每日英語跟讀 Ep.K369: What Twitter could do as a privately held company
If Elon Musk and Twitter get their way, the company will soon be privately held and under his control. The most obvious immediate change would likely be Twitter’s stock being taken off the New York Stock Exchange. But the company would also likely get freed from having to give regular updates about its business to US regulators and to Wall Street. One important change for Twitter users is that the company would likely have more freedom to make big or unpopular changes. That’s because it wouldn’t have to worry about potential blowback from Wall Street.
如果埃隆馬斯克和推特如願以償，該公司很快就會私有化並在他的控制之下。最明顯的直接變化可能是 Twitter 的股票從紐約證券交易所撤出。但該公司也可能不必定期向美國監管機構和華爾街提供有關其業務的最新信息。對於 Twitter 用戶來說，一項重要的變化是，該公司可能有更多的自由來做出重大或不受歡迎的改變。那是因為它不必擔心來自華爾街的潛在反擊。
Here’s a look at what it means for a company to go private. WHAT WILL HAPPEN TO ITS STOCK? If the merger closes as planned, Twitter investors would get US$54.20 in cash for each share they own.
下面來看看公司私有化意味著什麼。它的庫存會怎樣？如果合併按計劃完成，Twitter 投資者將獲得每股 54.20 美元的現金。
Those shares would then be canceled and cease to exist. WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES THAT MAKE? Twitter would likely no longer have to file documents with US regulators every three months to show how much money it`s making. It also likely wouldn’t have to announce changes to its strategy or operations that are big enough to materially change its fortunes. Now, it risks getting sued if it doesn’t make such disclosures.
然後這些股份將被取消並不復存在。這有什麼不同？ Twitter 可能不再需要每三個月向美國監管機構提交文件以顯示它賺了多少錢。它也可能不必宣布對其戰略或運營進行大到足以改變其命運的改變。現在，如果不進行此類披露，它就有被起訴的風險。
”The biggest distinction is that Musk as an owner would be beholden to his own desires or to his and whatever remaining shareholders are still around, rather than to the wide investor base that it has now,’’ said Eric Talley, a law professor at Columbia University.
“最大的區別在於，馬斯克作為所有者將受制於他自己的願望，或者他和其他仍然存在的股東，而不是現在擁有的廣泛的投資者基礎，”埃里克·塔利 (Eric Talley) 哥倫比亞大學法律教授說，。
WHO WOULD BE IN CHARGE? The company would still have a board of directors, Talley said. It would also need to still follow state-level corporate governance rules, as well as all applicable tax, environmental and other laws.
誰來負責？塔利說，該公司仍將有一個董事會。它還需要遵守州級公司治理規則，以及所有適用的稅收、環境和其他法律。
WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF BEING PRIVATELY HELD? Going private removes the possibility of Twitter having to answer to angry shareholders if it makes big changes to its business. Musk has already floated the idea of depending less on advertising, which is Twitter’s main way of making money. Investors often send a stock price lower if they think a company’s decision is wrong, or at least being made at the wrong time. And the fiduciary duty of the board of directors for a publicly traded company is to generate a return for its investors. A privately held company, meanwhile, doesn’t need to worry about short-term drops for its stock price. It can also jump more whole heartedly into plans, say by hiring slews of new workers to transform it, without having to explain the jump in expenses to shareholders in its next quarterly report. Source article: https://www.taipeitimes.com/News/lang/archives/2022/05/03/2003777588
私人持有有什麼好處？如果 Twitter 對其業務做出重大改變，私有化消除了 Twitter 不得不回應憤怒的股東的可能性。馬斯克已經提出減少對廣告的依賴的想法，這是 Twitter 的主要賺錢方式。如果投資者認為公司的決定是錯誤的，或者至少是在錯誤的時間做出的，他們通常會降低股價。上市公司董事會的受託責任是為其投資者創造回報。與此同時，一家私營公司無需擔心其股價的短期下跌。它還可以更全心全意地投入計劃，例如通過僱用大量新員工來改造它，而無需在下一個季度報告中向股東解釋費用的增長。