Reborn: Billionaire in College

Didi's shareholders at this time included angel investor Wang Gang, US$300 million from Jinshajiang in the A round, and US$1500 million from Tencent in the B round.

In the subsequent US$6000 million Series C financing, CITIC Industry Fund, Tencent and other institutions invested US$3000 million, US$1000 million and US$ million respectively.

Next came the ensuing Series D round of financing of US$7 million, led by Temasek, DST and Tencent.

Basically, Chen Pingjiang has secured half of the votes.

Oh, we have to count Sequoia, Neil Shen has also joined.

Now all we need to do is to get Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache to merge as soon as possible.

…………

Cheng Wei has been in a good mood these days.

After joining the company, Liu Qing demonstrated considerable talent and capital connections.

During this period, Liu Qing not only pushed Didi to take an important step from providing a single taxi business to providing diversified businesses such as private cars, but also helped Didi coordinate Temasek, DST and Sequoia.

These three companies all have top-notch capital.

"Sister Liu, I'll toast to you. You've been amazing. This time you've helped our company solve a big problem." At the celebration party, Cheng Wei toasted drunkenly.

Liu Qing is 5 years older than Cheng Wei.

In private, in order to win people's hearts, Cheng Wei affectionately called her "sister".

Liu Qing is good-looking, with a flushed face from the red wine: "It's mainly because Didi has great potential. I just made some contacts and they are all very interested."

To be honest, even Liu Qing himself was a little confused. When did it become so easy to get capital?

However, after thinking for a long time, I couldn't figure out any problem. I could only attribute it to my strong network of contacts and the potential of Didi.

Wang Gang, who was sitting opposite, frowned slightly. Even though he was a shareholder and Liu Qing was just a COO, he did not dare to be arrogant.

Whether it is business status, social connections or family background, Liu Qing beats her far.

"Mr. Liu, as far as I know, Sequoia and Temasek are shareholders of Renren and Renrengou. How could they invest in Didi? I don't quite understand."

Cheng Wei's expression didn't change, but he looked over curiously.

Unexpectedly, Liu Qing quickly smoothed the hair around his ears and explained calmly: "I am an investor. I am very familiar with this and have analyzed it. Let me explain it to you."

"First, Renren has already gone public, Renrengou has no new financing plans, and the capital also wants a better rate of return. Second, they obviously learned that Didi Dache is negotiating a merger with Kuaidi Dache. If Uber is not included, once the merger is successful, to some extent, Didi Dache and AutoNavi will form a duopoly. Haha, let me test Mr. Cheng, what is the purpose of the capital doing this?"

Cheng Wei thought about it and gave a tentative answer: "Does the capital want us to fight to the death with Didi and AutoNavi, so that Renren.com can raise funds and force us to raise funds? If they advance, they can hold more shares. If they retreat, they can also absorb all the active money in the industry and wean off the later competitors?"

Liu Qing looked at Cheng Wei with satisfaction and nodded: "Not bad. Refer to the group buying war of that year. Lashou, Meituan, and Renrengou almost sucked the entire industry's front-end. No one dared to invest in the third. Continuing from the above, the third point is to increase the volume and not put all eggs in one basket, whether it is hedging risks or decentralization. This market is large enough to accommodate AutoNavi and Didi."

Wang Gang didn't say anything else, but lowered his head to think.

Liu Qing is right, maybe I'm just overthinking it?

What made Cheng Wei unhappy was that after successfully raising funds, his good luck seemed to have run out soon after.

The next day when I arrived at the company, I heard two pieces of bad news.

"Is Baidu crazy? Why doesn't it invest in us with so much money? They already have their own taxi-hailing platform, but they use the money to invest in Uber. It's really driving me crazy." After hearing the news, Cheng Wei burst into curses in the office.

Liu Qing also seemed helpless.

Baidu, you always do things in an unconventional way.

Robin Li still has a lot of money.

"This is probably an accident. Maybe their taxi platform doesn't have a high market share, so Robin Li is a little anxious. But it's also true that Baidu has money. According to my sources, Baidu is also in talks with NetDragon to acquire 91 Wireless."

