Chapter 502 Timing

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The emergence of the ie graphical interface browser has an absolutely fatal impact on the surfing habits of ordinary people. The previous web browser software had to go through complicated operations to connect to the Internet. This shortcoming blocked most people from the Internet. outside the ranks of surfers. The emergence of the IE browser equipped with the homepage of the Yahoo portal website enables ordinary people not only to browse the corresponding Internet information according to their own preferences, but also to find the content of interest more directionally through the search engine function launched by Yahoo. A change has greatly facilitated ordinary people who are almost completely ignorant of computer technology.

After a proper advertising campaign and word of mouth from users, IE browser sold 110,000 copies in major cities in North America within a week of its release. Although IE does not limit the number of installations per floppy disk, However, the sales curve of software has not shown any downward trend, and has been rising rapidly. Some businesses have even raised their sales prices by a large margin due to the hot sales of software.

The hot sales of ie not only caused a wave of user application peaks in the online business of several major North American communication companies, but also caused the sales of personal computers of several major brands to increase significantly at the end of the year.

At the same time, both ordinary newspapers and professional computer magazines are keenly concerned about this 'magic software' that suddenly appeared on the market, and almost all news channels of North American TV stations have devoted special attention to the hot sales of ie software. more professional magazines such as "Computer Society Newsletter" or "Internet Transactions" praised ie software, and they used a large number of articles on IE and Yahoo in the latest issue of the magazine. A deeper dissection.

Eric, who was standing by the study window, hung up the mobile phone in his hand, then walked back to the sofa in the study reception area and sat down. Chris pushed over a cup of brewed coffee. Curiously asked: "From Los Angeles?"

Eric nodded: "Warner wanted me to be able to attend the premiere of "The Bodyguard". I turned it down. I always get similar calls these days, and Spielberg asked Drew to call me two days ago. Call to see if I can go to the premiere of Schindler's List."

Chris smiled and asked, "You have to attend the premiere of the "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" with Columbia, right? Are you a screenwriter?"

"Let's talk about it," Eric took a sip of his coffee.

Virginia's light laughter suddenly sounded from the desk behind him, Eric turned his head and glanced, Virginia, Joanna, and Emily, who came to visit with Chris, were sitting on a computer screen. Before whispering.

The industry's pursuit of ie's pursuit of Eric can't really understand, but Virginia makes Eric feel this. Because of the convenience and practicality of IE and Yahoo, Virginia, who was not interested in computers in the past, has become obsessed with the pastime of surfing the Internet. She spends several hours a day in front of the computer screen, and often pulls Together with Joanna, if it weren't for the fact that the radiation from the computer screen was so severe these days that a layer of oil would appear on her face when facing the screen for a long time, Virginia would not have wanted to hold the computer while she was awake.

Chris followed Eric's gaze and smiled knowingly at the appearance of the three women.

"The news from the ie headquarters has been less than two weeks since its release. At present, the total installed capacity of ie software has exceeded 3 million units, and it is still growing rapidly. As long as there are no competitors It is estimated that within three months, ie will be able to cover all Internet users in North America and even Europe. The traffic of Yahoo’s homepage is also skyrocketing, and the company is already expanding the server capacity of the website.”

Eric listened patiently to what Chris said,

Only then did he ask, "This is all good news, is there anything else?"

"Of course," Chris said: "In the past few days, software and hardware giants such as Microsoft, Apple, IBM and Oracle have all approached me, hoping to invest in the acquisition of ie and Yahoo, of which Apple has offered $150 million for the two companies. High price, they obviously want Apple computer operating system to be exclusive to ie software. In addition, several major Internet service providers have also contacted me, and Steve Case of AOL plans to come over tomorrow to talk to me in person."

Eric's total investment in ie, yahoo and online mail service companies this year is only about 30 million US dollars. If ie and yahoo are sold to Apple, the highest bidder, the investment of 30 million US dollars will turn five in a blink of an eye. Earn money back. However, with the strong expansion momentum of ie and Yahoo, only a fool would sell the two companies. Eric doesn't think about that at all.

However, AOL is a very important pawn for Eric in the layout of the Internet industry. Steve Case became interested in the two companies, and Eric could not ignore it: "Steve Case's idea What is it?"

"He wants to acquire ie and Yahoo, or at least Yahoo," Chris said, looking at Eric. Based on what he knew about Eric, Chris felt that Eric would not let go of ie and Yahoo. Any one of them is given to AOL. However, after investing in AOL at the beginning of the year, it has obtained investment from Firefly, and AOL's development this year is also very rapid.

In Chris' view, handing over IE and Yahoo to AOL is also a good choice.

AOL has begun to explore online advertising business at this time. In September, Steve Case also personally negotiated a $1 million online advertising order, although for mainstream advertising carriers such as TV stations or print media, $1 million in advertising is nothing, not even the cost of putting a movie trailer at the Super Bowl, but for the Internet in its infancy, getting a $1 million ad order is definitely not worth it. It is a breakthrough innovation, so we can also see the excellent management ability of Steve Case.

Eric can also see some of his thoughts from Chris's expression. After thinking about it, he said, "Chris, do you know why I set up three companies for browsers, portals and online mailboxes?"

Chris smiled and didn't answer. Motioning for Eric to continue.

