Most of the active programmers in Silicon Valley are born in the 1960s and 1970s. From their perspective, Microsoft is guilty of original sin.
Microsoft's original sin was that they single-handedly changed the principles of sharing and innovation in the early Internet era, causing the Internet world to lose its original moral principles and turn into a society based on the law of the jungle.
After the conflict between Microsoft and Netscape, this view became even more entrenched.
When Zhou Xin first came to Silicon Valley in 1998, Microsoft was engaged in a browser war with Netscape. Looking back at history, it may only be a short sentence, but for people who were in the environment at that time, it was quite a feeling that Microsoft was the world's leading company. The feeling that everyone is the enemy.
Suffering from the instability of the Windows 98 version and facing endless judicial lawsuits, the vast majority of users emotionally support Netscape.
Under the hype of the media, consumers have greatly questioned Microsoft's social responsibility, which has had a serious negative impact on Microsoft's social reputation.
Sometimes social reputation is really useful. If Riot Games launched a game console similar to Xbox, with the same resources, the sales volume would be at least 20% higher than Microsoft's.
Most of the initial users of Mphone are various types of workers active in Silicon Valley. These groups include programmers, scientific researchers and students. Their common characteristic is that they dislike Microsoft.
Even though Windows is inseparable from life, it does not affect consumers' emotional opposition to Microsoft.
Everyone cannot accept that Microsoft wants to acquire Matrix, which means the further expansion of dark forces. It seems a bit exaggerated to say this, but this was the image of Microsoft at the beginning of the 21st century.
"Newman should not cooperate with Microsoft. Microsoft's intervention will change everything about Matrix, such as the current open ecosystem, the operating system with excellent experience, and the near-perfect hardware.
Microsoft will make everything worse. " Raymond said in an interview.
Raymond, whose full name is Eric Raymond, was a good figure in the early open source movement. He started programming in 1980 and led a series of open source movements. He hated Microsoft deeply.
"Yes, Newman is great, but Microsoft will screw it up. The merger of Matrix and Microsoft looks like a strong merger. Yes, Microsoft has rich experience in operating systems for personal PCs and has a huge influence in Silicon Valley. force.
But Newman also has these things. Newman has unique talents and insights in products. He does not need to rely on Microsoft's experience to create a smartphone operating system that has a much better user experience than Microsoft's mobile operating system.
With enough users, all bugs are shallow.
do you understand? The name Newman alone is enough to attract a large number of users to test the operating system. All problems will be fixed quickly. Matrix does not need Microsoft to improve the development quality of MOS. "
What Raymond just said is Linus's Law, which roughly means that if there are enough samples for testing, problems in the code itself will be easy to find and repair. This is a law he proposed himself.
This law was later verified in popular GitHub projects.
The people who are dissatisfied with the merger between Microsoft and Matrix are far more than just Raymond, there are also mobile phone giants, but their mood is not dissatisfaction but panic.
Matrix has beaten them out of breath in the smartphone market. The generation gap in technology has caused all traditional mobile phone giants to invest heavily in research and development to try to catch up.
If Microsoft and Matrix merge, it will mean a bigger gap for them. Microsoft's extensive offline channels around the world can also help Matrix make up for the last shortcoming - offline channels.
The global sales of Mphone2 exceeded 10 million in just one quarter after its launch. It is not that there are only 10 million potential customers, but Matrix's production capacity and offline channels only support them to deliver these 10 million Mphone2 to consumers. in hands.
Motorola and Nokia held executive meetings almost on the same day to discuss countermeasures, and Motorola executives went to Seattle to find Microsoft executives in an attempt to get some information.
Because the whistleblower has a certain reputation in Silicon Valley and is particularly knowledgeable about Microsoft’s internal affairs, the several previous leaks about Microsoft were finally verified. So many people believe in the merger of Microsoft and Matrix.
In addition, Zhou Xin's image to the outside world is somewhat like a bounty hunter. As long as your chips are high enough, he is willing to sell you the products of his hard work.
"Bob, it seems that Microsoft attaches far more importance to the smartphone market than outsiders imagine. You actually have the courage to directly acquire Matrix.
