Chapter 2951 Mergers and Acquisitions

It’s still not our turn to talk about Facebook, because Ziwei Cloud’s CEO Kurian is here again.

Okay!

It’s also an acquisition!

Kurian wants to spend $500 million to $600 million to acquire a very powerful German SaaS startup, which is mainly engaged in the direction of enterprise collaboration.

Zhou Buqi was very helpless about this, "If I remember correctly, Ziwei Cloud has acquired 7 companies this year, right?"

Kurian coughed and said seriously: "You remembered it wrong, to be precise, it should be 9."

"How about taking a break?"

Zhou Buqi joked.

There is no doubt that Kurian is the undisputed boss in the cloud computing industry, leading Ziwei Cloud to achieve unimaginable results.

Last year, he was the "Best Manager" selected by Ziwei Star International. This year, his performance is also not bad. Ziwei Cloud's market share has steadily surpassed Amazon Cloud, and it has launched a full-scale attack in multiple tracks.

Seeing his hesitation, Kurian smiled and said, "According to our preliminary estimates, this year, Ziweiyun's revenue reached 4.5 billion US dollars! Compared with last year, it has increased by 400%!"

"How did you do it?"

Zhou Buqi knew that Ziweiyun's performance was amazing, but he didn't expect it to be so exaggerated.

This performance is really great.

Can Zheng Xiaoli be awarded the Best Manager of the Year Award this year?

This is really a bit worrying.

Kurian smiled and said, "Ziwei Cloud's products all have a trial period in the early stage. Some are free for three months, some are free for half a year, and some are discounted for one year. The groundwork has been laid. This year, many users' free and discounted periods have passed, and it's time for a harvest."

Zhou Buqi asked, "How does it compare with Amazon Cloud?"

"Amazon Cloud?" Kurian didn't care. "It surpassed it last year! What else does Amazon Cloud have besides e-commerce? Ziwei Cloud covers all aspects. Our market share is at least five or six points higher than Amazon Cloud. The gap may increase next year!"

Zhou Buqi said, "Is the government cloud or Amazon Cloud more popular?"

The US government is also developing in a comprehensive cloud-based manner.

When they choose a cloud platform, they basically rely on Amazon Cloud. It is difficult for Ziwei Cloud to gain any benefits from this market.

Kurian said unhappily: "Damn politics, they are interfering with fair competition in the market!"

Zhou Buqi was mentally prepared and said with a smile: "Ziwei Cloud's early layout is so good, and I have taken the lead in taking over the major directions of games, streaming media, social networking, and AI for you. Even without the government cloud, it can still develop well."

Kurian nodded. Of course, he knew the contribution of Boss Zhou.

If Boss Zhou had not laid a good foundation for Ziwei Cloud through investment, strategic cooperation, corporate mergers and acquisitions in the early stage, allowing Ziwei Cloud to cover many directions of the Internet industry, he would not have achieved today's results.

What is even more shocking is that Boss Zhou's judgment on the technical route has chosen the technical direction of reducing cloud service latency, which seems to be extremely correct from the current cloud computing industry structure. Lower network latency is a better experience than Amazon Cloud.

The technical direction of Amazon Cloud is energy saving and power saving... The cost is reduced, but the product competitiveness is surpassed by Ziwei Cloud.

Kurian said: "This year, the total scale of the global cloud computing industry is about 15 billion US dollars, and Ziwei Cloud's total market share exceeds 30%! Next year, I will strive to achieve 35%!"

"You can't be careless about this." Zhou Buqi shook his head, "Don't forget, Microsoft will soon enter the market!"

"Huh?" Kurian raised his eyebrows, "Do you have inside information?"

Zhou Buqi said: "You haven't heard?"

"I don't know." Kurian was a little puzzled, and then reacted, opening his eyes wide, "Is it really my old friend?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Yes, it's him! Now it is basically judged that the person who will replace Ballmer as the new CEO of Microsoft will be Nadella, CEO of Microsoft Cloud."

Kurian is of Indian descent, and Nadella is also of Indian descent.

Indians are very united in Silicon Valley.

There are small circles.

The two most famous bosses in the small circle are of course Kurian and Nadella. Don’t be fooled by Kurian’s nice words, saying that he is his “old friend”. In fact, the two of them have always been fighting overtly and covertly for status and voice in the Indian community, and their relationship is very bad.

Sure enough, after hearing that Nadella will succeed Ballmer as the CEO of Microsoft, Kurian’s smile suddenly withered and his good mood disappeared.

Nadella is the CEO of Microsoft, and he is only the CEO of Ziwei Cloud under Ziweixing International.

He is outdone!

