The Age of Rebirth

Chapter 381 Investing in Yahoo!
The newspaper Li Weidong read was a media with an English background. The newspaper quoted a sentence from the British Financial Times, "This is the darkest day in China's financial history."

Of course, they may not know that in the foreseeable future, this darkest day will also happen to themselves, and the collapse of Barings Bank is not far away.

Although Li Weidong no longer holds the put option on the Nikkei Index, he still pays attention to the Nikkei Index. After a small rebound, it has recently been in a continuous downward trend.

Although he also regretted closing the position too early, otherwise he would have earned half more, but he also knew in his heart that if he was asked to continue to build positions and continue to hype, he would not have the motivation.

But looking at the decline of the Nikkei index, Li Weidong knew that Barings Bank's position would explode, probably in the next few days.

I don't know how the Financial Times will evaluate their local securities companies by that time, and will they use the ironic term "darkest"!

We must know that the collapse of Barings Bank is more dramatic and naive than the 327 national debt, and it does not conform to the thinking logic of a normal person.

A company in the financial industry, especially a financial institution with relatively high leverage such as investment banks and securities companies, takes risk control as its lifeline.

At least the most basic mistakes cannot be made, and all eggs cannot be put in the same basket.

But Barings Bank was able to do this kind of thing. It was not [-] million, but [-] million in one blow. The unit was sterling, and it went bankrupt directly.

Let the trading department and the clearing department be managed by the same person, and even without monitoring, the daily financial statements are full of loopholes, but no one can see them.

The young general manager, even in prison, believed that the violations he was making deserved to be stopped and could be stopped.

Although there is suspicion of clearing away responsibility in this way, it also reflects from the side that this famous investment bank with a history of more than 200 years has no internal risk control.

Li Weidong continued to read the newspaper. With the closing and freezing of the national debt 327, there will definitely be a series of follow-up accountability. This is not only a characteristic of China, but also the whole world.

Although the final decision has not yet been made, Li Weidong knows that everyone involved in this matter, whether they benefit or lose, will not end well.

If the 327 national debt is explained in the way of feudal superstition, it is simply the evil of the plague, and whoever gets it will be unlucky.

Li Weidong is not sorry for these people. If the presumption of guilt is used, none of these people are clean.

When capital comes into the world, every pore is dripping with blood and dirty things, not to mention these people who play with capital.

I just feel that the bond futures market that was born in China with great difficulty has fallen, which is a pity.

Moreover, whoever of Weihehe's Wanguo Securities will decline with it, if Wanguo Securities does not do such a thing, with the speed of its development, it is estimated that it can really become China's Merrill Lynch.

After all, at this time, Wanguo Securities already has many overseas branches, while other domestic securities companies in the same period have not yet figured out the true meaning of investment banking.

Later, Wanguo Securities was merged by Shenyin of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China to become Shenyin Wanguo, and later merged with Hongyuan Securities to become Shenwan Hongyuan. In short, it became more and more declining.

Li Weidong wants to join Wanguo Securities, and he can also have a securities company under his banner, but he still dare not intervene because of the doorway. It is estimated that Wanguo Securities is in the limelight now, whoever touches who will be unlucky.

Li Weidong closed the newspaper, and the other newspapers don't need to be read, they are probably all reports in this regard.

After all, Hong Kong Island is now under the British rule, and financial incidents are happening in the mainland. How could they miss this great opportunity for publicity.

They have to do everything they can to let the people of Hong Kong know about this, so as to show that the mainland's financial market is still unreliable, and don't report too high fantasy.

Li Weidong didn't wait too long. Within a few days, the central bank of England, the "Great Britain", announced that Barings Bank lost more than one billion U.S. dollars due to operating errors, became insolvent, and went bankrupt.

When the news came out, it immediately caused a series of violent fluctuations in the financial world around the world. The Tokyo stock market plummeted, the London* stock market plummeted, and the Dow Jones index directly fell by [-]%.

Li Weidong took the newspaper a few days ago and compared it with today's newspaper. Although the things are similar, the style of reporting is very different.

One emphasizes artificiality and the other emphasizes the system. This is a typical double standard.

Li Weidong looked at it and sneered, but public opinion is in the hands of others, what can you do.

Also on this day, in a relatively ordinary coffee shop in Silicon Valley, San Francisco, USA, two young men sat on the window seat, one of whom had a typical oriental face.

The two looked anxious, looked at their watches from time to time, and frequently looked out the window, obviously waiting for someone.

