My Age of Investment

Xia Jingxing stayed in Silicon Valley for more than half a month.

During this period, I was mainly dealing with two matters: Vision Capital’s acquisition of Facebook employee options and the issuance of new shares into the option pool.

With the full cooperation of Abel and Kristina, both matters were handled well and came to a successful conclusion.

In the office, Abel was reporting to Xia Jingxing.

“The Equinox Fund spent US$3.4 billion to acquire Marvel, and then injected another US$600 million into Marvel, and spent another US$1 billion to acquire 2% of Facebook’s employee options.

In other words, our US$5 billion PE fund has exhausted all its bullets. "

Abel's tone was a little helpless. In the past, his authority within Vision Capital was very low, and he finally got an opportunity to show off his skills. As a result, the boss micro-managed and spent all the money in three strokes, five divided by two.

He didn't feel any resentment because of this. After all, Marvel and Facebook were both good targets, and not everyone had the opportunity to get involved.

Including Vision Capital, it was thanks to a group of well-established LPs that it was able to successfully invest in Marvel and Facebook.

Xia Jingxing saw Abel's reluctance, smiled and comforted him: "Although the 5 billion bullets have been used up, the Autumnal Equinox Fund can still borrow bullets!"

Abel immediately reacted and asked: "Pledge assets for financing?"

Xia Jingxing nodded. When acquiring Marvel, Vision Capital could have chosen a leveraged buyout, but in the end it chose to pay entirely with its own funds.

This was because Marvel had not yet begun to generate large-scale profits. If it directly chose to acquire debt, there might be internal resistance within the company.

Now that Marvel is in the pocket, the Marvel Universe plan is also unfolding in an orderly manner. I believe that the company's operating conditions will soon improve and its valuation will rise.

At that time, Vision Capital can mortgage Marvel's shares to obtain cash, and then use the money to invest in other mature companies to enrich the fund's investment portfolio.

Now the entire fund only holds two targets: Marvel and Facebook. The investment portfolio is a bit too monotonous and its risk resistance is also very low.

If it is a VC fund, it only invests in start-up companies, and it can hardly raise any money through mortgage equity financing.

PE funds invest in relatively mature companies with revenue and profits, and most of them are quasi-listed and listed companies, so PE funds can use some leverage.

In other words, Equinox Fund can use debt investment to hold tens of billions of dollars or more in assets with a net asset management scale of US$5 billion.

Of course, there is also a considerable risk in doing so, that is, the asset portfolio will depreciate in investment, or the entire fund will be overwhelmed because the debt interest rate is too high.

Without Xia Jingxing's guidance, Abel understood what to do next.

He asked again: "Darren, Vision Capital now holds a total of 19.77% of Facebook shares through two funds.

Among them, the Liqiu No. 2 Fund holds 17.77% of the shares and the Autumnal Equinox Fund holds 2%.

If Facebook completes its IPO with a market capitalization of US$100 billion in the future, wouldn’t our asset management scale increase by US$20 billion? "

Xia Jingxing did not answer Abel's question immediately, but thought quickly in his mind.

Almost all of the investment in the Autumn Equinox Fund came from blue-blood nobles on the East Coast. Even Ao Guanhai scraped together US$1 million to subscribe for fund shares.

Half of the Liqiu No. 2 fund shares belong to him personally, corresponding to 8.88% of Facebook shares.

At the same time, after being diluted by the issuance of 5% new shares, he personally still holds 26.29% of Facebook's shares.

In total, he personally holds 35.17% of Facebook's shares.

Even if the shares are diluted after the listing, about 30% of the shares should still be left.

This shareholding ratio is already quite high.

At the same time, he also let upstarts like Ao Guanhai, as well as the established political and business families on the east coast, take a sip of soup along with them, so that the interests of all aspects were taken care of.

Once Facebook goes public, it will inevitably receive great attention from the outside world and attract covetous attention from all parties, so he needs to prepare for a rainy day.

"Well, these two funds of Vision Capital that hold Facebook equity are all handed over to you to manage. The interest chain inside is very complicated. You must not mess it up."

Abel smiled and said: "I understand that the fund's return rate will satisfy those people."

Xia Jingxing nodded gently. In order for Facebook to be successfully listed, and for him to be able to reduce his stake at a high level after the listing, he must tie the interests of all parties with him.

