Jean-Dominique Senard, Renault’s chairman, admitted that relations with Nissan, the French carmaker’s alliance partner, were tense, but said that they could rebuild trust. Mr Senard was speaking at his first shareholders’ meeting since taking up his position in January, after Carlos Ghosn’s arrest in Tokyo for alleged financial misdeeds at Nissan. The French government, which holds a 15% stake in Renault, has undermined Mr Senard recently, most spectacularly by thwarting the company’s attempt to merge with Fiat Chrysler Automobiles. Mr Senard said he had been “saddened” by the state’s meddling.
法国汽车制造商雷诺董事长让-多米尼克·塞纳德承认,与联盟伙伴日产汽车的关系紧张,但表示他们可以重建信任。卡洛斯·戈恩因涉嫌在日产财务违规在东京被捕后,塞纳德1月份上任以来的第一次股东大会上发表了讲话。持有雷诺15%股份的法国政府最近开始打压塞纳德,最引人注目的是挫败了该公司与菲亚特克莱斯勒汽车公司合并的计划。塞纳德表示,他对政府的干预感到“难过”。
Volkswagen ended its association with Aurora, a self-driving-vehicles startup, clearing the way for it to work with Argo, a similar outfit that Ford, which launched a partnership with VW this year, has invested in. This week Argo expanded testing of its fleet of autonomous cars to Detroit, the historic home of carmaking.
大众终止了与自动驾驶汽车初创企业Aurora的合作,为其与Argo的合作扫清了道路。今年,福特(Ford)与大众建立了合作关系,并且也对Argo进行了投资。本周,Argo将其自动驾驶车队的测试扩展到历史悠久的汽车制造之都——底特律。
Salesforce, a highly acquisitive cloud-based software company, struck its biggest deal to date when it offered $15.7bn for Tableau, a provider of computer-graphics for data bods.
Salesforce是一家有强烈并购意愿的云计算软件公司。该公司以157亿美元收购数据库电脑图形供应商Tableau,达成了迄今最大的一笔交易。
Insys, which makes a fentanyl-based painkiller spray, filed for bankruptcy protection, days after it settled with the federal government for its marketing of the product. Many of the pharmaceutical companies blamed for America’s opioid crisis face potentially large legal claims; they stand accused of pushing the drugs.
生产芬太尼止痛药喷雾剂的Insys申请了破产保护,前几日该公司刚与联邦政府就该产品的营销达成和解。许多被指责对美国阿片类药物危机负有责任的制药公司面临着潜在的巨额法律索赔;他们被控兜售该药物。
In what it described as an “unprecedented action”, the British government ordered Whirlpool to recall up to 500,000 tumble dryers over safety concerns. The American maker of white goods issued a warning in 2015 that certain brands of dryers might catch fire, but rather than issue a recall it tried to fix them.
英国政府出于安全考虑,下令惠而普召回多达50万台滚筒式烘干机,并称这是一项“前所未有的行动”。这家美国白色家电制造商曾于2015年警告称,部分品牌的烘干机可能会起火,但该公司没有召回这些产品,而是试图修复这些问题。
Beyond Meat had a rollercoaster week on the stockmarket. The American fake-meat company’s already buoyant share price soared after its first earnings report since going public in May revealed a boom in sales. But investors lost their appetite when an analyst warned that the stock was overpriced, sending the price down by a quarter.
Beyond Meat在股票市场上经历了大起大落的一周。自5月份上市以来的第一份盈利报告显示销售额激增后,这家美国人造肉公司本就上涨的股价飙升。但当一位分析师警告称,该股定价过高时,投资者丧失了兴趣,导致股价下跌了四分之一。
A new chapter
新篇章
Elliott Management, a hedge fund, agreed to acquire Barnes & Noble in a $683m deal. Elliott also owns Waterstones, a British chain of bookstores that is thriving despite predictions that Amazon would kill it off. James Daunt, who, as managing director, is credited with reviving Waterstones is also to run Barnes & Noble, where he will hope to turn the page on the American bookseller’s declining fortunes.
对冲基金Elliott Management同意以6.83亿美元收购Barnes & Noble。Elliott Management还管理着水石书店(Waterstones),一家正在蓬勃发展的英国连锁书店,尽管有预测称亚马逊会吞并这家公司。作为董事总经理,詹姆斯·道特(James Daunt)被认为是让水石书店起死回生的功臣,他还将掌管Barnes & Noble,他希望能让这家衰落的美国书商东山再起。