Extraordinary Genius

Ralph frowned as he looked at the information in his hand. Why did Feng Yu want the information about this small company selling books on the internet? This company cannot be considered a tech company just because it uses the internet to sell books. What potential does this company have?

But his boss’s instructions are absolute. Although Ralph does not understand the reasons, he still gathered and organized the information for Feng Yu.

Feng Yu looked at the information. Amazon was registered in Washington last year. In July this year, it changed its name and become an online bookstore.

This company’s scale is not significant. Since it was set up last year, it did not make any profit!

Feng Yu was overjoyed. No profits! Then it should not be a problem for him to invest in this company or buy over the shares from the shareholders.

Amazon’s model was simple. But this was the lowest point for the company. Any wrong move will cause the demise of the company during the Dot Com bubble burst. In Feng Yu’s previous life, lots of tech companies became bankrupt after year 2000. Even a top company like Yahoo had shrunk by over 90%.

“Ralph, fix an appointment with Mr. Jeff. I want to meet him.” Feng Yu said excitedly.

Ralph was puzzled but still went ahead to make the arrangements. He had investigated on this Jeff Bezos. He had worked in the banking industry before. Could it be that Feng Yu wanted to recruit this man?

But Feng Yu seems to be more interested in this online bookstore. He wants to invest in this company? Who would buy books over the internet? People can just buy them at bookstores! Ralph could not see how this company could make money.

……

Jeff Bezos was arguing with an investor. The investor felt Jeff was too conservative and will not be able to make money for the company. He thought they should make use of the current craze about internet and try to get the company listed. After the company’s shares had raised, they will sell the company away.

But Jeff refused. This was a company he set up. How can he just sell the company away like this? Furthermore, he wanted to develop this company. What’s wrong with having a conservative and safe development plan for this company?

The current craze over internet companies might increase the value of those companies temporary, but it was only a farce. The shares of those companies will plummet sooner or later. Jeff prefers to have slower growth in return for lower risk. This was his long term strategy.

These evil investors only want money. They don’t understand what dreams are! Even if they were only after money, they should not look at the short term profits. Don’t they have long-term visions?

Why did I get these people to invest in the first place? These people do not know anything about the internet and management, yet they want to interfere with the company’s operations! They think they are better than me in investing? I am also from the financial industry!

“Mr. Jeff. It’s your call. A man who claimed to be the assistant of a Microsoft’s director is looking for you.” Jeff’s secretary entered his office.

What? The assistant of a Microsoft’s director is calling? Jeff was overjoyed. If he could convince Microsoft’s director to invest in him, he will kick all those investors away!

Jeff immediately picks up the phone. “Hi. I’m Jeff Bezos. May I know whose calling?”

“I am Microsoft Director Feng’s assistant. My boss would like to meet you.”

“Sure. When is Mr. Feng free? I can go over anytime.” Jeff replied.

“No. My boss wants to visit you and at the same time, visit your company. Do you understand what I mean?”

Jeff was overjoyed. He understood what Ralph said. That Mr. Feng from Microsoft was interested in his company!

“I welcome Mr. Feng to visit my company. I am free anytime.”

“How about tomorrow morning?” Ralph asked.

“Sure. I will be waiting for Mr. Feng at my company tomorrow.”

Jeff hanged up the phone and looked at the shareholder who was arguing with him. “You want to sell off your shares? Fine. I will buy over the shares from you!”

If a Microsoft Director was going to invest in this company, then this company will surely have a bright future. Jeff Bezos can even sell off his house and shares to raise money to invest in Amazon. He believed that Amazon will be one of the top companies in the future!

That shareholder was stunned. Jeff had really received a call from a Microsoft Director? Microsoft was going to invest in Amazon? If not, Jeff will offer to buy over his shares. But since a director from Microsoft was going to invest in the company, why should he sell off the shares now?

……

“Boss, I had contacted them. Jeff will be waiting for you at Amazon tomorrow.”

“Ok. We will go over in the morning. You have also seen this company’s information. Do you think this company is worth investing in?” Feng Yu asked.

“Boss, I can’t tell what’s so special about this company. It’s only an online bookstore. Bookstores can be found anywhere on the streets. Customers are still able to flip through the books before they decide whether to buy them. Customers can only see the cover of the books on this online bookstore. I think there is not much potential in this company. Also, the company’s storage cost of the books will be high. The delivery time is around one week. Which customer would want to buy a book and wait for one week?”

“Of course, if you invested in this company and made some amendments to the accounts, it should not be a problem to get it listed on NASDAQ. With the current craze on Tech shares, you should be able to get high returns. But the duration is too long. You might as well purchase a tech company that is already listed. Errr…… these are only my views from my perspective.”

Feng Yu nodded. “No. You are very right. These weaknesses do exist. This company will not be able to generate profits in the short-term. But can you see the strengths of this company?”

“Strengths? Other than being an online company, the only strength I can see is it is an online bookstore. They will be able to sell a wider variety of books than a retail bookstore. But it will be hard to look through all the various titles unless they can come up with a good search engine.” Ralph replied after some thoughts.

“That’s right. If they have a good search engine, then the customers can find the books they wanted. No matter if the customers are searching the author’s name, country, publisher or title, they will be able to find the books they wanted. They should be able to see the year of publishing too. This can be one of the search engine criteria. This is the strength of this online bookstore. They will be able to offer more books to customers. Maybe in the short-term, this company will not be able to develop, but once it is developed, it will grow into a big company.” Feng Yu laughed.

“That’s the reason why you want to invest in this company?”

“Of course. If possible, I want to be the biggest shareholder of this company.” If Feng Yu were able to hold the controlling shares of Amazon, it would be great! But this still has to wait until the meeting tomorrow……

Translator’s notes:

Jeff Bezos