"Zhou, you are as young as when I started my business." Jerry Yang, also known as Yang Zhiyuan.

An indispensable figure in the early development of the Internet, the founder of Yahoo.

There are many investors who have found Zhou Xin, and the Internet fund investors on Wall Street have pounced on them like hyenas that smell their scent.

These people were basically rejected by Zhou Xin.

The main thing is still not to understand.

At the beginning of the business, of course, the investment is not refused, and the most important thing at this stage is to develop the company.

But at Riot's current size, money is no longer the most important thing.

This is equivalent to the D or E round of financing stage of an ordinary Internet start-up.

It has its own hematopoietic ability.

The company that Zhou Xin co-owned with Ashley and Stephen changed its name to Flamingo Games.

And the electronic community continues to have the name Riot Games.

At present, the vast majority of these Internet companies rely on bragging and painting pies, and they have no hematopoietic ability.

Even so, these companies can be listed on the NASDAQ.

In the eyes of investors, Riot Games, an Internet company that has found its own profit model, can start operating and listing directly with a single investment.

Is there a more perfect unicorn than this?

As for Yang Zhiyuan, Yang Zhiyuan contacted Zhou Xin through Hu Zhengming, and Zhou Xin was also very curious about Yang Zhiyuan.

Although Yahoo gradually declined in the process of Internet development in the end, it is hot at the moment.

"Haha, he said something similar when I had dinner with Mr. Gates before.

It seems that most Internet people are very young when they start their businesses.

After all, the Internet is a completely new thing. ”

"Yes, the Internet will change the world, I never doubt that.

Yahoo has changed the way people receive information, which people previously used to get through newspapers and magazines.

And now people are starting to get information through Yahoo.

In the same way, you are changing an industry.

Although the video game industry has a long history, it has a lot of offline links in the past.

From the creation of the game cartridge to the release of the game to the final game to the players.

This large chain of links needs to be realized offline, and you break the whole chain.

The right to evaluate a game is in the hands of the print media.

Players' opinions about the game are scattered across various forums, large and small.

There is no one thing that brings these opinions together and gives a single piece of advice to players who haven't bought the game yet.

And with Riot Electronics, that's all changed.

Players express their opinions about the game through the electronic community, and game publishing businesses can collect the opinions of players through the electronic community.

The e-community can publish games on their own.

All this forms a complete closed loop.

This is the best internet product I've seen this year.

If it weren't for Chenming and me, I wouldn't have known you were his student. ”

Hu Zhengming and Yang Zhiyuan are also from Wanwan, and then they both work in the Los Angeles area, and the two of them know each other very well.

"I used to study at Yan University, and Professor Hu discovered my talent and brought me to Los Angeles.

If he hadn't brought me to Los Angeles, I wouldn't have discovered my talent for internet products. This is more false than true.

In the eyes of outsiders, there is no false part.

Internet people in Silicon Valley don't think that there is any Internet industry in China, and they all reproduce the products in China from Silicon Valley.

They have not yet been defeated by the Internet people in China on the frontal battlefield, and they will not realize that China also has a local Internet industry when they are defeated more times in the future.

"Chenming is Berkeley's most powerful professor in the field of integrated circuits over the years.

He thinks you are very talented, and it seems that you also have a strong talent in the field of integrated circuits. ”

After the two sides exchanged a lot of pleasantries, Yang Zhiyuan's main purpose was revealed.

"I want to buy Riot Games, and I can value it at about $300 million.

If you do, it will be the largest merger in all of Silicon Valley this year. ”

Needless to say, Zhou Xin could probably guess Yang Zhiyuan's purpose.

After coming to 1998, Zhou Xin still maintained his efficiency in information collection, and he only had a rough impression of Silicon Valley in this era, and now he knows the current situation of Silicon Valley well.

After surpassing $4 billion in market capitalization, Yahoo has maintained a high level of aggressiveness in the capital markets, and recently acquired Yoyodyne Entertainment, an Internet direct selling company.

Last year, they acquired Four11.

With Yahoo's size, it is indeed possible to get so much money.

Yang Zhiyuan is right, so far the largest acquisition in the entire Silicon Valley came from ICQ, which is the object of QQ's "borrowing", the earliest instant messaging software.

AOL spent $287 million on ICQ.

But the price that Yang Zhiyuan is willing to offer has exceeded Zhou Xin's imagination.

Riot Games now has less than 10 million in turnover, and the other side is willing to spend $300 million.

Zhou Xin asked, "This price exceeded my expectations.

Although I won't sell, I still want to ask why you are willing to offer such a high price? ”

"Because Riot is worth it.

He has more than 200,000 paying subscribers, and these paying subscribers are constantly growing.

This price is not opened casually.

Before we come to talk to you, we have already done some research with a business valuation company.

The stickiness and willingness to pay in Riot's community are among the best among all online forums at present.

Video games have been a fast-growing industry since they were invented.

Video game sales for the whole of last year were $4 billion.

Even if only one-third of all video games were to be released through Riot Games in the future, Riot Games would have a market capitalization comparable to Yahoo.

So $300 million in angel investment is not expensive in my opinion.

Of course you haven't done that yet, and it will take time for you to build into that form, and you will face a lot of competitors.

Even if you don't accept Yahoo's acquisition, Yahoo will set up its own gaming forum.

If you're willing to sell to Yahoo, then the Yahoo brand plus the existing stock advantage of Riot's electronics community, we are invincible in this space.

$300 million, 95 percent of the shares, and five percent of the shares are reserved for you.

You could consider that five percent of the shares being Riot Games, or converting them into Yahoo shares at a valuation of $300 million.

You think about it.

No one can offer a higher price than Yahoo! ”

Yang Zhiyuan filled Zhou Xin with sincerity.

"Five hundred million dollars, Microsoft's price is definitely the most sincere!"

The next day, Zhou Xin went to Seattle to see Bill Gates, and after Bill Gates heard the price code opened by Yang Zhiyuan, he threw the price up by 60% without thinking.