Reborn Millennial Gamer

Chapter 228 Standing and earning money! (two in one)

Redmond in Seattle is only a ten-minute drive from the House of the Future.

Before Lu Fei arrived, Bill Gates went to Building 37 before he retired to meet with Ballmer.

"Steve, what do you think?"

"Better sound quality than ipod, lighter and cheaper, but I don't think this kind of assembled gadget has any future. You know, ipod doesn't sell very well."

Ballmer played with lmusic a few times, like a child who has lost interest in a new toy, lacking interest.

"Apple used to make excuses that because MacOS was too niche, now that the second-generation Windows version is launched, it only sold 1 more units than in the first half of the year."

[PS: In the first half of 2002, the sales volume was less than 12, and it became compatible with Windows in June, and the sales volume increased to 6]

Bill Gates shook his head: "The important thing is not the sales volume, but Microsoft does not have a product that can compete with the iPod. The market cannot be easily occupied by Apple. Supporting lmusic is just creating trouble for Jobs."

Ballmer was dubious: "Can it cause trouble for Apple?"

"It's not the equipment that can cause trouble, but the people behind the equipment, Huaxia Lu."

Bill Gates expressed appreciation in his words.

Ballmer couldn't help being stunned. It's rare for an old friend to speak so highly of a person.

He weighed the lmusic in his hand, "Gates, why don't we do it ourselves, this hardware gadget has no technical content."

Bill Gates spread his hands, "No, focus, Microsoft is a software company, nothing is more important than windows."

The two of you talk to each other, and I talk to each other, and discuss the rewards of helping logic, up, down, and down.

Support cannot be free, and work cannot be done in vain.

Bill Gates looked at his watch, "It's almost time, and he's coming too, who do you arrange to meet?"

Ballmer said: "Of course they are their own Asians, Kai-Fu Lee (李开富) and Daichi (大池)."

Bill Gates' eyes were full of jokes: "Steve, why don't we make a bet, can you drive a bus?"

…………

Microsoft headquarters, like a small town in the forest.

The buildings are not high, generally three or four floors. The exterior of the building is mostly white walls with green glass windows. There are towering green trees and green grass everywhere, blending in with the surrounding environment.

Li Kaifu led the secretary to wait. He was still smiling 5 minutes ago, but now he collapsed. It wasn't that Lu Fei was late, but Kurokawa Oike was late, and he still looked like he had a clear conscience.

"Dachi, you're late."

"I'm sorry, I'm going to take care of other business temporarily." Kurokawa Ochi cracked a smile, his eyes wandering.

"Is there anything more important than Lu Fei, do you know who he is?"

Li Kaifu is very dissatisfied. His dignified vice president has to be 5 minutes ahead of schedule. You, a senior marketing manager, dare to neglect.

"I know, I know, best-selling author, China's Bill Gates."

Kurokawa Oike looked disdainful, "If he is the real Bill Gates, I will be half an hour earlier, but unfortunately he is China's Bill Gates, I can come on time is OK."

Li Kaifu was not prone to seizures, and his face was gloomy. After a few minutes, the figures of the three appeared in sight, and they greeted them with smiles.

"You're seven wow." Kurokawa Dachi smiled bluntly, and didn't even bend his waist.

"Little days... Neon people who have a good life?" Lu Fei raised his eyebrows.

Li Kaifu nodded, and talked politely to each other.

Lu Fei said solemnly: "Microsoft's overall layout has given me inspiration. I can refer to several companies in China."

"Microsoft has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in such a layout." Kurokawa Oike raised his chin, his eyes seemed to be mocking, can you afford it?

Lu Fei squinted his eyes, you little neon, how can you have such a mysterious superiority?

"Microsoft has accumulated more than [-] years to have such a large investment."

Li Kaifu was busy trying to smooth things over, and quickly winked at the secretary, asking him to lead the way, and the group moved forward.

Zhang Tianmei frowned: "Do you just walk there?"

