????日本軟銀集團（SoftBank）與中國阿里巴巴集團（Alibaba）的強強聯合能否打垮美國領先的移動與電子商務公司？

????在線零售巨頭阿里巴巴最早將于下個月赴紐約上市（注：最新消息稱，阿里上市時間擬定為8月），有望超過Facebook 160億美元的IPO，成為史上規模最大的科技公司上市——屆時，軟銀將持有阿里巴巴34%的股份。

????有關阿里巴巴上市時雅虎（Yahoo）必須出售40%所有權股份的傳言，一直頗受關注，而且這種關注也有充分的理由：位于加州森尼維爾的雅虎公司財務績效一直以來都享受著中國公司阿里巴巴帶來的好處，因為它持有的阿里巴巴股份增長快速，而這部分股份的市值預計將達到100億美元。如果沒有這些股份，雅虎必須尋找自己的增長點。

????但軟銀似乎并不打算將股份變現。這一點或許令人有些意外，因為經過一系列大膽的收購，軟銀CEO、億萬富翁孫正義欠下的債務累計已達到900億美元。身材矮小、樂觀豁達的孫正義被譽為亞洲的沃倫?巴菲特，外界一直認為他是一位精明的商人。對于全球互聯網的未來和軟銀在其中的地位，孫正義的愿景可謂雄心勃勃。

????孫正義在軟銀的年報中寫道：“軟銀區別于其他公司的根本在于我們的互聯網背景，而不僅僅是電信業務背景。軟銀集團的目標是成為移動互聯網領域的世界第一。我們對于集團的愿景是，通過提供多樣化的服務和內容，如音樂、視頻、電子商務和財務結算等，讓全世界的人們擁有豐富多彩的生活方式。”

????過去12個月，軟銀的股票價值翻了一番，公司市值達到了980億美元。2013年，他以216億美元收購了美國第三大無線運營商Sprint。受此鼓舞，他對收購美國第四大無線運營商T-Mobile也表現出濃厚的興趣，預計將在今年夏天正式出價收購。

????美國監管機構對于美國第三和第四大運營商的合并一直都非常謹慎，但孫正義承諾，如果他的收購計劃得以實現，他將掀起與威瑞森（Verizon）和美國電話電報公司（AT&T）的大規模價格戰。

????去年，阿里巴巴出售的商品價值超過2,480億美元，超過了亞馬遜（Amazon）與eBay兩家公司的總和。阿里巴巴表示，之所以決定前往紐約、而不是在香港或上海上市，是為了搶占美國領先電子商務公司的市場份額。

????市場研究公司IDC分析師卡斯滕?韋德稱：“軟銀在收購Sprint之后將給當地運營商帶來嚴重威脅，因為它有一家成熟的本土公司作為基礎。但阿里巴巴要挑戰亞馬遜和eBay的難度更大，因為阿里巴巴在美國尚未形成氣候。而且，正如美國公司進入中國市場的遭遇一樣，阿里巴巴進入美國市場將面臨類似的文化障礙。”

????阿里巴巴與eBay一樣，嚴重依賴第三方零售商來推動平臺業務，結果是它對于平臺上買賣的商品的控制力較弱。（亞馬遜直接銷售大量的產品。）

????而軟銀的孫正義并沒有把這個問題看成一個障礙。他相信，隨著兩家公司在美國的活動增加，他可以利用在阿里巴巴持有的股份，在兩家公司之間形成協同效應。他將阿里巴巴形容為“不可或缺的戰略合作伙伴”。孫正義全球擴張計劃的核心是，創造一個互聯網與移動生態系統，將電信基礎設施作為平臺，提供遠遠超出語音與數據的一系列服務。孫正義在年報中寫道：“控制了基礎設施意味著控制了互聯網世界。這正是我們參與電信業務的理由。”

????但并不是所有的人都看好孫正義的宏偉計劃。市場研究公司高德納（Gartner）的分析師比爾?梅內塞斯認為：“Sprint要想贏回客戶，必須推出比AT&T、威瑞森和T-Mobile更有吸引力的移動產品。美國消費者如今已經有亞馬遜、e-Bay、谷歌（Google）和其他根基深厚的選擇。在這種情況下，為他們提供另外一條購物途徑并不會改變現狀。”

????IDC的韋德同意這種觀點。“就算阿里巴巴今天馬上在美國上市，它要想對美國公司形成真正的挑戰，至少也需要三至四年時間。”

????時間會證明一切。但在1,300多家公司持有股份的孫正義，似乎做好了等待的準備。(財富中文網）

????譯者：劉進龍/汪皓

????Could Japan's SoftBank and China's Alibaba be the one-two punch that knocks leading U.S. mobile and e-commerce companies off their game?

