My Age of Investment

Time entered March, and after half a month of back-and-forth negotiations, the joint buyer group finally reached an acquisition agreement with Yahoo——

The largest acquisition in the Internet/media field since AOL merged with Time Warner in 2000 was completed at a total transaction consideration of US$33 per share, totaling US$47.5 billion.

At the hotel signing ceremony, Xia Jingxing, Ballmer, Jerry Yang, Jack Ma, and Kristina stood on the stage to shake hands and take photos.

The flashlights in the audience kept lighting up, and hundreds of reporters from all over the world focused their attention on the five people on the stage.

Especially Xia Jingxing, even if he stood at the very edge, he could not hide his dazzling light.

Negotiations between Microsoft and Yahoo reached an impasse several times and progress was slow. Until half a month ago, Vision Capital suddenly led Ali and Facebook to join Microsoft's acquisition camp and form a joint buyer group. Things suddenly turned around!

Most people thought that such a large-scale deal might take two to three months or even longer after arduous negotiations to be finalized. Unexpectedly, it only took half a month to conclude.

You know, Microsoft has been talking for a month before this, but there has been no progress.

The media is now most concerned about the details of the entire transaction and what critical role Darren Xia played in it.

If nothing else, the new technology upstarts and financial giants will have another acquisition expert title on their heads.

After the group photo ended, the five people returned to their seats and entered the reporter's question period.

Unable to hold back, the reporter left the protagonists Yang Zhiyuan and Ballmer behind and was the first to ask Xia Jingxing a question.

"Darren, how much did Vision Capital invest in this transaction? Are you only interested in Ahri's equity assets? I heard that it was your personal friendship with Jerry that accelerated the completion of the entire transaction?"

The reporter kept firing like a barrage of cannons, and also asked the thoughts of the people present.

Xia Jingxing glanced at the four smiling people beside him, picked up the microphone and said to the reporter: "Okay, you have a lot of questions, and you didn't ask the right person, but I'll answer them. But remind the reporters behind me. But ask the right person, we only played a small role in this transaction..."

Because Yahoo and Microsoft are both listed companies, the transaction details will be disclosed to the SEC in detail later, so Xia Jingxing did not hide anything and truthfully revealed all the transaction details.

"...Yahoo's overall price is US$47.5 billion, and its 26% stake in Ali is worth US$6.5 billion."

"All Yahoo's main businesses, including Yahoo's mailbox, search, portal, etc., will be merged into Microsoft. Microsoft will bear a transaction consideration of US$41 billion, half in cash and half in equity, leaving Yahoo shareholders to choose."

"Envision Capital invested US$2.5 billion in cash and increased its stake in Ali by 10%. It is currently Ali's largest institutional shareholder, holding 33% of the shares."

"Facebook issued an additional 6.43% of new shares in exchange for 11% of Ali's shares, becoming the third largest institutional shareholder after Vision Capital and SoftBank."

"Ari's management invested US$1.25 billion to acquire 5% of Yahoo's shares."

…

The reporters listened attentively, and some people quickly calculated in their minds, and soon came up with the valuation of Ali at US$25 billion and Facebook at US$427.5.

Regarding this valuation result, most American reporters present had questions about how a Chinese e-commerce company could compare to Facebook, which is at its peak.

Strictly speaking, this is a bit high and the stock exchange is not worth it.

However, Xia Jingxing did not give the reporter a chance to continue asking questions. After quickly answering the details of the transaction, he handed the microphone to Ballmer, who was smiling.

This old man has been quite cooperative with his work in the past half month. There is no need to steal others' limelight.

The reporter's attention soon shifted to Ballmer. Microsoft invested US$41 billion and was indeed the well-deserved protagonist of this deal.

Ballmer first affirmed Yahoo's past brilliant achievements and the contribution of Jerry Yang and other founders and management to Yahoo, and then talked about Microsoft's subsequent arrangements for Yahoo.

"...We will retain Yahoo, an Internet brand with countless honors, but Yahoo's online advertising, search engines and other resources will be integrated into Microsoft."

"Are you ready for Google's fierce counterattack? Hahaha, Google should be careful. Microsoft plus Yahoo, looking at the global Internet market, are not afraid of any challenger!"

"Yes, the original acquisition price was US$31 per share, and the total transaction consideration was US$44.6 billion. The increase of US$2.9 billion also represents our recognition of Yahoo."

