The Internet's Next Piece of the Puzzle

"Wealth-creation effect." Nakayama Takuya set the cigar on the desk. "Wall Street needs a new story, and we've given them the most perfect template. Once Sequoia Capital and KPCB's book returns get out, the capital that missed this ride will fall into anxiety. They'd rather invest wrong than miss the next Silicon Valley Online. Those people running around everywhere with checkbooks aren't buying technology. They're buying lottery tickets."

Frank drained the water in his glass, pulled over a chair, and sat down.

"But this has also brought us trouble. Headhunting firms have started prowling around near our campus. Several core engineers in the technical department all received poaching emails from other startups yesterday, offering very high options.

One junior manager in charge of backend maintenance was even promised the CT0 position by a company that had only been founded three days ago."

"Give them raises. Release another portion from the option pool." Nakayama Takuya did not hesitate at all. "Use our current high stock price to keep people. What Silicon Valley Online lacks least right now is money. But compared with defense, we should be taking the initiative."

He pulled open a drawer, took out a document, and handed it to Frank.

"This is the acquisition list you mentioned in New York. Execute it now."

Frank took the document and quickly flipped through it.

"These teams working on underlying communication protocols and data compression were originally valued at around two million dollars.

What's worth noting is that with so much hot money in Redwood City now, they're definitely going to sit on the ground and jack up the price. I asked around yesterday. One five-person team doing communication encryption has just quoted a price of two million dollars."

"Then give them a high premium. Three million is fine too." Nakayama