When Microsoft bought task management app Wunderlist and mobile calendar Sunrise in 2015, it picked up two newcomers that were attracting considerable buzz in Silicon Valley. Microsoft's own Office dominates the market for "productivity" software, but the start-ups represented a new wave of technology designed from the ground up for the smartphone world.
Both apps, however, were later scrapped after Microsoft said it had used their best features in its own products. Their teams of engineers stayed on, making them two of the many "acqui-hires" thatthe biggest companies have used to feed their insatiable hunger for tech talent.
To Microsoft's critics, the fates of Wunderlist and Sunrise are examples of a remorseless drive by Big Tech to chew up any innovative companies that lie in their path. "They bought the seedlings and closed them down, " complained Paul Arnold, a partner at San Francisco-based Switch Ventures, putting an end to businesses that might one day turn into competitors. Microsoft declined to comment.
Like other start-up investors, Mr. Arnold's own business often depends on selling start-ups to larger tech companies, though he admits to mixed feelings about the result: "I think these things are
good for me, if I put my selfish hat on. But are they good for the American economy? I don't know. "
The US Federal Trade Commission says it wants to find the answer to that question. This week,it asked the five most valuable US tech companies for information about their many small acquisitions over the past decade. Although only a research project at this stage, the request has raised the prospect of regulators wading into early-stage tech markets that until now have been beyond their reach.
Given their combined market value of more than $ 5.5bn, tiffing through such small deals--many of them much less prominent than Wunderlist and Sunrise--might seem beside the point.Between them, the five companies ( Apple, Microsoft, Google, Amazon and Facebook) have spent an average of only $ 3.4bn a year on sub- $1 bn acquisitions over the past five years--a drop in the ocean compared with their massive financial reserves, and the more than $130bn of venture capital that was invested in the US last year.
However, critics say that the big companies use such deals to buy their most threatening potential competitors before their businesses have a chance to gain momentum, in some cases as part of a "buy and kill" tactic to simply close them down.
For the five biggest tech companies,their small acquisitions have_______.
根据关键词five biggest tech companies定位到倒数第二段第二句“Betweenthem，the five companies（Apple，Microsoft，Google，Amazon and Facebook）have spent an averageof only$3．4bn a year on sub-$l bn acquisitions over the past five years—a drop in the oceancompared with their massive financial reserves．and the more than$130bn of venture capital that wasinvested in the US last year”，在过去的五年里，这五家公司（苹果、微软、谷歌、亚马逊和Facebook）平均每年仅花费34亿美元进行10亿美元以下的收购——与它们庞大的财务储备以及去年在美国投资的逾1300亿美元风险资本相比，这只是沧海一粟。这些大公司的市值都超过了50万亿，小型收购和兼并对于他们来说简直是小菜一碟。A项“基本没有造成财务压力”与文章表述一致，故选A。B项“几乎没有提出管理方面的挑战”、C项“为未来交易树立榜样”在原文并未提及，故均排除。D项“产生可观的利润”，原文只是分析了这项做法并未造成严重的财政负担，并未谈及利润问题，故D项错误。
