dognovel Chapter 49 The Unexpected Investor
Chapter 49 The Unexpected Investor
When news of Google's openness to funding spread like wildfire, the entire capital market was instantly thrown into turmoil.
Right now, the internet industry is seen by investors as a fledgling startup. Unlike a few years later, when they'll be eager to thoroughly analyze every aspect of the internet industry.
However, this does not mean that capital dislikes the Internet industry. On the contrary, compared with traditional industries, Internet companies are more favored by capital.
Internet companies move at a faster pace and develop more rapidly.
Take Yahoo for example. It completed its financing and listing within a year of its founding, and its market value doubled again a year later, which is unimaginable in traditional industries.
Looking at Microsoft, it was founded only twenty years ago and has been listed for just ten years, yet its market value has already soared to $1300 billion.
This would be considered a pipe dream for traditional industries of the past.
What does rapid expansion and development represent?
It's a quick way to make money.
This means that internet companies can weave a dream with endless possibilities for investors in an extremely short period of time. What would normally take five, ten, or even more years to go public can be reduced to a year or a few months for internet companies.
Going public is like a lush green field of leeks; only when a company goes public can Wall Street wield its sickle and harvest the newly grown leeks.
The Internet is like a large-scale engineering machine, capable of cultivating a fertile land suitable for the growth of chives in a very short time.
What Ernst didn't expect was that the first to come knocking on his door were not the wealthy and renowned giants of Wall Street, but rather two internet companies, Microsoft and Lucent.
"Let Bill die."
"Yes, I like your directness."
Ernst's unhesitating remark was met with cheers from the entire Google executive team.
Sergei Brin, in particular, jumped up and down in support of Ernst.
Microsoft doesn't have a very good reputation in the American tech industry.
Especially in this day and age, everyone can become best friends with Microsoft, and they can just criticize it together.
Ernst didn't dislike Brother Bill because he was complicit in his wrongdoings; he was simply disgusted by the other man's actions.
In the month since Google became Netscape's search engine, Internet Explorer's promising trajectory has come to an end, and Netscape's rebound in market share has dealt a heavy blow to Bill Gates' dream of a unified browser market.
And it's clear to anyone with eyes to see who brought all this down.
According to information Ernst obtained from Netscape, Microsoft's IE division began studying Google as early as two weeks ago, intending to incorporate some of Google's search engine algorithms into the IE browser's search engine.
Currently, Microsoft's progress is not ideal, while Google's growth rate is fast enough.
Microsoft is clearly worried that once their Internet Explorer search technology catches up with Google, Google's search engine will have already unified the market.
Moreover, Google is constantly improving; technology doesn't stand still.
Instead of investing so much money to gamble on an uncertain future, it would be better to be more direct and simply throw the checks in Google's face.
"As expected of Microsoft, they really have deep pockets. Their first offer was $4.5 million."
Unlike tech geeks, Jason only cares about money, not whether it's from Microsoft.
Holding the acquisition offer from Microsoft, he strolled around, remarking, "Compared to Microsoft, I feel like those guys on Wall Street are all penniless."
Ernst, on the other hand, remained calm, casually taking the invitation from Jason's hand and throwing it into the trash can without even glancing at it.
"Unless you trade the entire Microsoft for it, we'll teach Bill Gates a lesson in failure. Technology is technology; not all products can be solved by copying."
"Yes, I agree with that."
Well, he's gained another little fanboy, and Larry Page rarely speaks.
"And what about Lucent? Lucent's president, Thomas, personally called me to ask if Google was planning to raise funds. If possible, they would prefer to acquire Google entirely, indicating that the price was negotiable."
Sergey looked at Ernst, a smile unconsciously appearing on his face at the sight of two giants simultaneously eyeing Google.
This isn't to say that Sergei advocated selling Google; it's an affirmation of Google's value.
"Google is not going to be sold as a whole."
Enster set the tone, and the heavy weight lifted from the hearts of the people in the conference room.
Everyone knows that Google's future is far more than this; its prospects are vast and full of endless possibilities.
They had been on tenterhooks, fearing that Ernst might succumb to the temptation of such a huge sum of money and impulsively sell Google.
After all, Ernst only invested a few million dollars, and the value increased a hundredfold in just one month. This was a great test of human nature.
Fortunately, Ernst did not hesitate at all, which made them feel that they had made the right choice in following this usually unreliable boss.
"Should we invite them over for a talk?"
Ernst thought for a moment and said, "We can definitely talk, but the other party is just using us to raise prices, so you need to be careful with your approach."
Everyone understood; Ernst had rejected Lucent's offer of financing.
"Why?" Jason wanted to know his cousin's reasons; for him, the first principle was to maximize profits.
He welcomes Lucent to join him if Lucent can offer the most sincere offer.
"For no particular reason, I just don't have a good opinion of this investor; they're too profit-driven."
Lucent was spun off from AT&T, but it was less of a spin-off and more of a short-sighted act of killing the goose that lays the golden eggs.
After more than a century of development, AT&T's shares have long been dispersed among dozens or even hundreds of institutions, who don't care about sentiment or technology, but simply use it as a tool for investment and profit.
They are willing to support whoever can bring them benefits to rise to power.
Therefore, executives at AT&T proposed a solution: to completely separate equipment manufacturing from AT&T and establish an independent equipment manufacturing company.
In the past, AT&T's equipment manufacturing division only supplied equipment internally and never sold it to external parties.
However, it's different when a company becomes independent. AT&T's competitors can also buy their equipment. As soon as the equipment company goes public, the equipment orders it receives in the short term will definitely cause its stock price to soar.
Indeed, Lucent, which had just gone public two months prior, had a market capitalization of less than $180 billion, but Ernst knew that three years later the company's market capitalization would reach $2640 billion.
The dot-com bubble played a part in this, but the growth in performance is also undeniable.
They seek quick profits without considering long-term development.
The entire company, from executives to shareholders, and even employees with a large number of shares, had the idea of making a quick buck and leaving.
If we agree to let them become Google shareholders, who knows how many problems will arise.
However, when Ernst thought of the Lavida, he thought of Bell Labs, which was assigned to the Lavida.
Prioritizing the other party's interests is a strategy worth considering.
Bell Labs remains a sanctuary for scientists, home to countless brilliant minds.
If a few more years pass and Lucent ruins Bell Labs, there won't be much need to acquire it.