VOA慢速英语 2008 0215a
时间：2019-01-11 作者：英语课 分类：VOA慢速英语2008年（二）月
This is the VOA Special English Economics Report.
The competition between Microsoft and Google took a new turn on February first. Microsoft made a public offer to buy the Internet company Yahoo. Microsoft says the combined companies would be in a better position to compete against Google in the online services market.
This week, Yahoo rejected the offer. Its board of directors said the price undervalued the company. The offer was worth almost forty-five billion dollars in cash and stock, or thirty-one dollars per Yahoo share. Yahoo is said to want forty dollars a share.
Microsoft says it offered a full and fair price. It says moving forward quickly with the deal would be in the best interest of shareholders 1. Yet since February first, the value of Microsoft's offer has fallen to twenty-nine dollars a share because of a drop in its stock.
Microsoft thinks it could better compete against Google with Yahoo's expert knowledge. Microsoft could attempt a hostile takeover. But that is not the way it normally does business, and there is risk of angering Yahoo's employees.
In the last two weeks, Yahoo has discussed possible combinations with other companies, including the News Corporation, AOL and Google. But Yahoo may not be able to avoid a buyout by Microsoft. The latest reports are that some big Yahoo shareholders would support a deal if Microsoft raised its offer.
The purchase would be the largest ever by the world's leading software maker 2. Yet Microsoft has made little progress in its Internet search abilities and in the growing business of online advertising 3. Google, the leading Internet search company, is the strongest competitor for those advertising dollars.
Microsoft is based in Redmond, Washington. Yahoo and Google are in California's Silicon 4 Valley.
Internet technology was also at the heart of the television and movie writers strike, which ended this week. Writers voted in Los Angeles and New York to return to work after one hundred days on strike. A proposed new contract would pay them for the first time for creative material that appears online and in other new media.
Members of the Writers Guild 5 of America are expected to approve the three-year deal with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Now the producers need to negotiate a new agreement with the Screen Actors Guild or risk another strike. The current contract with the actors union ends June thirtieth.
And that's the VOA Special English Economics Report, written by Mario Ritter. I'm Bob Doughty 6.
- The meeting was attended by 90% of shareholders. 90%的股东出席了会议。
- the company's fiduciary duty to its shareholders 公司对股东负有的受托责任
- He is a trouble maker，You must be distant with him.他是个捣蛋鬼，你不要跟他在一起。
- A cabinet maker must be a master craftsman.家具木工必须是技艺高超的手艺人。
- Can you give me any advice on getting into advertising? 你能指点我如何涉足广告业吗?
- The advertising campaign is aimed primarily at young people. 这个广告宣传运动主要是针对年轻人的。
- This company pioneered the use of silicon chip.这家公司开创了使用硅片的方法。
- A chip is a piece of silicon about the size of a postage stamp.芯片就是一枚邮票大小的硅片。
- He used to be a member of the Writers' Guild of America.他曾是美国作家协会的一员。
- You had better incorporate the firm into your guild.你最好把这个公司并入你的行业协会。