The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 110 If you don't have money, you need to create conditions to acquire Quora
“The two Internet companies that have sufficient funds on their books to acquire Quora are, to put it bluntly, Yahoo and American Online.

In addition to these two companies, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM and other computer giants of the previous generation also have sufficient cash flow, but from the perspective of strategic positioning and behavior style, only Microsoft has this motivation.

Quora seems to be a piece of cake, but for most companies, it is too much to see and eat.

In my opinion, whoever can acquire Quora, Yahoo or Microsoft, can achieve leapfrog development in the Internet field in one fell swoop.

For Yahoo, the acquisition of Quora will allow them to take a big step towards their goal of becoming a media empire in the Internet age.

For Microsoft, the annexation of Quora will allow them not to fall behind in the Internet age, and finally have their own representative work, no longer an old giant that makes one product and fails one product.

Because IBM, known as the "Blue Giant", was quickly overtaken by the former small supplier Microsoft after entering the era of personal PCs, and could barely survive on corporate business. Microsoft was very afraid of repeating IBM's failure.

Therefore, they have a special attachment to the Internet. From the war with Netscape browser to the battle with MSN's portal, Microsoft has been trying to declare to netizens and prove to Wall Street in the Internet era that Microsoft is not old yet, and Microsoft still has the ability to innovate.

They used to have the best opportunity. Newman was an intern at Microsoft. If Microsoft could reuse Newman at that time, then the series of products such as Riot Games, NewPay, and Quora would all belong to Microsoft.

Microsoft would continue their dominance in the Internet age, and unfortunately, they didn't.

Now there is a chance for Microsoft to bring back Quora, the best online forum at the turn of the century, I browse other online forums for half an hour at most, there is no interesting content, every time I look at Quora, I can go home Been seeing the night.

At present, according to the statistics of American Online, Quora is currently the second most visited website in the United States. I am sure that if there is a ranking of the average browsing time of users, Quora is definitely the first.

Not to mention that Quora has achieved profitability. The only shortcoming of Quora is that the threshold is too high, but this problem can be easily solved by introducing high-quality users from other countries.

Therefore, I absolutely do not think that Microsoft will let Yahoo acquire Quora regardless. This acquisition battle will determine the Internet landscape for a long time to come. "

It is an opportunity for Internet companies, and it is also an opportunity for financial institutions. While Zhou Xin eats the cake, they can also get a share.

Basically, only listed companies can afford to acquire Quora, which firstly requires the intervention of a law firm, and secondly requires the audit by an accounting firm.

A due diligence audit of the company's financial, legal and commercial situation is required prior to signing a contract.

If a listed company does not have enough cash flow, but wants to acquire Quora, then they need to raise funds. After submitting documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission, they can only conduct financing after review by the SEC.

Financing requires the intervention of investment banks.

Finally, the acquisition can be made.

This series of links will take about half a year, which is also an important reason why Zhou Xin started the work in June.

If the Internet bubble bursts, listed companies can refuse to accept their accounts, and it is not unheard of for them to refuse to execute transactions even after paying liquidated damages.

"Putting off the acquisition of broadcast, we must focus all our efforts on acquiring Quora, which has limited value compared to Quora."

"I agree that broadcast.com is far from being able to compare with Quora in terms of the number of users or the way of making money. Quora has found a stable profit model, and broadcast.com is still far away from this goal.

The gap between broadcast.com and Quora is like the gap between Levi's and Hermès, and Hermès is only three times the price of Levi's.

Why should we buy broadcast.com? "

"But we've made an announcement."

"We can make a public announcement to withdraw this matter, investors will completely understand us, who would want to buy broadcast.com when Quora can buy it?"

After Yahoo got Zhou Xin's intention to sell Quora, the whole company began to operate rapidly, and many acquisitions that were originally planned before were pressed the pause button.

Yahoo's acquisition of broadcast is also the butterfly effect brought by Zhou Xin. This famous acquisition that should have happened in April 1999, Yahoo acquired broadcast for US$4 billion.

Broadcast is an Internet broadcasting company that specializes in providing users with sports broadcasting services on the Internet. Due to bandwidth limitations, it can only provide live broadcasts of sound, which is a bit similar to Tiger Attack in later generations.

Such a company with only 67 users would have been sold to Yahoo for $[-] per user if it had not been affected by Zhou Xin.

Why Zhou Xin postponed this matter, because all the companies founded by Zhou Xin have achieved profitability without exception, which made investors and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley realize that the Internet can also be profitable, and everyone's emphasis on profitability has increased.

