Chapter 955: Explosive Growth

The filming date of "Iron Man" was finally determined on March 2. As usual, with only about a month left before filming of the film, the crew has already begun to assemble.

However, as the male protagonist, Eric is destined to be unable to fully focus on the movie.

With the release of Yahoo's 1997 annual financial report, Eric had to leave Los Angeles again and flew to Boston to participate in Yahoo's annual meeting. This meeting not only discussed the issue of Firefly's re-injection into Yahoo, but also initially discussed with Morgan Stanley to discuss Yahoo listing.

In order to pave the way for Yahoo's IPO at the beginning of next year, after Yahoo's annual financial report was released, it was immediately announced on the front page of Yahoo's portal website.

This annual financial report full of highlights not only caused the frantic reprint of major media, but also made the capital circle boil again.

Throughout 1997, Yahoo's global registered users reached 70.9 million, accounting for 70% of the global Internet users, of which 51.7 million were in North America. This figure is more than twice the number of users of all other portals of the same type in the United States combined.

In addition, the number of activated users of yahoopay, an online payment tool that Yahoo promoted in 1997, also exceeded the 10 million mark, reaching 11.35 million.

Since the Yahoo Music Store launched in April, the number of song rights has increased from an initial 200,000 to the current 700,000, with 55.3 million songs sold throughout the year. Although this figure is insignificant relative to the total output value of the global recording industry, the rise of online music sales has made the traditional music industry feel a powerful threat.

Of course, the most dazzling data in this annual financial report is undoubtedly the explosive growth of Yahoo's annual revenue in 1997.

In 1997, Yahoo's total annual revenue jumped 327 percent to $636 million, compared to its full-year revenue of $194 million in 1996.

The annual revenue of 636 million US dollars, although it is far from being compared with the later Internet giants. However, in 1998, this data caught the attention of the entire Internet industry.

Because, although Yahoo's annual financial data is still a loss of up to 359 million US dollars, but the annual income of 636 million US dollars, but it means that from 1992, after six years of long investment, Yahoo finally showed clear profit prospects.

Before that, as Internet services gradually tend to be free to share, countless industry analysts and media have questioned whether Internet sites such as Yahoo Portal can achieve stable revenue and profits like traditional media.

In any industry, if it only invests and cannot produce, then it will never grow and develop.

Now, with more than $600 million in annual revenue, Yahoo is finally proving the promise of pure-play Internet businesses.

Eric knew very well that compared with another Yahoo from the same period in his memory, the new Yahoo was definitely far superior to the other, and the two sides were completely different.

However, in Eric's view, this is actually a matter of course.

The new Yahoo, not only was established two years earlier than the original time and space, but also took the lead in the rise of the new technology wave. Moreover, graphical interface browsers, e-mails, portals, instant messaging, search engines, online payment tools, etc., these series of popular Internet products and services that were not originally created by a company were all concentrated by Eric. under this brand new company.

It can be said that compared with Yahoo, which did not seem to find an accurate development direction from its rise to its decline, the brand-new Yahoo has been on a completely correct high-speed lane since its inception, and Yahoo's products have almost occupied all the original products. The essence of the entire Internet age in time and space.

The strong synergy effect formed by a variety of Internet products and services has also given Yahoo an advantage in advance to almost monopolize the Internet industry.

Under the background of the explosive growth of Internet users, the huge user base formed by Yahoo's multiple popular Internet products has prompted Yahoo's advertising business based on the long tail theory to gradually show more and more obvious ability to attract money. Yahoo's 1997 annual revenue of 636 million US dollars, advertising revenue reached 527 million US dollars, accounting for 82.7% of the total revenue.

From February 3 to February 6, Yahoo's annual meeting was held for four consecutive days.

Finally, according to the market value of 15 billion US dollars, Firefly Investment will inject 1 billion US dollars into Yahoo again and acquire 14.5 million shares of Yahoo.

