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Zhou Buqi said: "It is almost impossible to acquire Yahoo as a whole. There is a huge cognitive gap in price. If Alibaba and SoftBank cooperate, with the courage of you and Masayoshi Son, maybe it can be done. . But with the addition of third parties like Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, it’s basically out of the question.”

Boss Ma remained calm, picked up the teapot, poured tea, and drank tea.

Zhou Buqi continued: "So in my opinion, your purpose is not to take back the 40% equity. You have no money in your pocket, and you can't buy it at all. Your main purpose is to take back the rights, to take back Yahoo!" The power on Alibaba’s board of directors ensures your own absolute control over Alibaba.”

Alibaba's management, headed by Boss Ma, has 30% of the voting rights, Yahoo has 40% of the voting rights, and SoftBank has 30% of the voting rights. In other words, Alibaba only needs to take back 20% of the shares, that is, 20% of the voting rights. The management's voting rights can exceed 50%, and the company can be firmly controlled.

In actual operation, not even 20% is used.

Because in the future IPO process, Yahoo can be asked to sell off some shares, just like Facebook will ask Ziweixing to sell some shares when it goes public next year. In addition, listing financing will also cause collective dilution.

In other words, this time Boss Ma only needs to withdraw about 15% from Yahoo, so that Yahoo’s holding ratio of Alibaba can be reduced to about 25%. After a few years of operation, it will be done.

As for now that he wants to take back all 40% of the shares, it is basically the same as shouting slogans.

The first is that Yahoo won't sell it.

Even if it is sold, with the current strength of Ali and Boss Ma, they cannot afford it. They will just find some third-party institutions to take over the purchase. He didn't get any financial benefits, he just got control.

Now that we can gain control, what difference does it make whether the stock is in the hands of Yahoo or in the hands of capital institutions such as Silver Lake and Temasek?

this is the key of the problem.

Zhou Buqi has seen through it.

This is also where the logic behind the contradiction between Boss Ma, Masayoshi Son, and the third-party partners Blackstone Group and Bain Capital hired by Masayoshi Son lies.

Boss Ma is not here to make money, he is here to gain power.

This is what he must do!

If he fails to do so, he will not have absolute control over Ali, and he will be at risk of being eliminated by the management at any time.

SoftBank, Blackstone, Bain Capital, these institutions are different.

SoftBank's participation in this case is to recover Yahoo's 35% stake in Yahoo Japan from Yahoo. However, SoftBank is already the largest shareholder of Yahoo Japan, holding more than 55% of the shares and has absolute control.

SoftBank did this just to make money by buying Yahoo at the bottom.

Not to mention Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. The entire purpose of these capital institutions is to make money.

So there is a certain disagreement.

When making money, you must do a good job in risk control. Don't make money but lose money... In the investment industry, there is a golden rule, which is that you would rather not make money than lose money.

In other words, for SoftBank, Blackstone, and Bain, the "eagerness" is not that strong. If it works, it will be good, but if it doesn’t, it won’t have much impact.

Boss Tsui Ma is different, he is taking back power.

He wants to take back the power from Yahoo at all costs!

Therefore, in this tripartite cooperation between SoftBank, Alibaba, Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, Alibaba is the one that really cannot afford to lose, and this has become a time bomb within the three-party cooperation.

For example, when negotiating with Yahoo, SoftBank, Blackstone Group, and Bain Capital don't care, they can just go against Yahoo!

See who can outsmart whom.

But Alibaba is not good, Alibaba cannot afford to spend money, and Boss Ma has no way to retreat, so he must push forward. Maybe he will secretly contact Yahoo in private and reach a private deal.

Boss Ma looked up at him and said, "Is this normal?"

Zhou Buqi said: "It is normal, but it is different from Sun Zhengyi's philosophy."

Boss Ma still maintained a calm expression, "Why is it different?"

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "In this case, Masayoshi Son is here to make money, and this is the icing on the cake. You are here to take over power, and you are looking for a lifebuoy!"

"What life preserver?" Boss Ma was a little funny, "It's not that serious."

Zhou Buqi said: "The struggle for power is more life-and-death than how much money you make. Sun Zhengyi is here to make money, and he is confident and confident; you are here to take over power, and there is an abyss behind you, and you have no way to retreat. He advances and retreats. No matter what, you can only move forward and not retreat. Not to mention institutions such as Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. Your goals are inconsistent, and the tripartite cooperation you formed is not unified internally. Even the hearts of the people are not unified, how can we work together? Achieve a big thing by advancing and retreating? The disunifying factor is you, because you can't retreat."

Boss Ma was silent for a long time, then sighed and shook his head, "Why do you have such a long head? Can you analyze this?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Is that right?"

