Willford Software has a big business, and according to Ye Weilun's estimate, if there is no investment of 3 billion yuan, basically don't want to win. When Gu Mojie heard this, he had no other way but to sigh for the time being.

However, if Gu Mojie had a reborn person by his side, he would not be surprised by this valuation figure.

Because five years later, in 2012, the market value of this company is not only 3 billion yuan, but 3 billion US dollars. In the past five years, with the rise of the digital transaction model of stand-alone games around the world, the market value of the Steam platform mastered by Welfort Software has almost doubled by more than ten times, increasing the market value of the entire company by five or six times.

Another major obstacle to the acquisition of Welfort Software is that Welfort is a company with a strong sense of foundership. Newell alone owns 55 percent of the company, and McHarrington, the co-founder and CTO, has 20 percent, and the two can form a dictatorship over the internal management of Villefort, much like Gu Mojie is doing now at Hatsune.

Obviously, the acquisition of such a company does not even use means such as division and disintegration, and can only directly negotiate with the bigwigs who hold the largest shares head-on.

It's not the best time to buy Villefort, but it's not bad. Continuing to wait, the future is really uncertain.

In addition to the above information, there are two relatively inconspicuous prospects in the industry information that Ye Minru found for Gu Mojie, and Gu Mojie did not let it go, and read it seriously from beginning to end.

"Werford's investment and management are unlikely to have the idea of selling their stake in the company in the near future. Because Steam has now turned profitable, although the competitiveness of the company's main game has encountered some setbacks, Villefort has already taken countermeasures, and will launch a blockbuster new game called 'Team Fortress 2' in October this year to face the competition from Koreans. ”

Note: The so-called Korean product that forms a strong competition with the traditional business of Villefort refers to CrossFire, an FPS online shooter game developed by South Korea's Smile-Gate. The game debuted in South Korea two months ago, and it had a clear impact on the aging Villefort 'Half-Life' and 'Counter-Strike' series. Team Fortress 2 is clearly Villefort's response, and the internal wind is currently better. Villefort's management has said on several occasions that they expect Team Fortress 2 to win this year's IGN Pro Review Best Game Award. ”

Gu Mojie closed his notebook, drank the coffee that had been cooled in the cup, thought for a while, and sighed to himself: "I can only hope that the Koreans will be a little stronger, if 'CrossFire' can form a stronger sniper against Villefort's 'Team Fortress 2' in the market outside North America, and defeat a little bit of Villefort's blind confidence, we will only talk about it next year." ”

For now, let's deal with the relatively easy "Fire Fist" acquisition first.

……

Gu Mojie spent two days of hard work to straighten out the relevant preparations for the acquisition of the "Fire Fist" company. It also allowed the company's business staff in the United States to go to Los Angeles to contact each other.

Of the two American game companies that Hatsune has had to deal with in recent years, "Fire Fist" is registered in Los Angeles, California, and Villefort is based in Seattle, Washington. In the United States, the headquarters of Internet companies are very particular, not where the founders live in which they are registered, but the result of legal circumvention.

For example, in Seattle, it is often the founder's absolute majority of the company, or the founder's small but large absolute value - because Washington is one of only seven of the 50 states in the United States that is exempt from corporate income tax, and one of only five states that is exempt from personal income tax. Therefore, it is very easy to lead the new economy oligarchs to get together, from Microsoft to Boeing to Villefort, all high-tech companies with huge founders like to be placed there, and many of them are exempt from taxes.

California's IT companies, on the other hand, are clearly attracted by the industry atmosphere and comprehensive R&D incentives. Silicon Valley companies in the San Francisco Bay Area to the north are more tech-oriented, while those around Los Angeles to the south are more entertainment-oriented, after all, it's close to Hollywood.

"Fire Fist" is not located in San Francisco but in Los Angeles, which shows that this is a company with "insufficient hard technology content, but strong entertainment planning strength for making games".

The foreign affairs personnel of the Hatsune Group in the United States were quite efficient, and two days later, Ye Minru reported the detailed quotation and ins and outs to Gu Mojie's desk.

I saw that after Ye Minru got the report from the other side of the ocean, he immediately reported to Gu Mojie: "Mr. Gu, according to what we have learned, before the people in our company contacted Steven, he spread the news in California to find venture capital. It seems that they are still quite short of money, at the beginning of the 20% equity financing of 8 million US dollars, no one paid attention to them, and after waiting for a while, the price of the plan was adjusted to 30% equity financing of 9 million US dollars.

