英文早讀第265篇，選自巴菲特年度信，友才翻譯。

Berkshire Acquisition Objectives

We will continue to seek the acqusition of businesses in their entirely at prices that will make sense, even should the future of the acquired enterprise develop much along the lines of its past. We may very well pay a fairly fancy price for a Category 1 business if we are reasonably confident of what we are getting. But we will not normally pay a lot in any purchase for what we are supposed to bring to the party - for we find that we ordinarily don't bring a lot.
我們將繼續(xù)尋求以合理的價格整體收購企業(yè)，即便被收購企業(yè)未來的發(fā)展大致與過去相仿，這樣的價格也應(yīng)是合理的。如果我們對所收購的業(yè)務(wù)有相當?shù)陌盐?，那么對于第一類業(yè)務(wù)，我們很可能會支付相當高的價格。但在一般情況下，我們不會在任何收購中為我們預(yù)期能給交易帶來的東西支付過高的費用，因為我們發(fā)現(xiàn)自己通常也帶不來太多東西。

During 1981 we came quite close to a major purchase involving both a business and a manager we liked very much. However, the price finally demanded, considering alternative uses for the funds involved, would have left our owners worse off than before the purchase. The empire would have been larger, but the citizenry would have been poorer.
1981 年，我們差一點就完成了一項重大收購，涉及一家我們非?？春玫钠髽I(yè)及其管理者。然而，考慮到這些資金的其他用途，最終對方要求的價格，會讓我們的股東在收購后比收購前的狀況更差。企業(yè)的規(guī)?；蛟S會擴大，但股東們卻會變得更窮。

Although we had no success in 1981, from time to time in the future we will be able to purchase 100% of businesses meeting our standards. Additionally, we expect an occasional offering of a major "non-voting partnership" as discussed under the Pinkerton's heading on page 47 of this report. We welcome suggestions regarding such companies where we, as a substantial junior partner, can achieve good economic results while furthering the long-term objectives of present owners and managers.
盡管 1981 年我們沒有成功，但在未來的某個時候，我們將有能力收購符合我們標準的百分百控股的企業(yè)。此外，正如本報告第 47 頁關(guān)于平克頓公司那部分所討論的那樣，我們預(yù)計偶爾會出現(xiàn)重大 “無投票權(quán)合伙投資” 的機會。我們歡迎大家推薦這樣的公司，在這些公司中，我們作為重要的小股東，既能取得良好的經(jīng)濟效益，又能促進現(xiàn)任所有者和管理者實現(xiàn)其長期目標。

39.substantial：大量的；重大的；牢固的
40.citizenry：全體市民；全體公民