The vast majority of active programmers in Silicon Valley are post-60s and post-70s, and Microsoft is guilty of original sin in their perspective.

Microsoft's original sin lies in the fact that they single-handedly changed the principles of sharing and innovation in the early Internet era, so that the Internet world lost its original moral code and became a law of the jungle society.

After the clash between Microsoft and Netscape, this perception became more and more entrenched.

When Zhou Xin first came to Silicon Valley in 98, Microsoft was waging a browser war with Netscape, looking back at history, it may be just a short sentence, but for people in the environment at that time, there was a feeling that Microsoft was the enemy of the world.

Suffering from the instability of the Windows 98 version and facing endless legal proceedings, the vast majority of users emotionally support Netscape.

Under the hype of the media, consumers have greatly questioned Microsoft's sense of social responsibility, which has had a serious negative impact on Microsoft's social prestige.

Sometimes social prestige is really useful, and if it were Riot Games launching an Xbox-like game console, the sales would be at least 20 percent more than Microsoft's name for the same resources.

Most of the initial users of Mphone are all kinds of workers who are active in Silicon Valley, and these groups include programmers, researchers, and students, and their common characteristic is that they are not used to Microsoft.

Even if Windows is inseparable from life, it does not affect consumers' emotional opposition to Microsoft.

It may seem like an exaggeration to say that Microsoft's acquisition of Matrix would mean a further expansion of the dark Ones, but at the beginning of the 21st century, Microsoft is such an image.

"Newman shouldn't cooperate with Microsoft, Microsoft's intervention will change everything in Matrix, such as the current open ecosystem, excellent experience of the operating system, and close to perfect hardware.

Microsoft is going to make everything suck. Raymond said in an interview.

Raymond, whose full name is Eric Raymond, was a good figure in the early open source movement, began programming in 1980, led a series of open source movements, and hated Microsoft.

"Yes, Newman is great, but Microsoft is going to mess it all up, and the merger of Matrix and Microsoft looks like a strong merger, yes, Microsoft has a lot of experience with the operating system of personal PCs and has a huge presence in Silicon Valley.

But Newman also has these things, and Newman has a unique talent and insight in the product, and he doesn't need to rely on Microsoft's experience to make a smartphone operating system that is much better than Microsoft's mobile operating system.

As long as there are enough users, all mistakes are shallow.

Do you understand? The name Newman alone is enough to attract a large number of users to test the operating system, and all problems will be fixed quickly, and Matrix does not need Microsoft to improve the development quality of MOS. ”

The phrase that Raymond just said is Linus's law, which roughly means that there are enough samples to test, and the problems in the code itself are easy to find and easy to fix, which is his own law.

This law was later validated in a popular project on GitHub.

The people who are dissatisfied with the merger of Microsoft and Matrix are far more than Raymond, there are also mobile phone giants, but their mood is not dissatisfaction but panic.

Matrix has already overwhelmed them in the smartphone market, and the generation gap in technology has made all the traditional mobile phone giants invest heavily in R&D to try to catch up.

If Microsoft and Matrix merge, it will mean a bigger gap for them, and Microsoft's wide range of offline channels around the world can also help Matrix make up for the last shortcoming, offline channels.

The global sales volume of Mphone2 exceeded 10 million in just one quarter after its launch, of which it was not only 10 million potential customers, but Matrix's production capacity and offline channels only supported them to deliver the 10 million Mphone2 to consumers.

Motorola and Nokia held an executive meeting almost the same day to discuss countermeasures, while Motorola executives went to Seattle to find Microsoft executives to try to find some information.

Because the whistleblower has a certain reputation in Silicon Valley, especially has a good understanding of Microsoft's internal affairs, several previous revelations about Microsoft have finally been verified. So about the merger of Microsoft and Matrix, there are also many people who believe it.

In addition, Zhou Xin's image in the outside world has a bit of a bounty hunter flavor, as long as your chips are high enough, he is willing to sell you the products of his hard work.

"Bob, it seems that Microsoft is paying more attention to the smartphone market than the outside world thinks, and you have the courage to buy Matrix directly.

