Seattle, in the villa on Mercer Island in the center of Lake Washington.

Seeing Alice Ferguson almost shaking downstairs, Zoe Parks and Isabel Dunn almost wanted to laugh, and there was some inexplicable envy in his emotions.

The butler, who was no longer a female housekeeper, glared at the two women, walked to the restaurant on his own, and at the same time he was a little hated for a guy again.

Anyway, I will never surrender.

Today is Tuesday, January 12th.

Simon came to Seattle as a major shareholder to attend a high-level meeting at Microsoft, mainly discussing the preinstallation of the Windows system of IE browser.

The matter with the female housekeeper actually started with some disputes.

In the past week, Ypay, the online payment tool of Egret, has authorized payment interface applications for six online business websites in succession, including many merchants that have direct or indirect competition with Amazon.

This was naturally opposed by the butler, who believed that Simon was marrying others.

Simon didn't have the heart to tell the female housekeeper too much, so this dispute turned into a direct "physical conflict" last night. Not only that, after waking up in the morning, the female housekeeper was forced to conflict again, so the situation that Zoe and Isabel saw it.

After a while, Simon went downstairs, carrying the spirit that he had only after some exercise.

When I arrived at the restaurant, I sat down in the awe-filled little eyes of the two maids, and started to have breakfast.

It was already nine o'clock, and Zoe and Isabel had already had breakfast, so they made arrangements for them and quietly left the restaurant.

Simon took a sip of milk, picked up the tableware and cut the fried egg again, and finally said to the butler: "The consumption point card can be terminated. You can go back and discuss this with Jeff and the others."

In order to promote Internet users to try online consumption, Igrit Company issued a consumption point card similar to a prepaid phone card.

For a $10 point card, Egret needs to bear no less than $2 in all aspects.

There is nothing in the early stages of Igrit's development. At present, the explosion of the Internet has begun to accelerate, and the growth of e-commerce will also accelerate significantly. Moreover, Igrit has opened up online payment channels for several major banks in the United States, and users are increasingly able to accept online consumption directly by binding credit cards. Continuing to issue point cards is a bit of a loss for Igrit.

The butler just said softly, indicating that he was still angry.

In fact, she first brought up this matter at the end of last year, but she did not receive a response.

What does a man say this at this time?

Give me a sweet date?

I am not that easy to be bribed.

Simon didn't mind the housekeeper's pretending to be cold and continued: "There is also an ICQ instant messaging tool, which cannot be used as an Amazon customer communication tool. I hope it can be developed into a purely social software. I have tried it myself. The page instant messaging you developed is good, and this must also use the patented ICQ technology, so there is no need to pull ICQ over again."

The butler nodded again.

A thought flashed through my mind: Stick?

Simon still didn't care and continued: "There is also the matter of Ypay cooperating with other e-commerce websites. I remember that I have said more than once that the Internet industry will be very large and no company can fully occupy it. Moreover, at this stage, promoting the Internet more prosperity and allowing this platform to be accepted by more people is more important than your impatient monopoly idea."

Even Amazon, which was originally at its peak on the timeline, actually accounts for less than 50% of the share of online e-commerce in the United States.

The female housekeeper finally said this time: "I didn't think about monopolizing the Internet."

Simon said: "But you're trying to do that."

The butler fell silent again.

Simon continued: "Actually, I thought that this is the ambition that every businessman has. However, things are not realistic at all. Especially in the early stages of an industry development, a monopoly was formed directly, which is not a benefit for this monopoly company. Without competition, it will stop moving forward, become bloated, and cause various problems. The final result will only be eliminated. Compared with other companies, Amazon already has enough resources, and now it is just a few more people who are catching up. If you can't even deal with this little competition, come back and be a warm-up girl for me."

The butler had already agreed with a guy's words, but when he heard the last sentence, he finally looked up and glared at him fiercely.

What the hell is a girl warming the bed?

Simon smiled and said, "I recommend a book to you, "Dream of Red Mansions". Jenny likes reading it very much. Well, you'd better learn some Chinese."

As a former female housekeeper, Alice actually knows this.

He was still dissatisfied on the surface, but he kept it silently in his heart, but he changed the topic and said, "Will you agree to Gates' cooperation conditions for pre-installed browsers?"

At yesterday's meeting, Damen asked that it is not impossible for IE browser to preinstall Microsoft, but Microsoft needs to obtain the permission to adjust the corresponding functions of this browser. Not only that, Damen also requires authorization to directly commercialize the technologies related to the World Wide Web.

The previously published World Wide Web patents actually have many restrictions.

The most important point is that other companies are not allowed to directly use the World Wide Web technology to seek benefits. Simply put, they are not allowed to use the World Wide Web technology to develop related application software to make profits. The World Wide Web browser, web design software, etc. are all listed here.

Because this is the private place of Igret Company.

In the past year, Igrit Company sold 23.79 million units worldwide, thus earning huge profits of US$230 million.

In addition, with the exponential explosion of Wanwei website sites, 760,000 sets of web design software that vary according to the purchase price of individuals or companies, but averaged between $300 and $500 were also sold, making this part of the revenue easily surpassing the original most profitable browser software to reach $280 million.

The operation team of Igrit Company also considered renting instead of direct one-time sales for web design-related software, which can ensure longer-term continuous returns. However, considering that Oracle directly subverted the monopoly of traditional IT manufacturers such as IBM and other traditional IT manufacturers in database software through one-time sales, Simon finally chose to sell it directly.

Therefore, whether it is browser software or web design software, it will be a one-time benefit to a large extent.

However, even so, the benefits of these two simple software are enough for Igrit to pay most of its early budget.

