Top of the Great Era

Zhou Buqi turned his attention from Yahoo to PayPal. According to the suggestion of Senior Sister Zhen Yu, he had already made an appointment with Carl Icahn and planned to meet him.

However, Carl Icahn is in New York and Zhou Buqi is in Silicon Valley.

Who's going to see whom?

Zhou Buqi didn't want to go to New York to meet such a notorious figure in the industry. If the news got out, it would affect his own image.Fortunately, the other party quickly sent back an email, saying that Mr. Icahn happened to be in Silicon Valley recently to deal with some matters.

并约了四个时间点：明天上午9点半到10点，后天晚上9点以后，三天后的下午1点15分到3点，四天后的中午11点半到12点半。

Carl Icahn has time for these four time points, please Mr. Zhou Buqi to arrange his time.If it is not convenient, you can contact again, and they can further coordinate Carl Icahn's time.

This is very troublesome.

The main reason is that the two sides are not familiar with each other, and it is the first time to meet, so the interview should be relatively formal.

If Bill Gates, Larry Page, Elon Musk and other old friends in Silicon Valley, it would be much easier for Zhou Buqi to make an appointment, regardless of whether you are working time or living time, whether you are in the company Still at home, just make a phone call and go.

Zhou Buqi has a lot of time, but he wanted to know about PayPal first, so he made an appointment to meet at the coffee shop on Sand Hill Road in the afternoon three days later.

Alex Jones, the chief investment officer of Ziwei Star International, has contributed a lot to the sale of EA shares recently, and he is a little proud.

As soon as he saw Boss Zhou, he laughed and said: "These days, EA's life is not easy, and the stock price has fallen by 27%."

Zhou Buqi nodded, calmly, "The trough of the game industry may last for a long time. What's the reaction from EA? Have you been contacted?"

Jones shook his head, "No, I just heard that the CEO is going to be replaced. Carl Icahn has a lot of short positions in EA, and the board of directors is under a lot of pressure."

Zhou Buqi opened his eyes wide, "Is it Carl Icahn again?"

Jones smiled and said: "Yes, he is indispensable everywhere. Many big capitals on Wall Street have poor yields this year, which is related to the general environment. But Carl Icahn's hedge fund should have an annualized return of 25%."

"Uh……"

Zhou Buqi was dumbfounded.

I go!

Amazing!
You know, the foresighted Boss Zhou, the two private equity funds in his hands, Pluto Capital and Neptune Capital, have failed to meet the rate of return this year. The former is now 14.6%, and the latter is 18.3%.

In fact, Sister Zhenyu also said, whether to make the annualized income of Neptune Capital to 20% through accounting, so as to get the dividend at the end of the year.From 18.3% to 20%, it is not too difficult to eat enough food and transfer profits.

Zhou Buqi rejected the proposal, it was unnecessary.

It's so obvious that investors can see it too.

Another point is that Pluto Capital and Neptune Capital are closed for 10 years of operation, and they look at the average rate of return.The average annual growth rate is more than 20%, and the final calculation will be enough, and the excess will be refunded and the deficiency will be compensated.

If you take it every year, if you take too much at the last pass, you will have to return it to the investor; if you don’t take it for a few years, and the final calculation finds that you have less, you can also get that part back.

When establishing these two private equity funds, Zhou Buqi had already considered, what if the year is not good and the income is not good?If it is the average annualized income under the general ledger, it will be much easier and there will be no risk.The stocks he picked have very bright growth prospects.

However, Carl Icahn's annualized return of more than 25% in such a weak year without foresight is amazing enough.

Sure enough, he is the wolf of Wall Street, with such sharp methods!

Alex Jones said with a serious face: "If you want to cooperate with Carl Icahn, you must be careful. This person is too cunning. Although he has always said that his investment philosophy is aggressive investment, in fact he is worthy of the name." 'Corporate sniper', 'corporate predator'. Through judgment, to find companies that have not been given a fair price by the market and carry out sniping. He is taking the completely opposite route to Buffett."

Then, he briefly explained the difference.

Buffett's investment philosophy is a typical buy low sell high.He looks for companies that are undervalued by the market, and then buys them for long-term holding and value investment.

Carl Icahn is the exact opposite.

It may be selling high and buying low.

For example, the short position on EA this time is to borrow the stock at a high point and sell it, and then buy back the stock to repay after the EA stock price drops sharply.

There is another kind, that is, Yahoo and PayPal.

Yahoo's current market cap is only $200 billion.

It is obviously seriously underestimated by the market.

At this time, Carl Icahn thought about entering the market, and took control of Yahoo through vicious acquisitions, proxy fights and other means.However, he will not make money slowly like Buffett, he will make quick money.

Once he wins Yahoo, he will sell 40% of Ali’s assets at a supermarket sale, at least 150 billion US dollars; sell 35% of Yahoo Japan’s stock, at least 80 billion US dollars ; Sell the main business assets of Yahoo headquarters, at least 90 billion US dollars can be sold.

