Chapter 52: Tiger Swallows the Sky
As soon as the negotiations began , the two sides became tense. It was mainly Kugel and a group of Yahoo executives from Wall Street who were competing with Song Yang, Gleick, and Eileen, and neither side was willing to give in.
Ferro still sat there in silence, just listening to the verbal sparring between the two sides. Yang Zhiyuan wanted to speak several times, but was blocked by Kuger every time.
Yang Zhiyuan wants both sides to take a step back. He wants Yahoo and DoubleClick to become the best partners, or even "allies" in the Internet industry!
Kuger could naturally see Yang Zhiyuan's expression. Looking at Song Yang who was struggling to compete with him, he couldn't help but sigh slightly. Since joining Yahoo, he naturally had a good impression of Yang Zhiyuan, his junior from Stanford.
Yang Zhiyuan is a humble person and takes good care of his subordinates. This can be seen from the fact that those new employees who joined Yahoo became friends with Yang Zhiyuan in just a few days. If they have any creative ideas or important matters, they can just go into Yang Zhiyuan's office without knocking. It can be seen that Yang Zhiyuan is very loved in Yahoo.
Krug knew that this junior was a good person, an old friend with whom he could confide in each other. After Krug joined Yahoo, he was confident in handing over the management of Yahoo to Krug. This was unimaginable in other companies. Just look at Jim Clark's hostility with the board of directors when he was at SGI, and you will know what the situation is like between the founder and the investor.
But at Yahoo, there was no such situation at all. Yang Zhiyuan was willing to hand over the management power to Kugel and retreat behind the scenes, accepting media interviews and publicity, and serving as the spiritual leader of Yahoo.
But after a blink of an eye, he thought that if Yang Zhiyuan really had a personality like Song Yang, Kuger felt that he would be out of the job within three days. Thinking of this, he felt that Yang Zhiyuan was much more pleasing to the eye.
Song Yang also realized this. Yang Zhiyuan was more like Zhang Wuji in Jin Yong's novels. He was an Internet genius and had great luck. Anyone who had come into contact with him, even his opponents, would become his friend. However, as the founding team following him, it might not feel that good.
At least looking at this office where there are only a few Yahoo founding team members such as Brady serving as executives, you can understand this point.
"We need fairness. According to our valuations, this exchange is fair. Yahoo uses 5% of the shares to get 30% or even half of the shares in any digital advertising company like DoubleClick in Silicon Valley!" Kuger said with a hint of threat.
When Song Yang heard this, he glanced at Kuger. Yang Zhiyuan needed to consider that he was sent by Wall Street, but Song Yang didn't care about that. "Really?!"
"Then DoubleClick should also consider whether to cooperate with search companies such as Infoseek and Lycos and consider providing digital advertising for these companies. I think Lycos would be happy to exchange equal equity with DoubleClick!"
Kuger threatened Song Yang with rival Internet digital advertising companies such as L90 and Avenue. Not to be outdone, Song Yang also brought up Yahoo's competitors.
In order to maintain cooperation with Netscape and Yahoo, DoubleClick did not provide digital advertising to Netscape and Yahoo's competitors, but Song Yang did not mind providing services to Yahoo's competitors.
Especially Lycos Search, which was established only two months ago, has an amazing background. It is a joint investment of European giants Bertelsmann, Canada Bell Group and Spanish Telecom. It was established only two months ago, and it started to build momentum for listing with the slogan "Lycos may not be the largest, but it is the fastest."
Hearing that Song Yang wanted to cooperate with Yahoo's rival, Kuger's face suddenly turned ugly. Lycos Search is not a Wall Street native. This is a trick played by international investment institutions. It is the same method as Wall Street, going public to raise money. Once Lycos Search wins, the money invested in Yahoo by Sequoia and other venture capital institutions will be wasted.
"Song, Kuger, we are here today to cooperate, not to quarrel!"
Yang Zhiyuan spoke to Song Yang and Kuger. After Yang Zhiyuan spoke, Song Yang and Kuger stopped glaring at each other. Yang Zhiyuan, who had a humble personality, was indeed a buffer at this time.
Kugel raised his arm and pressed his hand. "Yahoo is willing to make concessions. DoubleClick will give up 15% of its equity!"
“13%!”
Song Yang also took a step back and added some chips, but Kug was still a little dissatisfied. He didn't know why Song Yang was so difficult to deal with. It would be great if he could be as humble as Yang Zhiyuan and not fight for anything!
"You beat Song, I will report to the board of directors, but DoubleClick Company also has to agree to some conditions from Yahoo."
Song Yang nodded and motioned for Kuger to continue.
"First, DoubleClick cannot cooperate with Yahoo's competitors, especially Lycos Search, at least not for the next year!"
