Reboot 2003

Chapter 196 104: Why Not Listed (Two in One)

The two approved patents are 'slide to unlock' and 'circular home button', the slide to unlock is a practical patent, and the circular home button is an appearance patent.

The 'Rounded Rectangular Shell' is also a patent for appearance. In the future, a mobile phone will be in the shape of a rectangular shell with rounded corners, but no one has ever made a mobile phone like this.

The reason why the application failed is because the new mobile phone is not a large-screen mobile phone. It has a rounded casing, but it actually has a keyboard. I tried to fool it, but the patent office believed that such a mobile phone had already been produced. .

Of course, this problem is not difficult to solve. At least it seems that if the mobile phone is temporarily changed to a full-screen mobile phone, if the trick is performed more realistically, the problem should not exist.

In contrast, the patent of 'pinching and zooming' is a bit more troublesome, after all, this is an operation realized by two-finger gestures, which requires multi-touch functionality.

This function... can't be said to be difficult. After all, multi-touch is not a new technology, and it has even been widely used. The touchpad of a laptop and the touch screen of an ATM are typical usage scenarios of multi-touch technology. But how to use the multi-touch technology of capacitive screens on consumer mobile phones is a new technology that has not been popularized yet.

To be ahead of the times, multiple technology nodes from the software and hardware sides need to work together to achieve it. Now the leaders of this technology in the mobile phone field are Apple and Microsoft. Needless to say, Microsoft, Gates was already in 2000 A tablet computer with this function was shown at an exhibition, and its partner Palm has also launched a handheld computer PalmPilot with multi-touch technology.

Apple's first-generation iPhone can achieve this function, and its research started very early. The tablet computer that Gates showed back then was not very complete, but Jobs began to secretly study this technology after seeing it. Now, it is really not easy to catch up with these people, so the engineer of Galaxy Software came up with a tricky method, which is to delay recording. In short, as long as the two gestures of pinching, pulling and zooming are completed within a period of time, it is considered as completed. , don't care how clumsy it is, don't care whether it has practical value, just say whether it has been realized.

As a result, the officials of the Patent Office still refused to give it.

There's nothing you can do if you don't give it. Maybe the officials at the patent office really know about mobile phones.

It seems that the road still has to be taken step by step. After entering May, the public relations personnel of the investment department began to go to Meilijian to start activities.

In order to conceal, the company previously packaged these patent solutions in some small and micro enterprises that are controlled by the agreement but packaged as individual small and micro enterprises. It may cause some doubts, and now that the plan is not going well, I don't care about continuing to 'conceal'.

However, apart from using bribery and other external tricks, the technical department can't be idle. Since the original compromise plan didn't work, we can only cut off the original mobile phone design and practice again...

The screen of the original mobile phone has been changed to a non-consumer-grade screen provider. Multi-touch itself can still be realized. It should not be difficult to apply for a patent at the software level, but the software solution can only be done by ourselves. , several technical executives of Galaxy Software were temporarily transferred to take over the project, and split the original project into two, one for candy bar buttons and one for touch screen solutions. Although this is more beneficial to patent research and development, the financial It is also very healthy, but the increasingly complex project management and chaotic product positioning also seem to be showing some dangerous omens.

What should I do?
That's about it for growing pains.

Although the impact is not large, no matter how thorough and safe the original plan is, there will always be times when the plan is disrupted.

But Chen Qin himself still doesn't have time to take care of those - he hasn't even attended a product meeting for a long time.

The bedroom was empty, since that day, Xu Lingling would not come when it was too late.It was quite unaccustomed to it, and there was a little irritability vaguely, as if something savage was awakening in my heart.

But there was business to do today. Chen Qin was lying on the chair waiting. The time in the lower right corner had not reached eight o'clock yet, and someone had already joined in early - a conference call was being prepared.

"Hello Hello……"

"You are the founder of PayPal, a long time ago..."

"This is Neil, the founder of China Ctrip..."

"Wen Jie, Mr. Peter and I met yesterday..."

