英文早读第182篇，选自巴菲特年度信，友才翻译。

Merger With Diversified Retailing Company, Inc.
合并百货零售公司

Your Directors have approved the merger of Diversified Retailing Company, Inc. into Berkshire Hathaway Inc. on terms involving issuance of 195,000 shares of Berkshire stock for the 1,000,000 shares of Diversified stock outstanding. Because Diversified and its subsidiaries own 109,551 shares of Berkshire, the net increase in the number of shares of Berkshire outstanding after giving effect to this transaction will not exceed 85,449. Various regulatory approvals must be obtained before this merger can be completed, and proxy material will be submitted to you later this year so that you may vote upon it.
董事会已经批准将百货零售公司合并入伯克希尔哈撒韦公司，通过发行19.5万伯克希尔股票股份换取百货公司流通的100万股。因为百货公司和它的子公司拥有10.9551万伯克希尔股票，这笔交易导致伯克希尔流通的股份数量净增长不会超过85449股。各项监管部门批准必须在合并完成前通过，今年晚些时候代理材料将会提交给你这样你可以对此投票。

Diversified Retailing Company, Inc., through subsidiaries, operates a chain of popular-priced women's apparel stores and also conducts a reinsurance business. In the opinion of management, its most important asset is 16% of the stock of Blue Chip Stamps.
百货零售公司，通过旗下子公司，运营着一系列平价女装商店，并开展再保险业务。从管理角度看，他最重要的资产是蓝芯票证公司16%的股份。

Blue Chip Stamps
蓝芯票证公司

Our holdings of stock in Blue Chip Stamps at year-end amounted to approximately 19% of that company's outstanding shares. Since year-end, we have increased our holdings so that they now represent approximately 22.5%: implementation of the proposed merger with Diversified Retailing Company, Inc. would increase this figure to about 38.5%.
我们去年末在蓝芯票证持股总计大约占公司流通股份的19%。从年末开始，我们已经增加了我们的股份，现在大约有22.5%。若提议的合并百货零售公司完成，这个数字将会增加到大约38.5%。

Our equity in earnings of Blue Chip Stamps became significant for the first time 1973, and posed an accounting question as to just what period's earnings should be recognized by Berkshire Hathaway Inc. as applicable to the financial statements covered by this annual report. Blue Chip's fiscal year ends on the Saturday closest to February 28, or two months after the fiscal year-end of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. Or, viewed alternatively, their year ends ten months prior to Berkshire Hathaway's. An acceptable accounting choice for us, and one which, if made, would not have required an auditor's disclaimer as to scope, was to recognize in our 1973 income an equity of 632,000 in Blue Chip's earnings for their year ended March 3, 1973 with regard to the fewer shares of Blue Chip we owned during this earlier period. But such an approach seemed at odds with reality, and would have meant a ten month lag each year in the future. Therefore, we chose to reflect as 1973 income our equity of 1,008,000 in Blue Chip's earnings based upon unaudited interim earnings through November as publicly reported by Blue Chip Stamps and with regard to our shareholdings during 1973. Because we made this choice of unaudited but current figures, as opposed to the alternative of audited but far from current figures, Peat, Marwick, Mitchell & Co. were unable to express an opinion on our 1973 earnings attributable to Blue Chip Stamps.
我们在蓝芯票证中权益利润变现在1973年第一次变的重要，同时带来一个会计问题，究竟以什么时期的利润作为伯克希尔哈撒韦所得。蓝芯公司的财年在最近几年2月28日的周六结束，或者说在伯克希尔哈撒韦财年结束之后2个月，或者说，换一个角度，他们的财年比伯克希尔哈撒韦提前10个月结束。一个我们可以接受的财务选择，其中的一种，如果选定了，将不需要必须的审计免责声明去仔细审查，就是按照我们在更早时期持有的更少量的蓝芯股份计算，以1973年3月3日作为财年利润中63.2万美元按股本确认权益做为我们的1973年收入。但是这个方法似乎脱离实际，将意味着在未来有10个月的滞后。因此，我们选择反应1973年的收入按我们股本占蓝芯公司未审计的通过11月份蓝芯票证公开报告算出的1008000美金权益作为我们在1973年收益的参考。因为我们做了这个未经审计但是更具实效的数据的选择，而不是另一个经过审计但是脱离当前数据的选择，毕马威公司无法对我们在蓝芯票证公司在1973的所得盈利发表意见。

13.disclaimer：免责声明；否认声明
14.implementation：实施；执行；完成；贯彻
15.scope：仔细看；彻底检查