1980 My literary era

After Lin Weimin and Zhang Chaoyang finished communicating about the Internet Conference, both parties began preparations for this grand event.

Both parties use their respective strengths. Guowen Group is responsible for connecting with the government and American guests, while Sohu is responsible for connecting with many domestic Internet companies.

In just a few days, a piece of gossip spread in the domestic Internet industry.

Sohu is organizing a national Internet conference.

This news quickly attracted the attention of major domestic Internet companies and practitioners.

As the first domestic Internet company listed on Nasdaq, Sohu's status in the domestic Internet industry is unquestionable.

But when it happened suddenly, many colleagues felt that it was a bad sign.

Sohu's current market value is close to tens of billions of dollars. This is the rhythm of unifying the world and becoming the leader of the martial arts league!

It is said that peers are enemies, and the Internet industry is no exception.

Sohu has become the first domestic Internet company to be listed on Nasdaq. Now there is an Internet conference. There are many people who are dissatisfied, and Sina is the first to express dissatisfaction.

At that time, Sitong Lifang was the first software company in China to receive huge venture capital investment from overseas companies. Later, it launched a website business and performed well. It merged with Huayuan Information, which was in the limelight at the time, to form Sina, which was very popular for a while.

If Sohu had not been one step ahead with the support of Guowen Group, it is not certain who would win the title of China's No. 1 Internet stock.

Because Sina was studying listing as early as 1998 when it first merged, but due to the serious dispersion of Sina's internal equity, overseas capital has overtaken the founders, so they must face a problem if they want to go public, and that is to use VIE Obtain control of the company with a reasonable and legal structure.

Because of this, Sina's listing has been delayed repeatedly.

But as of March this year, Sina's road to listing has finally been completed, and they have even started a pre-IPO road show.

In Sina's eyes, Sohu, China's number one Internet stock, was just picked up by luck. If their listing had not been delayed by their shareholding structure, how could Sohu have been able to excel?

In fact, not only Sina, but also NetEase, a rising star of the portal website, is now planning to go public. The three major domestic portals have all gone to Nasdaq.

So at this time, Sohu contacted them and said they were going to hold an Internet conference. Sina was not interested at all, and they had no time to pay attention. The company was going to be listed soon, and whoever had time to attend such Internet conference was not interested at all.

The wave of interest rate hikes from 1999 to 2000 was one of the triggers for the Nasdaq stock market crash in 2000. People and the market are not aware of it now.

In fact, signs have already appeared. Starting from the fourth quarter of 1999, many Internet companies listed on Nasdaq frequently reported losses.

But at this time, the market and investors have long been accustomed to the losses of Internet companies, and have developed a set of skilled words.

Loss proves that the company is developing rapidly, and loss represents the future potential of an enterprise.

They turn a blind eye to the brewing crisis and are bound to suffer backlash.

March 10 was supposed to be a normal Friday. People were planning their leisure time for the coming weekend. The Nasdaq Composite Index hit a record high of 5,133 points and closed at 5,049 points.

The market is hot, the carnival is still going on, Sina is conducting their pre-IPO road show, and Sohu's shareholders are still regretting that the stock price has hit a new high, and are thinking about whether to buy back a wave of shares.

On Sunday, stock god Warren Buffett said in an interview with reporters that investors and institutions in the U.S. stock market are overly optimistic and that the stock market may undergo a correction, but no one took his words to heart.

Two days later, on a new Monday, the Nasdaq fell at the opening. The share prices of emerging companies in the American technology and Internet industries, led by Dell and Amazon, suddenly fell collectively, triggering a chain selling in the next few days.

Many investors, funds and institutions who sensed something was wrong have liquidated their stocks and ran away. The originally hot market took a turn for the worse in the blink of an eye, ushering in a wave of epic declines.

In just three days, the Nasdaq index plummeted to 4,582 points, a drop of more than 10%, and countless investors and institutions suffered heavy losses.

On March 16, the Nasdaq index, which had fallen for three consecutive days, rebounded at the beginning of trading. Many investors rejoiced, thinking that the market adjustment period had passed.

The Nasdaq rose and fell over the next few days, but eventually continued to rise.

Until March 28, the three major U.S. indexes fell across the board, and the Nasdaq Composite Index fell 2.5%, once again starting a diving mode, and it has plummeted ever since.

The collapse of Nasdaq is far across the ocean and has no impact on the lives and work of Chinese people, but it has a huge impact on the two Chinese companies that are about to go public.

The period when Nasdaq was plummeting was exactly the time when Sina was preparing for its road show to go public. As of April 13, when Sina went public, the Nasdaq index had fallen by 35%.

Fortunately, the market still has expectations for Chinese Internet companies in emerging markets. The issue price of Sina's stock was priced at 17 US dollars. It opened at 22 US dollars and closed at 20 US dollars that day. It has become a stock that has been falling continuously in the past month. One of the few bright spots among Nasdaq.

Sina, which was successfully listed, did not feel any joy at all. In the next few days, Sina's stock price broke for a time, which made them deeply feel the arrival of the winter of Internet capital. Sohu and Zhang Chaoyang also felt the same way as Sina.

The Nasdaq plunged for a month, and Sohu's stock price nearly halved, from the peak of 142 meters to 74 meters. Zhang Chaoyang was almost paralyzed, and he didn't even have time to attend the Internet conference that he had been enthusiastic about some time ago.

