Chapter 1339 Antitrust
Text Chapter 1339: Antitrust
"Hahaha!"
Litman Media did not spend two dollars on the crimereads website at all. It has no ecological competitors for the time being, and it does not need to burn money to increase bandwidth, free space, and attract well-known bloggers and even servers like Opendiray. They are all second-hand products eliminated from the American music website and opendiray. There are not many programmers and editors, and there are not many employees in total.
A typical small Silicon Valley company with a glamorous appearance but extremely mediocre strength, not to mention profit prospects, can be listed on NASDAQ with a market value of more than 200 million.
It's not that Song Ya doesn't know that the website still has a bunch of bugs, but that's not important. Wall Street and stockholders buy it, and it's fine if they can get money from the listing smoothly. Now everyone in the Internet industry is like this, don't worry.
Once you have mastered the invincible wealth code, the Internet work of magazines such as modern photography and stereo commentary will be handled accordingly. A bunch of traditional companies such as Disney and Warner are also doing similar things.
Song Ya picked up the gap between the shooting missions of Blade Warrior and took his girlfriend Amy Adams to Los Angeles. First, he hosted a dinner at Amy's Beverly Hills villa to entertain the Cold Mountain crew who returned from the Tokyo Film Festival. Go to Jim Clark's appointment with Sloane.
Because the merger between AOL and Time Warner has basically been negotiated, we have to wait for the two parties to sign on January 1, 2000, and Jim Clark, aol's "minor" shareholder who exchanged his Netscape shares for AOL shares, just bought an office in Los Angeles not long ago. super mansion.
Jim Clark doesn't mean to be a drunkard. He calls friends to share the fun of his lifelong enemy and the richest man in the world.
The Microsoft monopoly case is already very dangerous. Last October, the U.S. Department of Justice officially filed the case. The lawsuit was not well fought in the Washington State Federal District Court in his hometown of Seattle. Due to the betrayal of the former accomplice AOL, the prosecution has very conclusive evidence of monopolistic behavior and Unfair competition evidence, Microsoft has a very high chance of losing the lawsuit.
Bill Gates was summoned to Washington during the day and participated in the hearing of the Senate Judiciary Committee, and his performance was... very difficult to describe.
"Bundling the browser in the operating system is an act of market competition for the convenience of users. It should not be subject to administrative intervention by the government, let alone a lawsuit!"
Wearing glasses, the richest man with messy hair looked impatient at the hearing. He was very aggressive, constantly interrupting the questions of the Senate senators, and immediately smiled mockingly after the other party asked a very layman's question.
"Success in the software industry is not driven by government regulation, which only limits innovation!" he said, waving forcefully.
"Mr. Gates, no one, no matter how powerful he may be, is above the law."
The Chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Senator Orrin Hatch of the Elephant Party of Utah, immediately grabbed his sore foot and refuted it sternly, "The latest testimony of Sun's CEO McNeely and Netscape's CEO Baxter and you before Are you lying to us if the statements made in the hearing did not match up?"
Naturally, the richest man could not admit it, and replied: "A monopoly means that a company has the ability to restrict new companies from entering the market and to manipulate prices in one direction. Microsoft does not have these two capabilities."
"I mean you're going to continue to contradict the testimony of Mr. McNealy and Mr. Baxter?" Orrin Hatch didn't interrupt him.
The real-tempered richest programmer was quite embarrassed when he was forced to ask questions. His hands that were waving forcefully just now disappeared from the table, and his upper body began to shake back and forth, as nervous as an ordinary college student.
The lawyer beside him hurriedly whispered to him.
"I can't remember, I can't remember what I said, Mr. Senator." The richest man also chose the same countermeasure as Song Ya did back then: Laipi.
"Are you going to quote the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution? Mr. Gates." The methods of the members of Congress are similar,
Orrin Hatch immediately dug a hole for the richest man, which fell into Song Ya's eyes with a strong sense of sight.
"No..." he replied after consulting a lawyer, "I just can't remember what I said before..."
"I can remind you."
"I can't remember, I can't remember what I said..." the richest man began to repeat endlessly.
Senators and observers at the hearing laughed.
"Hahaha!" They are all like-minded people who have been unhappy with Microsoft for a long time. Jim Clark and his friends continue to laugh. Song Ya glanced, "It's better to switch to aplus!" He teased.
"Hey hey..." Song Ya also laughed with her wine glass. It seems that there is no such thing as a perfect person. The performance of the richest man in this hearing is too broken. If I had known this, I would not have licked it so much last time... …
If Microsoft is split up, wouldn't it be 49 years for me and 3dfx to join...
Song Ya was beating her heart, but she had to force a smile in front of Jim Clark and others.
Damn it, maybe this is why Jim Clark invited himself. After today's hearing, it seems that AOL's stock price will rise tomorrow.
Fortunately, I hedged a little bit of aol stock, and bet on the Internet like Jim and others present...
Now the market value of the opendiray website, which has hardly spent any energy on its own, is almost surpassing the painstakingly managed 3dfx. According to the current situation, the Internet industry should have the last laugh.
It's boring, he didn't even bother to participate in the board of directors of 3dfx recently, the input and output are not directly proportional!
