"Forgive me as an old man, when I get older, I love to miss the past, to be honest, Mphone's technology is not a new product, I have seen the prototype of Mphone functionality on different electronic products in the past two decades.

Like touchscreens, when Apple first introduced the Newton handheld, John Scully was hosting the Newton handheld launch event, and he was as confident as you at the launch event, thinking that this was a product that would change the world.

Although Apple is now in decline and can only rely on music players to maintain the company's operations, they had a very glorious time in the 80s, and it is precisely because of Apple's strong promotion of personal handhelds and high hopes for Newton's handhelds that everyone followed the trend to make handhelds.

They already had touch screens, handwriting input, and support for many Apple compatible text formats, where they could edit text, tables, and even pictures.

It's a pity that Newton changed the world as Scully announced at the conference, and was even hastily cut down because of poor sales. ”

Bill Gates fell into memories under the scorching sun, and memories can give old men a taste of what it was like to be younger, "I remember very well that Scully and Steve Jobs parted ways, and they had a huge disagreement about Apple's future. ”

As a post-90s generation, Zhou Xin actually doesn't know much about this history, and he only has a vague impression of Scully: "Bill, I remember that it wasn't Steve Jobs who invited Scully to come to Apple as CEO?"

To this day, I still remember that Steve Jobs invited Scully, who was the president of PepsiCo at the time, by saying: Do you want to continue to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or change the world with me? ”

After Apple reached its peak, it became a legend in the industry, and Zhou Xin was very impressed, and he also used a similar metaphor when inviting some experts from state-owned enterprises.

Bill laughed, surprised that a young man like Zhou Xin still knew about this stalk: "It seems that you do know Apple very well, I thought that young people like you don't know this."

Yes, Jobs and Scully co-created the success of Macintosh in 1984, and you are the majority shareholder of Apple, and you should have met Jobs and knew how stubborn he was.

After the success of the first Macintosh, Jobs quickly fell into inflation and misjudged the real needs of consumers, and the subsequent Macintosh computer was unsuccessful and brought a huge deficit to Apple.

Scully wanted to restore Apple's image in the minds of consumers and really change the world as Steve Jobs did when he persuaded him to come to Apple, so he launched Newton. ”

Zhou Xin actually knows Newton very well, because NewPay acquired Confiniti, and the earliest application scenario of Confiniti is Newton's handheld computer.

He talked to Peter Thiel about Confiniti a lot, and Peter said that the reason why they made electronic payments was because they had a patent for the encrypted transmission of infrared signals, and the earliest handheld computers that supported infrared signal transmission were only Newton.

Later, other handheld computers also supported infrared function.

Zhou Xin said: "Speaking of this, I have actually watched the knowledge navigator video launched by Apple in 1987 before, do you have a laptop here?" ”

Bill Gates called the maid to bring the laptop, and then Zhou Xin searched for this video on Apple's official website: "In fact, this video already has the prototype of a smartphone." ”

Bill Gates and Zhou Xin sat in front of the computer and watched the video quietly together.

The video, titled "Apple Knowledge Navigator Video," was released in 1987 for Scully's keynote speech at a conference on higher education in 1987.

Roughly speaking, a university professor comes home and makes a video call with a colleague through a tablet-like thing, and they can use the screen to share data and share the latest research results.

After watching the video, Zhou Xin said: "Now WeChat's video call function is actually a bit similar to this, and with the development of communication technology in the future, maybe in the future, we can directly transmit the 3D image of the human body." ”

Bill Gates nodded: "But Scully is still not as good as you, Scully's thoughts are still too shallow, he only thinks about what he can do, what he wants to do."

I didn't think of using more power to join in the construction of the ecosystem.

What he showed was just a few of the many features of the Mphone, which was not very imaginative, just an extension of the personal computer on mobile, and he didn't expect the mobile chip to be powerful enough to provide developers with enough platform to use their ingenuity. ”

When Scully was working on Newton, the biggest limitation came from the chip, and they asked Bell Telephone to design a mobile processor called The Hobbit, but there was a big flaw, that is, the performance was not high.