"We have a shuttle bus."

Kurokawa Oike pointed out, and there were rows of green and white buses parked in the parking space not far away.

Lu Fei frowned, glanced at the self-driving car passing through the road from the corner of his eye, stared at Li Kaifu and waited for his explanation with a straight face.

At this moment, a shuttle bus whistled, and the horn of "Didi" echoed in the air, endlessly and noisy.

Immediately afterwards, the bus drove slowly in front of them.

Li Kaifu smiled awkwardly, seeing the car door open naturally, and suddenly a familiar face appeared.

"Hey, Lu, superise!"

In an instant, Kurokawa Oike and other Microsoft employees were all dumbfounded, their hearts trembled suddenly, and Bill Gates actually came to pick them up in person!
Lu Fei didn't feel flattered, and the corners of his mouth rose slightly.

But when the window of the driver's seat was pulled down, and a shiny forehead poked out, it was Ballmer.

He said in a rough voice, "Hi, Huaxia Lu, get in the car."

Except for Lu Fei and Wang Ben, the rest of the people felt as if they had been struck by lightning, their heads were blank, Bill Gates was the conductor, Ballmer was the driver, what kind of welcome combination is this!
Before Lu Fei got into the car, he glanced at Kurokawa Oike and the others, "They don't need to come up."

"Of course, we're here to pick you up."

Ballmer waved his arms, as if driving his own hound back to its lair, "Li, Dachi, your reception is complete, go back to work."

Watching the bus slowly leaving his sight, Li Kaifu regained his composure, looked left and right, and each of them stayed in place in a daze.

The shock of the scene just now was obviously not digested, especially Kurokawa Ochi——

His shoulders trembled slightly, and the trembling became more visible to the naked eye, as if suffering from epilepsy, and his face became paler and paler.

"Masaka, Alilana, Red Bean Alilana (Impossible, Absolutely Impossible)!"

Li Kaifu almost laughed out loud, and couldn't help being curious.

Even the president may not have such a standard, why should he?
…………

Humming, tires scraping the ground, shuttle bus driving on the road, employees of different skin colors walking and talking.

"When we came to pick you up, we made a bet. Will you be surprised by this surprise?"

Bill Gates winked at Lu Fei, "I won!"

Ballmer's face was full of reluctance, he controlled the steering wheel with one hand, and took out a hundred-dollar Franklin from his pocket with the other.

"Lu, this is yours."

Bill Gates handed over the dollar, "Steve and I often make such bets, I hope you don't mind."

Lu Fei held the two corners of the green bill and unfolded it, "This is Ballmer's dollar bill, it's not just the face value, can you sign it?"

When Ballmer heard the compliment, his depression immediately disappeared, and he said with a silly smile: "No problem, no problem."

Lu Fei looked at the head of Microsoft calmly, a conservative leader with mixed merits and demerits, conservative and content with the status quo.

In his hands, the windows system has realized the monopoly rule of the PC era, but it has almost emptied the entire Internet era.

The few search engines, smart phones, and mobile operating systems that have stepped on are either bad or on the way to being bad.

The most embarrassing thing was the announcement of retirement. Microsoft's stock price rose instead of falling, and everyone on Wall Street celebrated.

While observing, chatting at the same time, not talking about business along the way, the car quickly drove to the field office area, and three tree houses were suspended in the forest.

Lu Fei climbed up the wooden ramp, and a group of people entered the No. 1 tree house.

The top is tapered and supported by wooden beams. Looking up at the sky, you can see the blue sky and floating clouds outside the glass inlaid with the skylight.

"Lu, Steve, the quiet environment here is the best for talking about cooperation, so let's get started."

Bill Gates clapped his hands and invited the people on both sides to his left and right sides, and he sat in the central seat.

Ballmer took out lmusic, "Lu, although you and Gates are friends, it is difficult for Microsoft to recognize the strength of logic in terms of facts. Your business is MP3, and even the products made by Sony and Apple are not popular."

