Rebirth of the Age of Wealth

Chapter 381 Investing in Yahoo

The newspaper Li Weidong read was a media with an English background. The newspaper quoted a sentence from the Financial Times, "This is the darkest day in China's financial history."

Of course, they may not know that in the foreseeable future, this darkest day will also happen to them, and the collapse of Barings Bank is not far away.

Although Li Weidong no longer holds put options on the Nikkei Index, he still pays attention to the Nikkei Index. After a small rebound, it has been in a continuous downward trend recently.

Although he also regretted closing his position too early, otherwise he would have made half as much profit, but he also knew in his heart that if he were allowed to continue to build positions and continue to speculate, he would not have the motivation.

But looking at the decline of the Nikkei Index, Li Weidong knew that Barings Bank would liquidate its position, probably within the next few days.

I wonder how the Financial Times will evaluate their local securities companies at that time, and whether they will use the extremely ironic term "darkest"!

You must know that compared with the 327 National Debt, the collapse of Barings Bank is more dramatic, more childish, and even less in line with a normal person's thinking logic.

A company in the financial industry, especially financial institutions with relatively high leverage such as investment banks and securities companies, takes risk control as its lifeline.

At least the most basic mistakes can't be made, and you can't put all your eggs in the same basket.

But Barings Bank was able to do such a thing, and in one fell swoop, it was not 80, but 800 million, per pound, and it went bankrupt.

Let the trading department and the clearing department be managed by the same person, without even monitoring. The daily financial statements are full of loopholes, but no one can see them.

The young general manager, even in prison, believed that the violations he committed should and could be stopped.

Although saying this is suspected of evading responsibility, it also reflects from the side that the internal risk management and control of this famous investment bank with a history of more than 200 years is in vain.

Li Weidong continued to read the newspaper. With the end and freeze of the national debt of 327, there will definitely be a series of subsequent accountability. This is not only a characteristic of China, but also the same all over the world.

Although the final decision has not yet been made, Li Weidong knows that everyone involved in this matter, whether they benefit or lose money, will not end well.

If you use feudal superstition to explain the 327 national debt, it is simply an evil obstacle contaminated by the plague, and whoever gets it will be unlucky.

Li Weidong doesn't pity these people. If we use the presumption of guilt, none of these people are clean.

When capital comes to the world, every pore is dripping with blood and filth, not to mention those who play with capital.

I just feel that it is a pity that China’s bond futures market, which was finally born, has fallen like this.

Moreover, who will follow the decline of the mighty Wanguo Securities? If Wanguo Securities does not do such a thing, with the speed of its development, it is estimated that it will really become China's Merrill Lynch.

After all, at this time, Wanguo Securities already had many branches overseas, while other domestic securities companies at the same time had not yet figured out the true meaning of investment banking.

Later, Wanguo Securities was merged with Shenyin of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to become Shenyin Wanguo, and later merged with Hongyuan Securities to become Shenwan Hongyuan. In short, it became more and more in decline.

Li Weidong wanted to get involved with Wanguo Securities, and he could also have a securities company under his banner, but he still didn't dare to get involved when he thought of the ways. It is estimated that Wanguo Securities is in the spotlight now, and whoever touches it will be unlucky.

Li Weidong closed the newspaper. There was no need to read other newspapers. They probably all reported on this aspect.

After all, Hong Kong Island is now under the rule of the British, and financial events are happening in the mainland. How could they miss this great opportunity for publicity?

They have to do their best to let everyone in Hong Kong know about this matter, so as to show that the mainland's financial market is still unreliable and not to have too high expectations.

Li Weidong did not wait too long. Within a few days, the central bank of England, the "Great Britain", announced that Barings Bank had lost more than one billion U.S. dollars due to operating errors and was insolvent and closed down.

When the news came out, it immediately caused a series of violent fluctuations in the financial world around the world. The Tokyo stock market plummeted, the London stock market plummeted, and the Dow Jones Index fell by 30%.

Li Weidong took the newspaper from a few days ago and compared it with today's newspaper. Although the things were similar, the reporting style was completely different.

One emphasizes artificiality and the other emphasizes system. This is a typical double standard.

Li Weidong laughed when he saw it, but public opinion is in the hands of others, what can you do.

Also on this day, in a relatively ordinary coffee shop in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, USA, two young men sat in the window seat, one of whom had a typical oriental face.

The two people looked anxious, looking at their watches from time to time, and frequently looking out the window, obviously waiting for someone.