????When the online retail juggernaut Alibaba lists in New York -- perhaps as early as next month in what is expected to be the largest market debut ever by a technology company, surpassing Facebook's $16-billion I.P.O. -- SoftBank will have 34 percent stake.

????Much has been made about the 40 percent ownership stake that Yahoo (YHOO) must sell when Alibaba goes public, and for good reason: The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company's financial performance has long been pinned to its piece of the fast-growing Chinese company, which could be worth an estimated $10 billion. Without it, the company must find its own growth.

????But SoftBank has no plans to cash in its stake. That is perhaps a little surprising, given that the company's billionaire chief executive, Masayoshi Son, has piled on about $90 billion in debt resulting from a very aggressive acquisition spree. The cheerful and diminutive Son, described by some as Asia's Warren Buffet, is considered to be a crafty businessman with a very ambitious vision for the future of the global Internet and his company's place in it.

????"What makes us fundamentally different from other companies is that our background is in the Internet, not simply telecom operations," Son wrote in SoftBank's annual report. "The SoftBank Group's goal is to become the global No. 1 in mobile Internet. Our vision for the Group is to enable people around the world to lead enriched lifestyles by enjoying a diverse spectrum of services and content, such as music, video, e-commerce, and financial settlements."

????Son has watched the value of his company's shares double in the past 12 months, resulting in market capitalization of $98 billion. In 2013, he made a $21.6 billion acquisition of Sprint, the third-largest U.S. wireless carrier. Emboldened, he has now expressed interest in acquiring T-Mobile, the fourth-largest U.S. carrier, and is expected to make a formal bid this summer.

????U.S. regulators have been wary of combining the No. 3 and No. 4 U.S. carriers, but Son has promised the mother of all price wars with Verizon (VZ) and AT&T (T) if they allow him to move forward with his plan.

????Alibaba -- which sold merchandise valued at more than $248 billion last year, more than Amazon (AMZN) and eBay (EBAY) combined -- has suggested that its decision to list in New York rather than Hong Kong or Shanghai was informed by its plan to grab market share from America's e-commerce leaders.

????"SoftBank, with its acquisition of Sprint, is a serious threat to local operators because it can build on a local, established company," says Karsten Weide, an analyst at the market research firm IDC. "For Alibaba, it will be much harder to pose a challenge to Amazon and eBay, because they have no local presence to speak of yet. Also, they will face similar cultural hurdles entering the U.S. market as American companies have encountered launching in the Chinese market."

????Like eBay, Alibaba relies heavily on third-party retailers to drive business over its platform, giving it less control over what is bought and sold. (Amazon sells many of its good directly.)

????SoftBank's Son doesn't see any of this as a hurdle. He believes he can leverage his stake in Alibaba, a company he describes as an "indispensable strategic partner," to create synergies between the two companies as they increase activity in the U.S. At the heart of Son's global expansion plan is the creation of an Internet and mobile ecosystem that uses telecom infrastructure as a platform for delivering an array of services beyond voice and data. "Controlling the infrastructure means controlling the world of the Internet," Son wrote in the annual report. "This is the rationale for our involvement in the telecommunications businesses."

????Not everyone is bullish on Son's grand plan. "Sprint needs to give U.S. customers a mobile product that's far more compelling than what AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile offer in order to win customers back," says Bill Menezes, an analyst at the market research firm Gartner. "Giving them another way to buy things when they already have Amazon, e-Bay, Google and other entrenched options is not going to change that."

????IDC's Weide agrees. "Even if Alibaba launched in the U.S. today, it would be at least three or four years before it would present a serious challenge."

????Time will tell. But as a man who holds a stake in more than 1,300 companies, Son seems prepared to wait.