探讨近来科技行业并购火爆之谜

The speed and volume of mergers and acquisitions large and small in the technology industry has ramped up. Global tech MA volume in the first half of this year was up 55% over last year, reaching its highest level since 2000.科技行业大大小小的收购在速度和规模上都有所提高。今年上半年，全球科技行业收购规模同比快速增长了50%，超过2000年以来的最高点。

Part of the reason for the buying spree is because tech companies have massive cash piles on their balance sheets. There’s also the acqui-hire trend, where tech companies are created cheaply, raise seed funding easily, fail, and then “sell” to Yahoo YHOO 0.76% , Facebook FB 2.35% , or Google GOOG 0.98% – which merely want the employees.经常出现并购热潮的部分原因是科技公司手中累积了大量现金。同时经常出现了为取得人才而并购的趋势——在这种趋势下，以低成本创办的科技公司精彩取得种子资金，然后破产，接下来就“出让”给雅虎（Yahoo）、Facebook和谷歌（Google）——但后者想的只是所并购公司的员工。But that’s not all. As vice chairman of JPMorgan Chase, Jimmy Lee has a front-row seat to the deal action. And he’s been increasingly pushing the firm into tech deals, most notably, the much-anticipated initial public offering of Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba.但这还不是全部。

摩根大通（JPMorgan Chase）副董事长吉米o李在收购领域仍然正处于前茅。他推展摩根大通更加多地参予到了科技公司的资本运作，其中最引人注意的就是中国电子商务巨擘阿里巴巴（Alibaba）倍受期望的亮相上市。

Speaking on stage at Fortune’s Brainstorm Tech conference in Aspen on Monday, Lee pointed to another sign of a tech MA boom: Shares of publicly traded tech companies going up, not down when they announced acquisitions in recent years. Traditionally, companies that acquire another lose value because of the expense along with the uncertainty about making the deal pay off.周一，吉米o李在阿斯彭举办的财富头脑风暴技术会议（Brainstorm Tech Conference）上同台讲话。他明确提出了科技行业经常出现收购热潮的另一条佐证，那就是最近几年，就收购事项发布公告后上市科技公司的股价没暴跌，反而节节上升。

传统上，收购方的价值不会上升，因为并购不会产生费用，而且并购能否带给收益不存在不确定性。“So the buy side is saying, we’re going to pay for growth, and it’s okay if we pay a premium,” Lee said. “A lot of it is a growth challenge that companies now want to go after, and attack it hard.”吉米o李说：“买方不会这么说道，我们卖的是成长性，因此溢价并购没问题。在很多情况下，这是一个有关茁壮的挑战。现在的企业都想要追赶这样的挑战，全力迎击。

”See a video of the discussion here.吉米o李援引了两个通过并购顺利构建快速增长的例子，一是Facebook耗资10亿美元并购图片和短视频共享网站Instagram（近期一期《财富》杂志回应展开了探究），二是八年前谷歌（Google）并购YouTube。Lee cited Facebook’s success with its $1 billion Instagram acquisition (recently outlined in the latest issue of Fortune magazine) and Google’s success with buying YouTube eight years ago as examples of successful growth by acquisition.吉米o李认为，各家公司仍然在黑市现金，而资本成本“实质上为零”。资产负债规模极大的科技公司争相兴起，造成风险投资领域经常出现了一个有意思的现象。

除了四处并购，风投资金还在相互竞争。谷歌的风投业务早已令人望而生畏，而还包括康卡斯特（Comcast）和时代华纳（Time Warner）在内的大型传媒公司也在提高对初创公司的投资规模。

Companies have been hoarding cash, Lee said, and the cost of capital “is virtually zero.” The rise of tech companies with massive balance sheets has created another interesting wrinkle for venture capital world. Aside from buying up portfolio companies, they’re also competing. Google built up has a formidable venture capital practice, and large media companies from Comcast to Time Warner have also ramped up their startup investing.股票投资机构Breyer Capital首席执行官吉米o布雷耶认为，以前人们总是指出这些公司的风投部门并不是确实的风投市场参与者，但现在它们“正在十分有效地进行竞争”。这给风险投资者带给了更大的竞争风险。

同时，竞争早已全球化，阿里巴巴、百度（Baidu）和腾讯（Tencent）等亚洲多元化集团都早已重新加入了这个行列。Jim Breyer, CEO of Breyer Capital, noted that these corporate venture arms, which weren’t always viewed as serious players in the VC game, are now “competing very effectively.” That has increased the competitive risks to venture investors, Breyer added. The competition is global, too, with Asian conglomerates from Alibaba and Baidu to Tencent bidding up deals.估值方面的情况是——到底，估值水平早已下降。风投机构First Round Capital合伙人乔什o科佩尔曼说道，近年来种子阶段投资的价格早已提升了20%-30%。

他说道：“我们仍然在希望维持对价格的敏感性。但作为风投机构，我们退出了对Twitter的投资……原因就是价格。”他回应，等到移动支付服务供应商Square回到自己面前时，他要求不重蹈覆辙。And about those valuations: Yes, they’ve gone up. Josh Kopelman, a partner at First Round Capital, says seed deals have increased in price by around 20% to 30% in recent years, which makes his job difficult. “We have tried to maintain price sensitivity,” he said. “But you’re also talking to a VC who passed on Twitter … because of price.” He noted that he decided not to do the same thing when Square knocked on his door.对于估值，布雷耶的理念跟科佩尔曼类似于：如果创立团队充足出众，他就乐意拿走资金。

他已完成的伟大投资价格都低得不足以让一些投资者裹足不前——其中还包括对Facebook的投资，当时的融资前估值为7800万美元。科佩尔曼说道：“如果（回报率）超过50倍甚至100倍，我就会考虑到价格。

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