Chapter 733: Astray

"Before this, although various personal websites have appeared on the Internet, these require sufficient professional computer technology foundation to be realized. ︾, Yahoo's personal homepage business will break this limitation, no matter you are A student, a chef, a painter, a singer, a model, a plumber, a housewife, you can create a profile on Yahoo and show yourself as much as you want.”

While Jeff Locke said these words, the remote control in his hand was pressed in turn, and personal homepage users from all walks of life appeared on the big screen behind him. These people were all users who received invitations to participate in the experience during the Yahoo personal homepage testing phase. , many of whom are celebrities from politics, business, Hollywood, and the technology industry.

After briefly describing the general concept of personal homepage, Jeff Locke switched to the big screen and continued: "Yahoo's personal homepage, through the two major classification methods of interest and region, closely connects users from the United States and even all over the world on one page. The invisible big net, in this net, you can not only show yourself to everyone, but also let us find all like-minded people in other corners of the world with only one personal computer, without having to travel far and participate in frequent social activities. friend……"

When there was thunderous applause in the auditorium, Bill Gates reacted from his contemplation again, and looked at Jeff Locke, who was nodding to the crowd on the stage, and made up his mind.

Although the last chance to enter the browser software has been missed, Microsoft can still develop the portal, an online media business that is easier to imitate. These days, Microsoft has tested most of Yahoo's top management, Bill. Gates is also aware that other tech companies interested in getting into the internet industry are doing the same.

Among Yahoo's four main senior executives, CEO Ian Grenier is in charge of the overall situation and is responsible for the formulation of Yahoo's overall corporate development strategy. Jeff. Rock is responsible for the operation of the Yahoo Portal and related software products. Steve Mitnick was in charge of Yahoo's technology research and development, and Tina Brown, the last to join Yahoo late, was in charge of Yahoo's information department.

Now that they have decided to develop the portal website business, among these four people, digging Jeff Locke, who is familiar with the operating rules of portal websites, to Microsoft will undoubtedly achieve a multiplier effect with half the effort. and. In the early stage of testing, Bill Gates also found that among several high-level executives, Jeff Locke was the one with the most ambiguous attitude towards Microsoft's poaching. The share of equity awards received is not satisfied.

After the press conference, the guests walked out one after another, and then Yahoo will hold a reception banquet in a nearby hotel. Bill Gates got up and beckoned to the assistant who was sitting nearby, and whispered to him to make an appointment with Jeff Locke. Then he walked towards Eric and the others with a smile on his face.

Yahoo's network product launch aroused strong repercussions in the form of television broadcasts, and the technology alliance and advertising alliance conferences held in Boston in the following two days also attracted more media attention.

While attending related events,

The rest of Eric's time is also occupied by dense affairs.

The scale of Yahoo is getting bigger and bigger, and the original office space is becoming more and more simple. Moreover, due to the need for confidentiality, Yahoo is not suitable to continue to stay in the original office space.

Yahoo executives and Eric both hope that Yahoo can build a dedicated corporate campus, but this cannot be done overnight.

Selected. Eric finally settled on a 30-story office building on Massachusetts Avenue that had just been built. Before it could be sold or rented out, Eric decided to rent the entire building and temporarily use it as Yahoo's headquarters. After a few years, the Yahoo corporate campus was completed and then moved out.

In addition, although Yahoo temporarily canceled the listing plan, but Steve. Keith hopes that AOL can start the listing plan. Joma Ollila also wants Nokia shares to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In addition to raising some of the money, the move also helped Nokia break into the U.S. market. Eric had to take the time to discuss these issues in detail with them one by one.

In addition to these, Eric also interviewed several senior executives of Yahoo about the results of the equity incentive plan. Although some people have shown a tendency to leave Yahoo, Eric still hopes to retain these people as much as possible.

in this process. The one who caught Eric by surprise the most was Jeff Locke.

In the preliminary stock incentive plan, the four main executives, Ian Gnear and Steve Mitnick, will receive 3 million shares of Yahoo, Jeff Locke will receive 2 million shares, and Tina Brown will receive 3 million shares. 1 million shares.

As the manager of the three companies before the merger, Jeff Locke's share of equity awards was 1 million shares less than Ian Grenier and Steve Mitnick, and it was not hard to predict dissatisfaction.

However, Eric doesn't think this plan is unfair either. Ian Grenier controls the overall development of Yahoo, and is personally responsible for the establishment of the Yahoo Technology Alliance and the Yahoo Advertising Alliance. Many of Yahoo's current advertising partners and Clients are all negotiated by Ian Gunir himself. In addition, as the chief technology officer, Steve Mitnick is responsible for the technical research and development of all products under Yahoo. He also has genius-like technical talents. The work results of these two people are undoubtedly better than those of Jeff, who is only responsible for the operation of Yahoo's portal. . Locke is much better.

After all, the current Yahoo is different from the previous life, it is not just a separate portal, it owns instant messaging software, browsers and other businesses. Although the portal is undoubtedly the most dazzling department of Yahoo, but in terms of importance to Yahoo, Jeff. Locke has fallen behind Ian. Grenier and Steve. Mitnick.

Five days passed by so quickly, and before I knew it, it was already July 14th.

Yahoo's annual meeting officially ended this afternoon, and most of the guests had already left Boston.

Eric originally planned to leave this afternoon, but because some things were not resolved, he had to postpone it until tomorrow morning.

It was already 7:30 in the evening. Eric and Chris left the Yahoo headquarters and walked side by side on the sidewalk of Massachusetts Avenue, followed by a few figures not far or near. They are their assistants and bodyguards.

