Bill Gates was silent for a while after hearing Eric's words, and then said: "Eric, I can't agree to all the conditions you set, which will make me very passive in front of the board of directors."
Eric shook his head and said: "Once Microsoft is split, all your businesses outside of the Windows platform will lose their most fundamental advantages. I think this is what you need to care about the most, not the views of those board members. .”
Bill Gates was thinking about it, suddenly realized something, and said: "Eric, if Microsoft is split, you will also lose a very strong competitor, which is much better than continuing to maintain the default status of Yahoo browser." So, why do you still want to release this video? Or, you have realized that according to the current situation, the federal government may not dare to forcibly make a decision to further stimulate the new technology market by breaking up Microsoft? "
Eric has never thought of treating Bill Gates as a fool, and he was not surprised to hear what he said, saying: "Without this video, even if Microsoft won't be split up, it will definitely be hurt. What's more, the government has always had a bad habit of not admitting mistakes even if they find out that they made mistakes, or even forcibly continuing the mistakes. Therefore, your analysis is only a possibility. As for the benefits of Microsoft's split to the Firefly system, Of course I understand this. But from the overall perspective, once Microsoft is split up, Yahoo and other companies under the Firefly system are likely to face the same fate in the future. Of course I know which one is more important.”
Bill Gates wandered between the folders on the desktop and the laptop for a while, and finally said: "Eric, I can't give you an answer right away. And, anyway, some details in this contract have to be renegotiated .At least, Yahoo browser should be inclined to Microsoft's Internet business, and Microsoft also has the right to release its own browser."
The advantage has completely turned to his side, Eric will naturally not make unnecessary concessions, but put up a finger and said: "There is only one condition that can be negotiated, and that is the pre-installation fee of Yahoo browser. Bill, the current The situation is different. The Internet bubble has burst. There is no need for Microsoft to forcibly distract this business. The market share of the MSN portal is not high, and it will only become more insignificant in the future. The only thing you should do is to ensure that Microsoft will not be split made."
Bill Gates opened the document in front of him again, searched for a while, and then raised his head and said: "One more thing, it is impossible for Microsoft to sign a five-year contract with Yahoo, at most two years."
Eric bargained: "Three years."
Bill Gates added: "The cost of pre-installation of each operating system has increased to $5."
"Five dollars, Bill, do you think it's possible?"
The annual sales volume of Microsoft's current operating system is about 50 million copies. Gates directly increased the quotation given by Eric by five times. Yahoo needs to pay 250 million US dollars a year, which is more than the annual marketing budget of all Yahoo's current businesses. Even higher.
Bill Gates' tone was quite insistent, with obvious resentment, and said: "Eric, this is what Microsoft deserves. Give up that share subscription contract. Microsoft has gained nothing in the past five years. Yahoo must give adequate compensation."
Eric didn't care about Gates' grievances at all, and even sneered a little, saying: "Our original cooperation was voluntary, and Microsoft also obtained all patent authorizations related to web browsers. Moreover, if you just feel that you are at a disadvantage, you can To compensate, how much should Microsoft compensate Apple for copying the Macintosh system to develop Windows?"
Microsoft was originally an application software supplier of Apple. Gates developed Windows inspired by Apple's Macintosh system. The patent litigation that has been entangled between the two parties for more than a decade was not settled until Jobs returned to Apple two years ago.
Speaking of which, if it weren't for Apple's initial negligence, there would be no Microsoft today.
Similarly, if it weren't for Gates' negligence five years ago, Yahoo's development in recent years would not have been so smooth. Without the original cooperation, Microsoft would definitely become a stumbling block for Yahoo in unifying Internet technology standards.
However, there are too many ifs in this world, but there can only be one result.
Bill Gates has always been very jealous of others accusing him of plagiarizing the dark history of the Macintosh system. Hearing Eric's words, his face suddenly became ugly: "Eric, I don't want to hear your nonsense, if you If you want to cooperate, you can only accept my offer."
Eric gestured towards the door: "Then you can do it yourself."
Bill Gates was about to get up and leave in a huff. After holding back for a moment, he pointed to the laptop in front of Eric and raised his voice: "If I leave, it's useless for you to keep this broken video!"