After more than twenty days, he finally couldn't stand it anymore and ran to Lin Weimin for comfort.

"Did you already know that the stock market was going to crash?"

Zhang Chaoyang no longer had the high spirits of more than a month ago, and his whole person seemed a little decadent.

The company's stock price and market value have halved in one month, and he is now mentally and physically exhausted.

Seeing that Lin Weimin did not answer his question, Zhang Chaoyang showed a somewhat self-deprecating smile, "I have been really dizzy recently. The collapse of Nasdaq happened so suddenly, and no one was mentally prepared at all."

"If you were mentally prepared, wouldn't it have collapsed a long time ago?" Lin Weimin said in an understatement, "There were enough signs before, but the market was just too hot, which gave everyone the illusion of staying together for warmth."

Zhang Chaoyang looked depressed and said, "I wish I had known better and sold more stocks beforehand."

Lin Weimin smiled and said: "It's not too late to throw it away now."

These words instantly made Zhang Chaoyang extremely painful, "Do you mean it's going to fall again?"

"Don't you know it if you check the historical records yourself? This time the three major stock indexes in the United States all fell, and the Nasdaq was the worst. It is comparable to several famous stock market crashes in history."

Zhang Chaoyang still had a sense of luck, "It's been down for a month, maybe it will go up, right?"

"Of course it's possible, but it's just a matter of probability."

Zhang Chaoyang lamented. With the market so pessimistic, why didn't he understand how low the probability was?

"Thanks to your assessment of the situation and your foresight, Guowen Group has achieved a great victory this time."

"If you want to win a big victory, you should polish the stocks, or re-mortgage the remaining stocks to trick the Americans."

For four consecutive months, Guowen Group has not stopped selling stocks. By the end of March, the group held only 3.25% of Sohu's shares. At this time, Sohu's stock price has fallen by 40% compared to its peak, and is still falling. .

At this time, Guowen Group stopped selling its stocks, which made it seem like they thought Sohu's stock price had bottomed out and did not want to continue cutting off the profits. This was of course Lin Weimin's deliberate move.

Not only Sohu's stocks, but all of Lin Weimin's own investments in the United States also follow this pattern.

He never cashes out at the highest point, nor does he violently liquidate his positions.

Not to earn the last copper.

It is precisely because of this kind of caution that he has been quietly making a fortune for so many years without making any mistakes.

Zhang Chaoyang said with a wry smile: "I don't know the institutions and investors in the United States about the collapse of Nasdaq this time, but if the gains of Guowen Group are revealed, it will definitely make countless people envious."

Lin Weimin smiled and said nothing.

"The group has made at least 40 to 50 billion this time, right? How do you plan to spend the money?" Zhang Chaoyang asked curiously.

Four consecutive months of stock selling have also made Guowen Group a huge profit.

When the market is going crazy, there is no need for shipments to be too large to cause a crash. No matter how many shipments they ship, there will always be someone to take over.

That is to say, after late March, the stock prices sold by Guowen Group continued to fall. However, this was a deliberate result. The number of stocks sold during this period was not large.

Overall, the stock reduction plan that started in November last year and lasted for more than four months finally brought revenue of 669 million yuan to Guowen Group, which is more than 5.5 billion yuan when converted into RMB.

But Guowen Group will definitely not transfer all the money back to the country. To do so, it must first pay taxes in both countries. Even if there is a tax preferential agreement between China and the United States, it is not cost-effective.

Therefore, Guowen Group only transferred RMB 200 million in harvest back to the country. After deducting the taxes between the two countries, the money was transferred to the account of Guowen Group with 1.34 billion yuan left.

The remaining money is still in the United States.

Nasdaq's rapid decline is just the beginning now, and it will continue to decline in the next two years. It is really unreasonable not to buy the bottom at this time.

"One sum is kept abroad, waiting for the opportunity to buy lows. One sum has been transferred to China. The money is investment income, and it will continue to be invested in domestic companies in the future."

Lin Weimin did not taboo Zhang Chaoyang, but said it frankly. This kind of thing is not difficult to guess.

Zhang Chaoyang nodded, "One inside and one outside, safe and reliable. This time the Nasdaq avalanche has caused domestic Internet companies to find it difficult to raise funds in the future, it's just the right time."

When he said this, there was a bit of a thief smile on his face.

Lin Weimin was immediately displeased, "Don't think we are taking advantage of the situation. We are also providing impetus for the development of the enterprise."

Zhang Chaoyang nodded quickly, "That's right."

No wonder Teacher Lin can be a leader, look at his language skills.

But after saying this, Zhang Chaoyang felt that his mind had opened up.

Sohu's stock price skyrocketed before, but he also cashed out 100 million yuan for himself. Now Sohu is not short of money, and it can also invest in some potential companies in the domestic Internet industry in the future.

In the past, he would come to beg for help, but this time he also had a taste of being begged for.

With this thought in his mind, Zhang Chaoyang became proud.

"Tomorrow I will also look for a few potential companies to invest in."

Lin Weimin glanced at Zhang Chaoyang when he heard this, and couldn't help but think of Qu Xiaowei, who said a while ago that he wanted to trade stocks.

As a man who once rejected the entire Chinese Internet, Zhang Chaoyang's words really left Lin Weimin wondering how to proceed.

You have no idea at all!