In the late 1980s, Akio Morita, the co-founder of Sony Corp. , embarked on the most costly shopping expedition of his long career. A visionary who believed that Sony’s future lay in the convergence of hardware and “content” such as music and film, Morita eventually set his sights on Columbia Pictures Entertainment, with its two studios and a vast library of movie titles and television series. In September, 1989, after months of on-again, off-again negotiations, Sony agreed to pay the inflated asking price of $3.2 billion and assume $1.6 billion in debt.

What was the rationale for such a decision? According to John Nathan’s Sony: The Private Life, it was motivated only by senior executives’ desire to please the company patriarch. Even Morita, then Sony’s chairman and CEO, believed that Columbia’s price tag, originally $35 per share, was exorbitant. In a closed-door meeting in August, 1989, details of which have never been fully revealed, he told his seven top aides, who made up the decision-making executive committee, that he was abandoning the idea of the acquisition.

That would have been the end of it had Morita not voiced regret over dinner that evening with the committee members. “It’s too bad,” he lamented, “I’ve always dreamed of owning a Hollywood studio.” The next day, the group reconvened and promptly decided that Sony would purchase Columbia after all. In the weeks that followed, Sony upped its bid from an initial $15 to $27 a share and, by late September, made a deal that was ridiculed by industry experts. In 1994, mismanagement forced Sony to write off $2.7 billion and assume a loss of $510 million for its Hollywood experiment.

Sony: The Private Life is filled with such insiders’ tales, making it the most vivid and detailed account in English of the personalities who built the $50 billion-plus consumer-electronics giant. Nathan, a professor of Japanese cultural studies at the University of California, got access to dozens of executives who had contributed to or witnessed Sony’s development since its 1946 founding in war-devastated Tokyo. Nathan offers, however, only limited analysis of Sony, the corporation. And he tends to go over well-trodden ground: how Sony established itself in the U.S. and how it developed famous products or devices. Much of this has appeared before in articles and, to a lesser extent, in books.

This is not to say that Nathan’s book has no point of view. The company’s underlying problem, as illustrated in the Columbia case, is that the environment in which the Sony Corporation has historically conducted its affairs is less public than personal, less rational than sentimental. In conclusion, Nathan says that, under the current leadership of President Nobuyuki Idei, Sony is emerging as a rational company. Moreover, Idei and his practical-minded managers are intent on reinventing Sony as an Internet company. From now on, says Nathan, “personal relationships are not likely again to figure decisively.” But how will this Sony fare? Nathan admits that a dazzling future is far from guaranteed.

1. Which of the following is true of Sony’s acquisition of Columbia Pictures?

[A] It was motivated by Morita’s desire to project an image of success.

[B] Sony’s top executives were quite convinced of its benefits for the company.

[C] Entertainment industry insiders believed it was the failure of Hollywood.

[D] It was the expensive expansion from electronics into entertainment.

2. The word “patriarch” (line 2, paragraph 2) most probably means_____.

[A] founder [B] monarch [C] elder [D] forerunner

3. It can be inferred from the last two paragraphs that_____.

[A] Sony: The Private Life is the biography of Akio Morita

[B] Sony’s Japanese leaders have been too practical-minded

[C] this management problem of Sony cannot be rectified overnight

[D] Nathan did not write about how Sony established itself as the electronics giant

4. Nathan’s attitude towards Morita seems to be of_____.

[A] strong distaste [B] implicit criticism [C] enthusiastic support [D] reserved consent

5. The best title for the passage may be_____.

[A] Sony’s Shopping Expedition [B] Sony: the Private Life

[C] Who Drove Sony to Ground [D] Sony: Management by Impulse

答案:1.D 2.A 3.C 4.B 5.D

核心词汇和超纲词汇

(1)embark (v.) 上船，装船;~ on/upon sth.从事，着手，开始(新的或艰难的事情)

(2)expedition(n.)远征，探险;探险队;发出，派遣

(3)visionary(n.)空想家，梦想者，好幻想的人　vision(n.)幻想，幻影

(4)convergence(n.)集中，收敛converge(v.)聚合，集中于一点

(5)library(n.)系列丛书(或磁带等)，文库，如a ~ of children’s classics儿童文学名著系列丛书

(6)on-again, off-again一上一下，遭遇到种种波折

(7)asking price卖主的开叫价，卖出价

(8)rationale(n)(解释某个特别决定、行动、信仰的)基本原理，根本原因，理论依据

(9)exorbitant(a.)过度的，过高的，昂贵的

(10)lament(v.)悔恨，悲叹，哀悼

(11)reconvene(v.)重新集合，重新召集convene(v.)召集, 集合

(12)tread(v.)trod trodden踩，践踏;行走

(13)ground(n.)(兴趣、知识和思想的)范围、领域，如We have to go over the same~(我们得讨论同样的话题)。

(14)fare(n.)费用，旅客，食物(v.)过日子，遭遇，受招待How did you~in London?(你在伦敦过得怎样?)

全文翻译

在20世纪80年代后期，索尼公司的联合创始人盛田昭夫开始了他长期事业生涯中最昂贵的购物旅行。梦想家盛田昭夫相信索尼公司的未来在于硬件和音乐、电影这样的“内容”相结合，于是最终将目光投向哥伦比亚电影公司及其两个工作室和大量电影字母和电视剧集的文库。1989年9月，经过几个月几经波折的谈判，索尼公司同意支付飞涨的卖出价32亿美元从而承担16亿美元的债务。

这个决定的理论依据是什么?根据约翰内森所著《索尼公司的私人生活》，这个决定是出于高级行政人员要取悦公司创始人的愿望。甚至那时担任索尼公司主席和首席执行管的盛田昭夫也认为哥伦比亚的标价(开始是35美元一股)太昂贵。在1989年8月召开的一次从未完全公开的闭门会议中，他告诉组成具有决策权的执行委员会的七位高级助手，他将放弃收购的想法。

那天晚上用餐时如果盛田昭夫没有向委员会成员表示遗憾的话这件事情本应就这么结束了。他哀叹，“太糟了，我一直想拥有一个好莱坞工作室”。第二天，这个团队重新召开会议并仓促决定索尼公司将最终购买哥伦比亚。在接下来的几周内，索尼公司将其标价从开始的15美元一股上升到27美元。到了九月末，成交了一笔为业界专家嘲笑的交易。1994年，管理不善迫使索尼公司为它的好莱坞实验注销掉27亿美元资产和5.1亿美元的损失。

《索尼公司的私人生活》充满了这样的内幕故事，因此成为对建立价值500亿美元的消费者电子产品巨头的名人们最生动详细的描述。内森是加利福尼亚大学日本文化研究的教授，接触到很多作过贡献或目睹索尼公司自1946年在受战争破坏的东京建立以来的发展的行政人员。然而，内森只提供了对索尼公司的有限的分析，他总是重复老掉牙的话题：索尼公司如何在美国建立起来的，如何发展著名的产品和设备。这些内容很多以前在文章中出现，但较少出现在书中。

这并不是说内森的书没有观点。正如哥伦比亚事件所说明的，公司的潜在问题是“索尼公司历史事件发生的环境较个人化而非公开化，较感性而非理性”。 总之，内森说，在现任主席出井伸之的领导下，索尼公司正成为一个理性的公司。而且，出井伸之和他追求实际的经理们专心把索尼公司重新改造为一家因特网公司。内森说，“从现在开始，个人关系不可能再起决定作用”。但是这个索尼公司将经营得如何?内森承认，美好的未来远不能得到保证。