Hu Zhengming had never thought of setting up an association before. To put it bluntly, his status was not enough.
It's clearly not enough, at least for now. For scholars in science, engineering and other fields, they are socially awkward. Moreover, research in science and engineering requires thinking, and communication with peers can bring you inspiration. This inspiration still needs to be combined with your own thinking to create value.
Think more than communicate. Scholars in the humanities and social sciences also need to think, but communication will play a greater role.
The timing of the establishment of the Committee of 100 was also very clever. At that time, many people gathered in I.M. Pei's office to discuss China issues. It was for this reason that the Committee of 100 was later established.
Compared with I.M. Pei, Hu Zhengming is far less famous.
The more important reason is that establishing an association requires money, and maintaining an organization requires cash flow or a large amount of capital income.
In the early stages of an association, a sponsor is needed, and membership fees can be collected from members. However, for this kind of association of experts in science and engineering fields, to put it bluntly, everyone has little money, and the membership fees that are willing to pay to join the association are extremely limited.
The membership fee of the Committee of 100 is only US$1,000 per year. The initial membership fee is a drop in the bucket to maintain the operation of the organization, and is not enough to cover the annual salary of one staff member.
Therefore, after Zhou Xin proposed, Hu Zhengming thought while talking. He realized that he and Zhou Xin had natural advantages in wanting to do this. The only disadvantage was that he was not famous enough.
Hu Zhengming thought for a while and then said: "Well, just the two of us are not enough. I will contact a few of my friends in the next two days. Then I will invite them to San Francisco and we will discuss this matter together."
"Now there are only two of us, which is obviously not enough. The scope that the two of us can consider is also very narrow."
Zhou Xin asked weakly: "Professor, which experts are you going to invite?"
Hu Zhengming was a little confused: "What kind of big guy?"
Zhou Xin explained: "They are top scholars and experts. I like to use cow to describe a person who is powerful and arrogant.
Mavericks are average people, and Daniels are top-notch people. "
Hu Zhengming smiled and said: "So that's what it means, I plan to call Qiu Chengtong and Zhang Zhongmou.
Cheng Tong, like me, is a PhD student at Berkeley. He and I entered Berkeley to study for a PhD almost at the same time in 1969.
He was more talented than me, he got his PhD in two years, I took four, and we kept in touch.
Cheng Tong is a top scholar in the field of mathematics. He is indeed a master. He has not joined any organization. At the same time, he is very interested in exchanges with China. I plan to ask his opinion.
In addition, Zhang Zhongmou is the chairman of TSMC. He is an expert in the field of integrated circuits and a first-class entrepreneur. His joining can attract a large number of experts in the field of integrated circuits to join. "
Before Liang Mengsong and TSMC fell out, Hu Zhengming and Zhang Zhongmou had a good relationship. Hu Zhengming once left Berkeley to serve as chief technical expert at TSMC.
Hu Zhengming seemed to have remembered something: "I can also go to Li Zhengdao and Ding Zhaozhong. Yang Zhenning is a member of the Committee of 100. Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning have always disliked each other.
Therefore, Li Zhengdao did not join the Committee of 100. He should be interested in this, but I am not familiar with him, so I have to find someone to bridge the gap.
When he was working at Berkeley, I had not yet come to Berkeley. By the time I came, he had already gone to Princeton. "
The conflict between Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning mainly lies in the order of signatures of joint papers.
"Okay, this will give me more confidence in running this association." Zhou Xin thought in his mind that he would not give TSMC a slap in the face now.
But for Zhou Xin, the only problem now is too little money.
This little money is more than enough for personal life or if you want to do some small things.
But when it comes to starting a business in the semiconductor field, this little money is a drop in the bucket.
"It seems we need to find a good buyer for Quora as soon as possible." Zhou Xin thought to himself.
Zhou Xin mainly remembers that Lin Benjian is about to join TSMC and develop 193nm immersion lithography technology in just two years.
Lin Benjian worked at IBM for 22 years, then started his own business, and joined TSMC in 2000. After joining TSMC, he made great contributions to the breakthrough of the lithography machine process.
Zhou Xin remembered the specific time very clearly: 2000, which was only half a year away. Zhou Xin planned to use the association to get acquainted with Lin Benjian first, and then invite him to start a business and establish a company specializing in lithography machines.
At the same time, they used their relationship with Zhang Zhongmou to provide the lithography machines they developed to TSMC for use.
Building a photolithography machine is not something that can be done with a little money.
ASML had 3,700 employees worldwide in 1999, and its labor costs alone were about 700 million euros a year.
ASML's sales in 1999 were 1.197 billion euros, net income was 81 million euros, and estimated labor costs were around 700 million euros.
Lithography machine, Zhou Xin has not been engaged in a similar industry before, but he expects to prepare at least US$500 million in cash to start.
As for raising other people's money, he has no intention of doing so, because once there are other investors, these investors will have requirements for profits, and they will not have the patience to wait for the growth of this company.
Of course, it's also an important reason why they didn't open the full-map perspective unlike Zhou Xin.
Selling a company, or a company the size of Quora, is not that easy. You must first prepare for tax avoidance.
As for tax avoidance, after learning that the taxes on selling Riot games were so high, Zhou Xin had plans and consulted a tax consultant.
