The Godfather of Greenery

Chapter 674 An Ant Swallows an Elephant

Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft, his office is not as spacious and luxurious as many people imagine, and of course, it is not as sloppy as the office of those technical mad engineers.

5202, this is the house number of Ballmer's office. It used to belong to Bill Gates. It is located at the corner of the Microsoft headquarters office building. There are large glass windows on both sides, and you can see everything outside. For example, at this moment, the beautiful The Microsoft headquarters office park, and the rows of cars parked below.

The office is small, but it is neatly arranged. There is a comfortable desk with monitors, phones, and photos on it. The wall on the right is covered with all kinds of sticky notes, but the most attractive The most eye-catching are still some old photos, among which you can find the photos taken not long after he met Bill Gates, which has been 30 years ago.

This is a friendship that Bill Gates described as the greatest business partnership, but this friendship seems to have faded now, and Steve Ballmer himself does not know when it started .

If it was not strong enough for him when he first took over Microsoft, then over the past few years, he has gradually realized that there must be problems between himself and Bill Gates, but even he He never thought that these questions would come so quickly, so fast that he was almost caught off guard.

Now Microsoft is facing many, many problems, but in the final analysis, there is only one problem, that is, the market value has fallen from more than 6000 billion US dollars at the peak to the current more than 2000 billion US dollars. For venture capital companies, it is impossible to be accepted.

But for the current situation of the company, Ballmer obviously has no effective way.

As he said to Bill Gates and the senior board members before, this time the opponent is very difficult, because this company, which has been established for less than ten years, has become the most successful consortium in the world. More importantly, this company is still developing at a high speed, and he hardly shows any signs of stopping.

Yes, Leaf Technology is regarded as the number one competitor by Ballmer!

The history of Leaf Technology’s fortune is known all over the world. It started with a revolutionary Zeus mobile phone, created the trend of smartphones, and built the Android system into a market share of more than 90% in the field of mobile devices. And this company is now It is gradually devouring Microsoft's business, especially in the two pillar areas of traditional PC systems and OFFICE.

It can be said that on the day Leaf Technology announced the launch of the Zeus ultrabook, Microsoft's stock price fell sharply. Although it rose slightly afterwards, Microsoft's market value evaporated almost overnight. In the ensuing period of time, especially after the ultrabook hit the market, Microsoft lost three-tenths of its market value.

What this means may not be clear to ordinary consumers, but for investors, they can see very clearly that Leaf Technology is challenging Microsoft's dominance.

The board of directors held an emergency meeting to discuss how to fight back, but they were surprised to find that they had no effective measures against Leaf Technology. In other words, Microsoft's containment of Leaf Technology had been going on since the company was born, but the more it contained , the faster he develops.

It doesn't matter that the OFFICE software does not support the Android system. They bought a company and created a free version of OFFICE, which directly caused a considerable decline in Microsoft's revenue in the OFFICE field in the past few years.

Through a series of acquisitions such as Nortel Networks, Leaf Technology is now very strong in both soft and hard aspects, but more importantly, they are very planned and have unparalleled foresight.

In 2007, Leaf Technology, which became popular because of the Zeus mobile phone, announced that it had poached Mark Lukowski, a technical director from Google. , But Ballmer is very clear that this person is extraordinary. When he decided to switch from Microsoft to Google, Ballmer was so angry that he threw a chair at him.

He is the chief architect of Microsoft's WINDOWS system. He has participated in the development of most of the kernel programs of the WINDOWSXP system and some other key core projects. He has won the title of outstanding engineer and is a very important technical talent of Microsoft.

At that time, Ballmer had a premonition, but he didn't pay too much attention to it. But when Leaf Technology announced that the Android system would be transplanted to the ultrabook, the whole world was shocked, because these two are very different. However, Ballmer quickly thought of Mark Lukowski, who turned out to be the person in charge of the Android PC system project and became a pivotal member of Leaf Technology.

Four years ago, I started to prepare for everything four years later. How amazingly forward-looking is this?It can be said to be a prophet of the future!

Not only that, Leaf Technology has launched Twitter, Weibo, WeChat, Facebook, and a series of Internet applications and companies such as Youtube. Although these do not seem to have much relationship with Microsoft, they actually make more and more More and more users move closer and gather towards them.

Watching Leaf Technology gradually gobble up Microsoft's business and market, Ballmer has no effective countermeasures, because Leaf Technology does not have much contact with Microsoft, and Microsoft even used to treat Leaf Technology. Technology has filed antitrust lawsuits, but they have ultimately been dismissed.