Newman's appetite is not small, and the average chip will certainly not impress Newman. ”

"No, no, no, it's just grapevine, at least as I'm the VP of mobile OS development, I haven't gotten any news from the inside about Microsoft buying Matrix.

Matrix is a behemoth, and although it has only been around for a few years, it is not like Visio, which can be acquired for billions of dollars. ”

Microsoft recently acquired Visio, a drawing software, the predecessor of office Visio.

"The outside world began to spread that Microsoft's senior management had talked to Newman about the same, but it had not yet officially responded to the matter from the enterprise level.

Bob, honestly, how do you see the future of the smartphone operating system that Microsoft and we jointly developed after the merger of Microsoft and Matrix?

Will Microsoft open up MOS to us, or will it push two mobile operating systems at the same time, or what? ”

"I'm sorry, Paul, you don't have to take my words, first of all, I don't know if Microsoft will merge with Matrix, and secondly, we need to discuss internally what will happen to windos mobile after the merger.

In addition, whether the new smartphone operating system will be open to the outside world is the third question, and there is a strong logical relationship between them, and I can't even answer the first question, let alone the third. ”

"Well, I was asking how Microsoft views our joint project and whether Microsoft's management has changed its attitude towards this matter."

Bob is pretending to be confused, and he knows that Microsoft executives, including him, are unhappy with Motorola's insistence on working on its own operating system:

"There is no change, Microsoft's attitude towards this project will not change until the acquisition of Matrix is officially closed, and we hope that through the cooperation with Motorola, Windows Mobile will become a competitive enough smartphone operating system in the market."

After the news fermented, Microsoft's stock price rose by more than 15 percent the next day, and Wall Street was much more well-informed, and they knew that Zhou Xin went to Bill Gates' villa for a vacation, and the two had a good conversation.

Goldman Sachs has even received preliminary information, which roughly means that Newman has some willingness to merge Microsoft and Matrix, and wants them to explore the regulatory tone first.

It is questionable whether regulation will allow a merger between a substantial monopoly in an established sector and a semi-monopoly in another emerging sector.

In his notification to Goldman Sachs, Ballmer hinted that if they could get the regulation right, the merger would be handed over to Goldman Sachs.

For Goldman Sachs, which got the news in advance, began to operate, and ghost stories about the merger of Microsoft and Matrix spread in Washington, Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

This is just like the room temperature superconductivity of later generations has not been fully verified, and the capital market has reacted in advance.

Microsoft's investor relations department has received calls from all over the world asking if Microsoft will merge with Matrix.

When the Koreans claimed to have discovered room-temperature superconductivity, it was useless to call the superconductivity concept company because they didn't know whether it was real or fake.

But the merger between Microsoft and Matrix is not a natural phenomenon, but the result of the development of things, and anxious investors hope that Microsoft can give a quasi-letter, after all, it is always easy to chase high.

A Microsoft spokesperson on Wall Street focused on answering these questions in a public interview:

"As for whether Microsoft will merge with Matrix, all I can say is that Matrix is a great company, and Microsoft does not rule out this possibility."

"Could it be that the good personal relationship between Mr. Zhou and Mr. Gates could have been a key factor in the eventualization of this merger?"

"Sorry, it hasn't happened yet, now Microsoft does not exclude merger with Matrix, and the final result is subject to the official announcement."

Microsoft's official actions pushed this drama to a climax, so much so that Jobs came to Zhou Xin to ask: "Newman, I heard that you plan to sell Matrix?"

How about thinking about Apple?

Apple and Matrix merge. ”

Zhou Xin shook his head: "Apple can't afford to buy Matrix, not to mention Apple's book capital, Apple's market value is not as high as Matrix's revenue." ”

Jobs felt like he had been hit by an arrow in the knee, which was a bit of a prickly feeling.

Jobs said, "What about Matrix's acquisition of Apple?

Matrix's acquisition of Apple is equivalent to listing on the NASDAQ through the shell of Apple.

Matrix's acquisition of Apple will not affect Apple's launch of its own smartphones, nor will it affect Matrix's continued launch of the Mphone series.

It is equivalent to the addition of a product line like Matrix under Apple. ”

To be honest, Apple still has some valuable technology, especially the people who make MacOS and can help Matrix's MOS fly.

