Reinventing the Millennium

1.55 billion.

This was the final price negotiated by Friends.com.

Compared with the huge differences between 600 million and 2 billion at the initial meeting, this price is still more in line with the expectations of friends.com. Compared with the 1.1 billion given by Facebook, 1.55 billion seems to be much better.

Fang Zhuo notified all shareholders of Friends Network as soon as possible late at night.

Then the next morning, everyone gathered together for a final expression.

There are six main shareholders of Friends.com, IDG, Goldman Sachs, Sina, Yike Investment, Shenxin Technology and Wangxing.

The earlier shares of the founder team had already left the market during the financing, but this departure was actually the result of IDG lending money to Wang Xing, allowing him to repurchase most of the shares, and then proceed with the financing.

Five investment institutions have invested in three rounds in nearly a year, with RMB 2,000+6,000+100 million, totaling RMB 180 million.

If the fierce competition in the market continues, the scale of the next round of financing will be further expanded.

Now in exchange for Penguin's wholly-owned acquisition, it can be considered a stable landing.

But Xiong Xiaoge still expressed regret: "There is still hope for this project to be launched."

Wang Fengyi was very calm: "It's just that the business model is not easy to find."

Xiong Xiaoge continued to regret: "The profits will be much greater after the listing."

Wang Fengyi raised the difficulty: "I don't know when. It also depends on the competitiveness of Penguin."

Xiong Xiaoge frowned and said: "As long as it can be put on the market, the necessary time and cost are acceptable."

Wang Fengyi laughed inexplicably: "Yes, that's what I thought when I voted for Penguin."

Xiong Xiaoge's face darkened.

Seeing that these two were about to have a good argument in the conference room, Fang Zhuo put down his tea cup: "Okay, you guys are celebrating the New Year, you still have to fight."

He glanced at the other people watching the excitement, then glanced at Wang Xing, who had a complicated expression, and said simply: "Last night, everyone and I talked on the phone one by one. The highest price I can get from Penguin is this number. .”

"Considering the intensity of Penguin's strategy this time, I have to say that everyone, including me, Mr. Wang and all the investors, have a deep understanding of the power of Penguin traffic."

"Next time you do or invest in a project, you have to think about this seriously. I think the penguins want to kill everyone at the card table."

Everyone in the conference room was thoughtful. This time the competition on the Friends Network was both urgent and fierce. They were happy that the campus had successfully upgraded to the workplace, they were excited after the farm game was well received, and they were helpless that Penguin would soon follow suit. …

"But no matter what, 1.55 billion is enough for everyone. It happened to be finalized before the year, and it can be regarded as a big red envelope during the New Year."

Fang Zhuo glanced around: "Let's prepare to meet Penguin's people later. Mr. Wang will stay here for a while."

The investors in the conference room left, leaving only Fang Zhuo and Wang Xing.

"Mr. Wang, this time..." Fang Zhuo pondered.

In fact, he and Wang Xing have communicated many times and everything that needs to be said has been said.

Wang Xing waved his hand and said: "Mr. Fang, I understand. I don't blame you. It's not a crime of war. Penguin's ability to learn is too strong."

Whether it's the team supported by Sina, the games released for internal testing, or the capital investment from the owners, this is strong support. Without these, Friends.com would have failed long ago.

What makes Wang Xing most angry is that Penguin learned too quickly and too well.

Otherwise, according to the popularity of farm games, Friends Network will definitely gain far more than the current harvest.

"Actually, you blame me." Fang Zhuo said sincerely, "Without my participation, Penguin's strategic importance in this area may not be so high, and Friends.com may be able to gain a lot of development space and time."

Eastern Facebook was proposed by me, and Penguin took it seriously at that time. Soon, Zeng Liqing from the "Penguin Five Tigers" took charge, and Xu Chenye, the second tiger, provided resources and assistance.

When Wang Xing heard this, he also felt that it made sense. Fang always had a good reputation.

Just like this time, if it weren't for Mr. Fang's name, even if Friends.com shouted the slogan of entering the communications field, Penguin would not have raised the acquisition price so easily.

But to blame Mr. Fang for this is to put the cart before the horse.

The matter has come to this, and it is useless to say more.

