Barry thought for a moment and said, "Mark! Only then did he remember that this was his office, laughed at himself, and said, "This matter is very important." I also had some spare money, but I didn't find any good projects ....... ”

Mark knew what he wanted to do as soon as he saw this guy kick his ass, and he said, "Barry, have you ever heard of me missing or cheating on my friends? ”

Barry's eyes lit up and he said, "We'll figure it out." ”

Yahoo was once the world's largest Internet company, and it was the world's greatest company that it fell because of one mistake after another.

Yahoo was founded by Yang Zhiyuan, who 20 years ago could not be compared to the current Google Larry, and he was once the idol of Ma Yun's youth.

He founded Yahoo at the age of 26, led the world into the Internet era, changed the entrepreneurial landscape of Silicon Valley, and is known as the founder of the first generation of the Internet.

In 2000, Yahoo's market capitalization exceeded $125 billion. He has inspired generations of Internet entrepreneurs.

Originally, Yahoo was set up on Stanford's campus in the same way that Facebook was built on Harvard's campus.

As more and more people visited Yahoo and the university overwhelmed them and swept them away, Yang devised a business model to monetize advertising traffic and sought financing from venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.

Unexpectedly, this company, which has only 2 people and a few broken computers, has received nearly $2 million in investment from Sequoia Capital, and the company has not yet made any income.

This was once an Internet myth, and Yahoo went public two years later, with a market value of $39 billion.

Under Yang's leadership, Yahoo has transformed from a classified website to a new medium, and thousands of people have entered the information superhighway through Yahoo, a gateway that must pass.

Since then, the era of portals has begun, giving rise to a group of followers and imitators. Sina, NetEase, and Sohu in China are all imitating Yahoo.

When Yahoo went public in 1996, Yang Zhiyuan became a billionaire overnight. Within 4 years, Yahoo stock rose about 100 times.

In the first quarter of 1996, Yahoo was getting more than twice as many visits per day as its competitors.

At the end of 1997, the average number of daily visits reached more than 90 million, more than all competitors combined. Even Netscape's boss has to admit that Yahoo has surpassed other rivals.

Yahoo became the darling of Wall Street, and Yang Zhiyuan's fortune also rose.

Yang Zhiyuan said in an interview: "At that time, the greatest happiness was not money. The best thing about feeling good is that you change the world every day. ”

In 1998, Forbes magazine launched the 100 high-tech billionaires, and Yang Zhiyuan jumped to the 16th place with a wealth of 1 billion US dollars, becoming the richest Chinese in high-tech.

By 1999, Mr. Yang and Mr. Ferro had become the helmsmen of online media companies, with a market value of $39 billion and a paper fortune of $7.5 billion.

In 2000, Yahoo's market capitalization exceeded $125 billion.

The most beautiful battle: $1 billion in exchange for 40% of Alibaba's shares and 35% of the voting rights.

Before and after her speech at the 2nd World Computer Expo in 1998, Ma Yun accompanied Yang Zhiyuan on a tour of the Great Wall. This is also the beginning of the relationship between him and Yang Zhiyuan, who is four years older than Yang Zhiyuan, as a teacher and friend for many years.

On the court, everyone suddenly had to make a bet to let Wu Ying, CEO of UTStarcom China, match with Ma Yun to see who can play far.

Only Yang Zhiyuan bet on Ma Yun to win. As a result, Wu Ying missed this shot, and the skinny Ma Yun really won.

After playing, Yang Zhiyuan didn't let go of Ma Yun. Yang Zhiyuan smiled and walked side by side with him and said, "Let's settle the deal."

Yahoo handed over all of its assets in China to Alibaba for another $1 billion, and Yahoo would have a seat on the board of directors of Alibaba, a company with 40 percent economic benefits and 35 percent voting rights.

At that time, Yahoo was a world-renowned Internet company, but Yaribaba's core business was still in the growth period, Taobao had just been born, and Alibaba's cash cow Alipay was like a newborn baby. In 2005, Yahoo exchanged $1 billion for a 40% stake in Alibaba, which was Yang Zhiyuan's most beautiful battle at Yahoo, but at present, Yaribaba is not listed, which cannot reflect this.

This deal had a profound impact on the fate of both Yahoo and Yaribaba, and completely changed the ecology and direction of the Internet in China.

When Yang Zhiyuan was not the CEO of Yahoo, he paid $1 billion to buy a 30% stake in Jack Ma, and at that time, even now, the benefits of this deal have not yet appeared, and no one knows that this is Yang Zhiyuan's classic battle.

After the dot-com bubble burst in 2001, Yahoo's revenue plummeted and its stock price plummeted.

