A few days later, at Yahoo's headquarters, Yang Zhiyuan, who had been instructing his subordinates to keep an eye on Jiangnan Group, received news that the Jiangnan Group's delegation had not yet left Los Angeles.
"That's strange. I've already clearly rejected Huang He, so what is Huang He waiting for?" Yang Zhiyuan muttered. He checked the time. There were less than five days left until the bid deadline. Could Jiangnan Group still be trying to find other avenues?
"Could Huang He be trying to get involved through other major shareholders?" Yang Zhiyuan pondered. This was the only possible way to break through his blockade.
However, besides Sequoia Capital, Yahoo's major shareholders were basically investment companies. The biggest characteristic of these investment companies was that they generally did not interfere with the company's operations, unless the company suffered huge losses.
Therefore, unless Huang He could win over Sequoia Capital, it would be impossible to change the situation.
Although Sequoia Capital had more instances of interfering with normal company operations than other investment companies, this usually only happened when there was a major conflict between capital and the operating party.
Currently, Sequoia Capital's representative and he were like brothers, with an excellent relationship. Sequoia Capital should not fall out with him over such minor matters.
Moreover, Sequoia Capital would not really believe that a mere Chinese company had the ability to produce world-class servers!
That's right, Yang Zhiyuan's constant rejection of Huang He had a fundamental reason: Yang Zhiyuan believed that Jiangnan Group could not possibly produce servers that met the requirements.
Even though the bid they provided listed detailed data, this data was either completed under special circumstances, or it was simply fabricated and not enough to prove anything.
Otherwise, if these servers could really be produced at about half the price, Yang Zhiyuan would really not be able to refuse. After all, it was usually several hundred million US dollars. Although Yahoo's profits were high, it liked to distribute dividends, so Yahoo's book capital was not much. After spending 2 billion US dollars to purchase servers this time, Yahoo's books would be basically empty. Yang Zhiyuan's operational work would also be a bit difficult.
There was also the predicament of Yahoo China.
Yang Zhiyuan was from Taiwan Province, so he always had a certain obsession in his heart: what the KMT army could not achieve back then, Yang Zhiyuan wanted to achieve.
Of course, Yang Zhiyuan never thought of doing anything big. He just wanted to occupy the internet in mainland China, which would be considered realizing the KMT army's dream.
Therefore, Yang Zhiyuan actually paid a lot of attention to Yahoo China and allocated a lot of resources to it to compete with Sina and Sohu. However, for some reason, Yahoo China, with the advantages of American technology and culture, could never defeat those two homegrown upstarts. Instead, its market share had been declining recently.
Otherwise, Yang Zhiyuan would not have had to set his sights on QQ and Facebook, wanting to get their direct access. The fact was that Yahoo China was simply not developing well!
"Forget it, let's play a game to relax!" Yang Zhiyuan sighed, then opened the QQ Game Center and entered Warcraft III through the QQ Game Center.
That's right, Yang Zhiyuan was actually a player of Warcraft III, and also a player on the Chinese server. Yang Zhiyuan originally disdained to go to the Chinese servers, but occasionally at an old classmate's house, he played a special map called "Three Realms War" on the Chinese server, and he was immediately hooked. The next day, he asked Yahoo China staff to collect all 15 redemption codes for the special map for him.
Well, so these 15 special map redemption codes, in the eyes of most players, were a consumption of astronomical figures. If they were lucky, it would cost about 20,000 yuan to collect a complete set.
However, Yang Zhiyuan naturally did not take these small amounts of money seriously. It was just 10,000 US dollars.
But when Yang Zhiyuan entered the QQ Game homepage and was about to enter the game, his mouse suddenly froze on the page.
Because at this moment, on the taskbar of the QQ Game Center, an icon had appeared.
This icon had no complex patterns or designs, only four concise characters: "Portal Website."
This was an unprecedented link icon in the QQ Game Center, which gave Yang Zhiyuan a very bad premonition.
Therefore, Yang Zhiyuan directly clicked on this icon, and the browser popped up, starting to connect to the web page automatically.
Because it was opening a Chinese web page in the United States, the internet speed was very slow. It took more than ten seconds to open half of the web page. But as soon as he saw the URL of this web page, Yang Zhiyuan knew what this website was.
This was clearly Sohu's homepage.
"No way..." Yang Zhiyuan was stunned for a moment, then quickly opened the QQ program and Facebook website on his computer. The result was the same. These programs all had a portal website link button, and they all pointed to Sohu.