Newman's appetite is not small, and ordinary chips will definitely not impress Newman. "
"No, no, no, this is just a rumor. At least as the vice president in charge of mobile operating system development, I have not received any internal news about Microsoft's acquisition of Matrix.
Matrix is a behemoth. Although it has only been around for a few years, it is not like Visio, which can be acquired for more than a billion dollars. "
Microsoft recently acquired Visio, a drawing software company and the predecessor of office Visio.
"The outside world has begun to spread rumors, indicating that Microsoft's senior management has almost talked with Newman, but has not yet officially responded to the matter from the corporate level.
Bob, honestly, how do you see the future of the smartphone operating system jointly developed by Microsoft and us after the merger of Microsoft and Matrix?
Will Microsoft open MOS to us, or will it launch two mobile operating systems at the same time, or what? "
"Sorry, Paul, you don't have to try to trick me. First of all, I don't know whether Microsoft will merge with Matrix. Secondly, where the Windows Mobile version will go after the merger needs to be discussed internally.
Furthermore, whether the new smartphone operating system will be open to the outside world, this is the third question. There is a strong logical relationship between them. I can’t answer you the first question, let alone the third question. "
"Well, I would like to ask how Microsoft views our cooperation project and whether Microsoft's management's attitude towards this matter has changed."
Bob is pretending to be confused because he knows that Microsoft executives, including him, are dissatisfied with Motorola's insistence on developing its own operating system:
"There will be no change. Microsoft's attitude towards this project will not change until the moment the acquisition of Matrix is officially completed. We hope to use our cooperation with Motorola to make Windows Mobile a sufficiently competitive smartphone operating system on the market. "
After the news spread, Microsoft's stock price soared by more than 15% the next day. Wall Street was much better informed. They knew that Zhou Xin went to Bill Gates' villa for vacation, and the two had a very happy chat.
Goldman Sachs has even received preliminary information, which generally means that Newman has certain intentions for the merger of Microsoft and Matrix, and wants them to explore the regulatory tone first.
Whether regulation will allow a substantial monopoly in an established field to merge with a semi-monopoly in another emerging field is a question.
When Ballmer notified Goldman Sachs, he hinted that if they could handle the regulations, the merger would be handed over to Goldman Sachs.
Goldman Sachs, who had received the news in advance, began to operate, and ghost stories about the merger of Microsoft and Matrix spread all over Washington, Silicon Valley and Wall Street.
This is just like the room-temperature superconductivity of later generations has not yet been fully verified, and the capital market has already reacted in advance.
Microsoft's investor relations department received calls from all over the world, asking them whether Microsoft would merge with Matrix.
When the Koreans claimed that they had discovered room temperature superconductivity, it was useless to call the superconducting concept stock company because they did not know whether it was true or false.
However, the merger of Microsoft and Matrix is not a natural phenomenon, but the result of the development of things. Impatient investors hope that Microsoft can give an accurate letter. After all, chasing high prices is always easy to feel worried.
A Microsoft spokesperson on Wall Street focused on answering these questions in a public interview:
"As for whether Microsoft will merge with Matrix, I can only say that Matrix is an excellent company and Microsoft does not exclude this possibility."
"Is it possible that the good personal relationship between Mr. Zhou and Mr. Gates was a key factor in the final success of this merger?"
"Sorry, it hasn't happened yet. Now Microsoft does not exclude the merger with Matrix. The final result will be subject to the official announcement."
Microsoft's official actions pushed the drama to a climax, so much so that Jobs came to Zhou Xin to inquire: "Newman, I heard that you plan to sell Matrix?
How about considering Apple?
Apple and Matrix merge. "
Zhou Xin shook his head: "Apple cannot afford to acquire Matrix. Let alone Apple's book funds, Apple's market value is not as high as Matrix's revenue."
Jobs felt like he had been hit by an arrow in the knee, which was really heartbreaking.
Jobs said: "What about Matrix acquiring Apple?
Matrix's acquisition of Apple is equivalent to using Apple's shell to list on Nasdaq.
Matrix's acquisition of Apple will not affect Apple's launch of its own smartphones, nor will it affect Matrix's continued launch of the Mphone series.
It is equivalent to adding a product line like Matrix under Apple. "
To be honest, Apple still has some valuable technologies, especially those who work on MacOS. They can help Matrix's MOS achieve leapfrog.
