Chapter 143 Silicon Valley Godfather Milo Blackburn
May 1st.
This day is International Labor Day in many countries.
But in the birthplace of International Labor Day, that is, here in the United States.
We go to work as usual on May 1st, there are no holidays, and naturally no days off.
On the same day, Lycos, a Silicon Valley company established less than two years ago, officially went public.
Lycos is a type of spider in English.
The company was named this to imply that it would be like a spider on a web.
It can search the spider web for what users need and provide them with options for selection.
Lycos is offering a total of 5% of its shares to the public.
The market value is US$500 million, the total share capital is 100 million shares, and the market value of each share is US$5.
Lycos plans to raise $25 million to upgrade and replace the company's internal servers.
In the morning, after the stock market opens.
Almost at the moment the market opened.
Lycos' stock price broke through the issue price and appeared in front of the public with a 15% increase.
Not long afterward, before the temporary market close at noon, Lycos' stock price soared, with the increase exceeding 50%.
Wait until the market officially closes at 4:30 pm.
As the fifth listed Internet company in the world.
Lycos' market value has officially exceeded $1 billion, with its stock price rising 135% today.
This record not only broke the listing record of Netscape, the first Internet stock.
It also leaves the other three Internet listed companies far behind.
This news was subsequently widely reported by major newspapers and many television stations.
The American Economic Review, the oldest financial magazine in the United States, published this story on its newly established Internet page that evening, with the title: "The Coming of a New Industrial Revolution!"
Below the photo is the Lycos logo, a spider weaving a web.
On its Internet page, the American Economic Review published a comprehensive report on Lycos: [Lycos was first created in 1994 as a search project by Dr. Mike Martin at Carnegie Mellon University. At that time, the Lycos search engine was used in the university's digital library project. "Lycos" is an abbreviation of Lycosidae (a wolf spider that is very good at catching prey).]
[Soon after the Lycos search engine was developed, Bob Davis and Dr. Mike Martin worked together to build Lycos into a portal with advertising as its revenue source, and then they succeeded...]
[The successful listing of Lycos not only means the success of Mike Martin and Bob Davis, but also means the true arrival of the Internet information age after Netscape went public last year! ]
[A brand new era, this is mankind’s fourth industrial revolution, this is…]
【……】
Taking the opportunity of Lycos' listing, American Economic Review crazily praised Internet companies, always mentioning informatization and the Fourth Industrial Revolution.
The same is true for other American media, except for the American Economic Review.
It can be said that since Lycos went public.
Almost all American media, everyone, is singing praises.
From TV stations to newspapers, from newspapers to radio stations, from radio stations to magazines...
"This is another step forward for mankind! Lycos' success is not accidental but inevitable." - The Wall Street Journal
"The launch of Lycos is reminiscent of Watt's invention of a new steam engine and Edison's invention of a durable electric light bulb. It marks the beginning of a new era." - The New York Times
"Oh, I started out with $15,000 of Lycos stock. Guess what it's worth now? $38,000. I only regret not buying more Lycos stock." - Mark Jones, columnist for the New York Post
Amidst a chorus of crazy praises.
Lycos' stock price also rose at an exaggerated and jaw-dropping curve.
Before the market closes on Friday, May 3rd.
Lycos created a miracle in the U.S. stock market, with a total increase of more than 405% in three days.
Its market value was US$500 million when it went public, and three days later it became US$2.025 billion.
The value of each share increased from $5 to $20.25 per share.
The next day was the weekend, May 4th.
Early in the morning, Milo woke up slowly.
He loosened his hold on the pointed and soft thing, lifted the quilt and looked around to see that his little brother was not as erect as before.
He looked at Sophie Marceau who was sleeping with her back to him, shook his head and smiled bitterly.
France, who was desperate to have a child, had a wild first kiss.
It was as if she had gone from being the first kiss in France to being the she-wolf of France.
She looks thin and weak in fighting ability.
But its actual performance is definitely that of the French Crazy Juicer.
If it weren't for his strong kidneys, Milo would have suspected that he would be drained dry.
He lifted the quilt, sat up from the bed, got out of bed and covered the quilt over Sophie's curvaceous figure, picked up the nightgown from the carpet and put it on, then walked into the bathroom and started washing.
After washing up, Milo tied the belt of his comfortable and soft white bathrobe and walked out of the villa's master bedroom.
The master bedroom is on the second floor.
The third floor facing the city view is occupied by itself.
Coming out of the master bedroom and walking through a corridor, there are stairs leading to the living room and banquet hall on the first floor.
To the left of the living room and banquet hall is a breakfast room facing east.
This villa was recently purchased by Milo last month.
It cost him a total of $5.5 million. It is located in Saratoga, San Francisco Bay Area, and the specific address is 20843 Michaels Avenue, Saratoga.
