Back To 1995

   Chapter 660 The Law of True Fragrance

   "I doubt that Bruno Song is deliberately raising the price for Netscape!"

  AOL President Keith's confidant Lyonsis said after seeing ICQ's offer to Netscape.

  Case flipped through the data in his hand, and after a while, he said, "Now let's see if the acquisition of Netscape is beneficial to AOL!"

  Lyonses knows his boss's ambitions. He wants to be the leader of the Internet and the technology industry, and beat Microsoft and ICQ. This has been Case's long-cherished wish for more than a year.

It is said that the more you lack, the more you mention it. This point is absolutely applicable to AOL. In the fight against Microsoft, AOL did not take any advantage. In the Internet industry, the AOL instant messaging software launched by AOL was also pressed and beaten by ICQ. , Dial-up Internet access has also fallen into a bottleneck, and more and more users have been taken away by America Telecom.

   At this time, Case urgently needs to open up the situation for AOL. Even if the acquisition price is expensive, as long as he can help AOL break the situation, Case is willing to act as a bad guy.

Lyonsis said to Case, "Netscape is still ahead of Microsoft's IE in terms of browser technology. Netscape plans to launch a new generation of high-speed browser "Raptor". It is rumored that it will adopt a free strategy. The scene is returning to some users…”

   What troubles Netscape has never been any technology. Netscape has always been a standout in browser technology, but Microsoft can’t stand it. The system directly bundles the IE browser. When the user opens the Netscape browser, the computer freezes, restarts, etc.

Microsoft doesn't use this method every day. Occasionally, people who are tossing are miserable. Ordinary users are disappointed, not to mention those software companies that develop plug-ins for browsers. What they want is stability. Collapse” of Netscape, naturally, stay away.

"If Netscape is acquired, AOL will indeed be able to directly obtain a complete set of browsers and technologies, and can directly provide services to AOL users, without relying on Microsoft IE browser, and can use Netscape to implement AOL's portal website, News and more!"

  Lyonses said that AOL's acquisition of Netscape is a natural blessing, and it can get a lot of benefits for AOL. Netscape's patents and its technical staff are enough for AOL to have a full meal.

It seems to be very good, but Lyons also has to remind his boss, "But if you buy Netscape, the purchase price will probably be very high, probably more than $4 billion, and you will need to face Microsoft's competition and compete with Microsoft fights antitrust lawsuit!"

The acquisition of Netscape means that it has inherited everything from Netscape, in addition to the browser and technical staff, there is also a lawsuit with Microsoft, and the relationship with Microsoft is almost endless. Of course, the lawsuit can be withdrawn, but Lyonsey That's not Case's character, he knew.

   Sure enough, after hearing Leonsis' words, Case sneered, "Will AOL be afraid of Microsoft?!"

It is estimated that Case himself can't tell how deep the grievance between AOL and Microsoft is, and when did it start? Maybe it was Bill Gates' rhetoric against AOL that humiliated Case and must not Needless to say, Bill Gates did have a set of hatred in his early years.

   At that time, Bill Gates threatened to buy AOL and let AOL go to see God, which caused Case to rant about Microsoft. In addition, AOL and Microsoft both wanted to control the computer desktop.

AOL wants users to use AOL's dial-up Internet access, and then log in to AOL's portal website, social software, and listen to music, watch movies, check stocks, learn online, etc. on the platform provided by AOL. Similarly, these things, Microsoft also If you want to do it so much, it's weird if the two sides can't fight.

   "AOL needs to take down Netscape and show the strength of AOL to our "ally" Time Warner!" After thinking about it, Case said to Leonsis.

  Acquisition of Netscape can't satisfy Case's appetite at all. What Case wants to do is to make the whole Wall Street go crazy and take Time Warner into the bag!

Originally, AOL wanted to find a media giant to cooperate to obtain the media, news, movies, TV, music, publishing and many other content it needed, but in Bertelsmann, News Corporation, and Disney, all of them were frustrated. Those media The giant didn't look down on AOL at all. Only when he came into contact with Time Warner, the head of Time Warner, Jerry Levine, did not reject AOL's proposal immediately, but seemed to be quite interested, which made Case see hope.

  Acquired Netscape, which could raise AOL's stock price, and then launched a shocking acquisition of Time Warner. This is a routine that everyone is playing. WorldCom is playing, and Song Yang is also ready to play...

   Seeing Case and making up his mind, Leonsis got up and said, "I will make an offer to Netscape and buy Netscape at all costs!"

