The Millennium Semiconductor Survival Guide.

Chapter 273
Most of the active programmers in Silicon Valley are born in the [-]s and [-]s. From their perspective, Microsoft is guilty.

The original sin of Microsoft is that they single-handedly changed the principles of sharing and innovation in the early Internet era, making the Internet world lose its original moral principles and become a society of the law of the jungle.

After the conflict between Microsoft and Netscape, this belief became more and more entrenched.

When Zhou Xin first came to Silicon Valley in 98, Microsoft was launching a browser war with Netscape. Looking back at the history, it may be just a short sentence, but for people in the environment at that time, it was quite a kind of Microsoft's globalization. All enemies feel.

Suffering from the unstable version of windows98 and facing endless judicial lawsuits, the vast majority of users support Netscape emotionally.

Under the hype of the media, consumers have greatly doubted Microsoft's sense of social responsibility, which has had a serious negative impact on Microsoft's social reputation.

Sometimes social prestige is really easy to use. If Riot Games launches a game console similar to Xbox, with the same resources, the sales volume will be at least 20.00% higher than that of Microsoft.

Most of the initial users of Mphone are all kinds of workers who are active in Silicon Valley. These groups include programmers, scientific researchers and students. Their unified characteristic is that they can't understand Microsoft.

Even if Windows is inseparable from life, it does not affect consumers' emotional opposition to Microsoft.

Everyone can't accept that Microsoft's acquisition of Matrix means the further expansion of the dark forces. It seems a bit exaggerated to say so, but this is the image of Microsoft at the beginning of the 21st century.

"Newman should not cooperate with Microsoft. Microsoft's intervention will change everything about Matrix, such as the current open ecology, excellent operating system experience, and near-perfect hardware.

Microsoft will make everything suck. ’” Raymond said in an interview.

Raymond, whose full name is Eric Raymond, was a good example of the early open source movement. He started programming in 1980, led a series of open source movements, and hated Microsoft.

"Yes, Newman is brilliant, but Microsoft is going to screw it all up, and the Matrix-Microsoft merger looks like a strong merger. Yes, Microsoft has a lot of experience with operating systems for personal PCs, and has a huge influence in Silicon Valley. force.

But Newman also has these things. Newman has a unique talent and insight in products. He does not need to use Microsoft's experience to make a smartphone operating system that is much better than Microsoft's mobile operating system experience.

As long as there are enough users, all bugs are shallow.

do you understand?The name Newman alone is enough to attract a large number of users to test the operating system, and all problems will be fixed quickly. Matrix does not need Microsoft to improve the development quality for MOS. "

What Raymond just said is Linus' Law, which roughly means that if there are enough test samples, the problems of the code itself are easy to find and easy to fix. This is the law he proposed himself.

This law was later validated in popular projects on GitHub.

Raymond is not the only one who is dissatisfied with the merger of Microsoft and Matrix, but also the mobile phone giants, but their mood is not dissatisfaction but panic.

Matrix has made them breathless in the smartphone market, and the technology gap has caused all traditional mobile phone giants to invest heavily in research and development to try to catch up.

If Microsoft and Matrix merge, it means a bigger gap for them, and Microsoft's extensive offline channels around the world can also help Matrix make up for the last shortcoming - offline channels.

Mphone2在上线后短短一个季度时间全球销量突破了1000万，其中并不是只有1000万的潜在客户，而是Matrix的产能和线下渠道只支持他们把这1000万的Mphone2送到消费者手中。

Motorola and Nokia held an executive meeting almost that day to discuss countermeasures, while Motorola executives went to Seattle to find Microsoft executives, trying to find out some news.

Because the person who broke the news has a certain reputation in Silicon Valley, especially has a good understanding of Microsoft's internal affairs, the previous revelations about Microsoft have finally been verified.So there are many people who believe in the merger of Microsoft and Matrix.

In addition, Zhou Xin's image in the outside world is more or less like a bounty hunter. As long as your chips are high enough, he is willing to sell you the product of his hard work.

"Bob, it seems that Microsoft's emphasis on the smartphone market is far beyond the imagination of the outside world, and you have the courage to directly acquire Matrix.

