The San Jose Daily News published an article about an aborted merger attempt by Yahoo against an Atlanta Chinese community Web site, Atlanta168.com. The story says that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang surfed Chinese sites a lot. He was attracted by a Chinese community web site, Atlanta168.com. This 1-year old site attracted a huge amount of Chinese visits daily, from local Chinese community to US nationwide, even from Chinese mainland. Jerry was so excited that he decides to buy this Atlanta168.com. He made a direct call to owner Mike Guo who was have ing lunch with his wife when Jerry's call came. The story goes like this:
hello, this is Jerry Yang from Yahoo. May I speak to Mike ?
Yes, This is him.
Hi, Mike, I am highly interested in your site, the Atlanta168,com. Would you consider to sell it?
ohhhhh, that may be........ " Mike hesitated.
"well, what about a $1 million?" Jerry made it clear.
"ennnnnnn, that price is too cheap." Mike still not decided.
"ok, $1 billion. This is the final offer." Jerry got impatient.
"bang," something dropped on the floor.
"Oh, my God, Mike , are you OK?" Screaming can be heard. That is Mike's wife.
"Call 911, Mike is not breathing." Ms. GUo yelled.
"Jerry, Mike is not good. What did you tell him?"
"I told him that I will pay him $1 billion to buy his site." Jerry answered.
"But you scared him to death. He is not breathing now. Oh my God, what can I do to save him?" Ms Guo cried.
"Just tell him that I will not buy his site." Jerry said.
"oh, Mike, wake up, he is not buying your site anymjore." Ms Guo screamed again.
"Tell him, I want to sell him this Atlanta168.com" Mike suddently jumped from floor.
but Jerry hang up already. |