Reinventing the Millennium

In the first half of December, group buying websites appeared in major cities across the country, and the word "group buying" became a hit.

Among them, according to the data seen by Fang Zhuo, Beijing has the most group buying activities, followed by Shanghai, followed by Pengcheng, Yangcheng, Zhengzhou, Wuhan and other cities.

He thought this was very interesting. He originally thought that Shencheng would take the lead. After all, Lei Jun’s trial operation of rice dumplings was based here as the city with the greatest strength. Unexpectedly, when the market trend emerged, everyone chose the capital as the starting point.

Yixin's circle of friends is still a grayscale test, and the plan is to digest new users after the Spring Festival before launching it in one fell swoop. However, Fang Zhuo and his surrounding acquaintances have used this slightly private function in advance.

On the evening of December 16, Fang Zhuo posted a message on his WeChat Moments, saying that he thought the city distribution of group buying and the performance in Beijing were interesting.

Later, he posted a second update, trying to analyze the reasons for this situation.

Wang Fengyi commented on the news: Actually, it’s nothing else. Jingye has been giving money so much recently. Everyone knows it and goes there. IDG has invested a lot of money.

Before Fang Zhuo replied, Xiong Xiaoge directly replied to Wang Fengyi in the dynamic comment: Why do you always care about us IDG when you have nothing to do? We are not betting blindly.

Wang Fengyi mocked: Oh, isn’t it time to ask me to vote on Zhihu? Isn’t it time to lower your toast and call me China Buffett?

Xiong Xiaoge counterattacked: Who can take the "Chinese Buffett" on the wine table seriously? No way? No way? Are you, Mr. Wang, serious?

When Fang Zhuo answered the phone and then opened Yixin, the two of them replied to each other about ten times on their own feeds. He was dumbfounded. They also succeeded in making the number of likes on the feeds break through to a record high. Everyone was watching the two major investors. of mutual hostility.

"Hey, hey, why did you delete it? I was watching it very interestingly."

As soon as Fang Zhuo deleted the news, Su Wei, who was sitting next to him, pounced on him.

"Let them quarrel by themselves. I also want to see what everyone thinks. It's all gone." Fang Zhuo shook his head. What's the point of the two of them arguing.

Su Wei was very sorry. The quarrel between these two people was so interesting.

She scrolled through her mobile circle of friends, thinking about the trigger of the quarrel, and suddenly asked: "This time, venture capital investors and entrepreneurs are really crazy. Everyone is investing and recruiting people desperately, and they all want to take a chance on this." The market, hey, if this was the point when you started a business, what would you do?"

"Yeah, it's really a good time. Investors are so irrational, tsk tsk." Fang Zhuo sighed, then pondered, "If I start a group buying business during this period..."

Su Wei watched President Fang Da sit up straight unconsciously. Complex expressions such as sincerity, sharpness, cunning, and sincerity flashed across his face. She felt that the swords and swords that she had walked in the world in the past few years were condensed in this short moment. His expression changed.

Fang Zhuoran was fascinated for a while before speaking, and said slowly: "When I start a group buying business, of course I put the rights of users first, conduct orderly word-of-mouth competition, actively communicate with investors, and strive for their capital investment and trust."

Su Wei gave a thumbs up and praised from the bottom of her heart: "Mr. Fang, be careful!"

It was just me, my secretary, and the driver in the car. Who were we kidding?

She looked at her phone and posted a message on Moments, posing a hypothesis: If Fang Zhuo started a business from scratch in the group buying market, do you think he could break out of the fierce market competition?

Sun Qi, vice president of e-commerce, commented: Just based on Mr. Fang’s name, investors have to come to him with money.

Su Wei quickly added: He didn't become famous, he started from scratch. Do you understand?

This hypothesis was interesting, and it quickly attracted Xiong Xiaoge and Wang Fengyi, who were engaged in a 1V1 voice exchange.

Xiong Xiaoge: What a guy! If he starts doing group buying now, I won’t bring 6 companies to surround him, I will bring 17 venture capital companies to surround him!

Wang Fengyi: Isn’t this Guan Gong fighting Qin Qiong? There is no doubt that just like I still firmly supported Mr. Fang when Xiong Xiaoge led the seven major factions to besiege Hang Lung 23, I will still invest money in him this time.

Weibo King: Group buying is very popular, Mr. Fang is here to do this... By leveraging the model of both ends, Mr. Fang may be able to create a giant company.

Yu Hong: Ha, I can imagine his sincere look!

Su Wei turned around and made a request: "President Fangda, give me a sincere face."

Fang Zhuo immediately looked sincere.

Su Wei sighed, don't say it, hey, you really don't say it.