Newman's appetite is not small, and ordinary chips will certainly not be able to impress Newman. "

"No, no, no, this is just a rumor, at least I, as the vice president in charge of mobile operating system development, I haven't heard any internal news about Microsoft's acquisition of Matrix.

Matrix is ​​a behemoth. Although it has only been around for a few years, it is not like Visio, which can be acquired for billions of dollars. "

Not long ago, Microsoft acquired Visio, a drawing software, the predecessor of office Visio.

"The outside world began to spread that Microsoft's top executives have almost talked with Newman, but they have not officially responded to this matter from the enterprise level.

Bob, to be honest, how do you see the future of the smartphone operating system jointly developed by Microsoft and us after the merger of Microsoft and Matrix.

Will Microsoft open MOS to us, or will it push two mobile operating systems at the same time, or what? "

"I'm sorry, Paul, you don't have to talk to me, first of all, I don't know whether Microsoft will merge with Matrix, and secondly, after the merger, the future of the Windows mobile version needs to be discussed internally.

Furthermore, whether the new smartphone operating system will be open to the outside world is the third question. There is a strong logical relationship between them. I can't answer the first question, let alone the third question. "

"Well, I want to ask how Microsoft views our cooperation project, and whether Microsoft's management's attitude towards this matter has changed."

Bob is pretending to be confused. He knows that Microsoft executives, including him, are very dissatisfied with Motorola's insistence on developing its own operating system:

"There is no change. Microsoft's attitude towards this project will not change until the moment the acquisition of Matrix is ​​formally completed. We hope that through cooperation with Motorola, Windows Mobile will become a sufficiently competitive smartphone operating system in the market. "

After the news fermented, Microsoft's stock price soared by more than 15.00% the next day. Wall Street was much more informed. They knew that Zhou Xin went to Bill Gates' villa for vacation, and the two had a good chat.

Goldman Sachs has even obtained preliminary information, which roughly means that Newman has a certain willingness for the merger of Microsoft and Matrix, and wants them to explore the tone of supervision first.

Whether regulation will allow a substantial monopoly in one established field to merge with a semi-monopoly in another emerging field is a question.

When Ballmer notified Goldman Sachs, they hinted that if they can get the regulation done, then the merger will be handed over to Goldman Sachs.

For Goldman Sachs, which got the news in advance, it started to operate, and ghost stories about the merger of Microsoft and Matrix were flying in Washington, Silicon Valley and Wall Street.

This is like the room temperature superconductivity of later generations has not been fully verified, and the capital market has already responded in advance.

And Microsoft's investor relations department received calls from all over the world asking them if Microsoft would merge with Matrix.

When Koreans claimed to have discovered room-temperature superconductivity, it was useless to call superconducting concept stock companies, because they did not know whether it was true or false.

However, the merger of Microsoft and Matrix is ​​not a natural phenomenon, but the result of the development of things. Impatient investors hope that Microsoft can give them a certainty. After all, chasing high is always easy to feel sorry for.

A Microsoft spokesperson on Wall Street focused on these questions in a public interview:

"About whether Microsoft will merge with Matrix, I can only say that Matrix is ​​an excellent company, and Microsoft does not rule out this possibility."

"Is it possible that the good personal relationship between Mr. Zhou and Mr. Gates is the key factor leading to the final completion of this merger?"

"Sorry, it hasn't happened yet. Now Microsoft does not reject the merger with Matrix. The final result is still subject to the official announcement."

Microsoft's official actions pushed the drama to a climax, so much so that Jobs came to Zhou Xin to inquire: "Newman, I heard you plan to sell Matrix?

How about an apple?
Apple and Matrix merge. "

Zhou Xin shook his head: "Apple can't afford to buy Matrix, not to mention Apple's book funds, Apple's market value is not as high as Matrix's revenue."

Jobs felt a bit pricked by an arrow in his knee.

Jobs said, "What about Matrix buying Apple?
Matrix's acquisition of Apple is equivalent to using Apple's shell to list on Nasdaq.

Matrix's acquisition of Apple does not affect Apple's launch of its own smart phones, nor does it affect Matrix's continued launch of the Mphone series.

It is equivalent to adding a product line like Matrix under Apple. "

To be honest, Apple still has some valuable technologies, especially the talents who do MacOS, they can help Matrix's MOS achieve a leap.

