However, at this moment, Fang Chen had a feeling in his heart, that is, the fish was hooked!

Just like Bill Gates believes that Netscape Browser is the best weapon to monopolize the Internet entrance and maintain Microsoft's hegemony, Fang Chen also believes that Microsoft is the best buyer of Netscape Browser.

After all, browsers are a doomed thing. It is not a good idea to trick anyone, but it is most appropriate to trick Microsoft, and Microsoft is definitely the one who is willing to pay the highest price among all potential buyers.

Furthermore, selling the Netscape browser to Bill Gates is not a complete setback. It will more or less benefit Bill Gates.

In his previous life, from being sued for monopoly and unfair competition in 1997 to losing the lawsuit in 2002 and paying money, but avoiding the fate of Microsoft being split in two, it was the most notorious and painful period for Bill Gates.

However, a large part of the reason why Microsoft was sued and faced such a severe situation was because Microsoft promoted the IE browser to crowd out the Netscape browser. Marc Andreessen and other investors and shareholders jointly sued Microsoft.

And now if Bill Gates could buy the Netscape browser from him, would Bill Gates have avoided this painful experience?

And we must also know that it was not Bill Gates who did not want to buy Netscape Browser at the time, but Marc Andreessen and other shareholders felt that Netscape Browser had good development prospects and were unwilling to sell it.

So from this perspective, Bill Gates should thank him.

Of course, Bill Gates will not directly buy all Netscape browsers now, and he will not sell them if he wants to buy them.

Now Netscape Browser has not yet reached its maximum value.

After all, in the previous life, when the market value of Netscape browser was the highest, it was worth 8.4 billion U.S. dollars. Now it is only worth 6 billion U.S. dollars. And in this life, because of his various operations to create momentum, the peak of Netscape browser will definitely not be worth only

$8.4 billion.

However, it is still possible to sell part of it first to give it a sweet spot and let the fish bite the bait. Fang Chen's eyes flashed with an inexplicable light.

But despite thinking so, Fang Chen still lowered his head, frowned, and pretended to be embarrassed.

"Bill, Metsu, as a friend, I shouldn't have rejected you, but you also know that Netscape is preparing to go public tomorrow, releasing 20% ​​of its equity in exchange for 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, so there will be no shortage of money for a while.

Use it, and there are no plans to sell the shares.”

Finally, Fang Chen raised his head and said with a troubled expression.

Hearing this, Metsu's expression changed slightly, and his heart skipped a beat. What Fang Chen said now was probably the last thing he wanted to hear today.

But he had to admit that what Fang Chen said made sense. A company as small as Netscape, with so little investment, suddenly had an extra US$1.2 billion in cash. It really had no shortage of money.

Even from now on, it is okay to eat steak and throw away one piece.

Unlike some large companies, especially asset-heavy ones, he can spend it no matter how much money is given to him, and he doesn't care much about the shares, as long as the money raised from financing can help the company's growth more than

Just diluted shares will do.

To put it simply, if you invest one dollar, it will turn into two dollars, or even more.

However, this asset growth capability should be a basic quality possessed by an excellent enterprise.

But this point is obviously invalid for Netscape. After all, as he said before, Netscape's scale and assets are too small, so it will take a long, long time to spend US$1.2 billion.

But it is precisely because Netscape can leverage such a high market value with such a small scale and assets that it is so favored by the capital market.

These are all what he came up with while chatting with Bill Gates over a drink today. It is precisely this kind of discovery that makes him really like Netscape more and more, and the more he looks at it, the more he thinks about it.

Gotta get it.

Bill Gates, on the other hand, looked much calmer, or perhaps he was too familiar with Fang Chen, so he could tell that Fang Chen's tone of rejection was actually not that firm.

"Fang, I know that Netscape is not short of money now, but money can never be too much. If Netscape wants to develop in the future, it will include the rental and purchase of servers, the purchase of bandwidth, and the purchase of computer rooms.

Construction and so on are a big expense.”

"In addition, Fang, you have made Netscape so successful, haven't you thought about profiting from it and giving yourself something back? Do you have to spend all the US$1.2 billion on Netscape again? Then you are going public.

It would be a big loss if you don’t make it.”

Bill Gates has a bewildered look on his face and follows the path of temptation.

Metsu's eyes lit up and he glanced at Bill Gates approvingly. Bill Gates was so smart that he could think of such a passage.

If he were Fang Chen, he would definitely be moved by these words.

After all, if you don't fight for yourself, how can you invest so hard to build a listed company and not end up with a penny in your pocket?

After all, this is not financing. All the money must be used to develop the company but to go public. This is the end point for most companies, and they can enjoy part of the fruits of victory.

Furthermore, financing also allows founders to cash out part of their shares, but the proportion cannot be too large.

Hearing this, Fang Chen's expression suddenly became a little strange.

After a few seconds, he said with a slightly shy look: "Bill, thank you for thinking about me. I have actually thought about this. So of the 1.2 billion U.S. dollars, we will divide it with 1 billion U.S. dollars, and the rest will be divided."

The 200 million is the development capital left in Netscape."