Krug plugged the loophole in advance and prevented Song Yang from bringing it up again. If the money invested by Sequoia was really wasted, Krug's career would basically be over.
"Yang has always regarded you, Song, as a confidant, and Yahoo has always regarded DoubleClick as the best partner."
At this time, Kuger suddenly played the emotional card again, and it was obvious that what he wanted to say was probably not a small matter.
"We hope that DoubleClick can sign a digital advertising performance agreement with Yahoo, similar to that of Netscape..."
Before Kugel finished speaking, Greg stood up and said, "We have not signed any agreement with Netscape, nor have we made any guarantees. Those are just media speculations!"
Greg has been on guard against Yahoo setting a trap. The agreement between DoubleClick and Netscape was basically just a verbal agreement, and there was no liability at all. DoubleClick never admitted it, it was just a trick and did not deny it.
You have to know that if you admit that there is an agreement, you will have to take the blame and may even be sued. Greg will not let DoubleClick take the blame.
Kugel, Yang Zhiyuan and other Yahoo executives were a little embarrassed. They didn't expect Netscape to play such a fancy game. Netscape had been promoting its tens of millions of US dollars in digital advertising expenses for next year in front of the media, but it turned out to be a self-directed and self-acted show?
Kugel understood the courage of Marc Andreessen and his team. "Yahoo also wants to reach such a verbal agreement with DoubleClick."
"Yahoo hopes that DoubleClick can bring in no less than 45 million US dollars in digital advertising revenue for Yahoo in the next two years. Just like the cooperation with Netscape, DoubleClick only needs to not deny it. For this, Yahoo will also invest 5 million US dollars in advertising expenses for DoubleClick!"
Greg and Irene were staring at the Yahoo guys in amazement. Song Yang was not much better. Netscape had boasted big enough, and Yahoo was even more arrogant. They boasted about anything they wanted. Did they really think the American IRS didn't collect a tax on boasting?
Shocked, Song Yang and Irene looked at each other, and both guessed what Yahoo was going to do.
It is obvious that they have started to build momentum and exaggerate their performance in preparation for overtaking others and going public. Otherwise, they would not have made such a big boast and invested US$5 million in publicity to place advertisements on TV, in newspapers and magazines.
"Yahoo is confident that it can achieve this revenue. The cooperation with DoubleClick is just to ensure some security. Yahoo's daily visits have exceeded 2 million. It is currently building sites in Canada and Europe. By next year, Yahoo's daily visits will exceed 10 million..."
Kuger was telling Song Yang that Yahoo was not just bragging, but was turning its bragging into reality.
Greg and Irene both looked at Song Yang. It was obvious that Song Yang had to make the decision, whether to take the risk for Yahoo. Unlike Netscape, the risk for Yahoo was much greater. If something really happened, DoubleClick would also be in trouble.
For a moment, everyone in the conference room looked towards Song Yang. Kuger and Yahoo didn't have to be DoubleClick, but compared to bragging with DoubleClick, more people believed it. If they brag with other digital advertising companies, everyone would know that Yahoo was bragging...
Song Yang looked like he was frowning, but in fact, he was not worried. Yahoo's IPO would definitely be successful. There was no doubt about that. Even though he knew that Yahoo was bragging, there was no other website in the world that could brag about this except Yahoo...
But at this time, Song Yang also wanted to make more money for DoubleClick. "DoubleClick can agree to Yahoo, but Yahoo needs to let DoubleClick become the global advertising agent of Yahoo for the next five years!"
"make a deal!"
Kugel directly extended his hand. The most important thing at this time was to get Yahoo listed. Everything else was trivial. Everything would be easy if it went public. If it failed to go public, everyone present would be in trouble.
After the deal was done, the atmosphere on both sides immediately became better, and Kuger returned to his original smiling expression, as if nothing had happened just now.
Greg worked with Yahoo's lawyers to develop an agreement on equity swap, while Song Yang went to Yang Zhiyuan's office.
"I brought this tea here last time. It's authentic Tieguanyin, and you can't get it anywhere else in America!"
After arriving at the office, Yang Zhiyuan specially found a bag of tea and made a cup of tea for Song Yang.
Not to mention other aspects, Yang Zhiyuan's personality and character are really impeccable. He makes people feel like a spring breeze , and he became familiar with Song Yang in less than a moment.
"In our words, Yahoo and DoubleClick will be brother companies in the future!" Yang Zhiyuan said to Song Yang with a smile. He seemed very happy about the cooperation between the two sides.
"hope so!"
Song Yang took a sip of tea and said, how long DoubleClick, or Song Yang, can maintain this relationship with Yahoo is not determined by the relationship between Song Yang and Yang Zhiyuan, but depends on when the two sides will compete for food in the same trough!
