Chapter 491 A man who knows his friends dies
“Yahoo founder Jerry rejected the sky-high acquisition price of 450 million US dollars from America Online president Keith!”
Gruner went to the big market David Burnett told the story he heard.
In Silicon Valley and Wall Street, real news cannot be hidden. The slightest hint of trouble begins to spread.
Rumors that America Online wanted to acquire Yahoo began to spread, along with various gossips.
To be honest, the purchase price offered by America Online was not low. At least Gruner and the others were quite jealous after hearing about this purchase price.
If someone was willing to spend four to five billion US dollars to acquire ASK, Gruner would definitely sell it without blinking an eye.
That’s hundreds of millions of dollars. It will take them, the founders of small Internet companies, who knows how many lifetimes to earn that amount!
According to the news reported by Wall Street media, the valuation of Yahoo's listing is only more than 300 million US dollars. The fact that America Online can offer such a purchase price is considered to be full of sincerity.
“I heard that it was Li, the president of the Zhixing Foundation, who supported Jerry and Yahoo’s founding team, let Sequoia invest, and gave up his support for this acquisition!”
Burnett also talked about the rumors he had heard, which were just rumors.
But for newcomers like Burnett and Gruner in Silicon Valley, they are still quite envious of Li Dongling's support for Yang Zhiyuan.
In other words, who doesn’t want to meet a real Bole, an investor who can support him at a critical moment? Such investors are very few in Silicon Valley and Wall Street, and most of them are interested in founders. Investors who are merciless treat founders like they are throwing away their shoes.
“President Steve, please come this way!”
While Burnett and Gruner were talking in low voices, a figure came in and pulled Steve Kircher over. Invited him out with Li Yanhong.
After all, "there is a difference between closeness and distance." The Zhixing Foundation has now invested in Soxin, but has not yet invested in the GeoCities website and ASK. It is impossible for Li Dongling to bypass Soxin and meet Gruner and the others first.
......
"Li!"
"Soxin needs your support. You said you would support Soxin. We need more funds now. !”
Li Dongling, who was bowing his head at his desk, processing documents, heard Steve Kihir, who started to complain loudly as soon as he entered the door, and Li Yanhong, who followed him, showed a little smile on his face. Embarrassed look.
Obviously, Li Yanhong is not used to this kind of scene of asking for money from venture capital companies, but thinking about it, Li Yanhong is indeed different from other founders.
He has been outstanding in studies since he was a child, and went all the way to famous domestic schools and then to study abroad. The most difficult days were when he first arrived overseas, sharing a house with other people, having to take turns on the phone, cooking and cleaning the house, etc. However, During that time, I then went to work for Dow Jones, the parent company of Wall Street, and my annual income exceeded US$50,000 to US$60,000. I didn’t need to worry about life at all.
Even after establishing Baidu, Li Yanhong easily obtained a large amount of venture capital by relying on his overseas reputation. Compared with Alibaba and Penguin, which were worried about funds, life was much easier.
After Li Dongling wrote the last word, he put down the pen. Li Dongling came to America, but there were still some faxed documents from the country that needed to be processed by Li Dongling.
That is to say, email technology has not yet become completely popular. Otherwise, even in America, Li Dongling would probably have a lot of emails waiting to be processed.
He stretched out his hand and asked Steve Kihir and Li Yanhong to sit down. Li Dongling poured two glasses of water for them.
“Steve, of course I remember the agreement reached between Zhixing Foundation and Souxin!”
Li Dongling pushed the water glass in front of Steve Kihir, “Souxin What Xin is worried about now is not the funding, but when it will be launched, right?”
Steve Kircher, whose acting skills were not up to par, couldn’t help but blush. , compared to the funds, what made him more anxious was when Soxin could be listed on the Nasdaq.
You must know that Soxin and Yahoo debuted at the same time. In just one year, they successfully applied for listing, but Souxin's listing is far away. How can Steve Kircher not be in a hurry.
More importantly, the current Internet industry is very unfavorable to the search industry and considers it to be a loser. This casts a shadow over Souxin's road to listing.
“The venture capital firms in Silicon Valley and Wall Street institutions are too unfriendly to the search industry. They think the search industry is just a burden!
Damn it, they don’t want to think about it. Websites such as Netscape, Yahoo, AOL, and Microsoft's IE browser do not all need to use search technology for in-site search!" Steve Kircher complained.
Hearing this complaint, Li Dongling glanced at Steve Kirsch and shook his head secretly. He didn’t blame Silicon Valley Venture Capital for being unwilling to invest in information search. Even Steve Kirsch He himself does not regard Soxin as the protagonist of the Internet, but only as an auxiliary product for websites such as Netscape and Yahoo.
The founders think so, how can they convince others? What really makes search one of the major industries on the Internet is advertising bidding ranking. It has made search one of the most profitable industries on the Internet, with revenue crushing portals, e-commerce, games, social networking and other industries.
However, advertising bidding ranking is not something that can be pushed out. At least the search technology must keep up. If you can’t search for bullshit, you will come out with a horse’s mouth. Then who is willing to use this search engine?
