My Age of Investment

After Xia Jingxing saw through all the trump cards, Ballmer completely gave up the idea of ​​taking advantage and finally began to negotiate terms honestly.

"Yahoo Mail cannot be given to you. This is Yahoo's main brand! The premise for us to complete the transaction is that the integrity of the Yahoo brand must be guaranteed, otherwise we would rather give up the deal!"

Ballmer said in a non-negotiable tone. He glanced at Xia Jingxing, whose face was so gloomy that his face was dripping with tears. After thinking about it, he still couldn't push the other party too hard. It would be troublesome if the other party was young and energetic, and would turn over the table and stop playing. Yes, you have to be careful.

Thinking of this, Ballmer softened his tone a bit and continued: "As for Ali's 26% equity, I can give it to you, but you must give it a reasonable valuation.

Aliguang's B2B business has been listed with a market value of more than 20 billion U.S. dollars, and the overall valuation is at least 80 billion U.S. dollars.

26% of the equity is US$20.8 billion. This part of the transaction consideration will be borne by the three of you, and Microsoft will bear the remaining transaction consideration. "

Xia Jingxing was secretly happy in his heart, but he still pretended to be dissatisfied and said sarcastically: "The overall transaction consideration of Yahoo is only US$44.6 billion, how can Ahri's 26% equity account for half of it?

Also, can Ahri be valued at US$80 billion?

Mr. Ballmer, today is not April Fools’ Day!

China's Internet market is poor. Although the number of Internet users has almost caught up with that of the United States in the past two years, the value of a single user is only one-tenth or one-twentieth of that of an American user. "

Ballmer smiled, "The Chinese market is huge and has unlimited potential. In a few years, the number of Internet users will be several times that of the United States, which will be enough to offset the lack of value for a single user."

I am very optimistic about the future development of China's Internet. If Darren, you are not interested in Ahri, you can consider giving it to us. "

Xia Jingxing shook his head, "You don't have to worry about Ahri, we will talk to Yahoo's shareholders.

As for Yahoo Mail, we won't give up.

Microsoft already has Hotmail, and its market share is no lower than Yahoo Mail. Acquiring Yahoo Mail again is a waste of resources. Leave it to us! "

Ballmer waved his hand, "No, no, no, this is not a waste, but a complement.

Of course you can talk to Yahoo's shareholders about the transaction of Ali's equity assets, but we also have a bottom line. At most, Yahoo can be valued at US$25 billion after divesting 26% of Ali's equity. "

Xia Jingxing said coldly: "It's up to you how much valuation you give to Yahoo. I'll buy Yahoo Mail and Ali's shares first. You can talk to Yahoo for the rest. It doesn't matter if you talk for one year or two years. You can talk to us." It doesn't matter."

"Darren, if you want to do this, then we will have to give up the deal with Yahoo, and at the same time, your deal will fail."

"Please!"

…

After several hours of bickering, Xia Jingxing and Ballmer finally reached an agreement.

"Darren, don't worry, Microsoft, Vision Capital, Facebook, and Ali have formed a joint buyer group, and the acquisition will be easier than a single company going it alone.

Microsoft takes away Yahoo, and the three of you take away the 26% of Ahri's shares. Everyone gets what they need.

We will definitely give Ahli a fair and reasonable valuation, and no one will suffer.

Moreover, if the four of us join forces to acquire Yahoo as a whole, we can also avoid being severely slaughtered by Yahoo. "

…

Ballmer and Xia Jingxing chatted until they reached the door, shook hands again, and then left with satisfaction.

After watching Ballmer and his party leave, Xia Jingxing took out his cell phone, called Yang Zhiyuan, and briefly described the situation on his side.

"Okay, I know what to do, Darren, just wait for my news!"

…………

…………

"Why do you want to acquire 11% of Ali's shares?"

"That is a Chinese e-commerce platform, separated from us by the Pacific Ocean. Facebook has neither China business nor e-commerce business. I really don't see the need for strategic investment!"

On Facebook's board of directors, Brayer, Axel's partner and one of the shareholder representatives, looked at Xia Jingxing with a puzzled expression.

Other directors and shareholders also all turned their attention to Xia Jingxing, and a small number of them did not agree with this proposal.

"Let me explain!"

Kristina glanced at Xia Jingxing and took the initiative to help him out.

After looking around at the shareholders, and with enough momentum, she slowly said: "Facebook has tried to enter the Chinese market several times, but it has always hit a wall because of the media nature of the platform.

But the overseas network that we invested and supported is developing very well in China!

After nearly three years of development, this website, in which Facebook invested only US$50 million, has become China's largest SNS platform, with nearly 200 million users.

In addition to the SNS business, the business tentacles of Hainei Holdings Group, the parent company of Hainei.com, also extend to many fields such as online games and online payments. It is the largest unlisted Internet company in China.

Its status in China is basically the same as Facebook's status in the United States.

