Bill Gates was shocked by Zhou Xin’s ambition: “Why?
You have achieved so much success in the Internet field, why do you want to enter a field such as consumer electronics that is completely unfamiliar to you personally?
If the world of the Internet is an empty space where you can occupy an entire market by discovering new needs, then the world of consumer electronics is full of knights.
They have planted their own flags on every piece of land. If they want to gain something from this land, they need to confront these knights.
To put it simply, I think it is quite difficult. This is a very mature market and it is difficult for you to achieve breakthroughs through product innovation.
This goes against your strengths. "
As soon as Bill Gates finished speaking, Zhou Xin realized the other party's double standards: "Microsoft is also very successful in operating systems.
You haven't entered the field of portals or email.
At the same time, Microsoft is also making its own electronic game consoles and entering the hardware field. The field of electronic game consoles is also filled with companies large and small.
Compared with Sega, Nintendo, Sony, etc., Microsoft's advantages and experience in the field of operating systems are of no help to video game consoles.
Gamers won't buy a Microsoft video game console just because your operating system is smooth.
But Microsoft still wants to enter this field. "
Bill Gates: “Well, that’s really not the right thing to say.
What you want to do is too big. The game console field that Microsoft has entered is a very niche field.
The business type we want to do is relatively certain. Unlike the popular handheld consoles from Neon, what Microsoft wants to do is a home electronic game console.
The main focus is that it can be used together as a family unit, and more emphasis is placed on the social nature of the game itself. "
Bill Gates is not afraid of Zhou Xin plagiarizing their ideas.
This is because different countries have different positioning of enterprises. The price of neon housing is as high as that of later generations of China.
As a result, the living rooms of most Neon families are very small, and the handheld console is also launched for office workers, who can take it out to play on the way to catch the subway.
As for Americans, except for big cities like New York and Los Angeles, there are few people taking the subway and large residential spaces, so living room games are more in line with their needs.
Zhou Xin: "It is indeed a good idea. It has achieved a certain degree of differentiation from Neon's game manufacturers."
Although Sega, Nintendo and Sony have also made changes for the Amerikan market, the degree of adaptability of the changes they have made is limited.
It's hard to compete directly with the Xbox, which is built specifically for the living room, in this segment.
Bill Gates: “Okay, back to Quora, what’s your psychological price?”
Zhou Xin seemed particularly confident: "I don't have the final say on the price. I will contact Yahoo and Microsoft at the same time. I will sell Quora to whoever offers the higher price.
If the price is the same, I would give priority to Microsoft. "
Bill Gates: “Newman, you’re so cunning.
This forces us to bid with Yahoo, forcing us to compete with Yahoo to the bitter end. "
"This forces us to fight Microsoft to the death!" The same conversation took place in the Yahoo office building.
Kevin seemed particularly angry because he was in charge of Yahoo Answers. Once Quora was acquired, Yahoo Answers would no longer be valuable.
Jerry Yang said: "I think we must and it is necessary to acquire Quora.
Quora is the second most visited website in the United States and one of the top ten websites in the world.
What's more important is that Quora is filled with a lot of high-quality content and excellent users, which is unmatched by other online communities.
After Microsoft acquires Quora, MSN can pose a direct threat to Yahoo, which is absolutely unacceptable to us. "
Jerry Yang is the co-founder of Yahoo, but he is not responsible for the specific operations of the company. He is a member of the board of directors.
After Zhou Xin told Bill Gates and Jerry Yang respectively about the planned sale of Quora, Jerry Yang quickly held a meeting of all executives within Yahoo.
When Zhou Xin sells Quora, he intends to sell nearly 90% of his shares.
Yahoo also felt suspicious after learning about it, but judging from their internal investigation and external inquiries, there was no problem with Quora.
It's still going strong in Silicon Valley, Amerikan, and the world.
Kevin said: “I agree with you, we should acquire Quora or we can acquire Quora, but this matter should not be completely led by Newman.
We can't do whatever he says. "
Tim Brady, vice president at Yahoo and the No. 2 executive after Kevin's loss, interrupted: "No, Quora is unique.
We have done a lot of internal research reports internally, and our product manager team has done three rounds of Quora success analysis alone.
The senior management team here all participated in the final conclusion report, and we all know that Quora's success is almost impossible to replicate.
The difficulty of copying and success of Quora is Newman's biggest reliance. "
After Quora came out, Yahoo conducted an internal analysis, and Yahoo conducted another round of more detailed analysis before doing Yahoo Q&A.
