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❶When Microsoft bought task management app 2015 Wunderlist and mobile calendar Sunrise in 2015, it picked Wunderlist （ up two newcomers that were attracting considerable buzz in Sunrise （ Silicon Valley.❷Microsoft's own Office dominates the market for "productivity" software, but the start-ups represented a new wave of technology designed from the ground up for the smartphone world・ [2] OBoth apps, however, were later scrapped after Microsoft said it had used their best features in its own products. ❷Their teams of engineers stayed on, making them two of the many "acqui-hires" that the biggest companies have used to feed their great hunger for tech talent. [3] OTo Microsoft*5 s 6 2 c *3r i4t ics, the fates of Wunderlist and （32） Sunrise are examples of a remorseless drive by Big Tech to chew up any innovative companies that lie in their path・ ❷"They bought the seedlings and closed them down，" complained Paul Arnold, a partner at San Francisco-based Switch Ventures, putting an end to businesses that might one day turn into competitors・ ❷Microsoft declined to comment. [4] OLike other start-up investors, Mr Arnold's own business often depends on selling start-ups to larger tech companies, though he admits to mixed feelings about the result: "I think these things are good for me, if I put my selfish hat on. ❷But are they good for the American economy? ❷I don9t know." [5] OThe US Federal Trade Commission says it wants to find the answer to that question. ❷This week, it asked the five most valuable US tech companies for information about their many small acquisitions over the past decade・ ❷Although only a research project at this stage, the request has raised the prospect of regulators wading into early-stage tech markets that until now have been beyond their reach・ [6]
❶ Given their combined market value of more than $5.5 trillion, rifling through such small deals—many of them /much less prominent than Wunderlist and Sunrise—might seem beside the point. ❷Between them, the five biggest tech companies have spent an average of only $3.4 billion a year on sub-$l billion acquisitions over the past five years—a drop in the ocean compared with their massive financial reserves, and the more than $130 billion of venture capital that was invested 1300 in the US last year・ [7]
❶However，critics say the big companies use such deals to buy their most threatening potential competitors before their businesses have a chance to gain momentum, in some cases as part of a "buy and kill" tactic to simply close them down. IEI
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年，微软收购了任务管理应用 奇妙清单）和移动日程安排应用 日出），其挑选的这两款新的应用 程序在硅谷引起了相当大的轰动。微软自己 的办公软件Office主导着“生产力”软件市场， 而初创企业则代表了完全为智能手机世界设 计的一股新的技术浪潮。 然而，在微软表示已在自家产品中应用 了它们的最优特性后，这两款应用程序便双 双被关停了。（ 31 ）其工程师团队则继续留 在微软，成为大公司为满足它们对科技人才 的强烈渴求而采取的诸多“人才并购”行为 中的两个。 在微软的批评者看来，Wunderlist 和Sunrise的命运表明，科技巨头毫不留情地 想要摧毁任何阻碍其发展的创新型公司。总 部位于旧金山的投资机构Switch Ventures的 合伙人保罗•阿诺德抱怨道：“他们收购并 关闭了这些初创企业。”微软此举终结了那 些有朝一日可能会变成其竞争对手的企业。 但微软对此拒绝置评。 与其他初创企业投资者一样，阿诺德先 生的业务通常依赖于将初创企业出售给规模 更大的科技公司，（33 ）不过他承认，面对 这样的结果，他的心情也很复杂：“如果我 自私自利的话，我认为这些事情对我有好处。 但它们对美国经济有好处吗？我并不知道。” 美国联邦贸易委员会表示希望找到 这个问题的答案。本周，该机构询问了美国 市值最高的五家科技公司过去十年间进行的 许多小型收购的相关信息。尽管这只是现阶 段的一个研究项目，但这一要求增加了监管 机构涉足早期科技市场的可能性，而到目前 为止，其都无法涉足这些市场。 考虑到这五家科技公司的总市值超过5.5 万亿美元，因此从如此小规模的收购交易厶 案例中寻找答案——其中许多收购对象远没 有Wunderlist和Sunrise那么引人注目 ---- 似乎有些离题太远。（35）在这些收购交易 中，过去五年里这五大科技公司平均每年仅 花费34亿美元用于10亿美元以下的收购， 与其庞大的金融储备以及去年在美国投资的 多亿美元的风险资本相比，这不过是九 牛一毛。 然而，批评人士表示，这些大公司利用 此类交易，在对它们最具威胁的潜在竞争对 手的业务有机会发展壮大之前，就将其收购。 在某些情况下，这是“先买再杀”策略的一 部分，其目的只不过是关闭这些初创企瞬a