Rebirth of the Internet Overlord

Silicon Valley was turbulent in early November, and for Wall Streeters who value news, they were most concerned about the recent Skype acquisition and the listing of Bing.

Skype was the second large-scale acquisition that caused a lot of sensation after the Internet winter. The buyer was eBay, the originator of e-commerce, which originally created a miracle like PayPal with US$1.8 billion in 2002.

Then it used a purchase price of US$5.6 billion to create a 21-year-old Internet giant.

However, among eBay's two consecutive transactions, only PayPal seems to be integrated with eBay and developing well.

Skype, which was also acquired, is now on the table for trading due to poor operations.

By the way, Skype has not experienced explosive growth for three years since founder Ning Zimo left. It seems to have 300 million users, but it has lost the momentum that the founder had when he led the company.

But for eBay, the acquisition of Skype was also a failure. Because their purpose was to integrate Skype users into e-commerce, but in the end, among the 300 million users, not enough people converted.

eBay users and bring revenue to eBay.

According to reliable sources, due to years of unfavorable development of Skype, the company's headquarters was even forced to move from Luxembourg in Europe to San Jose, California, adjacent to eBay's headquarters in February 2007.

But looking at the current situation, it is a foregone conclusion that eBay will abandon Skype. The only question is at what price this fait accompli transaction will be finally completed. And how will the Rothschild consortium, as the buyer, operate after acquiring Skype?

That's what people care about.

You know, the Rothschild consortium that acquired Skype is an Internet upstart that only emerged this year.

In July 2008, they acquired MySpace, which was worth $3 billion that year, for $600 million.

At that time, everyone was still curious about how MySpace would operate in their hands. Now that they have stepped forward to acquire Skype, many people still don’t understand that they are planning to integrate Skype and MySpace for development.

Ever since, the Skype acquisition has been linked to the integrated development of MySpace.

Everyone is waiting for this result to come and see if another social giant will be born after Facebook.

At the same time, people are also waiting to see how Facebook, MySpace's strong rival, will react to the Skype acquisition.

Because these two Internet social opponents will definitely confront each other one day in the future.

Regardless of victory or defeat, their every move will affect the future direction of capital operations!

As for Bing…

"MySpace is coming in force, and this time it seems that it is going to acquire Skype and turn around to deal with Facebook."

Ning Zimo closed the newspaper with a smile and said to Lu Qi, "You don't know yet, but this is my old opponent. They have been targeting me a few years ago, and this time they are fully prepared.

You're going to have a head-on confrontation with me."

"A head-on confrontation?" Lu Qi's eyes widened and he was stunned for a while before laughing, "Where did this blind opponent come from? How could they choose this time to attack? If they knew Bing Ying

If it’s ours, will they still put so much effort into Skype?”

Ning Zimo put the newspaper back on the table and said, "You naturally know the importance of search engines because you are there, but the number of users of Skype is there. Mastering users is equivalent to mastering user habits. It just needs to work on user integration.

.

Perhaps, it is this kind of thinking that has shaped their actions. Today, Skype is an important piece that they must win. And the acquisition is something that cannot be hidden, so it is naturally equivalent to acquiescing to a head-on confrontation with me."

"Well," Lu Qi shrugged, "I'm looking forward to seeing their reaction after Bing goes public. After all, it seems that Facebook is their direct competitor. But Facebook's major shareholders hold a majority of Bing's shares.

It will be the greatest oppression for them."

"When did you learn how to fart with rainbows?" Ning Zimo smiled bitterly, "This habit is not good."

"Tell the truth." Lu Qi smiled nonchalantly.

This made Ning Zimo even more helpless, "I feel like I have brought bad luck to everyone around me."

After a pause, Ning Zimo said, "Okay, back to the topic, let's talk about preparations for listing. After all, the NASDAQ Global Selected Market (NGSM) is not that integrated.

Only if we are fully prepared, Bing’s listing will be foolproof.”

Although in 2020 in the previous life, the U.S. stock market, which had been rising for 10 consecutive years, suffered the biggest setback in more than 20 years, which directly led to the activation of the circuit breaker mechanism for the three major U.S. securities markets for the second time in history.

