You Can Always Count on Zucker Wald!

One day!

It had taken Starship Technology less than a day to complete its first round of expansion and financing.

In other words, from that moment on, Starship Technology was no longer wholly owned by Zucker. It now had as many as twelve shareholders.

Of the twelve new shareholders, nine were members of Starship Technology's management and research teams. They had earned their shares. The stake was small—just 3% in total—but it was certainly no small amount.

The other three new shareholders came from three different companies.

Google took a 7% stake.

Amazon took a 6% stake.

LinkedIn took a 4% stake.

For Starship Technology's Series A financing, the company was valued at $200 million. That meant the 20% stake Zucker had put up was worth $40 million—enough to fund Skype's first round of promotion after its launch.

"Zucker, you damned scoundrel. You're really heartless!"

"You should... read more of Luxembourg Technology News and see what it says about Starship Technology's valuation."

"My God! It thinks Starship Technology is worth no more than $3 million, but we just valued it at $200 million!"

Jeff Bezos complained bitterly. "The people on the board nearly flipped the table when they heard that price."

Zucker waved a hand, unconcerned. "Come on. The people on Amazon's board are idiots. Why pay them any mind? Besides, you and I are best friends. I wouldn't swindle you, would I?"

At that, Bezos finally relaxed.

But!

Just seconds later, Bezos suddenly remembered something and said even more plaintively, "Have you forgotten ICQ?"

Back in 1997, Zucker had talked Bezos into exchanging some of his ICQ shares for a portion of Amazon's shares.

And what happened? In less than two years, both Zucker and Bezos had sold off all their ICQ shares and walked away.

"Buddy, the Amazon