Eric didn't give a shit. He continued: "Because the computer and network information industry is very different from the film and television industry that has been developing for nearly a century. This is an emerging sunrise industry, and many aspects are still in its infancy. At this time, it hastily began to diversify. The integration of the company is a very unwise move. Once the company has too many types of products, it is difficult to concentrate on making a business to the extreme. The development of computer and network technology is quite rapid. be thrown far away by the opponent."

"So you hope that these three companies can operate separately. Even rejecting the suggestion of the Yahoo team to bind the ie homepage is to hope that they can keep their aggressiveness in order to maintain their own status, right?"

Seeing Chris guessing his intentions, Eric smiled and said, "Yes, my plan is to wait until these companies have achieved undisputed dominance in their respective fields, and then start to expand horizontally. This is the only way to be safe. Instead of rolling out the stalls from the beginning, any business in the end is no match for more focused competitors, and ultimately leads to a total failure.”

"Then what should I tell him when Steve Case comes over tomorrow?" Chris asked again.

"If you really want a reason. Just tell him what I just said. Both ie and Yahoo can cooperate with AOL in some businesses at a deeper level. This is definitely a win-win situation, but the merger is a matter of Certainly not."

The two were chatting, and there was a soft laughter behind him again. Eric turned his head and said, "Hey, ladies, what interesting things did you see and share with us?"

"Nothing, Vicky turned to a joke site," Emily said, looking up.

Virginia also looked away from the screen and said to Eric, "Eric, I found something."

"What?" Eric asked with a smile, leaning on the back of the sofa, leaning on the coffee.

Virginia pointed to the computer screen and said: "Although the information on these websites is varied and interesting, many of them are a bit outdated. We just saw a fashion website that introduces clothing brand information. Some of the information was even what I saw in magazines last year, and the news sites were very lag."

Eric's heart moved slightly, but he continued to ask calmly: "Then what do you think?"

Virginia wondered: "It's none of my business, they give out these old-fashioned information, I'll just ignore it in the future."

Emily, who was sitting beside Virginia, saw Eric's eyes flashing and said, "Eric, you must have thought of something, right?"

"Yeah," Eric nodded, looking at Chris, who was sitting diagonally opposite, with a clear expression, and said, "Chris also figured it out."

Virginia tapped the keyboard a few times, but looked at Eric and Chris: "Then say it, it's boring to hide it."

Chris looked at Eric and said, "I think Yahoo can do its own content, I don't know if Eric thinks the same."

The development of portal websites can be roughly divided into portal websites that provide search engine services and portal websites that provide news information. Although the first type is more promising, the current Internet scale has not yet reached the level of developing large-scale search engines. , Yahoo's current search technology is sufficient, so it is undoubtedly a more secure choice to take the portal website that provides news and information services as its main business.

Eric nodded and said: "Almost, but there are so many content sections on Yahoo's main website, it is impossible to do all of them. You can choose the aspects that Internet users are most interested in and try first."

"Isn't it..." Chris glanced at the few people sitting behind the desk and lowered his voice a little: "Is it possible to cooperate with traditional paper media, so it should be more convenient to obtain content?"

Eric looked at Chris's sneaky appearance, and immediately thought that he was referring to News Corporation. His relationship with Elizabeth was no secret to the few people present. Chris made such an expression, obviously I want Eric to go out in person.

News Corporation's business scope covers Australia, Europe and North America, and almost the entire Western world. It has dozens of newspapers and magazines of various types and a large number of TV stations around the world. If it can cooperate with News Corporation on content, then For Yahoo, it is not even more powerful, it is simply a tiger flying.

But now, if you ignore others, just taking Yahoo as an example, it is impossible for News Corporation, as huge as a giant whale, to take a fancy to this little loach that has just churned out a splash on the Internet, and cooperation is impossible.

Eric did not immediately dispel Chris's idea, saying: "I will take the time to talk to Mr. Murdoch, but I don't have much hope. It is the right way for Yahoo to set up its own content editing department, and Yahoo doesn't need to talk to him now. For a large media group like News Corporation to cooperate, it only needs to cooperate with some single newspapers and magazines in terms of content.”

"Then I'll go back and let the Yahoo team come up with a plan as soon as possible," Chris nodded.

Eric thought for a while, and then said: "One more thing, since IE and Yahoo have both launched, now is the time. Regarding equity incentives, I plan to give each company up to 20% of the equity as an incentive. , but the cashing time was in 1995. Of course, these are definitely not unconditional gifts, and the specific level of how much equity you will get will require you to negotiate with the management teams of the three companies. The main indicator is, of course, that the company has grown to 1995. Year-on-year product market share, number of users, turnover, patent holdings, company valuation, etc.”

It is very common for investors to issue equity incentives to management teams that have made great contributions to the company. This not only keeps the company team motivated, but also increases the cohesion of a company.

Although Chris felt that Eric's direct throwing of 20% of the equity share was too generous, he also knew that this could stimulate the enthusiasm of the three companies' teams to expand to the greatest extent, not to mention that Eric also said that it is the highest 20%, Instead of having to give out 20%, if the teams of the three companies do not meet the expected value of the parent company, then it is certain to reduce the share of equity incentives. If they can keep the three companies in the leading position in the industry, they will pay 20% to keep it like this The excellent team is also very cost-effective.

With these in mind, Chris has already started to ponder the specific contract details with the management of the three companies. (To be continued...)

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