"You're wrong, Bill, I can still show it to Thomas Jackson, maybe he can make the final decision to split Microsoft within a month."
"You won't succeed!"
"Then try it."
The scene suddenly fell into a stalemate again.
After a full minute, Eric took the initiative to say: "$3, this is the limit I can accept."
Bill Gates' eyes flickered, but he didn't hold back, and said along the way: "I need to discuss it with Paul and Steve."
"No problem," Eric nodded, knowing that it was just that the student at the gate was unwilling to agree, and without saying anything more, he raised his hand and gestured towards the west of the Hudson River: "Do you want to stay and watch the fireworks? There really is a boat."
Bill Gates glanced at the laptop in front of Eric for the last time, snorted lightly, got up and walked towards the roof door without saying goodbye.
Eric was still sitting there, looking at the coffee on the table in front of him, and suddenly felt that the next time he met Gates, he must not put any food or drink between them.
Having this idea in mind, he smiled a bit boredly.
I went downstairs again and changed myself to a pot of hot coffee, returned to the rooftop and sat down again, the last ray of sunset light on the distant horizon gradually dissipated.
Until the night fell and he could no longer see clearly, Eric just held a cup of coffee, leaned back quietly in his chair, and looked up at the sky to the west.
At eight o'clock, there was a sudden explosion from a barge on the Hudson River, and then, colorful fireworks exploded over Manhattan, adding a bit of glitz to this colorful and noisy city.
The sudden fireworks feast lasted for a full hour, attracting countless eyes on both sides of the Hudson River to stop and watch, and also aroused heated discussions among the media and the public in the following days.
Many people naturally associated this inexplicable fireworks with the just-collapsed Nasdaq stock market, and even produced various interesting rumors.
Some people say that this is a hedge fund tycoon who made billions of dollars in the just-collapsed Nasdaq stock market through short selling, so he used this fireworks as a celebration.
It is also said that a certain billionaire lost all his net worth due to the Nasdaq crash, so he used the last sum of money in his credit card to burn this bloom.
Some people say that this is a big company that has been bearish on the prospects of new technology, using this fireworks to mock the just-collapsed Nasdaq market.
No matter what the rumors are, they can't resist the fact that the crash of the Nasdaq market shows no sign of stopping after the start of the new week, but intensifies.
From July 26th to July 30th, for five consecutive days, the Nasdaq index fell further, falling from 4373 points last week to 3525 points, and the overall decline reached 19%. Some technology stocks have also been unsustainable, following the overall market trend all the way down.
As of the close of trading on July 30, Microsoft’s share price fell another 17.3% in a week, and its market value dropped from US$469.9 billion last Friday to US$388.6 billion.
However, in the face of another deep drop in stock prices, Microsoft, which has obviously relied on it, is no longer as active as it was last week. Moreover, after meeting with Eric, Bill Gates did not immediately respond to Eric in the next few days.
Everyone knows that since it has collapsed, the decline of the Nasdaq index will not stop unless most of the bubbles are squeezed out.
Therefore, Eric is not in a hurry. Microsoft wants to get rid of its troubles in the short term. Apart from the chips in his hands, there is no other way to choose.
Although Yahoo's stock price also fell by 22.6% in the second week, and the stock prices of other Firefly system companies also suffered heavy losses, Eric did not put too much thought on the Nasdaq market.
Faced with the turbulent and unstoppable overall downward trend, Yahoo did not immediately release good news such as financial reports, and doing so now will only get twice the result with half the effort. Waiting for most of the bubble to dissipate, with Yahoo's series of advantages, Eric is also confident enough to maintain the company's market value at around US$100 billion.
Outside of Yahoo, there is absolutely nothing controllable about the plunge in Cisco's stock price.
The industry estimates that the final decline in Cisco's stock price may exceed 80%. However, Cisco has formed a very stable revenue and profit model, and the stock price crash will not have a fatal impact on it. Moreover, even if the stock price fell by 80%, Cisco's market value can also remain above $100 billion.
