After saying this, Melanie suddenly realized that since she could think of these things, Eric would definitely not think about them, and even if he really didn't think about them, the business elites around him would also think of them. Seeing Eric's slight nod, Melanie asked with a smile, "Eric, you should have come to Boston this time to solve these problems, right?"

"Last week, I just merged the three companies into a brand new Yahoo network. ”

Melanie heard Eric say the name of the new company, and showed a sudden look, and said, "Many people have judged in class that the Yahoo portal is the center of gravity of these three companies, and now it seems that this is indeed the case." ”

Eric continued, "What do you think about business transformation?"

Melanie said: "Placement of ads and membership services, I can think of these two for the time being, in addition, I do not agree with the free strategy of IE browser, if the charging model is adopted, although the number of users will not expand as fast as now, but the revenue brought is enough to maintain the normal operation of the three companies, Eric, can I know why you do this, IE browser has not had any competitors on all operating system platforms so far, and the free strategy is obviously very irrational. ”

"This is my agreement with Tim Berners-Lee, the founder of the World Wide Web, that two years ago many of the technical standards for the World Wide Web had not yet been developed, so I chose to do so in order to tilt the final version of the World Wide Web technical standards towards Internet Explorer. And, now that you've realized that the Yahoo portal is the focus of the three companies, you should also understand that browser software is more about providing an interface for Yahoo. Used to expand the user base of the Yahoo Portal. comparatively. The profitability of the software is not so important. ”

Melanie remembered that after the World Wide Web was declared completely free for all users around the world last year, other small regional networks and paid networks quickly disappeared, and the World Wide Web has now grown into a global Internet network. Choosing a free strategy for the sake of tilting the technical standards of the World Wide Web, although giving up temporary profits, Eric gained more. After all, once a standard is established, it is difficult to change it, and Eric has a browser software product that meets these technical standards. And in the past two years, the company in his hands must have cast a solid patent barrier, so before others break this patent barrier, IE browser will be the only one without a branch, in short, it is a complete monopoly of the Internet interface channel.

Thinking about the pros and cons, Melanie admired the courage of the young man on the other side of the sofa: "To be honest, Eric, if I were in your place, even if I could understand the benefits of the browser's free strategy. It's hard for me to make the same decision as you, and it's not something anyone can do to give up tens of millions of dollars in low-hanging fruit. ”

Caroline was busy making coffee in the kitchen though. But he had been listening intently to the conversation between the two, and at this time he walked into the living room with a coffee pot and poured coffee for the three of them, and when he heard Melanie's words, as if she had been praised herself, she said, "That's why Eric is so powerful." ”

Melanie looked at Caroline's smug little appearance and teased, "Caroline, why don't you tell me why you got a C in this class?"

Caroline's face flushed, but she retorted with confidence: "I can now prove that my judgment is right." ”

"Eric, don't you know, Caroline gets almost all of her A's in class, but about ...... Yahoo Networks got the only C in her case, because we didn't look into the content of your agreement with the World Wide Web Alliance, and she insisted that your free strategy was not wrong, and she didn't have any evidence but she talked back to her mentor," Melanie said, remembering the situation and laughing.

Eric smiled as well and said to Caroline, "Maybe I can prepare some materials for you to ask your mentor to change his grades." ”

Caroline sat shyly next to Melanie in the face of the two of them, holding her arm and glaring at Eric without any murderous force.

After the joke, Eric took a few sips of his coffee, put down his cup and asked, "Melanie, do you have your own work plan now?"

When Melanie heard Eric's words, she immediately understood Eric's intentions to test her just now, shook her head and smiled, "Not yet." ”

"So, what does it look like to work for me?"

Melanie looked at Caroline with sparkling eyes and asked tentatively, "What about Caroline?"

"Of course it's the two of you together, I will increase my investment in the Internet industry in the next few years, and most of my personal assistant team is currently focused on the media, and if you join, it will just be able to fill the vacancy in this area." ”

Melanie looked enviously at Caroline, who had clenched her arms without any intentions, expecting her to agree. Although Eric's invitation was sincere and she was very impressed, she still realized that Eric did this most likely because she wanted to work with Caroline and take care of this simple girl who had no scheming by the way. Melanie was born in an ordinary middle-class family, and in order to make up for her MBA tuition, she worked for a securities firm in Atlanta for two years after graduating from college. The employees who can be selected to work for a super media tycoon like Eric are definitely the best in a hundred, these people's work ability is absolutely undoubted, but they are definitely more skilled in playing the office, and they are definitely more skilled in playing the office, throwing Caroline into that group of people, even if Eric personally protects them, it is estimated that they will only be bullied, and that group of people will never let Eric find out that they have bullied this Nizi, with Caroline's character, maybe they can't find out.