Fang Zhuo asked sincerely: "What's wrong?"

Su Wei showed the interface of her mobile phone to the man in front of her who could freely express her sincerity.

Fang Zhuo took a closer look and saw the lively atmosphere mixed with yin and yang and slander. When he looked more closely, he saw two words written all over the screen - Approval.

He shook his head slightly and didn't take it seriously.

But the circle of friends is said to be private. In fact, the circle of friends currently being tested is indeed quite private.

However, there is a person like Xiong Xiaoge who works on Zhihu. Instead of forwarding screenshots of the Moments and the comments below, he re-edited this question and posted it on Zhihu as a fun question.

If Mr. Fang were doing group shopping...

This question caused some discussion, but not many answers yet. On the other side of the Hong Kong stock market, there was suddenly information disclosure from Fang Zhuo. As one of the major shareholders of Morningstar, he increased his holdings to 12.6%.

Originally, this information did not cause too much splash. After all, Mr. Fang had a lot of assets in his hands, so it was not strange to increase his holdings of a stock.

However, on the second day after the information was disclosed, Morningstar Semiconductor issued an announcement that turned the matter into a mystery.

Morningstar said it will release a second-half performance forecast on December 21.

It's not a quarterly report, an interim report, or an annual report. A performance forecast for the next six months suddenly appears. This is rare, but the release time of this forecast is too close to the time when Fang Zhuo increased his holdings.

According to the practice of Hong Kong stocks, major shareholders and senior executives of listed companies will try to avoid stock transactions during the sensitive period before the release of results to avoid suspicion of insider trading.

This "sensitive period" is not explicitly stipulated in the rules, but it is generally 60 days before the annual report, and 30 days before the interim report and quarterly report. It is extremely rare to increase or decrease holdings within 30 days.

Morningstar's performance forecast is too close to Fang Zhuo's increase in stock holdings. If the former is a boon to earnings, the latter's stocks will naturally increase, which is very sensitive.

Sure enough, on the second day after Morningstar's announcement, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange announced an investigation into the holding increase operation of Morningstar shareholder Fang Zhuo and required the person involved to refrain from other operations.

If necessary, an application will be made for an interim injunction to freeze relevant assets.

Just in November, the Hong Kong Stock Exchange launched an insider trading investigation into Wang Fengyi of Shenxin Technology. To this day, there is still no result. And with less than two weeks left in 2009, it once again investigated Fang Fang, the richest man in mainland China. Zhuo issued an investigation...

This is definitely breaking news, and although the content is unrelated, the two pieces of news together make even more waves.

However, others do not know about this so-called insider trading investigation. Morningstar is fully aware of the situation. Mr. Fang has previously expressed his willingness to strengthen cooperation, which seems to include increasing his shareholding. However, this was obviously cleverly done by Mr. Liang in accordance with Hong Kong stock regulations. Pushed back.

This was not over yet. After Morningstar used its own announcement to investigate the shareholder Fang Zhuo, Liang Gongwei immediately convened the board of directors and demanded the adoption of a "Shareholder Rights Plan" to better protect the interests of the company's shareholders.

This plan is also called "equity dilution anti-takeover measures", commonly known as the "poison pill plan". The purpose is to counter hostile takeovers and dilute the equity ratio in the hands of the acquirer.

In the past decade, the most widely reported “poison pill plan” in the media came from the battle for control of Sina. The final winner was Fang Zhuo, who was regarded as a hostile takeover party.

Precisely, the "shareholder rights plan" that Morningstar's board of directors intends to adopt is to guard against one of the company's major shareholders.

Today is different from the past. Fang Zhuo's intentions and operations are now transparent. Now he is under investigation for insider trading by the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. As long as the board of directors approves it, he can almost completely defeat Fang Zhuo's possible hostile takeover.

Liang Gongwei clearly talked about this at the board meeting.

Just when he thought the vote was just a routine matter, internal disputes and conflicts and external acquisition intentions occurred that were widely reported by Hong Kong media.

Among the seven members of Morningstar's board of directors, Liang Gongwei, Yang Weiyi, Rong Tianxing, and Shi Deli are all old friends who founded the company together, while the remaining three are senior technical executives such as Lin Yongyu, Xiao Shuoyuan, and Zhou Zhongyun.

When Liang Gongwei proposed to pass the document, Yang Weiyi had to express his rights.

"Mr. Liang, this may not be too rigid. The investigation of insider trading... I still abstain." Yang Weiyi expressed a small opinion.

Liang Gongwei has this magnanimity. Yang Weiyi came to propose to cooperate with Yi Ke again. It is understandable that he has abstained now.

