彭博社（双语）|孙正义如何撼动美国硅谷（一）

孙正义是当代最具影响力的商人之一

Masayoshi Son is one of the most influential dealmakers（交易商）of our time.

“这是来自日本软银集团的孙正义”

“This is Masa of Softbank from Japan.”

孙正义也被称为Masa

Son who goes by Masa.

被一些人认为是风险投资中最聪明的冒险家之一

is considered by some as one of the most brilliant risk takers（购买者） in venture capital（风险投资）.

他以320亿美元投资了芯片制造商ARM

$ 32 billion for chipmaker ARM,

分别以90亿美元 44亿美元投资了Uber WeWork

$ 9 billion to Uber, $ 4.4 billion into WeWork.

这样的例子不胜枚举

The list goes on.

另一些人则认为软银的首席执行官是一个不计后果的鲁莽之徒

Others think the chief executive of Softbank is a wreckless（鲁莽的; 不计后果的） daredevil（n. 鲁莽大胆的人）,

所做的交易时而成功时而失败

with a spotty（有好有坏的） track record.

在互联网泡沫破灭后 他承受的个人金融损失数额之大在历史上无人能及

After the dotcom crash he lost more money than anyone has ever lost in history.

700亿美元

$70 billion.

“我们差点破产

“We almost went bankrupt（adj. 破产的）.

不知怎的 我存活了下来”

Somehow I survived.”

但不管你喜欢他还是厌恶他

But love him or hate him,

他都在撼动着硅谷和全球投资

He’s shaking up Silicon Valley and global investing.

Masa只是运气好吗

Has Masa just been lucky,

还是说他在投资未来科技方面真的是个天才

or is he actually a genius when it comes to investing in the future of technology?

那么他是一个天才投资者吗

So is he a genius investor?

我认为现在还没有定论

I think the jury（评判委员会） is still out.

但有一件事你不能否认

but one thing you can not deny,

孙正义似乎就是有这样的远见

Son is that he certainly seems to have foresight.

彭博科技记者帕维尔•阿尔佩耶夫

tech reporter Pavel Alpeyev

过去10年一直在报道孙正义和软银

has been covering Masa and Softbank for the last decade.

一个著名的例子是

One famous example is…

在苹果发布iphone的几年前

a few years prior to Apple’s launch of the iphone,

孙正义在加利福尼亚拜访史蒂夫·乔布斯时

Son was visiting with Steve Jobs in California

并向乔布斯显示了一个样机草图

and offered him a sketch（素描；草图）over prototype（模型） device

这款设备将ipod和手机的功能合二为一

that combined the functionality of the ipod and a mobile phone.

考虑到苹果正在开发iphone 乔布斯拒绝了该设想

Knowing Apple was developing the iphone, Jobsrefused.

于是孙正义说服乔布斯 得到了苹果在日本的独家经销权

So Masa got him to agree to exclusive（adj. 独有的；排外的；专一的） rights for their product in Japan,

这给软银和孙正义带来了巨大的成功

bringing Softbank and Masa, a lot of success.

然而 这并不是他的第一笔大生意

This wasn’t his first big business deal，however

就读于加州大学伯克利分校期间

While attending the University of California at Berkeley

他发明了一种数字转换器

he invented a digital translator

并以1亿日圆 约合100万美元的价格卖给了夏普

and sold it to Sharp for 100 million yen or about $ 1 million.

他用这些钱

Using that money,

创立了软银 这是一个在日本家喻户晓的公司

he founded Softbank which is a household name in Japan that aires popular

并与汤米•李•琼斯和一只狗制作了广受欢迎的广告

Commercials（商业广告） with Tommy Lee Jones and a dog.

---彭博社·Bloombeg