But in 2008, the U.S. stock market is still a dividend period for listed companies. With the help of funds from the U.S. capital market, the Bing ecosystem will be able to obtain sufficient development funds. The Emperor Penguin Group can focus on its domestic development in China.

Currently, the capital market that Bing America wants to log into is the Nasdaq Global Select Market, which is the highest-standard market segment in the stock market. As the highest-standard market segment, NGSM also has the most stringent issuance requirements.

Ning Zimo’s main purpose of coming to the United States this time is to handle important pre-IPO matters as Bing’s largest shareholder.

The topic was brought back to the topic by him, and Lu Qi immediately adjusted to working status.

"Lawyer Charles from Allen & Overy Law Firm who specializes in large-scale stock listings is waiting in the living room. At present, they have already prepared a considerable part of the preparation work. He will report the specific details to you."

"OK."

Lu Qi made a call, and within a minute there was a knock on the door.

The man named Charles was followed by two people. When they saw Ning Zimo sitting on the sofa, their eyes suddenly widened.

Without waiting for Lu Qi's introduction, the visitor quickly came forward after being surprised, "If I'm not mistaken, you are Ning?"

"Yes." Ning Zimo stood up, stretched out his hand to hold it with Charles, and said with a smile, "Speaking of which, I do have a connection with Europe. When we started Bing, we were built in Europe. Now even though our Bing is listed in the United States,

Shan still found a European law firm.”

“We at Allen & Overy Law Firm have always been very experienced in handling listing business,”

Although he spoke arrogantly, Charles' chin, which was still high when he stood at the door, tightened slightly. After holding Ning Zimo's hand, his demeanor became much more humble, "It's just that we never expected that the listing news would be announced on Wall Street.

There are rumors that the shareholder behind Bing Company is actually you."

As the head of Allen & Overy Law Firm responsible for Bing's pre-IPO preparations, Charles has reviewed Bing's information in detail.

Bing has been developing steadily and rapidly since the day it landed in the United States, but the founder behind the company has always been a mystery.

The largest shareholder of this company, which is currently valued at nearly 100 billion in the capital market, is from a Cayman Islands company called Victory Investment Company. Before 2004, this company called Victory Investment Company monopolized 70% of Bing.

shares.

At the end of 2004, Bing internally issued additional employee shares and equity pools, and the shares of Victory Investment Company were diluted to 58%. After Bing acquired Google in 2008, the Google team and Sequoia Company each added 5% of the shares, and the equity of Victory Investment Company was

Dilute to 53%.

This year, Bing will be listed on the U.S. stock market.

Based on Nasdaq's 25% outstanding share ratio, the victorious company's equity will be diluted to 42%.

At the same time, in response to the U.S. stock market's requirements for listed companies to disclose shareholders, the offshore company - Victory Investment, which is also destined to be the largest shareholder, must also comply with the rules of the U.S. stock market.

Long before he came, Bing CEO Lu Qi had already revealed to him that he would meet with Bing's largest shareholder today.

But Charles never imagined that the largest shareholder behind this Internet search overlord was actually Ning Zimo!

This Internet giant who became famous around the world with the sale of Skype for US$5.6 billion in 2004 is actually the founder of Bing!

This means that as long as Bing goes public, the Internet giant from China will immediately have the capital to become the world's richest man!

Bing's confidential information flashed through his mind, and Charles suddenly thought of the possible uproar during the public announcement period, so he couldn't restrain his suspicions and showed his compliments.

But Ning Zimo, who let go of his hand, nodded very calmly, "I founded Bing in the first place, but the specific promotion work was done by our team led by Mr. Lu. Therefore, the biggest contributors are them."

Ning Zimo spoke calmly, but Lu Qi stood up straight after hearing his words.

At least, everything they do is within the vision of the founder.

Seeing that Lu Qi was in high spirits, Ning Zimo smiled.

"Charles, could you please give us an update on the progress of Bing's preparations for listing."

"OK,"

When Charles saw that Ning Zimo was not moved by his compliment, he thought more highly of him.