According to the current accuracy of search results and search content, it will take at least two years for the advertising bidding ranking system to be useful.
“The most important thing for Souxin now is to survive. Only by surviving can Souxin let the Nasdaq Committee see the value of Souxin, and then it can go public!”
Li Dongling reassured Steve Kihir, "Zhixing Foundation will seek to work with other investors to invest no less than two million US dollars in Soxin Company again. Of course, Steve, you and the founder The team may need to give up some of its equity!
In addition, Zhixing Foundation will act as an agent for the SouXin brand and start business in various regions of Asia, including inland, port cities, Singapore, Malaysia and other places to increase SouXin's revenue.
What you have to do, Steve, is to let Souxin become the search engine on Netscape and Yahoo sites. Of course, if necessary, it can also become the browser search engine of Microsoft IE to occupy the market. Search the market! ”
It will indeed take a few years before search engines become the protagonist of the Internet industry. During this period, what the search industry can rely on is to use browsers, portals, etc. to occupy the search market.
The Internet industry also needs to take sides. Netscape, which had a strong position in the early days, could quickly gain search market share. Later, it changed its position and supported IE browser. It was also forced by life...
There is no way. , Microsoft will definitely win the browser war, and this is not based on personal will. After all, once Microsoft acts rogue and allows users to choose between Microsoft systems and Netscape browsers, there is Netscape browser on the desktop, and Microsoft The system cannot run, and the computer freezes and freezes. Who will the user choose?
"As long as we have search market share, users, and revenue, who can stop Soxin from going public?"
Li Dongling drew a big pie, of course, this meant that it was for Steve Kirsch. Listen to me, Li Dongling will not be reluctant to sell it because of the search information, and eventually turn from a golden pimple to a dirty piece of trash.
It’s just that Soxin can be listed on the market. If it can’t be listed on the market, then Li Dongling will have to find a successor for it. Either let Yahoo acquire it, or sell himself to Netscape, etc. at the critical moment of the browser war. One of the Microsoft companies was sold for a sky-high price!
The last option is to let Souxin merge with Google, America's future search overlord, and exchange Souxin for cash plus Google stock. When Google's market value increases, then cash out.
But no matter which one of these three paths you take, you must ensure that the search is well organized. Otherwise, who wants to be a waste?
Hearing Li Dongling's words, Steve Kihir ignited some hope. Now the only one he can rely on for information search is the Zhixing Foundation. If he doesn't count on Li Dongling, who else can he count on!
But it is true as Li Dongling said, even if search is no longer taken seriously, as long as you have market share and revenue, are you still afraid that you will not be able to go public?
“As long as it can help Souxin, Souxin and I are willing to do anything!” Steve Kihir said.
Li Dongling nodded, then pressed the phone on the table and asked Zhou Hualiang and the legal affairs department to come over and talk to Steve Kihir about investing again in Souxin.
This time, Li Dongling is planning to take Yahoo and invest in Soxin together. As long as Yahoo is listed, Soxin will benefit from it. If the next two paths are really unworkable in the future, he will encourage Yahoo to acquire Soxin. thing.
Anyway, Yahoo has spent so many dollars to acquire a bunch of junk, so what’s wrong with adding another search engine? !
Li Yanhong originally wanted to go out with Steve Kihir, but was signaled by Li Dongling to stay. Li Yanhong hesitated for a moment and sat down.
“Have you ever considered returning to China?”
After Steve Kihir left, Li Dongling and Li Yanhong were the only two people left in the office. Li Dongling asked directly.
Shaking his head, Li Yanhong said truthfully, "Not yet. At present, in China, whether it is the Internet environment or technical conditions, there is no place for me to use it!"
Li Dongling nodded, and then asked a question that Li Yanhong didn't expect, "Have you ever thought about leaving Soxin?"
"Leaving Soxin?" Li Yanhong was obviously taken aback. .
“With your search technology and hyperlink patent, you are enough to become a partner or even the founder of any search company!” Li Dongling said.
Now it seems that Li Yanhong is highly regarded in Souxin, but he is also a senior engineer. When he left Souxin in his previous life, he cashed out the Souxin stock he was assigned, which was only hundreds of thousands of dollars. For him, To be honest, people of this technical level are really "mediocre".
"I..."
At this time, Li Yanhong was obviously hesitant again. He was quite satisfied with his current life. Although he had thought about setting up an Internet company, he did not want to change it immediately.
When Li Dongling saw this, he did not ask Li Yanhong to make an immediate decision or anything. He took out a business card and placed it in front of him.
"If you want to return to China one day, you can make this call at any time. Tianya Company, the domestic Internet division of Tanglin Hi-Tech, can support you in establishing a search company in China. You will be a partner and Chief Technology Officer! "
With Li Yanhong's skills and personality, it is more than enough to develop search technology, no worse than Google, but it is limited to technology, operations and management. Li Dongling definitely needs Tianya Company Take the helm over there to avoid being riddled with scandals like in the previous life.
(End of this chapter)