Reborn in 2010, the AI ​​in my mind is too powerful.

Sharon Park, a park near Chen Yiran's home, is where he and Hannah first met. After they fell in love, they would come here every few days. Hannah usually went for a run, but now she takes Pidan (the dog) with her.

Chen Yiran is very lazy. Before, he had the task of walking the preserved egg, but now he simply stays by the lake watching birds, fish and ducks.

Pidan was in good spirits today, barking back and forth with a golden retriever for three minutes. Hannah found it hilarious; the two dogs were barking fiercely, but actually they were all hiding behind people, typical examples of dogs relying on their owners' power.

After walking the dog in the morning, Chen Yiran took Hannah home before the temperature improved at noon.

I did see a car in front of my house, a dark gray BMW.

Despite suffering from severe paranoia, Chen Yiran didn't turn into her house; instead, she drove straight there.

Hannah asked in confusion, "Why are we driving off? Let's go down and ask who it is."

"There's definitely a problem. I've only been here a short time, and I don't know many people. Even if I've exchanged contact information with some, I haven't left my address."

"You apocalyptic survival fanatic, you're sure to live to be a hundred."

"Thank you for your blessing."

Ever since Hannah learned about the exaggerated defenses in Chen Yiran's home, she has been teasing Chen Yiran for many days.

"I'll look over there one more time. Take a closer look at how many people are in the car."

The car circled around, and when it arrived, Chen Yiran didn't drive away this time. Instead, he turned into his house. This time, the driver had already gotten out and was waiting for him. He saw the person who had arrived; it was his lawyer, TED.

Chen Yiran parked the car in the garage and let Hannah take Pidan inside first. Then he took TED to the study and asked him questions along the way.

"If there's anything you need to do in person, you must have waited a long time. You should have just called to let me know. I feel really bad about it."

"Haha, I only waited for less than two hours. Don't be embarrassed, it's chargeable."

Chen Yiran's face stiffened, but she still reluctantly took a bottle of Coke from the small refrigerator in the study and handed it to TED.

Seeing Chen Yiran's expression, TED smiled and said, "Big business requires a lot of caution. Although I don't think the IRS would really target us like this, we still need to be as cautious as possible. From now on, it's best if we don't contact each other by email or phone. I'll come and talk to you in person if anything comes up."

This way, the IRS has no grounds to pursue tax payments. If they investigate now and can't even find you during the patent sale period, they can't claim you provided technical support. If the final sale price is in the tens of millions, I could save millions in taxes in just a few hours.”

"Okay, okay, you're a lawyer, you're professionals, so you came here because you have news?"

Ted took a piece of paper out of his briefcase and placed it on the coffee table.

"Yesterday afternoon, we received an inquiry letter from Microsoft's Corporate Development Department."

Chen Yiran picked it up and looked at it. The header read "Microsoft Corporation," followed by a string of simplistic, overly technical business jargon that was irritating to read. It was basically just blah blah blah: "We are very interested in your product technology, blah blah, and hope to arrange a meeting, blah blah."

The letter was signed Emily Rosen, Corporate Development Manager, and included her phone number and email address.

"Microsoft has taken the bait. How do we respond?"

"A standard inquiry letter, the first step for large companies to reach out to small teams. The tone is formal but vague, without mentioning acquisition or price, just saying 'exchange'."

"you mean?"

My advice to you is not to reply at all, not even a single word.

Ted opened his Coke, took a sip, and began to explain.

"First of all, you need to understand that this inquiry letter itself is meaningless. It does not create any legal obligations, does not constitute an offer, and Microsoft can say at any time that we were just asking casually and then withdraw it. Your reply is equivalent to telling the other party that I am willing to talk."

This is detrimental to our subsequent negotiations; it shows that you're willing to talk, and the initiative shifts to the other party. If we were confident that Microsoft would value Jasmine One, we could simply choose not to reply.

This forces Microsoft to guess. Do you not want to sell? Didn't you see it? Do you already have another buyer? Any of these guesses will make Microsoft more anxious. The more anxious they are, the clearer their next move will be, and the more direct their offer will be.

Chen Yiran thought for a moment and nodded, saying, "To be honest, I wasn't very sure about its value at first, but after seeing the feedback online recently, it seems to be very good. I think we don't need to reply."

Ted nodded and said, "There's another problem. Microsoft sent out the inquiry letter too quickly. For a large company like Microsoft, the departments are actually quite bloated. In my experience, it takes at least a month from discovering a product to sending out an inquiry letter, and two to three months is not uncommon. This matter was processed very quickly within Microsoft, which is abnormal."

Therefore, my assessment is that Microsoft's interest in Jasmine One is very strong, even stronger than we anticipated. In this situation, the inquiry letter is merely a probe or a mechanical procedural step. If they don't respond, their next step will most likely be a direct offer. Once they make a direct offer, it demonstrates their strong commitment, opening up room for negotiation.

