英文早读第265篇，选自巴菲特年度信，友才翻译。
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.
我们将继续寻求以合理的价格整体收购企业，即便被收购企业未来的发展大致与过去相仿，这样的价格也应是合理的。如果我们对所收购的业务有相当的把握，那么对于第一类业务，我们很可能会支付相当高的价格。但在一般情况下，我们不会在任何收购中为我们预期能给交易带来的东西支付过高的费用，因为我们发现自己通常也带不来太多东西。
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，我们差一点就完成了一项重大收购，涉及一家我们非常看好的企业及其管理者。然而，考虑到这些资金的其他用途，最终对方要求的价格，会让我们的股东在收购后比收购前的状况更差。企业的规模或许会扩大，但股东们却会变得更穷。
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.
尽管 1981 年我们没有成功，但在未来的某个时候，我们将有能力收购符合我们标准的百分百控股的企业。此外，正如本报告第 47 页关于平克顿公司那部分所讨论的那样，我们预计偶尔会出现重大 “无投票权合伙投资” 的机会。我们欢迎大家推荐这样的公司，在这些公司中，我们作为重要的小股东，既能取得良好的经济效益，又能促进现任所有者和管理者实现其长期目标。
39.substantial：大量的；重大的；牢固的
40.citizenry：全体市民；全体公民
