Chapter 139 Bargaining, Cooperation Reached
Alibaba’s third round of financing was in 2004, and it had already turned a profit by that time.
Faced with the foreseeable future, Son is certainly willing to continue to increase his holdings.
But things are different now. Alibaba is facing a global defeat, and Jackma has been unable to come up with a way to deal with it.
Except for the words in the company meeting that ‘the next six months will be a very serious one, be prepared to work overtime at any time’, there are no commendable rescue measures.
He once proposed to Jackma that he should close overseas departments, shrink institutions, and reduce expenses, but he was also politely rejected.
This disappointed him.
Seeing Sun Zhengyi’s hesitation, Xu Liang was happy.
This means there is a door.
After thinking about it for a long time, Son Zhengyi said.
"10% of Alibaba's equity in exchange for the Excite portal."
Although Alibaba is in trouble now, it is indeed China's largest B2B e-commerce website, and Sun Zhengyi does not intend to sell it all.
"Mr. Sun, the Excite portal's revenue in the past 10 months was US$1.14 million, and it can reach US$1.3 million for the whole year. And revenue has been growing, even according to the prevailing price-earnings ratio of 20 times, its revenue The value should also be US$26 million.
In comparison, Alibaba’s 20% equity was only valued at US$20 million at its peak, not to mention that their international business has been losing money now. Already discounted
10% stake in Alibaba in exchange for the Excite portal?”
Xu Liang shook his head and continued: "Anyone with a normal IQ will not agree to Mr. Sun's conditions."
Excite Japan's portal and search revenue have always been good, but its Southeast Asian business is the biggest gainer.
The latter has been losing money.
This is also the reason why Hongmeng was able to successfully acquire the other party’s Asian business for US$23 million.
Sun Zhengyi is not angry either. Are you negotiating? It is normal for each other to lower prices.
He smiled and said: "Mr. Xu, why don't you tell me your conditions?"
"Sell me all 20% of Alibaba's shares, and then you will provide us with US$16 million." Xu Liang said directly.
In other words, his 20% stake in Alibaba is only worth US$10 million.
“Mr. Xu, Alibaba’s equity is worth US$20 million.”
“That was before the Nasdaq crisis, and Alibaba’s equity now is not worth US$20 million.”
The depreciation of Alibaba’s equity is irrefutable. However, he does not want to completely give up his shares in Alibaba, but just wants to reduce his risk exposure.
Sun Zhengyi shook his head and said: "I can sell up to 10% of Alibaba's equity, and it cannot be less than 9 million US dollars."
Although he was a little disappointed, he still paid out 10%. .
Xu Liangdao: "Impossible. Up to 5 million."
The two parties bargained and finally settled on 7 million US dollars.
Xu Liang thought for a while, "Then give us another 24 million US dollars."
"Impossible, the Excite portal is not worth so much money."
Including 10% of Alibaba's equity The value of the Excite portal has reached US$31 million, which is a bit too high.
And Yahoo and SoftBank will enter the broadband access business next, which will require a lot of funds, and it is impossible to spend so much money to buy the Excite portal.
Both parties bargained.
The price of the Excite portal was set at $25 million.
After deducting Alibaba’s 10% equity value, Hongmeng will also have to pay US$18 million.
"SoftBank holds the equity of many Chinese Internet start-ups, such as 8848 and HC.com. I can transfer this equity to Mr. Xu."
Xu Liang simply shook his head. shook his head.
He would still be somewhat interested if he could gain control of the company.
But it was just financial investment. He had no interest in these companies that were destined to be swept into the dustbin of history.
"I heard that Mr. Sun holds 10% of the shares of Ctrip. As long as he transfers this part of the shares to me, I am willing to exchange."
"No."
< br>Sun Zhengyi shook his head without hesitation.
He is not a fool.
The reason for selling Alibaba's shares is that Jack Ma's successful operation failed and his future is bleak.
But Ctrip is different. A stable and efficient entrepreneurial team, a booming development trend, and a clear profit model are destined to be a company with a bright future.
How could he sell it?
Xu Liang was a little disappointed, but it was expected.
No one can part with a truly good thing.
"Then Mr. Sun will replenish me with the Sina equity held by SoftBank, plus US$15 million in cash."
SoftBank did invest in Sina, but it did not hold much equity. After the listing, it was diluted. Only 8.7% remains.
I planned to make a fortune, but before the lifting period ended, the Nasdaq crisis broke out.
SoftBank was directly trapped.
Now Sina's stock price has fallen to US$1.51 per share, and the average shareholder cost of holding shares is US$4.
The Nasdaq crisis is still getting worse, and there will be no improvement in a year or two.
Although Sina's revenue is growing, its operating costs are also growing, and there is no hope of unwinding in the short term.
However, Sun Zhengyi believes that according to the development speed of China's economy, Sina, as the first Chinese portal, will definitely develop and its stocks will increase in value.