Wang Xing sighed and said sincerely: "Mr. Fang, I am already very grateful to you. Really, the past year has been like a dream. I have learned things that I have not learned in the past twenty years."

Fang Zhuo said with emotion: "Entrepreneurship is like this, it is always difficult. Even now, I want to make a mobile phone, but I often toss and turn over it while sleeping at night. However, you can't give up. You still have a long way to go. This time It can also be considered as a financial gain, and you will have more freedom of choice in the future.”

After repeated financing, Wang Xing still retains 15% of the shares, which means he can get 232.5 million.

Last year, Wang Xing invested money from his family into the company, and this year he achieved financial freedom.

Wang Xing nodded silently, and finally thanked: "Thank you, Mr. Fang. I know that without you, Friends.com would not be where it is today."

He got up and prepared to go back to the CEO's office, waiting for the meeting with Penguin in the morning.

Fang Zhuo looked at Wang Xing's back, considering his cooperation with Sina's assistance team, and the praise in Sina's executive Wang Gaofei's report, and suddenly said: "Mr. Wang, you also know that Sina is preparing a social project. If nothing else happens, it will be online soon after the new year. If you are willing, you can come to Sina."

Wang Xing stopped, turned around and smiled reluctantly, but did not respond to the invitation.

After a while, he arrived at the CEO's office and sat on a chair, feeling extremely depressed.

It felt terrible to sell the company with my own hands, and besides, I still had to sell it to a competitor.

Apart from financial freedom, I have nothing.

Wang Xing remained silent for a long time. After all, he was still unwilling to lose like this.

He turned his head and looked at the wall in the office, suddenly stood up, stepped on the chair, took down the framed words on it and took it apart with his own hands.

Wang Xing looked at the picture "Just do Penguin" written by Mr. Fang for a while, thinking about the invitation he had just received in the conference room, carefully folded the words and put them into the document bag.

Always remember, there will be reverberations.

…

With the acquisition price set, there is no obstacle to the negotiations between Penguin and Friends.

Both parties are willing to finalize this acquisition quickly to avoid long nights and dreams.

In this way, driven by the efforts of the common will, Penguin and Friends will draw up the contract within two days, then sign the agreement within a week and agree to complete the delivery within 5 working days after signing.

Finally, Penguin will pay the transaction consideration in one lump sum within 5 working days after the delivery date.

February 17th, there is only one day left before the Spring Festival.

When the morning meeting ended, both parties breathed a sigh of relief. It was basically a buzzer-beating acquisition before the Spring Festival.

Fang Zhuo responded to the ticket at three o'clock in the afternoon, and everyone still sat down to eat at noon.

This lunch has all kinds of dishes from all over the world.

However, there was a little hiccup in the middle.

As the person in charge of Penguin's social strategy, Zeng Liqing has led the competition between Dating.com and Friends.com in the past year. At this time, after talking about the acquisition and three glasses of wine, he thought that he had won Mr. Fang and left Penguin with his chest raised and his head raised. He said this with a sigh.

"Finally won."

The person sitting next to him was Wang Xing. When he heard this sentence, he felt threatened, so he calmly replied: "Whoever doesn't follow the farm's style may not win."

The Penguin Learning Farm game was first terminated by QQ Space without authorization, and then the dating network and QQ Space announced the data connection. It was precisely because of this fuse that Zeng Liqing's emotions were detonated for a period of time, and he made a plan to win and leave.

But naturally he would not expose the internal disputes at this time. He just smiled and said: "Mr. Wang, winning is winning. Are there any 'what ifs' in our market competition?"

Wang Xing picked up the wine glass, touched Zeng Liqing's glass, drank it all in one gulp, and then asked: "Mr. Zeng's lesson is right. I just like to think nonsense. During the meeting, I also thought that Mr. Zeng is very capable." Jue, if Mr. Zeng were in my position, maybe Friends.com would still be able to win."

Zeng Liqing said with a smile: "Wang always wants me to sit in your seat, or does he want you to come to our Penguin? Since it is an acquisition, Wang always has such an idea. It's not that he can't understand it, and it's not that Penguin can't consider it."

No matter what, it will be acquired after all, even if the price is relatively high.

