評(píng)論
打印
Business
商業(yè)報(bào)道
E-readers
電子書(shū)
Turning the page
翻開(kāi)新篇章
Microsoft and Barnes Noble write their own love story
微軟公司與巴諾公司握手言和，共譜傳奇
LAST July Barnes Noble gave a presentation to the antitrust division of America's Department of Justice.
去年七月，美國(guó)圖書(shū)零售商巴諾公司為聯(lián)邦司法部的反壟斷局做過(guò)一次演講。
In slide after slide, the bookseller laid into Microsoft.
隨著幻燈片逐張翻過(guò)，巴諾公司指責(zé)微軟公司的意圖也顯露了出來(lái)。
The software giant, it thundered, was guilty of anti-competitive behaviour in demanding royalties from makers of mobile devices that used Android, Google's open-source mobile operating system.
在指責(zé)中，軟件巨頭微軟公司被認(rèn)為通過(guò)壟斷性戰(zhàn)略強(qiáng)迫向移動(dòng)設(shè)備制造收取版權(quán)稅。使用了谷歌開(kāi)源系統(tǒng)—安卓系統(tǒng)的產(chǎn)品都在受影響之列，其中就包括巴諾公司的電子閱讀器Nook。
The bookseller sniffed that Microsoft owned only trivial patents and reminded the department of the software company's past trespasses against competition.
不過(guò)這個(gè)圖書(shū)零售公司也敏銳的發(fā)現(xiàn)微軟公司持有的都是些無(wú)足輕重的專(zhuān)利，他們通過(guò)演講讓司法部門(mén)想起了微軟公司過(guò)去競(jìng)爭(zhēng)中表現(xiàn)出的侵略性行為。
Nine months later, the bookworms and the geeks are the best of friends.
九個(gè)月之后，書(shū)蟲(chóng)和技術(shù)宅成為了最好的朋友。
On April 30th Barnes Noble said it was creating a subsidiary,
4月30號(hào)，巴諾公司聲明正在創(chuàng)建一家子公司，
called NewCo for now, into which it would put Nook and its college business, which has 641 bookshops on American campuses.
并由其代行Nook銷(xiāo)售業(yè)務(wù)以及校園業(yè)務(wù)。現(xiàn)在名為NewCo的這家子公司已經(jīng)在美國(guó)大學(xué)中有641家書(shū)店。
Microsoft is putting up $300m for 17.6% of NewCo. People will be able to buy and read e-books through a Nook application for Windows 8,
微軟花3億美元購(gòu)買(mǎi)了NewCo公司17.6%的股權(quán)。不久的將來(lái)，人們將可以通過(guò)Nook應(yīng)用程序在windows 8操作系統(tǒng)上購(gòu)買(mǎi)并閱讀電子書(shū)。
a new incarnation of Microsoft's operating system that is due to appear in a few months.
Nook的windows版本即將于幾月后推出。
Microsoft will pay NewCo an advance of $180m over three years for such purchases, plus $125m over five years to buy content and develop technology.
微軟將向NewCo支付1.8億美元作為三年的購(gòu)買(mǎi)費(fèi)用，同時(shí)還支付了1.25億美元購(gòu)買(mǎi)五年的內(nèi)容和技術(shù)升級(jí)。
The squabbles over patents have been settled:
關(guān)于知識(shí)產(chǎn)權(quán)的爭(zhēng)端也得以解決：
Microsoft is giving Barnes Noble a licence for the Nook and will get royalties in return.
微軟為巴諾的Nook閱讀器提供授權(quán)，而巴諾則向微軟支付版權(quán)稅。
For now at least, the Nook will remain an Android, not Windows, device.
不過(guò)至少目前，Nook仍是在安卓設(shè)備上運(yùn)行，而非windows。
The agreement values NewCo at $1.7 billion, more than twice Barnes Noble's market capitalisation before it was announced.
NewCo的最終協(xié)議價(jià)格是17億美元，比這個(gè)項(xiàng)目被宣布之前，巴諾的市值高出兩倍還多。
The bookseller's share price rose by 50% on the day of the deal—which tells you what investors think of the dead-tree end of the trade.
完成交易的當(dāng)天，圖書(shū)零售商的股價(jià)上升了50%，這足以說(shuō)明投資者是如何看待這項(xiàng)老樹(shù)開(kāi)新花的交易的。
The alliance should bring Barnes Noble not only cash but also new readers of digital books and magazines, especially outside the United States.
