2013年6月7日 星期五

Fears Over NSA Access to Verizon Data 政府還是比企業強大



    Lex專欄:政府還是比企業強大

    英國《金融時報》 Lex專欄 報道

    當代一個較為愚蠢的觀點就是認為企業比民族國家更強大、更 重要。支持這一流行觀點的人引用的論據是,企業有著較高的利潤率和總現金儲備(僅就美國企業而言,總現金儲備在今年第一季度就創下了1.8萬億美元的紀 錄)、而政府卻債台高築,還有就是谷歌(Google)Facebook這類企業在全球有著很大的影響力。不過還是問問任何一家銀行、航空公司、礦業公 司或制藥公司真正掌權的高管的看法吧。
    證明政治人士對全球大企業擁有絕對影響力的最新例子,本周出現在許多美國媒體的頭版上。這些媒體報道的內容顯示,美國國家安全局(NSA)曾要求 Verizon Communications向它提供每一名美國人三個月以來的電話通話記錄。該局據稱還曾要求其他電信企業、互聯網服務供應商和信用卡供應商向它提供信 息。據信,包括微軟(Microsoft)、蘋果(Apple)、美國在線(AOL)、雅虎(Yahoo!)Facebook、谷歌在內的科技企業均涉 及此事,但它們全都予以否認。公民自由主義者發出了怒吼(然後更新了自己Facebook頁面上的個人信息),奧巴馬(Obama)政府的批評者也在大聲 控訴。
    投資者應該如何看待這件事呢?目前來看,涉事企業的股東似乎並不在意。實際上,自這件事在本周周中曝光以來,Verizon的股價已累計上漲2%,其他涉事企業的股價也有所上漲。
    這並不意味著投資者應當立刻把這則消息拋在腦後。他們的投資回報可能會以三種方式受到影響。如果消費者對這起已演變為公關災難的事件反應消極,涉事 企業的利潤可能會在整體上受到沖擊。投資者可能還想知道,如此一來涉事企業管理層到底要花多少時間來專門應付政府。更具體而言,Verizon這類企業收 那麽高的使用費靠得就是自己的品牌(合約用戶月費約為60美元,而預付費供應商收取的費用大概只有這個數字的一半)。
    如果它們的品牌受損,高端用戶可能就會質疑它們有何道理收取這麽高的費用。不過,如果選擇作一名聽話的企業公民,那麽下次若有並購案需監管機構審批或面臨外國競爭對手威脅時,它們或許會得到照顧。現實就是,政府可以為所欲為。
    Lex專欄是由FT評論家聯合撰寫的短評,對全球經濟與商業進行精闢分析
    譯者/王慧玲




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