Before Larry Page looked for Li Mu, he had the intention to invite Li Mu to invest in Google. Whether it is Li Mu investing personally or Makino Technology investing, it is a good thing for Google's core management and the capital behind it.
Cooperation on the surface comes and goes quickly. It is just like how in the history of the East and the West, they like to use marriage to strengthen political stability. Cooperation between companies needs a strong bond. This bond is not strong enough if it is built on business and human relations. Business will change, human relations will also change. The only thing that will not change is the capital.
Google and Yahoo had a close cooperation in the past, and both parties are mutually beneficial. They are considered a good partner. If Yahoo did not provide Google with traffic in the early days, Google would not be able to achieve such a fast development. Last year, Yahoo wanted to acquire Google, but Google was not content. It increased the price to 6 billion USD. In the end, Yahoo gave up this golden opportunity.
Now, Yahoo has set its sights on the search engine. Although Yahoo has not announced it to the public, according to Google's understanding, Yahoo has already started to develop the search engine. Once it feels that it is ready, it will definitely part ways with Google.
To Larry Page, even if Li Mu agreed to provide search traffic to Google today, this kind of cooperation will not give Google a real sense of security. The best solution is to let Li Mu invest in Google and then sign a cooperation agreement.
Li Mu can also see Larry Page's urgent need for traffic. Yahoo is about to break up, and they still want to go public next year. If Li Mu can get a stable search traffic from him, it will be very helpful for Google's capital operation. With his traffic guarantee, Google's IPO next year will raise a few hundred million, and the stock price might even increase by a few percentage points.
So, when Li Mu mentioned that he is a shareholder of Baidu, he thought to himself, "Larry Page wants traffic, but let me invest in Google first."
Larry Page is indeed smart. He even took the initiative to invite Li Mu to invest in Google.
So, Li Mu asked Larry Page, "Larry, does Google's board of directors have any preliminary intentions? If I come with traffic, how much is Google willing to dilute to me?"
Li Mu definitely wouldn't be interested in one or two points. Even if Google's market value was hundreds of billions of dollars in the future, Li Mu still wouldn't be interested in one or two points. If he wanted it, it would be at least five to ten points.
Larry Page did not hesitate. Whether it was him or Google's board of directors, they all wanted to get listed as soon as possible. No one dared to hope that their company could expand to a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars in the future. So, in order to curry favor with Li Mu, they also understood that they had to bear the consequences.
Immediately, Larry Page said to Li Mu in a serious tone, "Mr. Li, if you can promise to open a search portal for Google in YY and YY.com, and keep it unchanged for five years, we're willing to dilute it by five points. We'll value these five points to you at six billion USD."
Then, Larry Page added, "Google's current valuation is around 10 billion USD."
Li Mu smiled and said, "Larry, open a search engine for Google and keep it unchanged for five years. If you were me, would you agree to this?"
Larry Page looked at Li Mu's evasive eyes. After a while, he pretended to be very confident and said, "I would agree, because this is an additional benefit for me."
Li Mu shook his head. After a while, he stared into Larry Page's eyes and said very seriously, "Larry, if you open a search engine for Google in my most important product and keep it for five years, then you will not only get five years of traffic guarantee, but also five years of security guarantee! If I agree to this, then Makino Technology will not be able to get involved in search engines for the next five years. After all, your search engine is in my most important product. If I do search engines at this time, wouldn't I be destroying my own business? "
Larry Page did not know how to answer for a while. Li Mu was right. If he agreed to this condition, the most valuable thing was not that he would provide traffic to Google for five years, but that he would not be able to get involved in search engines for five years. If it was during wartime, this would be equivalent to a five-year non-aggression treaty. The value was immeasurable.
After thinking for a while, Larry Page said seriously, "Li Zong, if you have any objections to this time, then we can discuss again. It's not impossible to shorten it appropriately. If it's four and a half years, you …"
Li Mu did not wait for him to finish. He stretched out his hand and interrupted him. He said very seriously, "Larry, my objection is not about the length of the time, but about how much you are willing to pay for this time window. To put it more clearly, based on your request, in my opinion, you have to pay me a protection fee!"
