Winning the new financial era

Chapter 447 Penguin's Moat
10 billion US dollars, can also be all cash.

After listening to Zhang Yida's conditions, Mao Wenchao and Qu Fang admitted that they were tempted.

The current market valuation of Xiaohongshu is around US$15 billion.

However, all-cash mergers and acquisitions with some discounts are also common means in the industry.

Xiaohongshu has been established for four or five years, and it has never made a profit. It has tried many businesses such as direct e-commerce and e-commerce shopping guides, but it cannot make any money.

If you can't make money, you can only tell stories to fool venture capital: We want to be large-scale, and we want to be China's Ins and so on.

But how long this story can be told, whether it can really usher in the day of listing, and whether it will fall into a dog after listing, these are hard to say.

The two looked at each other, and Qu Fang said, "Yida, add a little more, how about 15 billion dollars?"

Go to the fucking ideal!

Zhang Yida cursed secretly, if you are not satisfied with the price, you should speak up earlier!

I foolishly talked to you about my ideals for a long time, and said that I would take Xiaohongshu to sea and enjoy the scenery of the whole world.

15 billion US dollars, the price is not outrageous.Zhang Yida remembers that in his previous life, next year, Xiaohongshu completed the US$3 million D round of financing led by Ali and followed by Penguin, with a post-investment valuation of over US$30 billion.

Since then, the market has continued to report valuations of US$50 billion and US$60 billion, but Xiaohongshu has not yet completed a new round of financing.

The biggest problem should still be a bottleneck, and the room for imagination is already very limited.

In addition, Zhang Yida also heard that Ali has been buying Xiaohongshu to strengthen the e-commerce traffic entrance.

How can this work?We must not let Xiaohongshu join Ahri's camp.

Although Xiaohongshu is good, Zhang Yida won't bother if he can bargain down the price.After all, the funds of Zhonghe Group are tight now, and it is a little bit to save a little.

After negotiating with Qu Fang and Mao Wenchao for a while, Zhang Yida was very firm. It was only 10 billion U.S. dollars, and there would be no more.

Qu Fang and Mao Wenchao looked at each other, and the latter said: "We don't want all cash, half equity plus half cash, so can the price be raised?"

In the eyes of many people, Zhonghe Group is a crumbling ship.

But Qu Fang and Mao Wenchao had witnessed the whole process of Zhang Yida's rise, and they had great confidence in Zhang Yida's further miracle.

Zhang Yida's face softened. He had done a lot of stock exchange operations, so he naturally knew the pros and cons of it.

The company has a lot of cash in its account, and the project prospect is also particularly good. Naturally, spending cash is better than exchanging shares;
However, in the current state of Zhonghe Group, stock exchange is the most rational way of trading.

Saving a little more cash and spending it on other businesses can also enhance the strength of Zhonghe Group in all aspects to a greater extent.

In the end, Zhang Yida and the two chatted again, and reached a compromise on the merger price of 13 billion US dollars.

Zhonghe Group acquired Xiaohongshu in the form of "US$6.5 million in cash and an additional US$6.5 million in shares".

Penguin is also a shareholder of Xiaohongshu, but its shareholding ratio is less than 10%, and it does not have a veto power.

Although there was a negative vote on the board of directors of Xiaohongshu, it could not prevent the sale of Xiaohongshu.

After the acquisition of Xiaohongshu, Zhonghe Group's cash reserves fell below $40 billion again.

In addition, Zhonghe Group issued an additional US$633 million in shares to all shareholders of Xiaohongshu at a valuation of US$6.5 billion, accounting for about 1.03% of the total share capital of the entire Zhonghe Group.

Qu Fang and Mao Wenchao each obtained 0.1%-0.2% of Zhonghe Group's equity.

After the work handover is completed, the two will fade out from Xiaohongshu.It doesn't matter whether you start a business again, or become an investor, it's up to them.

However, there is also a non-competition agreement restriction, which prohibits businesses in content and e-commerce within five years.

These are the basic operations of mergers and acquisitions to prevent the original founder from taking away various resources of the company and start anew, and the merger and acquisition party finally bought an empty shell.

