After Eric said this, the room fell silent. Although the outlook described by Eric is very encouraging, Ian Brown. He still couldn't help but feel that it was good that this plan succeeded, but what if it failed?

After a moment, Chris seemed to suddenly think of something, and said in a light tone: "Firefly Group was just a small production company six years ago. ”

The silence was broken, and Steve, who had been paying attention to the laptop in front of him, seemed to be a little absent-minded all along. Mitnick raised his head and said, "I agree with Eric's plan, if you don't even have the confidence to catch up with one-third of Microsoft's market value in five years, you might as well disperse now, and I'll go back to Dallas tomorrow to continue to help my old man sell junk bonds." ”

This remark, which did not have the slightest laugh, caused several people in the conference room to let out chuckles.

Subsequently, Jeff, who had the most introverted and stable personality in the original trio. Locke also raised his hand and said, "I also agree." ”

The rest of Ian. Gnier and Tina. Brown glanced at each other and nodded.

"So, let's talk about the specifics now. I had hoped to launch IES scripting language and YCR chat software as soon as possible, but the launch of these two projects will once again change the industry's assessment of Yahoo's value, and may also stimulate Microsoft to become more urgent, so until the end of negotiations with Microsoft, all promotion plans for these two projects have been put on hold for the time being. Also, what other ideas do you have that you can share your thoughts with? ”

Ian. "Relative to the benefits of the Yahoo Browser Technology First Agreement on the Windows platform to the promotion of Microsoft's operating system, it is certainly not enough to restrict Microsoft from not launching browser software for five years, and I don't think we should license Microsoft's browser patents," Gnier said. ”

"No authorization is given to Microsoft at all. Microsoft will certainly not say yes. Eric thought for a moment. "When you negotiate, try to make the terms related to patent licensing more difficult and let Microsoft focus more on that," he said. However, as long as we consolidate the position of Yahoo website and online mailbox and other products on the Internet, the interface role of the browser is no longer so important, so the browser software patent does not need to be strictly guarded by Microsoft. ”

"Ask for another low-interest loan," said Steve. Mitnik looked at Eric with a hint of cunning in his eyes and said, "I know you're not short of money. However, the more we demand, the more Microsoft will definitely despise Yahoo, and making the enemy despise itself should bring a lot of benefits. ”

Everyone, you and I will talk about Eric and Bill last night. Gates reached a cooperation intention to go through all the intentions, determined the bottom line of Yahoo's cooperation, the time was close to noon, Eric set off to the airport to meet John, who happened to arrive in Boston at the same time. Chambers and Steve. Keith two.

……

Although the Internet industry in the United States has always been at the forefront of the world, because of the monopoly market of Internet service providers such as AT&T, Comcast, and Time Warner, in order to pursue higher profits. There has always been a lack of motivation to improve internet speeds, with the result that the average internet speed ranking of US internet users is basically outside the top 10 of all countries in the world. Therefore, the Internet speed in the United States even became an obstacle to the development of the Internet industry for a time. In the original time and space, Internet giants such as Google and Facebook were aware of this problem, so they launched high-speed broadband services one after another, which triggered the catfish effect and forced those industry monopoly giants to choose to speed up.

In 1994, the Internet industry was just emerging, the most critical problem restricting the development of the Internet is still the network speed, the network service at this time is charged by the hour, not only expensive, but also the user's network speed is generally below 256Kbps, because the fixed telephone does not go through the modem's dial-up Internet bandwidth is only 256Kbps, the network state is not very good, it takes a few minutes to download a 1MB file. At this time, the slow network speed is still not due to technical constraints, ADSL broadband technology has emerged, but the network service providers who monopolize the market have no intention of upgrading. Due to speed limitations, Yahoo Portal had to artificially reduce the amount of content it provided in order to ensure a good user experience.

Although the Clinton administration vigorously supports the development of the information industry, if it does not see the actual benefits, those giants who have monopolized the market will simply not pay attention to any policy documents issued by the White House. The explosion of the Internet industry at the end of the century was, after all, driven by profits. Eric invites John. Chambers and Steve. The main purpose of Case coming to Boston is to join forces with Cisco and AOL to jointly promote the Internet industry into the 'fast lane' ahead of schedule. Eric's current status and wealth also ensure that he has enough strength to push this forward.

Pick up John from the airport. Chambers and Steve. At the beginning, after a simple lunch together, Eric took the two of them on a tour of Yahoo headquarters, except for some items and information that needed to be kept confidential. Gurnier personally presented his message to John. Chambers and Steve. Case presented most of Yahoo Network's technical achievements in the past two years on browser software, online email services and other products.

By the time I walked out of Yahoo's headquarters, it was already dusk. Keith glanced back at Yahoo's headquarters, which was still brightly lit, and his heart was mixed.

IE and Yahoo came to prominence when Steve. Case also wanted Eric to sell the companies to AOL. Not only was Case's not discouraged, but he started to compete, and last year AOL launched its own portal AOL, but the number of users is far from being comparable to that of Yahoo. At first, I thought that this was mainly because of the advantages of Internet Explorer, but after visiting a series of technical achievements of Yahoo Web at this time, which were far ahead of AOL, Steve . Case realized that AOL had no chance of overtaking Yahoo in the online business.

In comparison, John. Chambers is much more relaxed, and when he was first confirmed as CEO of Cisco, Eric, the majority shareholder, publicly expressed his support for him at the shareholders' meeting, which played a big role in securing his position as CEO and successfully implementing his development strategy. Although there are not many meetings. John. Chambers still has a crush on Eric. Although Eric did not explicitly state the intention of this invitation on the phone. John. Chambers was still busy and rushed from San Francisco.