For businessmen in this era, the Internet is not a completely credible place. On the one hand, it involves confidentiality issues. Today, there is no such a complete information management system in the future. You can work at home or hold meetings online. On the one hand, it is a demonstration Respect, on the one hand, chatting online is somewhat messy—especially for formal business negotiations, it is still not appropriate to conduct online.

But it's not entirely due to Galaxy Software's strange online conference culture. There was an unexpected meeting tonight. In order to be as formal as possible, a conference call was adopted——

Nowadays, telephone conferencing has become a mature business tool. It was originally a paid service of telecommunications carriers, highlighting a scapegoat. However, it has no technical bottlenecks. It has been gradually replaced since the emergence of Internet telephony. However, 'telephone conferencing' has become a mature business tool. ' The noun survived, and it's still around 20 years later.

The difference between a conference call and an ordinary online conference is that the process is more formal. For example, today is a conference call with two parties.

The meeting has not started yet, and Gu Wenjie is chatting with other people who came to participate. After all, this incident is indeed a bit sudden——Ten days ago, Kuaikan Media suddenly started financing, and Gu Wenjie was busy organizing the overseas branch of Weibo. Had to fly back from Europe to prepare for the acquisition.

Originally, we had negotiated with the South Korean developer, and then pulled in a few M&A capitals. After the M&A capital was used to complete the acquisition, and then the consideration was used to transfer the assets. After everything was ready, we planned to start discussing specific acquisition plans.

As a result, something unexpected happened again today... and then there was tonight's meeting.

The people who were chatting with Gu Wenjie were two M&A capital managers - of course, neither of them were specialized in M&A capital. One was Peter Thiel, who was recruited from Meilijian's overseas capital through Chen Qin. After Facebook's legal dispute, he and Lao Xu changed his business card and asked this time. He seemed willing to try this M&A business.

Then there is Tianchao Sequoia Capital. The person in charge, Shen Nanpeng, is one of the co-founders of Ctrip. In the future, he will be the most famous venture capitalist in Tianchao. After the establishment of Sequoia Dynasty last year, I seemed a little confused and didn't know what to do.

Recently, Gu Wenjie is going to engage in mergers and acquisitions. Shen Nanpeng has no good cases at hand anyway, and he himself has a background in mergers and acquisitions at Deutsche Bank in the past, so he wants to see the situation. If necessary, he can raise an additional small fund to help Gu Wenjie make acquisitions.

But today they are also not participants—

There are five identities for everyone in the conference call, first is the moderator, then the two parties to the conference, the audience, translators and technicians below, and today Gu Wenjie is the party participating in the conference, but these two M&A capitals are the same as Chen Qin is the audience.

After a while, Xiao Yang, who was the moderator—the secretary to the CEO of Kuaikan Media— said that the other party was ready.

So the audience all turned off their microphones. In addition to Chen Qin's representatives from Santiago and two M&A capitals, there were also several small directors from Kuaikan Media. Alibaba's representative was also among them, but he didn't speak just now. Know if Ma Yun is behind.

"Okay, I'll let Mr. Ratley Semel come in. Mr. Semel is the CEO of Yahoo. He seems to want to talk to us about the acquisition in person today... Mr. Gu, shall we start now?" ?”

The other party of the meeting was the current CEO of Yahoo. The technicians hurriedly prepared. The footage of Gu Wenjie in the hotel room and the footage of Gu Wenjie in his office appeared on the screen at the same time. Now Yahoo is no longer the largest Internet company in the world, but it It is still an existence that ordinary Internet companies must look up to.

After Semel came in, he said a few polite words. When he was polite, he paid special tribute to the 'representative of San Diego.' Although Yahoo's plan to acquire Facebook some time ago failed, it still has not given up on this plan and has invested heavily in Microsoft. Bowang is very interested in...

However, Chen Qin was just an audience member and didn't speak according to the rules. The others didn't say much either. There was just a reminder from the background that "Celestial Sequoia-Shen Nanpeng wants to add you as a contact", and Terry Semel put it straight to the point. issue:
"Gu, we just had a meeting recently, you promised to acquire Rhaon, a South Korean game company, and you think integrating it will be good for the company's business..."