"Aplus..." Sloan, who had just gone outside to answer the phone, came back and snapped his fingers.
"ah?"
Just getting away, Song Ya followed in response, "Do you want to check in?"
"Bah! Don't talk nonsense! It's business!"
Sloane gave him a stern look. "Look." She found another TV set at Jim Clark's house.
‘Seagram Global Group and Vivendi reached a document of intent in France today, paving the way for the merger of the two companies. '
The shorter the news, the bigger the thing.
"Let me just say, the rich three generations have always done things faster than we expected."
Song Ya looked at the Bronfman father and son who hugged shoulders in the news picture and smiled confidently at the camera, Vivendi CEO Messier and Universal Music President Doug Morris, and asked Sloan: "Who is the fifth person?" who?"
"Merrill Lynch. David Geffen was right..."
Sloan said in a low voice: "He has been reminding us to pay more attention to the old Bronfman's movements. The old man has stayed in France for so long, and he may have started talking with Messier very early."
"Well, but Vivendi can do it. At this stage, we can't think of any M&A targets that are more suitable than Vivendi."
Song Ya replied. Vivendi is expanding very fast, shopping everywhere in the world, buying everything, faster than Seagram Global Group, and the debt ratio is also high, and Vivendi is a listed company, which is convenient for a series of operations in preparation.
"Call Underwood."
The long and tedious preparations and the overtaking of the rich three generations, plus the fact that the two sides have not had too many conflicts in the past six months, made Song Ya feel that the whole thing was about to become boring. Anyway, everything was planned, and he ordered.
"Hahaha!"
In France, the third generation of the rich happened to be watching the video of the Senate hearing at this time. The embarrassing performance of the richest man made him very happy who was purely watching the show, and laughed several times.
"If it were you, Microsoft should be able to escape the fate of being split. You performed much better than him in the hearing last time." Doug Morris flattered, but the second half of the sentence is indeed true.
"It's too arrogant. Does he think that he is worth 90 billion this year and is so omnipotent that he doesn't even need to pay attention to the US government? Hehe, there is really no need to be so rude to the elders in person, and this hearing The whole world will be watching."
Little Bronfman, who watched with cold eyes, gave advice.
"Yeah, I don't know how your government plans to split Microsoft, just like the Bell Telephone Company back then?" Vivendi CEO Messier asked.
In 1984, Bell Telephone Company, the overlord of American telecommunications business, was dismantled by the Ministry of Justice on the basis of the antitrust law into seven companies, including Atandt and South Bell, known as the Seven Bell Brothers. Lucent and NCR, which are in the business of manufacturing telecommunications equipment, have been shattered.
It wasn't until the Internet boom started that these companies were able to reintegrate again, such as the shocking merger of Atandt and John Malone's tci company not long ago.
"Maybe," Bronfman Jr. replied.
"Is your company's share in the recording industry already in danger?" Messier asked again, "I heard that your online music business with the Sony Duo Alliance has been suspended?"
"Yes, but it doesn't affect the cooperation between you and me. If Seagram Universal and Vivendi merge, there will be no such problem." The hale and hearty old Bronfman raised his glass.
After recuperating in France for a few months, the old man's health is much better than before, and he finally found the bully, that is, Messier in front of him, and his psychological pressure has also eased a lot.
"Of course, I wish you success." Messier clinked glasses with everyone. Vivendi doesn't have much record and liquor business, and it doesn't have to worry about touching the red line of monopoly when merging with Seagram Universal.
"Mr. CEO." At this moment, a Vivendi executive approached and whispered to Messier.
After hearing this, Messier had a strange smile on his face, "Mr. Bronfman Jr., I just got the news that the U.S. Department of Commerce has found new opinions on the early monopoly case of your six major record companies."
"Oh?" Bronfman's complexion changed and he immediately smiled, "What did they say?"
"They claim to fine your six record companies 2.1 billion yuan. In other words, New Universal Music, which owns Universal Music and Polygram, will pay nearly half of the fine?" Messier asked.
"It's impossible. The CD resale price is only maintained. Even if it is characterized as a monopoly, the fine will not be so much." Doug Morris retorted with a serious face, "It is estimated that the total fine will not exceed 100 million knives. Ten years of experience working in the recording industry guaranteed!"
"After all, this is a big uncertain factor, right? Write it down." Messier lightly ordered his subordinates, "It must be reflected in the follow-up merger negotiations between our two companies. Mr. Bronfman, are you okay?"
"No problem, there's nothing to do with this kind of lawsuit."
Bronfman Jr. shrugged indifferently.
"At this sensitive time when our two companies have just announced their merger, your Ministry of Commerce's sudden statement...does this mean that there are other conflicts between you and the US government?" Messier asked again.
"You know Messier, if the business is as big as you and me, there will be enemies everywhere."
Old Bronfman raised his wine glass and gestured to the TV: "Even the richest man in the world, isn't he in a difficult situation now?"
"Hehe, that's right." Messier took a sip of his wine with a smile, and began to greet others.
Not knowing if they could fool them, the father and son secretly exchanged a look, and a look of worry flashed in old Bronfman's cloudy eyes.
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