However, before he could respond, Lin Yongyu said succinctly: "I also abstain."

Liang Gongwei was stunned, his eyes roaming over the faces of Yang Weiyi and Lin Yongyu.

Immediately, he looked at Iron Man Rong Tianxing.

"I agree." Rong Tianxing did not disappoint the leader.

Liang Gongwei just breathed a sigh of relief when he heard the voice of abstaining again. This time it was Xiao Shuoyuan, also an old man.

Zhou Zhongyun sat next to Xiao Shuoyuan, looked at his old friend in surprise, and immediately said in a deep voice: "I agree, I agree with this "Shareholders Rights Plan", this is just a precaution, what are you afraid of?"

3 votes agreed and 3 abstained.

Another vote goes to founder Shi Deli, who is also Liang Gongwei’s friend for many years.

Liang Gongwei had just smiled with a smile on his face when he heard his friend's voice.

"Mr. Yang actually makes sense." Shi Deli pushed Yang Weiyi out first, and then said his decision, "It's too sharp, so I will abstain from voting."

Only 3 of the 7-member board of directors voted in favor, but even the abstentions were counted in the total number of votes according to regulations. This means that the "Shareholder Rights Plan" was not passed by more than half.

4 abstentions, this result is no different from 4 votes against!

It just sounds more gentle.

Liang Gongwei looked at his friend Shi Deli in disbelief and asked, "Do you know what this means?"

The most important vote on passing the poison pill was abstained.

"The company wants to develop, why are there so many conflicts?" Shi Deli avoided the boss's eyes, but said to himself, "I am not voting for myself. If there is a conflict, the stock price will not know how to fall. , we must also consider our employees who hold shares."

When he said this, he raised his eyes again, looked directly at Liang Gongwei, and persuaded: "It's not easy for anyone, Lao Liang, there's no need, it's easy to discuss things."

Liang Gongwei sneered: "Are you worried about your employees' stocks or are you worried about your own stocks?"

"If you insist on thinking that way, I can't help it." Shi Deli said lightly.

Liang Gongwei was so angry that he jumped up in anger and glanced at the four abstaining directors: "I have known for a long time that someone was secretly negotiating with Fang. Without people like you, he dared to ask me to buy shares?!"

Yang Weiyi frowned and said: "Mr. Liang, calm down first. This matter is not what you think."

"You were the first one to come to me about cooperating with Yike!" Liang Gongwei glared at Yang Weiyi.

Yang Weiyi was startled, there is a second one?

"Yang Weiyi, am I treating you well?" Liang Gongwei raised his voice and pointed at the president's nose, "If you want to sell the company, just say so today! Don't be secretive and make everyone unhappy!"

Yang Weiyi stood up after being scolded like this, frowned and said: "I'm all talking about business matters, there is no private exchange as you imagine."

He turned and left the conference room.

Upon seeing this, Liang Gongwei looked at the remaining three directors who had abstained from voting.

Shi Deli shook his head, stood up and left silently.

Lin Yongyu said: "Mr. Liang, we are discussing business today. Since I am a director, I think I can express my thoughts. I do not agree with this poison pill plan. It will only make the company worse."

He left after saying this, and Xiao Shuoyuan, who abstained from voting, said nothing and followed behind silently.

In a blink of an eye, there were only three people left in the conference room.

Liang Gongwei suddenly slammed the table, shocked and angry: "Okay, okay, different intentions, different intentions!"

He knew that because of his previous cooperation with Yike, there were people who were influenced by that party, but he never expected that this influence had corrupted so many people on the board of directors!

Except for Lin Yongyu, who has not been on the board of directors for too long, the other three people are all senior members of the company, and they are all colleagues and comrades who have come through these years!

shocking! Appalling!

Liang Gongwei's face was ashen, he did not expect that the important poison pill plan would be stuck in the board of directors.

However, regardless of whether they have different intentions or are really public-minded, first the insider trading investigation and then the poison pill plan have pushed the relationship between the two parties to the most tense point.

"Mr. Rong, please go to the media and tell us what happened today, and then tell us about the disruption to our Morning Star business this year." Liang Gongwei issued the order after a long time. From the Morning Star meeting to today, the person surnamed Fang is inseparable.

Rong Tianxing nodded, knowing that he wanted to create public pressure on Fang Zhuo.

Soon, news of Morningstar’s internal struggle appeared in Hong Kong media.

When this kind of report spread to the mainland, the insider trading investigation and the obstruction of the poison pill plan were immediately linked.

It seemed that this was a back-and-forth between Mr. Fang and the head of Morning Star, and the result was... it was hard to tell the winner.