The key is, how long will this take?
He predicts that there will be no hope in three or four years.
Rather than gambling on the future with this part of the stock, it is better to unwind as soon as possible. After thinking for a long time, Son nodded.
Xu Liang was very happy.
Although Sina’s equity is not large and its potential is not as good as Alibaba’s, it was still China’s number one portal in the PC era, and it also has Weibo after entering the mobile era.
The most important thing is that as the first of the four major portals in the PC era, Sina can influence public opinion.
Together with Bing Information and Penguin, Xu Liang can get half of the voice on the Internet.
This cannot be measured in money.
“Besides Sina, which company is Mr. Xu optimistic about?”
“No more, Mr. Sun can just give me another 15 million US dollars.”
Sun Zhengyi shakes He shook his head and said, "The focus of Yahoo's next business development is broadband access, which requires a lot of funds. Therefore, we do not have any extra cash to hand over to you. If Mr. Xu is willing, we will use Yahoo Japan's equity in exchange."
Xu Liang thought for a while.
He didn’t know much about Yahoo Japan, but he also knew that this company was still the number one Internet company in Japan before he traveled through time.
The future is bright.
“Yes.”
Now Yahoo! Japan only has a portal website, and it is not like it later took care of broadband access, C2C, social networking, finance and other businesses.
The market value of the GEM in Osaka, Japan is only 21.6 billion yen.
Equivalent to US$135 million.
If the Excite portal is acquired with equity, the new Yahoo Japan company will pay 10% of the equity.
The two parties reached an agreement, and Hongmeng Japan also became the major shareholder of Yahoo Japan.
After finalizing the transaction details.
"I remember Mr. Xu once promised me to allow SoftBank to invest in Hongmeng Japan. I wonder if this promise still counts now?" Son Zhengyi said.
"Of course, but isn't Mr. Sun not interested in Hongmeng Japan?"
"I was really not interested before today, but after being in contact with Mr. Xu for a long time, I am more and more sure of Mr. Xu's Hongmeng Company will definitely be successful in the future, so it seems good to invest in Hongmeng Japan if Hongmeng China does not accept financing.”
Xu Liang nodded.
"Mr. Sun, my valuation of Hongmeng Japan is not low."
Son Zhengyi made a gesture of invitation.
“One hundred million U.S. dollars.”
Sun Zhengyi frowned, “Is this Mr. Xu’s sincerity?”
“Mr. Sun thinks my price is too high?”< br>
“To borrow an old saying from your country, the lion opens its mouth wide.”
Xu Liang smiled and said: "In fact, the valuation of 100 million US dollars is still based on Mr. Sun's face. If it were someone else, I would offer a higher price. There are two reasons."
"Wish to hear Details." Sun Zhengyi said calmly.
Xu Liang smiled and said: "First, Hongmeng is a company mainly focused on games and search.
Currently we have a total of seven games under development and operation. These seven games Each game will be launched in the Japanese market
Even if only one or two games become popular, we can still earn tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue.”
"Second, the search business. Bing Search has inherited the Excite search business and occupies 27% of Japanese search shares. When we become a Yahoo search service provider, our market share will definitely continue to rise.
It is also foreseeable that in the future, with the help of Yahoo Japan, it will become the dominant search engine in Japan..."
"I'm sorry, I have to interrupt your company's search engine, so it is necessary. If Search becomes the largest search service provider in Japan, it will only lose money, and you are losing money now."
"Mr. Sun is wrong. We only provide free search services to portal websites, and we still provide free search services to other companies. Mainly based on fees. Therefore, we will continue to expand our share in the enterprise market.”
The reason why Xu Liang does not do business in the domestic enterprise market is that Bing’s share in the domestic search engine enterprise market is zero. Instead of spending a lot of time, it is better to focus all your efforts on independent search engines.
But Japan is different. Excite itself occupies a large share of the enterprise market, so there is no need to cut off one's arm.
“As for the losses in our search engine business, I don’t think there is any problem.
Our losses are not because we are not doing well enough, but because we are doing too well.
Our search business serves a growing number of people and businesses, and all profits are invested in hardware. This is the main reason for losses.
If we give up investing in hardware, the company will definitely turn around quickly.
Therefore, there is no problem with our profit model, we just invest the current profits into the future. ”
“Mr. Xu reminds me of a person. ”
“Who? "
"Mr. Jackma of your country, you all have strong confidence in your career. ”
“Because we all believe that our career will be successful. "Xu Liang smiled.
Masayoshi Son nodded, “But it’s still hard for me to accept your company’s valuation of US$100 million.”
“What does Mr. Sun think the valuation is appropriate?”
“Twenty million US dollars. "
Xu Liang shook his head, "It seems that it will be difficult for us to reach an agreement today. "
"Mr. Xu is not going to give in? "
"I can make concessions, but the gap with Mr. Sun is too big."
(End of Chapter)