Chapter 43: Enemies Meet on a Narrow Road
When Song Yang arrived at Double Click Company, he could hear the people inside the company whispering from time to time.
After arriving at the office, Irene brought him several newspapers. Seeing the reports on them, Song Yang couldn't help but rub his teeth. Yahoo's acquisition of 100 million US dollars was almost equivalent to the beginning of the Internet craze.
Song Yang couldn't help but shook his head. Not to mention Yahoo's several competitors, Song Yang was a little envious. This was 100 million US dollars. With such a large sum of money, Yahoo would have enough funds to defeat all its competitors.
Seeing Greg entering the office, Song Yang put down the newspaper, looked at Greg and Irene in the office, and said casually, "What do you think, should DoubleClick exchange equity with Yahoo?"
Greg and Irene were both stunned. They didn't expect that Song Yang would actually bring this up. Yahoo is currently in its heyday, and DoubleClick is definitely not as rich as Softbank in terms of money, so it can't come up with much.
The only thing that DoubleClick can offer is probably its equity, but if it wants to exchange equity, Yahoo will definitely ask for a huge amount.
"I'm afraid Yahoo may not be willing. Even if they agree to exchange shares, the price they ask for may not be low!" Irene said. She is proficient in theory. Now DoubleClick is at a disadvantage compared to Yahoo, at least in terms of valuation. If they exchange shares in this way, DoubleClick will probably suffer a loss.
Song Yang, who had just said it casually, touched his chin at this time, and suddenly felt that the equity exchange might not be a bad thing for DoubleClick. At the moment, even if Yahoo asked for a higher price, its market value at its peak exceeded 100 billion US dollars. Even if only 5% of Yahoo’s equity was exchanged, the future value would exceed tens of billions of US dollars.
As for DoubleClick, even Song Yang had to admit that even if it boasted a lot in the future, it would never be able to catch up with Yahoo's market value unless it could acquire advertising giants such as WPP or Omnicom .
As for whether Yahoo will agree to exchange equity, Song Yang is not worried. DoubleClick is now Yahoo's general advertising agent. This transaction was not valuable before, but it is different now. The higher the market value of Yahoo, the more valuable DoubleClick's identity as the general advertising agent will be.
Moreover, in the short term, at least within one or two years, Yahoo cannot get rid of DoubleClick. As long as it still wants to go public, it needs DoubleClick to continue to provide it with a large amount of advertising revenue!
"You can contact Yahoo first," Song Yang said to Greg and Irene, asking them to try Yahoo first. "I will call Brady personally!"
On the Yahoo side, the person Song Yang is most familiar with is Yahoo's current Chief Product Officer Brady. As for Yang Zhiyuan, although Song Yang has heard of his name for a long time, he has never met him.
Greg and Irene looked at each other. Even though they didn't get along, they knew this was a big deal, so they nodded to each other.
Then Irene put another document in front of Song Yang, "There are nearly ten Internet digital advertising companies in the market now, including L90 and Avenue. These companies have appeared recently and want to grab the market from Double Click Company!"
Involution is everywhere, let alone other places. There are too many followers in America. After Double Click Company received tens of millions of dollars in investment, companies that followed suit to do Internet digital advertising have sprung up like weeds, all wanting to become the second Double Click Company. Who doesn't want to replace Song Yang and become the person holding champagne in the famous photo in America?
"We are preparing to sue a digital advertising company for infringement!" Greg also said that this is to make an example of others so that those followers will not go too far. Of course, if any follower is caught and dares to steal DoubleClick's technology, patents, etc., he will definitely be beaten until he goes bankrupt.
Song Yang took a few glances and found that most of these newly emerged digital advertising companies were following the lead of DoubleClick. DoubleClick is now the advertising general agent for Netscape and Yahoo, the two most famous websites on the Internet. Other digital advertising companies are basically losing money to gain publicity.
"Let the legal department handle this matter!" Song Yang said to Greg. In the Internet industry, there is no second, only first. As long as DoubleClick Company occupies the first place in the industry, the others will have nothing to lose!
After Greg, Irene and others left, Song Yang signed a few documents and turned on his computer. Song Yang was ready to enter a new industry, so naturally he needed to have the best understanding of the entire American Internet.
What Song Yang didn't expect was that in just half a year, hundreds of new websites emerged. Song Yang remembered that a few months ago, there were only a few websites that could be accessed.
The biggest changes are undoubtedly Netscape and Yahoo. Netscape has added many new features. It is almost a half computer system, and even office software has been added. The signs of it competing with Microsoft are too obvious.
Yahoo has begun to take shape as a portal website. Compared with the original monotonous interface, it has now added new functions such as news, sports, and stocks, and has also added more than hundreds of new websites.