Hearing this, Cheng Wei almost collapsed, but he stopped cursing because he was speechless.

After a long while, he said, "It has to be a wealthy family! The money spent is hundreds of millions."

Liu Qing said: "After this incident, we have to speed up negotiations with Kuaidi Taxi. Uber took 600 million US dollars and now has direct access to Baidu's taxi platform. With the support of Baidu Maps, the situation is instantly different. If, I mean if, AutoNavi also connects to Uber, it will be difficult to deal with."

At this point, Liu Qing changed the subject: "However, this also provides us with a great opportunity. We are anxious, and so is Alibaba. Alibaba will also feel the pressure, so perhaps the merger will be easier to discuss."

As the two were talking, bad news came again.

Uber announced that it has passed the review of the AutoNavi taxi platform and has officially joined AutoNavi taxi platform and will provide services to users in Shanghai.

Liu Qing: "..."

Cheng Wei: "..."

What happened today? Are both of them crazy?

Two online ride-hailing integrators that combine maps and ride-hailing platforms have accepted potential competitor Uber at the same time?

Baidu even gave back 600 million US dollars?
Could this world get any more absurd?

Liu Qing keenly realized: "I guess they all know that we want to merge with Kuaidi, and they are actually targeting us. The purpose is to help Uber and then let Uber and us fight to the death."

Cheng Wei's face darkened, and he nodded speechlessly: "Then let's do as they wish. Lower the conditions and the merger must be successful, otherwise our life will be even more difficult."

…………

The pressure is put on Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache.

But Chen Pingjiang did not expect Baidu to disrupt the situation.

History has returned to the right direction.

"Mr. Li is still very wealthy. He invested 600 million in Uber. I am impressed!"

Baidu is still the same Baidu, without any change.

The reputation of the boy who gives away money is well-deserved.

He gave the six hundred million without blinking an eye.

In a month or so, it will spend another 19 billion US dollars to acquire 91 Wireless Assistant.

This move was later jokingly called by the business community the most tragic failed acquisition in history, and the company lost all its money.

Faced with Baidu's disruption, Chen Pingjiang was so frustrated that he had no choice but to follow suit and let Uber in, thereby putting pressure on Didi and forcing them to merge earlier.

In fact, the reason why Robin Li planned to acquire shares in Uber one year in advance was because of Chen Pingjiang.

Although Baidu has its own taxi-hailing platform, its market share has not increased. Now that Uber has arrived, Baidu is just in time to invest in it along with its money and maps.

Uber is an outsider, and the local tycoons are willing to accept it and naturally welcome it with open arms. This way, localization will be smoother and it will not suffer from acclimatization.

On the other hand, inspired by driverless cars, Baidu's investment in Uber is equivalent to making early preparations.

However, this also indirectly helped Chen Pingjiang.

Now the pressure is really more appropriate.

Both Kuaidi and Didi started to panic.

When Shen Nanpeng saw the news that Baidu invested in Uber, he was so scared that he immediately called Chen Pingjiang.

"Brother, you are such a ruthless person! Is this the pressure and back-up plan you mentioned? Awesome! How did you convince Baidu to invest in Uber? I can't believe it. Baidu was bullied by you a while ago, but now it listens to you?"

The reason why Shen Nanpeng said this is because the timing of Baidu's move coincided with the time mentioned by Chen Pingjiang.

Other things may be so coincidental, but he doesn't believe that such a big deal can be so coincidental.

There is no doubt that it was Chen Pingjiang who persuaded Li Yanhong.

Shen Nanpeng fills in the blanks on his own.

I became more and more in awe of Chen Pingjiang.

I don't understand, I really don't understand.

The one who is even more incomprehensible is Baidu.
Still obedient!
He really wanted to ask Li Yanhong what kind of benefits Chen Pingjiang gave you in exchange to make you forget the hurt you suffered some time ago and be willing to be slaughtered.

…………

"The real strategy is what goals and mission the company wants to achieve. For Baidu, the strategy in mobile Internet is 'connecting people and services'," said Robin Li.

July 4nd.

