As Lin Feng expected, Chen Shijun soon sent an email to discuss with him about Youtube receiving acquisition offers from a number of giant companies.

Youtube is so hot right now!

In February of this year, YouTube was insignificant compared to Google's video site, but YouTube already had 30.5 million visits in July, compared to Google's 9.3 million and Yahoo's 5.3 million. YouTube has more than 100 million monthly video views and 20 million monthly active users, capturing 50% of the U.S. online video market.

The online video market is the foothold of online video search and video advertising in the future, and it is also an area where several media giants and Internet predators are vying to catch up.

After all, in the past few years, the old media giants have probably smelled Lu Shen's dangerous breath. Both audiences and advertisers are migrating from traditional media, especially television, to the Internet, forcing them to follow suit.

In this area, the coolest and most popular website is Youtube, which allows netizens to share home videos, spare time clips, and excerpts from TV and movies with each other.

Unlike content moved from the video libraries of old media giants, Youtube is homegrown on the internet, and this stage built entirely by netizens has an untapped vitality. It is home to some of the world's most active and expressive young people, with strange aesthetic tastes and often unbelievable videos, like an anarchist utopia, where they nominate their own stars, form their own communities, produce their own products, disseminate their own food, and cook American rock, Japanese cartoons, European football, Eastern and Western religions, and international politics. The future of such a newborn is a test of people's imagination.

Of course, from a business point of view, Youbube has huge traffic and leading market share, which is where its value lies for Internet companies!

Recently, media giants including Microsoft, AOL, Yahoo and News Corp. have visited YouTube's headquarters in California to discuss acquisitions.

The competition between these giants, and the upward quotation along the way, also shook the determination of Youtube's two founders......

"Richard, Chad and I would like to hear from you on whether to accept the offer and negotiate or continue to insist on going public independently. …… You know, now the latest offer has exceeded $1 billion...... That's a lot of money...... What do you think?" Chen Shijun's tone was a little hesitant on the phone.

"Steve, what do you think of yourself?" Lin Feng stood in front of the window of the study, looked at the boundless sea view in the distance, took a puff of his cigar, and asked leisurely.

"To be honest, it's a little tempting, you know, our website has only been around for a year...... Now that Youtube is growing very fast, we have more than 70 million global users, and it is the largest online video site in the United States, and I believe we will get better and better...... It's just ......"

Lin Feng said with a smile: "It's just that Youtube hasn't made a profit yet, and the huge bandwidth fees and endless copyright problems make you and Chad a little anxious, right?"

"Yes, Richard, it's true that puts a lot of pressure on us...... Wasn't we discussing whether to raise a new round of funding, and now it seems that being acquired is also a new option......"

Lin Feng said with a smile: "Steve, as an investor, I have always adhered to the principle of doing my best to help the founders of startups, and firmly believe that the founders are the most important assets of the company, I fully respect your and Chad's decision, and unconditionally support you." …… Speaking of advice, I think you and Chad need to think about what you really want, whether it's a dream and a great achievement in your career, or a wealth gain. In addition, Youtube is your child, and I think you need to consider what is the best for Youtbe's development......"

Chen Shijun was silent on the phone for a moment, as if thinking about Lin Feng's words, before he spoke: "That's right, Richard, we just received an invitation from Larry Page...... I thought, if you can, I hope you will be able to attend this meeting. ”

Lin Feng was overjoyed, Google was finally going to make a move!

"Okay, no problem, I can fly to San Francisco today, and we'll meet tomorrow to talk in detail. ”

…………

October 8, 2006, Silicon Valley, Palo Alto, Denny's Fast Food Restaurant.

Because I didn't want to meet in the office, I finally chose this place for the first meeting of Google and Youtube acquisition negotiations.

There were 6 people in attendance, and on the Google side were the two founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, and CEO Dr. Eric Schmidt;

On the Youtube side, there are two founders, Chen Shijun and Chad Heli, as well as the company's largest investor, Lin Feng.

Lin Feng was still quite surprised that Larry and Sergey would meet in a fast food restaurant.

On the other hand, this also shows the typical Silicon Valley style of Google's two founders.

Larry and Sergey were both born in 1973 and are only 33 years old this year, but they are already super-rich with a net worth of more than $10 billion.

Compared with Bill Gates and Jobs, the old leaders in the IT field in the United States, the new generation of Larry and Sergey are the super idols in the field of Silicon Valley and the Internet who represent today's era, and are the best geniuses in the minds of all engineers and young entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley.

For a long time to come, the two of them and Xiaoza will represent the highest achievement of the American Internet......

Schmidt is one of the core figures who created the "Google myth", he joined Google as CEO in 2001, and it can be said that together with the two founders, Google has changed from a simple search engine to a provider that provides various search services for enterprises and one of the largest advertising platforms on the Internet, tapping Google's huge business potential.

Google's "troika" came out together, which can also show their determination to acquire Youtube.

On the Youbute side, Chen Shijun and Chadhurley were obviously a little restrained, but Lin Feng seemed relaxed and calm because he had known the results of this acquisition for a long time.

Everyone was in the fast food restaurant, munching on cheese sticks and chatting.

No one would have thought that such a scene was negotiating a more than a billion dollar acquisition.

"Steve, Chad, you've led a team that has created an exciting, powerful media platform that I think aligns with Google's vision. I think both companies share similar values, put the user first, and are committed to improving the user experience through innovation. We are a natural partner...... If the acquisition goes through, we will be able to offer attractive media entertainment services to users, content owners and advertisers through this partnership!" Schmidt's words were extremely incendiary and contagious, and he waved his arms to strengthen his tone, describing the bright future to Youtube's two young founders.

Chen Shijun is very excited: "We are very grateful to Google for the importance it attaches to Youtube, and I believe this is a very exciting and imaginative proposal ......."