"Yang, do you think Ms. Fu will agree to our financing plan?" the foreigner asked the man with an oriental face.

"It's hard to say, but if he can take the time to talk to us so quickly, I think we have a chance!" Yang Yuanzhi looked calm, thought for a while, and then said.

"I think so too. Three months ago, when we had nothing, she was able to take out 40 US dollars as start-up capital. Now she has no reason to disagree!"

Although the foreigner spoke resonantly and with certainty, the tone of his words was somewhat unconfident. Most of what he said was to cheer himself up.

"David, actually we don't have to worry. Even if Ms. Fu disagrees with our financing plan, and Sequoia Capital, I can see that she is very interested in us."

"But no matter what, we must now expand our capital to increase our popularity, otherwise it will be difficult to maintain daily operations with existing income alone!"

Yang Yuanzhi could see David's lack of self-confidence. Yang Yuanzhi was from Baodao. Although he was a standard technical guy who also studied electrical engineering, he had a delicate mind.

Especially for Fu Xiaomin who is also from China, Yang Yuanzhi has a natural intuition, he can feel the importance Fu Xiaomin's words place on their company with only a few people.

Chinese people have too many twists and turns in their minds, which is incomparable to foreigners. Sometimes they will deliberately say half a sentence and leave half a sentence, or express certain ideas through their own behavior.

Once you understand, you will understand, and those who don't know will never know.

Although David is a smart person, he doesn't understand this implicit Chinese culture, and naturally he doesn't understand the mystery of it.

"Yang, I think we have another one million US dollars, our popularity will be greater, our users will be more, our advertising revenue will definitely be greater, and we will make a fortune just around the corner!"

David and Yang Yuanzhi drank cheap coffee worth a few dollars, looking forward to a bright future.

Yang Yuanzhi rolled his eyes and saw through the window two ladies coming down from a Ford in the parking lot, one of them was Fu Xiaomin whom they wanted to see this time.

Yang Yuanzhi looked at this beautiful lady, wearing a brown windbreaker, a light-colored dress inside, and black high-heeled shoes on her feet. She set off her figure to the extreme, exuding the charm of an elite woman from the inside out.

His eyes were straightened. From the first time Yang Yuanzhi saw this woman who was about his age but had a strong aura, he felt his heart flutter.

He still remembered the first time they met, four months ago, Fu Xiaomin took the initiative to approach them, willing to provide them with a certain amount of funds for their business use.

This made Yang Yuanzhi and David overjoyed. Before that, they had found many venture capital companies, but none of them were interested in their free model.

Those investors have never invested in this kind of company. In the eyes of these investors, how can free things be profitable? This is simply a joke.

But Fu Xiaomin happened to appear, she was simply a beautiful angel who came to save them!
The negotiation between Fu Xiaomin and them was very simple. When they boldly proposed to exchange 20.00% of the equity for 40 US dollars, the angel agreed after a little hesitation.

In an instant, Yang Yuanzhi felt that he had fallen, not by money, but by the aura and charm of Fu Xiaomin when he made this decision.

In this way, they got $40 in financing, which they called angel financing.

Yang Yuanzhi and David came to the door to greet Fu Xiaomin and her assistant, an equally beautiful and capable American girl.

"Hello, Miss Fu, thank you for taking the time to meet us!" Yang Yuanzhi wanted to shake hands with Fu Xiaomin, but he was a little cautious, let alone an American-style hug.

"Hello, Mr. Yang, there is no need to be so polite, but this meeting is much later than expected!" Fu Xiaomin took the initiative to shake hands with Yang Yuanzhi and David, and said with a smile.

She had to be polite, because this is a company that Li Weidong is optimistic about. Among the hundreds of companies he collected, Li Weidong personally named him to invest.

Fu Xiaomin has always believed in Li Weidong's vision, and even had a kind of blind worship for Li Weidong. The company that Li Weidong is optimistic about has an unlimited future.

The last company that Li Weidong invested in by name was Netscape, and now the number of users of Netscape is increasing rapidly every day, the accumulation of users is very considerable, and the market share is gradually increasing.

Perhaps in the near future, they will become the number one player in the browser market. Now that their investment and success have been locked, it only depends on how much profit they can make.

"Miss Fu, I don't know what you mean by that?" Yang Yuanzhi and David looked at Fu Xiaomin in confusion.

"What I mean is that your funds are used too slowly. The financing money must be spent as soon as possible. To turn the funds into real users and seize the market as soon as possible, explosive growth is required!"

