The decline of AT&T can be described as the most familiar negative teaching material in the entire American technology community. But in fact, before Li Xuan crossed over, AT&T's scale in another time and space could rank in the top 30 of the world's top 500 list.

Why is such a company that can crush 99.99% of the world's enterprises still regarded as a model of failure? Because AT&T in the 21st century, although it is still one of the largest companies in the world, has completely reduced to mediocrity.

He only relied on continuous mergers and acquisitions to expand the market scale, but he has long lost the innovation ability that he was proud of! The AT&T company in the 20th century not only monopolized the telephone business in the entire United States. Transistors, lasers, solar cells, communication satellites, sound films, and one after another great inventions that have played an important role in promoting human civilization are all from the company's Bell Labs!

Because the monopoly of the entire Bell system was so strong, the Department of Justice completed the separation of it and directly banned the new AT&T company, which inherited most of the assets of the parent company, from continuing to participate in the local telephone business.

But in another time and space, Southwest Bell, one of the seven local telephone companies (the "Bell Brothers") that was spun off from AT&T's local phone business, eventually bought AT&T for $16 billion in 2005. In other words, AT&T has actually completed another business combination.

The U.S. Department of Justice did not intervene to block the acquisition. Because even AT&T after the re-merger of local and long-distance services, it is no longer possible to have a monopoly on the U.S. telecommunications industry. As for Bell Labs, which was once known as the business card of American science and technology, it has long been empty.

Later generations commented that the reason for AT&T's decline is nothing more than two points, on the one hand, it is the mistake of its own strategic decision, and on the other hand, the short-sighted Wall Street capital exerts strong pressure.

IBM, another giant enterprise in the United States, also faced a huge crisis in the nineties. But IBM has realized that it has realized that it has focused on hardware research and development. to the successful transformation of providing software services, thus ushering in a new round of brilliant development.

In fact, AT&T has had two great opportunities to reinvent its glory, the Internet wave and the mobile communication era. It's a pity that AT&T obviously failed to seize these two opportunities to regain its hegemony. The old overlords are often obsessed with their past glorious achievements and lose their keen sense of smell.

AT&T's advantages in the fixed-line era were so obvious that it ignored the rapid rise of the Internet and mobile phones. There are many more examples of the same. For example, Motorola, which is now in full swing, is also too strong in the Big Brother era to fail to adapt to the rapid transformation of wireless communication from analog to digital in time, thus giving Nokia the opportunity to rise. And Nokia later failed to grasp the pulse of the 3G era, and as a result, it fell rapidly.

One of the reasons why Li Xuan has a huge interest in the acquisition of MCI is that when he communicates with the company's management, many executives, including CEO Hyde Walker, agree with his discussion of the future of Internet and mobile communications.

In addition to transferring the entire Oriental Satellite Communications Company to MCI this time, Li Xuan also took out $350 million in cash for capital injection. All of this cash will be invested by MCI in the laying of fiber optic cables. Lay a solid foundation for the coming Internet era.

"Mr. Li, your analysis is very incisive, the capitalists on Wall Street are a bunch of greedy jackals, they will squeeze out every copper plate of profits! As long as the stock price can keep rising, they don't have the heart to think about whether it will bring damage to the company's long-term development!

The method you just proposed is very feasible, we can completely use the equipment of European Ericsson and Alcatel to replace the products of Xidian! If we can force Xidian to separate from AT&T, then AT&T's strength will be greatly reduced!" Walker was very interested in Li Xuan's previous proposal.

AT&T, like most public companies in the United States, is extremely diverse. If Wall Street capital leads the split. In order to maximize profits, it is likely that the two companies after the split will actually go their separate ways. And not like a highly concentrated company like the Eastern Group. Even if Li Xuan takes out a certain part of the business and splits it into a listing, he will still retain a controlling stake in the listed subsidiary.

Therefore, listing is not a harmless thing, especially once the major shareholder loses its absolute controlling interest, then other shareholders in the capital market will exert strong pressure on the management.

For example, MCI's stock price plummeted due to a stock market crash some time ago, and the company's CEO Hyde Walker had to find a way to boost the stock price. Because if he has been inactive. The dissatisfaction of the shareholders will become higher and higher, and finally he will be rolled up and leave! Therefore, MCI quickly put down its previous high profile after the stock market crash and chose to cooperate with Li Xuan.

The future decline of AT&T is largely the result of Wall Street capital. For example, AT&T is already a leader in the industry, and it is difficult to make an explosive breakthrough in its performance. Especially in markets like landlines. After nearly 100 years of development in the United States, it is actually very mature, and it is difficult to have huge room for growth.

Therefore, the gimmick of capital operation such as splitting up the enterprise has become the best choice for blowing up the balloon! However, after the balloon is blown up, it is filled with air, and only an embroidery needle can puncture it. And the investment banks on Wall Street had already thrown their hands away as early as the balloon was blown to the maximum, and as for the bitter consequences caused by the explosion, naturally it would not cause them the slightest damage.

Capital pursues the maximization of short-term interests, while the operation of enterprises often requires long-term planning, and in many cases, it is even necessary to give up some immediate interests for the future. For example, CG (Computer Park) Company, a subsidiary of the Oriental Group, quickly stook its ground in the entire U.S. market after transforming from a computer sales company to a chain home appliance store.

In order to support this expansion, CG not only invested all its profits, but also raised a large amount of money through the issuance of new shares and bonds. The company's excessive debt also made it in this round of stock market crash. It has become an important reason for the worst decline in listed companies under the Oriental Group.