Lu Fei shrugged, "That's why logic didn't come, now we're here."

"Rail?"

Ballmer asked and gave me a perfect explanation.

"Because the future trend must be 'Internet + music'."

Lu Fei was full of confidence, "Like Walkman adapts to the tape medium, MP3 is the answer to the trend of digital music. Jobs is trying. Is Microsoft just sitting back and watching Apple find the right answer?"

"No, Microsoft has plans for its own hardware, and we are developing an MP3 player that can handle iPods."

Ballmer paused for a few seconds, "Emm, it's called 'Zune', but it will take time. During this vacant period, Microsoft needs to fill in a product that can compete with iPod."

"So, you agree to cooperate?"

"Yeah, I agree."

"A wise move." Lu Fei praised.

"Lu, Microsoft is willing to provide all-round support. It can help distribute logic products all over the United States. It is even willing to order 5 units of lmusic and 10 units of fantasy first, and Microsoft will distribute them."

The bait thrown by Bill Gates was very special, but Lu Fei was unmoved, and smiled and said, "What about the conditions?"

"Logic's products are all replaced with Microsoft's trademark, which is Zune one."

Ballmer is tall and big, very intimidating.

"It's tempting, but I refuse!"

Lu Fei insisted on using his own trademark, "Logic is China's first-class MP3 manufacturer. We don't do OEM business."

"But this is America, and your brand has zero market appeal."

Ballmer raised his voice to make himself appear more powerful, his expression was not fake, it was the kind of arrogance, and it was also the kind of confusion.

Can Huaxia make a popular product that even the top companies in the United States and Japan can't do?Really, I don't believe it!
Lu Fei looked calm, and repeated the theory of "10 wins and 10 losses", "Akio Morita used transistor radios to start Sony's brand, and I logically used NADA flash memory MP3 to break the sky, it's not a problem!"

Ballmer shook his head and refused: "Lu, I appreciate your confidence, but it's hard to impress me with this alone, because I can see this confidence every day."

"I am confident because we have won. As of now, the total sales volume of Logic's two products has exceeded 25."

Lu Fei crossed his hands and interlocked his fingers, "It has surpassed Sony, surpassed Apple, and accounted for one-third of the global market share. This is only invested in the Chinese market."

"What!?"

Ballmer's face turned pale with fright, and the aura he had been staring at just now disappeared instantly. Why didn't he say such important information?

Bill Gates adjusted his glasses, and through eye contact, you ask me, who do I ask, this Chinese person is sluggish, holding back whether to explode or not.

Ballmer's face was full of resentment. The bad idea of ​​OEM was not expected to work. It was purely to set the tone of Microsoft's strength.

After winning the initiative of cooperation, we can ask for more chips in the future, such as the logic of investing in shares, such as assisting Microsoft's other businesses to enter China...

This time, the situation is reversed.

The logic is not to ask Microsoft to cooperate. They are agile and can’t kneel down. They love cooperation and cooperation, and they will fall down if they don’t cooperate!
"As for the sales channel, it's natural that Microsoft can help, and it's okay if it doesn't. At least the online channel can be solved by itself."

Lu Fei casually stated that he is a minority shareholder of Amazon, making it no problem for logic products to be listed on Amazon.

"Lu, you don't want this, you don't want that, what exactly do you want?"

Bill Gates frowned, unable to guess or see through.

Lu Fei said with a smile: "This time, Logic's overseas products are not only lmusic and fantasy, but also a software, Spotify."

"You want Microsoft to support Spotify?"

Bill Gates immediately understood, and explained to the confused Ballmer that it was a music player similar to iTunes.

"Yeah, MP3 listens to digital music, and users need to download it from their computers. iTunes is not compatible with Microsoft. Our Spotify supports Microsoft and allows users to download music."

Lu Fei introduced the functions, and wanted to become a key support, and use Microsoft's monopoly position in PC to grow.