Zhou Xin is reluctant to merge with Microsoft because once he merges with Microsoft, the dominance will be handed over, and Microsoft's social reputation will have a negative impact on Matrix.

Apple is different, Apple belongs to the image of a tragic hero, even if it barely has a sense of existence with the help of iPod, but it is still a tragic hero with a sense of existence.

Zhou Xin fell into thinking, I don't want to be acquired by Microsoft, but I can buy Apple, Jobs wants Matrix to go public through Apple's shell, and I want to use Apple's technology to develop Matrix's smartphones.

This is not a conflict, and since he is already a major shareholder of Apple, the merger of Matrix and Apple does not need to pay too much price.

Zhou Xin grinned: "Steve, I did think about selling Matrix to Microsoft.

If Bill can make a bid, and if I sell Matrix to Microsoft, I'm going to buy Apple for privatization. ”

Jobs was shocked in his heart, not to mention the cash flow after selling Matrix to Microsoft, even if Zhou Xin wants to buy Apple now, it is not bad money, because Apple is not expensive at all.

Moreover, Apple's small and medium-sized shareholders are happy to see Zhou Xin become Apple's controlling shareholder, which means that they have a deeper interest binding with Zhou Xin.

The previous bundle of benefits has led Apple to launch imaginative products like the iPod Zero, which has helped Apple reopen the high-end music player market.

If Zhou Xin becomes Apple's controlling shareholder, there will definitely be more benefits.

Reputation can sometimes be of great use, and Zhou's reputation has made his investments and mergers and acquisitions in the Internet and consumer electronics fields unfavorable.

This is not only the case in Silicon Valley, but also in China, where the previous cooperation with Huahong required Hu Zhengming and Shen Hai's leaders to talk before it could be finalized.

Now Shenhai and even the entire Huaguo wafer factory is eager to sell part of the equity to Xinxin Technology, and give control to Xinxin Technology, isn't it fragrant to lie on the books and pay dividends?

The only thing that makes these local state-owned platforms dissatisfied is that the salary of Xinxin for front-line engineers is too high, and it is completely possible to reduce the salary, and the net profit will not be more after the reduction?

The people who really work are in the middle and lower reaches of the distribution of benefits, which is almost a potential consensus in China.

Back in Silicon Valley, Jobs said with a blank face: "Newman, if you buy Apple, you will definitely be a new source of inspiration for Apple, and bring a steady stream of inspiration to Apple."

I'm excited to see that day come. ”

When you can't refuse, you can only enjoy it and think about the good side. With the current prestige of Steve Jobs, Apple's board of directors cannot refuse Newman, not to mention that Newman himself is the most powerful member of Apple's board of directors.

Zhou Xin said: "Now you have given me a new idea, Matrix does not need to rely on Microsoft's offline channels, Apple is also a good offline channel."

After the merger of Apple and Matrix, Mphone continued to focus on high-end, exploring the cutting-edge technology of smartphones, breaking through the shackles of reality, and Apple was able to make mid-range smartphones, products with lower prices and more acceptable to consumers.

I also have a Xiaomi company in Huaguo, which also makes smartphones, and he can specialize in the middle and low end.

In this way, Matrix, Apple and Xiaomi occupy the mobile phone market from low to high price points. ”

In fact, Zhou Xin had similar ideas before, but he never thought of Apple's acquisition of Matrix.

Although he is the largest shareholder in terms of equity relationship, he still has more than 70% of the shares of the new Apple after the completion of the merger.

But behind Apple's acquisition of Matrix and Matrix's acquisition of Apple is a completely different concept. Matrix is a company founded in Silicon Valley, and most of its employees are engineers in Silicon Valley, but it is still a Chinese company because Zhou Xin is a Chinese national.

Matrix's acquisition of Apple is too sensitive and nearly impossible to obtain regulatory approval.

Apple's acquisition of Matrix is different, it is an acquisition of Huaguo by Ameriteng Enterprises, although the shareholding structure behind it will not change.

It is not only found in animals, but also in humans.

Zhou Xin's communication with Steve Jobs gave him a new idea, if Apple buys Matrix, then he is sure that Goldman Sachs can run through Washington and make the deal finally happen.

(End of chapter)