"Mr. Laured, we at Goldman Sachs are truly sincere in our desire to acquire the technological patents held by your company. Why are you pushing us away?" Bino said earnestly as he looked at the old man before him.
"I'm not pushing you away; it's your price that's too insincere. You want to buy all our company's patents for a mere 7 million Euros. You truly look down on us!" Laured said indignantly. "When the Jiangnan Group approached me, they wanted to pay 14 million Euros, and I didn't sell. You've cut the price in half! You've gone too far!"
Laured was the head of a European materials company, a venerable establishment with over sixty years of history. However, as the concept of magnetic levitation emerged, the company adjusted its direction to follow suit. As it turned out, high-speed magnetic levitation trains never achieved large-scale market operation, and the company's situation worsened, with its assets steadily shrinking. All that remained were some magnetic levitation patents, which became the most valuable and least valuable things in their possession.
Most valuable because these patents were related to the core materials of magnetic levitation technology. Without these materials, magnetic levitation trains could not operate, making the technology extremely precious.
Least valuable because no one in Europe was interested in pursuing magnetic levitation trains anymore, rendering the technology unwanted.
However, with the Jiangnan Group's vacuum magnetic levitation train plan being proposed, it seemed the era of magnetic levitation trains was about to return, and these technologies naturally became valuable again.
"14 million Euros? How is that possible!" Bino was stunned. After all, Goldman Sachs' professional analysts had calculated that the patent technology held by Laured's company was worth around 5 million Euros. To expedite the acquisition, Goldman Sachs had already increased the price by 40%, setting it at 7 million Euros. They had thought this price would be irresistible, only to find that the initial offer was half of what the Jiangnan Group had offered. It would be a miracle if this deal could be concluded.
Bino was one of the negotiation representatives dispatched by Goldman Sachs, reporting to the company's Chief Secretary Corby. He was also in charge of a negotiation team, and Laured's company was one of his targets. However, he had an unfortunate start, with the first meeting proving to be such a terrible situation.
Furthermore, Bino did not have the authority to offer a higher price. Thus, this rather unpleasant negotiation had to be concluded. Afterward, Bino rushed to another company in the same city.
While the patents held by this company were not as core as those of Laured's, they were still useful. Goldman Sachs' team had valued them at 1.6 million Euros.
The result was the same as with Laured; the Jiangnan Group had offered a staggering 3 million Euros for the acquisition, so Bino once again returned empty-handed.
Upon returning to the hotel, Bino immediately received a call from his superior, Chief Secretary Corby, requesting an immediate video conference.
Although Corby led the team to Europe this time, because these patents were distributed across more than twenty companies in twelve different European countries, Corby had to divide his subordinates into six teams to contact companies in different countries, making a phone conference necessary.
Soon, the leaders of the six teams logged in, and Corby was the last to appear in the conference room... and then the software crashed.
A few minutes later, everyone reconnected. Corby began, "Please report on today's work. First, by Bino's team in charge of Germany... Germany... Germany... Leader... Leader..."
Then the entire screen froze. Afterward, Corby's own account logged out. Bino stared blankly at the screen, unsure if he should speak according to his leader's instructions or wait for his leader to come online again.
Soon, Corby's account logged back in, but this time it only remained stable for a few seconds before logging off again. After a full half-hour of such disruptions, Corby finally typed, "What is this Work doing? Why is it so laggy? It was laggy in the US, but not this bad!"
Work was a work software commonly used throughout Goldman Sachs at the time, mainly for holding various work video conferences and other work-related needs. It was developed by a U.S. company, and almost all of Goldman Sachs was using it.
"Boss, it's likely because Work hasn't set up European servers!" Bino typed. "We actually talked to Work about going public and know their internal details. This company was developed by a group of college graduates. They initially received only two rounds of investment. Although almost all of this money was used to purchase servers, these servers can barely maintain U.S. demand. They currently lack the capacity to house servers in Europe!"
"So, if we use Work in Europe, the data needs to be transmitted back to U.S. servers via submarine cables and then transmitted back to the European network, naturally leading to unbearable lag!"
"Damn it! Then let's switch to a local work software that has servers in Europe!" Corby said dejectedly.
"Boss, if it's work software with servers in Europe, then we'll probably only be able to use WoWo, because all companies in Europe are currently using WoWo. There are no other local software options available to us!" Bino typed.
"That can't be right..." Corby remained silent for a while before typing, "In all of Europe, there isn't a single homegrown network work software?"
"There used to be, but they were basically all wiped out by WoWo!" Bino typed. "When I was investing in Work, I conducted extensive market research, including some in Europe."
"Originally, WoWo pioneered the work software market. The entire software's usage scenarios, architecture, and logic were also first created by WoWo. And because of WoWo's strong financial backing, WoWo expanded almost simultaneously worldwide and entered the European market at the earliest opportunity, establishing European servers. This left no room for European companies to develop."
"Although several European companies later launched software similar to WoWo, these software lost the first-mover advantage because a large number of companies were already using WoWo. Moreover, these companies intended to charge for their services, so they were naturally crushed by WoWo, which advertised itself as forever free."
"Even if they later claimed to be free, they could no longer find investors willing to fund them. Ultimately, these companies all went bankrupt, and only WoWo remained as the sole software for all of Europe!"
"This is also why I've always believed that investing in Work was not a good idea, because it's too difficult for Work to survive. In the U.S., at least some companies are forced to use them. But outside the U.S., they lack the ability to expand globally. Our investment cannot yield the expected return of more than double, which is why I rejected that investment proposal..."
"Alright... I don't want to hear you explain these things to me. You know, the company has strict regulations prohibiting the use of any products under OO, especially software like WoWo that might involve a lot of company confidential information. We can only use non-OO systems like Work!" Corby typed. Indeed, he took a full five minutes just to type this paragraph, and the six team leaders, including Bino, waited for a full five minutes. By this time, the meeting had already been underway for over an hour and a half.
"I'm sorry, there really isn't any usable software in Europe. How about we just use Work for typing and communication? Their servers can still handle that!" Bino did not refute his boss at all and offered a thoughtful suggestion.
Corby, on the other end of the computer, looked at the keyboard and his somewhat disobedient fingers, remaining silent for a long time. Then he said, "I seem to recall that the company's requirement is for the U.S. domestic market, and it doesn't seem to involve Europe..." xxs壹贰
"By the way, Bino, since you've done a detailed investigation, do you think the other party could steal intelligence through our phone conference?"
"The possibility is almost zero!" Bino breathed a sigh of relief and immediately typed, "First of all, WoWo has millions of users every day, with hundreds of thousands of video conferences every hour. WoWo cannot possibly monitor all these meetings!"
"Moreover, video conferences communicate via voice. WoWo cannot interpret the content of voice using computers; it can only be read through manual listening. But this is even more impossible. Unless they have been monitoring us all along, knowing where we live, our computer's IP address, and our WoWo account, there is absolutely no possibility of them monitoring us!" Bino typed.
"Phew, then there's no problem!" Corby also breathed a sigh of relief. "How about this, everyone be cautious, apply for a new WoWo account, and then communicate. Also, be careful not to mention any company names. You can refer to these companies by their country plus their first initial. Just refer to Jiangnan as Company J!"
"Yes!" Everyone felt greatly relieved. After a total of two hours of toiling, everyone switched to WoWo, a software under OO, and then the video conference finally began smoothly.
However, as soon as the meeting started, the situation became even worse.
"Boss, work in France has stalled because Company J's prices are almost double our acquisition prices."
"Reporting, boss, our situation is the same!"
"Reporting, boss, ours is also the same!"
Well, the situation was the same for all six teams in the end.