Just as some other companies have failed to sue Microsoft for anti-monopoly, anti-monopoly lawsuits are very nonsense whether in the United States or in the European Union, because you can’t define in what field Leaf Technology is involved in monopoly, or to What kind of way to use its monopoly advantage to harm users.

If these two points cannot be proved, all antitrust lawsuits will fail!
Steve Ballmer leaned back on the office chair. This chair was not the one he threw Lukovsky at the beginning. He changed it, but his mood at this moment was worse than It was even worse back then. I sighed deeply, but I was thinking about a very serious question in my head, that is, how should Microsoft's future go.

From Leaf Technology, Ballmer seems to have figured out a rule. He feels that Microsoft must change its past philosophy of valuing software and ignoring hardware, and must launch its own mobile smart devices as soon as possible, especially mobile phones and tablets. This market is amazing.

Leaf Technology's current cash reserves have reached an astonishing level. It is even revealed that their current cash reserves have reached more than 1000 billion US dollars. If this continues, how far will they develop in the future?
It is conceivable that, given them another year or two, the acquisition of Microsoft will not be a problem!

Just when Steve Ballmer was thinking hard, lamenting that he should have been the captain who led Microsoft to ride the wind and waves, but now he became a conspirator hiding in the dark to deal with the enemy, feeling helpless and ashamed, There was a movement from MSN on the computer. Ballmer turned on the video conference and found that high-level executives including Bill Gates, Tony Bates and chief legal counsel Brad Smith were all online.

"Unfortunately, gentlemen, Ye Qiu, the chairman of Leaf Technology, has just announced through their website, Weibo, WeChat and other official channels that Leaf Technology has successfully acquired Nokia's mobile phone, map and patent businesses. The total amount will reach 150 billion US dollars!"

Following the words of the company's chief legal counsel, Brad Smith, everyone in the video conference suddenly took a deep breath, and even a few were obviously surprised, because they knew very well that this It represents that Leaf Technology will further consolidate its already very strong competitiveness in the field of mobile devices.

"It's impossible, it can't be so fast!" Ballmer felt ashamed, and he didn't want to believe it.

"I'm sorry, Steve, it's true. We also confirmed with the Finnish side that they exchanged and signed the contract overnight last night. As long as the EU and the US government do not obstruct this aspect, basically this The pile acquisition is a deal!"

Listening to the chief legal counsel's analysis, everyone present, including Bill Gates and Ballmer, was silent. Obviously, they were all thinking in their hearts that once Leaf Technology completed this acquisition, what would happen to Microsoft? How big the impact will be, and it is obvious that it is difficult for them to draw a conclusion in a short time.

"What do you think is the possibility of the EU and the US government terminating the deal?" Tony Bates quickly thought of this question. He felt that it was obviously too late to stop it now, and Microsoft did not have such strong financial resources. To compete with Leaf Technology, it costs a full US$150 billion, which is a huge sum of money for Microsoft, whose market value is now only more than 2000 billion.

Brad Smith shook his head, "Unfortunately, the situation in this aspect may not be as good as we imagined. They have made sufficient preparations for this before, and neither the Finnish government nor the EU will block this acquisition. The U.S. government believes the same, but the Chinese government, I heard that they may stand up against it and initiate an anti-monopoly investigation!"

"In addition, it is revealed that Google has basically completed the acquisition of Motorola, and the total amount is likely to exceed 100 billion. Some people even broke the news that it is 120 billion US dollars. Once it is in hand, Google will own [-] of Motorola's patents, including many patents in the field of mobile phones."

All the executives who participated in the video conference were even more silent, and they all had to be surprised to find that their competitors were ahead of them, and they were a little behind the scenes for this kind of thing.

This may be a slap in the face of Microsoft's monopoly position in the past few decades, reminding and telling all Microsoft executives that the world today is no longer the world of the 80s, and the world today is full of various changes. It is no longer their Microsoft family alone.

"As I said, we can't always focus on software and ignore hardware. Now our competitors are ahead of us one by one. This is a painful lesson for us!" Steve? Ballmer said with anger.

Bill Gates got angry when he heard this. He is no longer the handsome young man he was in the past. Now he is old, and he even looks a bit old-fashioned. "I don't think this is a tragic accident at all. Lessons learned, I am even less optimistic about their completion of such a major acquisition, we only need to focus on our software development, I always maintain this point of view!" This is also the biggest difference between him and Ballmer.

"But you have to see that if we continue to maintain the current strategy, they will eat up our market share step by step. You said before that they can't enter the traditional PC field, but they have researched the ultrabook, and now their ultrabook Ultrabooks sell as well as ordinary notebooks, and the Android system is developing rapidly in the PC field!"

