Back To 1995

  Chapter 1188 The first chicken soup in history

Song Yang had a good impression of Brian Roberts. Although he coveted ICQ at the beginning, his attitude was mild compared to the aggressiveness of Immelt, Bronfman Jr. and others after entering ICQ. , Brian Roberts rarely intervenes in ICQ's internal affairs, and there is no layman to guide the experts.

  Song Yang shook his head, and still said to Irene, "Comcast Group, if you want to join the battle for ICQ, let it come!"

   "An invitation is sent to companies interested in acquiring the Skype platform, and let them come to San Jose to participate in the auction!"

Since there are people rushing to give away heads, Song Yang can't refuse people thousands of miles away. That's not how to treat guests. This time for ICQ, it is natural to hold a grand auction, so that those big donors, all Able to fight for bids at will.

   Song Yang saw Irene's worried expression, and knew that she was afraid that after selling Skype, she would really breed tigers and create a deadly enemy for ICQ.

"After selling Skype, ICQ can launch new projects. Even if it cannot launch the same type of Internet phone products as Skype, ICQ can also launch professional Internet video communication software, corporate conference social platform, workplace social platform, etc., 3G, 4G The Internet era will come one day, and sooner or later, Internet calls will be replaced by video calls!

  They can buy a Skype, then ICQ will launch ten new platforms! "

Song Yang said to Irene that after selling Skype this year, ICQ will launch video communication platforms such as Whatsapp and Telegrams next year, as well as a new social platform such as Facebook, as well as LinkedIn, which are suitable for workplaces and company meetings. Platforms like Zomm, if they have the ability, they will buy all these platforms from ICQ. It depends on how much the buyers can pay!

  After ICQ sent invitations to Microsoft, News Corporation, Cisco, Comcast and other groups to go to San Jose to participate in ICQ's acquisition bid, the entire American technology industry focused on San Jose for a while.

And in a place where no one noticed, a new company was listed in an office building owned by the Bruno family in San Jose. In Silicon Valley, dozens of emerging technology companies pop up every day. Before the Internet bubble, even one day More than a few hundred can emerge.

  But this time is different from those start-up small companies. Those newly established small companies are either nested in a garage, or many small companies are crowded together in a small office, and they have to share water, electricity, broadband, telephone bills, etc.

   And this company occupied the entire ten-story building when it first came up, and began to recruit people aggressively, directly establishing two R&D teams. This kind of handwriting is rare in the entire Silicon Valley.

If there are investors from Los Angeles here, they will suddenly find that the busy person in this new office building is Kalanick who has been blocked by the entire Hollywood, and the sign hanging outside this building reads "Excellent step" company!

  After Kalanick established Uber, he directly recruited two development teams to develop taxi-hailing and food-delivery software at the same time. ICQ also supported a group of engineers from Uber, allowing Uber to set up the shelf.

   Kalanick is holding his breath now, and seems to want to prove himself that he is not the unlucky guy. After Uber was established, almost all food and lodging are in this building.

  What Uber has to do now is to build high walls and accumulate food to slowly become the king. When the Alcatel P6 mobile phone is launched next year, it will be born in the spring breeze of the P6 mobile phone.

  But at this time, the entire Silicon Valley and the American technology industry did not pay attention to Uber, and they were all watching the excitement over Skype.

  The companies that want to acquire the Skype platform all show their talents, and the most active ones belong to Microsoft and News Corporation.

Microsoft once again resorted to its own magic weapon. Microsoft’s board of directors decided to pass the proposal to issue additional stocks worth 5.5 billion dollars. Everyone knows that Microsoft is planning to kill all competitors with money. Compared with other competitors, Microsoft , the biggest difference is the ability to make money!

  In addition to Microsoft, there is News Corporation, which is constantly making big moves. Right now, News Corporation, a giant in the global media industry, is actively transforming.

