Chapter 1394 – Crazy Expansion
Bill Gates left with anger. He is a proud person, and this is a huge humiliation.
In Feng Yu’s previous life, Microsoft’s gaming console suffered losses of over 1 billion USD. But Bill Gates still insisted on continuing with it. Microsoft has never failed, and he will not give up on any projects.
When Bill Gates is thinking of dealing with Lenovo Kingsoft, he received news that Tai Hua Holdings had forcibly acquired Aiwa Little Tyrant’s shares with an additional 50% of the market value. This was one of the terms in their contract.
Although an additional 50% is a lot, and Microsoft will not suffer any losses, this is an insult to them. When have Microsoft businesses been acquired by someone else?
Bill Gates returned to Microsoft headquarters the same day. He announced he would teach Feng Yu and Lenovo Kingsoft a painful lesson!
On the other hand, Feng Yu is discussing with Kameda Masao on bringing G-box into Japan. Suddenly, Liu Chuanzhi told him that Lenovo Kingsoft is in trouble.
“Old Liu, what is it that had made you so anxious? Did something happen to Lenovo Kingsoft’s software?”
“No, but Microsoft China branch had announced they had acquired five software companies, and these are outstanding software application companies.”
Feng Yu frowned. Why did Microsoft suddenly acquire China’s software companies? Are they going to set up a computer software engineering lab here?
“Just let them be. Bill Gates had announced that he would invest 1 billion USD when he visited China, and he would be lying if he did not invest in anything. He is a proud person who will never admit defeat. Oh, how much did they spend to acquire those five companies?” Feng Yu is not concerned about this.
“Less than 50 million USD.”
Less than 50 million USD? This means those companies are not big. Did they develop some special application software that attracted Microsoft?
“What’s wrong? Are you suspecting there are some problems with this acquisition?”
“These five companies are not worth that much, and Microsoft is paying a premium to acquire them. Qiu Bojun and the rest also heard that Microsoft China Branch had contacted all the software companies in China!”
What? Contacted all the software companies in China?!
Is Microsoft going to take over the whole China software market? Are they not afraid of getting sued for monopolization?
Oh, there’s still Lenovo Kingsoft and other State-owned companies.
This will not be considered a monopoly, and it’s not a problem.
It’s just like Intel and AMD in Feng Yu’s previous life. Intel owned the majority of the market share and had formed a monopoly. But they did not let AMD go out of business to prevent getting sued and forced to break up.
“We should also do something to help raise those companies’ value.” Feng Yu replied.
“Manager Feng, did you don’t get what I am saying? Microsoft will take over all the software companies in China to form a giant software company to suppress us.” Liu Chuanzhi anxiously replied.
“I know. But a huge company with a lot of employees doesn’t mean it can make money. I had seen many huge corporations going bankrupt. What is the most important element for a software company? It’s the software engineers!”
Liu Chuanzhi finally understood what Feng Yu meant. “Are you saying that we will let them acquire those companies at high prices, and we poach their software engineers?”
“That’s right. Microsoft can buy those companies, and we will hire these companies’ top talents. Even if we can’t hire all of them, the State-owned technology companies, Hong Kong technology companies, and other foreign technology companies can hire them. I don’t believe they will sit around and do nothing when Microsoft is trying to become the biggest in China!”
China is a vast market with over 1 billion population. Any company that can open up this market will gain high profits.
No software companies will give up on the Chinese market, and Microsoft happens to be the public enemy of all software companies because they are No. 1.
……..
“Mr. Gates, many software MNC in the Chinese market have started to expand. Some of the companies we spoke to had increased their prices.” The person in charge of Microsoft China reported.
“I said we would invest more than 1 billion USD in China. We will meet their demand. What’s there to worry about?”
Bill Gates is unhappy with Microsoft China’s President because he had not reported about Lenovo Kingsoft. If Microsoft is aware of Lenovo Kingsoft’s potential earlier, they would have taken precautions against them.
Although Ballmer and the rest advice Bill Gates that Microsoft will have to spend a lot of money to expand like this. But he firmly believes this method will allow him to own at least half of the Chinese market and many IT elites.
No one can change Bill Gates’s decision. Although Paul Allen felt this is not a good move, he still supported it to snatch Feng Yu’s market share.
One should be rational when investing, but sometimes it’s not a bad thing to be impulsive. Furthermore, the Microsoft team had analyzed the Chinese software industry. One billion USD is enough for Microsoft to become China’s top software corporation.
There’s another benefit. Investors will think Microsoft had gained a foothold in the Chinese market, and their share prices will rise. Their profits will surely rise with such a vast market, and more investors will start buying Microsoft shares.
So, the Chinese software market suddenly attracted the attention of all major software companies.
Many people were shocked when many Chinese software companies were acquired and merged so quickly. Of course, Lenovo Kingsoft had also joined Microsoft to acquire those companies.
This incident attracted the attention of China’s top leaders. The IT industry is one of the key industries in their Five-years plan. Why is this happening so suddenly?
Liu Chuanzhi explained what happened to the Leaders. The government will not interfere as the Chinese companies will suffer no losses.
It would be embarrassing if the Chinese companies suffered losses in China.
…….
“Manager Feng, we had acquired a few companies which are quite good. They are developing similar products as us, and they can increase our strength.” Liu Chuanzhi said.
“Good. Anyway, we still have not finished spending the money we got from the loan. I think it’s about time to start poaching people!”
