Steve Case's heart was shocked, and that's what worries him most about ICQ.

He knows too well the meaning of a social platform with a near-monopoly position, although he can't understand the meaning of social platforms as deeply as Zhang Chen from later generations. But years of business sense told him that if he really went according to this kid's plan, ICQ would definitely become a terrible competitor.

Steve Keys was silent for a while: "$300 million is too high, I can give up to 150 million, and $100 million of it is paid in stocks." ”

Zhang Chen said calmly: "250 million US dollars, you should be able to guess, this is my psychological bottom line, 100 million US dollars can be paid with AOL shares, I have no opinion." ”

Steve Keys insisted: "Don't think I don't know, your Tinder Source should be in a very bad financial situation, you just spent eight million dollars to invest in that company called Amazon, it should be out of funds, right?"

Zhang Chen laughed, "It was the KPCB people who told you, right? Oh, they should have told you that I came to the United States, right? Unfortunately, they didn't tell you, I just issued 50 million US dollars of corporate bonds through Solomon Brothers, which is enough money for me to last until the next century, haha." ”

Steve Case's head started to hurt, Salomon Brothers, when did this kid get together with them again?

Silicon Valley and Wall Street are very close, but Steve Keys is unlikely to notice such a trivial change in the board of directors of an investment bank that has sunset.

After some haggling, Zhang Chen finally agreed to sell all of his ICQ shares, including $100 million in AOL shares, for $215 million.

Of course, a transaction of this amount must not be completed in a day or two, not to mention AOL's internal process and board approval, it will take at least a week for Tinder to unpledge the ICQ shares in its hands.

The big deal of $215 million was closed on the phone of two people.

However, it has not been a day or two since Steve Keys targeted ICQ, and the opening price has risen from 80 million to 120 million US dollars, but Zhang Chen has not let go.

From the end of August, when AOL decided to acquire ICQ, to the time when Zhang Chen and Steve Keys reached a verbal agreement, it took three months to add up together.

But in any case, that is, in today's Internet mergers and acquisitions are not yet mature and hot-headed, it is possible for two people to solve all problems with a few phone calls. Yahoo's investment in Ali is also an investment decision made by Yang Zhiyuan and Ma Yun in ten minutes, although Yang Zhiyuan has approached Ma Yun before, but he has not officially submitted an offer to Ali.

After more than ten years, it will take several rounds of private contact and negotiation by the negotiation team below. A negotiation team has at least a dozen people, of which the accounting team is at least three or four people. An acquisition deal cannot be considered professional if it drags on for months.

Steve Keys was in a good mood, "Zack, I hope I don't deal with you again." ”

Zhang Chen was in a better mood, "Haha, Steve, maybe you will change your mind in the future." Zhang Chen said with deep meaning.

Steve Keys snorted twice: "Okay, okay, who knows what kind of novelty you guys will come up with in the future." Maybe I'll buy it when the time comes. ”

Zhang Chen smiled silently, do you want to buy it? Hehe, maybe it's not that I'm going to sell it, but you're going to come and beg me to buy it.

Steve Keys continued: "This is the first thing just now, and the second thing, John Doerr of the KPCB wants to ask you to meet today, are you in San Francisco?"

Zhang Chen stroked his forehead with one hand, he had just intercepted KPCB's Hu, and now he felt a little weak when he was approached by someone.

Steve Keys giggled and said, "Are you hesitating? Are you worried about KPCB's retaliation? If you're worried, I can help you say something, just if you sell me ICQ's equity for $150 million." ”

Zhang Chen smiled and said, "Don't dream, Steve, I'm in a meeting, I have time in the afternoon, if he wants to see me, you can give him my contact information." ”

Back in the conference room, Zhang Chen motioned for everyone to continue, now that Huoxinyuan and AOL have not signed an agreement, he will naturally not be stupid enough to announce the news to everyone in the company.

Zhang Chen is still satisfied with the operation of Tinder, in addition to completing the work assigned by himself, the two current investment managers of Tindersource have also invested in five other projects, of which the highest cost is an online advertising company called DoubleClick.

Mila Rodrić, who speaks English with a slight Hungarian accent, describes her recent work in a unique way: "DoubleClick has developed a new technology that displays a variety of banner ads across a network of 30 websites and tracks the effectiveness of those ads in targeting visitors. After comparing the technologies of other online advertising companies, we believe that DoubleClick is the leading in terms of technology and direction. After receiving the investment, DoubleClick grew from 8 to 15 enterprise customers and increased its operating income from $250,000 to $620,000 in a month. Last week, Yahoo also became one of DoubleClick's customers, which is expected to add $2 million a year to DoubleClick's revenue. ”

"DoubleClick's three-person founding team is very focused and well-structured, with Kevin O'Connor being the main funder in the early days, Dwight Merriman in charge of technology, and Kevin Ryan, who has a Disney background, in charge of management. We believe that with the financial backing, DoubleClick will enter a period of rapid growth, and we will pay $2 million for a 30% stake in the other party, although the price is slightly higher, but the profit prospects are promising. ”

Zhang Chen hadn't heard of the company's name, but it sounded good, and at least the $2 million investment shouldn't be wasted.

In the future, the market for online advertising will become bigger and bigger, and investing in this track will definitely make money.

Moreover, having an advertising company in hand can also form a linkage effect with other companies in which it invests, which is a real win-win situation.

Zhang Chen is also satisfied with the other two investments, one is sysbase, which makes databases, and the other is a dating website called DatingNo.

Dating's top-level domain is now in his hands, and the company has to add a no suffix.

Any business, not just the Internet, is to exploit the weakness of human nature to make money.

, laziness, greed, vanity, arrogance, prying. These are human weaknesses, but in business, these are called pain points and needs.

Solving these problems becomes solving the pain points and needs of users.

In the name of dating, the dating website can be said to be the culmination of it.

But Zhang Chen is not too optimistic about this website, which asked for an investment of $500,000, because it is too advanced.

Nowadays, even digital cameras are not widely available, and if you want to upload photos, you can only scan them with a scanner and upload them. But the low resolution of the scans and the poor results of the photos are the main reasons that affect the development of dating sites.

So now the mecca of online dating in the United States is still the chat room of AOL and Yahoo.

But let's raise it first, raise it for two years, and when digital cameras become popular, there should still be something to do.

(End of chapter)