My Age of Investment

After the Yahoo matter was settled, Son did not rush back to Japan, but chose to continue to stay in the United States, because there was still an important thing in his heart that had not been completed, and he had to wait until it was completed before he could rest assured.

A few days later, Son Zhengyi called Xia Jingxing and formally proposed a negotiation request to invest in oil pipelines on behalf of SoftBank.

Under Xia Jingxing's arrangement, the pipeline management, which had recently been troubled by financing, had the first round of contact with the SoftBank team.

"Pre-money valuation of US$20 billion, financing of US$2 billion, post-money valuation of US$22 billion."

As soon as Luo Li, the current CEO of YouTube, spoke, Son’s blood pressure soared.

Baga, are you really taking yourself as a scapegoat?

Although in the eyes of the outside world, he spends money generously and readily, in fact, it is to create a persona of a top investor so that he can grab projects in the future. It does not mean that he does not regard money as money.

Sun Zhengyi turned his gaze to Xia Jingxing, who was standing beside him, with a certain inquiring intention. Is this how you treat your allies?

"Haha, Mr. Sun, the number of YouTube users has been clinging to Facebook's tail. Currently, the total number of registered users is only slightly less than Facebook, and has exceeded 500 million users. It is well-deserved as the world's largest video website.

Microsoft, Yahoo, Google, News Corporation and other giants have tried to challenge the status of YouTube, but they have all failed.

This is our moat and exclusive advantage, so after you invest in YouTube, you don’t have to worry about its future development. You only need to wait for the platform to grow bigger and bigger, and then look for suitable opportunities to exit. "

Xia Jingxing deliberately emphasized the word "appropriate opportunity". He believed that Sun Zhengyi understood what he was implying.

Of course, Masayoshi Son understood. The other party had hinted to him before that Facebook and YouTube would be reorganized in the future, and SoftBank's shareholding in YouTube would be converted into a shareholding in Facebook.

This is also an investment opportunity that Son Zhengyi has been thinking about for a long time.

SoftBank currently only holds a small stake in Facebook, which can only be said to be better than nothing. Of course, it is not particularly satisfactory. It has not even joined the board of directors, which is completely inconsistent with SoftBank's consistent investment style.

Sun Zhengyi pondered for a moment and replied: "I have been paying attention to the development of oil pipelines, and these days I have done some analysis with the team on the oil pipeline operation data collected.

We discovered a very important problem. It has been a few years since YouTube was established. There are more and more users, but the losses are increasing.

Today, few investment institutions in Silicon Valley and Wall Street can afford to support this gold-swallowing behemoth.

In the Internet industry, I am not bragging that I am the only person who can place billions of dollars in a single bet. Apart from you, Darren, I am probably the only one. "

Xia Jingxing smiled and said nothing. Sun Zhengyi was also a fox who had become a spirit and was not easy to fool.

It is indeed difficult to raise funds for oil pipelines now. The financing amount of several billion dollars has far exceeded the investment range of VC and falls within the target range of PE funds.

However, PE funds such as Blackstone like to buy real estate projects, and KKR is thinking about acquiring a certain company every day...

After counting the rounds and looking around the world, the only people who have the courage to invest billions of dollars in an Internet company that has suffered heavy losses are none other than myself and Masayoshi Son.

He himself will definitely not support oil pipelines anymore. Although he has the financial strength, the return on investment is not high, and it also involves a series of troubles such as excessive shareholding and withdrawal.

Therefore, SoftBank has almost become the best and most ideal financing target.

If you don’t choose SoftBank, you can only hold a bowl and go door to door to beg for alms.

It’s not necessarily that you can’t raise capital, it’s just that shareholders with little money and many things to do will be in trouble when they come in.

Compared with those unreliable institutions, as long as the company can make money, Masayoshi Son's support for the management and founders has always been well-known and much more reliable.

"If external institutional investors are really in trouble, our internal shareholders can still raise some funds to support the oil pipeline for one or two years, and then when things turn around, there will be no need for external financing. In other words, this is likely to be the oil pipeline's It’s the last round of financing.”

Son's silence is a hint to himself that in a year or two, Facebook will merge with YouTube after it goes public. Relying on Facebook's own profits and secondary market channels, it will be easy to maintain an YouTube channel.

In other words, this is your last chance to invest in YouTube and increase your Facebook stake in the future.

