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  3. In recent weeks, Ben Silbermann, a co-founder of the digital pinboard service Pinterest, resigned as chief executive; Joe Gebbia

In recent weeks, Ben Silbermann, a co-founder of the digital pinboard service Pinterest, resigned as chief executive; Joe Gebbia

admin2022-12-09  77
问题     In recent weeks, Ben Silbermann, a co-founder of the digital pinboard service Pinterest, resigned as chief executive; Joe Gebbia, a co-founder of the home rental company Airbnb, announced his departure from the company’s leadership; and Apoorva Mehta, the founder of the grocery delivery app Instacart, said he would end his run as executive chairman when the company went public, as soon as this year.
    The resignations signify the end of an era at these companies, which are among the most valuable and well-known to emerge from Silicon Valley in the past decade, and of the era they represent. In recent years, investors have dumped increasingly large sums of money into a group of highly valued start-ups known as unicorns, worth $1 billion or more, and their founders have been treated as visionary heroes. Those founders fought for special ownership rights that kept them in control of their companies—a change from the past, when entrepreneurs were often replaced by more experienced executives or pressured to sell.
    But when the stock market fell dramatically this year, hitting money-losing tech companies especially hard, this approach began to change. Venture capitalists pulled back on their deal-making and urged Silicon Valley’s prized young companies to cut costs and proceed cautiously. The industry began to talk of "wartime C.E.O.s" who can do more with less, while bragging about lessons learned from previous downturns.
    Patience for visionaries wore thin. Founder-led companies started to seem like liabilities, not assets. "All of that changed in the last 90 days, and it’s not coming back anytime soon," said Wil Schroter, the founder of Startups.com, an accelerator program for young companies. The "we’ll figure it out later" story is no longer attractive to investors, he added.
    They’re not leaving on a high note. Shares of Pinterest are down 60 percent from a year ago. Elliott Management, an activist shareholder known for pressuring companies to make big changes, recently took a stake in the company. Airbnb shares are down 25 percent from a year ago. And Instacart lowered its internal valuation almost 40 percent in March, as it prepares to go public in a hostile market.
    "It’s surely less fun being a C.E.O. when markets are down, the economy is trending negative and regulation is increasing," said Kevin Werbach, a professor of business at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "If you’re as already rich, famous and successful as these guys, there usually comes a point where staying in the saddle is less appealing than riding off into the sunset."
In the past decade, investors have________.
选项 A、caused resignations of leaders in valuable firms
B、poured plenty of capital into young companies
C、strived hard for special ownership rights
D、inverted the traditional rules of businesses
答案B
解析 细节题。根据题干中的investors可定位至第二段。B项对应第二句In recent years, investors have dumped increasingly large sums of money into a group of highly valued start-ups (近年来，投资者让越来越多的资金流向一批高估值初创企业)，该项属于同义改写，故正确。A项属于主观臆断，投资者给初创公司投资并不能等同于其导致领导辞职，故排除。C项与第三句Those founders fought for special ownership rights(这些创始人争取到了特殊的所有权)不符，争取特殊所有权的是创始人而非投资者，该项属于张冠李戴，故排除。D项与第三句a change from the past，when entrepreneurs were often replaced by more experienced executives(这与过去的情况不同，以前的企业家往往被更有经验的高管所取代)不符，原文未提到颠覆传统规则，该项属于主观臆断，故排除。故本题答案为B项。
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