"Yang, do you think Miss Fu will agree to our financing plan?" the foreigner asked the man with an oriental face.

"I can't say, but if he can take time to talk to us so quickly, I think we have a chance!" Yang Yuanzhi looked calm, thought for a moment, and then said.

"I think so. Three months ago when we had nothing, she was able to come up with 400,000 US dollars as start-up capital. Now she has no reason to disagree!"

Although the foreigner spoke loudly and confidently, his tone was somewhat unconfident, and he probably meant this to cheer himself up.

"David, actually we don't need to worry. Even if Ms. Fu doesn't agree with our financing plan, and Sequoia Capital, I can see that she is very interested in us."

"But no matter what, we must now expand capital to build our reputation, otherwise it will be difficult to maintain daily operations with existing income alone!"

Yang Yuanzhi could see David's lack of confidence. Yang Yuanzhi came from Baodao. Although he was a standard technical man and studied electrical engineering, he had a delicate mind.

Especially for Fu Xiaomin, who is also from China, Yang Yuanzhi has a natural intuition. He can feel the importance Fu Xiaomin attaches to their company, which only has a few people, in his words.

Chinese people have too many convoluted brains, which foreigners cannot compare with. Sometimes they will deliberately leave half of a sentence behind, or express certain ideas through their own actions.

Once you understand, you understand. Those who don’t know will never know.

Although David is a smart man, he does not understand the implicit culture of China, and naturally he does not understand the mysteries of it.

"Yang, I think if we have another 1 million US dollars, our popularity will be greater, there will be more users, our advertising business income will definitely be greater, and we will get rich soon!"

David and Yang Yuanzhi drank cheap coffee worth a few dollars and looked forward to a bright future.

Yang Yuanzhi rolled his eyes and saw two ladies walking out from under a Ford in the parking lot through the window. One of them was Fu Xiaomin they wanted to see this time.

Yang Yuanzhi looked at this beautiful lady, wearing a brown windbreaker, a light-colored dress underneath, and black high-heeled shoes, which accentuated her figure to the extreme, exuding the charm of an elite woman from the inside out.

His eyes were straight, and Yang Yuanzhi had a feeling of excitement from the first moment he saw this woman who was about the same age as him but had a strong aura.

He still remembered the first time they met, four months ago, when Fu Xiaomin took the initiative to approach them and was willing to provide them with a certain amount of funds for their business use.

This made Yang Yuanzhi and David overjoyed. They had already looked for multiple venture capital companies before, but none of them were interested in their free model.

Those investors have never invested in this kind of company. In the eyes of these investors, how can free things be profitable? This is simply a joke.

But Fu Xiaomin happened to appear, and she was like a beautiful angel who came to save them!

The negotiation between Fu Xiaomin and them was very simple. When they boldly proposed to exchange 20% of the equity for 400,000 US dollars, the angel agreed after a slight hesitation.

In an instant, Yang Yuanzhi felt that he had been trapped, not by money, but by Fu Xiaomin's aura and charm when he made this decision.

In this way, they received US$400,000 in financing, which they called angel financing.

Yang Yuanzhi and David walked to the door and greeted Fu Xiaomin and her assistant, an equally beautiful and capable American girl.

"Hello, Miss Fu, thank you for taking the time to meet us!" Yang Yuanzhi wanted to shake hands with Fu Xiaomin, but was a little reserved, let alone an American-style hug.

"Hello, Mr. Yang, there is no need to be so polite, but this meeting is much later than expected!" Fu Xiaomin took the initiative to shake hands with Yang Yuanzhi and David and said with a smile.

She had to be polite, because this was a company that Li Weidong was optimistic about. Among the hundreds of companies he had collected, Li Weidong personally named him for investment.

Fu Xiaomin has always believed in Li Weidong's vision, and even has a blind worship of Li Weidong. The future of the company Li Weidong is optimistic about will definitely be unlimited.

The last company Li Weidong named as an investor was Netscape. Now Netscape's users are increasing every day, its user accumulation is very impressive, and its market share is gradually increasing.

Perhaps in the near future, they will become the number one player in the browser market. Now that their investment has been successful, they just have to wait and see how much profit they can get.

"Miss Fu, I wonder what you mean by this?" Yang Yuanzhi and David looked at Fu Xiaomin with confused faces.

"What I mean is that your funds are being used too slowly. The financing money must be spent as soon as possible. To turn the funds into real users, you must seize the market as soon as possible, and you need explosive growth!"