After issuing an additional US$6.5 million of shares, Zhang Yida's personal shareholding ratio also decreased, from 60.09% to 59.47%.

This shareholding ratio is still much higher than his shareholding ratio in Ruixiang.

After the latter completed financing of US$66.6666 billion, his shareholding was only 34.36%.

After Xiaohongshu was acquired, it and Pinduoduo belonged to the e-commerce business group of Zhonghe Group.

Zhonghe Group attaches great importance to Xiaohongshu and wants to make it an e-commerce platform different from Pinduoduo, focusing on young female users.

In fact, in the user portraits of Xiaohongshu, nearly 90% of the users on the platform are women, and the age group is concentrated in the 18-35 age group.

Many of these users overlap with Douyin, so Zhang Yida decided to connect the two platforms.

Doushi plus Xiaohongshu, Kuaishou plus Pinduoduo, forming two pairs of CPs.

Why build a dual e-commerce platform strategy?The main purpose is to target mid-to-high-end users, and Pinduoduo is currently unable to do this job.

Of course, live broadcast e-commerce is not achieved overnight.

The GMV produced by Taobao Live only accounts for a very small part of Ali’s entire e-commerce system.

This industry is far from ushering in an explosion.

What Zhang Yida did was to lay the foundation slowly and grab traffic everywhere.

……

"Pony, SoftBank has talked to us a dozen times.

They are willing to take over Ruixiang's shareholding at a 8% discount; for Zhonghe's shareholding, they are only willing to take over... a 6% discount. "

Speaking of this, Liu Zhiping was also full of indignation.Softbank took advantage of the fire and robbed it, it was simply bullying the goose too much.

Knowing that the relationship between Penguin, Zhonghe Group, and even Zhang Yida had deteriorated, Penguin was eager to cash out the equity, so he kept hanging Penguin and bargaining in various ways.

It's been almost two months, and the negotiations still haven't made any substantive progress.

Bonima also covered his forehead, distressed.It’s almost 2018, and the equity of Ruixiang Hezhonghe just can’t be sold.

Selling according to Softbank's quotation, compared with investing, Penguin is actually not losing money.

But Ponima just couldn't swallow this breath!

Ming Mingrui Xianghe Zhonghe is still alive and kicking, especially Zhonghe, which also holds Lagou.com and merged with Xiaohongshu. How can there be any decline?
Ponymar asked again: "What about other investment institutions?"

Liu Zhiping frowned tightly, shook his head and said, "I can't eat it at all. Gao Ling is only willing to eat 10 billion US dollars. CDH is more willing to buy 20 billion US dollars, but they only want the shares of Ruixiang, and let us give us a 8% discount. "

"Fuck, each of these funds is better than a dog!"

Liu Zhiping sighed, the order was wrong, the equity should be sold first, and then the conflict should be made public.

Well now, even if the shares are sold, there will be a lot of losses.

But he didn't dare to accuse Bonima, he could only slander in his heart.

"Contact a few more funds, a few funds will not work, and dozens of fund head offices?"

Liu Zhiping shook his head again, "It's useless, how many VCs are willing to enter a company worth tens of billions of dollars?

Even if Ruixiang and Zhonghe have no problems in the future, what is the rate of return? "

"Is there any PE contact abroad?"

"Contacted." Liu Zhiping said, "But most of them are already shareholders of Ruixiang, and they are unwilling to increase their holdings.

In the case of Zhonghe, these PEs are not very optimistic, and the price offered is lower than that of Softbank. "

Ponima pondered for a while, and then said: "Continue to negotiate the price with Softbank. By the end of December, no matter what, all the shares will have to be cleared."

Liu Zhiping nodded. There is still more than a month to go, and he is sure that Softbank will raise the price by another [-]%.

As for more, he has no idea.

"PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is going to be launched domestically?" Bonima asked again.

"Yes, the preheating has been started on multiple platforms such as Douvision, Kuaishou, Station B, and Panda Live."

Ponima was stunned for a moment when he heard the live broadcast of the panda, and asked with a smile, "The panda that Xiao Wang made?"

Liu Zhiping nodded.