In the original Yahoo equity incentive plan, because Jeff Locke and others gave up equity incentives to leave early, Yahoo spent a total of 17.3 million shares, equivalent to 17.3% of Yahoo's total equity at that time. Subsequently, after several consecutive capital injections by Firefly Investments to Yahoo, the shareholding ratio of Yahoo's management and employees began to gradually decline.

This time with a capital injection of $1 billion to acquire another 6.7% stake in Yahoo, Yahoo's total share capital rose to 216.5 million shares. Firefly Investment's shareholding in Yahoo has further increased to 91.7%.

At the same time, according to the current valuation and share capital, Yahoo's single share price is close to $70. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the IPO early next year, after discussions with Morgan Stanley, Yahoo will also conduct a stock split at the end of this year. The original shares were divided into three, bringing the total share capital to 649.5 million.

In this way, after the IPO issue of 30% of the stock, the total share capital of Yahoo will be close to 1 billion shares, and the unit price of the stock can also be guaranteed at around US$15, which is a price that is very easy to attract investors. At the same time, the total share capital of 1 billion shares Also seems appropriate.

Early next year, as the Nasdaq hit another record high, Eric knew Yahoo's valuation would skyrocket again. Therefore, according to this plan, it is absolutely impossible for the stock to remain below $15. However, he did not express any objection to the plan discussed by Yahoo management and Morgan Stanley. If the plan can't keep up with the changes, it's time to revise it.

After the four-day meeting, Internet business partners who came to Yahoo's annual meeting left in succession, and the Morgan Stanley team returned to New York contentedly.

Eric was in no hurry to return to Los Angeles.

February 7th, though Saturday, Eric and Chris, Yahoo's Ian Grenier, Steve Mitnick and Tina Brown, and Firefly's Victor McNair Leigh, Bill Olson, and Jeff Kleibel, vice president of Firefly Electronics from Nokia, came to a heavily guarded lab at Yahoo headquarters.

A few days ago, Eric just arrived in Boston, and Steve Mitnick told Eric that he had successfully produced a tablet prototype through the current research and development results of Yahoo and Firefly Electronics. Personally, I came here today, solemnly, to watch Steve Mitnick's demonstration of that prototype.

In the laboratory, Steve Mitnick sat in front of an operating table, holding a ten-inch tablet prototype with a thickness of nearly two centimeters in his hand, while demonstrating to the other seven people around him, explaining : "The kernel of the operating system is completely written according to the latest 32-bit chip architecture of arm. We have completed the drivers for hardware such as micro-hard disk, processor, and display screen. Now we are writing the network connection module, which will be available by the end of this year. Several Internet products under Yahoo have developed specialized application software."

Eric watched Steve Mitnick demonstrate simple text input, picture browsing and audio playback directly with his fingers on the color touch screen, and patiently listened to the exchanges of several professionals before finally putting the history The prototype in Tiff Mitnick's hand was brought over. Although the screen pixels are very low and it looks grainy, Eric is very satisfied with the effect of the prototype in his hand with the current technology accumulation of the two companies.

After entering a text and playing with it for a while, Eric remembered to turn the prototype over, looked at the flat casing, and asked in disappointment, "Steve, don't you have a camera?"

Steve Mitnick said: "Eric, the laboratory at Firefly Electronics did not give me a camera module that can be installed in this machine. I have also read the relevant laboratory information of Nokia, their research and development. The progress is also very slow.”

Eric thought for a while and said, "How about Japan, their accumulation of digital camera technology should be much stronger than ours?"

"This, I don't know," Steve Mitnick said, looking at the three of Firefly's Victor McNally.

Victor McNally explained: "Eric, we lack the technology and patents of digital cameras, and the team in the company can only conduct research and development based on the technology of other companies, and it is difficult to come up with our own. Miniature camera module. As for Japan, Toshiba, Sony, Sharp, the electronics industry giants, should all be conducting research and development in related areas, but if I want to get detailed information, unless I go to Japan in person.”

Eric said without hesitation: "Victor, then you should go to Japan as soon as possible. If you can buy patents on related technologies, it would be the best. All in all, I want our tablet to have camera capabilities at launch."