After all, although the man in front of me is young, he is also very accomplished. Especially in June and August this year, the iPhone Zero mobile phone released by Yugong Technology, a subsidiary of Emperor Penguin, has become famous all over the world in just a few months.

As for Bing, a company that is already well-known on the Internet, the person at the helm is still keeping a low profile. From this, it seems that the young man in front of him certainly has some tricks and tricks.

Moreover, the more he came into contact with the information opened by Bing, the more he marveled at how healthy the development of this company was.

Taking the information from the assistant on the side, Charles admired in his heart and quickly turned to work.

"In 2006, Nasdaq announced that it would divide stocks into three levels. The listing of Bing on the Nasdaq Global Select Market has the most stringent requirements. However, we are currently doing all the preparatory work for Bing in the early stage of listing.

The review has been completed.

Overall, Bing is the healthiest IPO company we have ever taken over. Importantly, during our combing process, we found that there was nothing that did not meet any requirements."

Charles took a deep look at Ning Zimo as he spoke. Although the major shareholder in front of him was quite young, he had a feeling that Bing's good listing conditions were created by this young major shareholder.

Seeing the admiration mixed with confusion in Charles's eyes, Ning Zimo just looked at him lightly.

In his previous life, Luban Technology had been preparing for three years before going public. In order to supplement various data, after Goldman Sachs injected capital at that time, he withdrew from development and followed up on all the details. Naturally, he remembered that he was not prepared enough.

pain.

In this life, with all his experience, he has already paved the way for Bing to go public.

In fact, as early as when Nasdaq released its stock classification system in 2006, Ning Zimo had already read their requirements for listed companies.

Originally, Bing had allocated 20% of the shares to employees and equity pools in 2004. The addition of Google and Sequoia in 2008 allowed Nasdaq to first meet the conditions for 450 shareholders of listed companies to hold at least 100 shares.

.

As for other rigid conditions related to initial issuance, such as pre-tax income, shareholder equity, total assets and other conditions, Bing can meet the requirements without any threshold.

The reason why he did not participate in the preparations for Bing's listing was because he knew early on that finding any law firm or financial audit company would be just a formality.

Bing may become the company that takes the shortest time from preparing to go public to actually going public, but all of this is just applying the caution of the previous life to this life.

Looking at the curious Charles, Ning Zimo still smiled and said, "It seems that our team is quite healthy for Bing's operation."

"Yes,"

"What's the next step?"

"All the preparations are in place, all that's left is to find three stock issuers."

"Oh..." Ning Zimo thought for a while and said, "Anli Law School should have corresponding connections in this area. I think that if you can mediate this matter, it should be completed successfully."

Seeing Ning Zimo squinting his eyes slightly as he spoke, and casting his reserved gaze, Charles suddenly felt that the person opposite him did not look like a young man in his 20s.

After working in the industry for a long time, Charles felt for the first time what a "city mansion" would actually feel like.

And this age gap made Charles feel a little nervous.

Facing this emotion that he hadn't seen for a long time, Charles took a while to get used to it.

After a pause, he nodded and said, "Ning, our Anli Law Firm does have connections in this field. If you need it, we will introduce it to you."

Ning Zimo nodded slightly, "Well, all the work on Bing's listing will be handled by Anli Law Firm. The docking with stock issuers will also be coordinated by you. So, I am now concerned about Bing's listing.

There are only two requirements."

"you say,"

"First, Bing must go public quickly, because it is related to our company's overall strategy, as well as the pressure on our opponents and further competition."

Looking into Charles's eyes, Ning Zimo paused for a moment before saying word by word, "Due to the existence of competitors, I don't want to reveal the news that I am a shareholder of Bing before the public announcement period of Bing's listing."

opponent?

What kind of opponent?

Google was once a rival of Bing, but it has long been part of Bing, and everyone knows this.

As for Yahoo and Microsoft, which are ranked second in search engines, according to the perception spread in the industry, they do not pose any threat to Bing.

Looking at the serious Ning Zimo, Charles, who felt extremely mentally oppressed, suddenly began to worry about his opponent who was the head of the family across from him.