"Now there is enough money on the books to buy Quora, to put it bluntly, it is Yahoo and Ameriken Online.

In addition to these two companies, Microsoft, Oracle, IBM, and other computer giants of the previous generation also have ample cash flow, but from the perspective of strategic positioning and style, only Microsoft has this motivation.

Quora seems to be a piece of cake, but for most companies, it is too much to eat.

In my opinion, whoever can acquire Quora by Yahoo and Microsoft will be able to achieve leapfrog development in the Internet field in one fell swoop.

For Yahoo, the acquisition of Quora would be a big step toward their goal of a media empire in the Internet age.

For Microsoft, the acquisition of Quora allows them to finally have their own masterpieces after not falling behind in the Internet era, and no longer an old giant who fails to make a product.

Because IBM, known as the "blue giant", after entering the era of personal PCs, it was quickly overtaken by Microsoft, a small supplier, and could only barely survive by relying on corporate business, and Microsoft was afraid that it would repeat IBM's failed path.

Therefore, they have a special attachment to the Internet, from the Netscape browser war to the MSN portal battle, Microsoft has been trying to announce to netizens in the Internet era, to prove to Wall Street that Microsoft is not old, Microsoft still has the ability to innovate.

They had the best chance, Newman used to be an intern at Microsoft, and if Microsoft could reuse Newman at that time, then Riot Games, NewPay, Quora and other products would all belong to Microsoft.

Microsoft will continue its reign in the Internet age, and unfortunately, they haven't.

Now there's a chance for Microsoft to get Quora back, the best web forum at the turn of the century, I can read other web forums for half an hour at most, and there is no interesting content, and every time I watch Quora I can go home and see it all the way to the evening.

According to Ameriken Online's statistics, Quora is currently the second most visited website in the United States, and I'm sure Quora is definitely the number one in terms of average browsing time per user.

Not to mention that Quora has already achieved profitability, the only drawback of Quora is that the threshold is too high, but this problem can be easily solved by bringing in high-quality users from other countries.

So I definitely don't think Microsoft will let Yahoo's acquisition of Quora go unpunished, and this acquisition battle will determine the Internet landscape for a long time to come. ”

It is an opportunity for Internet companies, and it is also an opportunity for financial institutions.

Basically only listed companies can afford to buy Quora, which requires the intervention of law firms first, and accounting firms to conduct audits.

A due diligence audit of the company's financial, legal, and business conditions is required before a contract is signed.

If a public company does not have enough cash flow but wants to acquire Quora, then they need to raise money, file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, and go through an SEC review before they can raise money.

Financing requires the intervention of investment banks.

Acquisitions can only be made at the end of the day.

This series of links will take about half a year, which is also an important reason why Zhou Xin started the work in June.

If the Internet bubble bursts, it is not uncommon for a listed company to refuse to admit its accounts and refuse to execute the transaction rather than pay liquidated damages.

"By putting the deal on hold, we have to put all our energy into the acquisition of Quora, which has limited value compared to Quora."

"I agree that both the number of users and the way of making money are far from being compared with Quora, which has found a stable profit model and is still far from this goal.

The gap with Quora is comparable to the gap between Levi's and Hermès, and the price of Hermès is only three times that of Levi's.

What reason do we have for the acquisition? ”

"But we've already made an announcement."

"We can issue an announcement to withdraw this matter, investors will fully understand us, who would want to buy Quora if we have Quora to acquire?"

After Yahoo got Zhou Xin's intention to sell Quora, the whole company began to run rapidly, and many of the acquisitions that were originally planned to be put on hold.

Yahoo's acquisition of Broadcast, which was also the butterfly effect brought about by Zhou Xin, was supposed to take place in April 1999, when Yahoo bought Broadcast for $6.7 billion.

Broadcast is an Internet broadcasting company that specializes in providing users with sports broadcasting services on the Internet, which is limited by bandwidth and can only provide live broadcasts with sound, a bit like the tiger pounce of later generations.

Such a company with only 670,000 users, if it were not for the influence of Zhou Xin, would have sold to Yahoo for $10,000 per user.

Why Zhou Xin postponed this matter, because the companies founded by Zhou Xin have all achieved profitability without exception, which has made investors and entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley realize that the Internet can also be profitable, and everyone's attention to profitability has increased.

Broadcast, on the other hand, was a loss-making public company, with a net loss of $185.3 million in 1998 with annual revenues of only $5.1 million.