Zhou Xin is unwilling to merge with Microsoft because once he merges with Microsoft, the dominance will be handed over to others. In addition, Microsoft's poor social reputation will have a negative impact on Matrix.
Apple is different. Apple belongs to the image of a tragic hero. Even if it barely regains a sense of existence with the help of the iPod, it is still a tragic hero with a sense of existence.
Zhou Xin fell into thinking, I don’t want to be acquired by Microsoft, but I can acquire Apple. Jobs wanted Matrix to use Apple’s shell to go public, and I wanted to use Apple’s technology to develop Matrix smartphones.
There is no conflict, and since he is already a major shareholder of Apple, Matrix does not need to pay too much to merge with Apple.
Zhou Xin grinned: "Steve, I have indeed thought about selling Matrix to Microsoft.
If Bill can come up with a price, and if I sell Matrix to Microsoft, I plan to acquire Apple and take it private. "
Jobs was shocked. Not to mention the cash flow after selling Matrix to Microsoft, even if Zhou Xin wanted to acquire Apple now, he would not be short of money, because Apple is not expensive at all.
Moreover, Apple's small and medium-sized shareholders are happy to see Zhou Xin become Apple's controlling shareholder, which means that they have a deeper interest tie with Zhou Xin.
The previous interest bundling allowed Apple to launch highly imaginative products such as iPod Zero, which helped Apple reopen the high-end music player market.
If Zhou Xin becomes Apple's controlling shareholder, there will definitely be more benefits.
Reputation sometimes comes in handy, and Zhou Xin's reputation has made his investments and mergers and acquisitions in the Internet and consumer electronics fields unfavorable.
This is not only true in Silicon Valley, but also in China. The previous cooperation with Huahong required Hu Zhengming to talk with the leaders of Shen Hai before it could be finalized.
Now Shenhai and even the entire Chinese wafer fab are eager to sell part of their equity to Xinxin Technology and give up control to Xinxin Technology. Wouldn't it be nice to just pay dividends on the books?
The only point that makes these local state-owned platforms dissatisfied is that the salary package offered by Xinxin to front-line engineers is too high. They can completely lower the salary. After lowering the salary, wouldn't the net profit be greater?
The people who really do the work are in the middle and lower reaches of the distribution of benefits. This is almost a potential consensus in China.
Back in Silicon Valley, Jobs said expressionlessly: "Newman, if you acquire Apple, you will definitely become Apple's new source of inspiration and bring a steady stream of inspiration to Apple.
I'd love to see that day come. "
When you can't refuse, you can only enjoy it and think about the good things. With Jobs's current reputation, Apple's board of directors cannot refuse Newman, not to mention that Newman himself is the most powerful member of Apple's board of directors.
Zhou Xin said: "Now you have given me a new idea. Matrix does not have to rely on Microsoft's offline channels. Apple is also a good offline channel.
After the merger of Apple and Matrix, Mphone continued to focus on high-end products, exploring the cutting-edge technology of smartphones, and breaking through the shackles of reality. Apple can make mid-range smartphones and products with lower prices and more acceptable to consumers.
I also have a Xiaomi company in China that also makes smartphones. It can specialize in mid- to low-end products.
In this case, Matrix, Apple and Xiaomi occupy the mobile phone market from low to high price points. "
In fact, Zhou Xin had similar ideas before, but he never thought about Apple acquiring Matrix.
Although he is the largest shareholder in terms of equity relationship, he still owns more than 70% of the new Apple company after the merger is completed.
But the concepts behind Apple's acquisition of Matrix and Matrix's acquisition of Apple are completely different. Matrix is a company founded in Silicon Valley, and most of its employees are engineers from Silicon Valley. However, it is still a Chinese company because Zhou Xin is Chinese.
Matrix's acquisition of Apple is too sensitive and would be almost impossible to obtain regulatory approval.
Apple's acquisition of Matrix is different. This is an acquisition of a Chinese enterprise by Americen Enterprises, although the equity structure behind it will not change.
Chaosing is not only found in animals, it is also an effective trick for humans.
Zhou Xin's communication with Jobs gave him a new idea. If Apple acquires Matrix, then he is sure that Goldman Sachs can go through Washington and make the deal final.
(End of chapter)