However, compared to Hyde Walker, CG's management team is clearly much happier. The largest shareholder, Oriental Holdings, holds more shares than other shareholders, so it has a firm grip on CG's board of directors and management, and can completely eliminate outside interference.

"Mr. Walker, the Resident Directors of the Oriental Group will fully support the management. In fact, there is a company under the Oriental Group that provides dial-up Internet services, called AOL!" Li Xuan smiled and pointed to a curly-haired man with a high nose who was walking this way.

"Mr. Walker, it's an honor to meet you! We at AOL hope to reach a closer relationship with MCI!" AOL's English abbreviation is AOL, and Derek Owen is the CEO of this small company owned by the Eastern Group.

As early as 1984, Li Xuan invested in the establishment of this company that provides online networking services. In line with the principle of taking other people's paths so that others have no way out, Li Xuan simply took the name AOL (AmericanOnline) first!

For a monthly fee of $29.9 per month, users can spend their time from 7 p.m. to 9 a.m. the next morning. Enjoy the online access service provided by AOL. In the era before the advent of browsers, it was not easy to surf the Internet, at least you needed to have a certain computer foundation.

AOL, on the other hand, provides a set of easy-to-use fool-style networking services for ordinary users. Subscribers only need to log in to the AOL-based client installed on their computer to enjoy the latest news, games, soap operas, and online chat services provided by AOL.

"Mr. Owen, MCI is willing to provide AOL with priority services in terms of network access!" Walker shook hands with a smile under Li Xuan's introduction.

AOL does not now have its own communication network, but relies on the fixed telephone networks of telecom operators such as AT&T, MCI, Sprint, etc. to provide users with dial-up access services!

And AOL, a subsidiary of the Oriental Group, is not the first online service company in the United States. Back in 1979. One company, called a computer services company, has pioneered the development of a similar business.

However, AOL has developed very rapidly since its establishment, because it has strong support from the Eastern Group, which stands behind it. For example, NBC provides AOL with a lot of news, TV series, and entertainment programs. Oriental Games provided AOL with a variety of games.

In all ABC series computers sold in the North American market, Aikang has pre-installed the "AOL" client pre-installed. This has undoubtedly greatly promoted the expansion of AOL's share in the U.S. market.

The Oriental Group invested in MCI this time. It is also bound to make AOL a priority partner of MCI. MCI now has the third largest market share in the U.S. telecommunications sector, and its support can greatly expand AOL's network access capabilities.

"Mr. Walker, I think you're still too conservative, I don't think it will take 10 years at all. In just 5 years, the emerging Internet will bring great surprises to everyone and open up a new era for us!" As Owen and Walker had a lively discussion, Hawke, the chairman of Aikan, also stepped forward to join the discussion.

Hawke flew from London to the United States this time, in addition to witnessing the action of the Eastern Group to take a stake in MCI, the more important purpose is to prepare for the negotiation of a purchase agreement with MCI for data exchange equipment of up to 70 million US dollars. With the acceleration of the development of the global internet, the demand for data exchange equipment has begun to increase.

If we say that in the field of voice switching equipment, there is still a lot of gap between Aikang and AT&T, Ericsson and other century-old stores. In the emerging field of data exchange, Aikang has become a leader with its large-scale R&D investment in the past five years.

Aikang is also ready to take the opportunity of the Internet wave to fully enter the field of communication equipment. Because the ABC series of standards vigorously promoted by Aikang has almost become a unified standard in the personal computer industry, this field has become highly open, and new companies are constantly joining the competition.

The fierce competition has directly led to the decline of the overall profits of the industry, and even companies like Aikang Company have basically given up the low-end market and mainly focused on the high-end market.

However, this is also expected by Aikang, in fact, the company has already begun to develop and transform, as the company strides forward in the field of enterprise servers and networking equipment, the proportion of personal computer business in total revenue is rapidly declining.

"Mr. Walker, I don't know if you've ever heard of a graphical browser called Navigator? If you have used this browser, you will find that surfing the Internet has become a very simple thing! If Congress can pass the Information Superhighway Act as soon as possible, I even think that in just three years, the Internet will enter the daily life of each and every one of us!" Owen said with a smile, but his prediction was more radical.

Because compared with the other two people, he is on the front line of the Internet industry operation, and can more intuitively understand the changes in this field. Just looking at the growth curve of the number of AOL users in the past six months or so, he feels that his judgment has not expanded at all.

From the beginning of the year to the present, AOL's number of connected users has increased by 350,000, and the annual increase will definitely exceed 400,000. You must know that at the end of last year, the total number of users of AOL was only 400,000, which means that AOL's performance growth this year will exceed 100%.

"In my opinion, London's Internet atmosphere has surpassed that of the United States, and 'Internet surfing' is becoming an extremely fashionable thing! And the needs of the public determine the development of the industry, and I very much look forward to Mr. Li Xuan's language in the book will soon become a reality!" Hawke smiled at Li Xuan beside him.

Li Xuan just smiled and listened to the debate of several people, but did not interject. The word "surfing the web" comes from his new book, The Road to the Future, which was released just three months ago. In the book, Li Xuan comprehensively predicted what life would be like in the Internet age.

"The Road to the Future" has also been translated into Chinese, English, French, German, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese and other languages and released worldwide. Less than a month after its release, the book hit the bestseller lists of the Sunday Times in the UK and the New York Times in the US, and caused a huge response around the world.

Li Xuan is not only the richest man in the world, but his Eastern Group dominates the entire computer industry. His prediction of computer networking can even affect the development of an industry! )