双语新闻：苹果欲巨资收购音响制造商Beats

2014-05-13 13:26:37来源：可可英语

　　While Beats commands a leading position in the premium headphone market, its real value to Apple is in revitalising its “cool” at a time when iTunes has waned in popularity and Samsung’s marketing campaigns have savaged the iPhone’s brand.

　　尽管Beats在高档耳机市场处于领先地位，但对苹果来说，它真正的价值在于它能再次为苹果带来那种“酷炫”的感觉。苹果iTunes人气最近有所下降，而三星(Samsung)强烈的市场攻势也威胁到苹果的iPhone品牌。

　　Apple executives have admitted that its brand is in need of a revamp. Internal emails released during its recent patent trial with Samsung showed that its marketing chief Phil Schiller considered changing Apple’s ad agency after the success of its Korean rival’s “next big thing” campaign.

　　苹果高管曾承认，公司需要重塑品牌形象。苹果最近与三星的专利案庭审中，曾公布多份苹果内部电子邮件。这些邮件显示，在三星的“Next Big Thing”营销战略大获成功后，苹果市场营销总监菲尔•席勒(Phil Schiller)曾考虑更换苹果的广告代理商。

　　Apple is paying a hefty premium for cool: Beats took a $500m investment from Carlyle in September 2013 that valued the company at more than $1bn. “In terms of acquisitions, Apple has been very, very light in their activity,” said Richard Lane, analyst at Moody’s. “I don’t think they’ve spent $1bn in any of the last four years.”

　　为了这种“酷炫”感，苹果将付出不菲代价：2013年9月，Beats曾从凯雷(Carlyle)获得5亿美元投资，让公司市值高达10亿美元以上。穆迪(Moody's)分析师理查德•莱恩(Richard Lane)表示：“在收购方面，苹果的手笔一直以来都很小。我想过去4年里，从没有哪一年他们在收购上花费过10亿美元。”

　　Mr Cook said last month Apple was “on the prowl” for more acquisitions, after buying 24 companies in the past 18 months and he was not averse to large acquisitions.

　　上月库克表示，在过去18个月收购24家企业之后，苹果“正在考虑”开展更多收购，并表示他对于大规模收购并不反感。

　　The Beats move follows a string of high-priced deals in Silicon Valley, after Google acquired smart home developer Nest Labs for $3.2bn and Facebook offered an initial $19bn for WhatsApp Messenger.

　　收购Beats的动机之一可能是人们在音乐消费方式上出现的变化。根据全球音乐产业协会国际唱片业协会(IFPI)最近一份报告，音乐产业内增长最快的是订阅服务，这类服务的营收在2013年增长了50%，达到11亿美元。

　　One motivation for the Beats deal may lie in shifts in music consumption. Subscription services are the biggest growth area for the music industry, with revenues increasing 50 per cent to $1.1bn in 2013, according to a recent report by the IFPI, the global music industry association.

　　而另一方面，音乐下载业务的营收却下跌了2%，至39.3亿美元——这是2003年苹果推出iTunes商店后首次出现年度下跌。目前，iTunes音乐下载服务的规模仍是全球最大的。

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