Chapter 115 Boss Ma’s Bid
“The scenery of the West Lake is really beautiful.”
“It happens to be the National Day holiday, so there are a lot of tourists here. If it is normal, there will be fewer A lot.”
At this time, Barron had left Shenzhen with Wang Wanting and his bodyguards and came to Hangzhou.
As for the purchase of Penguin shares, it was completely left to Amber Sheehan. During this trip to China, he mainly focused on visiting and getting to know some entrepreneurs here. As for the specifics Naturally, all affairs are left to the people under his command to handle.
In addition, with the increase of DS Capital's business in China, DSIIC is also preparing to set up a China office in Shenzhen City, which will make it easier to handle future business related to China Investment.
After arriving at the West Lake in Hangzhou, I saw that the place was really crowded with people, and it was also because they happened to catch up with the Golden Week of China's National Day.
Since 1999, China has implemented the policy of May Day and National Day Golden Week, so now, traveling during the National Day holiday has become the choice of many people, such as the West Lake, a very famous attraction, tourists There are also very many.
It was also the first time to see so many tourists. Barron’s two white bodyguards were frightened at first. They almost suspected that the entire population of London had come to West Lake. Here...
This also caused them great trouble, because they needed to do their best to protect His Royal Highness the Duke and his personal assistant, but among such a dense crowd, this job, Very challenging indeed.
Fortunately, Barron did not make things too difficult for them. He did not get into the crowd, but admired the beautiful scenery of the West Lake from a distance.
Similarly, Barron and his group also attracted the attention of many Chinese tourists. After all, there are so many foreigners, and there are two strong men in black suits and black suits with cold faces. There were obviously bodyguards surrounding the handsome young man, and it was easy to guess that he must be a big shot.
As for the young man, in addition to an extremely beautiful Chinese woman, there is another man who is not tall and looks a little... peculiar, with a confident smile, and is chatting and laughing. , at this time, almost all tourists just found it interesting, and did not know that that person's appearance, many years later, would only mean one thing, and that was "rich"!
Yes, the person chatting beside Barron at this time is Boss Ma, the founder of Alibaba.
At this time, although Alibaba has received a US$20 million investment from SoftBank Group, it is still not well-known.
This year, Alibaba's B2B business has just started to make profits, and it has not even started to build a personal business website, which will be Taobao in the future.
It can be said that when Boss Ma’s reputation is relatively high, he will have to wait until he has swallowed up Yahoo’s business in China. As for most ordinary people to recognize this face, it will have to wait until he becomes the richest man in China. After that.
As we all know, Boss Ma is a person who is very good at "fooling". This can be seen from the fact that many talents who have come into contact with him gave up their high salaries and defected to him.
And, he is also very good at seizing opportunities.
For example, in the 1980s and 1990s, as a student, Boss Ma often went to West Lake to translate for foreigners and practice his spoken English. By chance, he met his good friend Ken from Australia.
In 1985, Ken gave Boss Ma 200 yuan to invite him to travel to Australia. With this money, Boss Ma was able to go abroad. It was also this trip abroad that changed Boss Ma's view of the world and opened his "window to the world."
In 1994, Boss Ma went on a business trip to the United States as a translator. This trip to the United States exposed him to computers and the Internet, which planted the seeds for his future Internet entrepreneurship.
When Barron and his party came to Hangzhou, DSIIC, a company owned by a British Duke, bought Penguin's shares from the South African MIH Group at an astonishing 100% premium. , has spread throughout the entire Chinese Internet circle.
It can be said that at this time, when the Internet industry was struggling, Barron's image in the eyes of others was no different than a "big dog", and he was still the kind who had no shortage of money.
So as soon as they met, Boss Ma showed great enthusiasm for the young and handsome Duke.
In the process of accompanying him to visit the West Lake, he was describing the grand blueprint of Alibaba Company to him both inside and outside the words. In fact, at this time, although Alibaba's B2B business had just begun to make profits, they were indeed short of funds - they received US$20 million from SoftBank in early 2000, more than two years ago. Almost three years.
2000 was the year when the global Internet bubble burst. The turmoil in the stock market interrupted the booming Internet industry, and many Internet companies also went bankrupt.
Alibaba Company is no exception. By 2001, there was only US$7 million left in Ali’s account, which could last for at most half a year. The worse news was that investors said they would no longer invest money. Faced with such a severe situation Alibaba quickly transferred its previous overseas expansion strategy to China itself.
“Mr. Ma, you said that your mission is to ‘make it easy to do business in the world.’ I appreciate this very much.”
Barron smiled and said to Boss Ma next to him:
“What I appreciate more is that you have the courage to stop all the previous profitable businesses and return to serving small and medium-sized enterprises. In the cold winter, few people dare to do this.”
It wasn’t until Boss Ma hosted a banquet for Barron at the Louwailou next to the West Lake that Barron talked to him about Ali at the dinner table. Company matters.
“Yes, Duke Barron, this decision was not easy. At that time, almost everyone did not understand why I did it, including the investors of the company, but in the end I convinced them. Now, Our B2B business has also begun to make profits, and we have already earned 500,000 yuan. Although this number is small, it is a good start.”
“So I don’t know how much investment Boss Ma needs now. How many shares will be offered? ”
Barron asked directly.
Hearing his question, although he didn't show anything, his heart was racing rapidly.
“I hope to get an investment of 20 million US dollars, and I can give 15% of the company’s shares.”
Soon, Boss Ma replied to Barron.
Hearing his words, Barron smiled and said:
"Mr. Ma, as far as I know, SoftBank invested US$20 million in Alibaba and got 30% of the shares. But now the global Internet is in a cold winter. You have doubled Alibaba's valuation all of a sudden. Will you? It makes me feel very insincere.”
But Boss Ma’s offer is also very interesting. Perhaps it is because he knows that Barron acquired 100% of Penguin’s shares at a premium, so he changed his offer as well. Based on the original investment price of SoftBank, there was a 100% premium...
Don’t read the many articles later that said how optimistic Sun Zhengyi was at first about Alibaba. He invested 20 million US dollars and later successively added more, and held it until it was listed. Only then did the selling begin.
In fact, Sun Zhengyi is very casual when it comes to investment. It can be said that SoftBank has invested in so many companies, and only one Alibaba has emerged. According to the investment success rate, it is still very Low - it can be said that almost all the money he earned from investing in Alibaba was lost on other investments.
And when he originally invested in Alibaba, it was actually Sun Zhengyi who invested in many projects in China at the same time, almost all of which gave him US$20 million. This amount, for him, was more of a trial investment in China Internet. water.
Just like last year, when Alibaba was in urgent need of funds again, SoftBank rejected Boss Ma's request for additional investment.
It was not until 2004, when Alibaba’s B2B business had become China’s leader, and its Taobao business was also developing rapidly, that I participated in Alibaba’s financing again.
(End of this chapter)