Chapter 733： Misleading

“Before this, although a variety of personal websites have appeared on the Internet, these require sufficient professional computer technology foundation to achieve. Yahoo’s personal homepage business will break this limit, whether you are a student or not. , chefs, painters, singers, models, plumbers, housewives, as long as you want, you can show yourself through Yahoo's personal homepage."

When Jeff Locke said these words, the remote control in his hand was pressed in turn, and the personal homepage users from all walks of life appeared on the big screen behind them. These people are the users who received the invitation to participate in the Yahoo personal homepage test stage. There are many social celebrities from circles such as politics, business, Hollywood and technology.

After a brief introduction to the general concept of the personal homepage, Jeff Locke switched to the big screen and continued: "Yahoo's personal homepage closely connects users from the United States and around the world through a combination of interests and geography. Invisible big online, in this network, you can not only show yourself to everyone, but also let us find all the like-minded people in other corners of the world through a personal computer, without having to travel far, without having to participate in frequent social activities. friend……"

When the thunderous applause sounded in the auditorium, Bill Gates reacted from another meditation, and Jeff Locke, who looked at the audience and nodded his head, had already made up his mind.

Although it has missed the last chance to enter the browser software, Microsoft can still open the portal, which is easier to imitate the online media business. These days, Microsoft has already tested most of Yahoo's top management, Bill. Gates also knows that other technology companies interested in getting into the Internet industry have similar actions.

Among the four major executives of Yahoo, eo Ian Gernier takes charge of the overall situation and is responsible for Yahoo's overall corporate development strategy. Jeff Locke is responsible for the operation of the Yahoo portal and related software products. Steve Mitnick is responsible for Yahoo's technology research and development, and the last one to join Yahoo! Tina Brown is responsible for Yahoo's information department.

Since it is decided to develop the portal business, then among these four people, Jeff Locke, who is familiar with the operating rules of the portal, will dig into Microsoft, which will undoubtedly have a multiplier effect. and. In the previous temptation, Bill Gates also found that in several high-levels, Jeff Locke was the most sister of Microsoft's attitude toward horns. According to the news, this is mainly because Jeff Locke is about to take it. The share of the equity awards received is not satisfied.

At the end of the conference, the guests went out and Yahoo will hold a reception at a nearby hotel. Bill Gates got up and waved to the assistant who was sitting nearby, whispering to the other party and Jeff Locke about the time. Then he walked toward Eric and others with a smile.

The Yahoo! Web product launch conference generated a strong response through the form of TV broadcasts. The technical alliances and ad network conferences held in Boston in the following two days also attracted more media attention.

At the same time as attending related activities, Eric’s other time was also occupied by a lot of things.

Yahoo's scale is getting bigger and bigger, the original office space is becoming more and more simple, and, for the sake of confidentiality, Yahoo is not suitable to stay in the original office.

Yahoo executives and Eric are hoping that Yahoo will be able to build a proprietary corporate campus, but this kind of thing can't be done overnight.

After selection. Eric finally finalized a 30-story office building on Massachusetts Avenue, which was just completed. I haven't had time to sell or rent, so Eric decided to rent the entire building, temporarily serving as the headquarters of Yahoo. After a few years, Yahoo Enterprise Park was built and moved out.

In addition, although Yahoo temporarily canceled the listing plan, but Steve Case hopes that AOL can open the listing plan. Joma Ollila also hopes that Nokia shares will be listed on the New York Stock Exchange. In addition to raising some funds, this behavior will help Nokia enter the US market. Eric had to take the time to discuss these issues in detail with them.

In addition to these, Eric also interviewed several senior executives of Yahoo on the results of the equity incentive program. Although some people have already had a tendency to leave Yahoo, Eric hopes to retain these people as much as possible.

In the process. What made Eric most unprepared was Jeff Locke.

Among the initial equity incentive schemes, four major executives, Ian Gurnier and Steve Mitnick will all receive 3 million shares of Yahoo, and Jeff Locke will have 2 million shares. Tina Brown is 1 million shares.

As the manager of the previous three companies that had not merged before, Jeff Locke’s equity share was 1 million less than Ian Gnell and Steve Mitnick, and it’s not hard to predict the dissatisfaction.

However, Eric does not feel that this plan is unfair. Ian Gnell controls the overall development of Yahoo and is personally responsible for the establishment of the Yahoo! Technology Alliance and the Yahoo! Advertising Alliance. Yahoo’s current advertising partners and The client was personally talked to by Ian G. Neil. In addition, Steve Mitnick is the chief technology officer responsible for the technical development of all Yahoo products, and also has a genius-like technical talent. The results of these two individuals are undoubtedly better than Jeff, who is only responsible for Yahoo's portal operations. Locke is much better.

After all, Yahoo is different from its predecessor. It is not just a separate portal, it has instant messaging software, browsers and many other services. Although the portal is undoubtedly Yahoo's most dazzling department, Jeff Locke has fallen behind Ian Gnell and Steve Mitnick on the importance of Yahoo.