Wang Xing’s expression changed several times.

The two people's voices were not loud at first, but as they talked, they reached a normal volume, and the atmosphere at the dinner table became stagnant.

At this time, Fang Zhuo said leisurely: "What Mr. Zeng and Mr. Wang said reminded me of the time when I first started my business. At that time, I was simple-minded and could easily trust others, so I was taught Business competition is so cruel."

"In market competition, there are successes and failures. This is a normal thing."

"Mr. Zeng will definitely be able to make the dating network even better in the future. Mr. Wang is now just like me when I first started my business. The more setbacks I get, the more courage I get. There is no limit."

When Fang Zhuo said this, he said with emotion: "Time flies so fast. I remember one time I was drinking with Pony in the capital. It seemed that no one was very rich at that time. Unexpectedly, in the blink of an eye, Pony posted this A big red envelope of more than one billion yuan is given to us for the Chinese New Year."

Ma Huateng said with a smile: "It must be the time when Zhang Chaoyang was not allowed to drink."

He remembered one time when he was drinking in the capital with NetEase Ding, Sohu Zhang, Baidu Li, and Ali Ma. Zhang Chaoyang was rejected by Chou.

At that time, Penguin and Baidu had not yet gone public, and Alibaba was far less prosperous than it is now.

"Well, he still drank half a glass." Fang Zhuo recalled.

Ma Huateng laughed.

At the right time, roast lamb was brought to the table.

Fang Zhuo stabbed a piece of mutton with his fork and said with a smile: "The mutton today is good. Well, this piece of mutton is fat and big. Come on, Pony, eat it."

Ma Huateng took it with a smile.

Fang Zhuo picked up a piece of mutton of about the same size and said, "I'll eat the piece next to me. Come, come, let's all have a taste. It tastes very good."

The episode did not continue to brew.

A lunch that concluded the acquisition ended smoothly.

The top management finalizes the decision, and the rest is left to the people below.

The holiday is coming soon, and Penguin and the others have to catch the afternoon flight back.

"If I have any regrets about this trip, it's that I didn't get to sit on Mr. Fang's Qingzi bus." Ma Huateng joked before getting in the car.

Fang Zhuo corrected him seriously: "The name of the plane is 'a bit expensive'. My reputation has been ruined by you. If Qingzi hears this, he will hit me with his official seal. Well, Qing, ah no, 'a bit expensive'." 'We are decorating the interior space, I will take you to sit next time."

"It's a deal, Mr. Fang, and all your New Year's wishes will come true." Ma Huateng paid his last respects.

"Okay, Pony, it's safe to rise and fall, and the stock price will rise sharply next year." Fang Zhuo waved his hand and watched the Penguin executives leave in the car.

Sitting in the car, Ma Huateng felt inexplicably relieved. Through the rearview mirror, he saw Mr. Fang and Wang Xing next to him talking about something.

It's a done deal, it's finally a done deal.

A bit premium, but not bad.

Penguin will continue to move towards the goal of building the Facebook of the East.

…

"Xiao Liu, the plane has been pushed to the evening."

After Penguin left, Fang Zhuo postponed his flight back to Sina in the afternoon. He originally planned to go back quickly, but Wang Xing unexpectedly quickly expressed his intention to participate in Sina's new project, which slightly changed his plan.

Wang Xing is a newly minted billionaire.

In addition, the start-up company is being sold and the Chinese New Year reunion is approaching. Logically speaking, even if you have ideas, it will be after the New Year.

Could it be that he was stimulated by Zeng Liqing while eating?

Fang Zhuo hesitated for a moment, then asked IDG, Goldman Sachs, and Shenxin Technology if they wanted to hear about Sina's new social projects together.

Xiong Xiaoge was a little strange: "Mr. Fang invited us, this is..."

Sina is a listed company, why does it need to invite investment institutions for internal business?

He didn't believe that Fang always needed to listen to the opinions of a few of his own people on the project.

Unless...unless this requires Sina to set up a subsidiary to operate relatively independently.

What is needed to operate relatively independently?

Money, money.

Fang Zhuo and Lao Xiong looked at each other and said only three words: "Let's talk."

Xu Kaiwei of Goldman Sachs also feels the factors very keenly.