Hurley calmed down: "Yes, thank you very much for the invitation, we are really excited about Google's acquisition proposal...... , though, I think you know that too...... Microsoft, Yahoo and News Corp. have all given us an offer to buy them, so I wonder what attractive terms Google can offer us compared to these companies."

Larry Page laughs: "We know that Yahoo recently made an offer of $1.5 billion, and we all felt that Youtube was worth more than that, so ...... I think that $1.6 billion may be able to show our sincerity. ”

Sergey, speaking from a technical and developmental point of view, said: "Youtube is very cool, you have created a very interesting platform, and young users are very fond of it,...... But we all know that for video websites, bandwidth is a very large investment, Google has a lot of bandwidth resources, at the same time, the user groups of the two sides are very similar, Google also has a wealth of advertising technology and resources, if the acquisition is reached, Youtube will get these, I believe there will be a lot of room for business improvement......"

After a very straightforward discussion, the sincerity of Larry and others, based on deep research in the field of technology, and generous quotations, also convinced the two founders of Youtube.

And the offer also rose to $1.65 billion in Lin Feng's memory.

During this process, Lin Feng had been sitting next to him smiling and listening to everyone's discussion, but did not speak.

Looking at the speculation discussed by the two sides, this transaction is obviously not a big problem, although there are still some minor problems in the use of stocks, or stocks + cash transactions, but it is harmless.

At this time, Larry suddenly said to him, "Richard, I have wanted to meet you for a long time, and I didn't expect to take this opportunity to meet you today." ”

Lin Feng was a little stunned: "Oh? That's my honor, is there something wrong?"

"I heard that the popular Silicon Valley Research Institute is now working on a smartphone project? I envy you very much, to have Andy Rubin to help you, he is a very, very cool genius!"

Lin Feng said in his heart, okay, I was thinking about how to mention cooperation, but I didn't expect you to take the initiative to mention it......

"Yes, Andy was amazing and I had a lot of luck. He didn't know Larry's intention to suddenly bring up the matter, so he politely said perfunctory.

In fact, Google is also very interested in the direction of smartphones, and hopes to have the opportunity to cooperate with Fengxing in the future. Larry looked at him and said sincerely.

Larry has gotten information from some sources that Apple is working on a secret project.

It is said that this research and development project, which was personally mastered by Jobs, is very mysterious, and it is predicted that it is very likely to be a mobile phone project.

Google, which aspires to surpass the established companies Microsoft and Apple, has been keeping an eye on the moves of these giant companies, and Larry, as a business genius with an extremely keen eye, also vaguely feels that there is a certain trend brewing in mobile.

At this time, he recalled Andy Rubin, whom he admired very much, and heard that Andy was developing a smartphone system, but unfortunately when he got the news, Lin Feng had already taken the lead in acquiring Andriod.

Now Larry is feeling the nail on the side again.

Lin Feng heard that Larry was really fighting Andriod and Andy's idea, and he sighed in his heart that it was so dangerous.

He was worried that Google would poach him, and gave Andy a large number of popular option shares, according to the current popularity of the new popular in the capital market, after the popular listing, Andy will likely get more than hundreds of millions of dollars, and at the same time, in the newly registered smartphone company XPHONE (Ax Technology Co., Ltd.), it is given Andy 15% of the shares, and served as the chief scientist.

I believe that with such benefit sharing, Andy will not be poached by a giant company like Google.

Lin Feng nodded and smiled: "Of course, I am also looking forward to it, I believe that there will be opportunities for cooperation in the future!"

Leave a message for now, and when the time is ripe in the future, we will further discuss the possibility of cooperation with Google in this regard.

…………

On October 10, 2006, Google announced that it would spend $1.65 billion to acquire YouTube!

This made Google an overnight star in the online video space, and it was the biggest acquisition in the tech industry in years. The acquisition will keep YouTube with its brand and all 67 employees, including founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen.

In this acquisition that shocked the global Internet industry, the most eye-catching, in addition to the two founders of Youtube, is Lin Feng.

According to Lin Feng's Youtube shares, he will receive more than $480 million in proceeds from this acquisition.

That's a 41-fold increase from the $10.5 million he invested in two previous rounds of investment in Youtube!

Following the case of Myspace, Lin Feng's reputation for "investment vision" in the global Internet industry has once again been confirmed, and people have also paid more attention to the other two companies he invested, Facebook and Gropu.

It's a horrible thing!

Of course, the real winner is Google, which is undoubtedly a very successful acquisition in terms of the future, and the technology sector has quickly undergone huge changes since the start of the acquisition, including the acceleration of broadband, the proliferation of smartphones, and the fact that video is becoming a huge business.

And by acquiring YouTube, Google inadvertently eliminated the only real threat in its path, which at the time was the world's second-largest search engine. In addition, Youtube has allowed Google to enter the display advertising market while driving billions of traffic.

Google shares closed at $429 on Monday, up $8.50, or 2%, on the news.

In two trading days, the market value of Google stock has risen by about $4 billion, more than double the amount needed to buy YouTube.

Analysts believe that for Google, the acquisition of YouTube would quickly break into the emerging video advertising market, overtaking Yahoo and other emerging sites.

Sasa Zorovic, an analyst at Oppenheimer, said that YouTube's traffic is very significant, and that the acquisition is as important in the online industry as the location is to the real estate industry, and that the combination of YouTube and GoogleVideo will have a market share of nearly 60%, and the $1.65 billion price tag is worth the money.

Google's acquisition will strengthen YouTube's technical capabilities and advertising tech.

The acquisition will also increase the pressure on Yahoo. There are reports that .

Yes, Lin Feng continued to stay in Silicon Valley, rarely in person, to participate in the emergency meeting of Facebook's interim board of directors.