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  3. Companies have embarked on what looks like the beginnings of a re-run of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) wave that defined th

Companies have embarked on what looks like the beginnings of a re-run of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) wave that defined th

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问题     Companies have embarked on what looks like the beginnings of a re-run of the mergers and acquisitions (M&A) wave that defined the second bubbly half of the 1990s. That period was characterized by a collective splurge that saw the creation of some of the most indebted companies in history. Many of them later went bankrupt or were themselves broken up. Wild bidding for telecoms, internet and media assets, not to mention the madness that was Daimler’s $40 billion motoring takeover in 1998-1999 of Chrysler or the Time-Warner/AOL mega-merger in 2000, helped to give mergers a thoroughly bad name. A consensus emerged that M&A was a great way for investment banks to reap rich fees, and a sure way for ambitious managers to betray investors by trashing the value of their shares.
    Now M&A is back. Its return is a global phenomenon, but it is probably most striking in Europe, where so far this year there has been a stream of deals worth more than $600 billion in total, around 40% higher than in the same period of 2004. The latest effort came this week when France’s Saint-Gobain, a building-materials firm, unveiled the details of its ￡3.6 billion hostile bid for BPB, a British rival. In the first half of the year, cross-border activity was up threefold over the same period last year. Even France Telecom, which was left almost bankrupt at the end of the last merger wave, recently bought Amena, a Spanish mobile operator.
    Shareholder’s approval of all these deals raises an interesting question for companies everywhere: are investors right to think that these mergers are more likely to succeed than earlier ones? There are two answers. The first is that past mergers may have been judged too harshly. The second is that the present rash of European deals does look more rational, but—and the caveat is crucial—only so far. The pattern may not hold.
    M&A’s poor reputation stems not only from the string of spectacular failures in the 1990s, but also from studies which showed value destruction for acquiring shareholders in 80% of deals. But more recent studies by economists have introduced a note of caution. Investors should look at the number of deals that succeed or fail (typically measured by the impact on the share price), rather than (as you might think) weighing them by size. For instance, no one doubts that the Daimler-Chrysler merger destroyed value. The combined market value of the two firms is still below that of Daimler alone before the deal. This single deal accounted for half of all German M&A activity by value in 1998 and 1999, and probably dominated people’s thinking about mergers to the same degree. Throw in a few other such monsters and it is no wonder that broad studies have tended to find that mergers are a bad idea. The true picture is more complicated.
To which of the following statements would the author most probably agree?
选项 A、M&A’s poor reputation deserves a thorough analysis by telecoms and internet.
B、the typical note of caution is always overlooked in terms of controversial debate.
C、the latest cycle of European mergers will not produce better results.
D、the unveiling of hostile bid in Europe will help relieve enterprises of their financial dilemma.
答案C
解析 本题属于中心主旨题型，测试考生控制全篇、识别全文中心主旨的能力。本题答案的主要信息来源在第二段的第一、二句和第三段(尤其是第三段的倒数第一、二句)。第二段的第一、二句表明欧洲的合并和收购进行的规模最大。第三段倒数第一、二句对欧洲目前的合并和收购提出了否定。由此可以推断出本题的正确选项是C“the latest cycle of European mergers will not produce better results”(最近的欧洲合并不会产生较好的结果)。考生在阅读时一定要首先识别全文的中心主旨，以便控制全篇文章的整体构建和发展。
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