Wind Rises 2005

Chapter 573: Stay somewhere cool

The real world is far more magical than movies and novels, and it often feels unbelievable.

Just two days after the dinner, TechCrunch, a well-known American technology media, released an exclusive message, confirming Facebook’s official plan to acquire Twitter.

At first, everyone just thought it was Xiaoza classmate setting off a smoke bomb, but they didn't expect that guy to actually do it for real.

As soon as this news came out, the entire Silicon Valley was completely boiling.

Countless entrepreneurs are envious and hate that the company Facebook plans to acquire is not their own.

After all, we are in the midst of the subprime mortgage crisis, so financing is extremely difficult.

Countless investors are also gnashing their teeth, blaming themselves for being blind and failing to invest early in Twitter’s previous rounds of financing.

The reason why everyone can believe that Zuckerberg is serious this time is because the news not only confirmed the proposal to acquire Twitter, but also announced that Facebook has closed the financing window.

The news confirmed that Facebook raised a total of US$6 million in the entire Series C financing.

In other words, since the last news that Microsoft invested US$2.4 million, Xiaoza has raised another US$3.6 million in financing.

With so much money, no wonder he has the strength to declare that he wants to acquire Twitter.

For a time, Facebook quickly overshadowed Twitter and once again became the most eye-catching presence in the venture capital circle in the United States and even the world.

After all, no matter how great the technology industry is, it still needs capital to support it.

In an era when capital is king, valuations and cash reserves speak for themselves.

With $6 million in hand and a valuation of $150 billion, Facebook is still one of the sexiest technology startups in the world.

Countless melon-eaters began to watch again, wanting to see how Twitter would respond.

After all, Zuckerberg has played his trump card, and now the pressure is on the Big Four of Twitter.

But what the outside world doesn’t know is what price Facebook paid for this big move.

Although according to public information, Facebook's valuation is as high as 150 billion US dollars.

But the actual situation is that in order to raise more money, Xiaoza did not hesitate to offend all previous investors and lowered the valuation to obtain more funds.

But even if he is willing to do this, in the US venture capital circle, most investment institutions are still waiting to see, and few are willing to help in times of need.

Zuckerberg had no choice but to turn his attention to the world.

Finally, he contacted DST Fund, which had been interested in Facebook, and he did not hesitate to make a deal with this venture capital institution from the country of polar bears.

You must know that in the American technology industry, it is also very worrying to accept fund support from Lao Maozi.

Once it's not done well, it's easy to fix it.

The so-called free trade market in North America is also conditional, and it is impossible for any country to achieve true capital freedom.

Zuckerberg wouldn't have made this move if he hadn't been forced to do so.

The reason why DST Fund is willing to agree to invest is also to get a big deal.After all, the valuation reported by Facebook is much lower than when it received investment from Microsoft.

When Microsoft invested US$2.4 million, Facebook was valued at US$150 billion.

With the advent of the subprime mortgage crisis and the strong rise of Twitter, the capital market is only willing to value Facebook at US$30-60 billion this year.

This is equivalent to the valuation being directly cut by more than half, which makes the investment institutions that had previously invested in Facebook feel aggrieved.

As it turned out, DST Fund truly lived up to its tycoon temperament. It directly invested US$100 million in Facebook at a valuation of US$2 billion, and also bought a lot of shares from previous investors.

Of course, it was acquired from previous investors at a valuation of US$60 billion.

In order to acquire these old shares, DST paid a total of US$4 million.Overall, DST's capital tycoons still feel they got a bargain.

In their concept, Facebook's basic base is still there, and as long as they provide enough financial support, they can win this social war.

Even if you can't win, you can persevere with the money.

And if it develops for a few more years, it may eventually be acquired by Twitter or Microsoft. This wave of investment will definitely not be a loss.

From the perspective of capital operation, DST's capital bosses are not wrong in their analysis.

There is no problem with Zuckerberg's proposal to acquire Twitter. After all, in the second half of 2008 in Ma Liang's previous life, Facebook did the same thing.

