Chapter 254 Handover
Before Christmas, Ivanta, who was far away in the United States, also completed its investment in MySpace.
Let’s not talk about Ivanta’s ability, but you have to admit that her ability in public relations is indeed remarkable.
As the Woaw website has more than 20 million users worldwide, and in the media, its valuation is close to 1 billion US dollars, MySpace in the same track, although the number of users at this time, There are just over 1 million people, but there are also many venture capital investors interested in it.
Therefore, at the beginning, the investment company she led faced fierce competition.
But in the end, MySpace chose IC Capital as the winner of their Series A financing.
In addition to the fact that IC Capital’s bid satisfied them more, Ivanta was better at utilizing her resources.
Including Ivanta hinted to the other party that if IC Capital can become a shareholder of MySpace, then she and her family can help the company gain more media exposure.
You must know that her father is closely related to many beauty pageants and is very good at promoting. This aspect is also valued by MySpace and its parent company.
And in terms of attracting media attention, as a "small website" with only one-twentieth of the users of Woaw website, it is a traditional venture capital company to become their investor, and it is also a A 22-year-old student who is still in college and a well-known model. A beautiful woman from a wealthy family becomes an investor. What is more eye-catching?
Of course, under Barron's instruction, Ivanta's valuation of MySpace was not low. She was willing to invest US$10 million at a pre-money valuation of US$15 million, allowing IC Capital to hold 40% of MySpace's shares. .
You know, it is 2003 when the Internet industry has just emerged from the bubble crisis, and social networking sites are an emerging track, and there is no mature profit model yet - in this regard, Silicon Valley venture capital companies Is the most fancy.
Internet companies with relatively high valuations, including Amazon’s e-commerce and Google’s search, already have their own profit models.
Therefore, venture capital companies are still very cautious about the valuation of social networking sites at this time.
In the previous life, when most of Facebook's users were students from major universities and the number of users exceeded 12 million, Yahoo was able to consider acquiring it for US$1 billion, and finally lowered the price to US$800 million... …That was 2006, and the Internet had revived again, with the successful IPOs of companies like Google, which gave venture capital a lot of confidence.
Now, the number of users of Woaw website exceeds 20 million, and the valuation given by many media is less than 1 billion US dollars. This is because on the one hand, it is 2003, and on the other hand, the number of American users of Woaw website is less than 1,000. Ten thousand people, and the rest are users from Europe, Australia and other places - from the perspective of Silicon Valley, American users are the "most valuable".
In addition to MySpace, Woaw has also faced Series B financing.
In fact, with the strength of DS Capital and Sequoia Capital, Woaw does not need to rush to raise funds again.
But the problem is that the scale of Woaw at this time has created a demand for capital that wants to get on board. After Michael Moritz from Sequoia Capital personally called to persuade him, Barron decided to start Woaw. Second round of financing.
Those who want to invest in Woaw this time include more traditional investment funds such as Goldman Sachs, Blackstone, and Bridgewater, as well as Silicon Valley venture capital giants like KPCB...
Of course, Moritz also told Barron's that Sequoia Capital would continue to invest.
In this regard, Barron's is only prepared to accept one or two new investors and will choose among these investment companies.
……
Similarly, as Christmas approaches, various gatherings begin to increase.
It can be said that during this period, almost every day, there were more than a dozen parties going on at the same time throughout London.
Of course, Barron at this time cannot really attend so many parties, and will only choose some of the more important ones to attend.
This period is also a time for rich people to show their love. Various fundraising rallies and "warming" activities for homeless people and poor people are also common. The Devon Hill Charitable Foundation under Barron's name also frequently organized various activities during this period.
It just so happened that after Primark was acquired by him, some of its previous clothing would be disposed of.
In addition to the must-have Christmas promotions in its various stores, many more difficult-to-sell styles will also be sold to the Devonshire Charitable Foundation at "appropriate" prices, targeting Homeless people donate clothing.
After all, the winter in England is still very cold, and these homeless people also need enough clothes to keep out the cold.
It is worth mentioning that after Primark is acquired by Argos, the two will form the Argos Retail Group, with former Argos CEO Nathan Ellington serving as the CEO of the Argos Retail Group.
Giles Toledo, the original financial director of Argos, took over as CEO of Argos department store.
On Primark's side, Barron used a headhunting company to find Donya Miranda, who previously served as the operations director of its French branch at Zara, to serve as the CEO of the Primark clothing chain.
This woman, less than 40 years old, has rich industry experience and can help Barron's transform Primark's brand operations.
After acquiring Primark, in addition to transferring its main manufacturing center from Ireland to China, the other is to enhance Primark's ability to respond to fast fashion.
Primark will specifically hire more young designers - low-cost "design workers" who have sufficient professional capabilities but are not big-name designers. Their task is to select products from various fashions every year. "Get inspiration" during the week and pour these "inspirations" into Primark products as quickly as possible.
Well, to put it in simpler terms, it means directly "referring" to the most popular fashion styles this year, or directly making patterns for manufacturing, so that the general public can enjoy being in fashion at the lowest price. Cutting-edge and innovative clothing styles.
This is also the secret of the rapid development of fast fashion clothing brands like Zara.
Of course, if you do this, Primark will definitely receive a lot of criticism and even direct infringement lawsuits in the future.
Therefore, they will also hire a rich legal team to allow them to avoid substantial liability.
In this way, in the future, Primark's headquarters will be moved from its original location in Dublin, Ireland, to King's Cross, London, and the high-quality talent resources of Central Saint Martins there will be used to establish Primark's design center.
“I hope to launch our new clothing as soon as possible and initially complete the OEM system in China before March next year.”
Barron The task set for Donya Miranda at that time was quite arduous.
However, this lady is still very confident:
"No problem, Your Highness, as long as we can get enough support, I will use all methods to achieve these goals."
After spending Christmas with Bonnie Stuart in London, Barron took Julia Moore and others to Chatsworth Manor.
After all, during the Christmas period, Bonnie became busier and had no time to accompany him back.
The reason for returning to Chatsworth Manor this time is that Barron hopes to welcome the new year there - Butler Sean has been in poor health recently, so after discussing with Barron, , is preparing to give up his position as the steward of Chatsworth Manor, and he will remain in the manor. As the manor's consultant, he can be more leisurely.
Ramos, who had been working as a butler in a villa in London, will take over the position of Sean butler and become the new butler of Chatsworth Manor.
(End of this chapter)