Judging from his status and the huge amount of money used to sell Quora, he would have to pay at least about 20% tax.
However, if you don’t get this money now, you won’t get it for nothing. You won’t get it even after the Internet bubble bursts.
Secondly, the buyer must do a comprehensive audit before making payment, which should be at least three months.
Therefore, when Zhou Xin planned for Hu Zhengming to contact Zhang Zhongmou and Qiu Chengtong, he would immediately find a good buyer for Quora.
Zhou Xin nodded: "Okay, Professor, don't worry if you contact me."
Hu Zhengming: “I’ll make contact first, and then we’ll get together in San Francisco to discuss the establishment of an association in detail.
You should put more thought into the laboratory recently and write at least one paper for me this year like last year.
Although the principal told me that I would like you to complete your Ph.D. at Berkeley as much as possible so that you can graduate, and the graduation requirements for you can be appropriately lowered.
But I will not lower my requirements. "
Zhou Xin thought to himself, the old man really doesn't know how to do this. In order to get a doctorate in future generations, I feel that people have shed a layer of skin.
"Bill, I plan to sell Quora as a whole package, including Quora and Quora Encyclopedia." Zhou Xin first found Bill Gates.
Only he can offer a high price. With Microsoft's deep pockets, it's easy to make tens of billions.
Zhou Xin continued: "I own a total of about 87% of Quora shares. I plan to sell them all. Do Microsoft or you personally intend to take over?"
In Bill Gates’ villa in Seattle, Bill Gates’ face was full of surprise: “Are you really planning to sell?
Doesn’t Yahoo Answers pose no threat to Quora?
I read Silicon Valley news and Quora has become the second most visited website in the United States, second only to Yahoo.
Quora should have achieved breakeven, right? I answered three questions above, which has brought me US$150,000 in income, and Quora will withdraw US$120,000 from it. "
Bill Gates has 150,000, the questioner has 150,000, a total of 300,000 US dollars, Quora will take 30%, 30/7*3, almost 120,000 US dollars.
"The paid Q&A on Quora is so active, Microsoft's business investment department has estimated that Quora will definitely achieve breakeven, and even achieve substantial profits.
Why is such a good company eager to sell? "
When things go wrong, there must be a monster. Although Bill Gates doesn't know this sentence, he understands this truth.
Zhou Xin explained: "Quora is a good company. I can tell you that it has achieved profitability. If you really want to buy it, you can ask KPMG or Deloitte to do an audit."
Pay later when it's ok.
Simply because my energy is limited, I plan to start a business in another field. This field requires a large amount of capital investment. I am very short of money now. "
Bill Gates said directly: “If you are short of money, you can talk to any investor at any time.
From Silicon Valley to Wall Street, no investor can refuse Newman.
Oh, I have countless Wall Street friends whispering in my ears, can you introduce Newman to me? We want to invest in Newman's projects. "
This is always the case in the investment world, chasing successful people, the more successful you are, the easier it is to get investment.
With Zhou Xin's victorious record, all he had to do was let his name out, and he didn't even need to tell investors the name of the project.
Zhou Xin recalled the hardships of investing in his previous life, and even hired a public relations expert. To put it bluntly, he wanted to be able to drink, dare to drink, and drink well enough to make the funder happy.
"My new entrepreneurial project is a physical project." Zhou Xin said.
Bill Gates raised his alarm: "You don't want to be a game console, right? Are we going to have a head-on battle on the game console battlefield again?"
With Riot Games behind him, Bill Gates really didn’t have the confidence to compete head-on with Zhou Xin on the video game track.
Microsoft's advantage is money, and it is so poor that all it has is money.
Yahoo also has money, and when it comes to battles in specific niche areas, the effect of money is very secondary.
Zhou Xin laughed inwardly. It seemed that his battles with Yahoo made even Bill Gates afraid.
The main reason is that Microsoft failed to defeat Yahoo in the portal field, and Yahoo failed to defeat it in the Q&A community and gaming community.
"Don't worry, I have no plans to make a game console in the short term.
And now that I am starting to make a game console, it will take at least three years before I can produce the finished product. Your project was established much earlier than mine.
Given the time and financial advantages, I never thought about competing with Microsoft in this field.
I plan to do consumer electronics, like Philips, mobile phones, TVs, computers and the like.
This is very expensive, and I have never proven myself in this field. There may not necessarily be investment institutions willing to invest money in me. "
Tsung-Dao Lee and Chen-Ning Yang co-wrote two papers, with the general title "Statistical Theory of State Equations and Phase Changes". The first "Condensation Theory" was signed by Chen-Ning Yang and Tsung-Dao Lee, and the second "Geqi and Ising Model" The signatures are Li Zhengdao and Yang Zhenning.
After the first paper is completed, by convention, the signatures of the collaborators should be arranged in alphabetical order of the last names, which should be "Lee Tsung-dao and Yang Zhenning." However, Yang Zhenning proposed that if Li Zhengdao didn't mind, he would like to be in the front because he is four years older than Li Zhengdao. Li Zhengdao was surprised by this request and reluctantly agreed.
When signing the second paper, Li Zhengdao persuaded Yang Zhenning to change it in accordance with international practice.
The content copied and pasted from Baidu Encyclopedia will not be included in the text.
(End of chapter)
