“

孫正義，日本首富，馬云的金主，阿里巴巴最大的股東，六十歲時卻認為自己的事業剛剛開始，這是為什么呢？

”

Sonic boom

孫聲奪人

Masayoshi Son, a Japanese technology tycoon, begins a $100bn shopping spree

孫正義，日本科技巨頭，將展開無節制的千億美元大采購

【1】IF YOU want to find aspectacularvision of the future, Silicon Valley is not the only place to look. In Tokyo Masayoshi Son, the boss of Soft Bank, a Japanesetelecomsgroup, is starting an investment fund worth $100bn which, he hopes, will make him the Warren Buffett of technology. “Masa” is no stranger to risky bets: Soft Bank was an early investor in Alibaba, a Chinese e-commerce company, and has sunk $22bn in Sprint, a struggling American telecoms firm. Now he has been seized by the kind ofUtopianfever that would make the Sage of Omaha choke on his Cherry Coke.

tycoon：大亨，巨頭，大實業家

spree：毫無節制，縱情，狂歡

spectacular：驚人的；場面富麗的，壯觀的；引人注意的；驚動一時的

[例句]They have revamped the business with spectacular success

他們成功地調整了業務，成績斐然。

telecoms：電信

utopian：烏托邦的; 空想的; 不切實際的

[例句]He was pursuing a utopian dream of world prosperity

他懷揣著一個實現世界繁榮的烏托邦之夢。

要尋找壯闊的前景，硅谷并非唯一的著眼之地。在東京，日本電信集團軟銀的老板孫正義正在啟動一個1000億美元的投資基金，希望藉此成為科技界的巴菲特。“馬沙”【譯注：孫正義的昵稱】并不是高風險投資的門外漢：軟銀是中國電子商務公司阿里巴巴的早期投資者，也曾向深陷困境的美國電信公司Sprint砸進220億美元。如今，他已陷入一種烏托邦式的狂熱夢想之中，恐怕人稱“奧馬哈圣人”的巴菲特聽到后都會嗆出一口櫻桃可樂。

【2】Mr Son, who is 59, believes that the world will soon encounter what is known as theSingularity, the point at whichartificialintelligence exceeds the human kind. The brains of people and machines will becomeenmeshed. Every person will have over 1,000 devices linked by aseamlessglobal network, with the data analysed by machines in the cloud. As well as smart glasses, people will wear smart shoes and every car and washing machine will link up to the web. This internet revolution, says Mr Son, will be moremomentousthan the first.

Singularity：奇點; <正>異常; 奇怪; 奇特

[例句]The bifurcation problems with trivial solution is discussed by using the methods in singularity theory.

artificial：人工的，人為的，人造的

enmeshed：使陷入（網中）( enmesh的過去式和過去分詞 )

[例句]All too often they become enmeshed in deadening routines.

他們時常陷入枯燥的日常事務之中。

seamless：無縫的; 無漏洞的

[例句]It was a seamless procession of wonderful electronic music.

這是一曲優美流暢的電子樂曲。

momentous：重大的，重要的

[例句]The past three years have been among the most momentous in world history.

過去的3年是世界歷史上最重要的時期之一。

現年59歲的孫正義相信世界將很快來到人工智能超越人類智慧的所謂 “奇點”。人類大腦將與機器融為一體。到那時，每個人都會擁有超過1000臺電子設備，通過全球網絡無縫連接，產生的數據由云端計算機來分析。除了智能眼鏡，人們還將穿上智能鞋，每一臺汽車和洗衣機都將連接到網絡上。孫正義表示，這場互聯網革命將比第一次網絡革命更為意義重大。

［3］He has begun makingacquisitions. Last year he spent $31bn buying Britain’s ARM Holdings, which designs the chips in mobile devices (it will be owned jointly by Soft Bank and the fund). He also invested a total of $2bn in One Web and Intelsat, two satellite-technology firms that aim to launch thousands ofmicrosatellitesto orbit the Earth providing high-speed internet access. Tech firms around the world are bracing for moreswoopsby Mr Son, who says his aim is to build a businessempirelasting 300 years. What he doesn’t mention is that he also wants to prove beyond all doubt that his fortune is due to skill, not one lucky deal.

acquisitions：收購; 獲得; 購置物; 獲得物

[例句]How did you go about making this marvellous acquisition then?