Baidu Chairman Robin Li, who usually does not attend any investment conferences, appeared in the Baidu Building Wufujiangzhongtian Conference Room. He specially prepared a 3D printed Baidu smart bicycle model and gave it to Baidu's latest partner, Travis Kalanick, the founder and CEO of Uber, the originator of taxi-hailing software.

Today, Baidu and Uber's cross-border investment was finally revealed. The two parties signed a strategic cooperation and investment agreement in Beijing, and Uber announced that it would accept Baidu's investment. The two parties reached a global cooperation: including technology entrepreneurship, opening up international markets and expanding China's O2O services.

Facing the camera, Li Yanhong was all smiles and was very satisfied with his masterpiece.

"In the era of mobile Internet, Baidu's strategy is to 'connect people and services'. And the services people need are nothing more than those related to 'food, clothing, housing and transportation'. Uber represents the 'transportation' in 'food, clothing, housing and transportation'."

Lao Li revealed that he had planned to invest in Uber last year, when he went to Silicon Valley and visited Uber. It was from that time that he and Travis began to discuss the strategic cooperation between Baidu and Uber.

Lao Li believes that Baidu and Uber may be the first time in history that a Chinese Internet company and an American Internet company have engaged in in-depth cooperation, rather than just a cross-border investment behavior.

Old Li was very pleased with himself at this time.

The payment market has long been divided up by Alibaba and WeChat. Now it has invested in Uber. After the cooperation, Uber's local services in China will be integrated into Baidu's unique services such as Baidu Maps and Baidu Wallet.

Not only can it appropriately increase the market share of Baidu Wallet, but it can also promote Baidu Maps.

The key is that Uber itself is quite strong, with a valuation of 400 billion US dollars. It will definitely go public in the future, so at least it will not lose this money.

From this perspective, it's a win no matter what.

Travis from Uber also thought he had made a profit, but he was worried that after entering the Chinese market, he had no local allies, which led to some difficulties in adapting to the local environment.

Now with the support of Baidu Maps, we can definitely compete with Gaode, Alibaba and even Tencent.

A deal that everyone is satisfied with.

…………

As the largest investment institution, Alibaba obviously has the most say on whether Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache can merge.

If Alibaba does not want to merge, then I am afraid this merger will fail.

The good thing is that there are already some complaints about Kuaidi within Alibaba.

The two companies have spent so much money in the subsidy war, but they are still far from achieving their goal of defeating Didi. Not to mention that there is also AutoNavi, which is eyeing them covetously, and Uber, the jackal, has also come.

Uber's market value is already 400 billion. Once it is listed on the Nasdaq ahead of schedule, Didi and Kuaidi will not only become more passive in the capital market, but the costs of future innovation and market expansion will also be greatly increased.

It is natural that people would be dissatisfied when they spend a lot of money but fail to achieve the expected results. Peng Lei even said that Kuaidi’s role in the offline expansion of Alipay is becoming increasingly weak.

Not only Alibaba is anxious, but other shareholders are also anxious.

In the conference room, Ma had a very dark face. After seeing the news about Baidu investing in Uber, no one would be happy.

"The business cooperation between Alibaba and Kuaidi is mainly undertaken by Alipay, with the purpose of increasing the frequency, depth and breadth of payments. Now, we have spared no effort for Kuaidi, but Kuaidi is wavering between independent development, integration into Alibaba and merger with Didi."

These are some serious words, but fortunately it is an internal matter.

It pointed out what Lu Chuanwei was thinking.

Always ambiguous and hesitant.

It is unwilling to completely sell itself to Alibaba and lose its dominance, nor is it willing to merge with Didi and be sidelined. However, independent development is too expensive.

When he said this, Lao Ma glanced at Jing Xiandong who was sitting next to him.

At an internal Alipay meeting yesterday afternoon, Jing Xiandong lost his temper and shouted on the spot: "Business staff who support Kuaidi, please stand up."

Five or six people stood up at that time.

Jing Xiandong said directly, you don't need to hold a meeting. Go out and solve the problem.

There are many similar things. The essential question is whether the high-frequency travel business is an application scenario of Alipay, an integral part of Alibaba’s core business, or an independent third pole?
There are different opinions within Alipay on the attitude towards Kuaidi Taxi.