Song Yang saw a piece of news on Yahoo News that Jim Clark of Netscape had accepted an exclusive interview with CNN, the Democratic Party's base TV station, which included responses to recent events in Silicon Valley and the Internet industry. Jim's identity as the godfather of Silicon Valley could be seen from his words.
But think about it, Jim Clark is indeed the godfather of Silicon Valley, but I don’t know if Microsoft and Yahoo will recognize this identity...
Song Yang glanced at the time and turned on the TV in the office. After switching to CNN, Jim Clark immediately appeared. Jim was sitting in the studio with the demeanor of a big boss, talking to reporters.
"I admit that Yahoo has developed well. Yahoo is now Netscape's search technology supplier. I am very optimistic about Yahoo!"
Song Yang almost laughed out loud when he heard what Jim Clark said in front of the camera. It seemed that Jim was praising Yahoo, but in fact he treated Yahoo as his younger brother. No matter how powerful Yahoo was, it was just one of Netscape's suppliers.
Jim faced the camera and answered some hot questions, such as whether Yahoo is worth the $100 million investment. Jim certainly couldn't say it was not worth it, otherwise Netscape would also be questioned. But when Jim said this, he used a trick, "Sooner or later, Yahoo will be worth this price!"
That is to say, Yahoo may not be worth this price now, but don't panic, it may be worth it in a few years. This will let the people in Silicon Valley and Wall Street realize that Netscape is the leader of the Internet industry. Don't believe everything you hear, Yahoo is still far behind Netscape...
Then Jim answered a few more questions. Song Yang was not prepared to pay any more attention, but suddenly heard the name of Double Click Company and looked up at the TV again.
"Director Jim, what do you think of DoubleClick and Bruno Song? Recently, DoubleClick has been reported to have established a branch in New York less than half a year after its establishment. Is it developing too fast?" the host asked Jim.
Jim shook his head and his face turned serious. "I think this is absolutely correct. This is the Internet industry. It may take a long time to go from 0 to 1, but it may only take a moment to go from 1 to 10. DoubleClick needs to fulfill its performance commitment to Netscape next year. I think this step is absolutely correct!"
Jim Clark's plan was foolproof. If DoubleClick was questioned for taking too big a step, then Netscape would also be questioned, so he simply plugged the gap.
"What about Song?"
"Song?!"
Jim Clark mentioned Song Yang with a strange smile on his face. "It's a pity that Netscape failed to invest in DoubleClick. Song is a genius. I think in the future, e-commerce companies, such as Amazon, may discover this."
The host wanted to know why Jim Clark suddenly mentioned the e-commerce industry and wondered what this had to do with Song Yang.
But Jim Clark kept his mouth shut about this and refused to say anything no matter what. He looked like he was just waiting to see the fun. In fact, when Jim Clark was preparing to invest in Double Click Company, he asked someone to do an investigation and discovered the patents held by Song Yang, such as "interactive network", "one-click ordering", and "one-click payment".
Jim could foresee that in the future, Amazon and other companies in the e-commerce industry would fight with Song Yang over these patents. He had already moved his stool and was ready to watch the show. As for reminding Amazon and other companies, he would do such a thing out of boredom.
The interview was about to end, but the host held down the headset and asked Jim after hearing some news, "Director Jim, do you really think Song is that kind of person? We heard some different opinions!"
Song Yang could see that Jim Clark on TV was visibly stunned. It was obvious that this question was not something he had expected before the interview, or at least he was not aware of it in advance.
Jim's face changed for a moment, then he immediately returned to normal. He looked at the camera and said, "I believe what I saw. Song is a genius. We can't look at a person with prejudice, otherwise what we see will definitely be prejudice!"
Song Yang watched the interview end and knew that he owed Jim Clark a favor. He had almost guaranteed Song Yang in public, but Song Yang wanted to know what had happened that made the host suddenly ask such a question.
Picking up the phone, Song Yang called Irene to call, "Find out about this!"
Half an hour later, Song Yang saw the news on TV and knew what happened, and his face turned a little ugly.
The news was an interview with a local New York media. In the picture, there was a familiar figure. It was Bledsoe Jaden, who had arrived in New York at some point. He was surrounded by several people who looked like lawyers and was speaking nonsense.
"Bruno Song is a liar and a thief. He is not as good as the media reports. You can go to DeFrey School to investigate. He also stole DoubleClick, and he has connections with some people who are not welcome by the FBI..."
"It's the Vulture Lawyers Group!" Looking at the hysterical Jaden and the people behind him on the TV news, Greg's expression also looked a little unhappy.