But after our people came to the door, they seemed to be energetic again, trying to reopen the price of 20% to raise 8 million. Our personnel rightly declined this price and waited for further instructions from headquarters. ”

Gu Mojie was laughed at by the offer conveyed by Ye Minru: "Is this taking our Chinese's money, as if it is another wave of Arab oil money?" Or do you think of us as the rich third generation of Japanese chaebols who want to sleep with female stars or fever online games? In particular, tell Lao Tzu that Steven is stupid: Our Hatsune is a rising talent, and the founders are still alive and well, don't play this kind of trick for Lao Tzu - how to translate for them to watch it. ”

"That's ...... Wouldn't that be bad? Or to be tactful? If it messes up the business...... Ye Minru is cautious by nature, in the past few days, Fei Liluo has finished handing over her work and going home to rest, and the company is lacking a girl who can persuade Gu Mojie when he is impulsive. Thinking of Sister Fei's entrustment before leaving, Ye Minru could only persuade with good words.

Gu Mojie knew that the other party had good intentions, so although he didn't agree with the other party's opinion, he didn't put on the boss's shelf. At the moment, he just explained by Wen Yan: "Sister Xiaoru, you don't understand, you haven't dealt with Americans in depth, and you don't know their morality - generally these companies in San Francisco and Silicon Valley will be more pragmatic, and when they really look for venture capital or ask a tycoon to privatize them, they will open a premium of 20%, and the deal will be closed."

But the companies in Los Angeles that are dressed in the skin of the entertainment industry are different, because they are close to Hollywood, and the circle is full of people like that: all kinds of Arab oil dog bigwigs who want to sleep with female stars, or the sons and brothers of the rich third generation of Japanese and Korean chaebols, often go there to buy film and television companies and game companies with fever, not trying to make money, just to enjoy fame, or to be feverish and willful.

After a long time, the companies there have opened their eyes, thinking that the people who come to invest are stupid and have a lot of money. It is estimated that Steven, the founder of Fire Fist, is a person who can toss. Since I want to use him, I must beat him strictly, toss him and submit him, and then it will be easy to talk about the rest of the matter. Therefore, when dealing with this kind of person, you must not be afraid of offending people. ”

Ye Minru's face turned red, and she was ashamed in her heart: Sure enough, she still saw too little in the world...... If Sister Fei was here, she would definitely be able to tell a much more powerful truth, alas, she is really useless.

Gu Mojie was a little embarrassed when he saw Ye Minru's embarrassed expression, and gently patted her arm and encouraged, "What's this?" These common senses are not difficult, and after seeing a lot, I naturally know it. Don't take it to heart, so let's take it to heart, if you really want to go abroad to talk about acquisitions in the future, I'll take you to see and see together. ”

"Thank you, Mr. Gu, for cultivating ......" Ye Minru thanked sincerely, and stepped back without mentioning it. Looking at the other party's restrained appearance, Gu Mojie suddenly felt a little sad, he was really alone, and outsiders didn't dare to be presumptuous in front of him.

When a personal female secretary talks to herself, do you still need to use words like "cultivation"?

……

Gu Mojie thought that the so-called going abroad to talk about business was just a casual remark, a small case like Fire Fist, even if the entire company was packaged and bought, it would be only 200 million yuan, and he was not worthy of going out in person.

However, a few days later, another business incident loomed.

"Google and other relevant parties received your proposal in early July to beware of Apple's distribution, and closely monitored Apple's iPhone shipments throughout July, and a detailed report has been made in the past few days - Apple's mobile phone shipments in the entire July launch season were only 240,000 units, much lower than Apple's initial expectation of 1.5 million units.

According to the current market research and feedback, the main factor for Apple's insufficient shipments is that its terminal pricing is too expensive -- in order to emphasize the consistent high-end quality of Apple's products, Jobs previously imposed a price of nearly $600 for the whole machine, and this figure is obviously not bought by the American people.

Google sent a letter asking us to participate in the discussion and decide whether to carry out a public opinion offensive against Apple as planned, "iPhone prices will inevitably fall", so as to squeeze Apple's repricing space and credibility? ”

In the face of Google's inquiry, Gu Mojie's opinion was categorical: "Of course it must be implemented!" Squeeze apples, of course! I firmly believe that if we do nothing, Apple will definitely become the world's most profitable mobile phone company in the next 5 years. Blocking Apple, even if it loses a first-mover advantage of a few months to half a year, it will not lead to the shaking of its future hegemony, let alone the success of the current giants such as Nokia and Motorola. ”

In addition to this reply, Google also made another invitation to Hatsune to officially participate in the "Android Developers Conference and Open Handset Alliance Licensing Conference" in San Francisco in September.

Historically, this "Android Developers Conference" was not held until November 2007. Obviously, because of the emergence of the butterfly effect of Gu Mojie, and his close cooperation with Google, the "Android Developer Conference" led by Google, Hatsune and HTC was born two months earlier than the same period in history.

Many of the ideas of this development conference undoubtedly borrowed a lot from the design philosophy of Apple's original iPhone. If Apple's initial sales are frustrated, and its system model is quickly imitated and optimized by Android after it is made public, then Apple in this time and space will obviously be even more traumatized.

"Alas, it seems that I have to go to the United States again." Gu Mojie looked at the calendar, it was already mid-August, and it seemed that the "summer vacation" he was looking forward to was over. (To be continued.) )