"So, he has already decided to go to Microsoft?" Chris kicked a pebble to the side of the road and asked Eric.

Eric nodded. Although he finally raised the price to 2.2 million shares, he still failed to keep Jeff Locke.

The other party insisted on 3 million shares equivalent to Ian Grenier and Steve Mitnick before they were willing to stay. Eric couldn't pay the other party so much, so he smiled helplessly, Eric said: "Actually, this is also good, let Microsoft have a direction of efforts, and Gates will not jump out and make trouble with us."

Although strong technical and patent barriers have been formed, Eric's fear of Microsoft has not decreased at all.

After all, a lot of Yahoo's software will need to run on the Microsoft operating system platform in the future, once Microsoft is pressed. Forcibly tear the face, and Yahoo will definitely be in big trouble. Although this possibility is not high, it exists after all. In the memory of the previous life, after dominating the field of operating systems, Microsoft's attitude towards competitors in the same industry has always been slaughtered.

Chris could also feel Eric's concern, nodded and said, "Now that things are done, what do you think of the effect this time?"

There has been such a big commotion in Boston these days. Just to lead other competitors astray, although Eric explained a little to him. But Chris is still not sure if this will work or not.

"Didn't you already see it," Eric said with a relaxed look on his face, "Since Microsoft has chosen to poach Jeff Locke, at least he won't cause us much damage in the next two years. threatened."

Based on previous life experience, later Yahoo and Google. In fact, they are two Internet companies with completely different concepts.

Yahoo is not so much a technology company as it is a media company. And Google, which focuses on search engines, is an authentic technology company.

In reality, media companies still have various thresholds, but in the Internet world, such thresholds are terribly low, even later. A single individual can operate the Internet media business, which is the so-called self-media.

With such a low barrier to entry, websites based on media information will become more and more proliferating in the future, and it is almost impossible to become an Internet giant simply by virtue of content advantages. A search engine business like Google that focuses on the integration of huge Internet information will be the mainstream of Internet companies in the future.

The main reason why the Yahoo in the previous life has not been able to escape its doomed decline after many reforms is that it has never been able to make a decision on its own media attributes and technological attributes. After more than ten years, I still can't escape the final fate.

Eric's series of actions in recent days is to guide other competitors to focus on the development of Internet media business, that is, portal websites.

For this reason, Eric deliberately spoke nonsense at an industry exchange meeting two days ago, compared the portal website with the three major TV networks in reality, and described the relationship between the portal website and its advertising alliance partners. For the cooperative relationship between the TV network and the participating TV stations, and to publicize its development prospects, it is predicted that as long as the number of Internet users reaches half of the actual TV users, the revenue scale of the portal website will exceed that of the actual TV network.

Judging from the reaction at the time, many people obviously believed it. Even after the exchange meeting, Steve Case communicated with Eric, hoping to increase investment in the US online portal business.

Although under Eric's original persuasion, Steve Keith had determined that AOL would focus on the role of Internet service provider, Eric did not ask AOL to give up the portal business, which has been around for a few years. In the post-Internet bubble, it can greatly boost the share price of AOL.

Eric did not attack Steve Case at that time, and readily agreed to the other party's request, and was willing to provide some technical support to the other party.

When many people are studying the portal website that is doomed to decline, in fact, everyone probably doesn't know that what Eric cares about most is the seemingly inconspicuous Yahoo search tool at the top of the Yahoo portal page. Over the past few years, he has been consciously or unintentionally inviting Steve Mitnick, who is in charge of technology research and development, to increase the development of intelligent search engine technology.

The two chatted, and soon walked outside the hotel where they were staying. Chris looked up at the bright restaurant on the second floor and said to Eric, "Jeff Bezos should already be there. , you suddenly broke the appointment two days ago, but he was very unhappy, and it took me a lot of effort to negotiate the terms with the other party."

Eric originally planned to meet with Jeff Bezos the night before to talk about increasing investment in Amazon, but was delayed by other things at the time. He originally planned to return to the hotel at 8:00, but it was actually delayed until 8:30. People's meetings are naturally in vain, and there is no time for these two days. Eric can only entrust Chris to contact Jeff Bezos. Fortunately, the effect is good.

According to the agreement reached between Chris and Jeff Bezos, in the next few years, Firefly Investment will be directly responsible for the financing of Amazon's e-commerce website. Firefly has promised not to participate in Amazon's operations. In order to show sincerity, Firefly Investment will inject funds into Amazon. In exchange for Amazon's convertible preferred stock.

The so-called preferred stock is the stock that does not have voting rights but has preferential dividend rights.

The convertible preferred shares of Amazon held by Firefly Investments will be automatically converted into common shares with voting rights after the Amazon IPO.

This kind of agreement can prompt Jeff Bezos to delay the Amazon IPO as much as possible, and Firefly Investment can also obtain more Amazon shares in the process. Chris expects that before Jeff Bezos decides to list Amazon, Firefly Investments will probably be able to get about 40% of Amazon's shares, and after the listing, Firefly's shareholding can also be maintained at more than 30%.

The two walked into the hotel and came to the restaurant on the second floor. Although Eric was not late this time, Jeff Bezos was already waiting here.

The reason why Eric delayed leaving until tomorrow morning was to take the opportunity to meet Jeff Bezos.

Now that the agreement has been reached, the two sides have not talked too much about cooperation. The atmosphere is quite pleasant. They chatted casually for about an hour and got familiar with each other.

Before entering his room in the hotel, Eric said to Kelly: "Go to New York tomorrow morning, then go back to Los Angeles, always look at the two little guys, in addition to "America's Next Top Model" and "Runway" The production progress of Pride." Enable new URL