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  3. Last week it emerged that BAE Systems, Europe’s biggest defence firm, and EADS, the owner of Airbus and a smaller defence busine

Last week it emerged that BAE Systems, Europe’s biggest defence firm, and EADS, the owner of Airbus and a smaller defence busine

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问题     Last week it emerged that BAE Systems, Europe’s biggest defence firm, and EADS, the owner of Airbus and a smaller defence business, were mooting a ￡38 billion ($50 billion) merger. This week the buzz behind closed doors concerned a single question: will governments allow it?
    The business case is straightforward. BAE is ailing. Despite successfully gambling on becoming a big gun in America nearly a decade ago, the slump in defence spending on both sides of the Atlantic had forced it to consider new options. Its tentative advances to Rolls-Royce were rebuffed.【C1】______
    At any other time, the obstacles to a deal—differences over valuation, clashing personalities and the politicised shareholding structure of EADS—might still have seemed insurmountable. But valuation has become less of an issue. BAE’s price/earnings ratio fell by nearly a third in the 18 months before merger rumours began this summer. Pessimism about the firm’s prospects deepened, too.
    Politics and personalities have grown easier. 【C2】______. He has also maintained close relationships at BAE, particularly with its boss, Ian King.
    The defeat of France’s president, Nicolas Sarkozy, in May helped, too. Mr. Sarkozy was chummy with Serge Dassault, the owner of Dassault Aviation, a rival maker of jets. He would never have allowed a marriage that could hurt Dassault. 【C3】______.
    Yet uniting the two firms will not be easy. The governments of at least four countries must agree: France, Germany, Britain and America. 【C4】______. A big defence firm like the merged BAE/EADS will have to assure its customers (governments) that vital intelligence is ring-fenced and cannot leak from one part of the business to another. Nor can it be acquired by an unsuitable buyer.
    Satisfying these conditions will be so tricky that some analysts think the deal will founder.【C5】______
    Rivals such as Boeing and Lockheed are sure to lobby against the merger, since it would create a competitor with bigger global sales than their own. However, the American government should welcome the emergence of a gigantic European contractor, says a defence executive. It could help Europe to do more for its own defence and spend its money more efficiently (i.e. , less nationalistically).
    More detail about both the commercial logic of combining BAE and EADS and how the overlapping political circles are to be squared will emerge after October 10th. That is when the two firms are obliged, under Britain’s rules for mergers, to say whether or not they are going ahead. Both firms are determined to make it work, but it will be their governments that decide.
[A] BAE’s institutional shareholders will not back any proposal that leaves them with 40% of a company that does not have a normal governance structure.
[B] In May Tom Enders, a German who had run Airbus since 2007, became the chief executive of EADS. Mr. Enders has long wanted to turn EADS into a "normal" firm untainted by political influence.
[C] The new President, Frangois Hollande, has given Mr. Enders a green light to explore a deal.
[D] Both Lagardere and Daimler would welcome a chance to sell their stakes. The French government has indicated it might hang on to its shares, but accept being diluted to 9%.
[E] EADS, with orders for the civil jets made by Airbus booming and little overlap in its military business, looked alluring.
[F] For example, it will be tough to provide the security guarantees that American lawmakers will demand so long as the French and German governments retain influence over the combined entity.
[G] Both Mr. Enders and Dick Olver, BAE’s chairman, are confident that they will prevail. It is not clear what will happen to the French and German stakes in EADS.
【C5】
选项
答案F
解析 本题所在段落紧承上一段，说明满足上面提到的要求和条件很难，即：很难同时满足四国的要求。因此有些分析家认为并购案不会成功。为证明这一说法，下面需要进一步举例说明不会成功的原因。而[F]恰好是很好的事实佐证。其开始的for example紧密承接上句；而根据对本项内容的理解得知，所举例子的含义是法德两国对合并后的公司仍可能具有影响力，即：可能会干涉公司一些事务，那么其他国家，比如美国的一些立法者，就会提出安全保证要求。因此就会发生冲突，这就恰好印证了很难满足要求这个说法。因此[F]最符合题意。
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