Although we are unable to enter the Chinese market, we have also enjoyed the dividends of the rapid development of the Chinese Internet market through investment and cooperation.

Let’s talk about the return on investment first. We currently hold 15.73% of the equity of Domestic Holding Group. Based on the latest market quotation of US$3 billion, this equity asset is worth nearly US$500 million, with a return rate of up to 10 times.

Speaking of cooperation, the overseas versions of "Happy Ranch" and "Happy Ranch" launched by domestic games have received hundreds of millions of user registrations on Facebook's open platform, greatly increasing Facebook's user activity.

At the same time, as a game publisher, Facebook also received tens of millions of dollars in revenue sharing during the most popular months of the game.

The domestic open platform was launched in China one step ahead of us, and it has established extensive cooperation with Facebook in many aspects such as technology development, developer promotion, and commercial monetization.

Relying on these cooperation gains, Facebook quickly launched its own open platform, and at the same time, it avoided many detours that overseas websites had taken.

In the future, Domestic Holdings Group plans to establish more extensive cooperation with Facebook so that both parties can benefit more from the cooperation. "

Christina glanced sideways at everyone, "Do you need me to explain further?"

Xiaoquan, Andrew, and Principal John all nodded. Even without Kristina's detailed explanation, they were firmly on Xia Jingxing's side.

Not to mention that Xiaoquan and Andrew have been good friends for many years. As an angel investor, President John also made a lot of money from Facebook. The Stanford University Endowment Fund invested in several funds of Vision Capital, which made even more money. It has reached an astronomical figure, enough to push Principal John's reputation to another level.

Publicly and privately, Principal John needed to maintain his friendship with Xia Jingxing.

The shareholder representatives of Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley remained silent because the CEOs of the two investment banks had warned them in advance that the transaction would be released.

This time Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley will also participate in the acquisition of Yahoo, and they can earn a lot from investment advisory fees and equity pledge interest.

As long as you make money, nothing is a problem.

The shareholder representatives sent by Microsoft also received instructions and remained silent throughout the process.

"Daerun, I don't quite understand why you want to invest in Ahri."

The speaker was a bald man, Yuri Milner, the founder of DST.

He spread his hands and said in a very gentle tone: "At present, Facebook has just made a profit and does not have enough funds on hand to complete this acquisition, so it can only complete the transaction by issuing new shares.

This will dilute our existing shareholders!

We invested in Facebook for the prospect of the world's largest social platform, not to indirectly hold shares in a Chinese e-commerce platform.

If you are very optimistic about Ahri, DST can cooperate with Vision Capital privately, but Facebook investment is not necessary, right? "

Xia Jingxing looked at Milner with a smile on his face. The latter had an open face, as if he had no interest in Ahri.

Xia Jingxing didn't bother to expose it and said with a smile: "Facebook can cooperate with Haihai Holdings, why can't it cooperate with Ali?

Old shareholders should still remember that Facebook was the first to sell T-shirts on the platform. "

Principals Andrew and John both nodded. They can testify that this is true.

Xia Jingxing continued: "Although Facebook is currently running blindly in the social and online advertising markets, future revenue growth has encountered a bottleneck and growth is weak. Do we have to look for a second growth curve?

Some shareholders may wait until Facebook goes public to sell their shares, but what about other long-term investors?

Investors who are firmly optimistic about Facebook's development in the long term deserve more returns. "

Xia Jingxing had already talked about this, and Milner was completely silent. Could it be that he said that he planned to run away after the company went public? Although he did have such thoughts, there was no need to say it out loud.

However, he was really interested in Ahri.

Breyer, like Milner, is an institutional investor and places particular emphasis on equity dilution and rate of return.

However, he didn't want to fall out with Xia Jingxing because of this matter, so he thought for a while and said, "Then try to lower Ahri's valuation as much as possible! And Facebook's valuation is at least 40 billion US dollars, not even one cent less. "

Xia Jingxing looked at Brayer, smiled and said, "I have the same idea as you."

With most shareholders not objecting or remaining neutral, the tepid opposition of Breyer and Milner could not sway the final resolution.

Therefore, the board of directors' resolution to acquire Ali's equity was passed smoothly.

At the end of the meeting, all the shareholders stood up and left, leaving Xia Jingxing and Kristina alone in the room.

Kristina gave him a thumbs up, "Great! Looks like I'm going to lose this bet."

Xia Jingxing walked over and put his arms around her soft waist, putting his legs on the table, "Don't you ask me why I want to acquire Ahli's equity?"

Kristina pondered for a moment, "From what I know about you, it's definitely not an e-commerce business! At least it's not that simple!"

Then she leaned close to Xia Jingxing's ear and exhaled: "Is it right to increase the proportion of Facebook's assets in China? This is also the second growth curve!"

Xia Jingxing smiled and didn't answer, keeping everything in silence.