Chapter 653 Persevering

   "Sorry, Mr. Zhong, although the conditions you offered are very generous, we cannot promise you!" After more than ten minutes of discussion, Gideon Yu finally rejected Zhong Shi's proposal.

  In Facebook's own valuation, they are currently worth between $8.5 and $9.5 billion, which is a lot cheaper than Bell Stone's valuation. But for some reason, Jidon Yu was not too happy to accept Zhongshi's offer.

   "Oh? Why?"

  Zhong Shi's reaction was naturally very surprised, "If this is the case, then the price of 210 million US dollars, or 220 million US dollars, is also acceptable to me."

  He naturally took it for granted that the other party was bargaining. This dollar is nothing to him. He attaches great importance to the value of Facebook after it goes public in the future, so he has a lot of concessions in terms of valuation.

   "Unfortunately, we still can't accept it!"

After looking at Mark Zuckerberg, Gideon Yu ruthlessly refused, "We express our heartfelt thanks for your generous offer. We also highly agree with your understanding of the Internet. But very much Sorry, we still can't accept it. By the way, even if you pay a higher price, I'm afraid we can't reach an agreement."

"why is that?"

Since it was not a matter of money, Zhong Shi simply stopped quoting and asked the reason directly, "Mark, Gideon, I believe you all know that it is not easy to raise such a large sum of money in the current economic downturn." Easy. I wonder why you can't accept my investment?"

   "Well, I heard that you once invested in Amazon. Is this true?"

After a long silence, Gideon Yu had no choice but to stand up and say, "We know that you are an investor with outstanding vision and have a deep research on the Internet industry. We believe that if we cooperate with you, our future will not be Short of cash."

"Since that's the case, why did you reject my investment?" After going around for a long time, Zhong Shi still didn't figure out what Jiden Yu wanted to say, and there was a hint of displeasure in his tone, "I don't think you guys are right. business attitude."

Seeing that the atmosphere of the conversation was a bit stiff, Gideon Yu lowered his head, pondered for a long time, and then raised his head, as if he had made up his mind, "Mr. Zhong, the reason why we don't accept your funds is mainly because of the issue of controlling shares. .”

   "So it is!" Zhong Shi suddenly realized.

   So far, Facebook has not achieved profitability, and the way to support their continuous expansion is the continuous investment of PEs. In other words, all expenses today, including operating expenses, come from the support of PEs. For PE, exchanging money for equity is their investment method. After the Facebook IPO, their profits will naturally pay off.

  In this round of financing, the equity among the founder and his team must be handed out bit by bit, which poses a threat to the controlling position of the founder of the company. And once a more ambitious PE is introduced, it can even unite with other board members to squeeze the founders out of the board, thus "occupying the magpie's nest".

If one's life's hard work is snatched away, this is intolerable for any entrepreneur, especially for young entrepreneurs like Mark Zuckerberg, this kind of thing will be killed in the very beginning. In the cradle. Therefore, when he talks about financing with each PE, he attaches great importance to his control over the controlling stake.

  The arrival of Zhongshi only made Mark Zuckerberg happy for a while, and soon he fell into the worry about the possible loss of the controlling stake. Because the other party is not short of money at all, has enough money to invest in Facebook, and the other party has a deep understanding of the Internet industry, making it possible for Facebook to flourish even if it changes its head. In this case, Mark Zucker Berg naturally has concerns about his current status as indispensable.

   More importantly, Zhong Shi’s behavior towards Amazon made Mark Zuckerberg deeply vigilant. You must know that Bezos has tried several times to dilute the equity of Zhongshi through capital allocation and additional issuance, but it has no effect at all. , threatening Bezos' status as the largest shareholder. However, it seems that Zhongshi did not intend to take over the board of directors, which allowed Bezos to continue to secure the position of CEO.

  Zuckerberg believes that Bezos must regret the investment of Zhongshi.

   It is for this reason that Zuckerberg and his team decided that no matter what price the other party offered, they would not hesitate to reject it.

   "If I give up voting rights and board seats, and transfer all of these to Mr. Zuckerberg, will you plan to accept my investment?"

   After pondering for a while, Zhong Shi gave a suggestion that surprised Mark Zuckerberg and Gideon Yu. Giving up voting rights and board seats naturally shows an attitude of not interfering in operations, while transferring to the founder team shows support for the management team.

