Chapter 750 – Hi, Bill!
Today was Feng Yu first time visiting Microsoft’s headquarters. It was located in Redmond, Washington. But because of Microsoft, this small city had become famous!
Feng Yu was not familiar with this place. This was his first time here in both his lives.
Microsoft had divided their land into many different sections. There were dozens of 3 to 4 stories office buildings and Bill Gates’ office was located on the top floor of building 34.
Feng Yu had called Bill Gates before he came, and Bill Gates had been waiting for Feng Yu. This July, announced the World’s Billionaires ranking and reveal Bill Gates’ shares in Microsoft. He owns more than 60% voting rights of Microsoft!
Many people felt Microsoft would do well and bought the shares. But only one of Bill Gates’ friend did not buy a single share of Microsoft. This friend of his was also one of the world’s top billionaires, Warren Buffett.
Warren Buffett does not like technology shares. He believed that Microsoft would be able to enjoy high profits for the next 10 years, but he was not familiar with this industry. That’s why he chooses not to invest. Another reason was that even if he bought Microsoft shares, Bill Gates would not allow Buffett to enter the board of directors. He was worried that Buffett would seize control over the company. After all, this had happened to the company Buffett invested in.
During this time, a mysterious tycoon had been acquiring Microsoft shares. This mysterious tycoon had even paid more than the market value for the shares and attracted Bill Gates attention.
Bill Gates discovered that the funds buying his company’s shares were from Hong Kong. Mid of last year, Bill Gates had met Feng Yu briefly. Since their meeting, he was interested in this Chinese young man.
What made Bill Gates more interested in this young Chinese tycoon was his shares in China’s biggest PC manufacturer. This will help Microsoft enter the Chinese market and seize the market share.
During that brief meeting, they chatted for a while, and no decisions had been made. Late last year, this Chinese tycoon started selling some of his Microsoft shares and Bill Gates was shocked.
Bill Gates thought it was because he had not given Feng Yu any answers to their cooperation, and Feng Yu was angry, or Feng Yu had found a new partner like Apple or IBM. If Feng Yu cooperate with any of those companies and monopolized the Chinese market, then Microsoft would lose lots of profits.
Microsoft had analyzed the Chinese market. Based on China’s rapid economic growth, the number of PC users in China will increase suddenly within the next 5 years. If all the PC uses Microsoft operating systems and software, the profits will be enormous. It might even be higher than the whole North America. The population of China was high, after all.
Bill Gates had contacted Feng Yu at that time, and Feng Yu explained that he needed some cash. He will buy back the Microsoft shares. Feng Yu told him that he was still interested in Microsoft.
Starting from March, Feng Yu began acquiring Microsoft shares again and increased his stake from 13% to 15%.
But Feng Yu kept low and did not reveal his identity. Many media were interested to know who this third-biggest shareholder of Microsoft was. But they could not get any information about Feng Yu.
Today, this mysterious tycoon was going to pay Bill Gates a visit.
Someone had said Bill Gates likes to be free, and this was why he set up a free and comfortable working environment for his engineers.
Someone also said that Bill Gates was a greedy person. When Microsoft just started, Paul Allen had contributed more than Bill Gates. But because Paul Allen does not have family and Bill Gates’ family was richer, Bill Gates managed to get 60% of the company’s shares, and Paul Allen only got 40%.
There were some rumors that Bill Gates had a foul temper. He kept shouting at his programmers: “That is the stupidest idea I ever heard!”
Someone also claims that Bill Gates was a narcissistic person. He had praised himself in front of others more than once, and he does not allow anyone to question his decisions!
But all these rumors could not deny the fact that Bill Gates was a genius!
As for Feng Yu, he was full of respect for Bill Gates. Without Bill Gates, there will be no Microsoft. Without him, the PC and internet will not develop so fast!
Feng Yu was surprised when he walked into Bill Gates’ office. This office was much smaller than he imagined. It was the size of other management staffs and not what Feng Yu had expected. Feng Yu thought Bill Gates will be super spacious and occupies the whole floor of the building.
The setup of this office looks like the office of an ordinary programmer. Seems like Bill Gate was not lying about him being the head of software engineers. Even until today, Bill Gates was still involved in the development and testing of their software.
“Mr. Feng, glad to see you again.” Bill Gates extended his right hand.
“Hi, Bill.” Feng Yu smiled and shook his hand, but Bill Gates pulled him over and gave him a hug.
“Feng, what do you think of Microsoft?” Bill Gates asked.
Feng Yu smiles: “Good. It’s better than I imagined. If not, I will also not acquire Microsoft shares. Seems like I am not wrong. The share prices rise quite a bit recently.”
“Hahaha. Feng, you made the right choice to hold our Microsoft shares.” Bill Gates exclaimed proudly.
“Oh, I forgot to congratulate you, Mr. Richest man in the world.”
Bill Gate smiled. This was his first time becoming the world’s richest man and he was only 40 years old. This was something he should be proud of.
But the young man in front of him was only in his early twenties. If he announces his assets, it should be shocking. Just the Microsoft shares he owns was more than enough to get him listed on Forbes. Compared to this young man, Bill Gates felt his accomplishment was nothing.
“Feng, I am very curious. Why are you refusing all interviews? Don’t you know the benefits of being interviewed by the media? I think if you are willing to appear before the media, Steve will be overjoyed.”
Steve, which Bill Gates was talking about, was Steve Forbes, the CEO, and Editor-in-Chief of Forbes. Of course, he was also a close friend of Bill Gates.
Feng Yu laughed and shook his head. “I do not like to be under the limelight.”
“Oh, what a pity. Maybe Chinese prefers to be low key.” Bill Gates shrugged his shoulders. “Right, you mentioned that the time for Microsoft to enter the Chinese market is here? Is it real?”