The technical content of the mobile phone industry is not high. It depends on who you compare with. For a technology giant like Microsoft that has been standing in Silicon Valley for 20 years, it does not have much technical content.
Even for smartphones, the only difficulty in their view is the touch screen, which Microsoft cannot solve in a short time. For example, the Mphone has a huge advantage in mobile chips. Microsoft also believes that it is only a matter of time before they and Intel surpass them.
Of course, it would be best if it can be acquired, especially through share acquisition. Ballmer likes acquisitions best. Acquisitions mean that Wall Street financial institutions have to give him a lot of benefits privately and let them act as the middleman of the deal. square.
After Ballmer took over, the biggest impression left on the outside world was that Microsoft was particularly fond of acquisitions. In 2006, it completed 14 mergers and acquisitions throughout the year. It was known as the king of mergers and acquisitions and had the domineering attitude to annex the world.
However, most of these acquired companies did not end well and became stragglers within Microsoft. The day they were acquired was their peak.
Not only did Microsoft make large-scale mergers and acquisitions in Americen, it also made large-scale investments in China, with a wave of investment of 25 million US dollars. Ballmer personally came to Jinan to sign this investment, and the subsequent wave of Microsoft even looked like a wave of wholly-owned acquisitions.
For Ballmer, he is eager to acquire Matrix. The benefits involved can be described as massive. Moreover, Newman and Bill Gates have joined forces in another field, which is the pinnacle of the capital market.
It will definitely bring Microsoft's valuation back to its peak.
Before the Nasdaq bubble burst, Microsoft's market value exceeded US$500 billion. Zhou Xin's butterfly effect made Microsoft's market value a full US$100 billion more than its original peak.
After the Nasdaq bubble burst, Microsoft's market value has been fluctuating around 120 billion US dollars, not even one-third of it, let alone 500 billion US dollars.
But Ballmer believes that if it can merge with Matrix, Microsoft can quickly return to its peak.
Bill Gates thought for a while and said: "If Newman accepts the share swap, what position is more appropriate for Microsoft to give him?
I actually want him to be the CEO of Microsoft. If he feels that the CEO is not enough, I can also give him the position of chairman of the board of directors. "
Bill Gates and Ballmer were college classmates, and Ballmer was Microsoft's employee No. 24. Ballmer was the best man when Bill Gates held a wedding on Lanai Island in 1994, so this kind of thing is not suitable to say in person. , Bill Gates doesn’t shy away from talking about it.
Ballmer took over: "If Newman replaces me, I won't have any nostalgia for this position. It just so happens that I can have time to do something I want to do."
It doesn't matter what Ballmer thinks, nor does it matter what he says, but his stance in front of Bill Gates is important.
The most powerful person in Microsoft reached an agreement in a few words, and the next step was to take action. They found Goldman Sachs, the financial institution that had the best relationship with Newman in the eyes of the outside world, as the middle broker.
Bush would not propose Henry Paulson to replace John Snow as Treasury Secretary until 2006, and Paulson would not start to make the move until the end of 2004.
Therefore, Paulson is still one of the top three most powerful executives at Goldman Sachs, so the big names on Wall Street are still excited after chatting with Bill Gates.
He personally promoted the merger of Matrix and Microsoft, which was the largest business on Wall Street after the turn of the millennium, ten times larger than the merger of Google and Baidu.
The merger of the undisputed overlord of the personal PC era and the emerging giant of the mobile Internet era will definitely be epoch-making news. Even Time Warner's acquisition of Quora was far behind.
Because Time Warner is far less famous than Microsoft, Quora is also not as potential and imaginative as Matrix.
“Bill, I think your proposal is very good, very imaginative and certainly a test of our abilities.
Once successful, it will be a win-win-win for Microsoft, Goldman Sachs and Newman. "
If Goldman Sachs can complete this deal, it will become the top financial institution, at least half a step ahead of other large and small Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, and Merrill Lynch.
For financial institutions, business determines status.
Is there any more top-level business than promoting the merger of Microsoft and Matrix? Once this business is successful, it would be no exaggeration to say that it would be the most important merger and acquisition case in Goldman Sachs' history, and Paulson's position at Goldman Sachs would also be unshakable.
"Bill, your agreement to this matter means that Microsoft agrees to this matter, and for Matrix, we only need to convince Newman.
