In this conversation, Oscar Davidson, the owner of a chain of retail clothing stores, is talking to Kathleen Harbrough, his financial manager, about a big deal one of his competitors has just concluded.

Kathleen: Have you heard the news, Oscar? The InFashion merger with Artingdales has just been approved.

Oscar: Yeah, I heard. They’ve just leap-frogged ahead of us by a good margin. Our 265 shops nationwide pales in comparison to their 710. On top of that,they now have a top manufacturer as part of their operation.

Kathleen: For sure. Most analysts think that Debusy Manufacturing was the crown jewel of Artingdales.

Oscar: This really gives InFashion a huge competitive advantage over us. Do you have any news on potential acquisitions we might go after?

Kathleen: Actually, I do. You may be a little surprised at this one. I’ve been checking up on Clarisa Exclusives.

Oscar: Clarisa! They’ve never shown any interest whatsoever in a merger, and they would probably never agree to an acquisition.

Kathleen: I know, but the time might be right for a takeover.It’s not a well-known fact, but their finances are in poor shape. Actually, they could turn out to be a Sleeping Beauty. I think their assets are highly undervalued in the industry.

Oscar: Wow, that would surely put us back in the thick of things. OK, Kathleen, give me a report on the finances involved as soon as you can. Let’s go after them!

參考譯文：

在以下這段對話中，Oscar Davidson是一家服裝零售連鎖店的老板，而Kathleen Harbrough是他的財務(wù)主管。他倆正談?wù)撘粋€競爭對手剛完成的一筆大買賣。

Kathleen: 嘿，Oscar, 你聽說了嗎?InFashion和Artingdales已經(jīng)成功合并了。

Oscar: 我聽說啦。他們已經(jīng)大步向前，把我們遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)甩在后面了。你看，全國范圍內(nèi)，我們只有265家店，而他們卻有710家。另外，現(xiàn)在還有一個頂尖的制造商加入了他們的行列。

Kathleen: 的確如此。大多數(shù)分析家都認(rèn)為Debusy制造公司是Arlingdales最具實力的拳頭部門。

Oscar: 這無疑給Infashion增加了不少競爭砝碼，而我們已處于劣勢了。對了，對于我們下一步的收購計劃你有什么目標(biāo)嗎?

Kathleen: 當(dāng)然?；蛟S你會有些意外，但我現(xiàn)在確實在關(guān)注Clarisa專賣店。

Oscar: Clarisa!他們對合并可從來沒有過什么興趣，我想他們更不會同意被收購。

Kathleen：我知道，但此一時，彼一時，現(xiàn)在也許正是收購的最佳時機(jī)。他們的財務(wù)狀況可以說是一團(tuán)糟，但這個事實卻鮮為人知?？梢哉fClarisa現(xiàn)在還是一個“睡美人”。據(jù)我所知，他們的資產(chǎn)被業(yè)界大大低估了。

Oscar ：好啊，那肯定會使我們脫離困境的。這樣吧Kathleen，你盡快給我一份涉及相關(guān)財務(wù)狀況的報告，是 我們大顯身手的時候了!