As for Wang Fengyi from Shenxin Science and Technology, he didn’t think much and got into the car first.

Xiong Xiaoge thought about the money he would receive from the acquisition agreement he had just reached with Penguin. He was stunned for a few seconds and said tactfully: "Mr. Fang, it's the Chinese New Year, why don't you wait to keep the money warm?"

"Didn't I just talk about it? What nonsense? I'm waiting to go home and finish talking and reading it quickly. I still have to take a plane." Fang Zhuo was a little irritable.

Xiong Xiaoge took a "poof" and was unlucky for eight lifetimes!

Where to make money without making money?

Do you want to earn money from people with the surname Fang?

Xiong Xiaoge cursed in his heart and got into the Sina company's business car.

At 1:30 in the afternoon, all the former shareholders of Friends.com arrived at the Sina headquarters with a full meal.

Sina President Wang Yan has been waiting in the conference room for a while.

"Mr. Fang, Mr. Xiong, Mr. Wang, Mr. Xu, Mr. Wang." Wang Yan said hello one by one, "Thank you for working overtime. To make a long story short, domestic social networks have developed vigorously in the past year. Competition among acquaintances is fierce.”

"Last year we went to the United States for investigation. There was a new project there called Twitter, which gave us a lot of inspiration. It just so happened that Sina itself has a huge blogging business."

"We just thought about whether we could make a simple social platform that can be more instant sharing and more interactive."

"Because it was inherited and developed from blogs, we named it 'Weibo'."

Wang Yan talked eloquently and proposed a new social product, Weibo.

Xiong Xiaoge, Xu Kaiwei, Wang Fengyi, and Wang Xing all listened attentively to the introduction of Sina CEO.

Because there is Friends Network in front, there is a strong contrast in such a product that is directly targeted at social networking for all.

Is it a thrilling jump from campus, workplace to the whole nation?

So instead of jumping, why don’t we just start from the back and walk?

Does the real-name system have natural difficulties in the current domestic Internet environment?

Is it okay if we don’t implement the real-name system?

Interest, entertainment, life, sharing, interaction, okay?

Wang Xing had known before that Sina was researching a social product, but now that he had seen it with his own eyes and heard it with his own ears, he still felt extremely complicated.

After Wang Yan introduced it as concisely as possible, he first asked the original founder of Friends Network for his opinion: "Mr. Wang, do you think there is room for the development of such a social media platform?"

Wang Xing was silent for a long time and said: "I don't know if there is, but I think I can give it a try."

He opened the document bag he had been carrying and took out the inscription he had folded earlier.

Everyone could tell at a glance that this was Mr. Fang’s previous calligraphy, which was posted on the friend website’s president’s office: “This…”

Wang Xing continued: "Penguin wants to be a dating network, social acquaintances, and Eastern Facebook. I want to see their reaction when they learn that Sina is launching a new social product. Will they continue to invest in the dating network strategy, or will they turn around and follow suit?" New Social.”

Fang Zhuo looked at the words that surprised him and said with a smile: "Mr. Wang, you have obsession on your face."

Wang Xing's expression was quite stubborn: "Mr. Fang doesn't mind, I am willing to participate in building the Weibo platform."

"Of course I don't mind, Sina welcomes you, Weibo welcomes you." Fang Zhuo smiled.

Wang Xing and Penguin have been fighting on social networks for a year, and they have almost seamless access. They are also very familiar with Wang Gaofei and other teams.

Fang Zhuo shook hands with Wang Xing and turned his attention to the investor brothers.

During the Chinese New Year, I worked hard to help my brothers get a high price for the penguins.

I live up to you.

Can you fail me?

Xiong Xiaoge and Xu Kaiwei looked at each other in confusion under Mr. Fang's gaze. This Weibo guy didn't seem to be a big investor.

"It's roughly this product. Let's celebrate the New Year first, and then we'll talk about it in detail after the New Year." Fang Zhuo was not in a hurry and said New Year greetings with a smile, "Old Xiong, Mr. Xu, Brother Wang, I wish you good luck."

The expressions on the faces of the three people are different, calm, numb, and hesitant.

It’s Chinese New Year.

Congratulations on getting rich, bring me the red envelope.