Chapter 2040: Careful Consideration

Whitman's voice could not be called friendly; it sounded full of accusations.

Feng Yiping put his feet up on the table, "Tsk, this is the Whitman I am familiar with,"

The furious Whitman almost blurted out when he heard Feng Yiping's words, "Are you a bitch? You don't want people to talk to you properly?"

But think about the connotation of Feng Yiping's words and think about the things he has done in the past. It seems that what he said is correct?

However, now is not the time for self-reflection. She suppressed her anger and asked Feng Yiping in a low voice, "Don't you think that our quotation is full of respect and sincerity for you?"

Although she restrained herself this time, there was still a bit of chill in her voice, just like the winter that had just passed.

"Respect and sincerity? Sorry, I really can't feel it," Feng Yiping shook his head.

"Such conditions can't make you feel our sincerity?" Whitman paused, "Then, I think we can only..."

"Let me ask you Whitman, if we go to two years later, that is, in 2007, how many users do you think we can grow Skype to? 300 million, not too much,"

Whitman said nothing, which of course was not much.

In fact, according to the current development speed of Skype, and according to their team, they are currently discussing access issues with several countries at the same time. It seems that it will not be difficult to achieve this goal by the end of 2006.

"If we can achieve profitability by then, do you think we can put it on the market?" Feng Yiping continued.

Whitman was speechless, of course he could!

"After listing, even if the price-to-earnings ratio is 10 times, it should be no problem,"

That's no problem of course.

Although the price-to-earnings ratio of U.S. stocks is relatively rational, for a high-tech company with a halo like Skype, no matter what, it will not only have a price-to-earnings ratio of 10 times, but even 40 times, which is also reasonable.

"How much do you think we can increase costs in these two years? Is 500 million enough? Let's just calculate 1 billion,"

That is of course enough.

Relatively speaking, Skype can definitely be regarded as an asset-light project.

"Then, based on your professional experience, you can judge that a company with more than 300 million users around the world, and the number of users is still growing continuously, and has achieved profitability, even if it is listed on Nasdaq With a price-to-earnings ratio of only 10 times, what should its market value be?”

"Do you think there will only be 5 billion?"

Whitman still had nothing to say.

According to the current enthusiasm for Skype by so many people, the current enthusiasm for high technology in the US stock market, especially with Feng Yiping's participation, his influence around the world, and his relationship with the US financial community, this is Based on the basic market, it is not difficult to achieve a market value of US$5 billion.

"Then, the only key question left is whether Skype can be profitable by then," Feng Yiping said.

"Let me ask you, Whitman, do you think, in two years, I can make this profitable?"

Whitman was speechless.

She believed that as long as Feng Yiping wanted to do it, it would be possible.

Besides, according to the rules of the US stock market, in fact, whether it can achieve profitability is not a necessary condition.

"So you're telling me that this is your respect and sincerity for me?"

"Feng, I believe that as long as you want to do it, you can do it..." Whitman's tone softened a lot.

Feng Yiping interrupted her before she could say "but", "If we plan to hold it for another two years, do you think the US$4 billion offer by that time is very sincere?"

According to what Feng Yiping described, it can be said to be quite insincere.

"Whitman, although we have always had different views on some issues, I still appreciate and admire your professional abilities very much,"

You actually only said admiration is the best.

"The determination and courage you have shown in leading eBay to become the world's largest e-commerce company are absolutely worthy of your title of Queen of Silicon Valley,"

Whitman, who was holding the phone, sat up straight.

She didn't know yet that after receiving so many praises and affirmations from all over the world, she could still be so excited by such a complimentary word.

Perhaps it's because he has never had the upper hand in front of Feng Yiping?

Maybe it's because in my heart, I really admire what Feng Yiping has done?

Perhaps, it is even more rare to receive recognition from a competitor? …

In short, Feng Yiping's affirmation reminded Whitman of the impressive praises he had received since childhood.

However, after the joy and joy, she suddenly became alert.

Praise from competitors is not necessarily pure, or in other words, there is a great possibility that it must have a bad purpose, paralysis, that is the first possibility that people think of.

Feng Yiping praised me at this time to paralyze me and prevent me from seeing some of the fatal problems that Skype will encounter in its future development, so he asked me to agree to a fixed price of US$4 billion?

What fatal problems may Skype encounter during its development?

Whitman couldn't figure it out.

It's not that she couldn't figure it out at the moment. When they decided to acquire Skype, they naturally conducted a rigorous risk assessment.

The result of the evaluation is that according to the existing development model, they can't find the possibility that Skype will face fatal problems.

Because the biggest problem in Skype's development is the access of various countries. According to the current trend, they have successfully obtained access to some old powers including the United States and Europe, as well as the access of most influential countries in the world except China.

Many of them even took the initiative to talk to Skype about access.

After this threshold, there is no need to worry about the development of Skype.

