Chapter 2697: Heroic

On the second day after Feng Yiping returned to Silicon Valley, when his parents stopped talking about the Gates mansion, Microsoft finally responded. They once again increased the price to Yahoo, and it was exactly two billion US dollars.

Feng Yiping estimated that the reason why Microsoft responded so slowly was because of Ballmer.

For Ballmer, acquiring Yahoo makes too much sense.

For Ballmer, the acquisition of Yahoo is not only an important task, but also of great strategic significance.

Ballmer has always felt that the larger the company, the more benefits it will gain, and the acquisition of Yahoo will quickly expand their online advertising and search scale.

This actually echoes Ballmer's ambition. He hopes that Microsoft, led by him, will become a leader not only in the fields of operating systems and office software, but in many fields.

The success of Google and Facebook fully illustrates the potential of online advertising, media and social networking. He not only hopes that Microsoft can make a difference in this area, but also hopes that Microsoft can take the lead in these areas.

At least, he can become the second one.

But the fact is that Microsoft is currently in these areas, let alone second place, it can be said that it has not done much yet.

In the social field, Microsoft has not yet started. In the media field, it is at best considered a beginner. They have MSN, but in the search field, they can only be regarded as a layman.

According to first-quarter data, Google, which ranks first, has a market share of 65.98% in the United States.

Yahoo, in second place, occupies 20.94%, while Microsoft, although in third place, only has a 6.9% share.

And we all know that from a search perspective, the market share of online advertising is directly proportional to the search share.

This can be said to be the main reason why Ballmer is so determined. If it can acquire Yahoo, Microsoft will become the second most important player in the US search field.

According to the habit of American users who always hate the industry leader and think it is hegemonic, and like to support the industry's second best, Microsoft will undoubtedly make rapid progress in this field.

The acquisition of Yahoo will also make Microsoft the dominant player in the US email market in one fell swoop. Microsoft's Hotmail has a market share of 25.54% in the US email market, while Yahoo's is 54.63%. Together, they exceed 80%.

There are also online maps, their own is currently 12.84%, Yahoo is 22.64%, the total is more than 35%, compared with Google's 50.62%, it is no longer out of reach...

From a personal perspective, it can also be said that this is Ballmer's attempt to establish his own prestige.

As the founder, Gates' achievements are too dazzling. As Gates' successor, if he wants not to be regarded as a transparent person by everyone, he must make a difference.

Why Feng Yiping talked to Gates instead of talking to Ballmer about giving up was because he knew very well that Gates was obviously easier to persuade on this issue.

Let Gates and Ballmer talk about this issue, obviously the effect will be better.

But it seems that Gates and Ballmer spent a lot of time discussing this issue.

He stood in front of the window, looking at the campus where he was not affected by the news at all, wondering if he should make a call to Ballmer. After all, this loud-voiced man had a pretty good relationship with him.

As if he had a telepathic connection, he was about to pick up the phone when Ballmer happened to call.

"Steve, I'm sorry..."

"Von," Ballmer's voice, this time not high-pitched like a speech, was deep and hoarse, "I'm ready to give up."

"Steve, I want to say that I'm sorry that things have reached this point," Feng Yiping said. "I'm also sorry that I didn't discuss this issue with you in person, because I know that my proposal will be detrimental to yours." How big the blow will be..."

"Feng, do you think spending 50 billion US dollars is really not worth it?" Ballmer asked.

"Yes, I think spending $50 billion to acquire Yahoo is not worth it from any point of view,"

"I think you have also paid attention to the performance of Yahoo's new advertising system, the Panama system. Frankly speaking, although the cost is not huge, the effect is really average,"

"I speculate that after applying this system, Yahoo's market share in online advertising will most likely continue to decline,"

“And more importantly, facing competitors like SoftBank’s Masayoshi Son, we all know that US$50 billion may not be the final price,”

"Steve, I very much agree with your decision. Microsoft should indeed make efforts in the Internet field. This strategy is undoubtedly right, but acquiring Yahoo should not become a strategy,"

Ballmer was silent for a while, "I have to admit, Feng, you are right,"

In the recent implementation process, he really regarded the acquisition of Yahoo as a strategy.

"Steve, it's good if you can understand," Feng Yiping said. "I think there are many directions in which we can work hard, that is, acquisitions. There are also many opportunities. There is really no need to spend such a high price to acquire Yahoo."

"I can say with certainty that if Yahoo is neither acquired by us nor SoftBank this time, then if you look at its performance in a year or two, you will definitely be glad that you made the decision to give up now."

"Even if it is successfully acquired by SoftBank, I think we will come to the same conclusion after watching its development in one or two years."

Ballmer agrees with this point very much. Apart from other things, when Yahoo is acquired by SoftBank, Microsoft under his leadership will never give Yahoo a good face.

However, when he thinks of the nearly 40% search share that is almost within his reach after acquiring Yahoo, he hesitates again.

In the past few months, in order to insist on acquiring Yahoo at a high price, although Gates shared the pressure, he still endured a lot of pressure from investors.

If he gives up at this time, then all the things he has done before and endured will be meaningless.

"Feng, if SoftBank does not increase the price this time, or only increases the price by $1 billion?"

"In my estimation, SoftBank cannot not increase the price," Feng Yiping said immediately.

He believes that Masayoshi Son has probably seen that they are at the end of their strength, and he must also know that this round should be the time to decide the result.

"Although I am also sure that they will not only increase the price by $1 billion, because you see Steve, in terms of price increase, SoftBank has always been more generous than us, and will only increase it more than us, not less than us,"

Besides, whether in the East or the West, 50 billion integers will be regarded as a node. After 50 billion, everyone will be more cautious in raising the price. SoftBank should not leave such a difficult opportunity for itself.

"But if they only increase the price by $1 billion, then as long as you can convince Microsoft's board of directors, I support you to increase the price again,"

"Maybe in that case, we will directly increase it by $2 billion to $51 billion,"

"51 billion," this is a number that made Ballmer silent for a while. He estimated that it would be difficult to convince the board of directors to accept such an offer.

However, thinking about Microsoft's revenue of $58 billion last year and its gross profit of more than $46 billion, he felt that it was not impossible to try.

"Thank you for your support, Feng,"

After hanging up the phone, he had been expecting SoftBank to stop there, or to only increase it by $1 billion.

Until the evening of that day, the situation was optimistic. SoftBank had not responded to their new offensive.

…………

At the SoftBank headquarters in Shiodome District, after learning that the opponent had raised the price again for more than 20 hours, although there was no quick response, it was not calm at all.

After learning about Masayoshi Son's decision, many executives felt that it would no longer be possible to support the company's founder as before.

The one who personally rushed to the company in Tokyo and the one who spoke on the phone abroad had very consistent opinions, "Your decision is very irrational and too risky. If you do this, you may even lose everything if you are not careful."

Masayoshi Son did not expect that at such a critical moment to determine the outcome, he would encounter such huge resistance within the company.

Such unprecedented opposition forced him to take it seriously. This night, for the first time since he started his business, he spent a lot of energy to convince his internal members and explained many times the significance of acquiring Yahoo to SoftBank.

But for someone like him, the greater the opposition, the more determined he will be.

The persuasion work lasted from the evening to the day, and then to the night...Finally, in the early morning of the second day, when the US side started to work, under the witness of exhausted and somewhat discouraged SoftBank executives, Son Masayoshi, whose voice was also a little hoarse, conveyed his decision to the US team.

This was a decision that surprised everyone. It was not a price increase of $1 billion, nor a price increase of $2 billion, but a direct price increase of $3 billion, raising the price to $51 billion!