Thinking of this, Sun Zhengyi felt helpless towards Xia Jingxing's bundling behavior.

Unless he chooses to give up, he will not be able to escape the fate of being brutally stabbed by Xia Jingxing.

"With a pre-money valuation of US$10 billion, I will invest US$5 billion!"

Masayoshi Son showed his courage. Now that he has decided to invest, he should invest more, so that he can exchange for as many shares of Facebook as possible in the future.

Hearing the conditions offered by Masayoshi Son, Luo Li and the oil pipeline management present were very tempted. The valuation was ranked second, and the most important thing was US$5 billion!

With this money, YouTube will not be short of money for its expansion and development in the next three to four years, and they are even confident that the company will be profitable...

Well, it may not be possible. At most, it can break even or be infinitely close to break even.

Xia Jingxing ignored the expectant looks from Luo Li and others and said calmly: "It is impossible to raise so much money at once. It is worthless and not in line with the interests of existing shareholders."

Son Zhengyi smiled: “Generally speaking, startup companies raise funds once a year, or even once every six months.

Each round of financing dilutes the proportion of equity in a small amount, thereby obtaining a development fund, which can be spent within half a year or a year, and the valuation can be doubled, tripled or even more.

Then, continue small-scale financing at doubled valuation...

Again and again, this is indeed in the interest of existing shareholders.

But with the current situation of the oil pipeline, the annual losses will probably double in the future.

Last year we only lost a few hundred million U.S. dollars. This year it may be more than a billion U.S. dollars, and the year after next it may reach more than 20 billion U.S. dollars.

To be honest, if it hadn’t been for your sincere invitation, Darren, I probably wouldn’t have invested in oil pipelines. The risk is too great. I don’t know how much money I would have to invest to cross the break-even line.

With these US$5 billion, the oil pipeline can develop with peace of mind for two or three years, quietly waiting for the emergence of a new machine. "

"Fif billion US dollars is too much. The most I can accept is US$2 billion, and the valuation is at least US$18 billion."

Sun Zhengyi shook his head slightly, "The current YouTube is not worth half of Facebook.

It’s not a gap between users, but a gap between business models and future development prospects.

If YouTube is now profitable like Facebook, I will fully accept your conditions.

But the oil pipeline business model has not been fully proven. At this stage, the most I can accept is a valuation of US$10 billion.

If SoftBank's investment amount is reduced, the valuation will need to be reduced proportionally, such as a pre-money valuation of US$8 billion and a financing amount of US$4 billion. "

Luo Li and a group of senior executives didn't interrupt. They watched the big boss and Son bargaining with each other. From time to time, they also said some riddles, such as "waiting for a turn" and "change", which they couldn't understand at all.

After talking for several hours, Xia Jingxing and Son Masayoshi finally reached a framework agreement. Based on the pre-money valuation of US$12 billion, SoftBank invested US$3 billion in the oil pipeline and obtained 20% of the shares. The specific details will still be discussed between the two teams.

For example, Masayoshi Son insists on a supplementary clause that the oil pipeline will be listed within three years, or it will be sold to a listed company after a curved listing. If this cannot be achieved, SoftBank has the right to require the previous round of shareholders and management of the oil pipeline to carry out equity buybacks, and A certain amount of interest will also be added.

This was because he was worried that Xia Jingxing's words were unfounded and he had to put his promises on paper.

Xia Jingxing is generally satisfied with this plan. The savings of 3 billion US dollars will be enough to use the oil pipeline for two to three years, and it will be enough to support Facebook to take over the business again after it completes its listing.

The pre-money valuation of US$12 billion is not an underestimate. After all, Gates’ last round of investment only had a pre-money valuation of US$6 billion, a full double.

Seeing Xia Jingxing nod, Sun Zhengyi finally showed a satisfied smile.

They have made internal estimates that Facebook and YouTube will continue their current development trajectory. 20% of YouTube's equity can be exchanged for at least 5% of Facebook's equity. Plus the original one-point equity, SoftBank should be able to negotiate with Axel. Arm wrestling, becoming the largest institutional shareholder in Facebook after the founder.

This is no longer about drinking soup together, but eating meat together.

Since the investment stage is relatively late, he does not expect a return rate of hundreds or even thousands of times, but he is looking forward to the absolute value of the return on this investment. It is not impossible to think of tens of billions of dollars.