It's just that in this life, due to the strong rise of Twitter, Xiaoza's offer was higher.All this was not known to outsiders, and everyone was once again shocked by Zuckerberg's handiwork.

After all, except Facebook shareholders, no one would know that he greatly lowered the valuation to complete Series C financing, and also raised more money.

Therefore, the outside world will only think that Xiaozha's classmate is awesome and has turned the tide.

You must know that for a start-up company, the ability to finance and capitalize is also a very important competitive indicator.

If founders are lacking in this aspect, they will still be looked down upon by the capital market.

After all, there are too many technology companies in the United States that are very good at technology but not doing well. General Magic, the former Silicon Valley legend, is a good example.

The company is a creative and technologically talented company.

But because they didn’t know how to speculate on concepts, they couldn’t raise too much money, and eventually their talents were lost. They benefited other technology companies in Silicon Valley and picked up a large number of technically mature executives.

You must know that Qiao Gangzhu’s ideas for making iPod and iPhone were all borrowed from General Magic.

Tony Fadell, the father of the iPod, joined General Magic in 1991.

The technical experts at General Magic made a prototype of a smartphone in the 90s.

But so what, no matter how awesome a technology company is, it still needs capital support.

Just like Tony Fadell was not reused at General Magic. He wasted in the workplace for many years. He also started his own business several times, but never achieved much.

But later he went to Apple and was appreciated by Gang Leader Qiao, who soon led the team to create the iPod.

Therefore, capital strength is the prerequisite for everything, otherwise it is just talk on paper.

Zuckerberg's financing operation can be said to be the essence of the game in the venture capital circle, and it is so cool.

The pressure was instantly placed on Twitter, and the outside world was waiting to see the show.

The battle of the kings of the social circuit is on the rise again, and everyone is waiting to see what kind of exciting plot this show will bring.

Many media also swarmed in and sent interview requests to Twitter, hoping to get first-hand information from the Big Four.

Twitter, on the other hand, scoffed, and no one took it seriously at all.

With the current situation, it is only a matter of time before Twitter surpasses Facebook, and this will not have any impact due to the intervention of capital.

But in the face of being chased and intercepted by various reporters, Jack Dorsey and the others were miserable.

In the end, Ivan Williams came forward and accepted an exclusive interview with a reporter from the veteran technology media CNET, which made this melon-eating drama even more climactic.

"Mr. Ivan, do you have any response to Facebook's acquisition proposal?"

The beautiful reporter from CNET was very anxious. When she asked this question, she really wished that Twitter could reveal more shocking news.

Evan Williams was calm and calm at the moment and responded calmly: “Our response is to let Facebook and Zuckerberg go away and stay where they can!
If he wanted to acquire us, his price plus two zeros would be enough.

That guy knows how to hype things all day long and doesn’t do anything serious at all. If he has this time, it’s better to increase Facebook’s revenue to be real.

But our Twitter is different. We will completely turn a profit by next month. Please wait and see our official announcement! "

"What, turn a profit?"

The beautiful reporter was shocked. She never expected to receive such violent information.

You must know that once an Internet company declares that it has turned a profit, it is definitely the biggest good news, and it is more important than raising several hundred million US dollars.

Because this means that people no longer need to burn money all the time and have the ability to make their own blood.

It was precisely because of this that the original Google company became a god, and it almost didn't even raise much money before it went public.

Is Twitter going to take such an unfavorable path? This news is too exciting.

Seeing the shocked look on the beautiful reporter’s face, Ivan Williams responded calmly and proudly: “Of course, our products have been recognized by users all over the world.

What does it mean to turn a loss into a profit?
By the end of the year, our financial report will definitely drive the entire capital market crazy..."

Big Ivan was very confident when he said these words, not only because of the previous performance of the Twitter website, but because they still have a big move that they have not released yet.
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PS: Yesterday I adjusted my schedule and went to bed very early. I woke up early in the morning and got up to code. I posted the two chapters together.

If my work and rest are normal, I will update more. Thank you for your support!

(End of this chapter)