The Weibo netizens were aware of the situation, and Yang Zhiyuan was naturally no exception. The board of directors had also convened an emergency meeting, demanding an explanation from Yang Zhiyuan regarding the truthfulness of the report published by Google.
However, Yang Zhiyuan himself was unsure if the report was true or false. At this moment, Yang Zhiyuan was completely bewildered. Yet, facing the board's inquiry, Yang Zhiyuan could only state that based on their own backend data, Yahoo's traffic had only seen a slight decrease, not a significant drop.
This implied that Google's investigation report might be fabricated.
In reality, Yang Zhiyuan's response was very vague, filled with words like "possibly," "perhaps," and "probably." However, this was enough for the board. The board's priority was to maintain Yahoo's stock price; everything else was secondary.
Thus, the board demanded that Yang Zhiyuan immediately issue a public announcement stating that Google's data was falsified and that their market share had not declined as drastically.
Yang Zhiyuan naturally could not refuse, as he was still hoping to extricate himself from Yahoo. Therefore, that very evening, Yahoo urgently released a report to the public, along with its own backend data, indicating that its backend traffic had only experienced a slight decrease within a month, far from the exaggerated extent claimed by Google.
This report proved quite effective, significantly alleviating market panic. When the stock market opened the following morning, Yahoo's stock price even saw a slight rebound.
However, this also heightened market skepticism towards the two conflicting narratives. One of them had to be false, leading to renewed debates about who was telling the truth.
From an overall public opinion standpoint, Yahoo garnered more support. After all, most people held Yahoo stock, and with Google not yet publicly listed, shareholders naturally did not want their investments to lose value. Consequently, Google faced considerable public criticism.
In anger, Google announced its intention to apply to regulatory authorities for an investigation into its own report. Simultaneously, it challenged Yahoo to make its backend data public for regulatory investigation.
Yahoo naturally did not want its data to be scrutinized. However, refusing an investigation by the relevant authorities at this juncture would undoubtedly be tantamount to admitting guilt.
Moreover, from the perspective of the top management, their data was all genuine and there was no falsification. Therefore, Yang Zhiyuan readily invited the relevant agencies to conduct an internal investigation at Yahoo.
Yahoo viewed this as an opportunity to prove its innocence. However, a few individuals were terrified: the personnel responsible for Yahoo's backend operations and the head of Yahoo Search.
These two individuals were close friends. When Yahoo Search was launched, the backend manager did not report the relevant data to his superiors immediately but instead informed his friend, telling him that his Yahoo Search had failed miserably.
The head of Yahoo Search was immediately distressed. As the lead developer of Yahoo Search, if Yahoo Search crashed, especially so spectacularly, he would be finished.
However, he had no way to fix the problems with Yahoo Search. But he did have a way to deal with the person who discovered the problem.
Thus, he approached his good friend, asking for help to conceal the data, to prevent the higher-ups from discovering the abysmal failure of Yahoo Search.
Of course, such a matter would eventually be discovered. Therefore, he did not request perpetual concealment but instead asked for the data, which showed a catastrophic collapse, to be reported as a gradual decline spread over three months.
This would make it appear as if the decline was gradual over three months, thereby diminishing the severity of Yahoo Search's failure and its impact on the quality of Yahoo Search itself. The blame could then be shifted to market operations issues.
This kind of approach was not considered particularly risky, as many large listed companies operated in a similar fashion, and often the highest levels of management tacitly approved of it.
After all, the company did not belong to them but to the board of directors and shareholders. The actual performance of the company was of little consequence as long as the data looked good enough to fool the board and shareholders.
Once their employment tenure was over, they would collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in salary, walk away, and have no further connection to the company's future.
Indeed, even if Yang Zhiyuan later discovered the data discrepancies, at most he would handle it internally, perhaps without even issuing any penalties. He might even help them cover it up, as long as the board and shareholders were kept in the dark, which would also be beneficial to him.
However, when the entire stock market began to pay attention to this matter, trouble began to brew. Once their data falsification was discovered, the consequences for Yahoo were uncertain, but they themselves were definitely finished.
This was because these false data had been submitted in paper reports, while the real data remained on the servers, irremovable unless the entire server group was destroyed!
These two individuals, known for their foolishness, exchanged glances and nodded. The next evening, a cleaning lady, while tidying up the server room, accidentally tripped over a power cable, causing a severe short circuit and setting the entire server room ablaze.
Because the accident occurred at night, there was a shortage of personnel to handle the situation. Consequently, the fire engulfed a large portion of the server room and the servers before it could be extinguished.
