In the big city, you can't see the starry sky, only the brilliant lights.

Late at night, Li Jiaming and Kyle, a foreign devil, sat on the balcony of Chen Dong's house with wine glasses, looking at IBM's huge, neon-lit billboard, talking and laughing.

If you want to talk about Chen Dong, what kind of tricks and tricks can be used in the business field, but he is very bold in private interactions, it can be said that this guy is one of the samadhi who is deep in 'business is business, and human favor is human favor'. At the beginning, he was able to quarrel with Deng Hao for a month for the sake of selling the company, but when Deng Hao and his wife came to Beiping for development, he would give up his mansion for them to settle down temporarily, and also lend them his luxury car for transportation.

It stands to reason that the house was lent to a friend, and the owner would not be able to stay at home anymore, but Chen Dong didn't leave today, so he sat in the living room and drank tea and chatted with Deng Hao, half of the countrymen. Investing in SOHU gave him a taste of the sweetness of investing in emerging industries, and now that the CEO of IBM is here, he has to see if there is an opportunity to invest again.

Chen Dong was very disappointed, Li Jiaming and Kyle were not talking about investment at all, but about the procurement of genuine software.

Since Louis Gerstner became CEO, IBM quickly identified a strategy to shift from hardware manufacturing to software services. In '95, he forcibly acquired Lotus and used Lotus's notes software as a bomb to immediately launch a fierce attack on the software market. In less than a year, it won the enterprise network market in one fell swoop, once again showing the power of IBM's iron fist. Last year, IBM's revenue surpassed the $70 billion mark, and the mainframe business quickly recovered.

Huaguo is an emerging market, as Kyle said last time, their IBM is interested in the hardware market, and the success proves that Huaguo's Internet will develop rapidly, and will cultivate a huge hardware and software market in a very short period of time, and their opponent Microsoft has also made the same judgment, otherwise it will not build a Microsoft (Huaguo) research and development center immediately after the central government announces the investment plan of 7 billion yuan.

God is pitiful, if it weren't for the end of the drinking party, Li Jiaming pulled Zhao Shiqing and asked, he didn't know that in addition to hardware, there are so many professional management software and system software to make a portal website, which can't be compared with small websites at all. At present, SOHU's network architecture and system software are all pirated software cracked by Zhang Zhaoyang's monster and Sun Weigang.

Damn, fortunately, I am not arrogant, and I didn't fight with Lao Zhang for power and profit! I really want to drive Lao Zhang out, where can I find such a technical strongman? No wonder those boys in the company are obedient to Lao Zhang, in addition to the doctor's hat to press people, technically they are also convinced.

Taking a sip of the expensive Bordeaux red wine, Li Jiaming pretended to be puzzled and said: "Kyle, I don't understand these things, you should go to Charles." ”

"But he's leaning toward damn Microsoft and wants Microsoft on the board!Ming, I was your pickaxe at the beginning, and now it's your turn to be your pickaxe. ”

I understand, this foreign devil has a good calculation.

A server needs a set of system software, but also to manage the software, etc., how expensive is the genuine software? SOHU wants to make a large web portal, how many servers do you need? Use Lenovo's server, people don't care whether you use pirated software or which company's genuine software, but IBM will pre-install their own notes series software, and it is an authentic bundle. If you are an old chapter, you will unceremoniously reject IBM, which has absolutely good performance and an absolutely expensive price.

But if you think about it from your own standpoint, you have to promise this old boy something.

Damn, foreign-funded enterprises have super-national treatment, which determines their advantages in all aspects.

For example, this old boy can easily get land from the government, and the price will be quite low. In addition to the reasons for political performance, there are also factors of profits and taxes, IBM (Beiping) branch paid more than 100 million taxes to the Beiping Municipal Government last year, and the other three branches each radiate five or six provinces, and it is estimated that it will not be much less. The current land is not valuable, in order to show his sincerity, Mr. Qin casually sold the four-story building and more than two acres of land opposite Lenovo Group to himself at a discount of 500,000 yuan. Can you imagine how convenient and cheap it will be for a giant like IBM to apply for land in Shanghai, Shenzhen and Chengdu?

Hehe, the policy of housing commercialization is blowing, but it will take a long time to be officially introduced and affect the real economy.

This transaction is good, saving the eldest sister and brother-in-law from worrying about the land.

Pretending to be embarrassed, Li Jiaming gently shook the dark red liquor in the glass, and it was easy to make a decision: if necessary, he gave up cooperation with Lenovo and switched to IBM. It is true that Lao Zhang has 49% of the voting rights, but that is only before going public, and if he wants to keep this throne, in addition to working hard for the company, he also has to strike a balance between himself and Yahoo.

