REVIVE: AMERICA 1995 Chapter 51 Chapter 51: An Era When Ideas Could Be Turned Into Cash

Inside the meeting room.

Faced with Wendy's negotiating team, who tenaciously focused on the fact that Yahoo had yet to turn a profit.Milo could see that David Filo and Jerry Yang's expressions had noticeably darkened.This was not the future.After the turn of the millennium, it was perfectly normal for all internet companies on Earth to lose money.As long as market share increased and there were users.Losing hundreds of millions or even billions of dollars a year, there were still plenty of people investing money.But now, for a company that had been established for nearly two years and still hadn't made a single cent of profit.It was somewhat difficult to justify.After all, before this, there was only one successful example: Netscape.This was also the real reason why Yahoo couldn't confidently stand its ground.Milo remained silent. The process wasn't long. It seemed that after the initial heated arguments, everyone's emotions had calmed down.Both sides understood that everyone had a bottom line for negotiations, but no one wanted to compromise first.Finally, on the issue of phantom shares.Jerry Yang and David Filo didn't receive Milo's agreement, unlike the approval they had received from Sequoia Capital.Milo didn't compromise.30% was 30%. David Filo and Jerry Yang's hopes for more shares were dashed."Don't make such faces."Looking at the two with their grim expressions, Milo said with a smile:"Let me show you some of my ideas. I believe that after you've seen them, you won't cling to those few shares. It's obvious that Yahoo's future is still very bright."After speaking, Milo signaled to Wendy to have someone give part of the two prepared documents to Jerry Yang and David Filo.A few minutes later."Good heavens, Milo, you shouldn't be a writer or a director," David Filo looked up, unable to contain his excitement as he looked at Milo and exclaimed loudly. "You should come work at our company as a creative director. You have an amazing mind!"Milo inwardly curled his lips. He had invested in Yahoo solely for profit.After Yahoo went public and its market value reached its peak, he would gradually sell his Yahoo shares.Portal websites were indeed very important in the early days of the internet.But once most netizens learned how to use the internet and search engines matured.Not many people would continue to use directory-type portal websites as their primary base for internet surfing.Times were moving forward, and science and technology were becoming increasingly advanced.Today, portal websites were the most advanced thing on the internet.But in two years, they would become search engines, and in another two years, they would become various instant social applications.Then, when the mobile internet era arrived, even if Yahoo didn't fail due to various investments, its market value would definitely decline again and again.Unless… Milo took over Yahoo and developed Yahoo as his main business."Hehe, thank you for your praise," Milo replied. "Honestly, when it comes to creativity, no one understands it better than me! However, I prefer a free life and work and don't want to be confined to one company."Here, Milo paused before continuing:"The document mentions an entertainment application that I call web games. I've already assembled a design team. The technical difficulty of implementing it isn't high; after all, it's just interaction between images and text.""I think, David, Jerry, you should be able to see its value. I don't need to say more. The person in charge of this web game's development team is also here today. As long as you can offer a price that moves me, everything in that folder will belong to Yahoo!""Oh, right, what you received is just a part; the complete version is in the folder."The entertainment application, the web game, that Milo spoke of was actually something he wanted to insert into Yahoo's website for his own benefit.He wanted Yahoo to promote a newly established game company under his name.Yahoo was currently the world's number one portal website, the most visited website in the world daily.What Milo wanted Yahoo to promote was an online web game called Galaxy Empire. Broadly speaking, online games had appeared very early.As early as August 1978, Richard Bartle, a professor at the University of Essex in the UK, and his student Roy Trubshaw had created the earliest MUD game.But at that time, even the internet didn't exist yet, and MUD was only accessible to advanced intellectuals with good conditions.The golden age of online games truly arrived with the popularization of the internet from 1990-2010.But before that, single-player games had already done very well.For example, Blizzard Entertainment, which would later become one of the world's largest game IPs and had changed its name from Silicon & Synapse last year, had already released Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness.Before the emergence of the internet, the foundation for PC games had already been developed.This laid the future foundation for the true arrival of the online gaming era."Of course, you can also refuse."Seeing the two's expressions becoming increasingly unpleasant, Milo waved his hand nonchalantly. "Then I can take part of it to Microsoft's Surfer. I think Bill Gates III would agree to my investment of ideas and capital."Upon hearing his latter words, David Filo and Jerry Yang both looked as if they had eaten something terrible.David Filo, who was responsible for communicating with Milo, was constantly moving his lips.Milo knew that this guy was probably cursing him out in his heart.But he wasn't angry at all and patiently waited with a smile for the Yahoo duo to make a decision."Fine! You win… Damn it, we'll discuss it with Sequoia Capital."Finally, after a whispered discussion between David Filo and Jerry Yang, the former, like a duck being strangled, his face flushed slightly red, said very unwillingly:"But I can't guarantee success. I can't guarantee that Sequoia Capital will agree.""It's okay, it doesn't matter if Sequoia Capital doesn't agree. There are too many startups in Silicon Valley right now. I think pure technical problems are definitely not a problem. I believe the internet's greatest needs are still ideas and the ability to realize them."Milo smiled. "I think that as long as you explain this clearly. Sequoia Capital will make a wise choice."In the previous negotiations, Milo's side demanded that if Yahoo wanted to use the ideas Milo provided.Then Milo demanded that they must give him a suitable increase in shares.Of course, Milo had to pay. But the valuation would be based on the valuation when he first invested, not the current exaggerated five-hundred-million-dollar valuation.On this basis, the two negotiating teams began another heated argument.This time, the argument was somewhat heated.Everyone argued endlessly over even fractions of a percent of profit, neither side willing to budge, creating a deadlock.As for David Filo and Jerry Yang, they had already begun discussing the feasibility of embedding a gaming section into Yahoo's website with the head of Milo's game company.Milo's idea document proposed embedding games on the website. Once the game's customer base was large enough, they could appropriately add some paid features.This was Yahoo's second visible source of profit besides advertising revenue.If it could really be realized, Yahoo's IPO would no longer be a dream.The two were no longer concerned about the share distribution issue.Because that was the negotiating team's business.Jerry Yang and David Filo now wished they could immediately gather a team to write the code for those ideas.Unfortunately, those ideas didn't belong to Yahoo yet.Finally, the negotiation result was discussed.If Sequoia Capital agreed, then before the next round of financing.Yahoo's share distribution would become 60% held jointly by Sequoia Capital and the two founders.Milo would hold 40% exclusively.A 5% increase from the original 35%.

Chapter 51 - Chapter 51: An Era When Ideas Could Be Turned into Cash

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