Chapter 139 Buying a New Home

April 13th.

Milo is still in San Francisco and is even working in the top floor office at Yahoo headquarters.

Yahoo is actually on the right track now.

Unlike the Yahoo in the parallel universe, that Yahoo at that time was only an Internet portal.

Yahoo now, at Milo's request.

At the same time, it is managed by Schmidt, a top executive with Internet thinking.

In addition to being a portal website, Yahoo is now also developing search engines, web games, community platforms, etc.

Yahoo's search engine is similar to the model of Google in the future.

Milo asked the developers to directly develop a search engine that could be embedded in the Yahoo website.

At the same time, we will increase our efforts to continue developing better and more accurate search engines.

Then there are web games.

Web games appeared very early, but they have never received much attention in the United States.

Because Americans have better entertainment options, whether it's home game consoles or going out to the movies and so on.

But Milo took a different approach. He asked Yahoo to develop a social platform while developing web games.

It is simply called Yahoo Community, which is similar to the Tieba and Zhihu models of Hua Xia.

There is a large group of netizens chatting here now.

Relying on this community platform, Yahoo's web games began to organize various rankings and internal competitions.

For example, the Galaxy Battleship game proposed by Milo is now held once a month.

The first place in the competition will receive a $10,000 prize from Yahoo.

At the same time, it can be listed on the Yahoo community homepage for one month to let people know that this ID is a game expert and community celebrity.

Moreover, when this ID posts or comments on the Yahoo online community, his name and content are also in color, making him stand out.

As for humans, the gene for being in the limelight is the same in all populations.

Americans, in particular, have always advocated individual heroism.

It’s impossible to be a superhero in real life, but you can be admired by everyone on the Internet.

And you don't need to be a billionaire or have any special talents.

You just need to be good at the game.

At the same time, you can get money, that's $10,000! So once these community rankings were launched, Yahoo web games, which were originally just for entertainment, suddenly became popular.

The popularity of web games will in turn make the community platform more active.

Plus a search engine and many other features that other portals don't have.

Yahoo is now a leader in Silicon Valley.

According to the latest real-time data, its number of daily active users has even exceeded 10 million.

This number is terrifying because it is almost twice the sum of other similar websites.

At the same time, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo and First National Bank of Boston's investment in the third round of financing also told other investors that they were optimistic about Yahoo.

There will be an investment rule in the Internet industry in the future.

When investing in the Internet, you should either invest in the big player and let the big player continue to stand out.

Either invest in the second one, let it emerge as a dark horse, and find an opportunity to kill the first one.

In the end, there is no choice but to invest in the last one.

If the last-place winner succeeds in a counterattack, you can also get a super return.

Among the current Internet portals, Yahoo's dominance is simply despairing.

The second largest one is only one-seventh of Yahoo.

It would be too much to ask it to kill the boss.

As for the last one... no one would choose the last one except those who have no money or no ability and want to take a chance.

As a result, Yahoo became more and more popular.

To date, the third round of financing has been less than a month.

The market valuation of Yahoo has exceeded 2 billion US dollars.

But again, valuation is valuation and value is value.

Yahoo hasn't gone public yet, and everything is still temporary.

So now, except for Milo.

Yahoo's other shareholders all hope that it can go public now.

Go public sooner and make money and leave sooner.

Even the initiator could not have imagined that the later stage of the Internet bubble would be so crazy.

But Milo used his majority stake to temporarily overwhelm the others.

His argument was that he wanted to create a miracle, a real Internet miracle.

By then, Yahoo will be synonymous with the Internet.

The benefits that everyone could share at that time were far greater than what Yahoo can achieve now after its listing.

He has the most shares, so naturally his words have the most influence.

Even if others are not convinced, they can only choose to believe him temporarily.

Because Yahoo is becoming more and more powerful, Milo now works in San Francisco, so he chooses to spend more time at Yahoo.

But he hasn't been busy with Yahoo all the time.

Of course, he would not ignore what was happening in New York and Los Angeles.

For example, now.

He was reading the briefing from Los Angeles.

Paladin Capital, a subsidiary of Paladin Investment Group, recently acquired a Los Angeles brokerage firm.

Agents are something that both actors and directors need to take care of work matters.

Sometimes, if an agent favors a certain film company.

Then it would be much easier for the film company to invite an actor or director.

It can be said that agents are like a dense network spread across the bottom of Hollywood.