Although using protection fee to describe it was very street culture, it was very appropriate. Google naturally knew that it was impossible for Li Mu to sign a non-competition agreement to clearly state that Makino Technology would not be involved in search engines. Therefore, they wanted to use this kind of restriction to make it impossible for Li Mu to do it even if he wanted to. However, Li Mu was not someone to be trifled with. Google selling a few shares at a low price was not attractive enough to Li Mu. This was not because the more money he had, the bigger his appetite was. It was because it was too little, and he did not want it at all.
Larry Page hesitated for a moment and said, "Li Zong, if that's the case, we can adjust the valuation a little more as compensation. What do you think?"
Li Mu shook his head slightly and said, "Larry, Makino Technology is currently the Internet company with the largest traffic volume in the world. Moreover, no one else is as active or loyal as us. In theory, it is much easier for Makino Technology to produce any kind of Internet product or model than other companies. Therefore, you see, the two simple games that we made can bring in huge profits that surpass all the online games in the world. We made online music, and we beat Apple's iTunes in just a few days."
Li Mu paused deliberately and said to Larry Page, "If one day Makino Technology decides to make a search engine, how long do you think it will take for us to catch up with Google? Just like how we caught up with Apple in the music field. "
Larry Page felt that Li Mu's question made him a little embarrassed, but he still said with some toughness, "Li Zong, a search engine is actually a product model that has very strong technical requirements. Not only does it need a strong technical foundation, but it also needs many sets of very precise logical algorithms. Then, based on these algorithms, it will cater to users and advertisers. This kind of thing can almost be considered as the highest technical threshold in the Internet industry."
Li Mu smiled and asked him, "You think we don't have the technical capabilities to make a search engine?"
Larry Page hurriedly explained, "I just think that if Makino Technology invests a lot of technical capital into a search engine, it will have a great impact on its own business development. Using an old saying from Hua Xia, it's like picking up sesame seeds but losing watermelons. It's not worth it."
Li Mu said, "You're wrong, Larry. If I make a search engine, I don't need to invest a lot of technical capital to develop it. I only need to take over Baidu's technology. Although I'm not a major shareholder of Baidu, I can tell you that if I want the full set of Baidu's technology, I can definitely get it, and I can get it in no time."
Larry Page looked surprised, but he didn't believe it at all.
Baidu was also a technology-based company. For a technology-based company, technology was the most important asset and reliance, and it was impossible to authorize others to use it. What Li Mu said was simply a fantasy. Unless he fully acquired Baidu, such a thing would never happen.
Li Mu could tell that Larry Page didn't believe him. He smiled and looked at Larry Page, saying, "Larry, whether you believe it or not, I want to tell you that as long as I promise Robin that he will give me the full set of technology, I will promise that Makino Technology will not touch the Hua Xia search engine market, and I will continue to guide him in Hua Xia. Robin will book the earliest plane ticket from the US to sign the contract with me. Do you believe me?"
WTF …
Larry Page looked horrified.
In his heart, he completely believed what Li Mu said. If Li Mu really reached such an agreement with Baidu, then Baidu would definitely agree, because Baidu didn't have the ability to enter the overseas market at all.
At this time, Li Mu sighed, "One of Robin's great strengths is that he can see the reality clearly. He knows that Baidu doesn't have the ability to enter the overseas market now, and it won't be able to compete with Google in the overseas market in the future. Not only that, even in the domestic market, Baidu has to worry about Google's invasion, and he also has to worry that a giant like Makino Technology will take away his rice bowl one day. If I promise not to compete with him in the Hua Xia market, he will definitely be satisfied and try his best to expand the domestic market. At the same time, he will not covet the overseas market. In this way, he and I can cooperate closely. He will use Baidu's technology to enter the Hua Xia market, and I will use Baidu's technology to enter the markets outside of Hua Xia. We will not interfere with each other, and we can even improve each other."
Speaking of this, Li Mu's expression suddenly became playful. He looked at Larry Page and was about to give him a high-level threat. He said with a smile, "Larry, you may think that Baidu's search engine technology is still a bit worse than Google's, but you should also know that for most users, products with the highest comprehensive scores of convenience and practicality are the most popular.
"Don't think that McDonald's doesn't sell pizza because it can't make pizza well, and don't think that even if McDonald's sells pizza, it can't outsell the best pizza specialty shops. In fact, the truth is that as long as McDonald's pizza is not bad, it can quickly take away a large part of the market from the pizza specialty shops;
"If he happens to learn the entire set of techniques for making delicious pizza from another professional pizza restaurant, then the market space that he can occupy will be even bigger!"
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