Chapter 1986 Continuously Rising Valuations

Yin Jun's filming, especially "Forrest Gump", is a huge event in the American entertainment industry.

Every day, many media come to take photos and interviews.

Except for some necessary moments, they are not allowed to go to the set to shoot, and it is even less possible to interview Yin Jun and Tom Hanks.

But the role of actors like Marlon Brando was evident at this time. Every now and then, the old man would burst into business bragging, praising the entire crew of "Forrest Gump".

Although everyone knows that he is trying to please Yin Jun, they can't help but think that he is an Oscar-winning actor and the god of acting in the United States.

So after these reports were published, and photos came out from time to time, the popularity of "Forrest Gump" has never diminished.

According to the speed at which Yin Jun is filming, everyone is waiting to watch this movie in theaters in October or November at the latest, which they have been waiting for for many years.

According to the evaluations of several newspapers and consulting companies in the United States, the box office of "Forrest Gump" must not be bad, and it is very likely to set a record.

But even if the North American box office of "Forrest Gump" reached an unprecedented 500 million US dollars, it is not worth mentioning in the financial circles of the United States.

Today in the financial circles of the United States, the hottest thing is Microsoft's preparation for IPO.

It usually takes half a year or even a year for a company to go from planning to official listing. If it is a large company, it will take even longer.

Microsoft is a large company because it has occupied more than 50% of the computer operating systems on the market and is the well-deserved operating system king.

Compared with the Apple system and Linus system, the Windows system is simple and easy to learn, and is most suitable for ordinary people to learn and use.

So even if Microsoft decides to officially launch it next year, this will not affect their warm-up at all.

Investment banks and investors are very optimistic about Microsoft.

Because Microsoft has expanded too fast in recent years, especially with the strong support of Kirin Computer.

Kirin Computer was founded the year before last. In just two years, they already have two assembly plants with 35,000 workers and an annual production capacity of more than 2.5 million units. It is now the largest computer company in the world.

It's funny to say.

Kirin Computer Company does not have any core computer technology of its own, and all its accessories and technologies are purchased.

Including motherboards, chips, hard drives, operating systems, etc., these are all purchased by Kirin Computer from major companies and then assembled together.

Yes.

In fact, Kirin Computer is an assembly computer company. To be precise, it is a company that assembles parts and sells computers.

It is better than Wang An Computer Company, which actually makes typewriters, because it chooses real computers that are more high-tech and represent the future, but they also have no technical content.

However, in terms of market performance, no one can ignore the performance of Kirin Computer.

From a sales perspective, Kirin Computer has that kind of outstanding strength.

Their annual computer output of 2.5 million units not only supplies the U.S. market, but is also exported to Europe and Asia.

Compared with other computer companies, such as Apple, IBM, HP, and Compaq, Kirin Computer's technical advantages are not obvious, and its hardware configuration is inferior. When used, if it is used in depth, use Some more complex programs can show the difference.

But no matter what, the price is cheap.

In other computer companies, when computer prices are generally between 4,000 and 5,000 US dollars, a Kirin computer is only 2,999 US dollars, which is even lower in Asia, only 20,000 Hong Kong dollars.

Such a huge price advantage certainly allows people to choose it without hesitation.

After all, ordinary people simply cannot use so many functions of computers, and the configuration and performance of Kirin computers are enough for them.

Although a number of computer assembly companies similar to Kirin Computers were established last year, the most famous of them, Dell Computer Company, has a lower price than Kirin Computers, at only US$2,666.

But Dell Computer's market share is still small.

the reason is simple.

The quality of Dell computers is worse than that of Kirin computers, and the brand is not that big. Due to financial reasons, the advertisements are not so eye-catching.

The most important thing is the quality of service.

Kirin Computer has the same service quality as Kirin Group in Australia. As long as you make a call, it is guaranteed to come to your door for repair within 24 hours. The after-sales service attitude is excellent, which makes Americans feel safe when buying Kirin Computer and don’t have to worry about those messy things. You don’t have to worry about having to wait ten to eight days to repair it if it breaks, or having to wait a long time to get it repaired by taking it to the maintenance department.

People in Europe and the United States attach great importance to service quality, so on this point, Kirin Computer has captured their minds and then their wallets.

Since the purchase price is relatively transparent, according to statistics from some US survey agencies, Kirin Computer's net profit should be around 20%, which is not too much in the computer industry, but because it sells more, it is enough for their stable development. .

If we take into account the future development of the computer industry and Kirin Computer expands production, their profit margins will continue to rise.

Kirin Computer is so excellent that it has also driven the valuation of its close partner, Microsoft, to continue to rise.

