ＡＢＮ買収

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) -- ABN AMRO NV and Barclays announced Monday they have agreed to merge in the largest cross-border combination in European banking history.

Barclays offered $49.25 for each ABN share, slightly lower than Friday's closing price of $49.38, the banks said. As part of the deal, ABN announced it is selling its U.S. unit LaSalle Bank to Bank of America for $21 billion in cash.

News reports put the value of the deal at around $95 billion.

"The proposed merger of ABN AMRO and Barclays will create a strong and competitive combination for its clients with superior products and extensive distribution," the banks said in a statement. "The merged group is expected to generate significant and sustained future incremental-earnings growth for shareholders."

The banks said the merger would create a single bank, headquartered in Amsterdam, with 47 million customers worldwide.

For each share, ABN AMRO shareholders will be offered 3.225 ordinary shares in the new group, to be called Barclays PLC.

The group said it expected to save $4.8 billion annually in synergies by 2010. Some 12,800 jobs will be trimmed from the combined work force of 217,000, and another 10,800 positions would migrate to cheaper offshore locations, the banks said.

Barclays' John Varley will be the chief executive officer, and Bob Diamond will be president. The new board will initially consist of 10 members from Barclays and nine members from ABN AMRO. Arthur Martinez, chairman of ABN AMRO's supervisory board, will be nominated as chairman.

No role was announced in the new group for Rijkman Groenink, ABN AMRO's CEO for the last seven years, a period when major shareholders judged the bank's holdings to have underperformed. Groenink said he would move to a non-executive directorship position.

Both banks would recommend the deal to its shareholders, and the Dutch bank was due to hold a shareholders meeting later this week. The merger was expected to be completed during the fourth quarter of this year, the banks said.

Despite the agreement, ABN said it will go ahead with meetings with representatives from Royal Bank of Scotland, Spain's Banco Santander Central Hispano SA and Belgian-Dutch bank Fortis NV, which invited ABN to enter talks earlier this month.

Those talks would be aimed at splitting up ABN and selling off parts of its operations to each, which could be more lucrative for shareholders.

For 2006, ABN's net profit rose 7.7 percent to $6.42 billion. Barclays posted an annual net profit of $9.14 billion, a rise of a third from 2005.

extensive
広大｛こうだい｝な、広範囲｛こうはんい｝に及ぶ、広い、広域｛こういき｝の、大規模｛だいきぼ｝な、多数｛たすう｝の、〔品ぞろえが〕豊富｛ほうふ｝な

distribution
分配｛ぶんぱい｝、配布｛はいふ｝、配給｛はいきゅう｝、配分｛はいぶん｝

incremental
増加｛ぞうか｝の、増分｛ぞうぶん｝の、追加｛ついか｝の、付加的｛ふか てき｝な、ますます増加｛ぞうか｝する

synergy
相乗効果｛そうじょう こうか｝、相乗作用｛そうじょう さよう｝、共力作用｛きょうりょくさよう｝
【発音】si'nэ:(r)dзi、【分節】syn・er・gy

trim from

整理｛せいり｝するか

migrate
移住｛いじゅう｝する、移民｛いみん｝する、移り住む、移動｛いどう｝する、〔定期的｛ていきてき｝に〕渡る

offshore

海外｛かいがい｝［外国｛がいこく｝］の［に関する］

lucrative
もうかる、金になる、有利｛ゆうり｝な、利益｛りえき｝の上がる、富をもたらす、実入りが良い

イギリス

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- European stocks closed higher on Friday as bid talks and an upbeat U.S. session helped the FTSEurofirst 300 index to end at its highest level in over six years.

The index closed 1.3 percent higher at 1,580.02. Britain's was up 0.7 percent, France's CAC 40 rose 1.9 percent and Germany's DAX was 1.4 percent higher.

But it was Spain's Ibex 35 index which set a record closing level of 15,080.9 points, up 1.75 percent.

Banks were the biggest gainers following a Dow Jones news agency report that French bank Societe Generale was in merger talks with Italy's largest bank, UniCredit.

Financial sources later told Reuters that Unicredit is considering making an offer for SocGen. The French bank subsequently denied it was in any merger talks with UniCredit.

SocGen shares closed up 7.7 percent but UniCredit turned negative to trade 1 percent lower.

UBS rose 3.3 percent, BNP Paribas was up 3.9 percent, and Commerzbank put on 3.6 percent.

"Some of (the market rise) is a correction on the weakness that we saw earlier in this week, some of it is supported by relatively satisfactory results in U.S. company results and European company results, but part of it and especially in the bank (sector) is clearly takeover speculation," said Luc Van Hecka, economist at KBC Securities.

Earlier this week strong economic growth figures out of China spurred fears that its rates could be raised sending jitters across financial markets and hurting stocks.

But M&A talk and a generally upbeat corporate results both in the United States and Europe meant the gloom was short-lived, dealers and analysts said.

Alliance Boots was among the top gainers, up 7.1 percent, as a $22 billion bid battle for Britain's biggest pharmacy chain broke out after private equity firms backed by millionaire businessmen vied to strike Europe's biggest leveraged buyout.

Meanwhile, engineering giant Siemens rose to near six-year highs on hopes the resignation of the company's chairman signaled the beginning of the end of a corruption saga and in anticipation of strong results next week, traders said.

Simens closed up 4.2 percent.

U.S. stocks also lent Europe support, with the Dow Jones Industrial up 0.7 percent at 12,908 on strong earnings from companies including Google Inc. and Caterpillar Inc..

