Youtobe has grown extremely rapidly since it was officially launched in December '04. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 According to statistics in May, YouTube has taken 56% of the market share of video sites in the United States, followed by MySpace with only 18% and Google with only 7%.

With more than 100 million videos and 35 million registered users, YouTube has become a veritable king of videos.

Now Yahoo has lagged far behind Google in search engines, and advertising revenue has been left far behind by Google, and the acquisition of YouTube can bring Yahoo tens of millions of users and hundreds of millions of click-through rates, which can be said to be a shot in the arm for Yahoo in a recession.

After listening to Bai Yunfei's description, Zhang Ran immediately said: "Tell the media the news that Yahoo intends to acquire YouTube and we also intend to sell it!"

Bai Yunfei knew that Zhang Ran wanted to attract more buyers, and then raised the price: "Leave this matter to me, I will definitely see the newspaper tomorrow!" Bai Yunfei paused for a moment and said, "Zhang Ran, don't you really think about running your own business?"

Zhang Ran was stunned, and then smiled: "What, reluctantly?"

"It's really a bit reluctant. YouTube was built brick by brick by Bai Yunfei, just like his child, he is naturally very reluctant to sell it now, but he also knows that selling YouTube is Zhang Ran's established strategy and cannot be changed, so he sighed and said, "Actually, I also know that selling YouTube is the best for it and for us!"

If he could make YouTube, Zhang Ran didn't want to do it, but he knew that it was impossible. Before Zhang Ran's rebirth, YouTube not only did not make a profit, but lost more than $100 million a year, and he couldn't afford to raise such a gold-swallowing monster. What's more, YouTube is facing a copyright problem, and Zhang Ran has no ability to solve it, and if this problem is not solved, the company may collapse at any time.

There is precedent for this, and in 1999, the Big Five record companies sued Napster for millions of infringing songs and demanded $100,000 for each pirated song. In February 2000, the court ruled against Napster. Napster appealed, but the second instance still ruled against him. In June 2002, Napster declared bankruptcy.

If U.S. film and television companies sue YouTube in the same way that they sue Napster, there will be no second outcome except bankruptcy.

Selling YouTube, whether it's for it or for Zhang Ran, it's the best!

Zhang Ran said with a smile: "If you are willing to give up, you will have to give up!" If we sell YouTube, we will have money in our hands, and we can redo the project and operate it according to our own wishes. Don't talk about this, I'll come as soon as possible, and we'll talk about it after we meet!"

Just as Zhang Ran arrived in the United States, the Wall Street Post published a news item titled "Yahoo Ready to Buy YouTube."

"Yahoo is in secret talks with YouTube to buy YouTube for $1.5 billion, with possible bidders such as Viacom, Disney, News Corp., AOL and eBay," the article reads. Analysts had previously estimated that YouTube should be worth around $1.4 billion. A YouTube spokesperson said the company is reluctant to comment too much on its value and wants to focus more on building a long-term stable business. ”

As soon as the news broke, it immediately caused an uproar in the United States. The news has also spread to the world at a rapid pace.

Almost all of China's mainstream media outlets are also scrambling to cover the news, and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan are also paying close attention to the report. Because the founder of youtube, Bai Yunfei, is Chinese, and the other founder Robin Zhang, who has never shown his face, since his surname is Zhang, even if he is not Chinese, he must also be Chinese.

The industry is very optimistic about Yahoo's acquisition of YouTube, believing that the acquisition of YouTube can bring great exposure to Yahoo and provide important content support, and YouTube, which is supported by Yahoo, can also solve the copyright problem well and cooperate with Hollywood, which is a good thing for both parties.

However, there are many who have sung about it, and Mark Cuban, a famous American billionaire and a well-known figure in the Internet industry, has unceremoniously declared that only idiots would take the risk of buying YouTube. "YouTube is breaking the law, and no one is suing it now, the only reason no one has enough money," Cuban declared. But YouTube will eventually be sued for wanton copyright infringement until the end of its life. ”

Many agreed, with Jason of Forrester Research noting on his blog: "YouTube has been plagued by copyright issues since it launched about a year ago, which means YouTube will be sued and will lose." At the same time, Jason believes that "the lawsuit will set off a chain reaction, and YouTube will be forced to uninstall all copyrighted content, and the rest of the film will be almost boring." ”

However, these remarks have not dampened the interest of many large companies in YouTube, among which Google, Viacom, News Corp., and AOL have all expressed their willingness to buy Baiyunfei.

After arriving in the United States, Zhang Ran had a brief meeting with YouTube's top management, and then asked Bai Yunfei to meet Yang Zhiyuan.

The meeting place was not a fancy restaurant, but a Dennis fast food restaurant. Dennis's fast food restaurants tend to have more students and blue-collar workers, and there has never been a Silicon Valley venture capital or high-end person to do business here. But Bai Yunfei thinks it's cool to meet with Internet bigwigs in this kind of place, which can highlight YouTube's civilian culture. Zhang Ran also thought it was good, so he agreed.