Although the bubble of NASDAQ has burst, the footsteps of the Internet have not stopped. For traditional media, they are still under fierce attack from the Internet media. Portal websites headed by Yahoo, Internet social platforms headed by ICQ, The digital game camp based on the Xueleshan game platform, as well as the digital music of Saipan Music Store, the Internet video of IMDb, etc., have taken away a large number of users and advertisers from traditional media.

News Corporation has also felt the cold winter of traditional media, so it is constantly transforming. In order to allow News Corporation to catch up with the wave of Internet media, there is even news that Murdoch is planning to move the headquarters of News Corporation from a remote Australia, moved to Delaware, America, which shows Murdoch's determination.

The focus of News Corporation for so many years has always been on newspapers and TV stations. Murdoch is also a good player in mergers and acquisitions. Needless to say, Fox Group's TV stations and movies, over the years Murdoch has successively acquired Star TV, America's largest Satellite TV DirectTV and a lot of TV stations and newspaper groups.

Since this year, Murdoch has started to enter the Internet industry with a lot of money. After investing and acquiring Singtel and IGN game forums, he has also focused on the emerging social platforms Myspace and Skype, several major Internet companies. These acquisitions are not news. The group earned back a lot of dollars, but its stock price continued to rise.

After all, the decline of traditional media is something that everyone can see. Although it is still far away from being replaced by Internet media, this sense of threat is real, and it may be overthrown someday. Now that News Corp. is making changes, it is natural for Wall Street investment institutions to be excited.

Looking at the urban area of ​​San Jose already visible to the naked eye outside the cabin, Brian Roberts took a sip of his drink in the private jet that took off from Philadelphia. The current Brian Roberts has a beard on his face and a lot of white hair mixed with it. It turns out that the whole person is much calmer and more sophisticated than when he first took over the Comcast Group.

Since Brian Roberts took over Comcast, the most talked about is not what he has done in the Comcast group, but that even if he is impeached by the large and small shareholders of the Comcast group, he is impeached by Wall Street. Even though the stock price of ICQ has fallen to the price of cabbage due to strong pressure from institutions, he has always been under great pressure and has not sold it.

In an interview with the media, Brian Roberts declared that it was the most difficult day in his life. His hair turned white every day when he woke up, but Brian Roberts insisted on it, and finally started last year. , When ICQ’s stock price recovered, Brian Roberts was finally proud after ICQ reached the top of America’s largest market capitalization company this year.

When leaving the airport, I looked at the huge signboard of "Bruno San Jose Airport", as well as the airport being renovated and the duty-free shop at San Jose Airport under construction. The largest airport duty-free shop in America is being built here, as well as related people. Supporting facilities, including hotels, restaurants, etc., will not only be an airport in the future, but also the largest shopping and entertainment destination in the San Jose area.

   Brian Roberts glanced at it a few times, and without asking, he also knew that everything here was inseparable from the Bruno family.

  Brian Roberts came to San Jose as a member of the ICQ board of directors. After leaving the airport, ICQ personnel were waiting there to pick him up.

   Instead of going to ICQ headquarters, to talk to Irene and ICQ executives, Brian Roberts rushed directly to Bruno Manor where Song Yang was.

  In the car, Brian Roberts flipped out a newspaper bought at the airport. After flipping through a page, he couldn't help but shrink when he saw the headline on it.

   "News Corp. made another breakthrough and reached an acquisition agreement with the emerging social platform Myspace!"

Brian Roberts knew that Murdoch's News Corporation was also one of the most popular buyers for the acquisition of Skype, but he didn't expect that Murdoch had such a big appetite. Before bidding for Skype, he even spent 600 million dollars Acquired Myspace Corporation.

  New social platforms like Myspace are living a very tight life, and ICQ is like a mountain, pressing on them. Now that a giant like News Corporation is throwing an olive branch, it is natural to seize it as soon as possible.

It's just that Brian Roberts doesn't know how much money Murdoch can spend for Skype this time. As for Comcast Group, he also wants to win the Skype platform and cooperate with Comcast's own broadband and telephone business and win more markets.