Because it is basically like Feng Yiping's Facebook, it doesn't need to invest much in publicity, and it can quickly develop a large number of users just by relying on everyone's word of mouth.

And like Facebook, Skype's user stickiness will be very high. The reason is very simple. Whether it is for corporate users or individual users, this is a good product that can greatly reduce their communication costs.

As long as you make calls every day, you will use it every day.

From Whitman's understanding, many eBay employees now cannot do without Skype every day.

This is a good example.

As for profitability, Feng Yiping is right. Even if there are only 200 million users, let alone 300 million users, what can't be done to make money with such a high stickiness of 200 million users? Is it difficult to achieve profitability?

Besides, how much growth can Skype integrate into eBay bring to the company's main business, e-commerce business?

"In that case, Feng, I want to hear your opinion,"

"Look, Whitman, you know better than me how popular Skype is now. Let me put it this way, if it weren't for the founder Zenstrom's strong desire to sell it now, I think, including me, the board members, not many people would want to make such a decision when the situation is so good,"

"And the reason why Zenstrom made such a decision, I think you can also understand that not everyone can withstand the huge pressure like us, and have the same strong will and confidence as us to believe that they can succeed,"

"We can understand his urgency to lock in the existing results after experiencing a tragic failure,"

Whitman and his men have also studied this point a long time ago. If it weren't for the previously developed KaZaA, which seemed to be a great situation, it would only bring little return and a lot of trouble to Zenstrom and his team in the end. They believe that Zenstrom would not think of selling this absolutely phenomenal product when the situation is so good.

So at the beginning, they were a little worried that Skype would change its mind.

Besides, there is Feng Yiping, who is also likely to be interested in Skype.

"But even if it is sold, whether he, me, or other members of Skype's board of directors, we all hope to find the most suitable buyer for it,"

"I think you know the feelings of developers for their products best,"

But even so, you can't stop pursuing higher bids, Whitman thought.

Of course, she can also understand this point. Who wouldn't say such a polite word? Who would refuse a better return? Especially the motivation of Zenstrom to advocate the sale of Skype is to get a high return.

Whitman did agree with what Feng Yiping said. Indeed, not everyone can be as confident in themselves and the future as the two of them.

Just like those American people who won the lottery, although they all know that the huge prizes won are divided into 29 years and received annually, not only are they more guaranteed, but you will have at least 29 years, not just a few years, to squander the money.

And the amount you get is higher, because you only need to pay taxes on the bonus, not on the investment income, and the amount of tax on the bonus is also decreasing year by year.

But so far, very few people choose to do this. Most people would rather pay taxes twice at once, once for the bonus and once for the investment income, and finally only get about half of the winning amount in cash.

Those people can only be said to be lucky, but they don’t actually have the qualities of success.

"I can see how much you value Skype, but I appreciate other situations more. We know that eBay has also made a lot of mergers and acquisitions in recent years. It is gratifying that the companies acquired by you, although not all of them can develop well, at least they will not be hailed as startup killers like those companies we know,"

Whitman knew that Feng Yiping was talking about Yahoo.

"At the same time, as a high-tech company, eBay undoubtedly has the ability to successfully operate products like Skype,"

This is naturally referring to News Corporation.

Relatively speaking, they are outsiders in how to operate based on the Internet.

In many industries, the most taboo thing is that laymen guide professionals.

"You also know that at the point where you and I are today, in addition to commercial returns, we have many other factors to consider,"

Although Feng Yiping's words were rather obscure, Whitman immediately understood what he meant.

At their current point, reputation, for example, is indeed an issue that must be considered.

Even if Feng Yiping rejected eBay and sold Skype to Yahoo or News Corporation at a higher or similar price, but the latter two failed to manage it well, it would undoubtedly have a negative impact on Feng Yiping.

"I can't say more. From my point of view, it's actually inappropriate to say these things, but who can blame me for not many people understanding my concerns?"

"I believe you also understand that for me, for a product like Skype, whether it is to own or sell it, it is not a problem, not to mention that there are so many companies that are very interested in it, including Microsoft."

Whitman, who was still somewhat suspicious of Feng Yiping's words, immediately felt that her concerns were a bit redundant after hearing what he said.

She even felt a little ashamed for a rare time. A competitor who deserves her respect in any case can say such words, and I still express doubts. Isn't it too inappropriate?

"Feng, tell me your conditions,"

"I want to say that your total offer is within our acceptable range. Okay, Whitman, I think you have fully understood what I mean. It's up to you to decide what to do next. Goodbye,"

"Hello?" Whitman couldn't help but called out, but only heard a "beep".

But you didn't even mention how much you wanted to invest in PayPal?

She put down the phone, sat for a long time, stood in front of the window for a long time, walked around the office for a long time, and finally notified the secretary, "Tell them to wait for me in the conference room in half an hour,"