The five-day time passed quickly, and it was already July 14th.

The Yahoo Annual Meeting officially ended this afternoon, and most of the guests have left Boston.

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

It was already half past seven in the evening, and Eric and Chris left the Yahoo headquarters and walked side by side on the sidewalk of Massachusetts Avenue, followed by a few figures behind. It is the assistant and bodyguard of the two.

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

Eric nodded, although he finally opened the price to 2.2 million shares, but ultimately failed to leave Jeff Locke.

The other party insisted on the 3 million shares that are equivalent to Ian Gnell and Steve Mitnick, and will continue to stay. Eric couldn't pay the other party so much, and he smiled helplessly. Eric said: "Actually, this is good, so that Microsoft has a hard work direction, Gates will not jump out and mess with us."

Although there have been strong technical and patent barriers, Eric’s fear of Microsoft has not decreased.

After all, many of Yahoo's software will need to run on the Microsoft operating system platform in the future, once Microsoft is forced to rush. Forcibly tearing his face, Yahoo will definitely be in big trouble. Although this possibility is not high, it exists after all. In the memory of past lives, after the dominance of the operating system field, Microsoft's attitude toward competitors in the same industry has never been exhausted.

Chris can also understand Eric's concerns, nodded and said: "Now things are done, how do you think this effect?"

These days in Boston, such a big move. Just to introduce other competitors astray, Eric explained to him some. But Chris is still not sure if it will work.

"You haven't seen it yet," Eric said with a relaxed look. "Since Microsoft chose to dig Jeff Locke, at least, he won't cause too much for us in the next two years." Threatened."

Based on past experience, later Yahoo and Google. In fact, it is an Internet company with two completely different concepts.

Rather than saying that Yahoo is a technology company, it is better to say that it is a media company. Google, which focuses on search engines, is an authentic technology company.

In reality, media companies still have various thresholds, but in the Internet world, this threshold is low and terrible, even later. Individual individuals can operate Internet media services, also known as self-media.

In this extremely low barrier to entry, media-based websites will become more and more promising in the future, and it is almost impossible to become an Internet giant simply by virtue of content advantages. The search engine business that focuses on the Internet's huge information integration like Google is the mainstream of future Internet companies.

The main reason why the former Yahoo failed to get rid of the destiny of decline after many reforms is that it has never made a decision on its own media attributes and technological attributes. After more than a decade of sorrow, I still can't escape the ultimate fate.

A series of actions by Eric in recent days is to guide other competitors to focus on the development of Internet media business, which is the portal.

For this reason, Eric also deliberately made a nonsense conversation at an industry exchange meeting two days ago. He 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 cooperation between TV network and affiliated TV stations, and to promote its development prospects, it is predicted that as long as the number of Internet users reaches half of the actual TV users, the revenue of the portal will exceed the actual TV network.

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

Although under the persuasion of Eric, Steve Case has determined that AOL will focus on the role of Internet service providers, but Eric does not require AOL to abandon the portal business, which has been in business for several years. In the post-Internet bubble, it can greatly boost the AOL stock price.

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

When a lot of people are going to delve into the portals that are destined to decline, in fact, everyone probably doesn't know that Eric is most concerned with the seemingly inconspicuous Yahoo search tool at the top of the Yahoo! portal page. In the past few years, he has been consciously or unintentionally inviting Steve Mitnick, who is in charge of technology research and development, to develop intelligent search engine technology.

The two chatted and soon walked outside the hotel where they stayed. Chris looked up at the brightly lit restaurant on the second floor and said to Eric: "Jeff Bezos should already be on it. You suddenly had a good date in the last two days. He was very upset. I spent a lot of effort to negotiate the conditions with the other party."

Eric originally planned to meet Jeff Bezos the night before to talk about increasing investment in Amazon, but was delayed by other things. It was originally planned to return to the hotel at eight o'clock, but actually dragged to half past eight, two People's meeting naturally bathes, there is no time in these two days, Eric can only entrust Chris to contact with Jeff Bezos, fortunately, the effect is good.

According to an agreement 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 promises not to participate in Amazon's operation. In order to show sincerity, Firefly Investment injects funds into Amazon. Will be exchanged for Amazon's convertible preferred stock.

The so-called preferred stock is a stock that has no voting rights but has the priority to pay dividends.

The Amazon Convertible Preferred Shares held by Firefly Investment will be automatically converted to ordinary shares with voting rights after Amazon ipo.

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

The two walked into the hotel and went to the restaurant on the second floor. Although Eric was not late, Jeff Bezos had already waited here.

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

Since the agreement has been reached, the two sides have not talked about too much cooperation. The atmosphere is quite pleasant. I chatted for about an hour and I was familiar with it.

Before going into the room of 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, plus the "American Supermodel Contest" and "Overpass". The progress of the production of Pride." (To be continued.)