The 60,984 sq. ft. lot is close to downtown Saratoga, Wildwood Park, Saratoga Quarry Park, and Argonaut Mall.
The location is very good.
Sophie Marceau is now placed here by him.
In the breakfast room, Milo just sat down.
Mrs. Sorley told the maids and cooks to start preparing breakfast for their mistress.
Meanwhile, Kenny expertly placed a pile of newspapers and magazines in front of Milo.
At the top of the pile of newspapers was the San Jose Mercury News, which the Paladin Newspaper Group had just successfully acquired at a huge price.
The newspaper was formed in 1983 through the merger of the San Jose Mercury, founded in 1851, and the San Jose News, founded in 1883.
It is the first newspaper in the world to provide online e-newspaper services and is also the most influential newspaper in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Since the merger was not very long ago, locals in the Bay Area still like to call it the Courier or the San Jose News.
In fact, its real name now is The San Jose Mercury News.
To get it, Milo paid a total of $150 million.
In addition, there is a 2.8% stake in Lycos, a company that went public not long ago.
Bought it from Media News Group.
Lycos has just been launched.
As one of the earliest investors, Milo actually couldn't sell those shares immediately.
There is a limited sale period.
But financial professionals have plenty of solutions.
This matter can be perfectly resolved by simply signing a transfer agreement and a proxy holding agreement.
So after the dilution of Lycos' listing and the transfer of these shares.
Milo originally had a 25% stake in Lycos.
He now only has 20%.
So he saw the front-page headline in the San Jose Mercury News that Lycos' current market value was $2.025 billion.
Milo silently calculated in his mind how much his shares in Lycos should be worth now.
He invested a total of $3.75 million in Lycos.
In less than a year, that money has now turned into more than $400 million.
More than that, if you count the shares of The San Jose Mercury News that were exchanged with Media News Group.
That number is $470 million.
$3.75 million turned into $470 million in less than a year.
This world is crazy, and the Internet bubble is crazy.
“No wonder venture capital firms keep investing even though they know that most startups will fail.”
Milo held the newspaper in his hand and couldn't help but mutter.
The investment and return ratio is really too amazing.
But Milo also knew that it wasn't that simple.
In order to make Lycos the daughter of Qianjin City.
He and his allies not only fully mobilized their own media outlets, but also hyped the event crazily on the Internet and in the media.
At the same time, everyone joined forces to pass the parcel around and push up the stock price.
This is why Lycos has the performance it has today.
Fortunately, we don’t need to do this anymore.
The tide has already formed.
American officials and other financial groups began to take action one by one.
Even Milo, Asumur, Edward, Hector and others did not continue to play.
The value of Lycos will only continue to rise until the bubble bursts.
For example.
In a parallel universe, Lycos did not have such a powerful background as it does now.
But in 2000, on the eve of the Nasdaq bubble burst.
Lycos' shareholders successfully sold it to the Spanish super-sucker TerraNetworks for US$12.5 billion.
Four years later, when Tairuo Networks sold it again, the price was only US$95.4 million.
It is less than 1% of the original purchase price.
This is what the Nasdaq bubble is really about.
Fool the whole world and attract all the hot money and investment from all over the world.
Then they withdraw, leaving behind a mess after the bubble burst.
The latest novel is published first on Liu9shuba!
With the huge wealth he obtained, he hid his achievements and fame.
Some people may say that countless people in the United States have gone bankrupt because of this.
But what does that have to do with Milo and the others?
This is the same as the various currencies and various teas in China in the future.
Don’t those investors know there are pitfalls? How is that possible?
It’s just that most people think that they are smart and will not fall into the trap, and they all believe that they will not be the last ones to take the blame.
Shaking his head, Milo put the San Jose Mercury News down.
The overall situation of the Internet has been determined, and the next step is just a matter of how much to eat.
He picked up the New York Times, which was friendly to him.
The front-page headline of The New York Times today is also about the Internet.
But Milo noticed that they did not report directly on Lycos today.
Instead, the story is exaggerated from the perspective of Lycos' shareholders, describing the legend of wealth.
[We noticed that among the many original investors of Lycos, Milo Blackburn was the first to invest in Lycos and is also the largest individual shareholder...]
[Except for Lycos, almost every Internet user in the world who can access the Internet frequently visits Yahoo, which is also Milo Blackburn's company, and he personally holds 50% of the shares.]
[In addition to Lycos and Yahoo, he even owns shares in more than 60 other outstanding Internet companies in Silicon Valley. ]
[There is no doubt that he is the undisputed godfather of Silicon Valley, the kind of investor that thousands of entrepreneurs dream of. He is Milo Blackburn! ]
【……】
He was praised again in the article, mainly talking about his low investment and high returns in Lycos.
Finally, he was given a nickname, called "The Godfather of Silicon Valley".
This reminds me of the New York Times’ extremely high circulation and influence.