For this, he also paid a high price.

However, these prices were acceptable. The Liqiu No. 2 Fund sold half of its fund shares, thereby obtaining a large amount of valuable funds for shorting subprime mortgages;

The 2% Facebook employee options acquired by Equinox Fund were purchased at a valuation of US$50 billion, and the return on investment will not be too high.

Abel chatted with Xia Jingxing for a while and then went out.

After a few minutes, a young white man in his twenties knocked on the door and walked in.

"Dylan, I didn't disturb your work, did I?"

The person coming was Adam DeAngelo, Facebook’s vice president of technology and an early employee of Facebook. He had worked with Xia Jingxing for several years.

"Adam, please sit down. I heard that you are resigning?"

"Yes, I came here specifically to say goodbye to you. Although I was not able to witness the bell ringing for Facebook's listing, I will miss those years of working together."

Xia Jingxing exchanged a few words with Adam and basically understood the reason for his resignation.

Without him, I have given too much!

Vision Capital spent US$1 billion, turning a large number of early Facebook employees into millionaires and multi-millionaires.

These people are relatively young. For example, the Adam in front of him is the same age as Xia Jingxing and is only twenty-four or five years old, but he has a net worth of tens of millions of dollars, all in cash.

Then work as a hammer worker! You must resign and enjoy a better life!

In recent times, many middle and senior managers like Adam DeAngelo have chosen to leave Facebook.

Naturally, Facebook also sent people to try to retain them, and Christina even personally came forward to try to retain a few people.

However, some people insist on leaving their jobs, and Facebook has no choice but to let them go.

Xia Jingxing asked with a smile: "Adam, do you plan to travel around the world next?"

Adam shrugged, "That's a good idea! After working hard for so many years, it's time to relax.

But after relaxing, I plan to start my own business. "

"Start a business? Do you have a specific business plan? I think Vision Capital can provide you with some support."

Adam smiled and said, "I came to you today with the same intention. I hope that I can get support from Vision Capital after I start my business.

We have worked together for many years and know each other well, which can save a lot of trust costs. "

Xia Jingxing nodded lightly, "That's right. I believe that people who come from Facebook will have a success rate in entrepreneurship no less than people from PayPal and Google."

Adam laughed loudly and then talked about his business plan, "I have always had a prototype of a business plan in my mind. I hope to build a community website that brings together celebrities and professionals from all walks of life, so that everyone can ask and answer questions to each other.

At the same time, the website introduces the SNS model, where users can follow each other and find like-minded people by answering questions, thus forming a good community discussion atmosphere. "

Xia Jingxing squinted his eyes slightly, he already knew what kind of website this was.

Quora, also known as the American version of Zhihu.

To be precise, it is Quora copied and imitated by Zhihu.

“I don’t plan to open the website to everyone in the early stage. I want to adopt an invitation registration system and first invite Silicon Valley celebrities and Internet practitioners to the website.

These people have a high level of knowledge and the questions and answers they discuss are of high quality.

Let the website form a small circle first, and then slowly think of ways to expand it.

Darren, I'd like to invite you to be the first celebrity on this site, is that okay? "

Adam looked at Xia Jingxing eagerly. As long as the famous Darren Xiadu joined the website, he could use this tiger skin to invite other Silicon Valley celebrities, thus making the website grow rapidly like a snowball.

Xia Jingxing pondered for a moment and then replied: "No problem, I agree! But after the website is built, Vision Capital wants to invest in you."

"Okay, then it's settled."

Adam stood up with a smile and held out his hand to Xia Jingxing.

Xia Jingxing stretched out his hand to shake it, and the deal was initially concluded.

In the long time he has been engaged in venture capital, this is the first time that Xia Jingxing has negotiated an investment so easily.

In fact, in this wave of mid-level and senior management resignations at Facebook, there are many people like Adam who choose to start their own businesses, and many of them have become famous.

However, many entrepreneurs who came from Facebook in previous lives had a bad relationship with Xiao Mazi.

Because Xiao Mazi, as the boss, not only refused to invest, but also copied other people's ideas.

Over time, Xiao Mazi's reputation was ruined.

Xia Jingxing was different. He was much more tolerant and generous than Xiao Mazi.

If there was an opportunity to form a "Facebook entrepreneurial mafia" like PayPal, he would not miss it.

:,!