Zhang Ran and Bai Yunfei arrived early, and they chose the fourth window position on the left side of the door.

After waiting for almost an hour, Yang Zhiyuan came, accompanied by Yahoo CEO Terry Semele.

After meeting, everyone shook hands and introduced each other. When Yang Zhiyuan and Semel knew that Zhang Ran's identity was a director, they were a little surprised, but after thinking about it, it seemed natural for a film director to be a video website.

Yang Zhiyuan looked at Zhang Ran and said: "YouTube is a very good company, you can make it so successful in such a short period of time, this is very remarkable! I believe that Yahoo and YouTube have a lot of things to work with, and Yahoo is also an interesting company, I believe you will like it." ”

"Yahoo is the number one in the nation for music videos, and our collaboration is going to be very promising, we have great media talent, we have experience from Hollywood, and if we work together, we're going to be very strong in video and become a real king in video," Semel added. What do you think?"

Zhang knew that what Semel said was true, and that Semel spent 24 years at Warner as chairman and co-CEO before he was CEO of Yahoo, making Warner Bros. the largest and most creative media and entertainment company in the world, and before joining Warner Bros., Semel served as president of entertainment distribution at Disney Inc. and before that as president of entertainment distribution at CBS, with strong connections in Hollywood.

If YouTube were sold to Yahoo, YouTube would be able to work very well with Hollywood, and in turn, it would grow even more rapidly.

Zhang Ran is not interested in the follow-up development of YouTube, what he really cares about is money. However, YouTube has developed to this day, and the company's employees have also contributed a lot, and Zhang Ran can't ignore them: "Of course we are willing to cooperate with Yahoo, Yahoo is a legend." But I wonder if you're going to have a big shake-up when you're done?"

Yang Zhiyuan smiled and said, "We will give you a lot of authority to do what you want." ”

Zhang Ran asked a few more questions, and after receiving an affirmative answer, he threw out the question he was most concerned about: "At what price do you plan to buy?"

"Yahoo is willing to bid $1.7 billion for YouTube!"

Zhang Ran almost suspected that he had heard it wrong, most of the acquisitions of Internet companies in recent years have paid more than 60% premiums, and the price opened by Yahoo is really outrageous: "Mr. Semel, analysts estimate that the value of YouTube should be about $1.4 billion, but you only pay 1.7 billion, this price is too low, right?"

Semel shook his head slightly: "YouTube is not profitable, the financial situation is very bad, the value of 1.4 billion is obviously overestimated, it is difficult to say whether YouTube can transition from a free model to a money-making model, and mainstream advertisers are not willing to associate their brands with all kinds of vulgar content, YouTube ads are not easy to sell." ”

Zhang Ran suddenly remembered that in the last life, Yahoo was preparing to buy Facebook for $1 billion plus shares, and at that time, Facebook's investors and even Zuckerberg himself were willing to sell, but because of Facebook's poor financial report, Semel cut the price to $850 million at the last moment, and Zuckerberg felt that he was not respected and tore up the agreement in public on the board of directors.

The acquisition of Facebook would have allowed Yahoo to re-emerge as a giant in the internet world, but both acquisitions failed because of the short-sightedness of Yahoo's top management, so Yahoo would eventually die.

Zhang Ran shook his head lightly: "I'm sorry, if it's this price, I'm afraid we won't be able to agree!"

Semel said quietly: "Then what do you think is the right price?"

Zhang Ran didn't think about it, so he said: "2.5 billion!"

Semel smiled faintly: "Do you think YouTube is worth 2.5 billion?"

Zhang Ran said affirmatively: "It's worth 2.5 billion, and it will be more and more valuable!"

The whole negotiation process was very short, and it ended in less than 30 minutes, and Zhang Ran shook hands with Yang Zhiyuan and Semel to say goodbye.

On the way back, Bai Yunfei said disappointedly: "They will regret today's move, Semel doesn't understand the Internet at all, Yahoo had the opportunity to buy Google in 02, but Semel thinks Google's $5 billion offer is too high and misses Yahoo." Now they're missing out on youtube again, and they're going to pay for it!"

Zhang Ran believes that as long as Empressura acquires YouTube, it will be able to become the king of video, so as to get a supplement in content, and the Internet landscape may be rewritten, but Yahoo missed it. Thinking about Yahoo's downfall later, he said with emotion: "Yahoo attaches too much importance to immediate interests and too much to advertising revenue, and it is because of this short-sighted behavior that they lost to Google, but unfortunately they have not realized this until now." It's no wonder that Zhou Hongyuan said after leaving Yahoo China that about Yahoo's failure, it can be said that from CEO to Yang Zhiyuan, it can be summed up in two words: stupid B. The ancestor said well, people have no long-term worries, they must have near-term worries!"

Bai Yunfei nodded thoughtfully, and then asked, "What shall we do now?" Jomurdoch, Fraston, or Schmidt?"

Zhang Ran thought for a while and said, "See Murdoch first!"