"Yes, but we have encountered trouble recently." Gu Wenjie asked him, "I heard that Yahoo seems to be involved in this matter."

Semel didn't answer right away: "What trouble are you guys having?"

"The company representative in South Korea lost contact." Gu Wenjie said calmly.

"So have you taken measures, or adopted emergency plans to reduce losses?"

"The acquisition has not been completed yet, and Rhaon will be responsible for the compensation for the loss of the acquisition capital; apart from the wasted trip, there is no loss in terms of funds." Gu Wenjie asked, "But I heard that Yahoo seems to know about this matter, I don't know What can I teach you?"

Terry Semel seemed to listen carefully to his interpreter saying the sentence twice, and asked the interpreter a question in a low voice.

Then he replied: "Yahoo learned about the risks in this transaction through its intermediary agency. We know that Rhaon's board of directors has fallen into a power crisis. The investor who temporarily controlled the board of directors wants to tear up the investment intention contract with you. Sell ​​this company to another buyer from China."

Gu Wenjie said: "So as far as I know, Yahoo bought it in advance regardless of the company's interests, right?"

"Of course, the situation has more complicated prerequisites." Semel said calmly. "Yahoo just learned about this information in advance, and then in order to protect the interests of the company's shareholders, it bought it in an unexpected incident."

Gu Wenjie questioned him: "So you backhandedly listed Rhaon at a price of 1 million U.S. dollars, and you want to use this deal to get back your investment?"

"It's two deals, Jim," Semel said. "Rhaon's game is very popular in China, and it's worth the price. Besides, we can go public—as agreed in the VAM agreement." In that way, if Kuaikan Media goes public, Rhaon can completely merge with it, so that the company can get the developer of this popular online game without spending a penny, and we will also assist Kuaikan Media in IPO fundraising, which is a sum of money. A win-win deal..."

"OK OK."

Gu Wenjie rolled his eyes angrily, and Semel's translator realized that Gu Wenjie was angry, so he whispered something to him.

Gu Wenjie was very rude: "If you want to say that, then let's see you in court, and don't talk about what's there and what's not."

"Wen Jie, don't be impulsive..."

Shen Nanpeng couldn't stand it anymore, and quickly turned on the microphone to dissuade him. Semel was probably a little scrupulous, and before the translator could speak, he also took the initiative to argue: "Yahoo has no intention of conducting commercial sniping, and our purpose of doing this is to help The company survived the crisis. Although I know that this offer may disrupt the company's business arrangements, listing should be in line with the interests of most people in the board of directors. In order to make up for the company's losses, we will also force Rhaon to compensate for the breach of contract gold, and consolidate at below-market prices..."

"Stop talking." The audience named 'San Diego' typed and said, "We will give you an answer later, you can go."

The translator quickly translated the sentence,
"Ah."

Terry Semel agreed, not knowing whether it was a promise or a cold snort.

After all, as the CEO of the largest Internet company in the world not long ago, he has held important positions in many large companies including Warner and Disney, and is also a hero who brought Yahoo out of the bubble. For these newcomers from foreign countries, He was probably a little unimpressed.

But he is a personable old gentleman, and he also knows the importance of the negotiating object this time.

After snorting, he added politely: "Then wait for your reply. Yahoo intends to continue to expand cooperation with you. As a company, going public is the first step in its growth. What I want to express today is Yahoo's goodwill to continue working together, and we will continue to work hand in hand in the future."

After saying that, Terry Semel left the conference channel, taking Ali and several other small directors from the Yahoo faction with him. The conference call between the two parties ended.

Gu Wenjie let out a long sigh: "I'm sorry, everyone, the failure of this acquisition is my fault. I really didn't expect that Yahoo would openly use such a dirty method..."

Peter Thiel is still a little confused: "So the situation is that ... Yahoo invested in you, told you to acquire, and then it bought your acquisition target itself?"

Secretary Xiao Yang replied: "Yes, our investment was originally to acquire two South Korean studios and there was still a surplus, but the conditions offered by Yahoo were very high, and they raised the value of the Rhaon company we had to acquire. When it reaches 1 million U.S. dollars, I want to earn that money back directly.”