   In this way, it is basically tightly tied to the investor and the founder team, which is barely a benefit. The disadvantage is that because of the loss of the right to speak, the investor becomes a shareholder who only receives dividends and dividends, and other rights will no longer exist.

   "You have so much confidence in us?" Gideon Yu's mouth was wide open, almost enough to hold a fist. After realizing his gaffe, he quickly closed his mouth and put on a serious look, "If this is the case, there will be no obstacles between us. Mr. Zhong, welcome to join us!"

   Similarly, Mark Zuckerberg, who has been silent, also smiled.

   "Slow down!"

Zhong Shi waved his hand and stopped the other party's overtures, "You have no problem, but I have a problem here. Now I have a new condition. If I can agree, I will invest this money. If I can't agree , our negotiation is over."

   Now that the situation is reversed, it's Zhong Shi's turn to open the conditions. Gideon Yu and Mark Zuckerberg suddenly became nervous. They were afraid of missing Zhongshi's investment, because in their view, this condition was quite generous.

"In the next few rounds of financing, if there is a PE quotation, we have the priority investment right under the same conditions!" Seeing the nervous expressions of the two, Zhong Shi smiled slightly in his heart, and offered conditions, "Of course, other The conditions are the same as today, with all voting rights and board seats given up."

"no problem!"

  Gidden Yu breathed a sigh of relief, and before he even had time to discuss with Mark Zuckerberg, he agreed very simply, "Mr. Zhong, welcome to Facebook."

  After finally negotiating the terms, Mark Zuckerberg also heaved a sigh of relief, his face no longer had a serious expression, but put on a smile, "I look forward to more cooperation between us in the future!"

  For Facebook, they got the capital to burn money. For Zhongshi, they got the largest social networking site shares in the industry and the opportunity to continue to invest in the future. Everyone is happy.

  …

"what?"

  Soros looked suspicious, and didn't believe what the other party said at all, "You mean he didn't go anywhere, but went directly to Facebook in Silicon Valley? Then he took a plane and left the United States?"

"It's not a plane, it's a private plane!" The voice in the microphone seriously corrected, "It's his private plane, a Boeing airliner. He only stayed at the Facebook headquarters in Silicon Valley for a few hours, and then left, anywhere else Didn’t even go, let alone meet anyone else. It’s like this guy is here for Facebook and nothing else.”

"Okay, I know!"

  Soros hung up the phone silently and did not speak for a long time.

   What Zhong Shi did this time was indeed beyond his expectations. Originally, he thought that when Goodman Company and Stanley Company were in dire straits, Zhong Shi's entry must have an ulterior purpose. But in fact he didn't even set foot in New York, and went back.

   But if it is said that Zhong Shi is simply investigating Facebook, Soros would not believe it anyway, so he fell into deep thought, but how could he come up with an ugly one?

   "George, what should we do?"

Seeing that Soros was absent-minded, Julian Robertson couldn't help asking, "Paulson announced the rescue plan. The financial industry, the insurance industry, and even the toxic assets involved in the auto industry are all one of the targets of this rescue plan. What if If this is the case, the troubles faced by these companies will be gradually resolved. Then, should we consider exiting the short-selling of Goodman and Stanley at the right time, after all, we have already made some profits so far.”

"I can't see clearly now either!" Soros shook his head, motioned the caddy to reposition a golf ball, and then swung the golf ball smartly. Looking away, he said lightly, "Don't judge the situation in a hurry, let's see what happens next week. I believe the market sentiment will not be eased just like this. Besides, this rescue plan still needs the approval of those guys in the US Congress. !"

   "If Stanley & Goodman were the first to run out of money before those guys in Congress approved the bailout, then our problem wouldn't be a problem!"

Soros looked into the distance, narrowed his eyes, deep and far-reaching, flickering and complicated, making people unable to guess his true thoughts, "We are gambling, whether the two largest investment banks in the country will It collapsed under the attack of hedge funds. Even if it is not a collapse, being acquired is a kind of victory. Therefore, we must continue to short, and even increase our strength, after all, we must not miss this opportunity!"

   Thanks to book friends such as TinyBee, vermeer, flying elf, not very fat sheep, aassddffxx, sclife168 and so on for voting monthly! Thanks to the book friends who said he is not crazy, book friends 141231163458728, and Xiao Qi for their rewards for the miracle of civilization! Thank you for your continued support~ Sometimes I feel that I can’t keep up with my thoughts, the author organizes my thoughts well and keeps going~

  

  

  (end of this chapter)