Rebirth

In the end, Li Feng took Zac and Bob, and the three headed towards Silicon Valley.

For this trip to Silicon Valley, Li Feng actually had three goals. One is to find a mortgage to find a guarantor; the other is to find a line to connect with Netscape; and the third is to understand the progress of Netscape’s IPO. Prepare yourself for investing in Netscape.

For the above three purposes, it can be regarded as relying on venture capital institutions. After all, companies like Netscape generally accept venture capital at the beginning. It will be very convenient if Sequoia Capital can help them contact.

At the same time, whether it was Mark Anderson, Sequoia's Michael Moritz, Don Valentine, or KPCB's Dul John, all had a chill in their backs.

Li Feng named his trip as a wealth search trip, thinking that if he can get the loan and get some shares before Netscape's IPO, isn't it a veritable wealth search trip?

For Netscape, Li Feng is already coveted. He has been planning since he went online to invest in Yahoo, just for this day.

Although Li Feng does not know when Netscape will go public, it has already entered April, and it should be coming soon.

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Speaking of Netscape going public, it's the IPO (initial public offering) of American companies.Recently, Li Feng has made up some basic knowledge in this area.After all, I may come into contact with this area frequently in the future, but I still need to understand it.

At this time, I don’t know which stage Netscape’s listing plan has reached. Perhaps it should have been looking for investment banks to start "baking." Investment banks often call the entire process of a company's IPO as a "baking contest."

Once a company is ready to go public, the company already has the conditions for "baking", that is, the process of winning the competition for the underwriting of pre-listed companies.

In fact, many places are directly called "beauty pageants." Investment banking companies enter the conference rooms of companies that want to be listed one by one to promote and offer their own services, hoping to undertake the IPO process.

It feels like a corporate beauty pageant. The “beauties” here are investment banks. At this time, companies take the initiative, and the corresponding price is much smaller.

Of course, under the premise that listed companies are generally optimistic, those investment banks will compete.

However, if, on the contrary, the investment banks of listed companies are not very optimistic, the reverse will happen at this time. The companies have to find investment banks, hoping to go public through the operation of investment banks.

At this time, the initiative is in the investment bank, and the corresponding price is even greater.

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For example, the previous life was like listing in A, and the whole world was optimistic about its prospects. At that time, basically the big investment banks in the world would go to Ali. At this time, Ali took the initiative and can choose calmly.

The Alibaba management team chose the one that is most suitable for them as the winner. This winner becomes the leading investment bank in the Alibaba IPO prospectus. Often, some large-scale corporate IPOs are not just an investment bank, but many are several investment banks.

One of them acts as a leading investment bank, which gives control and most of the compensation to the investment bank’s underwriting team.

According to legends in the past, Ali paid 300 million U.S. dollars to the underwriting team of the investment bank. Therefore, whoever will become the leading investment bank can get the most benefit from this compensation.

It can be said that from the very beginning, investment banks have started to compete for the position of leading investment banks.

For Netscape, although Li Feng from later generations is very clear about his pomp after going public, others do not know.

As far as Li Feng currently knows, the Internet boom-bubble feast has not really started yet, and no one knows what the stock price will look like after the listing, except for Li Feng.

Netscape, as the first Internet company to go public, is actually not very insurable in the eyes of investment banks. Therefore, if Netscape goes public for an IPO, it is estimated that Netscape should ask investment banks like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley for help.

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After talking about the first stage, the next second stage is that the leading investment bank will submit an S-1 (prospectus) document to the SEC (US Securities and Exchange Commission) for the pre-listed company.

This document contains a description of the specific situation of the pre-listed company, including business, legal, commercial branch lines, funds to be raised, financial status, management team evaluation, etc.

The SEC will then disclose the information of the pre-listed company and solicit opinions. Generally, this process takes several months.At the same time, this time is also the time to show the strength of investment banks.

The third stage is the so-called "road show", which is actually a process of dividend distribution.

Investment banks will produce relevant information about pre-listed companies and show them to some investment institutions, funds, and even individuals. These investors will buy some shares before going public.

The roadshow usually lasts about 7-10 days, which includes talks between investors and corporate management; institutional investors will indicate how many shares they want to buy at what price, and then investment banks will record this information in a book, that is, building the book. .

After the roadshow, the investment bank will begin to allocate shares, which will take into account the stability and liquidity of the stock price.

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The final step is pricing, which is to determine the listing price.

Generally, this price will be much higher than those purchased by investment institutions and investors during the previous roadshow. This is why I say that the roadshow is a process of dividends.

The shares circulating in the stock market can be bought on the stock market as ordinary stockholders. When the stock price rises, it proves to be a successful IPO. If the final stock price is lower than the issue price, it is a failed IPO.

"FB" in the previous life seems to be very bullish, with a market value of hundreds of billions, but many people may not know that "FB" is known as one of the most failed IPOs in history.The original issue price was 42 US dollars, but the stock price fell to 38 US dollars that day, breaking the issue price.

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And Li Feng's goal this time is to see if he can buy some shares through venture capital institutions before the roadshow or even earlier, or contact Netscape directly to see if he can buy them directly.

According to the current situation, the Internet tide has not yet started. Under unclear circumstances, if Li Feng can loan enough money, he may even contact Netscape directly and is willing to take up a portion of the shares.

For both Netscape and investment banks, they may support Li Feng's proposal to reduce the risk of IPO.

After all, if the IPO fails, the reputation of both investment banks and listed companies will have a huge impact.

Of course, if there is no way to buy the previous shares, then you can only invest in the stock market. Taking into account the situation of Netscape, it may be able to increase the income by 1, 2, or even several times.

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Li Feng is also thinking about it. I don’t know what Netscape’s issuance price is. If you buy a few million shares at a low price, you will really get rich, and it will be a big fortune.

Thinking of this, Li Feng couldn't help but laugh. Really, he was thinking about buying stocks before he got the loan. He couldn't help feeling depressed. He was still too poor. Otherwise, he didn't have to be so troublesome.