Zhou Xin quickly realized that the other party was talking about Lijiacheng.
Just in March this year, when Bill Gates went to Xiangjiang for inspection, Li Jiacheng's son Li Zekai personally went to the airport to pick him up. He also invited Li Zekai to write the preface for his new Chinese book "Embracing the Future".
Zhou Xin thought to himself that Bill Gates in 1999 would definitely not know that he had become the largest farm owner in America more than 20 years later.
Zhou Xin didn't know what caused such a big change in the other party's investment concepts.
Bill Gates' family investment company, Waterfall Investments, began buying farmland in 1995. However, this was not Bill Gates' idea, but the idea of the actual operator, Mike Larson.
It was not until 2006 that Bill Gates himself began to purchase land, and after 2017 he increased his land purchases.
Zhou Xin couldn't laugh or cry. He explained: "I have no such plan. To be honest, do you think that if it is as big as Amerikan Bank, the federal government will allow the actual controller behind NewPay to be a Chinese?"
"The federal government allows me to be one of the shareholders of NewPay at most, but not a shareholder with too many voting rights."
As a Jewish elite, Bill Gates quickly understood what Zhou Xin meant: “Yes, the larger NewPay becomes, the less likely you are to master it.
Now it's because people don't take NewPay seriously. Once they do, it will be difficult for you to continue to have control of NewPay. "
Zhou Xin: “So your Internet asset theory does not hold true for me. This is an asset that I cannot control.
If I really have this idea, aren't Quora and Riot Games similar Internet assets?
Riot Games is the largest online game distribution channel, and Quora is the originator of new media.
From this perspective, both of them are better than NewPay.
Because it involves commercial confidentiality, I can’t tell you too much. In my opinion, NewPay can do a lot of interesting things. "
During the celebration dinner, Zhou Xin spent most of the time with Bill Gates.
There were too many dressed-up girls at the banquet, and Zhou Xin had a vague feeling that he was the target of hunting.
"Newman, what do you think of my outfit?" While Bill Gates was chatting with Henry Paulson, Elmo walked up to Zhou Xin and asked.
She wore a dark blue dress that reached the floor. The color of the dress matched her skin tone, making Elmo look radiant.
Even though the women at the dinner party were all carefully dressed, Zhou Xin still thought that Elmo could be at least in the top three after taking a rough look around: "Very good."
Aimo approached Zhou Xin and asked, "Newman, do we want to go out for a walk?"
Zhou Xin shook his head: "I'm a little sleepy now and don't want to go out. I plan to go back and rest after the dinner.
Today is full of schedules from morning to night. You are my secretary, and you know how tight my schedule is today. "
Elmo showed a determined expression after his awkward smile: "What if I don't just want to be a secretary?"
Zhou Xin said: "Sorry, I understand what you mean, I have no such plan for the time being."
Elmo asked: "I can feel the appreciation in your eyes, why can't we try to go on a date?"
She spun around in a circle, her graceful lines really had the power to make a man's heart flutter.
After Zhou Xin took a step back, he looked directly at the other person and said, "You have crossed the line, Elmo, you have been hinting at me with similar intentions before.
I can act like nothing happened.
The admiring looks are because you are beautiful.
But it doesn't mean that I have to take action against pretty girls. I don't have any emotional needs at the moment.
You have crossed the line this time, and I think I need to adjust your position. After returning to Silicon Valley, I will look for a secretary again, and I will transfer you to a more suitable position. "
After Zhou Xin finished speaking, he turned around and left without any hesitation. Bill Gates and Henry had just finished chatting. He continued to chat with Henry:
"Henry, Goldman Sachs can provide us with services and support for Riot Games' listing, including underwriting, consulting, road shows and a series of support.
It is precisely because of Goldman Sachs that the listing process of Riot Games can be so smooth. "
Henry waved his hand: "It is our honor to serve Newman. Whether it is Time Warner's acquisition of Quora or the listing of Riot Games, Goldman Sachs only played a small role in the process.
The most important point is that Quora and Riot Games themselves are good enough to be recognized by many investors in the market.
If a company is not good, even if Goldman Sachs underwrites it, no investors will be willing to foot the bill.
Looking back now, we should have listed Quora instead of being acquired by Time Warner.
If quora were listed as an independent company, its valuation would be even higher. Time Warner's poor performance in the past has to a certain extent dragged down the further increase in the market value of the company after the merger. "
Whether before or after Time Warner acquired Quora, Goldman Sachs was among their top five shareholders.
Media editors were also present at the celebration dinner on the day Riot Games was launched. MSN’s media directly put a photo of Zhou Xin and Bill Gates standing side by side in suits and holding goblets on the front page of MSN’s news section that night.