Compared with the dazzling stars and popular directors.

They may not be able to decide those important things, but they are absolutely indispensable.

That's why Milo bought and developed his own agency.

Of course, relevant US laws stipulate that the owner of a film company cannot own both an agency and a theater chain at the same time.

This is a requirement to avoid monopoly.

However, the reality is that there are plenty of ways to get around these laws. Some people have even broken through this blockade.

For example, there's that guy named Lei Shidong who is familiar with Milo.

The Redstone family itself runs one of the largest cinema chains in the United States.

They later successfully took control of Columbia Television and were also the owners of Paramount.

It can be said that in addition to the agency, the Redstone family has in fact achieved the entire industrial chain of the media industry.

Nor did we see the Lei Shidong family’s industry being dismantled…

Milo only needs to put the agency under his mother's name.

The relevant laws can only turn a blind eye to this.

In fact, the agency had already given Milo a lot of surprises when it was acquired.

Several future stars are among them. In addition, the rise of Paladin Films in the past six months and financial support have also attracted many actors' agents.

What we lack now is a more capable CEO. Thinking about the target chosen by Milo, it seems that it will be achieved soon.

Take these future stars under your command and let their path to stardom be born in your own hands.

Let them work for you wholeheartedly and make money for you.

This pleasurable feeling was second only to holding the woman Milo desired in his arms.

Thinking of this, Milo stood up and stretched comfortably.

Think about it, what else needs to be dealt with?

Britney and Christina won't have any problems, their parents understand the importance of opportunity better than they do.

If they didn't expect their children to become famous and make money, why would they send them to New York?

Now that the new company has moved to Los Angeles, their parents immediately sent them to Los Angeles.

Parents are more keen on their children becoming stars and making a lot of money than the children themselves.

The TV series has also been agreed upon.

The series has begun production overtime because there is sufficient funding and Turner Broadcasting is about to arrive.

Milo plans to film two TV series at the same time.

Of course, all the scripts used were those he "created".

There is no "Friends" because it is already in its third season.

Milo plans to start filming "Breaking Bad" and "Shameless".

The cast and director are currently being selected.

As for the production company, one of the films was given to Jinpu's TV company.

For another film, Milo plans to acquire another television company and produce it himself.

As for movies, The Da Vinci Code is currently being filmed.

Fundraising is underway for Mr. and Mrs. Smith and Rivals.

The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!

Since we are working with three major film companies at the same time, we only need to keep an eye on the progress and finances.

"Shakespeare in Love" is still in theaters and has already grossed over $400 million worldwide.

It actually seems like it has a chance to surpass "Angels and Demons", considering that the actual investment in it is not that much.

So even though the official box office figures have not yet come out, those newspapers related to Hollywood or that like to report on the entertainment industry have already praised Milo to the skies again.

If only Mr. and Mrs. Smith or Rivals could be successful again.

It is no surprise that nicknames such as "super producer", "gold medal producer" or "super screenwriter" will definitely be given to Milo.

In the field of paper media.

Chris is currently working on acquiring several local newspapers and is also planning to launch a national newspaper of the Palatine Newspaper Company.

There is already U.S. News and World Report as a magazine and weekly.

When the opportunity is right, buy one or two influential entertainment weeklies or magazines.

Then a new newspaper giant would be born in Milo's hands.

After thinking about it, the only option is to speed up the acquisition of Turner Broadcasting.

There is currently no area in the media that requires my special attention.

The phone on the desk rang at this time, Milo withdrew his thoughts and pressed the speaker button.

"Mr. Blackburn, Mr. Bob Davis called and said they have confirmed the time for Lycos to go public, as well as the time and place for the IPO thank-you reception." Megan's voice came from the phone, flat and emotionless.

"Okay, ask them to send me the time and place, and I'll go." Milo said this, and then pressed the hands-free button.

The harvest is finally about to begin.

Really looking forward to it!

Looking at the bright sunshine outside the window, Milo said this in his heart.

Lycos, one of the many Internet companies he invested in!

Initially, it was developed by a university professor as management software for internal book search in the Mellon University Library.

Then Bostonian Bob Davis took a fancy to it.

After buying it, I originally planned to set up the company's headquarters in Boston.

Milo was investing heavily in Silicon Valley at the time.

Wendy told him that there was such a good thing in her hometown.