…

After asking Ballmer, reporters soon began to ask questions to Jerry Yang.

"...Yahoo has encountered a series of challenges in recent years, and we have tried to make some changes, but they have not had much effect."

“Instead of dwelling on past achievements, it’s better to learn to let go and give Yahoo a new chance.”

"I believe that Microsoft and Mr. Ballmer will definitely bring some positive changes to Yahoo."

"No, no, no, I'm not frustrated at all. On the contrary, I think I made the right choice."

"Darren is indeed a good friend of mine and has given me some suggestions, but he is not the "Mr. Key" as everyone imagined. Mr. Key is our shareholder of Yahoo, and it was a decision we made together."

"Where will we go next? Please allow me to keep it a secret first. Everyone will know soon, hahahaha~"

…

When faced with reporters' questions or compliments, Jerry Yang responded calmly and calmly. It seemed that he had completely overcome the shadow of Yahoo's failure, the pressure to sell himself, and the psychological baggage.

Kristina also received a lot of questions from reporters, most of which were about her motivations for acquiring Ahri.

"We will not enter the Chinese market for the time being, but Facebook has been preparing for this. We are very concerned about that land with rapid economic development. Counting Ali, we have already invested in two Chinese Internet companies, both in their respective fields. The outstanding ones will consider investing in more outstanding Chinese companies in the future."

"We will not build an e-commerce platform, but we will consider providing richer services to Facebook's 600 million users."

"Facebook's IPO plan has been postponed. Perhaps when the stock market improves, the IPO plan will be restarted."

…

A group of financial reporters from China kept asking Jack Ma questions.

"How does it feel to participate in this kind of cross-border merger and acquisition? Hahaha, it's great! I believe this experience will bring some insights to Ali Baba and move firmly towards internationalization."

"We very much welcome the investment from Vision Capital and Facebook. You should all know that Mr. Xia and I have always cooperated very well, and he is also very supportive of the work of our management."

“Vision Capital and Facebook do hold a total of 44% of the shares, which is close to half, but they are two companies. Now the management team holds 36% of the shares. We are the biggest ones with veto power and security control. Shareholders, please stop raising these unprofessional questions, lest foreign friends see our jokes."

…

After the acquisition signing ceremony and press conference concluded successfully, Yahoo also held a cocktail party in the evening.

Xia Jingxing held a tall wine glass and accepted the compliments and flattery from the surrounding people.

No matter how modest and low-key he is, he cannot conceal the outstanding performance of Vision Capital in the entire transaction, and even its PE funds have become famous.

People no longer regard Envision Capital as a hedge fund giant, and they have been labeled as a PE rookie. At least they know that this company also engages in mergers and acquisitions!

The reason why it is called a rookie is because this transaction of Yahoo was not led by Vision Capital. The investment amount of 2.5 billion US dollars is just water in front of top transaction cases of tens of billions or hundreds of billions of dollars.

Therefore, Envision Capital still needs to go a long way to catch up with Blackstone and KKR in the PE field.

However, at the end of the night, Xia Jingxing still received a bunch of business cards in his pocket. They were all brokers and pimps who wanted to recommend projects to Vision Capital.

This attitude is a bit low, but as long as the introduction succeeds in a big deal, the commission is calculated in tens of millions or hundreds of millions of dollars.

Thinking of this, Xia Jingxing suddenly felt a little annoyed, forgetting to ask Gates for the agency fee!

For a US$47.5 billion order, receiving US$475 million is not too much, right?

Ballmer came from a distance and clinked glasses with Xia Jingxing as he approached, "Darren, it's a pleasure to work with you! We'll have the opportunity to work together again."

Seeing the proud Ballmer, Xia Jingxing gave up the idea of ​​asking for agency fees. The old man was a miser.

He was thinking, after two years, will the old man settle the score with him?

This is really not that he dug a hole for Microsoft. It can only be said that Microsoft dug the hole itself and he just pushed it.

It takes a little effort, but it doesn’t matter!

Ballmer didn't feel at all that he had lost the watermelon, but picked up a sesame seed. He chatted with Xia Jingxing for a few words and then left.

The old man held his head high and seemed to be in a good mood, perhaps even dreaming of beating Google.

Xia Jingxing was about to find Kristina and go home with him when a short figure suddenly stood in front of him.

"Darren, congratulations on making a good deal!"