keep(maintain) the status quo #2

The Japan Times Onlineから。ソフトバンクがアメリカの携帯会社スプリント社を買収しました。孫社長はこれによりソフトバンクはグループの年間売上高は計約６兆３０００億円となり、世界の携帯電話会社で首位のチャイナモバイル（中国）、２位のベライゾン・ワイヤレス（米国）に次ぐ第３位の通信グループになる事も同時に発表しました。
Softbank plans $20 billion Sprint buy

Softbank Corp. and Sprint Nextel Corp. have entered into definitive agreements under which Japan's third-largest mobile phone carrier will pay $20.1 billion (about \1.57 trillion) to acquire a 70 percent stake in the No. 3 U.S. cellphone firm, Softbank said Monday.

Soon under new management?: A woman passes a Sprint Nextel Corp. shop in New York in April. BLOOMBERG
The deal would create one of the leading communications groups in the world, boasting 90 million mobile phone subscriptions.

Softbank will pay $12.1 billion, or about \946.9 billion, to Sprint shareholders and the deal includes $8 billion, or \624 billion, in new capital, the company said.

The move came as mobile companies are actively making investments to boost infrastructure for high-speed data communications using the Long Term Evolution network service.

The deal will help billionaire Masayoshi Son's Softbank start operations in the U.S. after handset shipments tumbled 27 percent in Japan over the past five years. With the investment, Sprint can fund a faster expansion of its 4G wireless network, pay down debt, or make more acquisitions aimed at challenging bigger competitors Verizon Wireless and AT&T Inc.

At a hastily called news conference in Tokyo on Monday evening, Son admitted entering the U.S. market will not be easy.

"However, just keeping the status quo may be a bigger risk," he said, pointing out negative factors in the Japanese market, including the low birthrate.

http://www.japantimes.co.jp/text/nb20121016n1.html

今回取り上げる表現はstatus quoです。ご存じの通り、status一語だと様々な意味での「地位、身分」という意味ですが、status quoで「現状、体制」という意味(『ジーニアス英和辞典』、第4版、大修館書店)になります。これはすでに2年前に先輩が取り上げられています。
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/A30/20100908/1283947037

復習になりますが，元はラテン語で‘the state in which (something is)' の意味(『新英和中辞典』、研究社)だったのですが、そのまま英語表現として使われるようになりました。ここではkeeping the status quoで「現状維持」といった意味でしょうか。「現状」はthe present conditionと簡単に表す事もできますが、status quoは少し気取った言い方で使われる(『スーパーアンカー和英辞典』第2版、学習研究社)ようなので、記者会見での孫社長が使うとと妙に納得します。(EnDough)