However, one-third of Yahoo's server groups were destroyed, particularly the data storage server groups, which were reduced to ashes.
When Yang Zhiyuan, still asleep in his bed at 3 AM, was awakened by the news, he was utterly stunned.
The next morning, after users discovered that Yahoo had been without service for seven hours, Yahoo announced that due to a server room fire, a large number of servers had been damaged, and Yahoo was undertaking rescue and recovery efforts.
Therefore, Yahoo estimated that it would take more than three days to restore connectivity, and a significant amount of user data would be lost. They asked for the understanding of netizens.
"Is Yahoo being foolish! Just as they were about to investigate its data, its server room burned down, and all the data was gone. Do they really think no one can see through their scheme?"
Netizens who learned of this news rolled their eyes online, feeling their intelligence was being insulted. They thought Yahoo was truly stupid.
Of course, Yang Zhiyuan himself was not foolish, nor was Yahoo. Upon learning of this news, he immediately realized that their data had likely been falsified. Otherwise, why would the fire occur precisely at this time, when personnel were at their weakest?
Yang Zhiyuan wished he could dismember those two individuals to vent his anger.
However, Yang Zhiyuan dared not. He lacked the courage to even punish those two. Because punishing them would signify that they had problems and that the data was flawed, which would be an implicit admission of guilt.
Therefore, Yang Zhiyuan could only, with a heart full of rage, appease the two responsible individuals who had suffered severe burns while desperately trying to save the company's data. While sending them to the hospital for treatment, he ordered his subordinates to check the remaining servers.
If any storage servers were still functional, they were to be burned again in the fire, until they were completely destroyed.
Yang Zhiyuan's actions were wise, as this led to the dissolution of the investigating agency's team.
But the market was equally wise.
The agencies and shareholders were not interested in whether the truth would be discovered. They only knew that Yahoo was acting suspiciously, that Yahoo's market share had been significantly eroded, and that Yahoo would likely struggle to make profits in the future, spelling doom for their stocks.
Consequently, on the third day, Yahoo's stock price experienced an unprecedented plunge. It opened at $12.6 that morning, and within an hour, it had fallen to $8.7.
An hour later, it was only $6.1.
By the close of trading that day, Yahoo's stock price had plummeted to a mere $4.3, a mere one-third of its previous value. Its total market capitalization instantly shrank to $43 billion, less than five days after Yahoo had celebrated breaking the $150 billion mark.
As some rejoiced, others lamented. With Yahoo's drastic fall, there were certainly those who profited immensely.
This person was not Google, as Google was not yet listed and was still in the process of its IPO. The drop in a competitor's stock did not directly benefit it.
The real beneficiary was Little Swift. Just as there were many who had criticized Little Swift when Yahoo's stock was rising, there were now many who praised him.
Praise such as "peerless genius," "god of finance," "eye of God," and "omniscient and omnipotent" were showered upon Little Swift.
There was no alternative; Little Swift had once again made a fortune. The Western Mustang Company had entered the market when the total market capitalization was $150 billion. Now it had fallen to $43 billion. Little Swift, by shorting Yahoo, had earned at least $10 billion in profits in two days. If this was not the god of finance or the eye of God, then what was?
Moreover, this time was different from his previous bet on Apple.
Previously, when Little Swift bet on Apple, outsiders could still consider it a stroke of luck, coinciding with the release of the legendary product, the iPod 3, which allowed Little Swift to make a substantial profit.
After all, when Little Swift bet on Apple, the iPod 3 had not yet been officially released and was still in the development stage. It was impossible to predict through the product itself that the iPod 3 would be a bestseller, thereby driving up Apple's stock price. Therefore, it could only be attributed to luck.
However, shorting Yahoo this time was different. Little Swift had clearly perceived Yahoo's weakness, recognized the importance of Google to Yahoo, and understood that Google was the true key to traffic.
This was why Little Swift announced his intention to short Yahoo the moment Google announced its separation from Yahoo. Little Swift understood at that time that Yahoo was bound to fail.
Furthermore, Little Swift was not misled by the false prosperity of Yahoo's earlier surge. He firmly adhered to the truth as he knew it, and entered the market at the peak of $150 billion. The timing of his actions was nothing short of perfect and entirely technical, with no element of luck involved.
In summary, in one word: strong; in two words: amazing!
After this battle, many who had previously considered Little Swift a gambler changed their views, believing him to be a true genius. It was even possible that the Soros and Buffets of the next generation had already been born!