Boss Ma looked at him with some confusion, "Why is your perspective so accurate every time? I have seen a lot of business geniuses, but I have never seen you like this. Standing in front of you, I feel like I have no clothes on. ."

"No, just put on your clothes. You are not a beautiful woman."

Zhou Buqi laughed and muffled it.

Why?

Of course it is foresight, which is really useful.

This time, the tripartite cooperation between Alibaba, SoftBank, Blackstone Group and Bain Capital to acquire Yahoo... the final result will definitely be a failure.

Yahoo simply wasn't sold.

However, something else happened half a year later.

Boss Ma strategized and borrowed US$2 billion from China Development Bank, Citibank, Credit Suisse and other eight major international banks, and found private equity institutions to take over US$4 billion...

In the end, the 20% shares with voting rights were redeemed from Yahoo for a total of US$6.3 billion in cash, US$800 million worth of Alibaba shares without voting rights, and US$500 million in intellectual property rights, for a total of US$7.6 billion. !

It can be called an eye-catching operation.

After the completion of this transaction, the voting rights of Ali's management headed by Boss Ma exceeded 50%. Only then did Boss Ma truly and truly regain the power to control Ali's destiny from the hands of the employer.

This wave of operations has nothing to do with SoftBank, Bain Capital, or Blackstone Group. It is just a single-line connection between Alibaba and Yahoo. Yahoo got the money and survived the immediate crisis; Alibaba got the voting rights and took back its power.

As for the three-party cooperation that was originally agreed to work together to acquire Yahoo, it was actually Boss Ma who used the influence of SoftBank, Blackstone, and Bain to put pressure on Yahoo.

In the end, all the benefits fell into Boss Ma's pocket.

Combining various signs before and after, it is not difficult for Zhou Buqi to deduce the ups and downs and conspiracy of the process.

Boss Ma was very curious. He poured him tea and took the initiative to bring it over. "Tell me, how did you see it?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "What are you doing? Want to steal your master?"

Boss Ma nodded with deep understanding, "Well, I really should steal my lesson. Your vision is really extraordinary. With Sun Zhengyi, I can play him around, but with you, I really don't dare to do any twists and turns." "

Zhou Buqi said angrily: "Stop this trick, why don't you fool me? I've been fooled many times! I almost fell for you when Kazuo Inamori came to China."

"It's all a misunderstanding, right?" Boss Ma waved his hand, "Don't make trouble here, tell me quickly, how did you find out?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Isn't it easy to connect the causes and consequences? The first thing is that you transferred Alipay out without the approval of the board of directors, causing SoftBank and Yahoo to suffer huge economic losses. This is what knocks the mountain and shakes the tiger. One move is to scare those foreign capitals and make them aware of the risks that the VIE structure model brings to the capital in corporate control. Especially Yahoo, let them understand that if they do not cooperate, you can transfer all the high-quality assets of Alibaba. To At that time, no matter how much shares SoftBank and Yahoo held, it would only be an empty shell."

"You are overthinking." Boss Ma refused to admit it at all. "There is no such thing. I just want to cooperate with the immediate supervision of Internet finance."

Zhou Buqi laughed and didn't worry too much, "Then, in the financing in September, 5% of the shares were only US$1.6 billion, and the overall valuation for Ali was only US$32 billion. I don't believe it, Ali is worth Such a small amount of money? I have reason to suspect that you are deliberately lowering the valuation of Alibaba, thereby lowering the value of the 40% stake held by Yahoo, and using it as bait to catch big fish. And I have also read the materials, that financing Here, the capital company is Yunfeng Fund, which is an investment company established by you and others, and it also has financial benefits for you."

If it hadn't been for the Motorola case, Zhou Buqi might not have been aware of the arbitrariness of the company's valuation during capital operations.

A wave of operations by Google artificially and violently raised Asda's valuation. The effect is very significant, and all parties have benefited significantly. By blowing bubbles, mutual benefit and win-win results have been achieved.

It can be artificially raised, and of course it can also be artificially lowered.

Therefore, major technology companies in Silicon Valley and U.S. regulatory agencies have express requirements that they must be listed when they develop to a certain scale. Even if they are not short of money, they must be listed. Without listing, the company can only be valued. The water is too deep and there is too much room for maneuver.

Boss Ma still couldn't admit it, "It's nothing! Don't play conspiracy theories, kid!"

Zhou Buqi put on a smile and refused to argue with him, "The next thing is this time. With Boss Ma's character, I don't believe you would take such an important matter as the acquisition of Yahoo!" The initiative is given to Masayoshi Son. Isn't this contradictory? Can this escape my sharp eyes?"