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Zhou Buqi said: "It is almost impossible to acquire Yahoo as a whole. There is a huge cognitive gap in the price. If Ali cooperates with Softbank, with the courage of you and Sun Zhengyi, maybe you can really do it." But with the addition of third parties such as Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, it is basically useless."

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

Zhou Buqi went on to say: "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 in Ali's board of directors is to ensure your own absolute control over Ali."

The Ali 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, Ali only needs to take back 20% of the shares, that is, 20% of the voting rights, and the management's voting rights can exceed 50%, and he can firmly control the company.

In actual operation, even 20% is not needed.

Because in the future IPO process, Yahoo can be required to sell some of its shares, just like Facebook will ask Ziweixing to sell some of its shares when it goes public next year.In addition, listed financing will also be collectively diluted.

That is to say, this time Boss Ma only needs to withdraw about 15% from Yahoo, so that Yahoo’s share of Ali’s holdings can be reduced to about 25%, and after a few years of operation, this will be done.

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

The first is that Yahoo will not sell.

Even if it is sold, with Ali and Boss Ma's current strength, they can't afford it. They just need to find some third-party agencies to take over the offer.He didn't get any financial benefits, nothing more than control.

Now that the control can be obtained, what is the difference between the shares 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 already seen through.

This is also where there is a logical contradiction between Boss Ma, Sun Zhengyi, and the third-party partners Blackstone Group and Bain Capital hired by Sun Zhengyi.

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

This is what he must do!

If he can't do it, he won't have absolute control over Ali, and he has the risk of being cleared out by the management at any time.

Softbank, Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, these institutions are different.

SoftBank participated in this case in order 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 to make money by copying Yahoo.

Not to mention Blackstone Group and Bain Capital, the original purpose of these capital institutions is to make money.

So there is some disagreement.

When making money, you must do a good job in risk management and control, but don’t make money and fail to make money, but lose money... There is a golden rule in the investment industry, that is, you would rather not make money than lose money.

In other words, for Softbank, Blackstone, and Bain, the "urgency" is not that strong.If it succeeds, it will be good, but if it fails, it will not affect much.

It's different for Ma Boss, he is collecting power.

He wants to take back the power in Yahoo's hands at all costs!

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

For example, in a negotiation, if you wrestle with Yahoo, Softbank, Blackstone Group, and Bain Capital don't care, they can bite the bullet and fight against Yahoo!
See who consumes whom.

But Ali can't, Ali can't afford it, Boss Ma has no way to retreat, he has to push forward, or he will secretly contact Yahoo in private to reach a private deal.

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

Zhou Buqi said: "It's normal, but this is not the same as Sun Zhengyi's philosophy."

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

Zhou Buqi said indifferently: "In this case, Sun Zhengyi is out to make money, which is the icing on the cake. You are in order to collect power, and you are looking for a lifebuoy!"

"What life buoy?" Boss Ma was a little amused, "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, he is full of confidence, and he is confident; you are to collect power, and there is a deep abyss behind you, and there is no way for you to retreat. He advances and retreats." It’s all right, you can only move forward but not backward. Not to mention Blackstone Group, Bain Capital and other institutions. Your goals are not the same, and the tripartite cooperation you formed is not unified internally. How can you work together if you don’t even have a unified heart? Achieving a major event in advance and retreat? This disunity factor is you, because you can’t retreat.”

Boss Ma was silent for a long time, then sighed, and shook his head, "How does your head grow? Can you analyze it?"

Zhou Buqi smiled, "Are you right?"

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

"No, you'd better put on your clothes, you are not a big beauty."

Zhou Buqi smiled and perfunctory.

why?
Foresight, of course, is so useful.

This tripartite cooperation between Ali, Softbank, Blackstone Group and Bain Capital intends to acquire Yahoo... the final result is definitely a failure.

Yahoo didn't sell at all.

However, one more thing happened half a year later.

Boss Ma strategized and borrowed 20 billion US dollars from the eight major international banks including China Development Bank, Citibank, and Credit Suisse, and found a private equity institution to undertake 40 billion US dollars...

In the end, the 63% shares with voting rights were redeemed from Yahoo at a total price of US$8 billion for US$5 billion in cash, US$76 million worth of non-voting Ali shares, and US$20 million in intellectual property rights. !
It can be called a brilliant operation.

After this transaction is completed, the voting rights of Ali's management headed by Boss Ma will exceed 50%. Boss Ma has truly regained the power to control Ali's fate from the hands of the capital.

This wave of operations has nothing to do with Softbank, Bain Capital, Blackstone Group, etc. It is just a one-way connection between Ali and Yahoo.Yahoo got the money and survived the immediate crisis; Ali got the voting rights and took back his power.

As for the three-party cooperation that was originally agreed to work together to acquire Yahoo, in fact, Boss Ma is using the influence of Softbank, Blackstone, and Bain to put pressure on Yahoo.

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

Combining all kinds of signs before and after, it is not difficult for Zhou Buqi to speculate the ups and downs and conspiracy calculations in the process.

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

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Why? Want to steal a teacher?"

Boss Ma nodded approvingly, "Well, you really should steal the teacher, your vision is really extraordinary. With Sun Zhengyi, I can play him around, but with you, I really dare not have any twists and turns. "

Zhou Buqi said angrily: "Stop doing this trick, you don't want to fool me? I have been fooled a lot! When Kazuo Inamori came to China, I almost fell for you."

"It's all a misunderstanding, right?" Boss Ma waved his hand, "Stop making trouble here, tell me quickly, how did you find out?"

Zhou Buqi said: "It's not easy to connect the cause and effect? ​​The first thing is that you transferred Alipay without the approval of the board of directors, causing Softbank and Yahoo to suffer huge economic losses. One trick is to deter those foreign capitals and make them aware of the risks that the VIE structure model allows the capital to control the company. Especially Yahoo, let them understand that if you don’t cooperate, you can transfer all the high-quality assets of Ali. To At that time, no matter how many shares Softbank and Yahoo held, there would only be an empty shell left.”

"You're overthinking." Boss Ma didn't admit it at all. "There's no such thing. I just want to cooperate with the immediate supervision of Internet finance."

Zhou Buqi smiled and didn't worry much, "Then, in the financing in September, 9% of the shares were only 5 billion U.S. dollars, and the overall valuation of Ali was only 16 billion U.S. dollars. I don't believe it, Ali is worth it." Such a small amount of money? I have reason to suspect that you are deliberately lowering the valuation of Ali, thereby lowering the value of the 320% shares held by Yahoo, and using it as a bait to catch big fish. And I also read the materials, that financing Here, the owner has Yunfeng Fund, which is an investment company you set up with others, and it also has financial benefits for you."

If there was no Motorola case, Zhou Buqi might not have realized the arbitrariness of the company's valuation evaluation during capital operation.

A wave of operations by Google artificially and violently raised the valuation of Asda.The effect is remarkable, 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 be artificially lowered.

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

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

Zhou Buqi put on a smile and refused to argue with him, "Next, it's this time. With Boss Ma's character, I don't believe that you will take over such an important event as the acquisition of Yahoo! Give up the initiative to Masayoshi Son. Isn’t this contradictory? Can this still escape my sharp eyes?”