07财经“10”分钟.docVIP

1．News Corp-DirecTV Plan Merger There are newspaper reports in Europe on Wednesday that General Motors has reached an agreement with Rupert Murdochs News Corp to merge their satellite and television businesses. Now GMs Hughes Electronics, its the owner of DirecTV and News Corps Sky Global Networks, will be combined in a business worth some $70 billion. Microsoft is also thought to be investing in some four to five billion dollars in the project. News Corp would, after a complicated series of deals, increase its ownership to a controlling stake. Its a merger thats long been forecast and it would fulfill Mr. Murdochs ambition of extending his satellite TV business into the US. 【译文】 新闻集团与DirecTV计划合并 星期三，欧洲的一些报纸报道，美国通用汽车公司已同鲁珀特·默多克的新闻集团达成协议，合并两者的卫星和电视生意。DirecTV的母公司也就是通用汽车公司属下的休斯电子公司将与新闻集团的天空传播公司联姻成为一个价值高达七百亿美元的公司。微软据说也会在这个项目投入四十到五十亿美元的资金。在完成一系列复杂的交易后，新闻集团会将它的所有权提高到控股份额。很早就有人预测了这次合并。这次合并将满足默多克先生在美国发展他的卫星电视生意的野心。 2．Daimler-Chrysler Profit Plunge Now profits at the German and the US Daimler-Chrysler dropped sharply last year. The group shocked the market by announcing a 49 percent fall in operating profits to $4.8 billion. Last week it announced the restructuring of its Chrysler operations following a downturn in its US business. Daimler-Chrysler’sproblems lie with its US car making operations, where losses are mounting. Investors are waiting for details of a restructuring program expected at the end of this month. But the group has already said that it will slash 20 percent of jobs at Chrysler and scale back the cost of materials by 15 percent over two years. Today’sresults show yearly operating profits have halved at the group as a whole. But there were no separate details of the plight of the Chrysler division. However, back in December a letter to shareholders suggested fourth quarter losses there would double from the previous three months to $1.2 billion. There’s speculation that shareholders are growing more and more frustrated with Daimler-Ch