After dinner, Chris, John. Chambers, Steve. Keith and Ian. The Gniers gathered again in Eric's suite at the Cambridge Hotel.

"You can take a look at the materials first, and we'll talk about them later," Eric handed out the materials he had prepared to several people, although Chris had already read them in advance, and looked at them again at this time.

Eric walked to the small bar in the guest room and made coffee for a few people, and said in a very casual tone: "In the eighties, the alliance between Microsoft, IBM, and Intel can be said to be a golden triangle. Microsoft is responsible for the development of the operating system software platform, IBM provides the best PC equipment, and Intel is working on processor chip technology, and it can be said that the rapid popularization of the PC is closely related to the close cooperation of the three companies, and now they have achieved a commercial position ahead of other peers in related fields. I think the next few years will be an important opportunity for the development of a new Internet industry, so why don't we form an alliance similar to Microsoft, IBM, and Intel? ”

Over the years, Cisco has established itself as a leader in networking solutions, devices, and related software. At the helm of Cisco, John . Chambers also feels the germination and rapid development of the Internet industry in recent years. During this time, he also occasionally thinks about how to take advantage of the opportunity to allow Cisco to go further. At this time, the information industry alliance plan in his hand made his recent thoughts suddenly brighten.

Cisco, AOL, and Yahoo represent network equipment providers, network service providers, and network content providers, respectively, and the business areas of the three companies cover the entire network hardware and software industry.

Carefully reading the information industry alliance plan, which was only seven or eight pages long, John . Chambers opened another document, this one on the assessment of the application prospects of ADSL broadband technology. Chambers is certainly no stranger to ADSL technology, but there are still disagreements within Cisco about whether to focus on this technology and develop corresponding products. Chambers was also puzzled as to how Eric could have paid attention to such a highly specialized technology with a wide range of applications. Looking up curiously, Eric was personally bringing him a cup of coffee and thanked him. Chambers still didn't rush to ask his doubts, opened the document in his hand and continued to read.

Eric, of course, was able to feel John. Chambers's doubts, he didn't mean to explain, anyway, he showed enough differences in him, and it didn't matter if he had a little more.

After more than ten minutes of silence in the living room, John . Chambers closed the papers in their hands, except for Steve. Keith, the others all had a little excitement on their faces.

Eric also looked at Steve first. Keith, said, "Steve, what do you think of this alliance program?" ”

Steve. Case smiled wryly, AOL already had millions of regular subscribers, and although it could not be compared with traditional network service providers such as AT&T, it was already one of the most popular among the emerging peer companies. Before seeing the proposal for the Information Industry Alliance, Steve Brown. Although Keith has realized something, he is still a little unwilling in his heart, but at this time, he found that if AOL does not join this alliance program, Eric will definitely choose another partner, and at that time, although Eric holds 30% of AOL's shares, but compared to Eric's complete industrial layout plan, hundreds of millions of dollars of shares are not worth mentioning at all, and Eric will definitely choose to suppress AOL without hesitation.

After a moment's hesitation, Steve. Keith still asked, "Eric, have you considered any other collaborators besides AOL?" ”

Eric doesn't mind Steve. Case's other implications for this question said, smiling: "Traditional network service providers such as AT&T and Comcast claim to have a monopoly on the market, and there is not much ambition left, and it is almost impossible for them to take the initiative to carry out large-scale technology upgrades, so they are not in the scope of Yahoo's partners." Among the second-tier network service provider companies, only AOL currently meets Yahoo's requirements. ”

Steve. Keith's expression was slightly relaxed, but seeing Eric's more relaxed appearance, he suddenly thought that the reason why AOL has been able to develop rapidly in the past two years is the $60 million investment provided by Firefly two years ago. Chambers, and the timing of the emergence of Yahoo Network. Steve. Although Keith was reluctant to admit it, he realized that Eric had probably been planning for today's plan since two years ago.

Since this legendary young man had already begun to lay out for today two years ago, it was impossible for him not to think about today's situation.

Eric & Steve. The main disagreement of Case is on AOL's online business such as the portal, and the alliance plan clearly states that once it joins the information industry alliance plan proposed by Eric, AOL needs to withdraw from the online business such as the portal and focus on the role of the network service provider, but seeing the development prospects of Yahoo Portal, Steve Lee. Case is a bit of a hard part of the online business.

Eric certainly thought about today's situation. However, AOL only has about 20% of the Internet user share in the United States at this time, compared to Yahoo's large-scale promotion of IE browser, the number of users that AOL portal can affect by relying on its own client software promotion is only more than 3 million, but the total number of Yahoo users in the world has exceeded 20 million. Therefore, Eric believes that Steve. The likelihood of Keith refusing is low.

However, even Steve. Keith chose to refuse, and Eric didn't run out of options.

YCR instant messaging software will be launched in the near future, Eric can completely imitate the strategy of Microsoft MSN in the original time and space, so that Yahoo personally set foot in the field of network service providers, just like MSN, the dial-up Internet module will be integrated into the YCR chat tool, and the market advantage of YCR in the future will be used to quickly promote Yahoo's network access business.

It's just that in this way, Yahoo's business scope will expand again. Gnier and others were unable to concentrate on the Yahoo Technology Alliance and the Yahoo Ad Network, which was not what Eric wanted to see. (To be continued.) )