Bonima shook his head again and again, and sighed, "Zhang Yida has really gone back more and more, wrapped up with such a person!"

Liu Zhiping also said: "Although Xiao Wang is a bit independent, he still has some influence in the e-sports circle.

Not only did he post multiple Weibo posts to help promote PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, but he also asked his e-sports club to organize a team..."

After hearing this, Ponima's face was as gloomy as water.Games are the lifeblood of penguins!

Zhang Yida's overwhelming promotion of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, is he trying to keep fighting with the penguins?

The pros and cons of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds have been verified in the PC version.As long as the mobile game is not too bad, it should also be a hit.

He said: "To speed up the research and development progress of Tianmei and Photon, we must launch our own battle royale game before Zhonghe."

Liu Zhiping said with a smile: "We fought with Zhonghe Group, but NetEase took advantage of it. I heard that Operation Wilderness will be launched soon."

Bonnie laughed and said: "Ding Sanshi looks harmless to humans and animals, but he likes to do these little tricks.

Now Zhang Yida is having a headache. I want to see how much market PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds can steal from us and NetEase. "

Liu Zhiping also had a smile on his face. Anyway, PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and they didn't get an exclusive agent. They are happy to see multiple NetEases come to attack Zhonghe Games.

In the domestic game market, in recent years, Penguin and NetEase have been the leaders in the executive industry.

Now that there is an extra crowd to share the cake, everyone naturally has to unanimously point their guns to the outside world.

On the side of the couch, how can you allow others to snore and sleep!
Bonima asked: "I heard that Rocket Video has a variety show, what is it called Rocket Girl 101? Is that the name?"

"That's right, it's a girl group audition, and the copyright was bought from South Korea."

Liu Zhiping added: "iQiyi has also organized a male group audition called Idol Trainees, should our Penguin Video also follow up? Make a few online comprehensives yourself?
Originally, Penguin Video lagged behind iQiyi.At this time, we should not take it lightly, and we must hurry up to catch up. "

Ponima nodded, "Look at the arrangement!"

"Oh, right."

Liu Zhiping suddenly remembered something, and said to Ponima: Zhonghe Chinese Website and Zhonghe Animation have also developed independent apps and officially started operations.

I heard that they came to poach authors from our platform. Many platinum and master writers were harassed by the headhunters sent by Zhonghe Group. "

"Is there such a thing?"

Ponima was a little restless.What the hell, all the headhunters have been sent out, it seems that the Zhonghe Group is doing a lot.

"Strict precautions must be taken, and they cannot be allowed to poach people. If necessary, the contract must also be changed, and people must be retained.

Web texts are the upstream of IP. Without web texts, how can there be comics, games, and web drama adaptations.

For big entertainment, online literature is the key, and it must not be messed up. "

Liu Zhiping said with a smile: "Don't worry, for a site that has just opened, there are only a few people who haven't made it to the street to try their luck.

For other famous writers, who is willing to give up a stable income of millions or tens of millions to try their luck on a small station with an uncertain future?

Last year, we distributed nearly 10 billion yuan in manuscript fees, and more than 100 writers had manuscript fees exceeding 100 million yuan.

Now our novel website has formed an ecology, the foundation is very stable, and it is not so easy to be shaken. "

Bonima felt relieved, and asked again: "Is there any movement in Zhonghe Music?"

Liu Zhiping shook his head: "I only registered the trademark, but I haven't started to operate it yet, so I don't know what calculations I'm making.

Don't be afraid of them even if you start operations, the copyright alone will kill them.

Take Netease Cloud Music as an example, how good is the user experience and community atmosphere?
I can’t hear the song I want to hear, aren’t you pushing the user out? "

Bonima sighed and said with a smile: "It seems that the efforts of these years have not been in vain. The moat has been dug deep enough to make it difficult for latecomers to cross."

Liu Zhiping nodded slightly, and said with a smile: "Pony, you have a long-term vision and made relevant arrangements early on. Otherwise, how could there be such a prosperous penguin today?"

Bonnie laughed out loud, he was all his own, but in fact he didn't need to flatter so loudly.

(End of this chapter)