"Then let's do what you say. For now, we'll just do nothing and wait, right?"

"It's not like I'm doing nothing. I'll try to find some connections, like people at Google. I know someone in Google's Corporate Development department, David Chen, who's a director. Three years ago, I helped a client sell to Google, and he was the contact person there. We've worked together twice more since then. I'll mention it to him briefly. If Google takes notice, things will be much easier for us."

Chen Yiran thought for a moment and said, "Actually, Google might really be interested and offer a lot of money. My newly updated version supports Python, and judging from what I've read online, Google should be interested."

"I asked Stuart carefully before I came here. He thought Google would bid, but probably not as high as Microsoft. Google has a serious NIH syndrome; they'll either buy people or try to do it themselves. And Google doesn't have the same motivation as Microsoft to maintain .NET. But they will definitely bid, even if it's just to annoy Microsoft, they'll be happy to do it."

David's a smart guy; if I mention it, he'll definitely look into it when he gets back. All they need to know is that this has .NET support, and they'll get involved just to spite Microsoft. That's business warfare—it's that simple and straightforward. Actually, there are many companies that dislike Microsoft. Let's wait and see; the stronger the backlash against Jasmine One, the more companies might jump in.

Chen Yiran understood: "If that's the case, Microsoft won't dare to delay."

"Yes, the longer it drags on, the greater the uncertainty becomes. Microsoft has too many competitors. Take Google, for example—search, browsers, mobile phones, office software—they compete across the board. If Jasmine ends up in Google's hands, it's like Google has gained another entry point into its developer ecosystem, which is unacceptable to Microsoft."

Chen Yiran nodded, then seemed to remember something: "Then let's go with your suggestion. Also, how should the fees for this acquisition be calculated? Besides the hourly rate you calculated, shouldn't it generally be a percentage-based fee?"

Ted explained with a laugh, "No need. We're not like investment banks/M&A advisors who operate on a proportional basis; we're a law firm. And we're a large law firm; we don't play those little tricks like smaller law firms using equity in lieu of cash or deferred payments to increase value."

Chen Yiran did a rough calculation and asked somewhat embarrassedly, "Then, according to our previous thinking, if Microsoft acts decisively, wouldn't you not be able to get much in legal fees?"

TED nodded: "That's right. Usually, an acquisition of this size wouldn't take too long, and we could make at least a million. But the situation here is that you're a one-person company, so there's no wrangling, no complicated finances, no customer contracts, and the patent structure is very simple."

"Well, how about I set up a bonus for you guys to encourage you to sell more for me?"

"No need, you just need to authorize us to tell stories."

"what?"

"An 18-year-old Chinese kid, after finishing his language studies in the US, created an editor in his spare time. With our help, he secured a huge acquisition offer from Microsoft. This story will go viral in Silicon Valley, and every startup founder who hears it will think, 'I want to hire Ted Wang as my lawyer too. Don't worry, I'll do everything I can to help you screw over Microsoft.'"

"Um, okay then, I'll leave it to you."

"There's another question. You need to give me your expectations. What's your ideal price range?"

This is where Chen Yiran's blind spot comes in. Although he has recently caught up on some news, he doesn't really have a great understanding of the value of technology patents.

Moreover, the subprime crisis has only been over for a little over a year, and the overall economy is certainly not as good as before. The figures we saw before are no longer accurate.

After thinking for a moment, Chen Yiran tried saying, "Fifty million? Wouldn't that be a bit too high?"

TED laughed and said, "Technology is hard to predict. Acquiring a company without customers or personnel for 50 million is indeed a lot. It all depends on the buyer's assessment of the technology's prospects. However, I personally think this price is feasible, and I'll proceed at this price for now."

After seeing TED off, Chen Yiran started discussing things with Jasmine.

Do you think there are any flaws in the various strategies discussed in TED?

From a game theory perspective, not replying is the optimal strategy. The party sending the inquiry is at an informational disadvantage; they don't know your bottom line or willingness. Silence increases their uncertainty, and this uncertainty can drive up their offer, provided their demand for Jasmine No. 1 is sufficiently inelastic.

"Fine, fine, did I not pay attention to useful information in my past life?"

My guess is that Google is unlikely to pay for it; they'll probably just try to annoy Microsoft. Google's main focus right now is browsers, and they're not particularly enthusiastic about our project.

"Alright, alright, let's see which class we should attend tomorrow."

I actually believe that we can learn any online course at home, and my learning speed online is much faster than in a classroom.

"No, no, I'll learn it in person. If I learn slowly, I won't get hungry so quickly."

While Chen Yiran was still arguing with Jasmine, the very efficient TED had already made a phone call from the car to arrange dinner with David Chen from Google that evening.

But what Chen Yiran and TED didn't expect was that bringing Google into the game triggered a chain reaction, and a madman also entered the fray.