Bill Gates listened to Eric's words and was silent for a while before he said, "Eric, I can't agree to all the conditions you offer, which will make me very passive in front of the board of directors." Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info”

Eric shook his head and said, "Once Microsoft is split, all your businesses outside of the Windows platform will lose their most fundamental advantage. I think that's what you need to care about the most, not the views of the board members. ”

Bill Gates's mind was racing, and he suddenly realized something, and said: "Eric, if Microsoft is broken up, you will also lose a very strong competitor, which is much better than continuing to maintain Yahoo's default position." So, why are you even taking this video out? Or do you realize that, given the current situation, the federal government is likely to be afraid to force the decision to break up Microsoft to further stimulate the new technology market? ”

Eric never had the intention of treating Bill Gates as a stupid person, and he was not surprised to hear what he said, saying: "Without this video, Microsoft would definitely be broken, if not split." What's more, the government has always had a bad habit of not admitting mistakes even if they find themselves making mistakes, or even forcibly perpetuating them. So, your analysis is just a possibility. As for the benefits of Microsoft's splitting up the Firefly system, I certainly understand this. But looking at the big picture, once Microsoft is split, companies such as Yahoo of the Firefly system are likely to face the same fate in the future. Of course, I know what to choose. ”

Bill Gates wandered between the folders on his desktop and his laptop for a moment, and finally said, "Eric, I can't give you an answer right away. And, in any case, some of the details of the contract had to be renegotiated. At the very least, Yahoo should be inclined to Microsoft's Internet business, and Microsoft also has the power to release its own browsers. ”

The advantage has completely shifted to his side, and Eric naturally will not make unnecessary concessions, but holds up a finger and says: "There is only one condition to negotiate, and that is the pre-installation fee of Yahoo Browser." Bill, the situation is different now, the Internet bubble has burst, there is no need for Microsoft to forcibly distract this aspect of the business, the market share of the MSN portal is not high, and it will only be more insignificant in the future. Making sure Microsoft doesn't get split is the only thing you should do. ”

Bill Gates flipped through the document in front of him again, looked for it for a while, and then raised his head and said: "There is another one, Microsoft cannot sign a five-year contract with Yahoo, at most two years." ”

Eric bargained, "Three years." ”

Bill Gates added: "The cost of pre-installing each operating system has increased to $5. ”

"$5, Bill, do you think it's possible?"

Microsoft's current annual sales of operating systems are about 50 million copies, and Gates directly increased Eric's offer fivefold, and Yahoo will have to pay $250 million a year, which is more than the annual marketing budget for all of Yahoo's current businesses.

Bill Gates's tone was quite insistent, with obvious resentment, and said: "Eric, this is what Microsoft deserves, give up the equity subscription contract, Microsoft has been getting nothing in the past five years, and Yahoo must give adequate compensation." ”

Eric didn't care about Gates's resentment at all, and even mocked, saying: "Our original cooperation was voluntary, and Microsoft also got all the patents related to web browsers. Moreover, if you just feel that you have suffered a loss, then how much should Microsoft compensate Apple for plagiarizing the Macintosh system to develop Windows? ”

Microsoft was originally just Apple's application software supplier, and Gates' Windows was inspired by Apple's Macintosh system, which not only violated Microsoft's restrictive agreement with Apple, but even copied a large number of Macintosh system graphical interface patents. The patent lawsuit, which had been entangled between the two parties for more than a decade, was not settled until Mr. Jobs returned to Apple two years ago.

Speaking of which, if it weren't for Apple's negligence at the beginning, there would be no Microsoft now.

Similarly, if it weren't for Gates' negligence five years ago, Yahoo's development in recent years would not have been so smooth. Without the original cooperation, Microsoft would have been an obstacle to Yahoo's efforts to unify Internet technology standards.

It's just that there are too many ifs in this world, but there will only be one result.