I believe we can do it. "Paulson is very confident.
In other words, in his opinion, this is something that must be done, and no matter what Zhou Xin asks, he will try his best to do it.
"Bill invited us to go to his villa in Washington state for vacation. Do you want to go? If you don't want to go, I will refuse him," Zhou Xin said.
Li Jingyi knew where the villa Zhou Xin was talking about. They had been there before. Li Jingyi actually liked the scenery and climate there, but she really had nothing in common with Bill Gates' wife.
Whether it is charity foundations or the skills of being a good wife and mother, Li Jingyi is not interested in these.
The only thing that interested Li Jingyi was the other person's travel experience and rich knowledge around the world. Melinda could speak as if she was immersed in the situation. Her English speaking skills were not very good before, so it was difficult for her to understand.
After starting work at Amerikan, Li Jingyi felt that she would be more interested in talking about this topic this time.
In addition, it was true that she had not had a good rest for several months, so Li Jingyi said: "You'd better go, you don't have many friends to begin with, and you just happened to go to Washington State to have a drink and discuss heroes with Bill Gates."
Zhou Xin originally thought that he and Robin could become friends, but the two gradually drifted apart, especially after Baidu went public. Apart from the usual greetings when meeting in public, the two parties met very rarely in private, with a frequency of about a year. Like once.
Zhou Xin speculated that the reason why the two parties were drifting apart was because Zhou Xin was Baidu's largest individual shareholder, and Robin was afraid that his position would be shaken. Or, during daily meetings, Zhou Xin gave him something that was inconsistent with his business philosophy. Will he listen to the suggestion or not?
Secondly, it was because Robin had joined the Committee of 100. As a member of the presidium of the Committee of 100, under the influence of this group of people, he would stay away from Zhou Xin.
Pony's words are too dull. He is also an engineer immersed in his own world. He can listen to you, but he is not very good at expressing his own opinions.
Originally, the relationship with Jerry Yang was good, and the competitive relationship between companies did not affect the personal friendship between the two parties. However, Yahoo's performance has been declining, and the relationship with Baidu is strong. Both of them allowed Yang Zhiyuan to return to the position of Yahoo CEO.
The result is that he is too busy. Pulling a once-glorious giant like Yahoo out of the quagmire is far more difficult than Yang Zhiyuan expected. Since returning to the position of CEO of Yahoo, Zhou Xin has only met Yang Zhiyuan once.
His age was completely visible to the naked eye, and Zhou Xin couldn't help but feel that it was not a good job to be an executive of a down-and-out giant.
Not to mention giants like Yahoo that have fallen from the top of the mountain to the valley. Later generations of giants like Alibaba are just beginning to show signs of decline. Senior executives have been replaced one after another. Feng Qingyang’s resignation was not sad but happy.
There are many senior executives with whom Zhou Xin has good relationships in his career, such as Guan Jianying and Hu Zhengming, who have all returned to China. They can only communicate through emails and cross-border phone calls.
As for Lei Jun, he did a good job in Matrix, but the relationship between superiors and subordinates and the lack of foundation between the two parties made it difficult to transform from a subordinate to a friend.
In addition, Lei Jun came to Silicon Valley and jumped from the software industry to the consumer electronics industry, which was also a big challenge for him. During this period, he also single-handedly led the merger and acquisition case of Joyo.com being packaged and sold to Amazon Huaguo. Lei Jun did not have time. Walk privately with Zhou Xin.
After listening, Zhou Xin nodded: "Okay, it's indeed time to talk to Bill.
We had talked on the phone about our views on the mobile Internet before. Microsoft has always adhered to the view that it would only be a software service provider and would not end up, but recently its thinking seems to have changed.
It has been testing whether Mphone's mobile chips can be sold. "
Li Jingyi asked while replying to the email: "It seems that it is not a discussion about heroes over wine, but a bit like the Hongmen Banquet."
Zhou Xin shook his head: "That's not the case, Bill is just a test, and there is still a long way to go from the test to the real outcome.
And even if Microsoft really ends up doing mobile Internet, Matrix is not afraid of Microsoft. They are the challenger in this field. "
Bill Gates' vacation villa in Washington is so luxurious that Zhou Xin couldn't help but feel that he is one of those people who can only make money but not spend money.
