The bidding escalated in the battle for Sky, Britain’s premier subscription-TV broadcaster. A day after 21st Century Fox submitted a proposal that valued Sky at 24.5bn pounds ($32.5bn), Comcast upped its offer, to 26bn pounds. Fox is bidding for the 61% of shares in Sky it doesn’t already own in order to sell the lot to Disney, along with Fox’s other entertainment assets. Comcast has muddied the waters with a rival offer for Fox’s assets.
爭奪英國最大的付費電視運營商——天空廣播公司(Sky)的競標升級。在21世紀福克斯公司提交了一份245億英鎊(合325億美元)的報價后，第二天康卡斯特上調報價至260億英鎊。福克斯正在競購尚未到手的天空廣播公司的61%股份，以便將這部分股份與福克斯其他娛樂資產一起出售給迪斯尼。康卡斯特(Comcast)對福克斯(Fox)的資產提出了競爭性收購要約，讓局面變得撲朔迷離。
The bully pulpit
天字第一號講壇(白宮)
After a stern dressing-down from Donald Trump, Pfizer said it would reverse the recent price rises it introduced on about 40 drugs and wait for the president’s plan to reduce the cost of medicines. The company also reorganised itself along three business lines: innovative medicines, established brands and consumer health care.
在遭到唐納德·特朗普(Donald Trump)的嚴厲斥責后，美國制藥公司輝瑞(Pfizer)表示，將扭轉新推出的約40種藥品價格上漲的趨勢，靜待總統出臺降低藥物成本的計劃。該公司還根據創新藥品、知名品牌和消費者醫療保健三大業務線進行了重組。
Norwegian, a low-cost airline that wants to disrupt the market for transatlantic travel, made a net profit of NKr296m ($37m) in the second quarter, confounding analysts’ forecasts that it would report a big loss. The carrier’s sales rose by 32% compared with the same three months last year.
低成本航空公司——挪威航空(Norwegian)想要擾亂跨大西洋旅行市場，該公司第二季度實現凈利潤2.96億挪威克朗(約3700萬美元)，這打亂了分析師的預測——即該公司將出現巨額虧損。這家航空公司的銷售額較去年同期增長了32%。
After completing the first leg of a fundraising round, Juul, which dominates the e-cigarette market in America, was valued at $15bn. That is half the market capitalisation of Imperial Brands, which counts Golden Virginia tobacco among its assets, and makes Juul one of America’s most valuable startups. Once promoted as an aid to quit smoking, vaping has become trendy. Juul’s sales have risen by 800% over the past year.
在完成一輪融資的第一回合后，占據美國電子煙市場主導地位的Juul公司估值為150億美元。這相當于帝國煙草公司市值的一半。而帝國煙草公司的資產包括Golden Virginia tobacco，這讓Juul公司一躍成為美國最具價值的創業公司之一。作為戒煙的輔助手段，電子煙一度成為一種時尚。Juul公司的銷售額在過去一年增長了800%。
Britain’s information commissioner handed Facebook a 500,000 pounds ($660,000) fine for failing to protect users and for a lack of transparency over the data obtained via the social network by Cambridge Analytica, a political consulting firm. It was the biggest penalty allowed under British data-protection laws. The regulator also slapped a fine on an advice site for new parents, which shared personal data with the Labour Party.
英國信息專員對臉書處以50萬英鎊的罰款，原因是臉譜網未能保護用戶，且沒有對劍橋分析公司如何在其平臺上獲取用戶信息保持透明。這是英國數據保護法范圍內的最高一筆罰款。該監管機構還對一家為新父母提供咨詢服務的網站開出了罰款，該網站與工黨共享個人數據。
The last straw
最后一根稻草
Starbucks announced that it will phase out disposable plastic straws by 2020, the biggest development so far in a campaign to ban single-use plastic utensils in the fast-food industry. The coffee chain is also trying to reduce the number of disposable cups (six billion) it issues to the chai-latte-sipping classes each year.
星巴克宣布，將在2020年前逐步淘汰一次性塑料吸管，這是目前快餐業禁止一次性塑料餐具最大的一次進展。這家咖啡連鎖企業還試圖減少每年向chai-latte-sipping課程發放的一次性杯子的數量（60億）。
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