In the final analysis, although every new technology company in the Firefly system has a very serious bubble, in general, they all have very bright development prospects, and the strong financial reserves of the Firefly system are sufficient to support the continued development of any of these companies go down.
In comparison, as stated in the analysis article in "Barron's Weekly" two weeks ago, most of the new technology companies in the Nasdaq market will be unsustainable after consuming the funds raised in the initial IPO. A large part will eventually die out.
However, the huge industry supported by hundreds of billions of dollars of speculative capital has too many merits after all. Waiting for the stock price to fall to the bottom, at that time, Firefly System can also acquire the companies it needs at the minimum cost, further expanding the territory of Firefly System in the field of new technology.
Watching the spectacular scene of the Nasdaq market with cold eyes, Eric's main energy also turned to Hollywood.
Compared with a series of new technology companies under Firefly Investment, whose stock prices have plummeted, due to the explosion of "The Blair Witch" from the beginning of the year to the recent explosion of "Cars", the industry has no intention of lowering the valuation of Firefly Group. Some media who have faintly heard the inside story of the Clover Fund even hinted that the performance of the Firefly Group this year will create an unprecedented peak.
In fact, this is also the case. In just the first two quarters of 1999, the net profit of Firefly Group's main business has reached 2.285 billion US dollars.
In the second half of the year, with the continued lucrative income from "Cars", the upcoming reality show "American Idol" on ABC, and the two blockbusters "Gravity" and "Lord of the Rings" accompanied by Firefly's '4200' plan It is foreseeable that the profitability of Firefly Group in the next two quarters will only be better.
Considering the tens of billions of dollars in huge cash successfully cashed out by the Clover Fund, the cumulative net profit of Firefly Group in all aspects in 1999 will reach 40 billion U.S. dollars. If it is exposed, this will definitely become an annual profit miracle in the history of American companies.
However, in the past two weeks, it was not the Firefly Group's business that attracted Eric's attention from Hollywood, but "Shrek", which was released on July 16.
Blue Sky Studios, another 3D animation film after "Ice Age", received a lot of praise for its ingenious anti-fairy tale plot setting in the early stage of small-scale trial screenings.
However, the film's box office in the first week was not satisfactory, only 56.49 million US dollars.
Due to the box office failure of Columbia Pictures' other real-life-animation combination "The Elf Mouse" in the past few weeks, Eric originally thought that "Shrek" would not be able to regain its previous box office miracle.
Fortunately, the production cost of "Shrek" is still well controlled by Blue Sky Studios at US$60 million, which is only half of that of "Cars" and 50% lower than the US$90 million production budget of "Shrek". %, therefore, Eric is not worried about the profit prospects of "Shrek".
Even with the first week of 56.49 million US dollars, there is no suspense that the film's North American box office will exceed 100 million. Counting the subsequent overseas box office and peripheral revenue, "Shrek" is destined to generate very rich profits.
Blue Sky Studios has already started brewing plans for a sequel after the film's first week of box office release.
However, the development of things is beyond everyone's expectations.
In the second week of its release, perhaps due to the further fermentation of word of mouth, the box office of "Shrek" unexpectedly experienced a box office drop that surprised everyone, and finally reached 63.65 million US dollars.
In two weeks, the total box office of "Shrek" has exceeded 120 million US dollars, directly allowing the film to recover the production cost.
Moreover, according to this miraculous box office trend of reverse decline, the final box office of "Shrek" will definitely not stop within 200 million US dollars. According to the analysis made by Fox's distribution department, as long as the follow-up box office curve is strong enough, the film will easily exceed 250 million US dollars, and may even hit the 300 million US dollar box office mark.
A 3D animated film that cost only $60 million to produce has the potential to be a box-office bomb in the blink of an eye, which inevitably once again attracted intense attention from Hollywood.
Moreover, Blue Sky Studio's low-cost control model of "Ice Age" and "Shrek" has also become the focus of Hollywood research. After all, one of the biggest problems facing animated films is the huge production investment.
Throughout the summer, although "Cars" and "Shrek" also failed at the box office with a cost of 90 million US dollars, "Little Elf Mouse" once again increased the attention and attention of 3D animation movies in Hollywood. put in.