2022年经济学人 马斯克成功收购推特（在线收听）

The world this week--Business

本周国际要闻--商业

Elon Musk struck a deal to buy Twitter, capping three weeks of drama during which he had revealed he had amassed a 9.2% stake and rejected a seat on the board and Twitter had tried to block a sale.

埃隆·马斯克达成了收购推特的协议，为三周的闹剧画上了句号。在这三周的闹剧事件中，他透露自己积累了9.2%的股份，并拒绝了董事会的一个席位，而推特曾试图阻止这笔出售交易。

In the end its big investors forced Twitter to the table when Mr Musk revealed a financing package for his offer.

最后，当马斯克透露了收购要约的融资方案时，这位投资者迫使推特坐到了谈判桌前。

At around $44bn it will be one of the largest-ever leveraged buy-outs.

这笔约440亿美元的交易将成为有史以来规模最大的杠杆收购交易之一。

The Twitterati went into meltdown at Mr Musk’s pledge to nurture free speech on the platform.

马斯克承诺要在推特上培养言论自由环境，这让推特达人陷入了崩溃。

But he seemed to have the support of Jack Dorsey, Twitter’s founder, who tweeted: “Taking it back from Wall Street is the correct first step.”

但他似乎得到了推特创始人杰克·多尔西的支持。多尔西在推特上写道:“从华尔街手中夺回公司是正确的第一步。”

Tesla’s share price tumbled the day after Twitter accepted Mr Musk’s bid.

在推特接受马斯克收购要约的第二天，特斯拉的股价暴跌。

Part of his financing for the offer includes a loan against the stock he owns in the carmaker; a much lower share price would complicate that calculation.

收购要约的部分资金包括以他持有的汽车制造商股票为抵押的贷款; 更低的股价会使这一计算复杂化。

Meta’s quarterly earnings pleased investors, a relief for the company after its results for the previous quarter showed a sharp slowdown in growth, pummelling its share price.

Meta的季度收益令投资者感到高兴，这让该公司松了一口气，此前该公司上一季度的业绩显示增长大幅放缓，股价受到重创。

Overall revenue grew at the slowest pace since Facebook went public, but the number of daily active users across all Meta’s apps, which include WhatsApp and Instagram, was up.

自脸书上市以来，Meta的总营收增长速度最慢，但包括WhatsApp和Instagram在内的所有应用的日活跃用户数量都在上升。

Microsoft reported solid quarterly revenues and forecast better sales for the current quarter, driven by its cloud-computing services.

微软公布了稳健的季度收入，并预计在云计算服务的推动下，当前季度的销售额将有所改善。

Satya Nadella, the chief executive, said that the inflationary environment was good for software, as firms seek to “do more with less”.

首席执行官萨蒂亚·纳德拉表示，通胀环境对软件行业有利，因为企业寻求“用更少的资金做更多的事情”。

Revenues from advertising at Alphabet also grew sharply in the latest quarter, though not at the same pace as during the height of the pandemic.

Alphabet的广告收入在最近一个季度也大幅增长，但增速不及疫情最严重时期。

It said ad spending on its YouTube platform had not grown as much as it had hoped because of the “outsized impact” of Russia’s war in Ukraine in European markets.

该公司表示，由于俄罗斯在乌克兰的战争对欧洲市场的“巨大影响”，其YouTube平台上的广告支出没有像预期的那样增长。

Sales from Google’s search advertising were less affected by wider economic concerns and rose by 25%, year on year.

谷歌的搜索广告销售额受更广泛的经济担忧影响较小，同比增长了25%。

America’s Senate confirmed Lael Brainard as vice-chair of the Federal Reserve, becoming deputy to the chair, Jerome Powell.

美国参议院确认莱尔·布雷纳德为美联储副主席，成为主席杰罗姆·鲍威尔的副手。

But the confirmation of Lisa Cook to the Fed’s board of governors was temporarily suspended by Democrats because they lacked the numbers to support her (mostly because of covid absences).

但民主党人暂时中止了丽莎·库克进入美联储理事会的就职确认，因为他们缺乏支持她的票选数字(主要是因为新冠肺炎缺席)。

Ms Cook would be the first black woman to sit on the board, though Republicans contend that she is an activist who would use her position to “promote radical hyperbole”.

库克女士将成为董事会的首位黑人女性，尽管共和党人认为她是一名激进分子，会利用她的处境“鼓吹激进夸张言论”。

It was a tale of two Swiss banks, as UBS reported its best first-quarter profit in 15 years and Credit Suisse fell to a loss and overhauled its management, replacing its chief financial officer.

这是两家瑞士银行的故事:瑞士联合银行公布了15年来最好的第一季度利润，瑞士信贷则陷入亏损，并对管理层进行了改组，更换了首席财务官。

UBS’s investment-banking business rebounded from its exposure a year ago to the collapse of Archegos Capital Management, though income from its asset-management division was sharply lower (Bill Hwang, the founder of Archegos, was charged with fraud in America this week).

瑞士联合银行的投资银行业务从一年前因资本管理公司Archegos倒闭而受到的影响中反弹，尽管其资产管理部门的收入大幅下降(本周，Archegos的创始人比尔·黄在美国被控欺诈)。

Credit Suisse’s loss came as revenue fell in investment banking and wealth management, year on year.

瑞士信贷出现亏损之际，其投行业务和财富管理业务收入同比下降。

In a blow to green investors, shareholders at Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo overwhelmingly rejected proposals to stop the three big American banks financing new fossil-fuel projects.

美国银行、美国花旗集团和美国富国银行的股东以压倒性多数否决了阻止美国三大银行为新的化石燃料项目融资的提议，这对环保投资者来说是一个打击。

With energy costs rising, Jane Fraser, Citi’s chief executive, said that moving to a net-zero carbon economy would take time.

随着能源成本不断上升，美国花旗集团首席执行官简·弗雷泽表示，实现净零碳经济需要时间。

But in a sign of the growing power of shareholder activists at investor meetings, Ms Fraser was also asked a question about Citi’s policy on reimbursing staff who have to travel to get an abortion.

但有一个迹象表明，股东活动家们在投资者会议上的影响力越来越大。弗雷泽还被问及花旗在补偿员工因堕胎而不得不出差方面的政策。(注：德克萨斯州禁止堕胎)