Bill Gates has always been very taboo about others accusing him of plagiarizing the black history of the Macintosh system, and when he heard Eric's words, his face suddenly became ugly: "Eric, I don't want to listen to your nonsense, if you want to cooperate, you can only accept my offer." ”

Eric gestured in the direction of the door: "Then you are at your own convenience." ”

Bill Gates was almost about to get up and brush his sleeves away, and he endured for a moment before pointing to the laptop in front of Eric and raising his voice: "If I leave, it's useless for you to keep this broken video!" ”

"You're wrong, Bill, I can show it to Thomas Jackson, maybe he can make the final decision to break up Microsoft within a month."

"You're not going to get away with it!"

"Then give it a try."

The scene suddenly reached a stalemate again.

It took a full minute for Eric to speak, "$3, that's the limit I can accept." ”

Bill Gates' eyes flickered, but he didn't force it, and said, "I need to discuss it with Paul and Steve." ”

"No problem," Eric nodded, knowing that it was just the gate, and immediately agreed, without saying anything more, he raised his hand and gestured in the direction of the Hudson River to the west: "Do you want to stay and watch the fireworks?" There really is a boat. ”

Bill Gates took one last look at the laptop in front of Eric, snorted, and got up and walked towards the door of the rooftop without saying goodbye.

Eric was still sitting there, looking at the coffee on the table in front of him, and suddenly it suddenly felt that the next time he met Gates, he must not put anything between the two of them.

The thought came to mind, so I laughed a little boredly.

I went downstairs again and changed myself for a pot of hot coffee, and returned to the rooftop to sit down again, the last rays of the sunset on the distant horizon gradually dissipating.

Until night fell, and he couldn't see clearly, Eric just held a cup of coffee, leaned back quietly in his chair, and looked up at the western sky.

At eight o'clock, a sudden explosion was heard from a barge on the Hudson River, and then colorful fireworks exploded over Manhattan, adding a touch of glitz to the colorful and noisy city.

The sudden fireworks feast lasted for an hour, attracting countless eyes on both sides of the Hudson River and causing a lot of media and public buzz in the days that followed.

Many people naturally associate this inexplicable fireworks with the Nasdaq stock market, which has just collapsed, and even generate all sorts of interesting rumors.

Some say it's a hedge fund boss who made billions of dollars in the recently crashed Nasdaq stock market by shorting it, and used the fireworks to celebrate.

Some people also say that a certain billionaire lost all his net worth due to the collapse of the Nasdaq, so he burned the last money in his credit card to burn this bloom.

Others say it's a big company that has been bearish on the prospects of new technology, using the fireworks to mock the Nasdaq market that has just collapsed.

No matter what the rumors are, it is impossible to resist the fact that the collapse of the NASDAQ market shows no signs of stopping after the start of the new week, but is intensifying.

From July 26th to July 30th, for five consecutive days, the Nasdaq index fell further, all the way from 4373 points last week to 3525 points, the overall decline reached 19%.

As of the close of trading on July 30, Microsoft's stock price fell by 17.3% for the week, and its market value fell to $388.6 billion from $469.9 billion last Friday.

However, in the face of another deep drop in stock prices, Microsoft, which has clearly relied on it, is no longer as active as last week. Moreover, after meeting with Eric, Bill Gates did not immediately respond to Eric in the following days.

Everyone knows that now that it has collapsed, the decline of the Nasdaq index will not stop at all unless most of the bubble is squeezed dry.

Therefore, Eric is not in a hurry, Microsoft wants to get rid of the trouble in the short term, except for the chips in his hand, there is no second way to choose.

While Yahoo's stock price also fell 22.6% again in the second week, and the shares of other Firefly Systems companies also lost a lot, Eric didn't put much of his mind on the Nasdaq market.

In the face of the surging overall downward trend, Yahoo did not immediately release good news such as earnings reports, and doing so now will only do half the work. Waiting for most of the bubble to dissipate, with a series of advantages from Yahoo, Eric is confident enough to maintain the company's market capitalization at around $100 billion.

Outside of Yahoo, there is nothing controllable about the collapse of Cisco's stock price.

The industry estimates that Cisco's stock price may eventually fall by more than 80%, but Cisco has formed a very stable revenue and profit model, and the stock price crash will not have too fatal effects on it. And, even if the stock price falls by 80%, Cisco's market capitalization can still remain above $100 billion.

