商务英语BEC高阶：极速阅读

1998 was undoubtedly the year of the merger. More companies than ever before joined together in deals that toatalled $2.25 trillion and created the world's biggest oil company. Faced with plummeting oil prices,oil giants Exxon and Mobil sought to achieve economies of scale through a $250bn merger

there are several factors behind increase in mergers and acquisitions. Firstly, the accelerated rate of globalisation has left companies desperately seeking overseas acquisitions in order to remain competitive. Deutsche Bank bought its way into the US with its takerover of the Bankers Trust,whilst Siemens hopes that its acquisition of Matra,the French defense group,will allow it to gain access to France's railway business,which is dominated by Alstom,the Anglo-French consortium.

Another factor behind the increase in merger activity is the record performance of the stock markets,which has enabled companies to finance major acquisitions on the strength of their inflated shareprices. Earlier this year Vodafone,the UK mobile telephone operator,acquired its US counterpart AirTorch by by making Airtorch shareholders a cash and stock swap offer worth a total $62bn. The deal created Vodafone AirTorch,the world's largest mobile telecoms group with over 29m customers.the European banking sector is also seeing a trend towards consolidation,a process accelerated by deregulation, over-capacity and the arrival of the single European currency. New technology is also making it easier for companies to diversify as different industries come to rely on common technologies. Microsoft, for instance, is busily diversified into cable and telecommunications as well as WebTV. The US software giant has a $5bn equity stake in AT&T, which recently bought Media One for $57bn. Under the deal, Microsoft will succeed in introducing its recently-launched cable television software into millions of homes in the US and UK.

Not all mergers,however,are the result of global economy trends,polical chage or technological innovation. BMW's takeover of the Rover Group injected much needed investment into the struggling UK car manufacturer whilst extending BMW's product range. and when the UK pharmaceutical firm Zeneca merged with Swedish drug company Astra,the new companies started with strong R&D capabilities,further by the world's best selling drug Losec in its portfolio of products.