Throughout the month of May, Eric and Chris were running around for Firefly Investment Company to acquire a stake in telecom operator sprint.
The two parties had already finalized a general transaction plan in early May. Sprint issued 400 million additional shares to Firefly Investment in exchange for a capital injection of 1.32 billion US dollars. After the transaction, the total share capital of Sprint expanded to 4 billion shares. The shareholding ratio is 10%, and it will obtain two director seats on the sprint board of directors. As long as this transaction is successful, under the impetus of Firefly's investment, sprint will also adopt Qualcomm's cdma technology.
However, after the two parties drew up the transaction plan, the matter is far from over. Although the legal threshold of the communication industry is gradually being relaxed, as an industry that is strictly regulated by any country, if you want to enter smoothly, you still need to go through layers of audits.
Firefly and sprint first need to submit the program to the US Federal Trade Commission (ftc) for antitrust review. Firefly Investment not only owns Qualcomm, which is involved in the research and development of the underlying technology of mobile communications, but also holds a controlling stake in Nokia, which produces mobile communications base stations and terminal equipment. If it succeeds in investing in sprint, it will basically open up the entire mobile communications industry chain. It is suspected of intending to monopolize very obvious.
If it was ten years ago, the transaction plan would have been rejected by the FTC immediately after it was submitted, but in recent years, the federal government has continued to relax the legal restrictions on the telecommunications industry, which made it possible for the transaction plan to pass.
After Eric and Chris attended FTC's hearings about the transaction several times in a row, and launched a public relations lobby in private, at the end of May, FTC finally approved the transaction between the two parties.
While dealing with FTC, Firefly Investments and sprint also submitted relevant applications to the Federal Trade Commission (sec) and the Federal Communications Commission (fcc). After passing the ftc level with the most variables, the remaining two departments are much simpler. Almost within a week after the FTC approved the transaction plan, the SEC and the FCC successively approved the transaction applications of both parties.
On May 26, the signing ceremony between Firefly Investment and sprint was officially held at the headquarters of sprint Group in Manhattan.
At the press conference after the signing ceremony, Firefly Investment and sprint executives officially announced publicly that sprint will conduct in-depth cooperation with Qualcomm to build a nationwide mobile communication network using cdma technology.
a month ago. Verizon has already announced that it has joined the cdma camp after receiving $300 million in directional bond financing from Firefly. At this time, the sprint group, which owns nearly half of the mobile communication licenses of class a and b, announced its joining again, marking that the dispute over the technical standards of mobile communication in the United States for several years has finally settled. Successfully occupied more than half of the US mobile communications market.
As soon as the press conference ended, Qualcomm's stock price on the open market began to rise in a straight line. Before the close of the day, the stock price soared by 8% in a few hours. The price per share easily broke through the $30 mark and reached $31.5. Compared with the stock price of around $17 at the end of last year, Qualcomm's market value has risen by 85% in just half a year, and it is only a matter of time before it doubles.
"When I went to San Diego last time, Qualcomm's communication equipment manufacturing plant had just begun to select a site, and it would be at least the end of the year to start mass production. Although Sprint promised to adopt cdma technology, it was impossible to wait half a year. They decided to temporarily The GSM network was laid in the Washington area. In addition, Qualcomm planned to cooperate with Sony to build a factory, but I rejected the plan. Even if we want to cooperate, the target should definitely be Nokia. This is also a good time for Nokia to enter the US market. Qualcomm in 1991 we Before taking control of Nokia, they authorized a full set of cdma technology to Nokia. Although Nokia focuses on gsm research and development, it still has some foundations in this area, and they can also provide a group of professional management personnel to Qualcomm's equipment manufacturing plant."
The time is the next day. It happened to be Saturday, and after a busy day yesterday, most of the things were finally over, so Chris brought Emily to East Hampton.
However, the two soon got into Eric's study and talked about business. Of course, the topic started with Qualcomm. Chris knew very well that Eric's recent series of layouts was largely due to Qualcomm.
Eric leaned on the back of the chair, and after hearing what Chris said, he said: "When it comes to gsm and cdma, I was thinking that no one will be able to drive either of the two parties out of the market in a short period of time, so, The integration of these two technologies is the most correct path. Just like this dvd format dispute, the two camps of dvd technology standards are very smart and did not waste another ten or eight years on r+ and r-. Negative, but chose to support each other."
The dvd standard has been established for some years, but out of concerns about the lower cost of dvd piracy, several major Hollywood film studios have been trying to delay the launch of dvd.
But it has been delayed until now, and it is impossible to delay any longer. With the lessons learned from Sony's video tape lawsuit, Hollywood can no longer expect to prevent the emergence of DVDs through litigation. It is expected that after the summer vacation, several major DVD manufacturers will launch DVD players. .
Chris also knew some information about this aspect, and said: "The standards mastered by the two major dvd technology camps are actually of the same generation, and it is not difficult to support each other, but gsm and cdma are two completely different generations of technology standards. It's basically impossible to integrate."
Eric said: "I'm not talking about the integration at the operator level, but the integration at the terminal level. Nokia has gsm technology, and Qualcomm has cdma technology. Both parties have very deep technical accumulation in these two standards. Therefore, It is certainly not difficult for us to launch a mobile phone that can support both gsm network and cdma network."
Dual Netcom and full Netcom mobile phones that support multiple network standards are very common in later generations. But in 1995, the new generation of digital communication technology had just been popularized on a large scale. Several major technology camps were thinking about how to squeeze each other out of the market, and never considered coexistence or even integration. Therefore, multi-network mobile phones are definitely a very novel concept. .
