Chapter Six Hundred and Thirteen I Can't Afford It

After saying this, Melanie suddenly realized that since she could think of these things, Eric would definitely not fail to think about it. Even if he really didn't think about it, the business elites around him would think of them. w [www. Seeing Eric nodding slightly, Melanie asked with a smile, "Eric, you came to Boston this time to solve these problems, right?"

"Last week, I just merged three companies into a brand new Yahoo Networks company."

When Melanie heard the name of the new company named by Eric, she looked stunned and said, "Many people judged in the classroom that the Yahoo portal is the focus of these three companies, and now it seems that this is the case. Woolen cloth."

Eric continued to ask: "What do you think about business transformation?"

Melanie said: "Ad placements and membership services are the only two I can think of for the time being. In addition, I don't agree with the free strategy of Internet Explorer. It's so fast now, but the revenue it brings is enough to keep the three companies running, Eric, may I know why you do this, ie browser so far doesn't have any competitors on all operating system platforms , the free strategy is obviously very irrational."

"This is my agreement with Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web. Two years ago, many technical standards for the World Wide Web had not been formulated. In order to tilt the final version of the World Wide Web technical standards to the IE browser, I chose to Do it. And since you have realized that Yahoo Portal is the focus of the three companies, you should also understand that browser software is more of an interface for Yahoo to expand the user scale of Yahoo Portal, compared to Now, the profitability of software is not that important.”

Melanie recalled that after the World Wide Web was announced last year to be completely free to all users worldwide, other small area networks and paid networks quickly disappeared, and the World Wide Web has now become a global Internet network. Choosing a free strategy for the technical standards of the World Wide Web gave up temporary profits, but Eric gained more. after all. Once the standard is established, it is difficult to change, but Eric has been holding browser software products that conform to these technical standards for two years. The company in his hands must have built a solid patent barrier, so before others break this layer of patent barriers, IE browser will be the only one with no branches. In short, it is a complete monopoly on the Internet interface channel.

Think about the pros and cons. Melanie admired the courage of the young man on the other side of Desha: "To be honest, Eric, if I were in your seat, even if I could understand the benefits of the browser's free strategy, it would be difficult for me to talk to you. The same decision, giving up tens of millions of dollars in low-hanging fruit is not something anyone can do. w(ww..”

Although Caroline was busy making coffee in the kitchen, she kept listening to the conversation between the two. At this time, she walked into the living room with a coffee pot and poured coffee for the three of them.

Hearing Melanie's words, it was as if she herself was being praised. Said: "That's why Eric is so powerful."

Melanie looked at Caroline's smug look and teased: "Caroline, why don't you tell me why you got bsp in this class; Caroline blushed, but retorted confidently: " Now I have been able to prove my judgment is correct. "

"Eric, don't you know, Caroline got an A in almost all of her classes, but got the only C in the case of... Yahoo Networks, because we didn't investigate your relationship with the World Wide Web Consortium. However, she insisted that your free strategy was not wrong about the contents of the agreement, but she still talked back to the tutor without proof." Melanie said, recalling the situation at the time, and laughing.

Eric also smiled and said to Caroline: "Maybe I can prepare some materials for you. Let your tutor change the grades."

Facing the teasing of the two, Caroline sat shyly beside Melanie, holding her arm and staring at Eric harmlessly.

After the joke, Eric took a few sips of coffee, put down the cup and asked, "Melanie, do you have your own work plan now?"

Melanie heard Eric's words. Immediately understood Eric's intention to test her just now, shook his head and smiled: "Not yet."

"So, what's it like to come and work for me?"

Melanie looked at Caroline with bright eyes and asked tentatively, "What about Caroline?"

"Of course it's the two of you together. In the next few years, I will increase investment in the Internet industry. At present, most of my personal assistant team is focusing on the media. If you join, it can just make up for the personnel in this area. vacancy."

Melanie looked enviously at Caroline, who clenched her arms involuntarily, looking forward to her promise. ╞╪┞╪╪.. Although Eric's invitation was very sincere, and she was very moved, she still realized that Eric did this probably because he hoped that he would work with Caroline and take care of this innocent girl by the way. Melanie was born in an ordinary middle-class family. In order to make up for the tuition for MBA, she worked in a securities company in Atlanta for two years after graduating from college. These two years also made her deeply appreciate the intrigue of office Zhengzhi. In that kind of environment, it is difficult for a girl like Caroline, who is pure in her mind and will not think people's hearts into sinister places. The employees who can be selected to work for a media tycoon like Eric are definitely the best out of a hundred. There is absolutely no doubt about the ability of these people to work, but they are definitely more skilled when playing with the office, leaving Caroline among those people. Even if Eric personally protects it, it is estimated that he will only be bullied, and that group of people will never let Eric find out that they bullied this girl. With Caroline's character, he may not be able to find it himself.

Eric didn't realize that Melanie had guessed his thoughts, and hesitantly saw the girl, and said, "Although it's just my personal assistant, this job definitely has great promotion prospects. An assistant Alan Fissman joined the TV network as the deputy general manager of the prime-time program production department last month. In recent years, many people in the office have been promoted to company management. Moreover, after a few years of training, you It will be found that even if you are not promoted within Firefly, there will be many headhunting companies that are happy to poach people."