This is not what Fu Xiaomin said, but what Li Weidong said. If the development is going step by step, what is the need for financing? The purpose of financing is to make great strides forward, and to obtain the best results at the fastest speed.

After the money is spent, continue to raise funds and continue to seize the market, so that it will grow bigger and bigger like a snowball.

What capital is playing is monopoly, and it must be in the first position in this industry, otherwise how can it obtain excess returns.

"Miss Fu, we spent 40 in three months, and we have achieved explosive growth. In three months, our number of users has increased tenfold. I think we are fast enough!" David heard Said anxiously.

"No, David, I think Miss Fu is right. We are still too conservative. It won't be long after our website comes out, and there will definitely be many followers!"

"If we can't get more users in the shortest time, once a follower gets more resources than us, I think we may be eliminated!"

After Yang Yuanzhi pondered for a while, he knew that Fu Xiaomin was right. The reason why they didn't dare to spend the 40 US dollars quickly was because they lacked confidence in the future.

If they were confident, they might not have asked for $50 at the beginning, but more, and they would have spent it faster.

The four of them sat around the coffee table, and the two technical men faced the two beauties, somewhat cautiously, but thinking of the purpose of coming today, they could only force their composure.

"Miss Fu, do you have any comments on the preliminary financing plan we made?" Yang Yuanzhi cheered up and asked.

"I've read it, but I think your valuation of the company is too high. The valuation has increased five times in just the past three months. I don't think my boss can accept it either!"

"Miss Fu, you should have seen in our financing plan that although our valuation has increased by five times in the past three months, our number of users has increased by ten times!"

"This is an amazing growth, you can see the growth curve, almost exponential growth, the growth will be faster and faster, I believe that in the not-too-distant future, our users will cover more than half of the Internet users!"

"The revenue these users bring us is definitely not five times ten times the revenue, so we think this valuation is very reasonable!"

Yang Yuanzhi spoke impassionedly about the speech he had memorized by heart long ago, but he really didn't have much confidence in his heart.

Sequoia Capital, which is also a venture capital, only gave them a valuation of 500 million US dollars. This originally looked down on their limelight, but now they are suddenly optimistic about them.

But Yahoo has already been targeted by Li Weidong, and it is hard to say whether Sequoia Capital still has a chance. At least for the first few rounds of financing, Li Weidong will definitely not give low-priced chips to others.

"Mr. Yang's 10% equity is 100 million US dollars. This is a bit of a joke. I know that Sequoia Capital has contacted you, but the price he offered will definitely not be so high!"

"And let me remind you two that the contract stipulates that under the same conditions, Mayfly Capital has the priority, so Sequoia Capital's bid should not be a secret to us. Of course, you can keep it a secret until the negotiation is successful!"

Fu Xiaomin was not moved by Yang Yuanzhi's speech, but smiled at them and said that they are the investment company that can give Yahoo the most suitable valuation.

Yang Yuanzhi and David looked at each other and knew that Fu Xiaomin was such an easy person to deal with, but revealed that Sequoia Capital's bid was not in their interest.

Capital has always been profit-seeking. For some newly listed technology companies, capital accounts for a large proportion of their equity, and often the founder's shares are only a small amount.

Therefore, capital is a double-edged sword, which can not only expand the territory but also cut itself.

Looking at Fu Xiaomin, Yang Yuanzhi suddenly felt that he needed some masculinity, not only for this financing, but also for a man's dignity in front of women.

"Miss Fu, you should be able to see that our portal is the most advanced in the world, and it has great investment value in itself, which is not available in other companies!"

"And we have found a way to make a profit, the growth is very fast, and financing will definitely not be difficult, and I think that this 100 million US dollars will bring Miss Fu a hundred times, a thousand times, or even more income in the future. This is not a difficult decision. !"

Looking at Yang Yuanzhi's stubborn expression, Fu Xiaomin suddenly felt that this kind of stubbornness was a bit cute, as if he had also seen this kind of stubbornness that defies everything in Li Weidong.

"Please wait a moment, I need to make a call to ask for instructions!" Fu Xiaomin pondered for a while, then said to Yang Yuanzhi and David, and at the same time nodded to her assistant, the beauty from the country of Mi. .

Fu Xiaomin felt that she still needed to call Li Weidong to report. This was not a violation of authority. This was the authority granted to her by Zou Yi. The company named by Li Weidong could just report to him directly.

(End of this chapter)