“The largest shareholder and second largest shareholder of Riot Games”
"Riot Games was listed on the Nasdaq exchange on August 23, 1999. Riot Games' stock performed strongly in the initial public offering (IPO), with an issue price of $58.8 per share, and the stock price rose by approximately 37%, and the closing price reached approximately US$80. This made Riot Games’ market value exceed US$20 billion, becoming another Internet company with a market value exceeding US$20 billion.
At the celebration dinner that night, Newman, the largest shareholder of Riot Games, and Bill Gates, the second largest shareholder, both attended the dinner. Before the dinner, Newman gave a brief introduction to the development history and future prospects of Riot Games.
Among them, what attracts the most attention to Riot Games is that its largest shareholder and second largest shareholder are the world’s second-largest and the world’s richest man respectively.
This has also led to investors’ extremely high confidence in Riot Games.”
After the market closed on the day of listing, Zhou Xinyou talked with Riot Games executives and he was confused about the stock price only rising 37%.
In his view this number was too small. Because during the IPO process, Zhou Xin would be exposed to a lot of relevant information. He saw that Yahoo's stock price rose by 154% when it was listed.
The reason why Zhou Xin is very concerned about this issue is because he is worried that this may be a sign that the Internet bubble is about to burst.
The Internet company whose major shareholders are him and Bill Gates is still making profits, so why can't it still rise as high as Yahoo did when it went public in 1996?
Later, the explanation from the senior management team reassured Zhou Xin a little. What they basically meant was that Yahoo’s listing valuation was already low, only about US$2 billion, and they had raised US$2.5 billion in capital raising alone.
The larger the base, the harder it is to grow. 37% is already eye-catching.
"Mr. Bei, I took a rough look at the design plan you sent me two days ago. Since another company of mine recently went public, I didn't have time to visit you until today.
I am very satisfied with the overall framework of the design plan and there are no major problems, but I would like to discuss some details with you. "
After the celebration dinner, Zhou Xin went to visit I.M. Pei.
After confirming to join the Committee of 100, Zhou Xin approached I.M. Pei to design the style of the matrix flagship store.
Although Pei officially retired in 1990, his architectural studio will not retire after retirement. At the same time, he will still personally intervene in some particularly important projects.
It is equivalent to him giving advice and I.M. Pei Studio to complete the specific design.
Matrix wants to take a high-end route, and Zhou Xin is not short of money now, so he plans to open flagship stores in major cities in America first.
This involves decoration. It is difficult for ordinary designers to design the effect he wants.
Take Apple as an example. The Apple flagship store was designed by British architect Norman Foster. The project he designed is better known to Chinese people as the corkscrew-like Shenhai World Financial Center.
I.M. Pei's design style is mainly simple, geometric and abstract, which is in line with the requirements of high-end consumer electronics brands.
"No problem, just say it. When you found me and talked to me about the effect you wanted to create, I knew you were a person with your own ideas.
Including when I communicated with my architects, I also clearly told them that we should adopt an eclectic design style, while taking into account the simple and clear sense of technology and the functionality of the building itself. "
I.M. Pei hoped to build a good relationship with Zhou Xin, which would be of great benefit to him, so he was very interested in this project.
Zhou Xin said: "Mr. Bei, in fact, in my opinion, we can abandon some functionality for the sake of a sense of technology.
Our requirements for functionality are not that strong.
For example, take the design of the flagship store in Chicago as an example. Large areas of glass curtain walls and simple geometric shapes have been adopted here. In this case, it is better to go more extreme and abandon these parts directly.
Because our products will be very small, we may only release a few models of products a year.
We don't need much display space.
What I hope is to have a design impact on users and bundle our brand with technology, high-end, and scarcity. "
Pei understood: "Then we use the postmodernist style as the base, and combine it with the Goethe Memorial Museum in Basel and the Hearst Building in New York.
I roughly understand what you mean, and I will ask them to change a version to you as soon as possible. "
After Simo joined Matrix, the progress started to speed up.
In Zhou Xin's expectation, the keyboard will be released this year and the mobile phone will be released next year.
The technical content of the keyboard is low. Even if it is a customized keyboard, there are only a dozen or so components. There is no problem if the production end is completely located in China.
Cao Yongluo also helped him find a PCB board manufacturer in China.
In the process of looking for suppliers, Cao Yongluo discovered that the difficulty was not in the PCB board, but in the keycaps.
Keycaps are an important part of the keyboard. Regarding the texture of the matrix keyboard, they chose the dye-sublimation process.
This process has appeared as early as the 1970s, when it was used in the field of dye printing, and later gradually applied to other fields, such as ceramics, plastics, fibers, glass, etc.
The advantage of dye-sublimation keycaps is that they have vivid colors and distinct layers, and they can also reflect subtle color differences that involve detailed expression.
However, the suppliers Cao Yongluo found always had color differences in the keycaps they manufactured through the sublimation process, and the texture was far from what they expected.
The update time is indeed getting worse and worse. . . Please adjust your update time over the weekend.
Thank you for your amazing time and reward!
(End of chapter)
