全球并购的变迁外文翻译.doc

外文翻译 原文 A Giddy Ride On The M & A Carousel Material Source: Financial Times UK Author: Lina Saigol In January 2000, as Steve Case unveiled the all-stock $164bn merger between AOL and Time Warner, the AOL chief executive declared it an historic moment that would transform the competitive landscape of the media business and the way people used the internet forever. A decade later, the 揹eal of the century?is not only being unwound but is widely castigated as an example of the chief executive hubris that characterised a period in which the worldwide value of deals exceeded $3,500bn and bankers briefly gained celebrity status but ended with their reputation in tatters. 揟he decade opened at the high point of a merger wave. It's ending at the low point,?says Daniel Stillit, mergers and acquisitions analyst at UBS. The new millennium began just as the US stock market was wrapping up its fifth consecutive year of double-digit gains and the rapid growth of the technology industry had started to ebb. The urge to merge was driven by globalisation, deregulation, the need to reduce costs and the desire to gain critical mass ?not to mention chief executives' penchant for empire-building. Bigger was not only better, boards felt, but was necessary if companies were to compete and survive on the global stage. With the rise in M&A, came the rise of the M&A bankers. Rainmakers developed star-like status, sporting Italian ties and bespoke suits, and hatching mega-mergers in private jets as they flew to their clients' winter or summer residences. Such was their success that, by the end of 2000, Wall Street's three biggest investment banks ?Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and Merrill Lynch ?had each advised on deals with a combined value of more than $1,000bn. Corporate Europe was also restructuring. The introduction of the euro in 1999 and the creation of a single capital market triggered the biggest hostile deal ever: Vodafone's $172bn takeover of Mannesmann. That s