Chapter 2570 The Hidden Rules of Silicon Valley

The domestic Internet industry is a very vicious one. There is absolutely no mercy at all when poaching people from each other. You can be as ruthless as you want.

For example, a company has 30 employees and has developed a project valued at 100 million yuan.

A large company wanted to acquire this company, but felt that the price was too high.

what to do?

The best way is to imitate.

Imitation alone is not enough.

When wolves compete, they must strengthen themselves while weakening the opponent's strength.

At this time, you can do something ruthless, such as spending 20 million yuan to poach 20 people from the opponent's team of 30 people.

The other party collapsed immediately.

This follow-up project under my own hands was completed.

As for the non-compete agreement...

This thing is very vague in the domestic IT industry, and there is no way to check it. This is different from Silicon Valley. Silicon Valley is only so big and you can’t see it when you look up.

Domestic technology companies are deployed in several big cities, and their employees disappear when they leave. Even if it is found out, it will be difficult to prosecute. The other party may only be a temporary worker, and it is difficult to have tangible evidence of what he did.

The competition among Silicon Valley technology giants is far less intense and all-encompassing than in the domestic Internet industry.

There are even some "hidden rules" among technology giants.

There can be no war between giants.

For example, this time Zuckerberg poached David Marcus, which really stabbed Zhou Buqi in the back. However, both parties still need to communicate amicably to handle the matter peacefully.

Once a war breaks out, both sides will poach me and I poach you. Even if the two companies do not fall into chaos, the company's employment costs will greatly increase due to the continuous poaching behavior.

Similar things happened to Apple and Google.

When Google first started building Google Chrome, it wanted to poach some of the Safari browser masters from Apple. When Jobs heard this, he immediately became furious and told Google that if they dared to do this, they would start a war!

We’ll see!

As expected, Google didn’t dare anymore and fired the HR director who wanted to poach people from Apple.

No more poaching people.

This is wrong. Everyone knows that Apple and Google are mortal enemies. Isn’t it normal to poach each other’s people? What happened to the war? The more intense the competition between companies, the more conducive it is to the prosperity and development of the market and the interests of users!

In addition, this kind of technology giant is too rich and many people are too jealous. After a wave of protests, American investigative agencies came out.

What exactly is going on?

After the investigation, we discovered some hidden rules among technology giants, relying on these hidden rules to control the salary of engineers at a low level and suppress employee mobility and development.

There are three main ones.

One, not actively recruiting each other’s employees.

Try not to poach people if you can.

If you want to recruit people, you also go to some small and medium-sized companies to recruit people.

Second, when making an appointment to an employee of the other company, you must give advance notice.

You can't poach people secretly.

Even if employees want to leave secretly, they must inform them so that they can make preparations and not cause the other party's business to fall into chaos.

Be relatively friendly when poaching people.

Even if there is a non-compete agreement and a breach of contract is required, a certain amount of compensation should be paid through reconciliation instead of filing a lawsuit.

The first two are actually normal.

But the third item doesn't work - when offering positions to employees of the agreed companies, neither company will provide a salary higher than the initial offer.

This is serious.

It’s a “price alliance”.

It means that the two companies have discussed privately and given a basic salary plan. Both parties must make quotations according to this salary plan, and cannot cause vicious bidding that excessively harms the company's interests.

The driving force behind this "price strategy" was Steve Jobs. The technical employees of Pixar he founded were the ones whose interests were most seriously harmed... Later, it was also Pixar employees who stepped forward to provide evidence to the authorities.

Then the verdict came down.

The price alliance was fined $450 million for this behavior.

But, what if I'm fined?

Many things are in a gray area.

This is what Zuckerberg meant when he called Zhou Buqi. He asked the two to reach a private "price alliance" and not to increase prices wildly. It would not be good for anyone at that time.

David Marcus has not officially resigned from PayPal yet.

There are also employee contracts and non-competition contracts tied together.

He wants to join Facebook, but there are still a few hurdles to pass.

If PayPal is afraid of chaos at this time and does not want Marcus to leave, it is likely to try to retain Marcus at any cost... Zuckerberg offers an annual salary of 20 million, and weekly salary of 30 million US dollars; Zuckerberg For a signing fee of 30 million, Zhou Buqi can generously give 40 million U.S. dollars; if Zuckerberg gives super options worth 1 billion U.S. dollars, Zhou Buqi can give 2 billion U.S. dollars.

If this comes to bidding, it will be troublesome.

No matter who wins in the end, they all lose.

David Marcus became the biggest winner.

How can Marcus, a mere man, dominate two world-class young business leaders, Zhou Buqi and Zuckerberg? There was no way he would have this chance.

Not to mention that Zhou Buqi and Zuckerberg are very good personal friends. Even if the personal relationship is very bad, there will be a large-scale communication on this matter.