Fame and fortune are shackles, and Lao Zhang is a bull, but he is still locked by fame and fortune. He asked his eldest sister and brother-in-law to join the board of directors, and he held 49% of the voting rights, so didn't he give in in the end?

It's a good decision, but Li Jiaming is waiting, waiting for Kyle to be breathless. It's okay to think about it again, but the other party has to give himself enough benefits, and he has to completely protect his reputation, and he can't let himself carry this black pot.

Age is deceiving, and the fact that young people in their twenties are so embarrassed makes the experienced Kyle mutter. This is a win-win deal, doesn't he know that IBM has branches in Chengdu, Shenzhen, Shanghai, and other central cities? According to their country's policy, foreign-funded companies like IBM have preferential treatment in terms of land and taxes, while IBM has no tradition of purchasing fixed assets.

"Ming, you are different from our country, the rapid development of the economy will definitely usher in the spring of the real estate industry, isn't it a win-win situation?"

I couldn't help it, and when Kyle opened his mouth, Li Jiaming contradicted: "Kyle, we are friends, and you were the first to advertise on our website at the beginning." However, Lenovo helped us a lot in terms of hardware and got us through the toughest moments.

You have been in our country for three years and should know that we often mix friendship and business. If I tend to buy your hardware in the future, I will be despised by my peers, and I can't afford to do so. ”

Kyle, who didn't understand the psychology of the Chinese, was overjoyed, and hurriedly reminded: "No, no, Charles can do it for him." You are the largest shareholder of SOHU, even though he now has 49% of the voting rights, but that is not equity. He must compromise with you in order to secure his position in the future. ”

Li Jiaming did not hesitate to cut off half of the original chips, and said unceremoniously in fluent English: "Kyle, whoever benefits is a criminal! As long as my sister's business benefits, who will not know that Charles is carrying the black pot for me?"

If I lose credit with Lenovo, who will believe me in the future?"

If you don't make concessions in terms of hardware, that is, the software side can be accommodating and can be tendentiously supported.

Kyle finally understood Li Jiaming's subtext, and used a resource that his company did not need to expand the company's business, which is undoubtedly cost-effective for a professional manager like him. At present, AOL and Yahoo don't use hundreds of servers? A software purchase of $20,000 or $30,000 is a business worth more than $10 million! Not to mention that China's population is six times that of the United States, how many servers and how many sets of software will SOHU need? Moreover, SOHU uses IBM's software, and people who go out from SOHU to start a business or are poached by foreign companies in the future will habitually tend to IBM's software, and this is another huge business opportunity.

"Ming, I'm waiting for your good news!"

This benefit alone is not enough, rich people are big borrowers, and Li Jiaming does not have the habit of saving money to do things.

"Kyle, I'm short of funds right now, do you think my stock can be mortgaged in the U.S.?"

Sohu is the world's first profitable Internet company, and the shares are of course very sought-after, Kyle hurriedly said: "Ming, of course there is no problem, but I want to remind you that the shares of listed companies can only be mortgaged at 60% of the value, and the unlisted shares have to be negotiated by both parties!"

At least it won't be less than 30%, right? 30 million US dollars is already a lot, enough for the eldest sister to toss for a few years, not to mention that when the tunnel is completed next year, the dividends of the two companies will be given to her, and she will worry about funds?

"No, no, ming can only go through this process to find loans from those big financial institutions, but there are countless family financial funds in the United States. It's not that much trouble to get them a loan, as long as they think your stock is worth 100 million, then they can give you a loan of at least 50 million. Of course, the interest rate is slightly higher, generally around 8-10% per annum. ”

The annual interest rate of 8-10% is still high? Li Jiaming was overjoyed and hurriedly said, "Kyle, help me with this?"

"Of course, we're friends!"

Sending off the happy Kyle, Li Jiaming explained a few words to the eldest sister, went back to the bedroom to rest, and figured out how to persuade Lao Zhang.

If you want Lao Zhang to agree to purchase IBM software, it is not so easy, and you have to pay bargaining chips. Li Jiaming can be 100% sure that Lao Zhang is waiting for himself to give him a bargaining chip, and IBM can achieve such a scale, and it will definitely not be weaker than Microsoft in terms of software. He rejected his old friend's intention to cooperate, didn't he just want to reassure him and promise that he would control the company after the company went public?

Hehe, the dirty relationship between Lao Zhang and Chen Dong, whether Chen Dong wants to separate his relationship with Lao Zhang and sit firmly in the position of director, or Lao Zhang uses Chen Dong to test himself, these are not important. The important thing is whether you can agree that the company's power structure will remain unchanged after listing.

Hehe, he is not the chairman and CEO of the company, and the shareholding is too large, big enough to determine the future power structure of the entire company, which attracts their intrigue.