There have been voices within Yahoo that say that broadcast is definitely not worth $6.7 billion, and after Quora said it would accept the acquisition, opposition to the acquisition of broadcast came to the maximum.

Indeed, the acquisition was hailed as one of the 10 worst deals in Silicon Valley history.

"We have just passed a board resolution to suspend all transactions and focus all our energy on the acquisition of Quora, which is our most important goal during this period, and I am personally responsible for it." Yang Zhiyuan walked into the conference room and said.

Although Yang Zhiyuan is not the president, as a member of the board of directors, the majority shareholder with a high proportion of voting rights is not low, and his voice is obviously higher than that of the president.

It's like Jackma later gave Daniel Zhang the position of chairman of the board, but he still spoke the most effectively.

It's not just Yahoo, Microsoft is also very concerned about this, and Bill Gates is personally in charge of it.

Even AOL, who doesn't have much money, tries to get involved.

If there is a list of favorite acquisitions, then the AOL in the nineties of the last century, that is, Ameriken Online, can definitely rank at the top of the list.

In '98, it acquired ICQ and CompuServe, ICQ was arguably the earliest instant messaging software, and in '98, it acquired Netscape Browser, a broken giant, and in 2000, it acquired Time Warner.

AOL's president, Bob Pittman, was dancing around the boardroom, describing to every executive how the right deal was to buy Netscape and how wonderful the prospects would be once AOL acquired Quora.

"We previously acquired Netscape for $4.2 billion, and Netscape is now over $10 billion.

It turned out to be a successful deal, although it was a lot of criticism before the acquisition of Netscape, and it was felt that we were not well compatible.

But the reality is here, and the board's opponents won't say a word.

And once we acquire Quora, Quora will be able to bring us incredible quality content and the best users.

Truth be told, I'm a loyal Quora user myself, and I often wonder how good it would have been if Quora had been developed by AOL. Once Quora is acquired, AOL will become the number one portal to surpass Yahoo.

At the same time, we have Quora's premium content, and AOL will become the New York Times of the new era.

Quora is now profitable, and I already have a plan on how to make Quora more profitable.

So there's only one thing we need to think about right now, and that's how much money we need to prepare to acquire Quora. ”

"Bob, I understand your thoughts, and I also think that AOL's acquisition of Quora is definitely the best M&A in the history of Silicon Valley.

But you need to take into account the fact that our market capitalization is approaching $100 billion, but we only have $1.26 billion in cash on our books, which is definitely not enough to compete with Microsoft and Yahoo. ”

Bob waved his hand: "We need to do a private placement, I know we don't have enough cash, but we can do a private placement to raise funds."

If this is the case, Wall Street investors are definitely willing to do a private placement. ”

Targeted financing is equivalent to completing the acquisition with AOL as the main body, but in fact, it is Wall Street investors who pay the money.

At this point, the dot-com bubble has been blown up.

At the time the bubble was blown up, Commerce One, which had only $3 million in revenue, had a market value of nearly $20 billion.

When the whole of Silicon Valley was in turmoil by the sale of Quora, Ebay's founder, Pierre Omidyar, made an appointment with Zhou Xin through NewPay.

"Newman, although NewPay and Ebay have a good relationship, this is the first time we have met.

It's a pleasure to meet the best Internet product managers in Silicon Valley and even at American today, and I admire your keen sense of human nature. It's an honor to meet such amazing alumni again. ”

Pierre is a Frenchman of Iranian origin, with brown hair and reddish skin, and a very typical Persian look, and a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.

Zhou Xin didn't know what the other party was talking to him for, but for the sake of Ebay being NewPay's main customer, Zhou Xin still came to see the other party.

Pierre chose a well-known Chinese restaurant in San Francisco, apparently with Zhou Xin's tastes in mind.

"It's also nice to meet you, I shop a lot on ebay, and if it can be delivered faster, then I think ebay is perfect." Zhou Xin said.

Sometimes the right shortcomings can make your compliments seem more real.

Pierre, apparently pleased with the compliment, raised an eyebrow: "It's great, I love Quora just as much, it's the best internet product I've ever used." ”

Zhou Xin originally thought that the other party would ask him why he wanted to sell Quora in the next sentence, because he knew that Ebay would not buy Quora, and the business was not compatible at all.

It is even more unlikely that Pierre bought it in his personal name.

Pierre's next words surprised him greatly.

There is another chapter today, which is actually a more critical plot, which involves start-up capital in the real sense, and it is a hard deal from Wall Street.

(End of chapter)