Chapter 169 Opening the Blind Box
In America, the names Bill Gates and Microsoft are quite complex symbols for software companies, Internet companies, and programmers.
Bill Gates' reputation did not turn bad at the beginning, and no one would be regarded as a devil or a villain by countless people from the beginning.
Even once upon a time, he was regarded as a hero by countless technical practitioners. He founded Microsoft and let software companies and programmers begin to get involved. Regardless of whether he relied on the power of his parents and family when he founded Microsoft, but His boast of starting from scratch has indeed given hope to countless people from ordinary families, ushering in an era in which technology changes destiny, and has made countless people regard him as an idol!
Microsoft took the lead and rebelled against IBM, ending IBM's monopoly on America and even the global technology industry. Then Microsoft went public and aspired to be the richest man for the first time. All of this allowed him to gain a lot of wealth in a very short period of time. Huge reputation and following worldwide.
If it hadn’t been for what happened later, and he had repeatedly been involved in plagiarism scandals, used the bundling system to suppress his peers, and denied emerging software companies a way to survive, just like Kingsoft WPS, he dealt with all kinds of opponents, then Bill Gates’ reputation probably wouldn’t have changed that much. Smelly.
Now, in America, Bill Gates's reputation is completely bad. Companies around the world, such as China's Kingsoft, hate Microsoft.
But outside the technology industry, Microsoft is still one of the world's top technology giants, and Bill Gates is still a technology leader. The charitable foundation he established is well-known around the world. Well, these are all outside America The image...
As for today, the image of Bill Gates and Microsoft is still a little bit shabby, and they are scolded by their peers. It will be a few years before the image of Bill Gates completely collapses, even if it is Doing charity has been subject to various conspiracy theories by Americans.
In the American technology industry, it doesn’t matter if two people are not familiar with each other, but as long as they scold Bill Gates and Microsoft together, they will definitely become “good brothers” very quickly.
Hearing that Lu Wenhua moved out of Li Dongling, Yang Zhiyuan's attitude towards Lu Wenhua couldn't help but change a bit. This is not because of the influence of Li Dongling and Dongling Hi-Tech in America, but because Li Dongling had let Microsoft suffer before. This is not a problem for Yang Zhiyuan and others. For those in the American technology industry, that’s enough!
People who can create obstacles for Microsoft are "friends" to Yang Zhiyuan and others. In his previous life, it was Yang Zhiyuan who vetoed Microsoft's acquisition of Yahoo. You can know Yang Zhiyuan's views on Microsoft and Bill Gates. Ci, what's your attitude?
"Zhixing Foundation, this time is planning to invest three hundred thousand US dollars in Yahoo!"
Lu Wenhua said to Yang Zhiyuan, hearing the investment amount, Yang Zhiyuan couldn't help but nodded, an Internet start-up company , the first venture capital investment of US$300,000 is not a small amount. If Yahoo was not cooperating with Sequoia Investment, Yang Zhiyuan might have accepted this investment.
"Very good investment conditions, but..." Yang Zhiyuan said helplessly to Lu Wenhua, preparing to reject this venture capital from the other side of the ocean.
However, in response to Yang Zhiyuan's rejection, Lu Wenhua did not stop and continued, "In addition, Zhixing Foundation hopes to obtain Yahoo's brand agency and operating rights in Asia and promote Yahoo throughout Asia.< br>
For this reason, we are willing to pay Yahoo a licensing fee of US$500,000 per year. 60% of Yahoo’s revenue in Asia belongs to the Zhixing Foundation, and 40% belongs to Yahoo America!”
When Lu Wenhua said this, his tone was a little unnatural. It was nonsense to give Yahoo half a million US dollars in licensing fees every year to promote Yahoo to mainland China, Hong Kong, Japan, and Singapore. , how can Zhixing Foundation have the money to promote Yahoo in various Asian countries.
Li Dongling’s preparation is to wait until next year when Yahoo has already become famous in America and is being wildly pursued by the media and Wall Street. By then, there will be no need for the Zhixing Foundation to work hard to promote Yahoo in Asia. A company came to our door, begging to cooperate with Zhixing Foundation to represent Yahoo!
At that time, Tanglin Hi-Tech and Zhixing Foundation did not need to spend money. Instead, other Asian companies had to spend money to beg for the local operating rights of Yahoo! Stubble leeks.
As for, if Yahoo fails to meet expectations and is not so popular, what will happen if Yahoo sells its agency rights in Asian countries? Anyway, the Zhixing Foundation does not have the money to pay Yahoo any Asian brand general agency licensing fees. ...
When Yang Zhiyuan heard Lu Wenhua's words, he couldn't help but feel a little moved. It was not because of the three hundred thousand US dollars of investment, but because of Yahoo's brand agency in Asia. This is more important to Yahoo than money!
The current Silicon Valley Internet is just getting started, including Netscape, the current leader of Silicon Valley Internet, which is also located in America. If Yahoo can promote its business overseas, it will definitely detonate the entire industry. Silicon Valley!
