sjar Chapter 79 Bill's Reaction
Chapter 79 Bill's Reaction
When Ballmer pushed open the heavy wooden door to Bill's office, his usual warm smile was replaced by a solemn expression. In his hand was an important folder, not too thick, but heavy with weight.
Bill was sitting behind his desk, which was piled high with technical documents and files. His eyes were fixed on the computer screen in front of him, his fingers flying across the keyboard. He looked up and gestured for Ballmer to sit down, then said, "Wait a moment!"
Ballmer sat down and waited patiently, taking the opportunity to organize the content he would be reporting later.
Bill pressed Enter, turned to Ballmer, and adjusted his glasses. "Alright, let's talk about our young friend from China. He declined?" His tone was calm, as if he wasn't surprised by the outcome.
"Yes, Bill, he refused." Ballmer stood up and placed the folder on the desk in front of Bill with both hands. "And he refused very thoroughly. He didn't wait for a higher offer. He didn't even look at the price we offered him. He said he didn't create StarCraft for money. He said he doesn't need money."
"Not short of money?" Bill raised an eyebrow slightly, reached for the folder, but did not open it immediately.
"Yes, but our friends in China have done a thorough investigation. He owns an electronics factory with pitifully low profits, two small internet cafes, and some stocks worth three or four million US dollars. He also has two million US dollars in foreign debt, which he borrowed from friends before coming to the United States. This amount of money is not enough for his company to operate for such a long time."
Bill listened quietly, his fingers unconsciously tapping lightly on the folder cover. He didn't speak, but simply gestured for Ballmer to continue.
"Because he made money in the stock market, I had someone investigate his actions after he came to the United States. We found that he opened a stock account in the US, used two million dollars with 10 times leverage, and made more than six million dollars in short-term trading within ten trading days. Then he leveraged another 50 million dollars to buy 13 million shares of Yahoo stock at a cost of $3.8 per share, and now his unrealized profit is more than 65 million dollars. So he is definitely not short of money now."
Bill's brow furrowed even deeper. He finally opened the document. The first few pages contained technical assessments of the "Starry Sky Operation System" and the "Starry Sky Browser," which he quickly skimmed through; he already had a general understanding of this information. The following pages contained background information on Ling Yun.
Silence fell over the office, broken only by the rustling of papers as Bill turned the pages.
After a while, Bill slowly leaned back in his chair and gently closed the file. He took off his glasses, his eyes somewhat vacant, and pinched the bridge of his nose, clearly processing the information quickly.
"Simply offering cash is clearly not enough to sway this ambitious young man who isn't short of money. Judging from his actions, he's obviously an extremely confident person with strong execution skills." Bill seemed to be analyzing for Ballmer, but also talking to himself.
"What do you think?" Bill turned to look at Ballmer.
"This young man is very talented and has always had a smooth life without experiencing setbacks, so he is confident and stubborn, and it is very difficult for us to persuade him," Ballmer said with some helplessness.
"His open-source strategy will definitely cause us trouble in the future. The stronger he becomes, the greater the losses he will cause us. Bill, I think we need to eliminate this threat before he develops and prevent him from having the opportunity to grow."
"No, Ballmer, you have to understand that this is our home turf. Even if Starry Sky grows up, it might not escape our control. If a Chinese company wants to develop, they definitely won't have a chance without our approval. But we need a company like this to shut those people up and stop them from suing us for monopoly every day. If they pose a threat, how difficult is it to deal with a company controlled by a Chinese person?" Bill's lips curled into a slight smile.
"Of course, we also need to give this young man some opportunities. If we can bring him into our circle, that would be ideal. Giving him a controllable stage is good for everyone," Bill said with a smile. "I invited him to the internet entrepreneurs' banquet that Mondrian organized."
"Okay, I'll send him an invitation." Ballmer immediately agreed.
"Since we have some time now, let's analyze the development path that the Star Council will take, just for fun," Bill said to Ballmer with a smile, as if discussing how an ant can escape from a human.
"StarCraft is only somewhat well-known among IT enthusiasts right now. Their next step will definitely be to talk to computer manufacturers about pre-installing the system and promoting it. Another step is to talk to hardware manufacturers about cooperation to do targeted optimization and improve performance," Ballmer speculated.
"Then who would agree?" Bill asked.
"Computer manufacturers will likely provide covert support, with Sun potentially stepping forward to cooperate directly, and AMD possibly also partnering with them."
"Now that you mention it, I'm somewhat hoping Lingyun will refuse us, so we can test our partners." Bill laughed heartily.
"Even if they stick together, they're still a disorganized mess and won't amount to much. Even if we don't intervene, they'll be in chaos from within," Ballmer said with a look of disdain.
"We do need this opportunity to establish our absolute dominance. Market share and market power are not absolutely equal." Bill's expression turned serious. "Some people need to be taught a lesson, and some companies need to disappear. They're always jumping around in front of us, affecting our mood."
"By the way, we also need to reorganize our internal structure. Some people are getting such high salaries, yet the products they produce are a complete mess. StarCraft, with just a few dozen people, produces products that are miles ahead of them," Bill said to Ballmer with a serious expression. "Especially the IE R&D department, what are they doing? It's been so long, and there's not a single sign of progress. Can't they even copy other people's open-source code properly?"
Ballmer remained silent, listening attentively to Bill's reprimand. He also felt that some departments were overstaffed and needed to be addressed; this internal problem was far more harmful than the damage caused by Stardust.
Bill sighed. Talented people don't want to be subordinate to others, while obedient people often lack the necessary skills. He turned to Ballmer and said, "Those who can't be hired with a salary need to be tied to shared long-term interests. Go and prepare a new acquisition agreement for StarCraft, with more favorable terms for Ling Yun personally. You can give him a certain number of shares so that he can become one of Microsoft's major individual shareholders in the next few years."
Ballmer looked surprised. Did Bill value Ling Yun that much? But he didn't ask any further questions and replied, "Okay, I'll go prepare it right away."
Ballmer left Bill's office, and Bill stood by the window, stunned for a long time. He had made up his mind to win over this young man at all costs.