那么你是怎么買到這一絕品的？

microsatellites：微衛星

swoops：俯沖，猛沖，突然搜查，突然襲擊

[例句]The terror ended when armed police swooped on the car

武警突襲了這輛車從而制止了這起恐怖活動。

empire：帝國

他已展開收購之旅。去年，他以310億美元買下了為移動設備設計芯片的英國安謀控股公司（ARM Holdings），該公司將由軟銀集團和孫正義的投資基金共同擁有。他還向衛星科技公司One Web和Intelsat總共投資了20億美元，這兩家公司計劃向地球軌道發射數以千計的微型衛星來提供高速互聯網的接入。全球各地的科技公司都在準備迎接孫正義的 進一步收購，而他表示，自己的目標是打造一個300年屹立不倒的商業帝國。他沒提及的一點是，他還想證明自己的財富確實是源于能力，而非某宗幸運的交易。

［4］Mr Son believes he hasanticipatedsuccessiveparadigmshifts in technology. The son of an ethnic-Korean pig farmer, whose childhood was spent in ashackin southern Japan, Masa wept joyfully when, as a teenager, he first saw a picture of amicrochip. He learned programming while at the University of California,Berkeley, then in the 1980s sold software in Japan. He was an earlyinvestor in internet firms, buying a share of Yahoo in 1995 and the Alibaba stake in 1999. Later he invested in mobile telecoms, first in 2006 with his purchase of Vodafone’s Japanese mobile arm and then of Sprint in 2013. Now SoftBank is huge, with an enterprise value (its market value plus its net debt) of$193bn.

anticipate：預期，預見，預料

paradigm：樣板，范例，典型

[例句]He had become the paradigm of the successful man.

他已經成為成功人士的典范。

shack：棚屋，簡陋的小屋

[例句]They have since knocked down the shack.

從那以后他們拆掉了簡陋的棚屋。

microchip：微晶片，芯片，微型集成電路片

Berkeley：伯克利（美國加利福尼亞州西部城市）

孫正義認為自己預見到了科技界一連串的范式轉變。他出身自韓裔豬農家庭，童年生活在日本南部的一間棚屋里。十幾歲時，他第一次看到微芯片的照片，高興地哭了起來。之后他在加州大學伯克利分校求學期間學習了編程。到上世紀80年代，他在日本銷售軟件。他是幾家互聯網公司的早期投資者，在1995年買入雅虎的股份，1999年又入股阿里巴巴。后來，他開始投資移動通訊業，先是在2006年購入沃達豐在日本的移動業務，之后又在2013年收購了Sprint。現在的軟銀規模龐大，企業價值（市值加上凈負債）達1930億美元。

［5］Yet Mr Son’s career is still defined by Alibaba. In 1999 he was visited in Tokyo by Jack Ma and Joseph Tsai,co-foundersof afledglingwebsite in Hangzhou. Mr Sontappedon a calculator as theyhaggledand agreed that SoftBank would buy 30% of the young firm for $20m. The deal was “based on my sense of smell”, Mr Son said later. Now Alibaba’s market value is $270bn, and,after selling some shares last year, SoftBank still owns 28%.

co-founder：聯合創始人，共同創辦人

fledgling：剛開始的，無經驗的

[例句]Iran also helped to set up Sudan's fledgling arms industry, now the third-largest in Africa.

伊朗也幫助蘇丹建立了年輕的軍火產業，目前它的規模在非洲排名第三。

tapped：輕打，輕拍，輕叩

haggled：討價還價，爭論不休

[例句]Ella taught her how to haggle with used furniture dealers

埃拉教她如何和舊家具經銷商砍價。

但孫正義事業的關鍵還是阿里巴巴。1999年，杭州一家剛起步的網站的創始人馬云和蔡崇信來到東京拜訪孫正義。孫正義按著計算器與他們討價還價，最終同意軟銀將以2000萬美元購買這家年輕公司30%的股份。孫正義后來表示這宗交易是“基于我的嗅覺”。現在阿里巴巴的市值為2700億美元，在去年出售一部分股份后，軟銀仍持股28%。

［6］About 95% of SoftBank’s market value is accounted for by the Alibaba stake, so the rest of what it does, from telecoms toventurecapital, may be worth little, once debts arededucted. Mr Son says that SoftBank has made an internal rate of return of 43% on all its other investments, excluding Alibaba, but the basis of his calculations is unclear. There have beentriumphs—SoftBank made $5bn buying and selling Supercell, aFinnishgaming firm, between 2013 and 2016. But the group has produced little cashflow, and Mr Son’s deals have left it with $110bn of net debt.

venture：風險，冒險

deduct：扣除，減去

[例句]The company deducted this payment from his compensation

公司從他獲得的賠償金中扣去了這筆付款。

triumphs：特勝利; 巨大的成就; （成功的） 典范

[例句]The championships proved to be a personal triumph for the coach, Dave Donovan

