Chinese business
Champ or chump?冠军还是笨蛋？（俗语中有一种说法，就是努力可以是一个人从chump变成champ。这里是反用，以示反讽之意。也就是Economist真的不看好。）

What the IBM/Lenovo deal says about Chinese firms' overseas ambitions
IBM/Lenovo这桩生意标志着中国企业的海外扩展雄心

IT SOUNDS like the testosterone-tinged vision of an investment banker: a little-known upstart buys its most famous rival, three times its size. Yet this time it happened in Beijing—on December 7th, when Lenovo, China's leading maker of personal computers with $3 billion in annual sales, bought the $9 billion-a-year PC division of mighty IBM for a puny $1.75 billion. The deal puts Lenovo into the industry's third place, behind Dell and Hewlett-Packard (HP).
听起来好像是一个注射了性激素的投资银行家：一个鲜为人知的暴发户买下了相当于其三倍的最著名的竞争对手。然而这次却真的发生在北京，12月7日，年销售额30亿美元的中国个人电脑制造业的领头羊联想，以微不足道的17.5亿美元买下了仅个人电脑事业部年销售额就达90亿美元的强大的IBM。这桩生意使得联想成为行业老三，仅次于戴尔和惠普。

Lenovo's move is the latest example of big Chinese firms aggressively expanding abroad, under orders from their government. Industrial firms such as PetroChina and Baosteel have been buying access to raw materials. TCL, an electronics group, won a controlling stake in a joint-venture with Thomson of France. Huawei, in telecoms equipment, and Haier, in white goods, are trying to build global brands. Liu Chuanzhi, Lenovo's co-founder and chairman, says that the IBM deal makes his group “a truly world-class company”.
联想的这一举动是最近中国大型企业积极扩张海外的一个例证，这都是在其政府的授意之下的。像中石油和宝钢等工业企业已经在购买原材料的使用权。电子集团TCL赢得了与法国Thomson合资企业的控股权。电信设备方面的华为以及白色家电领域的海尔，正在试图建立全球品牌。联想的创始人之一及董事局主席柳传志称收购IBM使联想集团成为了“一个真正意义上的世界级企业”。

In fact, cut-throat competition at home is at least as responsible for driving Chinese firms overseas as Beijing's grand vision. Lenovo, despite great connections, government contracts and a low tax rate (proof of official favour), is under pressure in China. Its market share, at 27%, is under attack. Its shares have fallen by 23% this year. “If we just focus on China, we cannot generate returns for our shareholders,” admits Mary Ma, Lenovo's finance chief.
事实上，至少和北京（中国政府）的宏伟目标一样，国内的激烈竞争也是驱使中国企业海外扩展的原因之一。且不论各方面的密切关系、政府的采购合同和低税率（这就是官方照顾的证明），联想在中国是饱受压力的。其27%的市场占有率正受到冲击。今年联想的市场占有率已经下降了23%。联想财务总监Mary Ma承认，“如果只是专著于中国市场，我们无法为股东取得回报。”

Facing structural overcapacity and intense but unfair domestic competition from firms that often are kept from bankruptcy by officialdom, it is no wonder many leading firms are seeking their fortune abroad. But, expanding out of weakness not strength, the danger is they will buy bad assets. TCL, for example, ended up taking a loss-making business with a dog-eared brand (RCA) off Thomson's hands. The same could be true of Lenovo.
面对结构性生产过剩和国内企业以官僚主义得以摆脱破产而带来的激烈且不公平的竞争，也就难怪许多领头羊企业寻求机会向海外发展。但是，出于疲软而不是强势而进行的扩张，面临的危险就是他们将会买入不良资产。例如TCL，就是将一桩亏损的生意终结于把过了时的品牌RCA从Thomson剥离出来。对联想来说可能也是这样。

There is no arguing with the strength of IBM's brand, which Lenovo has the right to use for five years—quite a vote of confidence in the firm from Big Blue. But PCs have become commodities. Martin Gilliland of Gartner, a research firm, expects PC revenue growth to fall from 4% to 2% a year by 2007, and that three of the top 10 vendors will exit the market. IBM, which invented the PC in 1981, is no longer a technology leader like Apple, or a cost leader like Dell. The business Lenovo is buying has hovered around break-even for years.
IBM品牌影响力是毫无疑义的，联想有权使用5年，相当一部分信心是来自IBM的“蓝色巨人”美誉。然而个人电脑已成为日用品了。一家调查机构Gartner的Martin Gilliland预期到2007年个人电脑收入增长会从年增4%降至2%，前十位的供应商中有三位将会退出市场。1981年发明了个人电脑的IBM也不再像Apple一样技术领先，或者像戴尔一样成本领先。联想正在买进的部分其实已经在崩溃边缘徘徊数年之久。

It is unlikely that Lenovo can bring much by way of management skill or strategy to its target. The Chinese PC-maker has dithered strategically—first dropping its Legend name as part of an international growth drive, then selling non-core businesses and refocusing on rural domestic customers—before doing the IBM deal. Cost savings are limited to purchasing synergies, since IBM already manufactures in China and other low-wage countries. Lenovo seems unlikely to improve efficiency at IBM's operations—the Chinese firm's 15% gross margins in 2003 were below those of many domestic rivals and less than half of IBM's.
联想好像不太可能利用管理能力或者目标策略而大有作为。这个中国PC制造商（联想）在其买入IBM之前已经在战略上三心二意了—首先换下Legend商标，作为国际化发展的一项驱动；然后卖出非核心业务并重新重视农村家庭消费者。由于IBM已经在中国和其他低工资国家加工产品了，成本节约也就局限于企业合并协同优势了。联想看起来并不像要在IBM的业务上提高效率—这个中国企业（联想）2003年15%的毛利低于很多国内竞争对手，更是比IBM的一半还少。

But Lenovo may make things worse, given cultural differences between Americans and Chinese, big differences in pay and the need for interpreters at every meeting. Vincent Yan, finance director of TCL, which is going through the same experience with the French, has admitted that the cultural gap proved wider than expected. The more disruptive the IBM acquisition proves for Lenovo, the better it will be for Dell, a true global champion.
不过，联想可能会把事情弄得更糟，这是由于中美之间的文化差异、工资的巨大差距以及每次会议都需要现场翻译等。TCL的财务经理Vincent Yan正经受着和法国人的同样体验，他认为事实证明文化隔阂远比预期的要深。对联想来说从IBM得到的越是证明是割裂开的，对戴尔这个真正的世界冠军来说情况就越好。