Eric didn't realize that Melanie had already guessed his thoughts, and seeing the girl's hesitation, he said, "Although it's just my personal assistant, this job definitely has a very big promotion prospect." My former first assistant, Alan Viessman, joined ABC last month as deputy general manager of primetime production. In recent years, many people in the office have also been promoted to the company's management. And. After a few years of training, you will find that even if you don't get promoted within Firefly, there will be many headhunters who are happy to poach people. ”

The last point is what Alan occasionally tells Eric as an interesting story, in order to be able to find out the 'secret' of the continuous success of Firefly films, the assistants in Eric's assistant office who are responsible for keeping up with the progress of the film are always poached by other film companies with high salaries, and the assistants in charge of these jobs have changed several times over the past few years, until Firefly's personnel department has established very strict confidentiality clauses and employment contracts. This trend is gradually cooling down. Moreover, many film companies have slowly come to understand that the biggest secret of the success of Firefly films is Eric's 'brain', not the 'eyes' of the assistant's office. However, even so, poaching people from Eric's assistant's office has never stopped, especially every time the Firefly has a film that is a big hit.

Melanie, of course, was well aware of the prospect of a career in the job, as an assistant to a legendary billionaire like Eric, who had created a series of business miracles, even if it was just a question, that the resume was more valuable than her MBA at Harvard. Merely......

He hesitated for a moment. Feeling Caroline gently shake her arm again, Melanie finally couldn't help but agree.

A maid is a maid. Anyway, this 'princess' not only doesn't know what to do, but she doesn't even realize her 'identity'.

After Eric left, Melanie pinched Caroline's delicate face in the same way as Eric, and her tone was full of envy: "He's so good to you, no wonder you stupid girl is dead set on it." ”

……

Woke up early in the morning, as John Chambers and Steve Keys were arriving one after another today, Eric took care of himself a little. After washing, he scraped off the stubble that had been accumulated for many days, stood in front of the Yumuro mirror, stared at the young face for a few seconds, and felt an inexplicable feeling in his heart.

Is it handsome again?

As soon as he was boredly joking with himself in the mirror, Eric heard the doorbell ringing, quickly wiped his face with a towel, put on a light gray plaid shirt and opened the door.

Said good morning to Chris outside the door, and the two chatted casually and walked towards the restaurant together.

There weren't many guests at the hotel for breakfast, and I met Tina Brown the other day, but this woman who was a busy person decided to join Yahoo and couldn't wait to get into the work, and now she has rented a house not far from Yahoo's headquarters, and is even planning to move her husband and children to Boston together.

Last night, Eric and Chris had discussed in detail the intention to work together with Bill Gates, and had informed several other Yahoo Network executives by phone.

After breakfast, Eric and Chris hurried to Yahoo's headquarters.

Just after eight o'clock, Ian Gnier and several other key leaders had already arrived at the company.

As a former manager at Oracle Software, which counts Microsoft as its nemesis, Ian Gnier knows more about Bill Gates' style than anyone else in the room, so he is worried.

Ian Gnier is well aware that if he does not choose to cooperate with Microsoft, then Yahoo and Microsoft will definitely go against each other, and the current Yahoo Network is not qualified to oppose Microsoft at all. Although with a backer like Eric, Eric also said that he would do his best to support Yahoo, but Ian Gnier still feels that according to the iron rules of the market for capital profit, in the case of a life-and-death fight between the two sides, in order to get as much benefit as possible, Eric is likely to give up Yahoo Network, in his opinion, Eric's career is based in Hollywood, and giving up Yahoo will not cause him much damage.

Now, although Eric made the choice is to cooperate with Microsoft, but this cooperation agreement is very unfavorable to Yahoo, Yahoo will carry out IPO operations next year, five years, want to get enough development funds from the financial market, Yahoo will sell shares will not be less than 20%, management will also get 20% of the shares, then Eric, the majority shareholder, will not be higher than 60%, once Microsoft gets 30% of the five-year option, then Eric's personal shares will be reduced to 30% Below, in Ian Gnier's view, this is no less than handing over control of Yahoo five years later.

As a middle-aged man who saw Yahoo's browser software, web portals, and online email services create a series of miraculous growth figures, Ian Gnier realized that he was likely to be personally involved in the beginning of an era, so he was the last person in the room who wanted his hard work to go to waste.

Ian Gnier unreservedly presented his ideas to everyone in the audience, he is not opposed to cooperating with Microsoft, but hopes that Eric will be more careful in choosing the way to cooperate.

Eric patiently listened to Ian Gnier's words and said sincerely, "Ian, do you know why I am willing to put out a 30% share option?"

Not only Ian Gneill, Steve Mitnick and others all showed puzzled looks, but only Chris, who had already received the answer in advance, was a little calmer.

Eric drew everyone's attention to himself and said in a firm tone, "Because I didn't plan to sell any shares of Microsoft in the first place." ”

Eric said this, and several people around him were even more puzzled when they heard this, and Eric paused for a moment, and then continued: "Yahoo was created little by little by everyone from scratch, and I know that everyone's feelings for Yahoo are like their own children." I'm the same personally the same, and I expect a lot more from Yahoo than all of you. The reason why it seems like a generous promise to sell a 30% stake to Microsoft in five years is that I just hope that after five years, Microsoft suddenly finds itself unable to afford it. It's not hard to do this, and with Yahoo's current explosive growth rate, even if Yahoo's market capitalization is only one-third of Microsoft's, Bill Gates will find that if he exchanges 10% of Microsoft's shares for 30% Yahoo shares, then he will have a major shareholder that could affect his control of Microsoft, and if he wants to continue to swallow up the whole of Yahoo, he will even find himself bringing in a group of major shareholders who threaten his position, do you think, will Bill Gates stick with the share options, or will he give up?" (To be continued.) )