In the final analysis, although there is a very serious bubble in every new technology company in the Firefly System, in general, it also has very bright development prospects, and the strong financial reserves of the Firefly System are enough to support the continued development of any of these companies.

By contrast, as Barron's analysis article put it two weeks ago, most of the new tech companies in the Nasdaq market will be unsustainable after they have consumed the money raised in their IPOs, and a large proportion of them will eventually die.

However, there is much to be gained in the vast industry supported by hundreds of billions of dollars of speculative capital. Waiting for the stock price to fall to the bottom, when the time comes, the Firefly System can also merge the companies it needs at the minimum cost, and further expand the territory of the Firefly System in the field of new technology.

Watching the spectacle of the NASDAQ market, Eric's main focus also turned to Hollywood.

Compared with a series of new technology companies under Firefly Investment, due to the "Blair Witch" that began at the beginning of the year to the recent explosion around "Cars", the industry has no intention of lowering the valuation of Firefly Group. Some media outlets that have heard the inside story of the Clover Fund have even hinted that Firefly Group's performance this year will create an unprecedented peak.

In fact, in the first two quarters of 1999, the net profit of Firefly Group's main business has reached 2.285 billion US dollars.

In the second half of the year, with the continuous lucrative income from the surroundings of "Cars", the upcoming reality show "American Idol" on ABC TV, and the release of two blockbusters "Gravity" and "Lord of the Rings" accompanied by Firefly Pictures' "4200" plan, it is foreseeable that Firefly Group's profitability in the next two quarters will only be better.

Even if the Clover Fund successfully cashed out tens of billions of dollars in cash, the cumulative net profit of the Firefly Group in 1999 will reach $40 billion, and if it is exposed, this will definitely become an annual profit miracle in the history of American enterprises.

However, in the past two weeks, it is not the business of the Firefly Group that has attracted Eric's attention on the Hollywood side, but "Shrek", which will be released on July 16.

Blue Sky Studio, another 3D animated film after "Ice Age", received a lot of praise for its ingenious anti-fairy tale plot setting in the early stage of small-scale test screening.

However, the box office of the film in the first week was not satisfactory, only $56.49 million.

Due to the box office failure of Columbia Pictures' other live-action and animation combination "Elf Mouse Brother" a few weeks ago, Eric originally thought that "Shrek" would not be able to repeat the box office miracle it once was.

Fortunately, the production cost of "Shrek" is still well controlled by Blue Sky Studios at $60 million, which is only half of "Cars", and 50% lower than the $90 million production budget of "Elf Mouse", so Eric is not worried about the profit prospects of "Shrek".

Even if it continues at $56.49 million in the first week, there is no suspense that the film's North American box office will exceed 100 million.

Blue Sky Studios has begun to brew plans for a sequel after the box office of the film was released in the first week.

However, things turned out to be more than anyone expected.

In the second week of its release, perhaps due to the further fermentation of word-of-mouth, the box office of "Shrek" in the second week unexpectedly showed a box office reversal that surprised everyone, and finally reached $63.65 million.

In two weeks, the total box office of "Shrek" has exceeded $120 million, which directly made the film recover its production costs.

Moreover, according to this magical box office trend that has reversed, the final box office of "Shrek" will definitely not stop at less than 200 million US dollars. According to the analysis made by Fox's distribution department, as long as the follow-up box office curve is strong enough, the film will easily exceed $250 million, and may even hit the $300 million box office mark.

The fact that a 3D animated film, which cost only $60 million to make, showed the potential for a box office bomb in the blink of an eye, inevitably drew strong attention from Hollywood once again.

Moreover, Blue Sky Studios' low-cost control model for "Ice Age" and "Shrek" has also become the focus of Hollywood's research. After all, one of the biggest problems with animated films is the huge investment in production.

Throughout the summer, although between "Cars" and "Shrek", there was also a box office failure of "Elf Mouse Brother" costing $90 million, but the whole of Hollywood has once again increased its attention and investment in 3D animated films.