In order to meet Apple's vision of Newton, it needs to have three hobbit chips, so that the minimum price is $6,000 to pay for itself, which is $6,000 in the late 80s of the 20th century.

Obviously, the market cannot accept this pricing and this product.

"My idea is to build on the foundation of my predecessors, and I am greatly inspired by Microsoft's past success," Zhou said.

Only by opening up enough can we get enough support to improve the entire ecosystem.

If Microsoft were as closed as Apple, it wouldn't necessarily be Microsoft that is succeeding with the operating system right now. So I'm wondering if I'm going to open up Mphone's operating system to other mobile phone manufacturers. ”

Zhou Xin heard Bill Gates say so much and guessed that the other party was coming for Matrix, but he didn't know what level of cooperation Bill Gates wanted to achieve.

In Matrix's first round of financing, in order to show that Bill Gates was a broker in the middle, Zhou Xin gave Melinda Gates Foundation about 4% of the investment share.

Bill Gates secretly said in his heart that it was bad, because if it wants to win the market share of mobile phone operating systems, Microsoft can only compete for the market of small and medium-sized mobile phone manufacturers.

Microsoft's mobile operating system doesn't have an intuitive advantage over MOS, which has proven itself on smartphones.

Large giants have built their own operating systems, the market of small and medium-sized mobile phone manufacturers has been squeezed by MOS, and Microsoft is facing a huge crisis on the new battlefield.

Bill Gates tentatively said: "The operating system is one of the biggest advantages of Mphone compared with other mobile phones, and if the MOS is opened to other mobile phone manufacturers, then Mphone's advantages will be indirectly weakened." ”

Zhou Xin thought to himself, I definitely won't open MOS to other mobile phone manufacturers, it's just a little pressure on you.

In Zhouxin's strategic plan, an open-source mobile phone operating system similar to Android will be made, but not now, but together with the smartphone chip to be launched by Xinxin.

It is equivalent to giving Huaguo mobile phone manufacturers a complete set of solutions from mobile phone chips to operating systems. In the traditional mobile phone era, the integrated mobile phone chip has laid a good foundation for cooperation with domestic manufacturers.

In the next cooperation, this kind of cooperation will be continued, and Zhou Xin will force domestic mobile phone manufacturers to go abroad through Xiaomi's extreme cost performance.

Zhou Xin said: "Whether to open MOS to other mobile phones is essentially a trade-off, whether the software ecology is more important or the hardware is more important.

Microsoft's success has taught me that the software ecosystem is even more important, and if MOS can become the Microsoft of smartphones, then Matrix will become a company that is no less than Microsoft. ”

This is the thinking of the personal PC era, and it is clear that Bill Gates is also thinking about it, and after listening to it, he realized that Matrix and Microsoft will be direct competitors, and he asked:

"Newman, have you ever thought about merging with Microsoft, merging with Matrix and Microsoft, and then we're going to dominate the operating system market for personal PCs and smartphones.

Microsoft's market capitalization is $100 billion, and Wall Street values Matrix at around $100 billion if it goes public, so if we merge the two, the valuation will have to be multiplied by at least four.

It has a stronger effect than one plus one, just like after the merger of Google and Baidu, their market value is far greater than the sum of the two companies' valuations.

This is the capital market's optimism about the strong alliance.

What I just said is only good in the capital market, and there are also a lot of advantages in technology, and the technical advantages accumulated by Microsoft in mobile operating systems and mobile computers will become Matrix's technical advantages.

What's more, if you accept this proposal, Microsoft will make you CEO, and if you want, I can also give up the chairmanship of the board, and you will be at the helm of Microsoft with as much power as I did before. ”

Bill Gates has a lot of chips, and to be honest, Zhou Xin is a little excited, he has feelings for Matrix, and Matrix is also very important in his career map.

But this kind of important depends on whether the chips are high enough, in Zhou Xin's view, his career in Silicon Valley can be sold, because sooner or later he can't keep it.