   Not only AOL, but Yahoo is also thinking about it, but it is not as determined as Netscape, and it has been hesitant to make an offer to Netscape.

   "The risk is too high, the purchase price is too high, Yahoo gets Netscape, and if Netscape can't be brought back to life, it will be a huge blow to Yahoo, and it will affect Yahoo's stock price!"

   "The key is still on Microsoft's side. Is Yahoo going to start a war with Microsoft in the browser industry?"

  In Yahoo's board of directors, there are different opinions. Yahoo's president Coog is hesitant. This is a real big deal for Yahoo, whether to fight with Microsoft.

   To be honest, since Yahoo debuted, it hasn’t experienced any major battles. It has been making great strides along the way, and has never met a decent opponent. Suddenly, he wants to challenge Microsoft, and Cooger has no idea.

   "Yahoo can't give up such an opportunity. Now that Microsoft's MSN has entered the portal website, if Yahoo doesn't acquire Netscape, Microsoft will let Yahoo go?"

  Yang Zhiyuan was determined to acquire Netscape. He wanted Yahoo to show off his muscles. Whether he can beat him or not is another matter.

  Coog wanted to support Yang Zhiyuan. He also believed that Yahoo couldn't be content with the status quo. The portal website does not have many moats, so it is not that it cannot be replaced.

   But looking at the reluctance of several Wall Street directors at Yahoo, it gave Coog a headache.

   "Yahoo should make an offer to Netscape, but the purchase price should not be too high. If it exceeds $4 billion, Yahoo will withdraw. After the acquisition, Yahoo can withdraw its lawsuit against Microsoft and avoid conflict with Microsoft!"

Kuger suggested that retreating because of price issues is already an old tradition of Yahoo. Not only now, but in the future, it will miss Google and Facebook because of price, and even sell oneself. The operation is nothing more than because this is a company completely controlled by Wall Street.

   When buying, you will be afraid to make a bid because you are worried about losing money. When you sell yourself, you will not want to sell because the price is too low, and you will get nothing after that.

   Cooger also knew the urgency of Wall Street, so he made such a strange proposal.

  Yang Zhiyuan opened his mouth. He was unwilling. To acquire Netscape, of course, he had to do whatever it took, but at this time Cooger had already started voting.

   Seeing that Coog and the directors of Wall Street have raised their hands to agree, Yang Zhiyuan looked at Yahoo's largest shareholder, the representative of SoftBank's directors in Yahoo, and raised his hand expressionlessly when he saw the benzene devil.

Although SoftBank is the number one shareholder of Yahoo, SoftBank obviously does not want to offend Wall Street, for fear of being expelled from America. In Yahoo's management and voting, Wall Street is the mainstay, and it will not oppose Wall Street's proposal at all. Naturally, it is also Will not stand on Yang Zhiyuan's side.

   Seeing that all the directors raised their hands, Yang Zhiyuan and another Yahoo chief, Ferro, looked at each other and raised their hands helplessly.

There are not a few companies that have ideas for Netscape. In addition to AOL and Yahoo, another major portal site, Lycos, as well as Disney, News Corporation, etc., are also eyeing them, but ICQ’s starting price is too high. The billion-dollar knife makes those who want to find out a bit discouraged.

   After ICQ's offer, unexpectedly, before AOL had time to offer, there was jaw-dropping news that Microsoft made a $3.8 billion offer to Netscape, threatening that as long as Netscape was willing to sell, Microsoft could buy it in cash!

   One stone stirred up a thousand waves, and as soon as Microsoft's offer came out, who would dare to say that Netscape is worthless?

For Microsoft, this is definitely not a loss. Buying Netscape with billions of dollars can end the anti-monopoly lawsuit against rights protection. This is such a special conversion. If the stock price is a few dollars longer, it will all be earned back. .

Netscape's response to Microsoft was very simple. Jim Clark himself declared, "We will not consider Microsoft's offer. No matter if Microsoft pays $4 billion, $5 billion or $10 billion, Netscape will not sell it. To Microsoft!"

Jim Clark's attitude is very clear. It is a feud with Microsoft. Even if Netscape goes bankrupt, it will go bankrupt. It will not accept Microsoft's offer, and it will not sell 10 billion dollars. A fight.

When Song Yang saw this report, he couldn't help but complained to Irene, Greck, Iger and others around him, "Jim Clark really dares to raise the price, ten billion dollars in cash, don't say Netscape, ICQ can be sold to Microsoft!"

   (end of this chapter)