创业成功人士访谈录 第11期:比尔盖茨(5)

 　　Let’s talk a little about going public,

　　我们来谈一谈上市，
　　and whether that was something that everybody accepted that you needed to do，
　　你们做的事情是不是所有人都认可的，
　　whether it was a controversial issue， and what difference it made?
　　有没有争议？带来什么变化？
　　Well, Microsoft had started giving out stock options to people as early as 1981.
　　嗯，微软早在1981年就开始对外出售股票。
　　So we were sharing in the success we thought we’d have.
　　所以我们分享的是我们觉得理应有的成功。
　　As we did that, they had about a five year vesting period.
　　这样做，我们大概有5年的财产保留期。
　　And so as some people were starting to vest on quite a bit of their stock,
　　当有些人开始对他们的股票实行保留权的时候，
　　there was the question of how would they get liquidity 1?
　　问题来了，他们如何进行资产流动？
　　Now you could just let it be traded privately 2,
　　现在，你可以直接私下交易，
　　but then the price would fluctuate a lot because the supply would be so short.
　　但当时价格会浮动得很大，因为供应不足。
　　And I was quite reluctant to go public because of the overhead.
　　由于经费问题，我不愿意上市。
　　We had been able to track our stock price internally up in a very linear way.
　　我们可以直接内部跟踪我们的股价。
　　And with the market sort of maybe over-anticipating the future,
　　而在股票市场上可能对未来期望过高，
　　or getting paranoid—you know the stock would be very volatile 3.
　　或变得多疑——你知道股票是变幻无常的。
　　But I was convinced that it made sense.
　　但我确信它有意义。
　　And as long as we were going to do it,
　　并且只要我们着手去做，
　　it was an opportunity to really expose the company broadly.
　　这就是一次公司广泛曝光的机会。
　　Talk about our vision where we had done well, where we were taking the industry.
　　谈论我们的梦想，我们做得好的地方，我们将这个产业带向何方。
　　And it did become something that was covered very, very broadly by a lot of people.
　　确实，有许多人参与进来。
　　And it was extremely successful.
　　确实办得很成功。
　　The stock took off after this offering at $21.00，
　　股票发行时的价值是21美金，
　　and it just zoomed 4 up from there for many, many years.
　　这么多年一直在升。
　　There was no regret about going public?
　　所以上市并没有什么遗憾了？
　　Going public is not without its complexities 5 in terms of dealing 6 with analysts 7 and all the reports.
　　上市并不容易，需要和分析家讨论并处理所有的报告。
　　It is a little convoluted 8 about when can you keep things secret versus 9 having to go out and talk about those things.
　　什么时候应该保密，什么时候对外公布，这并不好控制。
　　So, it is not totally simple.
　　所以并不简单。
　　But the benefit of having the stock be very liquid for everyone was very positive.
　　但股票可以随时流通对每个人来说是有很明显的好处的。
　　We didn’t use any of the money that we raised.
　　我们没有花一分筹到的钱。
　　We just put that money in the bank and it sat there with all of the money that we had earned,
　　我们把这些钱存入银行，和我们赚到的钱放在一起，
　　because we were very profitable and had plenty of cash by this time.
　　因为我们的利润空间很大，并且现金充裕。
　　So our reason for going public was very different than any other company that was going public.
　　所以我们上市的原因与其他上市公司完全不同。
　　You have a couple of charts there,Bill，
　　你那有两个表格，比尔，
　　that kind of track your growth that you might want to pick up.
　　你期望的公司发展轨迹。
　　I’m curious to know whether it was more satisfying for you to add your first 100, 1,000，or 10,000 employees?
　　我很好奇，当你在雇用第100名、1000名、10000名员工的时候，
　　And, how did you feel about the incredible growth in your company in this time period?
　　这种公司规模的扩张是不是让你感觉更满意？你对公司这个时期令人难以置信的发展怎么看？
　　Well, the growth in sales was pretty rapid.
　　嗯，销售的发展很快。
　　We were doubling every two years.
　　每两年就会翻一番。
　　It just looks like an exponential curve.
　　就像一条指数曲线。
　　It is unusual because in here there is a lot of products that are coming and going,
　　这很不寻常，因为不断的有新产品被开发出来，
　　and products that are doing incredibly well and yet it looks very well ordered.
　　并且都做得好到令人难以置信，看起来订单不少。
　　The profits went up the same way.
　　利润同样也在上升。
　　Actually, the profitability percentage rose a little bit as we moved up here.
　　事实上，我们搬到这里以后，利润率又有所上升。
　　So it was very tightly managed.
　　因此，管理很紧凑。