China Entertainment 1997

Shenzhen City, SEG Technology Park

Penguin's original office location was here. It is said that Ma Xiao borrowed a friend's dance studio and converted it into an office.

In fact, this is not bad. It is a regular office location. When Jack Ma first started to lead the Eighteen Arhats to conquer the world, the office location was crowded in his own residential building.

In Penguin's conference room, Cao Xuan met Xiao Ma and the other four founders.

Brother Ma, who was born in 1971, is not yet thirty this year. He is gentle and gentle, but maybe he was too worried during this period and has dark circles under his eyes that cannot be concealed.

After a few simple greetings, Cao Xuan's purpose had been made clear before, and everyone got straight to the point.

"Mr. Cao, this is our plan."

Xiao Ma and Penguin's COO Zeng Liqing took out the financing plan that had been revised many times and looked expectantly at Cao Xuan and the middle-aged man with glasses next to him.

To this day, the two of them are still a little confused.

In the past, Penguin's financing was basically handled by Xiao Ma Ge and Zeng Liqing. At this time, the two had no financing channels at all. They found several middlemen for help, but they did not receive any positive feedback.

Seeing that the company's funds were almost gone, Xiao Ma desperately wanted to sell Penguin.

As a result, things took a turn for the worse. Just when Xiao Ma was desperate, news came from the middleman that an investment company was interested in QQ and was ready to come to the company for negotiation.

What they didn't expect even more was that the boss behind [Jiaoyang Venture Capital] who wanted to invest in their Penguin was Cao Xuan, a famous star in the country.

But it doesn’t matter whose money it is.

Penguin is almost crazy poor now. As long as he invests money, let alone a star, he doesn't care even if he is filming a third-level movie.

Not to mention that investment from a big star like Cao Xuan is definitely a great thing for Penguin.

Never underestimate the benefits that celebrity effects can have on a business.

Especially in this era of underdeveloped information dissemination, people do not have a deep understanding of many things and do not understand cost-effectiveness.

If you want them to pay, it depends on whether your brand is famous or not.

How to quickly become famous? The most direct way is to spend money on advertising and find celebrity endorsements.

Many companies even take the initiative to cooperate with celebrities, with celebrities buying shares, and companies making money under the banner of celebrities. This is nothing new nowadays.

A representative example is Liu Xiaoqing, who was once ranked among the top ten female entrepreneurs of the year. If she hadn't suffered a setback, she might have successfully transformed into the business world.

Penguin has no profit point yet, but if Cao Xuan joins and is willing to use his fame to drive Penguin, it will definitely greatly increase QQ’s exposure and user base.

Based on this alone, Brother Ma is willing to let Cao Xuan take a stake.

However, the most important thing for Penguins now is not to borrow Cao Xuan's fame, but to have enough real money to support the next development.

Without money, even if Cao Xuan joins to bring more users to QQ, the result will only accelerate the demise of Penguin.

Therefore, what Xiao Ma and the others are most concerned about now is one word.

money!

In other words, how much money Cao Xuan is willing to pay.

………

Cao Xuan flipped through the 20-page plan in his hand. The content was not complicated and was roughly divided into five parts.

①Introduce the origin and various aspects of QQ.

② Promote the future prospects of QQ.

Since it is advocacy, the words used are inevitably a bit exaggerated. If people in the industry see it, they may laugh at the wishful thinking of Xiao Ma and others.

But in the view of Cao Xuan, who knew the future, this plan was simply too conservative.

Brother Xiao Ma is still young. To draw a big pie and brag, you have to look at Jack Ma from Hangzhou...

③ICQ, which proposed QQ as a "reference", was recently sold to AOL for US$287 million, adding weight to QQ.

This is also an important basis for Brother Xiao Ma's financing. After all, the original version sold for so much money, how much is the Chinese version worth?

④What are the main uses of the financing money? To buy servers, bandwidth and the continued development of QQ software.

⑤ Profit model.

This is actually what investors value most, but Xiao Ma and the others wrote very vaguely, only advertising fees and membership fees were mentioned.

After reading the plan, before Cao Xuan could say anything, the middle-aged man with glasses next to him couldn't help shaking his head, with uncontrollable disappointment on his face.