This was not said by Fu Xiaomin, but by Li Weidong. If we develop step by step, why do we still need to raise funds? Financing is to make great strides forward and obtain the best results at the fastest speed.

After the money is spent, continue to raise funds and continue to seize the market, so that it can grow bigger and bigger like a snowball.

What capital plays is monopoly. It must be the first in this industry, otherwise how can it obtain excess returns.

"Miss Fu, we spent 400,000 yuan in three months, and we have experienced explosive growth. Our number of users has increased tenfold in three months. I think we are fast enough!" David was anxious after hearing this.

said.

"No, David, I think Miss Fu is right. We are still too conservative. It won't take long after our website is launched, there will definitely be many followers!"

"If we can't get more users in the shortest time, once a follower gets more resources than us, I think we may be eliminated!"

After Yang Yuanzhi pondered for a moment, he realized that Fu Xiaomin was right. The reason why they didn't dare to spend the four hundred thousand dollars quickly was because they lacked confidence in the future.

If they were confident, they might not have asked for half a million US dollars, but more, and they would have spent it faster.

The four of them sat around the coffee table, with the two technical men facing the two beauties. They were somewhat reserved, but thinking of the purpose of coming today, they could only force themselves to stay calm.

"Miss Fu, do you have any opinions on the preliminary financing plan we have made?" Yang Yuanzhi cheered up and asked.

"I have already read it, but I think your valuation of the company is too high. The valuation has increased five times in the past three months alone. I think my boss may not be able to accept it!"

"Ms. Fu, you should see it mentioned in our financing plan that although our valuation has increased five times in the past three months, our user base has increased tenfold!"

"This is an amazing growth. You can see the growth curve, almost exponential growth. The growth will be faster and faster. I believe that in the near future, our users will cover more than half of Internet users!"

"The revenue these users bring to us is definitely not five or ten times the revenue, so we think this valuation is very reasonable!"

Yang Yuanzhi spoke impassionedly about the speech he had memorized long ago, but he really didn't have much confidence in his heart.

Sequoia Capital, which is also a venture capital investor, only gave them a valuation of US$5 million. This company, which originally looked down on them, is suddenly optimistic about them.

But Yahoo has been targeted by Li Weidong. It’s hard to say whether Sequoia Capital will still have a chance. At least in the first few rounds of financing, Li Weidong will definitely not give away low-priced chips to others.

"Mr. Yang's 10% equity is worth one million US dollars. This is a bit of a joke. I know Sequoia Capital has contacted you, but the price he offered will never be so high!"

"And I would like to remind you that the contract stipulates that under the same conditions, Peking Capital has priority, so Sequoia Capital's bid should not be a secret to us. Of course, you can keep it secret until the negotiation is successful!"

Fu Xiaomin was unmoved by Yang Yuanzhi's speech, but smiled and said to them that they were the investment company that could give Yahoo the most appropriate valuation.

Yang Yuanzhi and David looked at each other and knew that Fu Xiaomin was such an easy person to deal with, but it was not in their interests to reveal Sequoia Capital's bid.

Capital has always been profit-seeking. For some newly listed technology companies, capital accounts for a large proportion of their equity, and often the founders only hold a small number of shares.

Therefore, capital is a double-edged sword, which can both expand territory and scratch itself.

Yang Yuanzhi looked at Fu Xiaomin and suddenly felt that he needed some manliness, not only for this financing, but also for a man's dignity in front of women.

"Ms. Fu, you should be able to see that our portal is globally hit and the most advanced. It has great investment value in itself, which is something other companies don't have!"

"And we have found a way to make a profit. We are growing very fast. Financing will definitely not be difficult. And I think this million US dollars will bring benefits to Ms. Fu a hundred times a thousand times or even more in the future. This is not a difficult choice.

question!"

Fu Xiaomin looked at Yang Yuanzhi's stubborn expression and suddenly felt that this kind of stubbornness was a bit cute. It seemed that he had also seen this kind of stubbornness that was not afraid of anything in Li Weidong.

"Please wait a moment, I need to make a call for instructions!" Fu Xiaomin thought for a while and said to Yang Yuanzhi and David. At the same time, he nodded to his assistant, the beautiful American...

Fu Xiaomin felt that she should call Li Weidong to report. This was not ultra vires. This was the authority granted to her by Zou Yi. The company named by Li Weidong could just report to him directly.

(End of chapter)