"Then they'll go one step further, move on to personal PCs, then go into office computers, and in the end all we can do is every time they go, we take a step back because we don't have any effective countermeasures against them, What else can we do but have a meeting here and say their takeover is not going to work?"

Steve Ballmer is the kind of person who can't stop once he gets angry, chattering, many people are used to his style, but in the video conference, what his complaints brought It is the dissatisfaction of others.

Because he speaks as if he is right about everything and everyone else is nothing.

"Okay, Steve, what we want now is not complaints, nor accountability, but a solution!" Tony Bates knew the contradictions and conflicts between Ballmer and Bill Gates, Come out and make peace.

"How much is ARM worth now?" Bates asked.

After the acquisition of Nokia, Leaf Technology is in an absolute leading position in the field of mobile device patents and technologies, and it is the kind that is far ahead, followed by ARM, a semiconductor intellectual property company, which is a typical technology company. , does not have its own factory, and more is to provide technical services for business.

But don't underestimate this company. Well-known semiconductor companies such as Qualcomm and Samsung all use ARM technology. The latter is called Intel in the field of mobile devices, which shows the technical strength of this company.

"After two consecutive acquisitions, it may not be easy to acquire ARM now. At least it will cost more than 100 billion US dollars, or even more than 150 billion US dollars. Moreover, they are also a technology-based company. About 7%, there is no acquisition value!" Steve Ballmer is very familiar with this market.

ARM's small income and profit are small profits for all big companies, but for this small profit, they have to pay a purchase price of more than 100 billion U.S. dollars, which is very, very uneconomical of.

And even if you Microsoft bought ARM, so what?
Can you tell Qualcomm, Samsung, and Leaf Technology that my patented technology is not licensed to you?

If you dare to do this, they can definitely sue you directly, and there is no substitute for many technologies of ARM. The main problem is that ARM has formed a situation of small profits but high sales. It's better to rent ARM's patents cheaper if you want to develop them yourself.

So, in general, the acquisition of ARM is a very bad deal.

Furthermore, ARM does not have much hardware capability at all, and Leaf Technology is now investing heavily in research and development in this area. They rely on their extraordinary product sales to dilute this research and development cost, so no matter from which point of view , Even from the perspective of weakening competitors, the acquisition of ARM is not necessary.

"The official announcement of Leaf Technology this time also includes that in January 2012, at the annual new product launch conference, in addition to launching a series of new products such as brand new mobile phones, tablet computers, and ultrabooks, They will announce some brand-new smart devices, as well as the first generation of smart vehicle systems they have cooperated with many automakers."

When Brad Smith said this, he obviously took care of the emotions of all the executives who participated in the video conference, and stopped, because they all knew very well that the market of Leaf Technology was bigger, especially in their smartphones. The farther you go in the ecosystem and the faster you develop, the greater the threat to Microsoft.

Why do you say that?
The reason is simple. In the intelligent ecosystem planned by Leaf Technology, there is obviously no shadow of Microsoft's operating system. That is to say, they regard Microsoft's operating system as a synonym for the non-intelligence of the previous generation!
After a full minute or two of silence, Bill Gates sighed deeply, "We really underestimated this company in the past, we missed the best opportunity, the best opportunity! "

If it was when Leaf Technology was not doing well, they took advantage of the advantages of Microsoft's giant, or used the pressure of the government to forcibly acquire this company, then Microsoft is now calling the shots, but Microsoft did not take them seriously at the time .

In the fringe market, perhaps, after many, many years, the rise of Leaf Technology will be regarded as a model by countless entrepreneurs, because they finally completed a rise from the fringe market, and finally staged the great feat of ants devouring elephants!

From the standpoint of Bill Gates, he feels that there is nothing wrong with his obsession with software, because software is the core competitiveness of Microsoft, and it is also the key factor for him and Microsoft to be prominent in the world, so he does everything possible to maintain Microsoft's position in software. Is it wrong that I don't want the company to be more distracted by the hardware?

But looking at the current Leaf Technology and their rapid development over the years, is it true that I am wrong?
Bill Gates has never been willing to admit his mistakes. He is called by his supporters a model who will never make mistakes and never fail, so he has no habit of admitting mistakes or admitting failures.

"I'm a little tired, let's continue talking!" Bill Gates used this method to withdraw from Microsoft's decision-making level. He was really tired because he found that he really couldn't keep up with this era.

Perhaps, what made Microsoft successful was monopoly, but it was also monopoly that led to Microsoft's collapse.

So, is monopoly good or bad?
Perhaps Ye Qiu, who is in Europe at this moment, will tell Bill Gates without hesitation, "The monopoly should be pulled out and shot!"

The reason is simple, he is monopolized by QJ!
(End of this chapter)