聯(lián)合的戰(zhàn)略不僅將為巴諾公司帶來(lái)現(xiàn)金，更將增加電子書(shū)與電子雜志的讀者數(shù)量，在美國(guó)之外更是如此。
In the fourth quarter of 2011, according to Tom Mainelli of IDC, a research firm, Barnes Noble accounted for one-fifth of the 7m e-readers shipped in America，
根據(jù)市場(chǎng)研究機(jī)構(gòu)IDC的Tom Mainelli所述，美國(guó)本土銷(xiāo)售的7百萬(wàn)電子閱讀器中，巴諾公司的產(chǎn)品占了1/5
against a mighty three-quarters for Amazon, maker of the Kindle.
與之相對(duì)的是亞馬遜公司生產(chǎn)的Kindle閱讀器：該產(chǎn)品的銷(xiāo)售占了美國(guó)本土交易的3/4。
But Barnes Noble shipped no Nooks elsewhere, which helps explain why it had only 14% of the global market.
不過(guò)巴諾公司沒(méi)有在其他地方銷(xiāo)售Nook產(chǎn)品，這也解釋了為什么該產(chǎn)品只占全球14%的市場(chǎng)。
Via the Nook app, non-Americans will also be able to leaf through Barnes Noble's digital catalogue.
通過(guò)Nook應(yīng)用程序，美國(guó)之外的用戶(hù)也能夠翻閱巴諾公司的電子目錄。
Microsoft is in effect buying a second bash at a market where it made an early but unsuccessful start.
微軟公司已是第二次涉足電子書(shū)市場(chǎng)，而它首次進(jìn)入時(shí)并不成功。
It launched its own e-reader software all of 12 years ago.
12年前，它曾經(jīng)推廣過(guò)自家的電子閱讀軟件。
The deal with Barnes Noble, bringing lots of content with it, may give people an extra reason to buy Windows 8 tablets when they appear.
現(xiàn)在與巴諾公司達(dá)成的協(xié)議也充實(shí)了微軟自家閱讀器軟件中的內(nèi)容，用戶(hù)們因此有更多的理由在windows 8平板面世后選購(gòu)它們。
The bundling of Barnes Noble's college business into NewCo indicates a hope that a fair few of these customers will be students.
巴諾公司在NewCo中大量捆綁自家業(yè)務(wù)的做法暗示了學(xué)生將占用戶(hù)群中的很大一部分。
Allen Weiner of Gartner, another research firm, suggests that through campus bookshops Barnes Noble could sell Windows devices pre-loaded with course material.
另一家調(diào)研公司Gartner的Allen Weiner建議道，巴諾公司可以在校園內(nèi)銷(xiāo)售一些預(yù)裝了教材的windows產(chǎn)品。
Of course, others are after students' dollars too.
當(dāng)然，其他的閱讀材料還是需要學(xué)生花錢(qián)購(gòu)買(mǎi)的。
Apple recently started selling interactive digital textbooks for the iPad, far and away the biggest-selling tablet.
蘋(píng)果公司近期開(kāi)始銷(xiāo)售ipad上使用的數(shù)字互動(dòng)教材，ipad是最暢銷(xiāo)的平板產(chǎn)品。
But Mr Weiner points out that Microsoft and Barnes Noble have some advantages.
但是Weiner先生指出微軟公司與巴諾公司也有自己的優(yōu)勢(shì)。
Lots of students write notes and essays with Microsoft's Office software, which is not available on the iPad.
大量的學(xué)生利用微軟的office軟件書(shū)寫(xiě)筆記與評(píng)論，但是ipad卻不能運(yùn)行office軟件。
And although Amazon sells and rents a lot of paper textbooks, it has not done much with digital ones.
而盡管亞馬遜借出并銷(xiāo)售大量的紙質(zhì)版教材，但是在數(shù)字產(chǎn)品上，他還遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)落后于競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手。
The tie-up with Barnes Noble makes three of a kind for Microsoft:
與巴諾公司的聯(lián)合把微軟公司拉到了與ipad，亞馬遜同一起跑線(xiàn)的位置：
cheap deals with struggling but established partners in markets where it is weak and sees a chance to do much better.
在自身影響力不足但是未來(lái)前景廣闊的市場(chǎng)上與一家比較成熟，但還有些小問(wèn)題的公司廉價(jià)建立了聯(lián)系。
In 2009 it struck an agreement with Yahoo! in online search.
在2009年，微軟公司成功與雅虎簽訂在線(xiàn)搜索業(yè)務(wù)方面的協(xié)議。
Last year Nokia became the prime conduit for Windows in smartphones.
去年諾基亞成為了讓windows系統(tǒng)進(jìn)駐智能手機(jī)的主要途徑。
With Barnes Noble it is having another stab at e-reading. Unlike the books on the Nook, this tale is still being written.
而與巴諾公司的合作一定可以讓微軟公司在電子閱讀器市場(chǎng)扎穩(wěn)腳步。與Nook的故事不同，這段新傳奇正被續(xù)寫(xiě)。