All together, it can be sold for at least 320 billion US dollars!
That is to say, Carl Icahn got the control of Yahoo at a price of 200 billion U.S. dollars. If he dismembers and sells Yahoo, he can sell it for 320 billion U.S. dollars and make a big profit of 120 billion U.S. dollars!
This is what he has done most in his life, to find out those excellent assets that have been buried in the stupid board of directors, and then sell them to make money.

The same is true for PayPal. He got a part of PayPal's stock in order to dismember eBay and separate PayPal from eBay, so as to realize the real value of PayPal.

Zhou Buqi asked: "How about his average annualized income? Can it last?"

Jones said in awe: "It's very high. I didn't pay attention to it before. When I got the information yesterday, I was shocked. Carl Icahn started investing in 1968, counting from this year until today, Buffett's average annualized return is 19.5%, and Carl Icahn's average annualized return is 31%."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "No wonder there are so many people scolding him."

Jones smiled, "Yes, almost like Soros."

In fact, there are several ways of doing business and investing. Generally speaking, whoever has higher quality and who is more handsome is almost the same.

However, doing the same thing, some people are fine, and some people will be criticized.

The reason why he was scolded too much was not because he failed, but because he succeeded.

Just like this time, Softbank and Ali, Bain Capital and Blackstone Group cooperated to acquire Yahoo. The overall idea is exactly the same as Carl Icahn's investment philosophy.

It also wants to dismember Yahoo after acquiring Yahoo, and divide the assets among the three parties.

The difference is that it is really difficult for a company to compete for proxy rights.

Founders and management have too much influence and prestige.

There is no way for outsiders to win the proxy fight to gain control, even the capital giants such as Softbank and Blackstone Group do not have that level.

But Carl Icahn can.

So he succeeded, so he became notorious.

Just like the fact that Asda bought Motorola's mobile phone business unit from Google this time, it has also received huge controversy in China, and both inside and outside the circle are not optimistic.

There is actually one reason - I can, you can't.

Only Asda has the ability to make this deal in the current time period.

If it were any other company, even if it invested 100 billion U.S. dollars, it would be impossible.Money can convince Google, but it can't pass the review of the Federal Trade Commission.

Zhou Buqi pondered and said: "Okay, I know what happened to Carl Icahn. What about PayPal? How about PayPal? Is there a chance to get involved?"

"Have!"

Jones speaks volumes.

"Oh?" Zhou Buqi was very happy, "How do you say?"

Jones said: "Now there are two ways to get a part of PayPal's stock. One is to buy it from PayPal's minority shareholders in the primary market. Two years ago, Carl Icahn wanted to operate PayPal from eBay's The spin-off and listing made many people see the opportunity and try to get the original shares. Therefore, the shares outside eBay were cut into pieces, and many people and investment institutions poured in. However, Carl · Icahn failed, he failed to defeat the board of eBay, PayPal was not broken up."

Zhou Buqi said: "So those small shareholders who enthusiastically bought PayPal shares and waited for the IPO to make a fortune, are all trapped?"

Jones smiled and said: "Yes, they are all caught up. PayPal has been losing money for so many years, there is no profit at all, and it is impossible to pay dividends. The split and listing are nowhere in sight. The stocks in the hands of those small shareholders are now a piece of waste paper. If you are not in a hurry, it’s okay, hold it for a long time, and you can make a lot of money when PayPal is really split and listed. I’m afraid that PayPal’s listing will be delayed for too long, and many small shareholders can’t afford to wait so long to be trapped. It’s time to get the money back.”

Zhou Buqi was thoughtful.

I go!

From this point of view, Yahoo's civil strife is really a good thing!

Yahoo has been holding onto Carl Icahn for years, and he's desperate to get it over with.Therefore, it is impossible to operate the PayPal case in the near future.

Many small shareholders saw that Carl Icahn had retreated and paid attention to Yahoo and gave up PayPal. They felt that they had lost hope and would be disheartened.The thought of getting rid of the burden of PayPal will be even heavier.

It will be easier for Ziweixing International to buy stocks from these small shareholders.

Zhou Buqi said: "Well, you can act and contact those small shareholders of PayPal. What about the second? What is the other way?"

Jones said: "PayPal's business burns a lot of money. PayPal is not a wholly-owned subsidiary of eBay, so it can't get money directly from eBay. And eBay doesn't have much money. A few years ago, eBay promoted PayPal and carried out A round of financing, PayPal was valued at $80 billion at the time.”

Zhou Buqi's eyes lit up, "You mean PayPal will launch a new round of financing?"

Jones said: "It is very possible that PayPal is now making efforts towards the mobile terminal, and the investment will be huge, and PayPal will lack money in its account. Unless eBay's board of directors can be ruthless, focus on supporting PayPal, and treat PayPal as a major shareholder. Targeted financing. However, if Ziweixing International came forward to invest in PayPal in the form of strategic cooperation, it would be a better choice for eBay’s board of directors.”

"Okay!" Zhou Buqi felt that the idea was right, "I'll go see Carl Icahn first, if there's no problem, let's act here!"