And broadcast is a listed company with serious losses. In 1998, its annual income was only 510 million US dollars, and its net loss was 1.853 million US dollars.

There have been voices within Yahoo saying that broadcast is definitely not worth 67 billion US dollars. After Quora said it accepted the acquisition, the voice against the acquisition of broadcast came to the maximum.

Indeed, this acquisition was later hailed as one of the 10 worst deals in Silicon Valley history.

"We have just passed the resolution of the board of directors to suspend all transactions and focus all our energy on the acquisition of Quora. This is our most important goal during this period, and I will be responsible for it personally." Yang Zhiyuan walked into the conference room and said.

Although Yang Zhiyuan is not the president, as a member of the board of directors and a major shareholder with a high percentage of voting rights, his right to speak is obviously higher than that of the president.

This is like the later generation Jack Ma gave Zhang Yong the position of chairman of the board of directors, but his words are still the most effective.

Not only Yahoo, but Microsoft also attaches great importance to this matter, and Bill Gates is personally responsible for this matter.

Even AOL, which has little money, is trying to get involved.

If there is a list of favorite acquisitions, then AOL in the 90s of the last century, that is, American Online can definitely rank first.

In 98, ICQ and CompuServe were acquired. ICQ can be said to be the earliest instant messaging software.

AOL President Bob Pittman was dancing in the conference room, describing to every executive how the acquisition of Netscape was the right deal, and how wonderful the future would be once AOL acquired Quora.

"We bought Netscape for $42 billion, and Netscape is now over $100 billion.

Facts have proved that this is a successful transaction. Although before the acquisition of Netscape, this transaction has been criticized. Everyone thinks that our corporate culture is quite different from that of Netscape and cannot be well compatible.

But the reality is here, the naysayers of the board won't say a word.

And once we acquire Quora, Quora can bring us unparalleled high-quality content and the best group of users.

To be honest, I am also a loyal Quora user myself, and I often wonder how good it would be if Quora were a product developed by AOL.Once the acquisition of Quora, AOL will become the number one portal, to achieve beyond Yahoo.

At the same time we have the quality content of Quora, AOL will become the New York Times of the new era.

Quora is now profitable and I already have ideas on how to make Quora more profitable.

So the only thing we need to consider now is how much money we need to spend to acquire Quora. "

"Bob, I understand what you're thinking, and I also think AOL's acquisition of Quora is absolutely the best acquisition in Silicon Valley history.

But you need to consider a problem, that is, our market value is about to approach 1000 billion U.S. dollars, but we only have 12.6 billion U.S. dollars in cash on the books, which is definitely not enough to compete with Microsoft and Yahoo. "

Bob waved his hand: "We need to do a private placement, I know we don't have enough cash, but we can do a private placement to raise funds.

If it is for this matter, investors on Wall Street are absolutely willing to carry out private placement of shares. "

Targeted financing is equivalent to completing the acquisition with AOL as the main body, but in fact it is Wall Street investors who pay the money.

At this point the Internet bubble has been blown.

When the bubble was blown, Commerce One, which had a revenue of only US$300 million, had a market value of nearly US$200 billion.

When the entire Silicon Valley was sold by Quora, Pierre Omidyar, the founder of Ebay, made an appointment with Zhou Xin through NewPay.

"Newman, although NewPay and Ebay have reached a good cooperative relationship, this is the first meeting between the two of us.

I am very glad to meet the best Internet product managers in Silicon Valley and even American today. I admire your keen sense of human nature.It is an honor to meet such an outstanding alumni again. "

Pierre is a Frenchman of Iranian descent, with brown hair and reddish skin, a very typical Persian appearance, and a student who graduated from the University of California, Berkeley.

Zhou Xin didn't know what the other party's purpose was for chatting with him, but since Ebay is NewPay's main customer, Zhou Xin came to see the other party anyway.

Pierre chose a well-known Chinese restaurant in San Francisco, obviously considering Zhou Xin's taste.

"It's also a pleasure to meet you. I often shop on eBay. If its delivery speed can be faster, then I think Ebay will be perfect." Zhou Xin said.

Sometimes appropriate shortcomings can make your compliments seem more real.

Pierre obviously enjoyed the compliment, and he raised his eyebrows: "It's great, I also like Quora, it's the best Internet product I've ever used."

Zhou Xin originally thought that the other party would ask him why he sold Quora in the next sentence, because he knew that Ebay would not buy Quora, and the business was not compatible at all.

It is even more impossible for Pierre to buy it personally.

What Pierre said next surprised him.

　There is another chapter today, which is actually a relatively critical plot, which involves the real start-up capital, which has been scooped up from Wall Street.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)