The last point is that Allen occasionally told Eric as an interesting thing, in order to be able to find out the "secret" of the continuous success of the Firefly movie. The assistants in Eric's assistant office who were responsible for following up the progress of the film were always poached by other film companies with high salaries. The assistants in charge of these jobs changed several times over the years until Firefly's personnel department formulated very strict confidentiality clauses and hiring. contract, this trend has gradually cooled down. and. Many film companies have gradually come to understand that the biggest secret to the success of the Firefly film is Eric's "brain", not the "eyes" of the assistant's office. However, even so, the act of poaching people from Eric's assistant's office has never stopped. Especially every time Firefly has a film that is a huge hit.

Melanie is of course aware of the promotion prospects of this job. As an assistant to a legendary rich man like Eric who has created a series of business miracles, even if it is only questioned, this job resume is more than the MBA she got at Harvard. The gold content of the degree is even higher. only……

After hesitating for a while, she felt Caroline shake her arm gently again, and Melanie finally couldn't help but agree.

A maid is a maid, anyway, this 'princess' not only doesn't act like she is, she doesn't even realize her 'identity' at all.

After Eric left, Melanie and Eric squeezed Caroline's delicate face in exactly the same way, with envy in her tone: "He is really good enough to you. No wonder he makes you such a silly girl. It's stubbornly stuck upside down."

...

Waking up early in the morning, Eric took care of himself a little because John Chambers and Steve Case were coming here today. After washing up, shaving off the scattered stubble that I had accumulated for many days, standing in front of Yu Shi's mirror, staring at the young face for a few seconds, an inexplicable feeling arose in my heart.

Is he handsome again?

Just as he was bored and joked with himself in front of the mirror, Eric heard the doorbell, and quickly wiped his face with a towel, put on a light gray plaid shirt, and opened the door.

Good morning to Chris outside the door. The two casually chatted and walked towards the restaurant together.

There were not many guests for breakfast at the hotel, and I met Tina Brown a few days ago, but after this woman who worked hard was determined to join Yahoo, she couldn't wait to get into work. He has rented a house not far from Yahoo's headquarters, and is even planning to move his husband and children to Boston.

Last night Eric and Chris had discussed in detail the cooperation intentions reached in the meeting with Bill Gates, and informed several other heads of Yahoo Networks by telephone.

After breakfast, Eric and Chris hurried to Yahoo headquarters.

Just after eight o'clock, Ian Grenier and several other principals arrived at the company.

As a former manager of Oracle software company, which regards Microsoft as its mortal rival, Ian Gernier knows more about Bill Gates' style of conduct than anyone else in the room. So it seems worried.

Ian Grenier is very clear that if you don't choose to cooperate with Microsoft, then Yahoo and Microsoft will definitely go against each other, and the current Yahoo Internet company has no qualifications to be against Microsoft at all. Although Eric has a backer like Eric, Eric also said that he would do his best to support Yahoo, but Ian Gnier still felt that according to the market rule of capital seeking profit, when the two sides were fighting to the death, in order to try their best to To gain more benefits, Eric is likely to give up Yahoo Network. In his opinion, Eric's career is based in Hollywood, and giving up Yahoo will not cause him much damage.

Now, although Eric has made a choice to cooperate with Microsoft, this cooperation agreement is very unfavorable to Yahoo. Yahoo will operate next year. In five years, Yahoo wants to obtain enough development funds from the financial market. 6 The share of the shares sold by the company will not be lower than %, and the management will also get % of the shares, so the shares in the hands of Eric, a major shareholder, will not be higher than %. Once Microsoft gets % of the five-year stock options, to At that time, Eric's personal shares will be reduced to less than %. In Ian Grenier's view, this approach is no less than handing over the control of Yahoo in five years.

As a middle-aged man who is not confused, he saw with his own eyes that Yahoo's browser software, portal website and online mailbox and other services have created a series of miraculous growth data, Ian. The beginning of an era, therefore, among the few people in the conference room, he was the one who least wanted to let his efforts go to waste.

Ian Grenier unreservedly revealed his thoughts to everyone present. He was not opposed to cooperation with Microsoft, but hoped that Eric would be more careful in choosing the way of cooperation.

Eric patiently listened to Ian Grenier's words, and said sincerely: "Ian, do you know why I am willing to take out % of the stock options?"

Not only did Ian Grenier, Steve Mitnick, and others all look suspicious, but only Chris, who had already gotten the answer in advance, calmed down a little.

Eric drew everyone's attention to himself, and said firmly: "Because I didn't intend to sell any shares to Microsoft."

Eric said this, and the few people around him were even more puzzled. Eric paused for a while, and then continued: "Yahoo was created bit by bit by everyone, I know everyone is right Yahoo's feelings are like its own children. I personally do too, and I expect much more from Yahoo than all of you. The reason why it seems so generous to promise to sell % of Microsoft in five years , I just hope that after five years, Microsoft will suddenly find that it can't afford it. It's not difficult to do this. With Yahoo's current explosive growth rate, even if Yahoo's market value is only one-third of Microsoft's by then , Bill Gates will find that if he exchanges % of Microsoft shares for % of Yahoo shares, then he will usher in a major shareholder that may affect his control of Microsoft. If he wants to continue to annex the entire Yahoo, He will even discover that he has brought in a group of major shareholders who threaten his position. Do you think Bill Gates will insist on executing the stock option, or will he voluntarily give up?" (To be continued.)

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