As long as the other party can ensure that after the merger of Microsoft and Matrix, Mphone's suppliers will remain unchanged, and the chips will still be purchased from Xinxin, rather than designing chips by themselves, or purchasing chips from Intel, Zhou Xin can accept it.

"Tempting idea, isn't it?" Zhou Xin said seductively, but his expression was very calm, in his heart, the president of Microsoft is not a good position, he does not have the energy or the time to be in charge of the giant ship of Microsoft.

Bill Gates also saw this: "Newman, you don't seem excited at all, but at your age, the president of IBM told me that the CEO of IBM asked you to be the CEO of IBM as long as you are willing to sell Microsoft to me."

I can't help but smile at the corner of my mouth. ”

Zhou Xin explained: "This is just a private communication between the two of us here, and it is still 108,000 miles away from becoming a reality. ”

Bill Gates said: "As long as you agree, I'll take care of everything else, and you have to trust Microsoft's board of directors and investors that people will only vote for Newman as CEO of Microsoft, and no one will vote against."

The news of Newman becoming Microsoft's CEO alone is enough for Microsoft's stock to rise 50 percent on the Nasdaq, not to mention the merger between Microsoft and Matrix. ”

Zhou Xin shook his head: "Bill, the biggest problem in this matter comes from regulation, are you sure that regulators are willing to see Microsoft and Matrix merge?"

Microsoft has always been the focus of antitrust attention, and the merger between Microsoft and Matrix is almost impossible to pass regulatory approval. ”

It's a well-established fact that regulation doesn't welcome Microsoft, and even though Bill Gates makes a huge political contribution to the Donkey Party and the Elephant Party every year, this disagreement hasn't changed in the slightest.

What's more important is that not only does the regulation not want to see Microsoft, but also the public opinion does not want to see Microsoft, at least the public opinion is quite unwelcome to Microsoft.

Even if the merger was not blocked by the regulatory authorities, it would have been suspended due to the pressure of public opinion.

This is a reality that is highly likely.

And it's not just America that doesn't want to see Microsoft, but even more so the European bloc, which has grabbed a lot of benefits in the European Union but hasn't brought in many jobs or tax revenues.

Although the same is true for Matrix, Mphone can be taxed more as a physical product, and more importantly, Mphone is an electronic product, with suppliers from all over the world, which is completely different from Microsoft's goods.

Therefore, if the merger with Microsoft is just a one-shot deal, it is a good deal, but if it is seen as a long-term deal, the disadvantages will far outweigh the advantages.

Zhou Xin was able to figure this question out after a little thought, but he did not directly reject Bill Gates, but said: "This matter is too big, I need time to think about it."

Similarly, for Microsoft, it is necessary to seek regulatory consent.

After the regulators agree, we'll talk about the follow-up details. ”

Bill Gates thought to himself, as long as the other party did not directly refuse, it means that there is a chance, and as for supervision, it is completely possible to achieve the purpose through operation.

When Zhou Xin was still on vacation in Bill Gates's villa, Bill Gates had already mobilized his energy to inquire about this matter at the same time.

In the era of mobile internet, the speed of message transmission is much faster than before.

In the past, all kinds of well-informed people lacked a channel for information exposure, but now Weibo gives such people a chance to show their talents:

"The latest news, Microsoft is looking at the possibility of merging with Matrix, which is likely to be the largest commercial merger in the 21st century."

This news came from a well-informed person within Microsoft, and the news of Microsoft's previous major mergers and acquisitions was first reported from him.

"What? Did I hear me right? Please tell me downstairs it's not April Fool's Day."

"Although Newman and Bill Gates have a good relationship, this personal relationship is not enough to make such a big deal."

"No, I don't want to change my phone"

"Plus one, if Microsoft buys Matrix, I'll have to stop using Mphone, no matter how good it is."

"Can you stop making an April Fool's joke, where did Microsoft get the cash to buy Mphone? Now is not the time for the Nasdaq bubble, and the capital markets will be infinitely supportive of such large-scale commercial mergers and acquisitions"

"In the case of the acquisition of Matrix, Microsoft's shareholders may actually agree to it, even if they give half of the shares to raise money, they are willing."

(End of chapter)