Zhou Xin is unwilling to merge with Microsoft because once he merges with Microsoft, the dominant power will be handed over to others, and Microsoft's poor social reputation will have a negative impact on Matrix.

Apple is different. Apple belongs to the image of a tragic hero. Even with the aid of the ipod, it barely regains a sense of existence, but it is still a tragic hero with a sense of existence.

Zhou Xin fell into thinking. I don’t want to be acquired by Microsoft, but I can acquire Apple. What Jobs thought was that Matrix would go public with Apple’s shell, and what I thought was to use Apple’s technology to develop Matrix smartphones.

This is not a conflict, and since he is a major shareholder of Apple, the merger between Matrix and Apple does not need to pay too much.

Zhou Xin grinned: "Steve, I did think about selling Matrix to Microsoft.

If Bill can make an offer, and if I sell Matrix to Microsoft, I'm going to take Apple private. "

Jobs was startled, not to mention the cash flow after selling Matrix to Microsoft, even if Zhou Xin wants to buy Apple now, it is not short of money, because Apple is not expensive at all.

Moreover, Apple's small and medium shareholders are happy to see Zhou Xin become Apple's controlling shareholder, which means a deeper bond of interests with Zhou Xin for them.

The previous bundling of interests allowed Apple to launch such imaginative products as ipodzero, which helped Apple reopen the high-end music player market.

If Zhou Xin becomes Apple's controlling shareholder, there will definitely be more benefits.

Reputation is sometimes of great use, and Zhou Xin's word-of-mouth has made his investment and mergers and acquisitions in the Internet and consumer electronics fields unfavorable.

This is not only the case in Silicon Valley, but also in Huaguo. Before the cooperation with Huahong, Hu Zhengming had to talk with Shen Hai's leaders before it could be finalized.

Now Shenhai and even the entire fab in Huaguo are eager to sell a part of their equity to Xinxin Technology and give up the control to Xinxin Technology. Isn't it good to share dividends on the books?
The only thing that makes these local state-owned platforms feel dissatisfied is that Xinxin’s remuneration for front-line engineers is too high, and the remuneration can be lowered. After the reduction, won’t the net profit increase?
Those who really work are in the middle and lower reaches of the distribution of benefits, which is almost a potential consensus in China.

Back in Silicon Valley, Jobs said blankly: "Newman, if you buy Apple, you will definitely become Apple's new source of inspiration and bring Apple a steady stream of inspiration.

I'd love to see that day come. "

When you can't refuse, you can only enjoy it and think about the good side.With the current reputation of Jobs, Apple's board of directors cannot reject Newman, let alone Newman himself is the most powerful member of Apple's board of directors.

Zhou Xin said: "Now you have given me a new idea, Matrix does not need to rely on Microsoft's offline channels, Apple is also a good offline channel.

After the merger of Apple and Matrix, Mphone continues to focus on high-end, explore the cutting-edge technology of smartphones, and break through the shackles of reality. Apple can make mid-range smartphones, products with lower prices and more acceptable to consumers.

I also have a Xiaomi company in Huaguo, which also makes smartphones. It can specialize in mid-to-low end.

In this case, Matrix, Apple and Xiaomi occupy all the low to high price points of the mobile phone market. "

In fact, Zhou Xin had a similar idea before, but he never thought of Apple's acquisition of Matrix.

Although he is the largest shareholder in terms of equity relationship, he still has more than 70.00% of the shares of the new Apple after the merger is completed.

But behind Apple's acquisition of Matrix and Matrix's acquisition of Apple are completely different concepts. Matrix is ​​a company established in Silicon Valley, and most of its employees are engineers from Silicon Valley, but it is still a Chinese company because Zhou Xin is a native of China.

Matrix's acquisition of Apple is so sensitive that it is almost impossible to obtain regulatory approval.

Apple's acquisition of Matrix is ​​different. This is American Enterprises' acquisition of Huaguo Enterprises, although the equity structure behind it will not change.

Gossip does not only exist in animals, it is also an effective trick for humans.

The communication between Zhou Xin and Jobs gave him a new idea. If Apple acquires Matrix, then he is sure that Goldman Sachs can run through Washington and make the deal come true.

(End of this chapter)