This person is Gu Yunkai, the general manager of [Jiaoyang Venture Capital] founded by Cao Xuan. He is an overseas elite who returned from the United States and has working experience in many investment banks.

His ability is not outstanding, otherwise he would not have taken a fancy to Cao Xuan, a small temple, but he has rich experience, a stable and meticulous personality, and understands various domestic and foreign investment management models.

Cao Xuan has a golden finger, and there is no shortage of investors with accurate vision. He himself is an "unparalleled genius" in the investment world.

But Cao Xuan needed such an experienced veteran who was well versed in the rules of the industry to help him keep things in check to prevent others from cheating him, so he asked Gu Yunkai to be the general manager of [Jiaoyang Venture Capital].

Seeing Gu Yunkai shaking his head in disappointment, Brother Xiao Ma and others suddenly felt their hearts tighten.

It won't break again this time, right?

However, they were slightly relieved that the main owner, Cao Xuan, did not express his opinion on the plan. Instead, he chatted with Xiao Ma and others about QQ, complaining about some of QQ's currently not very useful functions.

Only then did Brother Ma know that the famous star Cao Xuan was also a user of their product, and judging from his eloquent manner, he was still an experienced user.

This discovery made Brother Xiao Ma and others get closer to Cao Xuan, and they also understood why Cao Xuan came to invest for no reason.

After chatting for a while, and the atmosphere at the scene became more harmonious, Cao Xuan finally returned to the topic, straight to the point, and directly pinched the seven inches——

How to solve the profit problem of QQ?

How can Xiao Ma and other founding teams ensure the interests of him as an investor?

If investing, how to distinguish the company's voice?

The three questions made the conference room fall into silence, and also made Brother Xiao Ma and others understand that Cao Xuan was not just a whim, he had done some research to understand.

This discovery made Xiao Ma and others a little nervous, but also very excited.

Cao Xuan has made preparations, which shows that he is indeed serious about investing. If he can convince Cao Xuan, Penguin will be saved.

Xiao Ma and others discussed it and finally revealed the truth to Cao Xuan.

They have indeed not found a good direction for QQ's profitability, but QQ's future is indeed bright.

The planning book also said that ICQ sold for nearly 300 million U.S. dollars. If Cao Xuan invests money to build up the user base and products, expand its influence, and take over the business from the next company, the profit will be doubled at least several times.

As for the company's right to speak, the interests of shareholders must be given priority, but Xiao Ma hopes that Cao Xuan will agree not to participate in the company's management. Xiao Ma and others are very firm on this point.

There are too many examples of amateurs leading experts and eventually playing to death, so they don't want such a tragedy to happen to Penguin.

Of course, Cao Xuan, as a shareholder, has many other rights, and even Xiao Ma and others are willing to give up some of their rights on the board of directors as compensation for him, the major shareholder.

Cao Xuan actually has no intention of competing with Xiao Ma and others for the company's management rights, but he still needs to improve his presence.

In addition, at Cao Xuan's signal, Gu Yunkai was also full of firepower, questioning Xiao Ma's idea of ​​cashing out the deal.

A very straightforward point, what if no one takes the offer? QQ will just lose it, and there will be no profit.

Facing Gu Yunkai's aggressiveness, Xiao Ma and the others were not only not annoyed, but also very happy, because they realized that Cao Xuan really wanted to invest, otherwise they would not waste their time on these things.

If you're not interested, just leave.

Only those who want to invest will care about these issues, firstly to judge and confirm the prospects, and secondly to negotiate the price.

Brother Xiao Ma and others are not afraid of bargaining, but are afraid that Cao Xuan is not interested. As long as they are willing to invest, we can talk about everything else slowly.

Cao Xuan and his party stayed at Penguin for most of the day, going back and forth with Brother Xiaoma and others, and negotiating for most of the day.

Although substantial progress has not yet been made, there are signs of cooperation.

Xiao Ma's spirit doubled. As the host, he invited Cao Xuan to cook a seafood meal that night, which was considered as a welcome to Cao Xuan and a celebration of the success of the first negotiation.