Zhou Buqi said: “After Nadella takes office, Microsoft’s next strategic focus will definitely be on cloud computing. Microsoft Cloud’s market share is still very low now, because Ballmer doesn’t pay attention to it. It will be different in the future. Microsoft Cloud will be a very important competitor. Even Microsoft Cloud’s long-term potential and threat are greater than Amazon Cloud!”

Kurian said: “As long as you support me, Microsoft Cloud will never have a chance!”

“Isn’t my support for you enough?”

“I’m going to Germany to acquire this startup.”

“Uh…”

Zhou Buqi felt a little powerless.

Different people have different business operation styles.

Some people are particularly disgusted with mergers and acquisitions and prefer to do it themselves; some people like mergers and acquisitions and are strong and overbearing.

Kurian is the latter.

He is best at maintaining his business's leading edge in the market through a series of dazzling corporate mergers and acquisitions. As he said, this year he has led Ziwei Cloud to complete 9 acquisitions.

The total scale is not too large, which is about 1 billion US dollars.

But this continuous merger and acquisition really feels like an industry devourer.

This reputation is not very good.

Large companies continue to acquire small companies and start-ups, which will stifle creativity in the market.

In fact, after coming to Ziwei Cloud, Kurian has restrained himself.

When he was in charge of development and enterprise software business at Oracle, that was excessive. It was common to initiate 20 to 30 mergers and acquisitions a year. Oracle's market monopoly is basically achieved through mergers and acquisitions.

The meaning of mergers and acquisitions is not just to see that other people's products are good and then buy them for my own use.

There are too few mergers and acquisitions of this kind.

The main purpose of mergers and acquisitions in Silicon Valley is to target talent.

They see that other people's products are good and think that the talents of this small company are very good. If they can't poach people, they simply buy the other party's company, so that all these talents can be used by themselves.

There is also a more cruel motivation for mergers and acquisitions, which is to kill potential threats.

If you find a startup company in the market that can threaten your own products, don't be polite. Take advantage of their lack of growth and quickly acquire them. After the merger and acquisition is completed, decisively abandon their products.

Spend money to buy peace.

In fact, this kind of atmosphere was not popular in Silicon Valley in the early years.

This started in the late 1990s.

The first person to set off this trend was the famous Bill Gates. (In fact, Bill Gates is the front desk, and the one who really manages Microsoft and leads this strategy is Ballmer, who comes from a business background, but everyone scolds Gates.)

This kind of atmosphere has led to the existence of super giants in Silicon Valley today.

You know, before the 1990s, Silicon Valley was really full of innovation and creativity.

Various small start-ups could easily challenge many industry giants.

When Apple was born, it beat IBM half to death.

If it were the current trend, IBM would have merged Apple long ago.

The reason why those big companies in the PC field, such as Compaq Computer, failed so quickly was because these companies were too compliant with the "innovation ethics" of Silicon Valley and too soft-hearted, which led to their own disaster. If Compaq had been like Bill Gates earlier, and constantly "eliminated" those small companies and start-ups that were potential threats through some mergers and acquisitions that harmed others and did not benefit itself... Microsoft might have been swallowed up by Compaq earlier.

If Yahoo had killed Google earlier, it would not have been so miserable later.

After 2000, the trend of mergers and acquisitions rose in Silicon Valley.

The market competition was cruel.

The opportunities for small companies and start-ups to break out have been greatly reduced, and the innovation of Silicon Valley has been greatly weakened... The market effect formed is that large technology companies face fewer and fewer challenges, their scale is getting bigger and bigger, and they have become unshakable super giants.

Kurian is a super fan of the M\u0026A style!

Ziweixing International's other businesses may only initiate 2-3 M\u0026A in a year. Ziweiyun, led by Kurian, is about to initiate the 10th M\u0026A case.

Because the amount involved may exceed 500 million US dollars, it must be approved by the boss Zhou.

Zhou Buqi couldn't refuse, because the other party's performance and resume were there, "What kind of company is this? Must we acquire it?"

Kurian said: "A German startup company that develops an office collaboration software."

"Like Weishu?"

"Yes."

"Is that so..."

Zhou Buqi became cautious now.

From this point of view, it really should be acquired!

If the product is good, it can be used; if the product is not so good, it can just be closed down.

Europe is developing a digital single market. Weishu must play an important role and penetrate the European market. We can't let this German startup take advantage and make a name for itself.

We must act in advance and kill it early!

Kurian said: "Europeans don't like to use the same corporate products as Americans. Europe has a sense of aristocratic superiority and looks down on the cultural desert of the United States. Weishu is very successful in the United States, but it is not very successful in Europe. Buy this German company, transform their products, use Weishu's architecture and engine, and promote them in Europe as German originals."

Zhou Buqi made a decisive decision and said: "Before January 31, the task must be completed. If it cannot be completed, wait until the second half of the year to acquire it. Don't affect the company's IPO!"

"No problem! It will be done before the end of the year!"

Kurian is full of confidence.