Baby Berkshire
小伯克希尔
How a Canadian company became the world’s best acquirer of tech firms
一家加拿大公司如何成为全球最佳科技公司收购者
Meet Constellation Software, tech’s Berkshire Hathaway
来认识下星座软件，科技界的伯克希尔·哈撒韦
For older startups these are tough times. The weak recent stockmarket debuts of Arm, a British chipmaker, Instacart, a grocery-delivery group, and Klaviyo, a software firm, have dampened enthusiasm for initial public offerings. Venture capital (VC) has dried up. Data from PitchBook, a research firm, show that late-stage startups need almost three times as much money as is available to them. Many are putting themselves up for sale. Acquisitions of private firms valued at $100m or more are at their highest since September 2022.
对于老牌创业公司来说，这是个艰难的时期。英国芯片制造商安谋（Arm）、杂货配送公司Instacart和软件公司Klaviyo近期挂牌上市的表现不佳，打击了市场对IPO的热情。风险投资（VC）资金已经枯竭。研究公司PitchBook的数据显示，处于后期阶段的创业公司所需资金几乎是可获得资金的三倍。许多公司正在寻求出售。被以1亿美元或更高的价格收购的私人公司数量达到了自2022年9月以来的最高峰。
- debut 形容歌手、作家、产品等“首次录音、出版、上市等”（参见：小词详解 | debut）
- dampen 喻指“抑制、控制、减弱”，主要指使热情、激动、兴致以及价格、支出等非物质事物变得不那么强烈或兴奋（参见：小词详解 | dampen）
- acquisition （对公司的）收购、并购
One happy buyer is Constellation Software. The Canadian firm’s targets must have sales of at least $5m and show consistent revenue and profit growth. A strong management team, preferably founder-led, is a plus. Though it has splurged on larger deals, the median value of firms it acquires is around $3m. According to Royal Bank of Canada (RBC), since 2005 Constellation has spent $8.7bn on more than 860 firms (see chart 1). In that time its revenue has grown by about 25% a year on average. This year it could exceed $8bn. The company’s market value is up by a big-tech-like 250% in the past five years, to $50bn, outperforming the tech-heavy NASDAQ index (see chart 2). It is now Canada’s second-largest tech firm after Shopify, an e-commerce platform.
其中一个心满意足的买家是“星座软件（Constellation Software）”。要成为这家加拿大公司的收购目标，销售额至少要达到500万美元，收入和利润也须显示持续增长。强大的管理团队（最好由创始人领导）是个加分项。尽管该公司在较大规模的交易上花费不菲，但所收购公司的中位数价值约为300万美元。根据加拿大皇家银行（RBC）的数据，自2005年以来，星座软件已斥资87亿美元收购了860多家公司（见图表1）。在此期间，其收入年均增长约25%。今年的收入可能超过80亿美元。在过去五年中，该公司市值以堪比大科技公司的势头猛增250%，达到500亿美元，超过了科技股主导的纳斯达克指数（见图表2）。它现在是加拿大第二大科技公司，仅次于电子商务平台Shopify。
- splurge 乱花（钱）、糟蹋（钱）、挥霍（参见：小词详解 | splurge）
- median 中间值的、中位数的、中间的
Whether by fluke or design, Constellation’s dealmaking success is based on principles that look strikingly similar to those of the world’s heavyweight acquirer, Berkshire Hathaway. Like Warren Buffett, Berkshire’s boss, and his right-hand man, Charlie Munger (who died on November 28th), the founder and president of Constellation, Mark Leonard, seeks out businesses with a lasting competitive edge. In Constellation’s universe, such a “moat” is enjoyed by software firms that specialise in building digital wares for unsexy industries from car dealerships and builders to spas. Tech giants shun these relatively piddling markets and smaller rivals lack the requisite know-how. The result is rich profits for the incumbents.
无论是出于偶然还是有意为之，星座公司的交易成功所依据的原则看上去与世界重量级收购者伯克希尔·哈撒韦公司的原则惊人地相似。与伯克希尔的老板沃伦·巴菲特和他的得力助手查理·芒格（于11月28日去世）一样，星座软件的创始人兼总裁马克·莱昂纳德寻觅的也是具有持久竞争优势的企业。星座软件“宇宙”中的软件公司就拥有这样的“护城河”，这些公司专门为汽车经销商、建筑商和水疗中心等不那么光鲜的行业构建数字产品。科技巨头看不上这些相对较小的市场，而较小的竞争对手又缺乏所需的专业知识。结果就是这些既有公司获得了丰厚的利润。
- fluke 泛指“侥幸”以及“侥幸的成功、偶然机会、偶然事件”，常作非正式用语使用，主要指不太可能发生的偶然事件，常意味着是出人意料的运气的结果，而非凭借技巧、安排或计划取得的（参见：福禄克的英文名 fluke 竟然如此侥幸）
- 拓展学习：熟词僻义 | founder 有风险，创业需谨慎
- moat 护城河、城壕
- spa 矿泉疗养地、矿泉城；休闲健身中心
- piddle（撒尿、小便）→ piddling （微不足道的、无关紧要的、琐碎的、鸡毛蒜皮的）