"Earnings are a little better than expected in the United States after analysts had taken a knife to the numbers and overdone their downgrades," said Brewin Dolphin chief strategist Mike Lenhoff.

"What earnings are telling us is that it's a very strong global economy and Asian markets aren't terribly flustered by (the prospect of) a rate increase in China."

subsequently
その後に、その次に、その後、それ以降｛いこう｝、後で、続いて

speculation
〔不確かな情報に基づく〕推量｛すいりょう｝、推理｛すいり｝、推測｛すいそく｝、憶測｛おくそく｝、思弁｛しべん｝、空論｛くうろん｝

spurred
せき立てられた

jitter
神経質｛しんけいしつ｝、恐怖感｛きょうふかん｝
《電》ジッター
神経質｛しんけいしつ｝に振る舞う、イライラする
イライラさせる

vie
（優劣｛ゆうれつ｝を）競う、争う、競争｛きょうそう｝する、張り合う、対抗｛たいこう｝する

saga

冒険談｛ぼうけんだん｝、英雄物語｛えいゆう ものがたり｝、英雄伝｛えいゆうでん｝、武勇伝｛ぶゆうでん｝
fluster
混乱｛こんらん｝、狼狽｛ろうばい｝、動揺｛どうよう｝
混乱｛こんらん｝［狼狽｛ろうばい｝・動揺｛どうよう｝］する、慌てる
混乱｛こんらん｝［狼狽｛ろうばい｝・動揺｛どうよう｝］させる、慌てさせる

銃乱射2

CNN) -- Edward Falco is aware not just of the shock and mourning that have descended upon the campus of Virginia Tech, but he is also aware of the guilt and second-guessing afflicting students and faculty.

Falco was the playwriting professor of Cho Seung-Hui, an English major who police say killed at least 30 people on the campus before committing suicide.

It was in Falco's class that Cho wrote the two plays, "Mr. Brownstone" and "Richard McBeef," each full of violence and profane rants that his classmates found disturbing.

"As you can imagine, all of us who crossed paths with Cho in any manner are wrestling with this tragedy on multiple levels," Falco, a poet and novelist, wrote to CNN.com in an e-mail.

"My students are my first priority and I spent a lot of time yesterday doing everything I could to be of help to them. I was particularly concerned about the playwriting class I had with Cho. Some of those students had contacted me and expressed a sense of guilt at not having done something or said something that might have prevented this horror."

That is why Falco sent an e-mail to the class list of 22 students telling them it was not their fault.

"Cho's behavior was disturbing to all of us -- and the English Department tried, with the best of intentions, to both get him help and to make the appropriate authorities aware of his disturbing behavior," Falco wrote to his students. "We did all that we thought it was reasonable to do.

"There was violence in Cho's writing -- but there is a huge difference between writing about violence and behaving violently. We could not have known what he would do. We treated him like a fellow student, which is what he was. I believe the English Department behaved responsibly in response to him. And please hear me when I say this: it was our responsibility, not yours. All you could have done was come to me, or some other administration or faculty member, with your concerns -- and you would have been told that we were aware of Seung Cho, we were concerned about him, and we were doing what we believed was appropriate.

"Look, all our hearts are broken. There's no need to add to the pain with guilt."

Nikki Giovanni, a well-known poet who was also one of Cho's teachers, found his writing so "weird" and "intimidating" that she had him removed from her class in the fall of 2005. But Falco tried a different approach. Asked why he thought Cho became an English major, Falco offered what he called a guess.

"The kid couldn't speak. I did everything I knew to draw him out. I tried to joke with him. I touched his shoulder while asking him a direct question. I put myself in quiet, one-on-one space with him -- and I still could not get articulate speech out of him.

"Yet, in writing he could communicate. You've seen the plays. They're not good writing. But they are at least a form of communication. And in his responses to the other students' plays, he could be quite articulate. If writing is the only way you can communicate with the wider world, then I guess being an English major makes sense."

descend upon
～に飛び付く、～に押し掛ける、～を不意｛ふい｝に訪れる、～を襲う、～の前に現れる、襲撃する、襲来する、不意打ちをかける

Each year, over 750,000 people descend upon the square to celebrate the moment.
毎年、75万人以上が新年の幕開けを祝おうとタイムズ・スクエアに押し掛けます

afflict
〔肉体的｛にくたい てき｝または精神的｛せいしん てき｝に〕苦しめる、悩ます

second-guessing
出し抜くこと、一杯食わせること

faculty
教職員

profane
俗悪｛ぞくあく｝な、冒とく的な、神聖｛しんせい｝を汚す、不敬｛ふけい｝な、宗教｛しゅうきょう｝に関係｛かんけい｝しない、世俗的｛せぞくてき｝な、異教｛いきょう｝の、下品｛げひん｝な

rant
大言壮語｛たいげん そうご｝、暴言｛ぼうげん｝を吐くこと

disturbing
心をかき乱す（ような）、動揺｛どうよう｝させる、不安｛ふあん｝にさせる（ような）、心配｛しんぱい｝させる（ような）、気掛かりな、不穏｛ふおん｝な、物騒｛ぶっそう｝な、平静｛へいせい｝を乱す、邪魔｛じゃま｝する、騒がしい

intimidating
威嚇｛いかく｝するような、脅威的｛きょうい てき｝な、おびえさせるような◆intimidating は、武器を突きつけられるような脅迫ではなく、心理的な脅威や強いプレッシャーを与える人や状況を形容する。動詞

articulate
はっきり発音｛はつおん｝された、発音｛はつおん｝の明晰｛めいせき｝な
明確｛めいかく｝な、はっきりした、歯切れの良い