Another point is that Netscape makes money by selling paid browsers. Every time it sells a set of browsers, it can earn dozens of dollars. But Yahoo is providing free Internet services. Before the emergence of Internet advertising, Yahoo has been struggling to make a profit.
Now, if we can sell the rights to operate the Yahoo brand in Asia and earn US dollars every year, Yahoo will be able to be a little bit stronger when it comes to external publicity, at least it will not make a penny.
Various thoughts flashed through Yang Zhiyuan's mind. Now Yahoo is in difficult negotiations with Sequoia Investment. Sequoia Investment has a very big appetite and wants to take away 40% of Yahoo's equity. If it can attract the Zhixing Foundation, this will Will become one of Yahoo's bargaining chips.
“I need to discuss this matter with David!” Yang Zhiyuan raised his head and said to Lu Wenhua. The David in his mouth was David Filo, another founder of Yahoo. Lu Wenhua nodded. , Yang Zhiyuan did not refuse, he felt that this matter would be interesting.
After going out for more than ten minutes, Yang Zhiyuan came back and said to Lu Wenhua, "For one million US dollars, the Zhixing Foundation can take away Yahoo's brand agency and operating rights in Asia. But it needs to pay Yahoo a licensing fee of one million U.S. dollars every year!”
Yang Zhiyuan feels that the licensing fee of one million U.S. dollars is not low. Now Yahoo has no way to make money, and it can make money on paper! The income of one million US dollars is already quite high. As for earning tens or hundreds of millions of US dollars every year in the future, no one in Silicon Valley has even thought about it, let alone Yang Zhiyuan.
"I need to ask Mr. Li for instructions!" Lu Wenhua also said.
Li Dongling in Pingyang received a call from Lu Wenwen. Without thinking much, he said directly, "Promise him!"
"But the requirement is that the Zhixing Foundation must get 10% of Yahoo! Equity!”
Whether it is one million US dollars or several million US dollars in licensing fees, Li Dongling is not prepared to give Yahoo a penny anyway. He is just waiting for Yahoo to become famous and sell Yahoo’s products in various Asian countries. operating rights.
300,000 US dollars in exchange for 10% of Yahoo's equity. Yahoo will go through several rounds of investment next, and by then this share will shrink a lot.
But there is nothing that can be done about it. Of course Li Dongling can spend more dollars to invest in Yahoo, but if Li Dongling becomes a major shareholder of Yahoo, then Sequoia Investment and Wall Street will still be willing to support Yahoo as they did in their previous lives. It is really difficult to say that it is difficult to become the leader of Silicon Valley.
Even SoftBank, which became Yahoo's major shareholder in the previous life, suffered in every aspect. As a major shareholder, it had no management rights over Yahoo. Yahoo was completely managed by Wall Street institutions. Didn't Yang Zhiyuan, the founder, also want to kick him out? Just kick him away.
As for Lu Wenhua’s request to take away 10% of Yahoo’s equity, Yang Zhiyuan directly agreed and sold 10% of the equity for 300,000 yuan. Yahoo currently has less than ten employees and only such a small room. The valuation of the office instantly exceeded three million US dollars!
Through Zhou Hualiang, Lu Wenhua borrowed legal staff from the American branch of Dongling Hi-Tech, drafted a contract, signed it with Yang Zhiyuan, and then rushed to the next one.
Allowing professional legal personnel to draw up contracts is also Li Dongling’s request. How many domestic companies have entered overseas markets, but they have suffered dumb losses in contracts, and they have not spoken out about their sufferings. They have been cheated and lost all their money. It is even more unreasonable. Few more.
Especially when facing the old fritters in Silicon Valley and the vultures on Wall Street who eat people without spitting out their bones, you must be even more careful, otherwise you may suffer a lot of losses!
After Lu Wenhua left Yahoo, he went to several Internet companies one after another. However, these companies made Lu Wenhua not feel good.
These companies either make long talks and praise themselves vigorously when they first come up, and then the lion opens his mouth and wants to get a large sum of venture capital from Lu Wenhua, or they are completely like the Caotai team and may close down at any time. , Lu Wenhua felt that if the money was really invested, the company would close down immediately and run away.
In today's Silicon Valley, Lu Wenhua feels that there are energetic and ambitious people like Netscape and Yahoo, and there are also rotten shrimps fishing in troubled waters. Investing in these Internet companies, in addition to relying on vision, is also Just like opening a blind box, no one knows what will come out of the box when a sum of money is invested.
Until, when he came to Infoseek, this was the company that Li Dongling gave him to invest in, second only to Yahoo as a company that needed investment.
As soon as he entered Soxin Company, Lu Wenhua immediately felt that this place was different from other Silicon Valley companies because there were many more Asians here. Even Lu Wenhua could feel that there were Chinese and even mainlanders.
Until he saw a twenty-six or seven-year-old man coming over with a somewhat bookish look, Lu Wenhua looked at the visitor and said, "Are you from mainland China?!"
Listen Li Yanhong, who was familiar with Mandarin and had been in America for several years, was stunned for a moment, and then realized, "A native of Shancheng, Hedong, are you from the mainland?"
(End of this chapter)
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