Yang Zhiyuan has also been trying to inject new vitality into Yahoo through mergers and acquisitions, spending huge sums of money to "buy, buy, buy". In this process, Yang Zhiyuan either missed or bought the wrong one, and made a lot of mistakes.

Yahoo used to be the world's largest search engine, but the search business has been manual for many years, and technology has not made significant progress.

In 1997, he refused to buy Google, which came to him voluntarily, for $1 million, and what is even more stupid is that he also handed over the search function to Google, invisibly supporting competitors. A few years later, Google was on the rise, and he never had a chance to acquire it again.

A similar blunder occurred on Facebook, where in 2006, Xiao Zha agreed to sell Facebook for $1 billion, but at that time, Yang Zhiyuan did not understand social networks and pushed the price down to $850 million.

Later, the market value of Facebook was as high as 400 billion US dollars, and I don't know how Yang Zhiyuan, who has read the recent news, feels now? Missing Facebook is also regarded as Yahoo missing the last straw, but this is what happened in the original version, and Facebook has not yet been listed.

Yahoo is bidding farewell to this era with all its last strength

On July 25, 2016, the United States telecommunications giant Verizon announced the acquisition of Yahoo's core assets for $4.8 billion, and Microsoft's attempt to acquire Yahoo for $44.6 billion was rejected, but now Yahoo has to accept the purchase price of $4.8 billion.

The tragedy is not completely over, Yahoo has been exposed to information leaks again, and Verizon has begun to bargain again, wanting to cut another $1 billion for acquisition.

The end of the giant will also be so unbearable and powerless. Now Yahoo doesn't even have the courage to struggle and resist.

The founding, growth, growth, and fall of Yahoo perfectly shows the whole process of an Internet company.

A once-unbeatable company has had such a big upheaval in just a few years. Perhaps, like the rice country online back then, the glory and decline of each enterprise are inseparable from the promotion of the times, and they are also inseparable from the internal factors of the leadership core. Both internal and external factors contributed to Yahoo's decline.

A successful founder is not necessarily a good leader?

What was once a trendsetter can now only follow in the footsteps of new internet companies like Google and Facebook, whose search and social networking technologies have swept the rocks of predecessors like Yahoo.

In today's rapidly changing market and rapid technological innovation, not only Yahoo, but also a number of "former big brothers" such as HP, Kodak, and Sony are also in a bleak situation.

Fierce competition is like a big wave rushing to sand, and high-tech enterprises need to maintain "battle mode" at all times, otherwise it is easy to be eliminated by rising stars who are better at innovation.

After leaving Yahoo Huaxia, Zhou Hongwei, an Internet tycoon who likes to shoot guns, said: "The success and failure of any enterprise are caused by itself, and don't blame all external forces." Regarding Yahoo's failure, it can be said that from CEO to Yang Zhiyuan, it can be summed up in two words: stupid B. ”

He even said: "Yang Zhiyuan is a successful founder, but he is definitely not a good leader, and he is definitely not suitable for the position of CEO." ”

The decline of Yahoo, what Yang Zhiyuan did wrong, this should be a topic that the board of directors of Yahoo should discuss, but people should believe that there is no right or wrong in history, after all, as the founder of the Internet era, Yang Zhiyuan and Mi Guo Online's Case created the history of the Internet, and this identity should not be erased.

Now Yahoo is in decline every day, and can only make a living by eating the old capital, Mark and Barry, who do not take this former big man in their eyes, but can be used as an object that can be bullied and beaten up, giving them a heavenly courage and not daring to hit the fat in the hands of Microsoft and Google.

Mark pointed out where the big fat is, Barry believes that because Mark has achieved a series of great successes, his investment objects and goals are the objects of countless people to follow, many people follow Mark to invest, and now Mark's investment objects have been highly confidential, and it is not easy to follow Mark to invest.

Mark was able to point the way, which was pretty nice for Barry, but Barry asked, "How sure are you that this Aribaba is going to be a big company?"

Mark said: "This is my personal secret, you can choose not to believe it, but Time Warner must implement this and find a way to get the equity of this company, and as for the people on the board of directors, I will visit and persuade them." ”

He refers to the sale of a part of the non-core industries in exchange for funds, in order to obtain the funds needed for the development of the group, they have to invest, but also must obtain funds, this channel is nothing more than self-raising or borrowing, self-raising in addition to financing dilution of equity is to sell assets, Mark is more inclined to sell some of the obsolete and declining industries.

As a media giant, Time Warner owns all the businesses in the media industry and is also the winner of all media industries, but with the progress of the times, some industries will inevitably become sunset industries, and Mark is going to take these industries as a knife.