Chapter 99: Acquisition from Netscape
Zhang Chen left the OldPro bar with a stomach, he was originally surprised to see Jobs, but he didn't expect Jobs to be such a bastard in private. Although in his previous life, Zhang Chen also saw some negative news about Jobs. As a die-hard fan of Jobs, Zhang Chen will even take the initiative to wash the floor for Qiao, who has become a god. But at this meeting, Zhang Chen only felt that Jobs was a hateful megalomaniac.
In fact, Bill was right, Jobs did not have a good impression of Huaxia. This may have something to do with the fact that he likes RB very much, he has been to RB more than a dozen times in his life, but Huaxia, as Apple's largest market, he has never been there, and has repeatedly shown his disdain for Huaxia in public.
Zhang Chen was angry, and the consequences were serious. Even if you're Jobs, I'm going to bite off a piece of your flesh. Zhang Chen said fiercely in his heart.
Since the afternoon, Zhang Chen's mobile phone has not stopped, all of which are interview invitations from various media, and CNN's influence can be seen. Zhang Chen thought for a while and called Roger: "Miss Barros, I'm Zhang Chen." ”
Roger was a little surprised when he saw that it was Zhang Chen's call. After her interview with the boy aired, she became a lot more famous. Most importantly, it's so refreshing to see Brockman's sanctimonious dead fat man eating flies.
"Hey, Zhang, I'm glad to get your call. Roger's pronunciation of Zhang Chen's surname is very non-standard, closer to "Zhuang" or "Jiang".
Zhang Chen was amused by Roger's pronunciation, and couldn't help but laugh: "Okay, Miss Barros, I'd better give it an English name." Well, you can call me Zack. ”
Roger said embarrassedly: "I'm sorry, it's too difficult to pronounce Chinese." That's a good name, Zack, and a good match for you—God's beloved. ”
Zhang Chen smiled: "It's just similar to my surname, and I called you to express my gratitude." Your interview is fantastic, I've received no less than 10 requests for interviews, and three of them even want to be interviewed. ”
Roger was also very happy to hear it, after all, it proved that her vision for choosing the topic was okay. The more news heats, the more opportunities she has within CNN.
Roger laughed, "Then you have to leave the first one to me, uh, I'm talking about an interview." ”
Zhang Chen pretended not to understand: "Haha, of course it's no problem." By the way, when you have time next week, I'll invite you to dinner to say thank you in person. ”
Roger said happily: "Okay, I'll report to my boss, and if possible, I'll give you a live interview this time." ”
Zhang Chen smiled: "Thank you very much, it seems that I am going to raise the budget for hospitality from McDonald's to Burger King." ”
After chatting a few words, Zhang Chen hung up the phone.
Due to the dispute with Jobs, Zhang Chen was not in the mood to continue to hang out. Instead, I went straight back to the hotel, turned on my computer, and processed the email.
Zhang Chen's million-dollar website has been reported by many media outlets, and its popularity has increased greatly, and more than 100 grids have been signed in the past few days. Zhang Chen also changed the door-to-door signing mode to email signing, as long as it is confirmed by email, and the money is transferred to Zhang Chen's personal account, and the remittance voucher number is provided, the transaction is completed.
And CNN's broadcast has brought the sales of lattice to a higher level. Less than two hours after CNN's broadcast, Zhang Chen's mailbox was almost crowded with emails.
Zhang Chen called up the background data of the website and found that the number of hits reached an astonishing 190,000 that day. You know, Yahoo now only has about 2 million effective hits per day.
But Zhang Chen knew that his website was just because of a gimmick, so everyone was more curious. When people on the Internet hear about it, they can't help but open it to see what's new. Because of the lack of connotation, when the freshness wears off, the site becomes worthless. Therefore, the top priority is still to further increase the popularity and then get rid of it as soon as possible.
He was busy until he was about to go to bed, and Zhang Chen processed nearly 200 purchase applications, and put the links and logos that buyers needed on the webpage one by one. I have to say that this is a very tiring job, and Zhang Chen has already begun to consider whether to hire someone to manage this website for him.
Among the many emails, one was one that Mr. Zhang had been waiting for for a long-awaited offer from Netscape.
The email was sent by Morgan Clark, Netscape's head of marketing, who has been holding a large amount of cash since Netscape went public last year, and has doubled its profits for three consecutive quarters. But Netscape has hardly any money to spend on other than the development of browsers.
Netscape was less hype and advertising in the previous stage, but recent market changes have left Morgan worried. Since last year's board of directors rejected Microsoft's acquisition proposal and partnership request, Microsoft has entered the browser space with great fanfare.
Microsoft also has no way, and this war with Netscape can be called a life-and-death battle for Microsoft. In the early days, due to Gates' decision-making mistakes, Microsoft did not see the great changes brought about by the advent of the Internet. Still believing that the operating system is the future, he did nothing to do anything about the browser, and it wasn't until Netscape took 90% of the browser market that Gates suddenly realized that this was a formidable opponent that could collapse his empire.
On the one hand, Microsoft stepped up the process of developing browsers, hastily acquired a company, and hastily launched IE1.0 with this company's products. At the same time, Gates also showed goodwill to Netscape, expressing an offer that Netscape could even be bought with Microsoft stock if Netscape was willing to cooperate.
Netscape, on the other hand, was completely carried away by the victory, and what they wanted was not just to become part of the Microsoft empire, but to replace it!
Morgan is a rare manager who has remained sober in Netscape's high-spirited business, and he knows how terrible Microsoft is. Knowing that Microsoft has an absolute monopoly in the field of operating systems, as long as it adds IE to the Windows system in a bundled way, the Netscape browser will have no way to fight back.
Therefore, since Morgan took over the marketing department, he could not change the fact that the board of directors did not sell Netscape, so he could only explain the importance of marketing to the board of directors, hoping that through a series of marketing promotions in a short period of time, everyone would think of Netscape as long as they were online.
Ever since Morgan saw the million-dollar website, his eyes lit up. The most important thing in Silicon Valley is technology, followed by innovation, and this website has no technology at all, let alone innovation, and some only gimmicks, but this is exactly what Netscape needs.
Since the million-dollar website was reported by the media, it has become a typical case of Internet dreaming, and using the Internet to realize dreams is also very consistent with Netscape's values. If you buy this website and set off a topic, even if you pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for the acquisition, it will be worth it, and it will be used as advertising expenses.
Morgan's offer to Zhang Chen was $250,000, and Zhang Chen smiled at the number, and there was only one line of number in the email he replied to Morgan - $3,000,000.
Closing the notebook and taking a shower, Zhang Chen sat on the swivel chair in front of the desk with a bath towel and pondered with his mobile phone. After thinking for a long time, I dialed a phone number and waited for a while, but the sound of "doodoo" could not be reached in the microphone.