Ballmer saw it right away: "We already have audio players."

"You have them, but it is not an Internet music product, and it can't stop iTunes. Instead, wait for Apple to launch a compatible Windows version, and it will soon use your hands to destroy your multimedia players."

Lu Fei directly pointed it out, "Instead of supporting the enemy, why don't you support the agent?"

Ballmer fell silent, Bill Gates thoughtful.

"With the help of Microsoft, Logic's lmusic+Spotify can completely beat Apple's ipod+itunes."

Lu Fei strikes while the iron is hot, "You know, Spotify has quite a market. It has more than 30 users in China alone, 10 more than iTunes."

Bill Gates and Ballmer looked at each other, so reasonable, I was speechless.

The whole tree house fell into a brief silence, the birds chirping and chirping outside the house, and a ray of sunlight shot straight in from the skylight and fell on the table where everyone was sitting around.

"can."

Ballmer broke the silence, "The help just now will remain the same. We also promised to support Spotify, but there is one condition. Microsoft must invest in logic, not the lead investor, but the sole investor!"

"At least 10 percent." Bill Gates added.

"Sau Rui, Logic has no financing plan for the time being."

Lu Fei declined politely, but offered plan B.

"However, Microsoft is very welcome to join Spotify. I originally planned to introduce IDG and Goldman Sachs, but now I have changed my mind. I am willing to take a 15% stake."

"Gates, what do you think?"

Ballmer was disappointed, but not completely disappointed.

Even if the hardware sold 25 units, he still looked down on gadgets like MP3, and instead liked the bundled Spotify.

It's a pity that the anti-monopoly stick is still there, otherwise Microsoft would have to copy one in person!
"Microsoft, you are in charge, Steve." Bill Gates reminded again that nothing is more important than windows.

Ballmer understood instantly, and his old friend also agreed.

After all, only magic can defeat magic, and Spotify is a powerful tool to add bricks and tiles to the windows system and fight against itunes on MacOS.

He made excuses: "15%, too little."

"There is so much financing at the moment, if Microsoft is willing, it can also get the priority investment right of the A round, how about it?"

Lu Fei couldn't prevent Microsoft from taking a stake, because in the PC era, Microsoft monopolized the operating system, which was equivalent to firmly controlling the upstream of the software ecological chain, and all software must be attached to it.

Dare not to be attached, so many software engineers at Microsoft are living for nothing!Create a similar software in minutes, does it look like a goose factory?

This kind of thing, Microsoft did a lot in the 90s.

Investing in shares is both a resource and a protection fee, but he secretly hid it. The email address used for account registration is Penguin's Foxmail, not Microsoft.

Ballmer stood up again, "per-A round, how much do you want to raise?"

"No hurry, we still have technical conditions."

Lu Fei waved his hand, "Spotify will be headquartered in the United States, and needs Microsoft's programmers to provide technical assistance, including licensing, technical services and transfers, and software talent training..."

"Wait, wait."

Ballmer quickly stopped: "Microsoft wants to pay?"

"Correct."

"Microsoft still wants to produce technology and people?"

"Yes." Lu Fei nodded.

The more Ballmer thought about it, the more he felt that something was wrong. Why is he like a begging beggar?

"These can be reserved for later discussion. The key is a major premise, which is copyright."

Bill Gates suddenly interjected, "Spotify cannot be the next Napster. How do you convince Warner, Universal, and Sony to authorize it?"

Lu Fei smiled and said: "This is what I'm going to say next. I hope Microsoft will give Logic a platform and send executives to assist us in the negotiation."

Bill Gates hesitated and said: "Lu, this is very difficult, very difficult. It took Jobs a long time to negotiate something. The president of Universal is still his best friend."

"In China, there is a saying, no matter siblings or close friends, you have to add money. There is nothing that cannot be solved by adding money. If there is, it means that the money is not enough."

The corner of Lu Fei's mouth raised slightly, "I will give them an undeniable condition."

(End of this chapter)