After the launch of Yahoo Answers, they did a more in-depth analysis after its failure in the field of trivia community.
The conclusion of the analysis is that Quora is the first knowledge question and answer community. At the same time, it adopted the strategy of opening it only to university professors and students in the early stage to accumulate original high-quality content. Later, it set a high threshold for opening up to maintain the high quality of the content.
The high threshold for registration and Quora's paid questions and answers have further motivated users, and high-quality content has continued to accumulate, creating a snowball effect.
If other Internet companies later want to copy Quora's success, first of all, they will not be able to attract early users, and secondly, users will not accept the high threshold set by other companies.
Instead of taking your high-stakes exam or other qualifications, I would rather take Quora's qualification exam.
Therefore, the internal report finally concluded that Quora's success cannot be replicated.
This is also a limitation of the times, and it is possible to copy it after the advent of the mobile Internet era.
Kevin was silent for a moment, and Alexander Vick, another executive and the head of the product department, said: "We have to acquire Quora.
What Jerry just said is right. Once acquired by Microsoft, MSN can pose a real threat to us.
More importantly, after we acquire Quora, we will become the undisputed number one in the field of Internet services.
No other company can pose a threat to us in the short term. "
Timothy Kuger, the president of Yahoo, said: "Let's negotiate a price, and if Jerry has a good relationship with Newman, go and talk to him."
“USD 15 billion. In January this year, @Home acquired Excite for USD 6.7 billion. You must know that Excite is only the sixth-ranked portal.
We also talked with Excite at the end of last year, and at that time we were willing to give a price of US$5.5 billion to US$6 billion.
At that time, we were also competing with Microsoft.
Quora is the second-ranked website and the only website in the top ten that is not a portal website.
My valuation of Quora is US$10 billion, but considering that it has to compete with Microsoft, Microsoft's interest in Quora is definitely much greater than Excite, so I give a 50% premium. "
Before the dot-com bubble burst, the valuations of entire internet companies were crazy.
Between 1998 and 1999, venture capital investment in Silicon Valley companies increased from $3.2 billion to $6.1 billion, an increase of more than 90%.
In 1999, Amerikan had 457 IPOs. The vast majority of listed companies were high-tech start-ups, and about 100 were directly related to the Internet.
"I think the $15 billion valuation is about the same. Once the news of our merger with Quora comes out, Yahoo's stock price will rise by at least 50%. The money spent is nothing."
“It will be difficult to have such an opportunity in the future. For a company as successful as Quora, the founder personally sold it. This kind of thing seems to have never happened in Silicon Valley before.
For example, Excite was sold because Excite's development encountered a bottleneck and their founder team was unable to break through this bottleneck, so they chose to sell it.
Compared with Excite, Quora is much stronger both in terms of potential and current performance.
If Newman is willing to wait until Quora goes public, Quora's market value will be at least $20 billion.
We acquired a $20 billion company for the equivalent of $15 billion."
Excite is also a portal website. The most well-known case is probably its refusal to buy Google, a new search engine developed by two Stanford students for less than $1 million.
Jerry Yang stood up and put his hands on the table: "15 billion is not enough, Microsoft has more money than us, and they will offer a higher price.
If Microsoft didn't compete with us at this price, I think there would be no problem in acquiring Quora.
But once Microsoft competes with us, it is absolutely impossible for this price to exceed the price quoted by Microsoft. "
Zhou Xin didn't just put his eggs in these two baskets, he chose to let the news out through Jerel.
He believes that Microsoft and Yahoo are definitely not the only ones interested in Quora.
Jerrel is the vice president of Goldman Sachs and is responsible for the listing of Riot Games.
When the news came out that Quora was going to be sold, almost all the big guys were discussing it.
The news quickly spread throughout Silicon Valley from the boss level.
“Why is Quora selling? Is Newman crazy?”
“Will Quora be different without Newman?”
"I just want to know if Newman can cancel the damn entrance exam after he sells Quora."
"Guess who the buyer will be? Yahoo, Microsoft, or Amerikan Online?"
The above is a discussion on this matter in major online forums. Everyone expressed their incomprehension that Zhou Xin wanted to sell Quora.
“What do you think of Newman’s intention to sell Quora?”
"Thank you, if this is true, I predict it will be the largest Internet acquisition in the 1990s.
Quora's valuation is at least US$10 billion. Considering the direct competition between Microsoft and Yahoo, this price will only be higher.
But who are the real players at this poker table? You only need to look at the financial reports of these Internet listed companies in 1999. "
Updated 6k today, generally diligent.
(End of chapter)