Milo knew that his popularity was going to rise sharply again today.
But he was used to it, so he just glanced at it and put the New York Times down.
After all, before this report was published.
Little Arthur had already informed him last night.
I also sent him an email and let him see the press release in his inbox.
He also said that if he was not satisfied, he could ask the editor to make changes at any time.
If it really doesn't work, The New York Times can also remove this press release and replace it with other news temporarily.
Milo flipped through the entertainment pages of major newspapers again and saw that nearly a quarter of them were related to himself or Paladin Media.
Most of them were talking about Paladin Films, and the simultaneous filming of a movie with two major Hollywood giants.
The two films were invested in one with US$105 million and the other with US$150 million.
Compared to the previous two films, it is already considered a big production.
But many of the news are related to his scandals.
For example, the day before yesterday.
He was photographed behaving intimately with Jennifer Connelly in a restaurant in San Francisco, and after dinner they went shopping hand in hand.
As a result, it was actually seen as one of the marketing strategies used by the crew and himself for the movie "National Rival".
Because Jennifer Connelly is the announced female lead of "Rivals".
Likewise, he was spotted entering and leaving the InterContinental Hotel in downtown San Francisco last night with Nicole Kidman.
Most media outlets are saying that the two are just hyping up Paladin Films' new movie, Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Who said Nicole Kidman is the heroine of this movie?
What else?
Otherwise, was he actually dating Kidman and Connelly at the same time?
Connelly is lucky enough to be single.
Kidman is a married woman now. If that were the case, would her husband Tom Cruise remain indifferent? Not only the media but also most readers thought so.
Maybe this is also a kind of darkness under the lamp.
After all, there are thousands of Hollywood LSPs, but it is definitely the first time that Milo has a collecting habit and likes to collect multiple pieces at a time.
In this way, Milo finished his breakfast while reading the newspaper.
When he started to change his clothes, Sophie Marceau came down in her suspender nightgown, ruffling her messy long hair and yawning, and greeted him in a hoarse voice: "Good morning, dear!"
"Good morning, is your throat okay?"
Milo asked with concern as he kissed Sophie Marceau who leaned over.
"Uh, nothing much, drink some more water later."
Sophie Marceau felt a little embarrassed because she had so much fun riding a horse last night.
Milo's waist was not shaken apart, but her voice was hoarse.
When Milo had packed up and was ready to go out.
Sophie Marceau finished washing up and came over to kiss him passionately on the porch.
Milo then patted her firm and perky little butt, opened the door, strode across the lawn, and got into the Cadillac Escalade that had been waiting outside for a long time.
Sitting in the car, Milo turned on his cell phone and the text message alert tone started ringing non-stop.
Looking at the text messages, he couldn't help but smile.
Sure enough, they were all amazed at the return on his investment in Lycos.
3.75 million US dollars in exchange for more than 400 million US dollars in return.
It's really shocking.
Some people even expressed their feelings, such as Jin Pu.
The golden-haired old man said that Milo still owns more than 60 unlisted Silicon Valley Internet companies.
If all these companies were listed.
Doesn't that mean that Milo's assets can exceed 20 billion US dollars by relying on the stocks of these companies? Bill Gates became the world's richest man last year, but his assets are only 20 billion US dollars.
So Gimp said that Milo is now and will be the richest man in the world in the future.
Milo sent a text message to Kimpo, asking him to play golf with him when he was free.
Jinpu is also in California now, in addition to working on Fangduoduo with Musk.
The golden-haired old man's own Jinpu Real Estate is also looking for land in San Francisco.
He wants to expand the golf club business here.
At the same time, see if we can get some land to build villas.
Especially in San Francisco.
Kim Pu believes that in the future, a large number of millionaires and billionaires will emerge in Silicon Valley.
These people have just become rich from being poor. They will definitely like villas, luxury cars, yachts, golf, famous brands and other things that rich people have.
If you invest in these industries now, you will definitely make a lot of money from these people.
I have to say, this old guy has a pretty good eye.
The message was just sent, but it didn't arrive within a few minutes.
Jin Pu called.
"What's up Don?"
"Play golf? But I'm on my way to the company right now. You know, I'm very busy now. Very, very busy."
"Oh, they're here too? Tang, I have to say you're quite capable. Where are you guys playing now?"
"Pebble beach? Okay, I'll go there now."
After hanging up the call with the golden-haired old man, Milo ordered the convoy to change direction.
"I'm not going to the company anymore. I'm going to Pebble Beach Golf Course on the Monterey Peninsula."
David nodded in agreement, and Kenny in the passenger seat immediately picked up the wireless communication equipment and directed the convoy to change direction.
The convoy consisting of five Cadillac Escalades began to change formation and direction on the road.
Their convoy set out from San Francisco and traveled along California Highway 1 to Pebble Beach on the Montero Peninsula, 17 miles away.
(End of this chapter)