"Huang He actually sold this advertising space to Sohu!" Yang Zhiyuan suddenly clenched his fist tightly. He was the first to think of using Jiangnan Group's traffic to promote the portal website. He was the first to come up with it, but in the end, Sohu got this opportunity.
Although the actual market changes still needed to be verified by time, Yang Zhiyuan knew very well that regardless of the final outcome, Sohu would receive a large influx of traffic.
And this wave of traffic would quickly compress Yahoo's market share in China, directly making Sohu the dominant player in the portal website market. His plan to revitalize Yahoo China had not even begun, and it had already been completely destroyed.
Next, Yang Zhiyuan desperately thought of ways to break the deadlock, but Yang Zhiyuan sadly found that even with the support of the vast Yahoo, which was worth hundreds of billions, he seemed to have no way to help Yahoo China in the Chinese market.
Because on the Chinese internet, Jiangnan Group was the absolute overlord. They controlled the most powerful traffic on the entire network. Whoever they wanted to support could grow at an unimaginable speed. This was the power of traffic.
And the only way to break the deadlock now seemed to be to negotiate with Jiangnan Group.
"Forget it, for Yahoo, it's fine if I lose face!" Thinking of this, Yang Zhiyuan felt a sense of self-sacrifice and satisfaction, and his mood immediately improved. Then he asked his secretary to call Huang He.
Then the secretary told Yang Zhiyuan that she did not have Huang He's phone number in the United States. After all, they had parted on bad terms a few nights ago, and they hadn't even exchanged business cards.
Although he had Huang He's office phone number in China, Huang He was not in China now, so this phone number would definitely not be usable.
"Then call that guy who came to our company every day!" Yang Zhiyuan said helplessly.
By the way, the advertisement on the QQ Game Center was a gift from Huang He, a newcomer benefit that lasted for a whole month, making Zhang Chaoyang smile so hard that his teeth almost fell out.
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"Boss, what are your intentions? Why haven't you let us return to China yet!" In the hotel room in Los Angeles, two people were chatting over tea.
These two people were the advance working group sent by Jiangnan Group, Zou Yucheng and one of his subordinates. The entire delegation had arrived in the United States for four days, but during these four days, it seemed to be free time. Except for a few people who had tasks, most of them were sightseeing in Los Angeles.
Moreover, these two people knew that Huang He had met Yang Zhiyuan in person and even had dinner together, but the situation had not changed at all. Jiangnan Group still could not get the bidding qualification, which clearly indicated that the two parties had fallen out.
Logically speaking, Jiangnan Group should have packed up and gone home at this time, but Huang He did not seem to have any intention of doing so, and kept the entire delegation in the United States.
Although this was quite enjoyable, earning a salary, staying in a five-star hotel, and being able to shop abroad every day, it was not good to stay like this for too long.
After all, Jiangnan Group only subsidized each employee with 1000 US dollars, but there were too many temptations in American shopping malls. This money was not enough to spend.
As a result, they started to find ways to exchange their savings for US dollars to spend. Some people even excitedly took money to the red-light district to consume, and then brought back a pile of invoices.
Who knows who they intended to claim these invoices from.
So, after a few days, many members of the delegation felt depressed instead of happy. Their savings accumulated for one or two years were gone in the blink of an eye, and it was better to stay in the hotel.
But living like this was a bit boring.
Just as Zou Yucheng and others were complaining like this, his mobile phone suddenly rang.
"Boss, your phone is ringing," his subordinate reminded him.
"Strange, this number is newly obtained in the United States. Besides those damn Yahoo bastards, no one knows this number. Who is calling me?" Zou Yucheng muttered to himself, puzzled.
"Heh heh, maybe it's someone from Yahoo, maybe it's Yahoo's chairman Yang Zhiyuan!" the subordinate said with a grin.
"Nonsense, Yang Zhiyuan can't wait to look at us with his rear end. I've actively called him more than 10 times in the past ten days, but he hasn't called me once. It would be a miracle if he called me!" Zou Yucheng cursed. "If he really calls, I'll take my head off and give it to you as a ball to kick."
Then he looked at the caller ID on his phone and was instantly stunned.
"Who is it!" the subordinate asked curiously.
"The person who told you to kick my head as a ball!" Zou Yucheng said with his mouth wide open. He waited until the phone rang two or three more times before he hurriedly answered the phone and asked about Yang Zhiyuan and his family with great courtesy.
Well, that's literally what he meant.
It's just that Yang Zhiyuan had no intention of chatting with Zou Yucheng. He only asked Zou Yucheng for Huang He's phone number.