So Wendy contacted Bob Davis, and Milo asked him to come to Silicon Valley to develop.

Bob Davis was easily persuaded.

Because Milo gave him investment.

At the same time, Bob Davis himself understood that Internet companies would be better off in Silicon Valley.

At first he wanted to place it in Boston, purely because Boston was his hometown and he was more trustworthy.

Since I have someone to take care of me in Silicon Valley, I am also a powerful person in my hometown.

Another investor.

Bob Davis certainly wouldn't continue to worry about the company's headquarters, whether to choose Boston or Pittsburgh.

Whenever Internet companies have a choice, they will try to choose those from Silicon Valley.

And Lycos is actually the world's first search engine.

This company was established at the end of 1994, and it has been almost two years now.

Although the profit is not much, Bob Davis has been working hard to push it to the market by taking advantage of the current hot Internet trend.

Unlike Yahoo, Milo has always regarded Lycos as one of the tools to reap profits from its listing.

Not only did he not object, he also tried his best to make things convenient for him, even though he only had a 20% stake in it.

Now that day has finally arrived, Milo will definitely attend Lycos' IPO thank-you reception.

Because this is also a means for a company to build momentum before going public, and sometimes it can even affect the company's market value when it goes public.

Lycos has confirmed that it will be launched on the first of next month, which is May 1st.

International Labor Day, but there is no such holiday in the United States, even though the origin and cause of this holiday are in the United States.

The IPO thank-you reception will naturally be held on the last day of the month.

I looked at the time and it was already three o'clock in the afternoon.

Thinking about the house-hunting he and Wendy would have to do next, Milo pressed the call button for the third phone.

Then he stood up and walked towards the door.

Before he reached the door, Monica had already opened it, came in with a tie and a coat and helped him put them on.

Because he was thinking about something, he didn't touch Monica this time.

This made Monica, who was used to him taking advantage of her when serving him, feel a little uncomfortable.

Soon, when Milo brought Monica, Kenny, David and others downstairs.

Downstairs, in the Yahoo parking lot.

Wendy was already waiting for him with her people.

"Let's go, which house should we look at first?"

Milo said casually to Wendy.

"We can go to the North Bay behind San Francisco first. There is a seaside estate there, and all the conditions are more in line with your requirements."

"OK." Milo nodded casually.

About forty minutes later, Milo's convoy arrived at a seaside manor at the southernmost end of one of the most desirable streets in San Francisco's North Bay.

"The information shows that this manor is called Bay House. The current villa was just renovated and built in 1993. The original old building has a history of 110 years. It is all in the information. In 1897, a London architect built this manor, which is a mixture of Tudor and Gothic styles. If you don't like it, you can choose a new location to rebuild it."

Wendy held up a picture book, looked at the information on it and continued:

"It covers an area of ​​18.9 acres and has a building area of ​​158,000 square feet. It includes a recently renovated main building, two unrenovated auxiliary buildings, and other facilities including a dock and a helipad."

Milo nodded. Now they were standing on the dock of the seaside estate.

The dock is not very large, but it does have a gangway and two boat lifts extending directly from the front deck.

Standing on it, you can enjoy the panoramic view across the San Francisco Bay under the bright sunlight that seems to have an orange flavor before dusk.

The views are unobstructed from the Bay Bridge eastward, along the entire San Francisco city skyline, west to the Golden Gate Bridge on the horizon, and north to Mount Tamalpais.

"How much?"

"The other party offered $25 million, including a 77-foot yacht."

"Tell the seller that I don't want his little yacht. I'll give him $18 million, and if he agrees, he can get the check right away."

Wendy: "I think it shouldn't be difficult. Eighteen million is a very good price."

Milo nodded and turned his gaze away from the Golden Gate Bridge in the distance.

As he walked back, he said, "Then buy it, and have someone start packing. Hailey will be here in half a month. I can't let her come to my place and stay in a hotel."

Wendy immediately followed up: "I understand, I will get it done as soon as possible."

Although she agreed verbally, Wendy was thinking in her heart.

Milo really cares about Haley.

He probably spent a total of three or four months in San Francisco.

But Milo always lives in hotels here and has never thought about buying a house.

As a result, my sister-in-law Haley said she would come over, but she hasn't arrived yet.

Milo has already started preparing to buy a house to welcome the arrival of his widowed sister-in-law.

It’s true...it’s true that brothers love each other so deeply.

(End of this chapter)