事實證明，在這次錦標賽中教練戴夫·多諾萬取得了非凡的個人成就。

Finnish：芬蘭的

軟銀集團約95%的市值都來自阿里巴巴的股份，因此除去債務后，集團旗下從電信到風險投資在內的其他業務可能價值無幾。孫正義表示，不算阿里巴巴，軟銀其他所有投資的內部收益率達43%，但這番計算的根據并不清楚。佳績還是有的，比如軟銀在2013年至2016年間收購然后出售芬蘭游戲公司Supercell，以此賺得50億美元。但集團的現金流很少，而且孫正義的多項交易給集團帶來了1100億美元的凈負債。

［7］So Mr Son has a minority investment in a great firm, but has yet to build one himself fromscratch. And SoftBank’s poor finances areimpedinghis ambitions. Because his stake is only19%, he cannot raise cash by selling shares without weakening hisgripon the firm. He could sell the rest of the Alibaba stake, but appearsreluctantto let go altogether. Or he could try tobrokeramergerof Sprint with T-Mobile, another American telecoms firm, allowing SoftBank to rid its balance-sheet of Sprint’s $31bn of net debt. Until nowantitrustregulators have opposed a deal. But Mr Son hopes that the Trump administration will be moreamenable.

scratch：從零開始，從頭做起，白手起家

imped：阻礙，妨礙，阻止

[例句]Fallen rock is impeding the progress of rescue workers.

墜落的石頭阻滯了救援人員的救援進程。

grip：掌握，支配，控制

reluctant：不情愿的，勉強的

broker：（國家或政府作為中間人）協調，安排

merger：?(公司、組織等的)合并，歸并

antitrust：反壟斷的，反托拉斯的

[例句]The jury found that the NFL had violated antitrust laws.

陪審團裁決全國橄欖球聯盟觸犯了反壟斷法。

amenable：易控制的，經得起檢驗（或考查）的，可用某種方式處理的

[例句]The Jordanian leader seemed amenable to attending a conference

約旦領導人似乎愿意參加會議。

所以說，孫正義擁有對一家偉大企業的少數股權投資，卻還未能從頭打造出自己的成功大企業。軟銀的財務狀況不佳也阻礙了他施展抱負。由于僅持有19%的股份，他無法在不削弱自己對公司控制權的前提下通過出售股份來籌集資金。他可以出售余下的阿里巴巴股份，但似乎又不甘心全部脫手。或者，他可以撮合Sprint和美國另一家電信公司T-Mobile合并，令軟銀擺脫資產負債表上Sprint高達310億美元的凈負債。到目前為止，反壟斷監管機構一直反對這項合并。但孫正義希望特朗普政府能更寬松一些。

［8］The alternative is partially tobypassSoftBank, which is what the new $100bn fund achieves. Mr Son will have morediscretionover what to buy, free ofgrumblingpublic shareholders. Outside investors will give him huge firepower. Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund, for example, has promised to give himbucketsof cash. The fund and its debts will be kept off SoftBank’s books.

bypass：（通常為更快地實現某事）越過，避開，繞開

discretion：慎重; 考慮周到; 判斷力，辨別力; 自行決定的自由

[例句]Larsson sometimes joined in the fun, but with more discretion

拉森有時會和大家一起玩樂，但是顯得更加矜持。

grumbling：喃喃鳴不平的，出怨言的

[例句]Nothing pleased him. He was always grumbling.

沒有什么能使他滿意，他總是發牢騷。

bucket：大量

一個替代方案是在一定程度上繞過軟銀，新設的1000億美元投資基金正可以達到此目的。孫正義在收購項目上將擁有更大的自甶裁量權，而無需面對公眾股東的牢騷。外部投資者將為他提供強大的火力。例如，沙特阿拉伯公共投資基金已承諾為其提供大筆資金。該投資基金及其債務將不納入軟銀集團的賬目。

［9］Investors in the new vehicle and owners of SoftBank shares should have three worries.

First, while Mr Son’s ideasstand outfor theirintensity, they are not entirely original. Others in tech share his vision ofubiquitous, web-linked devices with their datacrunchedby machines, so the values of firms involved in these areas aresky-high; SoftBank paid 71 times earnings for ARM.

Second, Mr Son can lose focus. Some of thestartupshe particularly admires, such as Uber and Airbnb, are onlylooselyrelated to hisnotionof the internet. Others are even moretangential. On March 20th SoftBank bought a $300m stake in WeWork, a trendy office-rental firm with adizzyingvaluation.

The third worry is governance. Mr Son’s mindskipsfrom oneobsessionto the next. In 2014-15 he was brieflyinfatuatedby India’s tech scene, for example, and appointed Nikesh Arora, an Indian-born former Google executive, as his heir apparent, only to ease him out a year later, in 2016. It is clear that one man with amessianicstreakwill dominate the fund as well as the running of SoftBank. Mr Son’sdualrole also produces conflicts of interest: if there is ajuicydeal, who benefits—the fund or the firm?

stand out：突出，顯得重要

intensity：強度，烈度，強烈，（感情的）強烈程度

[例句]Speech is made up of sound waves that vary in frequency and intensity.

