼奥·奥尔塔-奥索里奥的辞职向人们保证，疫情限制措施确实适用于所有人。此前有报道称，该行董事会发现他违反了隔离规定，包括在7月份前往观看温布尔登网球决赛。

Mr Horta-Osorio had held the job for less than nine months.

奥尔塔-奥索里奥担任这一职位不到9个月。

The global job market will take longer to recover from the Covid-19 crisis than had been thought, according to the International Labour Organisation.

据国际劳工组织称，全球就业市场从新冠危机中恢复的时间将比预期的要长。

Its latest forecast estimates that there will be 52m fewer jobs in 2022 compared with 2019, and that a full recovery in 2023 "remains elusive".

其最新预测估计，与2019年相比，2022年的就业岗位将减少5200万个，而2023年的全面复苏“仍然难以实现”。

Another surge in Covid and supply-chain bottlenecks caused Germany's economy to shrink by up to 1% in the fourth quarter of 2021 compared with the third, according to an initial official estimate.

根据官方的初步估计，新冠病例再次激增和供应链瓶颈导致德国经济在2021年第四季度比第三季度萎缩多达1%。

For the whole year, German GDP rose by 2.7%, though output was still 2% lower than in 2019, before the pandemic.

德国全年GDP增长2.7%，但产出仍比2019年疫情前低2%。