After a long while, Ma made the final decision: "Let's give Lü Chuanwei an ultimatum. Either we completely merge into Alipay, and we will be responsible for the operation of the platform, and he can take the money and leave; or we will not invest a penny, and he can do whatever he wants!"

On that day, upon receiving the news, Lu Chuanwei, the head of Kuaidi Taxi, remained silent.

Threat from Ali!
I won’t give you any money. No money means it’s impossible to keep going fast.

After hesitating for so long, Lu Chuanwei lost interest for a moment.

Since he has to sell it anyway, it doesn't matter who he sells it to. He would rather sell it to Didi and get a co-CEO position than sell it to Alibaba and leave.

It’s nothing, I just can’t afford to lose face.

Uber enters China, Baidu invests in Uber, AutoNavi connects to Uber, Alibaba cuts off supply, and Didi urges.

Under the impact of this series of events, Didi and Kuaidi started the third round of negotiations.

This time the negotiations were somewhat different from previous ones.

Cheng Wei is an ambitious CEO and is very insistent that he will be in charge of the management after the merger. Other things can be discussed.

Lu Chuanwei has always hoped that Kuaidi would develop independently, and if it were to merge with Didi, he also hoped that his team would master the core business. But at the moment, he doesn't have much leverage because of the falling out with Alibaba.

This time the negotiation will take place in Shenzhen!
Just like warring countries in the world always have to find a neutral location for negotiations, Kuaidi Dache’s headquarters is in Hangzhou and Didi Dache’s headquarters is in Beijing, so Shenzhen was chosen as the location for this negotiation.

In fact, strictly speaking, Tencent’s headquarters is also in Shenzhen. This is not fair, after all, everyone now thinks that Tencent is still the father of Didi.

Only Chen Pingjiang and Xiao Ma Ge knew what was going on.

Except for the initial B round of 1500 million US dollars which was invested by Pony Ma himself, in fact the subsequent C and D rounds were invested by Chen Pingjiang. Chen Pingjiang also spent money, and a lot of it.

Although Xiao Ma Ge roughly knew Chen Pingjiang's intention, Chen Pingjiang did not treat him unfairly.

The 1500 million became 3000 million and was sent back.

Xiao Ma Ge didn't feel uncomfortable at all, at least he didn't suffer any loss, and if the equity had not been transferred to Chen Pingjiang, Chen Pingjiang would not have brought about such a result.

The money was nominally given by Tencent, but in fact it was given by Chen Pingjiang.

The contract was signed in the name of Tencent, but in fact Tencent and Chen Pingjiang were bound by other private agreements.

That is, equity holding on behalf of others.

If it is a transfer of equity, other shareholders of Didi Chuxing must be informed, which is not conducive to Chen Pingjiang's plan.

However, there is no need to inform other shareholders of the company about holding shares on behalf of others.

It is worth mentioning that Chen Pingjiang currently does not have the right to vote and cannot exercise his shareholder rights because other shareholders are not aware of it.

Although the only shareholders who were unaware of this were Cheng Wei and Wang Gang...

If Chen Pingjiang wants to become a visible shareholder, he needs to obtain the consent of more than half of the other shareholders.

This is nothing to him. Except for Wang Gang and Cheng Wei, everyone else in Didi is Chen Pingjiang's people.

Zhu Xiaohu of Jinshajiang Venture Capital has also defected to the enemy.

There is no way, capital always seeks profit and avoids harm.

Everyone knew that when Chen Pingjiang came in, they would have a big meal.

Zhu Xiaohu has long wanted to follow Chen Pingjiang and eat meat. No, he would even be happy to eat shit.

Didn’t you see how happily Shen Nanpeng enjoyed his meal?

Zhu Xiaohu invested only 300 million US dollars in Didi. Although he entered early, he is just a younger brother.

If he sells it now and pays Chen Pingjiang, not only can he earn more money in the new company, but Chen Pingjiang can also take him to continue to eat in the future!

Even a fool knows how to choose. (End of this chapter)