"Bill, you look good. There is almost no difference from the last time I saw you. It seems that leaving the management position is indeed the right choice. You don't have to worry about the company and the industry anymore."
Zhou Xin came up directly and hinted to Bill Gates that we are here just for a vacation and can we stop talking about work.
Bill Gates hesitated to talk about it: "I have left my job, but my mind is still restless, always thinking about what else to do.
It's just that compared to before, there is no sense of urgency about what must be done, but you can do things at your own pace and preference. "
Because he has family members, Bill Gates did not invite a lot of models to have a pool party like just the two of them. Instead, he held a barbecue party. The servants were handling the ingredients, while Bill Gates and Zhou Xin found We took a quiet corner to chat.
"It's hard to imagine that the gadgets in our hands will become so smart. It's not wrong to name it smart." Bill Gates waved the Mphone2 on his hand.
Bill Gates is also a loyal user of Mphone. Zhou Xin gave him one when Mphone1 was not officially released, let alone when Mphone2 came out later.
Zhou Xin agreed: "From the day I started making smartphones, I knew that the future development of chips would determine that the computing power of mobile phones would become more and more powerful, and the increase in communication transmission rate would allow the information received by mobile phones to evolve from text to text. into pictures and then into videos.
With the combination of the two, mobile phones will naturally become more and more intelligent. Bill, this is the development law of the objective world. "
Bill Gates: "You are right, but you were the first to discover this development pattern. When other mobile phone manufacturers were still focusing on the battery life, communication quality, and appearance of mobile phones, you realized that mobile phones would There is an essential evolution, and computing power and transmission capabilities have become the key to evolution.
When Mphone1 came out, I thought it was very interesting. At that time, like the media, I thought it was an Internet phone, something you created out of thin air, just to cater to some users who were heavily dependent on the Internet.
For example, when I used Mphone1, I found it very useful. Some pages and content that originally needed to be browsed in front of a computer can now be completed on the mobile phone.
But until Mphone2, it began to gradually replace the computer in my life, especially when I was on vacation, I forgot how many days I didn't turn on the computer.
Whether it is sending and receiving emails, browsing the web, online forums or even music and videos, all can be done through Mphone2. "
As a user of Mphone, Bill Gates is more aware of its appeal, which is why he wants to acquire Matrix.
In the past, Bill Gates felt that it was safe to form an offensive and defensive alliance with Motorola and Intel in the field of smartphones. He used Motorola to make Microsoft's mobile operating system famous, and then promoted it to smartphones produced by global manufacturers.
But two things that happened recently changed Bill Gates's mind. One is that Motorola is recruiting people privately and still doesn't give up on building its own mobile phone operating system.
The second reason is because of the public opinion war between Tencent, Motorola and Nokia. The public opinion war made Bill Gates realize that the operating system is also a core interest for mobile phone manufacturers, and they may not give up. The larger the manufacturer, the more attention it will pay to the benefits brought by software. I don’t want to give this part of the profits to Microsoft in vain.
It’s not just the buyout cost of the operating system, but also the long-term revenue created by the future smartphone ecosystem. Mobile phone manufacturers are obviously unwilling to hand over this part of revenue. Small manufacturers may be willing to cooperate with Microsoft due to size constraints, but large enterprises are definitely not willing.
For Microsoft, their mobile operating system would be meaningless if it could only be shipped on scraps.
After thinking about this, Bill Gates decided to make his own mobile phone.
Because there is no Android at the moment, everyone has not understood how operating system manufacturers and mobile phone manufacturers distribute benefits, and they have not understood that the app store does not need to be a preloaded part of the system.
Therefore, both Bill Gates and the executives of mobile phone manufacturers believe that there is a direct conflict between their interests.
Zhou Xin looked at the aroma coming from the chefs grilling meat in the distance, and wondered when technology would be able to transmit the aroma over long distances through sensors, and said absently:
“Yes, smartphones can do anything, and the operating system and software developers jointly determine its upper limit.
You will find Mphone easy to use because Mphone has a group of developers who can do anything. They are the soul of Mphone. "
Bill Gates retorted: "No, they are indispensable components. They are cells and blood. Only you are the soul of Mphone."
The crow has been in Guizhou over the weekend and has no time to code. I will make up a chapter tomorrow morning if I missed it yesterday.
(End of chapter)