At the beginning, Brian Roberts dominated the Comcast TV network, and merged with ICQ at a sky-high price of 45 billion US dollars, so that the Comcast TV network and ICQ completed the merger, Comcast Group, got 16% of ICQ's equity, and more than tens of billions of dollars in cash.

   This cash saved the life of Comcast Group and the Robert family when the NASDAQ crashed. If it weren’t for this cash flow, Brian Roberts might have sold Comcast Group.

   And the 16% equity in his hand now, according to the current market value of ICQ of 350 billion US dollars, is worth more than 56 billion US dollars. Calculated, Comcast Group is absolutely not losing money.

But Brian Roberts is somewhat dissatisfied with the status quo of the Comcast Group. He sold the second largest TV network in America in exchange for the equity of ICQ. It will be more valuable, but the development of Comcast Group has stagnated in the past few years, or it does not know where it is going.

If the TV network is sold, it is impossible for Comcast to buy it back from ICQ at a high price. Even if Song Yang is willing to sell, Comcast may not be able to buy it, and even if it is bought back, it is the TV network industry. The second child, second only to the Telephone and Telegraph Group, which owns the largest TV network TCI!

   How can I say otherwise, the Telephone and Telegraph Group is the big brother of the telecommunications and media industry in America.

  Comcast still has several TV stations and media companies in its hands. In addition, it is the most important telephone business and broadband business. Although Comcast is not the best in the telecommunications industry, it can be regarded as the overlord.

  But Brian Roberts is not satisfied with the situation of Comcast. He originally advocated the merger of Comcast TV Network and ICQ. In fact, his idea was to let the Robert family become the speaker of ICQ.

But Brian Roberts did all his calculations, but he didn’t count. After entering ICQ, what he had to face was not Song Yang, the founder, but Immelt, the head of General Electric, who was like a wolf and a tiger. Robert’s family They couldn't beat General Electric either, and finally ICQ turned around and returned to Song Yang.

I must be unwilling, but after experiencing the roller coaster changes of ICQ, Brian Roberts himself understands that Song Yang, the founder of ICQ, is the most suitable to helm ICQ, and others, including Immelt, Bronfman Jr., and others , It is estimated that you will not be able to play ICQ, and you may lose your hands in the end.

  When he came to San Jose this time, Brian Roberts also held the idea of ​​buying Skype if he could, and finding another way out for Comcast if he couldn’t.

   Entering the largest manor in America, Brian Roberts glanced at the manor briefly, and saw Song Yang who came out to greet him.

   "Brian, long time no see!"

  Song Yang said warmly to Brian Roberts, and took him into the manor, "How is the old Mr. Roberts, I always wanted to visit him, but unfortunately I always missed it!"

"good!"

   "The doctor advised him to rest, but he is planning his own global tour, his character, you know, no one can stop him!"

  Brian Roberts shook his head, and said to Song Yang helplessly, and then entered the living room, and noticed a book on the table, which was indeed a first draft that had not yet been officially published.

   "The Autobiographical Memoir of Welch!"

  Song Yang saw Brian Roberts' gaze, "Time Warner Publishing Company has prepared 10 million copies for it!"

Welch's memoirs are in the hands of Time Warner. With the acquisition of AOL Time Warner by ICQ, the copyright naturally falls into the hands of ICQ. For the former world's first professional manager who is now a consultant at the North American Global Investment Fund ICQ won't neglect the autobiography. After all, this is the first chicken soup article in history. If you read this book, you may become the next Welch's banner. The epic chicken soup recommended by countless success masters. Is 10 million copies too much? !

Hearing that ICQ would print more than 10 million copies of this book, Brian Roberts was also secretly speechless. Of course he knew that Welch was working as a consultant for Song Yang, but he didn't expect that even Welch would inevitably The fate of being plundered is nothing more than being a consultant to Song Yang, and the memoirs also help Song Yang earn money. Judging by the posture, he can imagine that ICQ will probably brag about Welch's autobiographical memoirs in the future. , I don’t know how many leeks will be cut again.

  (end of this chapter)