Money mountains
金山
TAKE a moment to admire—and fear—the ascentof America’s big-five tech firms. Apple, Alphabet, Microsoft, Amazon andFacebook have recently become the five most valuable listed companies in theworld, in that order. With a total market value of $2.9trn,they are worth more than any five firms in history.
listed companies上市公司
market value市值
trn trillion 萬億
我們來花一點時間,對美國五大科技公司的快速成長表示一下贊賞——還有擔憂葫男。蘋果、Alphabet湾盒、微軟适袜、亞馬遜和Facebook近期成了世界上最有價值的五大上市公司,座次如上。它們的總市值高達2.9萬億美元湾揽,比歷史上任何五家公司的總價值都高。
Elevated tech valuations used to be a sign of hysteria. Today’s investors believe they are making an ice-cold judgment that these firms are the dominant oligopolies of the 21st century and will extract a vast, rising, flow of profits. There is one gnawing doubt, however: the formidable five’s cash-rich balance-sheets, which are built as if they expect a crisis, not to dominate the world.
Elevated ['?l?vet?d] adj. high in rank高貴的;職位高的钝腺;higher than the area around; above the level of the ground高的抛姑;升高的;高出地面的艳狐;higher than normal偏高的
*The house is in an elevated position, overlooking the town. 這棟房子地勢較高定硝,可以俯瞰全城。
hysteria?a state of extreme excitement, fear or anger in which a person, or a group of people, loses control of their emotions and starts to cry, laugh, etc.歇斯底里毫目;情緒狂暴不可抑止蔬啡;an extremely excited and exaggerated way of behaving or reacting to an event大肆鼓吹;狂熱夸張镀虐;大驚小怪
*There was mass hysteria when the band came on stage.樂隊登臺時觀眾一片瘋狂箱蟆。
formidable?['f?rm?d?bl] adj. if people, things or situations are formidable, you feel fear and / or respect for them, because they are impressive or powerful, or because they seem very difficult可怕的;令人敬畏的刮便;難對付的
*In debate he was a formidable opponent. 在辯論中他是位難應(yīng)付的對手空猜。
balance-sheet資產(chǎn)負債表
科技公司估值高曾經(jīng)是市場不理性的征兆,而如今投資者認為自己做出了絕對客觀的判斷恨旱,相信這五大公司是主導(dǎo)21世紀的寡頭企業(yè)辈毯,將獲得不斷增長的巨額利潤。然而搜贤,有一件事讓人心存不安:這五強的資產(chǎn)負債表上現(xiàn)金充裕前酿,不像是要統(tǒng)治世界的架勢培漏,倒像是要為應(yīng)對危機做準備。
It is easy to see why investors are keen. Billions of users are tied into these firms’ social-media networks, digital assistants, operating systems and cloud-computing platforms. The five firms are squeezing traditional competitors such as IBM and Macy’s. Together they make $100bn of profits. Analysts forecast this will rise to $170bn by 2020. The rebels of Silicon Valley have evolved into slick money making machines with high market shares. For investors it just doesn’t get any better.
squeeze [skwiz] v. to press sth firmly, especially with your fingers擠壓;揑吓肋;to strictly limit or reduce the amount of money that sb / sth has or can use嚴格限制名秀,削減然想,緊縮(資金)
*High interest rates have squeezed the industry hard. 高利率使這個行業(yè)舉步維艱捶牢。
rebel [r?'b?l] n. a person who opposes sb in authority over them within an organization, a political party, etc.反抗權(quán)威者;a person who does not like to obey rules or who does not accept normal standards of behavior, dress, etc.叛逆者饺蔑;不守規(guī)矩者
投資者熱衷五強卓舵,原因顯而易見。全球數(shù)十億用戶都與這些公司的社交媒體網(wǎng)絡(luò)膀钠、數(shù)字助理掏湾、操作系統(tǒng)以及云計算平臺捆綁在一起。五強正在擠壓IBM和梅西百貨這類傳統(tǒng)型競爭對手肿嘲。這五家公司的利潤總計高達1000億美元融击,分析師預(yù)計到2020年將上升至1700億美元。硅谷的反叛分子已經(jīng)進化成了具有高市場份額的高明賺錢機器雳窟。對投資者而言尊浪,這再好不過了匣屡。
Old-economy oligopolists, such as cable, telecoms and beer companies, are confident about their ability to extract reliable rents from customers, so they finance themselves largely with debt, which is cheap but inflexible, and return most of the cash they make to shareholders. Yet, oddly, the biggest tech firms have the opposite approach. Together they have $330bn of net cash (cash less debt), a ratio of twice their gross cashflow.
finance n. money used to run a business, an activity or a project資金;the activity of managing money, especially by a government or commercial organization財政拇涤;金融捣作;財務(wù)
v. to provide money for a project提供資金
*The building project will be financed by the government. 這個建筑項目將由政府出資。
net cash凈現(xiàn)金鹅士;現(xiàn)金凈價券躁;現(xiàn)金凈額
電視、電信和啤酒這類傳統(tǒng)經(jīng)濟模式下的寡頭壟斷企業(yè)信心滿滿掉盅,自認有能力從客戶那里賺取可靠的收入也拜。因此,它們主要通過債務(wù)為自己融資趾痘,成本低但不靈活慢哈,再把賺到的大部分現(xiàn)金返還給股東。然而奇怪的是永票,這五大科技公司的做法卻恰恰相反卵贱,它們共有3300億美元的凈現(xiàn)金(現(xiàn)金減去債務(wù)),是它們總現(xiàn)金流的兩倍侣集。
■一句一練■
It is easy to see why investors are keen.
這一句不能僅按照字面意思直接翻譯為“投資者熱衷的原因很明顯”键俱。熱衷于什么事情,在翻譯時需要將此潛在意思翻譯出來肚吏,表達更完整方妖。根據(jù)上下文可以確定意思為投資五大公司狭魂。而且罚攀,漢語表達時順序也需要調(diào)整。具體翻譯如下:投資者熱衷于投資這五大公司雌澄,原因顯而易見斋泄。