The financial information of Igrit Company in 1992 is still under statistics, but due to the recurrence of software sales, Igrit Company's losses this year have also dropped significantly, and may end up being only tens of millions of dollars.

Moreover, this loss was deliberately caused by the Igret operation team.

Simon is not profitable too early like Igret, and Jeff Bezos and Carol Butts are not lacking in this vision.

Not only that, according to the loss deduction clause in the US tax law, current losses can be converted into income tax exemption amounts within the next 15 years.

Amazon, which originally had this method, used this method to make net profits of tens of billions of dollars each year not only did not require tax payments, but could obtain a part of the tax refund from the federal government, which eventually formed a rare "negative tax rate" phenomenon for federal enterprises.

If we consider elements such as inflation, it is actually not cost-effective to use current losses to deduct future profits.

But from other aspects, the current investment will actually be transformed into the accumulation of strength and advantages of Igrit Company in the Internet industry. In the long run, it is very cost-effective.

In the restaurant at this time.

Hearing the female housekeeper’s question, Simon quickly shook his head and said, “I plan to ask Jeff and the others to discuss the pre-installation with the OEM manufacturer, so let it go.”

Alice paused, and said with a little teasing in her tone: "You just said you don't want to monopolize the Internet?"

It is indeed a bit contradictory to deliberately cultivate Amazon's competitors in e-commerce, but to restrict the emergence of other competitors in World Wide Web technology.

Simon said: "These are two things. I don't want to authorize it to Microsoft. I'm not worried about competition. You have to understand that I am also the major shareholder of Microsoft. Well, now, I should be the second largest shareholder. Microsoft's development can also bring me benefits."

Bill Gates and Paul Allen were originally the first and second largest shareholders of Microsoft.

However, after the equity transactions in the past two years, and Paul Allen subsequently sold part of the shares, his shareholding in Microsoft has now dropped to 18.6%, and Westeros's stake in Microsoft is still 21.3%. Therefore, Westeros is now the second largest shareholder of Microsoft after Bill Gates.

Alice naturally knew this and asked, "Why is that?"

"I just don't want the Internet standards to be split," Simon said. "If more World Wide Web technologies were licensed to Gates, in order to compete with Igrit, Bill might use the market advantages of the Windows system to create other different technical standards, and it is likely to be incompatible with Igrit. You can imagine that if there was no unified standard for the power system at the time, some grids were 110 volts, some grids were 220 volts, and some grids were 240 volts, how inconvenience would this bring to users and to what extent would it hinder the development of the power revolution?"

The female housekeeper nodded subconsciously, but immediately retorted: "Then, aren't you worried that this will happen in e-commerce?"

Simon smiled and said, "Of course not. The e-commerce website is more vivid, and is more in the position of 'home appliances'. No matter which kind of appliance it is, it needs to be adapted to the federal 110 volt voltage standard."

"But," the butler hesitated this time, saying, "You allow so many 'electrical appliances' to come out to compete with Amazon. If, if I mess up, you will also take responsibility."

"If there is no competitor, I think you will be more likely to mess it up," Simon said, adding: "And, to be honest, the Westeros system is already very large now. I have enough chips and I am not afraid that one or two of them will fail. For example, the several e-commerce websites that have been authorized this time have venture capital from the Westeros system."

The butler suddenly became depressed again.

In fact, she already understood this from the fact that he allowed Amazon and Blockbuster to sell videotapes and movies.

However, she was still a little disappointed that he did not have that strong confidence in her.

Damn guy.

How many times have it been.

Always talk about what if you fail.

It seems that she is destined to succeed.

Simon didn't care about the butler's little thoughts, and explained everything he should explain. After lunch, the two left Seattle and flew to San Francisco together.

In the afternoon, I discussed with senior executives of Igrit to change their pre-installed ideas, and stayed in San Francisco for another night before Simon returned to Los Angeles.

It was the beginning of the year, and Daenerys Entertainment's key movies for the next one or two years have been confirmed, but there are still many first-level projects gradually launched.

On Wednesday morning, Simon asked Roland Emmerich to discuss a movie written by Roland Emmerich, called "The Cosmic Shock" with Michael Bay.

Roland Emmerich is still busy with the later stages of "Superman". Although the ending has begun, after finishing the first "Superman", he will almost immediately start to prepare for the sequel and have no time to take into account other projects.

Therefore, Simon plans to hand over "The Cosmic Stranger" written by the director himself to Michael Bay, who just completed the Victoria's Secret show at the end of last year.

"The Cosmic Story" was originally Roland Emmerich's famous work in Hollywood. It was the success of "The Cosmic Story" that allowed Roland Emmerich to film his work "One Power Day" in Hollywood.

This time, if nothing unexpected happens, Simon intends to hand over both opportunities to Michael Bay.

The two films, especially "One Day", are actually very suitable for Michael Bay's personal style.

As for Emmerich, as long as the "Superman" series is successful, the fame it brings to the director will not be much worse than the original timeline. Simon's plan this time is to let the other party serve as the producer of "The Cosmic Shock", and next, it may also be the producer of "One Day".

"Cosmic Strange Sword" tells the story of a human archaeologist who discovered that the pyramid is actually the "Star Gate" leading to a different world, led a team of soldiers to explore through the "Star Gate" and led humans in another world to resist the rule of alien races and return to the earth.

Overall, this is a sci-fi action movie with a lot of brainstorms.

Science fiction action movies happen to be the type Michael Bay is good at on the timeline.

According to preliminary estimates, the budget for Stargate is $30 million, slightly higher than Simon's expectations. However, for science fiction movies, such a production budget is not too high. Simon also believes that with Michael Bay's ability, he is fully capable of completing the movie within a budget of $30 million.
Chapter completed!