Chapter 29 The most expensive acquisition since the founding of Microsoft

Microsoft is much richer than Yahoo.

Yahoo only started to rise this year, and it has not yet developed a stable profitability.

It mainly relies on blood transfusions from investors.

Microsoft has good hematopoietic ability.

The operating system remained a top-notch monopoly business until twenty years later.

If it hadn't lost to Google in the mobile operating system war, Microsoft would not have given up its throne as the largest technology company by market value.

Because of this, Yahoo’s demand for Riot Games is more urgent.

The reason why investors are willing to give Yahoo such a high valuation is based on the premise that Yahoo will be profitable in the future.

The sooner this future comes true, the faster Yahoo's valuation will rise.

Yahoo's internal board of directors has estimated that if they successfully acquire Riot Games, their market value will increase by at least 50%.

For Yahoo, they need to keep users on Yahoo as much as possible. This determines that after Riot Games is acquired by Yahoo, everything from name to management to users will be absorbed by Yahoo.

That's the payment scenario.

Of course, considering that you are too young, I will assign you a deputy with sufficient experience to assist you in management.

The reason why Paypal has become the number one payment software market share in the world is because they had the payment scene of eBay in the early days.

"I am willing to sell some of my Riot Games shares to Microsoft, but not all of them.

For transactions that do not require physical entities, such as electronic games, online books and online videos, his payment software needs to occupy more than 90% of the market share in this market.

We already have very ambitious ideas internally.”

Human energy is limited.

Maybe that number has now become 300,000.

There is no reason why Bill Gates doesn't know what Yahoo knows.

We plan to make a home game console.

It’s not that direct acquisition is bad, but I simply like the name Riot and don’t want it to become a Microsoft electronics community.”

Microsoft intends to rebuild the entire game industry chain.

Zhou Xin looked at the other party seriously and said that Riot Games is not important to him, but the future is not important.

It’s more expensive than the price we paid for Hotmail last year.

So Microsoft is very sincere towards Riot Games.

If Riot Games is willing to open free registration, its number of users will also skyrocket qualitatively soon.

Including the acquisition of some game studios, game publishing, and game consoles.

But it's not in Sega's form.

Included in my price.

This would be Microsoft's largest single acquisition ever.

As for Amazon, Amazon itself wants to make payment software, so how can it possibly leave the payment scenario to you?

Zhou Xin interrupted: "Do you mean making a game console similar to Sega?"

As for why Zhou Xin doesn’t get involved in online shopping, it’s because the demands on people from capital to management are too high.

Therefore, for Zhou Xin, the early payment scenario he envisioned was online payment.

The payment software Zhou Xin wants to build is in direct competition with Paypal, and it is unrealistic to seize eBay's payment scenario in the early stages.

But that's right, you know so much about this field, it's not surprising to guess.

"Oh you actually guessed it.

The reason why future generations will rely on Ali's Kuaidi Taxi and Didi Taxi's reliance on Gouchang that the taxi war will spread from first-tier cities to second-tier cities and then to third-tier cities, boils down to one sentence:

This is the payment scenario where the two giants are competing for mobile payments.

From now on and for a long time to come, Riot Games will occupy a very important part of his strategic planning.

Moreover, the number of Hotmail users refers to the number of registered users. In fact, one user is likely to register multiple accounts.

There are two different statements about this acquisition, US$400 million or US$500 million. The US$400 million statement is used here.

Zhou Xin nodded slightly: "The value of a company does not entirely depend on the number of users.

You only need to be responsible for the planning and considerations at the strategic level, and he will be responsible for the specific implementation. This is your strength."

Steve Ballmer is now a Microsoft executive and will take over the position of Microsoft president in the future.

And it's not important either.

I can safely hand over Microsoft games to you.

You have long-term plans for the development of the entire enterprise.

Zhou Xin has no motivation to compete with Amazon and Ebay in this very mature field.

The last time we met, we said you need to start with the department heads.

Riot Games has made up for the missing piece.

Therefore, the price of 300 million was willing to be paid.

Bill Gates explained: “Even if Microsoft acquires Riot Games, I will hand over the entire Microsoft gaming business to you.

After the rise of mobile Internet in later generations, there will be more opportunities for overtaking in corners.

I would prefer this to be an investment rather than an acquisition."

Bill Gates said with excitement: "I believe that with your joining, Microsoft Games will bring a new future to the entire electronic game industry.

When I told Steve about my idea, he thought I was crazy!"

In a similar situation, Microsoft may accept only investing and not intervening in operations, but Yahoo will definitely not.

From a management perspective, it is the ability to solve a single problem.

But I can't accept a direct acquisition.

This is also an important reason why Riot Games will never accept an acquisition by Yahoo.

It's because you have only proven that you have unique insights into certain fields before.

In the past, he only had experience in managing about 200 accounts. If he engaged in online shopping, it would have exceeded his upper limit from a management logic point of view.

What seems to be a taxi war is actually a war between Alipay and WeChat Pay.

And now from the perspective of the Riot Games electronic community, you have proven that your abilities are compound.

So he offered a higher price.

Yes, we plan to make game consoles.

Relying on eBay to complete the accumulation of original users.

And I am also willing to accept investment from Microsoft or you personally.

It makes no sense to use this number to value a company.

I want to keep control of Riot Games.

Of course sir, I am not trying to refute you, but I want to tell you that I know the value of Riot Games very well.

Whether it is between players or between players and game manufacturers, there is a lack of a communication platform.

That's right, the communication part is missing from the construction of our entire game industry.

Before I saw an electronic community like Riot Games, I always felt that we were missing a piece.

You know, when we acquired Hotmail last year, Hotmail had more than 8.5 million users, while Riot Games only had 200,000.

Hotmail was the earliest email service provider. After being acquired by Microsoft, it was merged into the MSN service, and later its name changed.

A payment software needs to have enough payment scenarios to occupy the market share.

Let me just say a few words. Some readers think that I am trying to popularize science, but the problem is that if I don’t explain these clearly, these numbers, company names, and people’s names will be confusing.

Looking at it from today's perspective, an acquisition of US$500 million would seem too small. Any acquisition by Microsoft starts from several billion US dollars.

But at the time, this was already Microsoft's largest single acquisition from its inception to 1998.

Finally, please follow up! Reading during the new book stage is very important for the author!
Chapter completed!