This is business, whether the relationship is good or bad, we have to talk.

Zhou Buqi was the first to express his position, "My consistent attitude in employing people is that those who like me will stay, and those who want to leave will never be forced to stay. Whether this person is the CEO or a newly hired intern, there is no exception!"

It's not just him anymore.

This is basically what Silicon Valley technology giants do, and they must not be forced to stay.

Zuckerberg was really worried that Boss Zhou would not play by the rules. After all, this person was not very popular and had done too many outrageous and crazy things. After hearing what he said, he felt relieved and smiled. Said: "This is how it should be. You are the richest man in the world. You don't have to be humble for a senior executive. If Marcus wants to leave, just let him go! But...well, the compensation of 100 million US dollars is too much." "

"Is that much?" Zhou Buqi snorted, "The loss you caused me is at least 10 billion US dollars!"

Zuckerberg smiled from the bottom of his heart and said vaguely: "No, no! He's just a senior executive. It may be a small trouble to others, but it's nothing to you."

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "You're right. I really don't care if a CEO resigns. If he wants to leave, just leave. The key is to see your attitude."

Zuckerberg stated: "The compensation should be certain. The previous record for non-competition compensation in the global IT industry due to job-hopping was US$40 million. How about I pay US$45 million?"

"What?" Zhou Buqi thought he was joking, "Do you think this is possible?"

Zuckerberg’s explanation: “$100 million is too much, and I can’t explain it to the board of directors.”

Zhou Buqi said angrily: "Don't do this, wait until you release the news and bring PayPal CEO David Marcus to Facebook to take charge of the mobile payment business... Hum, Facebook's stock price has risen by at least 10% ! How much is that? That’s more than 10 billion US dollars in capital gains! A mere US$100 million in liquidated damages, is that a lot?”

Seeing that he was anxious, Zuckerberg felt even happier, "You can't calculate the account like this. US$100 million is indeed too much. Let's take half of it, US$50 million."

Zhou Buqi was very satisfied with this number.

Oh, let me go!

At yesterday's board meeting, it was also said that firing David Marcus would cause PayPal nearly $40 million in economic losses. On his first day as chairman, Zhou Buqi made such a loss-making deal, which was indeed inappropriate.

Today is the second day.

Something amazing happens.

Not only did he solve the hidden danger of US$40 million in economic losses, he also brought US$50 million in profits to PayPal... On the second day after taking office, he created US$50 million in wealth for the company. Where can I find such a chairman? ?

"What are you afraid of when you spend more money?" Zhou Buqi said nonchalantly, "I recently started an antique collection business and discovered a truth: the more you spend, the better. Do you understand?"

Zuckerberg laughed and said, "That's ridiculous!"

Zhou Buqi said: "The more money Facebook pays, the more sincerity it can show to David Marcus. This kind of second minister... if you leave PayPal today, you can leave Facebook tomorrow. The greater the price you pay, he The higher the loyalty will be.”

Zuckerberg didn't understand and asked: "What is the second minister?"

Zhou Buqi said angrily: "Go home and ask your wife, he knows!"

"Ah?" Zuckerberg was shocked, "Are you still dating my wife?"

"Ahem..."

Zhou Buqi almost choked on his spit.

There is no need for your wife.

Even if I have Cao Cao's hobby, I won't go to your house to find food.

Zhou Buqi said: "Facebook just wants to make mobile payments. What we need most now is to give the market a big news. The bigger the news and the higher the attention, the better the performance of the capital market will be. How to create big news? Of course. It’s about giving more money.”

Zuckerberg was sitting in the office at this time, with his feet stretched out on the desk and lying on the chair. He was very relaxed and happy. "It really is a familiar feeling. What you are best at is this negotiation mode. I don't know how to do it." Fooled."

Zhou Buqi said angrily: "How much do you want to pay?"

"$50 million."

"No, it's too little! If I hire a new CEO from outside, I may have to pay the other party tens of millions. If you let me lose money in this transaction."

"Then $60 million, one price!"

Zuckerberg was crisp and clear.

Zhou Buqi said: "Okay, then it's settled!"

The $10 million was the signing fee for hiring new CEO Dan Schulman, leaving a net profit of $50 million!

Zuckerberg said: "I heard that your board meeting ended in a hurry yesterday. Can you handle it?"

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "Then you don't have to worry."

Zuckerberg said quickly: "I need an answer as soon as possible. If David Marcus officially resigns today, I can sign a contract with him tomorrow. The day after tomorrow, $60 million can be transferred to PayPal, and then you can get it." Use the money to find a new CEO."

Zhou Buqi said coldly: "Thank you for your concern!"

Zuckerberg laughed and said, "You're welcome, you're welcome."