Victor McNally said: "Eric, according to your original idea, I think this tablet is attractive enough even without the camera function. Our plan is to have a 7-inch tablet screen, according to At this size, today's tiny digital cameras with only 100,000 pixels simply cannot take good pictures."

"It's 100,000 pixels now. In two or three years, there will definitely be cameras with 300,000 pixels and 500,000 pixels. All we have to do is to make arrangements in advance," Eric said, looking at Victor McNair Li's expression was still a little hesitant, and said: "If it is just a touch screen, and basic functions such as reading, listening to music, or surfing the Internet, in fact, the traditional pda can be realized after a few years of development.

What we need to do is to strengthen the entertainment interaction function of this tablet computer, so that this product can be made more popular. People have a strong desire to express themselves, and adding the camera function can just meet the needs of users.

I had a chat with Ian and a few of them some time ago. It is not suitable for the development of Internet social networks, but if this tablet computer with camera function is launched, in my opinion, the time is initially ripe. Think about it, if anyone can use a tablet to take pictures of their work and life anytime, anywhere, and then share them with friends and family via the Internet, do you think they will not be more excited about this product? "

Steve Mitnick said: "Eric, I'm still curious, if you don't use the mobile communication network, how can you achieve instant sharing?"

Eric shook his head and smiled mysteriously, and said, "Using the mobile communication network is our further goal of smartphones. As for the networking problem of tablet computers, I will try my best to solve it when the time comes. What you have to do now is to Make the product I want."

In the face of Eric's insistence, although the second generation of fireflyer was about to be released, Victor McNally decided to go to Japan in person.

After watching the demonstration of the research and development results of the mobile operating system, Eric visited several other important laboratories of Yahoo with everyone. Eric did not leave the Yahoo headquarters until after get off work in the afternoon and everyone had dinner together.

Tomorrow Eric will leave Boston directly, say goodbye to everyone in the parking lot, and wait until Victor McNally and others leave, but Chris is not in a hurry to go back to the hotel, leaning on Eric's black luxury car and laughing He said to Eric, "So, are you really going to play Tony Stark yourself?"

So far, the Firefly Group has not disclosed this matter to the public. Because there is no news about the actor of "Iron Man", some media even thought that the project was aborted due to the influence of Warner's "Batman and Robin" last year. .

Chris also heard it for the first time when he asked Eric about his work schedule for the next few months a few days ago. Eric didn't deliberately hide this from Chris, but Chris never asked, and he didn't take the initiative to say it.

Eric nodded and replied: "The contract has been signed, and the salary is 3 million US dollars. The movie is about to start shooting, and now the breach of contract has to be compensated."

Chris had seen the movie "Return to Seventeen" that Eric was in, and imagined Eric as Tony Stark, shook his head and smiled, and said, "You are really suitable. , a performance in its own right."

"That's what everyone sees," Eric also smiled: "Otherwise, I haven't appeared in front of the camera for so many years, and no one will let me play."

"Otherwise, I'll also make a cameo to be a driver for you or something?"

Mentioning this, Eric's face smiled even more, and said, "This is not your turn. Someone has already grabbed this job."

Chris thought for a while and had no clue, so he could only ask, "Who is so boring?"

"Larry Ellison."

Chris was surprised again: "How is it possible, he is such an arrogant guy."

Eric reminded: "Last time, he wanted to get rid of us and secretly buy Apple."

"Oh, I see, he wants to make up for it with this, but it's too understatement."

"Of course not," Eric shook his head and smiled, "Oracle decided to sponsor the cast of "Iron Man" for $5 million, guest driver, just a ride."

Chris probably straightened out the whole thing, haha ​​laughing, obviously, Larry Ellison was tricked by Eric.

The two chatted and laughed for a while, and Eric said, "I'll go back tomorrow. There are a lot of locations for "Iron Man", and the first half of the year will be very busy. You should pay more attention to things on Yahoo, by the way, also There’s AOL. If Steve starts to insist that AOL grows into an internet media company, we’re going to have to think about taking control.”

Chris nodded solemnly: "Of course, I will arrange it, don't worry."