"After all, you also know that Netscape's investment is not large. US$200 million is completely enough to support the expansion of the scale. If there is still need at that time, then just release some shares."

As soon as Fang Chen said these words, Bill Gates suddenly turned to stone and looked at Fang Chen with a strange look.

To be honest, he feels like a slap in the face now. He wants to take back what he just said, take it back completely!

He really thought too well of Fang Chen, and thought that Fang Chen would use most of the 1.2 billion U.S. dollars in the development of Netscape. But who would have thought that Fang Chen would dare to be so shameless and directly cash out 1 billion U.S. dollars?

Put it in your pocket.

He has been working hard in the business world for decades and has never seen a company that dares to do this.

Even now, he wants to grab the collars of the heads of underwriters such as Morgan and Goldman Sachs and ask them how they coached the listing and how they could even agree to such shameless conditions?

And when those investors subscribed for new Netscape stocks, did they not read anything, didn’t understand anything, and were buying Netscape stocks with their eyes closed?

At this time, Bill Gates really felt that his heart was full of anger, just like a gorilla beating its chest and roaring loudly!

But in the next moment, a thought flashed through his mind, and he suddenly felt weak.

It suddenly occurred to him just now that he had not investigated in advance about Fang Chen's plan to cash out one billion US dollars. He only found out about it after Fang Chen said it himself.

From this perspective, he is no different from those stock investors, they are just as stupid.

In addition, Fang Chen's answer really shocked him, causing him to lose all subsequent words.

Fang Chen looked at Bill Gates and Metsu, who looked gloomy and uncertain, with a smile.

He also had no intention of letting Netscape develop greatly, and for him, Netscape was originally a place to prove his ability and make a lot of money.

Under such circumstances, how could he not put most of the money gained from the listing into his own pocket, not to mention that he has now established Qingtian Chip, which is the time to burn money.

And US$200 million is enough for Netscape, and there is no need to consider the cost of development within two years.

As for two years later, even if Microsoft does not launch the IE browser to fight with Netscape, when Yahoo rises two years later, Netscape will not be able to survive and will come to the end of its life.

Therefore, his main task is to try his best to sell Netscape and make more money within these two years.

However, Marc Andreessen could not accept these choices of his. He also wanted to develop Netscape better and become a great company and a leader of the Internet.

But with his patient explanation and the help of Jim, Marc Andreessen reluctantly accepted Fang Chen's statement and put the money in his pocket first. If Netscape really needs money for its development in the future, he can then dilute the share financing.

.

Needless to say, Fang Chen, and Jim, as the first person to discover Marc Andreessen, both of them have a great influence on Marc Andreessen.

And anyway, after this listing, Marc Andreessen suddenly became one of the youngest billionaires in the world, with a net worth of US$2 billion.

However, after this incident, Fang Chen became more optimistic about Jim. Marc Anderson was still too young.

"Fang, at this moment, I seem to have nothing to say that can impress you except that selling your shares to us will give you more money in your pocket." Bill Gates said with a wry smile.

.

Fang Chen kept the billion dollars in his own pocket, and Chi Guoguo's listing to make money really made him dizzy.

"Money..."

Fang Chen suddenly raised his eyebrows and spoke in a long tone, his tone full of helplessness.

Bill Gates suddenly felt happy, and his heart jumped into his throat. How could he feel a hint of turning point in Fang Chen's tone?

"Since we are all old friends, I won't hide it from you. I'm really short of money right now." Fang Chen sighed, looking bored and decadent.

"Fang, you will be short of money, are you kidding me?"

Although he already felt something was wrong, Bill Gates was stunned when he heard Fang Chen's answer.

If others don't know it, how can he still not know it? The companies under Fang Chen's name are simply a cornucopia. The annual net profit of any company is hundreds of millions of dollars.

In addition, Fang Chen could use all the company's money to do whatever he wanted, so at one point he really felt that if anyone in the world was short of money, Fang Chen would not be short of money.

But now Fang Chen, who was least likely to be short of money, was already short of money. For a moment, he really felt like the sun was rising from the west.

"How could I be joking about this kind of thing? Do you think I don't want to lose face? The world's richest man is actually short of money. Does this sound good?" Fang Chen glanced at Bill Gates and said disdainfully.

"Why is that?"

Not wanting to get into Fang Chen's troubles at this time, Bill Gates smiled sarcastically.

"It's not because I set up a chip company in China some time ago. I want to make some relatively basic chips, memory sticks, etc., to reduce the cost of purchasing chips and memory for my products. Integrated circuits are really too expensive these days.

It's over." Fang Chen complained with a look of helplessness.

As soon as Fang Chen said this, Bill Gates immediately understood that if he was running a chip company and was short of money, it would not be surprising at all.

As a top figure in the computer industry who has been working in the computer industry for decades, he naturally has an incomparable understanding of chips, memory, and even the entire semiconductor industry.

I also know better that that thing is a complete gold-swallowing beast. It takes hundreds of millions of dollars to spend and it doesn’t even make a splash. Only billions of dollars to spend can make something happen.
To be continued...