Peter Thiel asked curiously: "But I remember there was a betting agreement..."

"Yes, they also have a backup clause." Xiao Yang explained, "Because the acquisition target of this money is very complicated, they proposed to control the investment management through a gambling agreement. To put it simply, they hope that we will actively promote the listing. .”

Peter Thiel said with a smile: "So just now they pretended to give a lenient condition, willing to let that company merge with you after listing?"

"Yes." Shen Nanpeng said, "Yahoo's purpose should be to expand their company's shareholding in Kuaikan Media, whether we accept the conditions and let them get this financing for nothing, or share with them after listing. The merger of Rhaon, which is controlled by them, can achieve their goals. This is my negligence. As the acquisition consultant hired by Wen Jie, I should have known their purpose..."

Gu Wenjie said depressedly: "No, it's my fault, I'm really sorry, I'll trouble you to make this trip for nothing..."

The two said it was fine, and 'San Diego' finally typed again: "Let's not talk about it, I didn't find any problems with Yahoo's contract before, think about what to do."

This laborious typing appearance is the real Boss Chen.Seeing that the acquaintances in the company felt a little relieved, he suggested, "Chen... Santiago is right, let's think about what to do this time first."

Xiao Yang concluded: "So should I agree to them? Either agree to merge with their game company after listing, let Yahoo take away more equity, or use 1 million to buy that broken company..."

Shen Nanpeng suggested: "We can also file a lawsuit. Rhaon Company has obviously violated the exclusive agreement and intention agreement we signed in advance."

Gu Wenjie was troubled: "But the lawsuit is nothing more than losing money. They tore up the agreement before the acquisition started, and the liquidated damages will not be much. But now the company's strategy must acquire Rhaon..."

Peter Thiel's translation couldn't keep up with the speed of these Chinese people, and he asked doubtfully, "Then I can only agree?"

'San Diego' typed and replied: "No, we don't plan to go public, and Yahoo's bastards, we will not accept any of their proposals."

This is really...a straightforward statement.

And after 'San Diego' said, Gu Wenjie also said: "That's right, we have no plans to go public right now."

"Oh……"

The heads of the two M&A funds who called for help were relieved. Although M&A funds are only pimps in the acquisition market, as experienced people, accurate and necessary M&A advice is the service they should provide, so the final The failure of the acquisition should have been their responsibility, but this time the merger was so fast - so much so that they didn't even know that their counterparty didn't plan to go public at all...

Of course, this has nothing to do with their work, but since there is this additional condition and they don't know about it, then in short, they don't have to bear the blame themselves.

As for not being listed, this is not surprising.

However, for some profitable companies, the decision not to go public is not uncommon, and you can probably understand why Kuaikan Media has such internal troubles.Thinking of this, Shen Nanpeng didn't ask any more questions, but kindly came up with a few ideas. He met Gu Wenjie in MBA class, and they have a pretty good personal relationship.

He is also familiar with online games and the various conflicts between online game operators and developers. He said that since he has no money now, let Yahoo take over the company first, and then slowly figure out a way. If Yahoo takes the developer As a coercion condition upstream, you can use this matter to sue it for a hostile takeover, and if you have other financing channels in the future, or save enough money, you can consider negotiating with Yahoo to buy this company...

His proposal was also a financial proposal for ordinary unlisted companies, but at this time the 'San Diego' said: "Actually, we are not not listed, but we don't plan to list now. Now we don't have money at hand, but we simply don't want to. The birdishness of Yahoo, in short, this matter is like this..."

Shen Nanpeng responded, vaguely feeling that something was wrong, but Peter Thiel responded more promptly this time: "Actually, I find it very strange, why don't you want to go public?"

Gu Wenjie didn't answer, he seemed a little hesitant, but this time it was 'San Diego' who replied: "It's actually not complicated, it's just that we feel that the economic situation is not good, so we don't plan to raise funds publicly in the past two years."

(End of this chapter)