Chris's eyes lit up immediately. Said: "Eric, this idea is really great, I think, why don't we hold a conference call tomorrow to discuss this matter with Jorma Ollila and Owen Jacob, and support gsm and cdma networks at the same time There is definitely not a big market in Europe, but North America has confirmed the coexistence of gsm and cdma, and this kind of mobile phone must have great potential."
"You can arrange it. "Jurassic Park 2" will be released on June 2. I can probably stay in New York for a week," Eric replied. Ollila talks in detail.
Nokia was the first communication equipment manufacturer to bet on gsm technology, which is also the key to its rapid rise in recent years, although it does not completely monopolize cdma technology patents like Qualcomm. However, Nokia has the largest number of patents on gsm technology among the world's major communication equipment manufacturers.
A few months ago, after the news of Firefly's investment in Qualcomm came out, Jorma Ollila had doubts about Eric's approach in an email. In his opinion, blocking Qualcomm's cdma technology is more in line with Nokia's Interests. Now, not only did Eric not do this, but he strongly supported cdma technology to grab half of the mobile communication market in the United States. Even though the superficial reaction of Jorma Ollila was not intense. There will definitely be pimples in my heart.
Although in the phone and email, Eric has explained to him his intention to do so. But there are definitely benefits to more communication.
Only by maintaining sufficient communication and understanding their respective intentions can Eric be able to trust the managers to take care of the property under his name, and he can also spare more time to do other things.
Chris habitually took out a small memo from his shirt pocket, and wrote down the matter solemnly, before saying to Eric: "This matter is resolved. I think we should talk about the Yahoo matter. gone."
"I've been communicating with Ian and the others recently, and I understand their general thinking," Eric nodded and said.
The original equity incentive contract expired this year, and the firefly investment team has begun to evaluate the work results of Yahoo's main management. In order to determine their share of the equity award they can receive.
Eric's original plan was to launch Yahoo's IPO plan after the equity incentive plan ended.
But recently, several top executives have unanimously hope that Eric can postpone Yahoo's listing date. Their reasons are also quite good. The capital market is extremely profit-seeking. Once Yahoo goes public, the company will have to face performance pressure and give up the current stable development strategy of step by step.
Under the repeated lobbying of Yahoo's management, Eric also began to seriously consider this issue.
A few years ago, Eric's original idea was to list Yahoo in 1995. After the Internet bubble rapidly inflated, the Yahoo stock in his hand had passed the lock-up period, and he could take advantage of the inflated stock price of Yahoo to buy from the capital market. Cash out large sums of money.
In the final analysis, Eric's original plan was still very speculative, subconsciously he only wanted to cash out, rather than keep Yahoo in good business.
After several years of mental precipitation, Eric also realized that if he keeps this mentality, his career will definitely have a bottleneck one day in the future.
Chris saw Eric showing a thoughtful look, and asked, "So, Eric, what do you think now?"
"What about you, do you agree with their ideas?" Eric asked with a smile.
Chris nodded unabashedly: "Now the capital market is very popular with Internet investment, so I think we will delay the listing for a few years, and wait for Yahoo to have a clearer profit prospect, and we will definitely be able to obtain greater benefits."
Eric recalled that in the original time and space, the Nasdaq market began to grow exponentially in 1998, and it soared from more than 1,000 points to 5,000 points in just two years.
If Yahoo went public after 1998, the funds raised from the initial stock offering would definitely be several times higher than it is now. However, under the strict financial supervision system, the funds would be used for the development of Yahoo itself and not entirely owned by iResearch. Ke personally, although part of the funds can be transferred out through some methods, but there are many legal risks, and it is definitely safer not to cash out the shares in his hands.
Cash out, cash out, cash out...
Eric repeated this word in his heart for several years, and suddenly realized that he is not short of money at all now, and no matter how much money he cashed out, he still has to use it as an investment.
The bend in his mind was suddenly straightened, and Eric also had a feeling of enlightenment, with a smile on the corner of his mouth, and said to Chris: "That's it, postpone the IPO plan, but, anyway, we should hurry up Complete the IPO before the contract with Microsoft takes effect."
"Of course," Chris also laughed relaxedly. If Eric insisted, he really didn't know how to persuade him: "Speaking of which, Microsoft's Windows 95 will be officially released in August, but, I think you should have used this system, Microsoft’s share price has been rising recently, and the market seems to be very optimistic about this brand new system?”
Although Microsoft's Windows 95 is confirmed to be released at the end of August, in fact, many test versions have been released. Outside the United States, pirated CDs have become widely popular.
Eric also used this operating system that he was very familiar with in his previous life as a matter of course, saying: "I think this system may allow Microsoft to monopolize the operating system market, so in the next few years, we will probably have to confront Microsoft. After completing its dominant position in the operating system market, Microsoft will definitely enter the Internet market. I’m not even sure if Bill Gates will forcibly tear up that agreement, after all, Microsoft probably won’t be willing to wait until 1999.”
"I think Microsoft is getting restless now," Chris smiled, and said, "Steve called me a few days ago and said that Microsoft had contacted him, hoping that he could leave Yahoo and join Yahoo! Microsoft's upcoming Internet division."
The Steve Chris mentioned was Steve Mitnick, who was in charge of Yahoo's technology department, and Chris's good friend in college. In Eric's view, the main managers of Yahoo, Ian Grenier, Jeff Locke, Steve Mitnick and Tina Brown, among the four, Steve Mitt Nick is the most important thing to Yahoo, because he is almost responsible for the core technology research and development of several major Internet products of Yahoo. If he is poached, Yahoo will definitely be in turmoil for a long time.
Eric was surprised: "Really?"
Chris nodded, seeing Eric's worried face, he smiled and said, "However, you don't have to worry, I know Steve's character very well, since he called me, it means he will definitely not Leaving Yahoo."
Of course, it was impossible for Eric to be so completely relieved, and asked: "What about the others?" (To be continued.)