As we all know, Kirin Computer is a company that assembles computers together, and ordinary people find it very troublesome to install the operating system themselves after buying a computer.

Therefore, the operating system is already installed on Kirin computers when they leave the factory. People can just take them home, turn on the computer and use it.

The operating system it requires is naturally Microsoft's.

From the choice of installation at the beginning to the necessity of bundled sales now, the public's resistance is not great, because after all, you have to use the operating system, and Microsoft's Windows system is so easy to use, of course there is no problem.

In this way, for every Kirin computer sold, a copy of the Microsoft Windows system will be sold, and Microsoft's Windows system sales will also increase sharply.

Not just Kirin computers, but Dell computers, which imitate Kirin computers in everything, are also bundled in the same way.

In 1984, Microsoft sold a total of 6.2 million copies of the Windows system, an increase of about 25% from the 5 million copies in 1983.

The price of the Windows system is not cheap. It costs 800 US dollars per unit. Even if it is discounted, it is worth 3 billion US dollars.

In terms of production profit, it is of course close to 100%. After all, the cost of making a copy of an installation disk will not exceed US$10 at most.

But these are not the only things settling accounts.

The various patents that Microsoft needs to purchase, their R&D team, maintenance team, upgrade and improvement team, after-sales team, advertising expenditures, etc., are the bulk of the expenditure.

Just last year, Microsoft's total expenses exceeded US$2.5 billion, and dividends to shareholders and employees were still US$300 million. In this way, Microsoft's total profit last year was actually only US$200 million.

At first glance, this kind of expenditure is too exaggerated, but the software production industry is inherently very expensive.

Sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars are invested, and you don’t even see any splashes and then it’s gone.

For example, last year Microsoft launched a software project on light and shadow conversion. It took 5 months and more than 200 million in funds, but in the end it could only announce that it would be sealed and wait to continue working on it later.

Moreover, although Microsoft is now selling more and more Windows systems, its various expenditures are also increasing relatively speaking.

First of all, their advertising expenses in various countries have surged, and they have spent an estimated 3.5 billion US dollars in one year.

Then they have set up their own branches in many countries, on the one hand for sales, on the other hand for software maintenance, etc. The total number of these foreign staff is quite large, and their salaries are even greater.

But even so, such a high sales scale still adds a lot of weight to Microsoft's valuation.

There is also the OFFICE office software launched by Microsoft in January this year, which is even more popular.

Computers have just developed now, and the Windows system has created a number of software companies, but most of them develop various office and work software, so computers do not have many game functions.

Most people will not buy computers costing several thousand dollars to play games.

They are mostly used for office and study purposes.

But before OFFICE, there was no good office software.

To be precise, it is an office software that is not that simple and easy to get started with and use.

OFFICE software solves this problem.

The document, drawing, tabulation and other software in it can be understood with a little learning, and it has many functions, which basically meet all kinds of normal office needs.

Under such circumstances, countless computer users happily chose to purchase it and then install it on their computers.

Especially companies, they usually buy the professional version with the most performance and the most complete functions, which is the most expensive 599 version.

Although the price is a bit expensive, it is definitely worth the money. Various document drafts, data charts, etc. that took a lot of hard work to prepare in the past can be easily done with the help of OFFICE.

Not only does it save time, it can even save the workload of one or two people.

In the long run, this kind of software can save the company a lot!

With so much popularity, the sales of OFFICE are also very high.

It sold 500,000 copies in the first month of its launch. As of June now, it has sold a total of 3 million copies, with revenue of as much as 600 million US dollars!

Don’t underestimate this $600 million.

Although its price is much lower than that of Windows systems, and most people only buy the 99 basic version, this thing is basically standard on every computer.

Even if you don't use a Windows system and use another operating system, this OFFICE office software is still a must-have.

There are more than 80 million computers in the world today, and there will soon be more than 100 million users.

Think about it, if all these users use OFFICE software, what a huge number this will be, and how much profits and benefits will it bring to Microsoft?

Under such circumstances, Microsoft's market value has soared to 1.5 billion US dollars in one breath thanks to its Windows system and OFFICE software. That is simply normal.

Many people are still saying that Microsoft's valuation is simply too underestimated and far from worthy of its outstanding performance.

But as we all know, the technology software industry is very fluid. You may be selling well in the past few years, but you will not be able to do it at all in a few years.

If you invest with high market value and lose all your pants in a few years, that would be bad.

For example, isn't that what Warner's Atari video game company is like?

Therefore, when Microsoft is still about a year away from going public, giving it a cautious valuation of US$1.5 billion is a sign of the sagacity of investment banks such as Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch!

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(What’s the rule? Nowadays, English letters don’t count as words. Writing in English is very troublesome, okay? I’m really sad...)