語音是由不同頻率和強度的聲波組成的。

ubiquitous：無所不在的，普遍存在的

[例句]In the US, the camcorder has become ubiquitous

便攜式攝錄機在美國隨處可見。

crunched：（快速大量地）處理信息

sky-high：?(價格)極高的，昂貴的

startup：新興公司（尤指新興網絡公司）

loosely：松散的，不相連的

notion：看法，觀念，概念

tangential：<正>間接相關的，次要的，外圍的，略為觸及題目的

[例句]Too much time was spent discussing tangential issues

太多的時間花在了討論那些無關緊要的問題上。

dizzying：令人昏亂的，燦爛的

[例句]Today, technology offers a dizzying number of choices for entertainment, information, and communication.

今天，科技在娛樂，信息和交流方面為我們提供了令人暈眩的選擇。

skip：跳過，悄悄溜走，快速轉移

obsession：使人癡迷的人（或物）

infatuated：沖昏頭腦

[例句]He was utterly infatuated with her

他完全被她迷住了。

messianic：救世主的，以救世主自居的，救星

[例句]The cult leader saw himself as a Messianic figure.

這個異教團體的領袖把自己看作救世主一般的人物。

streak：（通常指不好的）特征（傾向）

dual：?兩部分的，雙重的

juicy：報酬多的

新基金的投資者及軟銀的股東會有三大憂慮 。

首先，孫正義的想法雖然壯志可嘉，但并非全新創想。他認為未來聯網設備將無處不在，所產生的數據會由機器來計算分析，而其他科技業人士也有同樣的愿景，所以這些領域里的公司市價往往上沖云雷：軟銀就是以71倍的市盈率收購了安課。

第二，孫正義可能會迷失焦點。他尤為傾慕的一些創業公司，如優步和Airbnb，其實跟他的互聯網理念只是稍有關聯，而其他的一些就更不相干了。3月20日, 軟銀以3億美元投資了估値令人目眩的時尚辦公空間租賃公司wework。

第三個憂慮是公司治理。孫正義的癡迷沒有長性。例如，在2014年至2015年，他短暫地迷上了印度科技界，并指定出生于印度的谷歌前高管尼科什·阿羅拉(NikeshArora)為自己的接班人，但僅僅在一年后也就是2016年就把他打發走了。顯然，這位有著救世主情結的人物將主宰該投資基金及軟銀的運作。孫正義的雙重角色也會產生利益沖突：假如存在利洞豐厚的交易，該讓誰獲益一一是投資基金還是軟銀？

［10］For Mr Son, these arequibblesthat willfadeintoirrelevanceover his 300-yearhorizon. He has said that, looking back on his first six decades, he regrets that he “focused too much on the daily routine and didn’t really think big.” So far only 3% of his brain power has been devoted to big investment decisions, he believes. Now more than half of his mental capacity will be directed at fulfilling hisdestiny. Masa is just getting started.

quibble：吹毛求疵的反對意見或批評，遁詞，模棱兩可的話

[例句]Council members spent the day quibbling over the final wording of the resolution

委員會成員一整天都在為決議的最終措詞爭論不休。

fade：變得不為人注意，變得無關緊要

irrelevance：有害的，不利的

[例句]The government's policy of high interest rates is having a detrimental effect on industry.

政府的高利率政策正對工業產生不利影響。

horizon：地平線，范圍，界限，眼界

[例句]A grey smudge appeared on the horizon. That must be Calais, thought Fay

一個模糊的灰影出現在地平線上。那里一定是加來，法伊心想。

destiny：命運，天命，天數，主宰事物的力量

[例句]We are masters of our own destiny

我們是自己命運的主宰者。

對于孫正義來說，在他300年的展望里，這些都是終將變得無關緊要的小口角 。他曾經說過，回顧人生前六十年，他的遺憾是“過分注重日常事務，還沒做過真正宏大的構想。”他自認為到目前為止只把3%的腦力用到了重大投資決策上。現在，他要把一半以上的心思用于實現自己的使命。馬沙之旅才剛剛啟程。

孫首富認為自己目前的成績只用了3%的腦力，這讓我想起王健林那個容易達到的小目標：我先掙它一個億。富人的衡量標準和我們果然是不一樣的。

至于馬沙之旅前景如何，讓我們繼續觀察吧~

英文原文：

http://www.economist.com

講解：霞姐 / Tiassa / Angel

編排 / 校對：Angel

本次文章翻譯來源于經濟學人商論

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