"Selling Quora at this time is a very right choice, the entire Silicon Valley and even Nasdaq are in a very bad state.
A large number of companies that are not worth such a high price have been inexplicably blown to this point. It is difficult to imagine when the entire bubble will burst.
For example, the revenue of B2B First Commerce is only US$33 million, but its market value exceeds US$10 billion. This unreasonable phenomenon pervades the entire Nasdaq.
The outside world always thinks that you are the best product manager, but in fact your business vision is equally outstanding.
The only thing I don’t understand is why you would sell Quora instead of Riot Games.
The actual value of Quora is obviously higher than that of Riot Games.
If I were you, I could sell both of them together, sell only one, and operate a listing, which would also be running a Quora listing and selling Riot Games.
This is what I can't figure out. "
Zhou Xin knows that he is definitely not the only one who thinks Nasdaq is full of bubbles. He has a God's perspective. Silicon Valley and Wall Street have never lacked smart people.
What surprised him was that this was the first time that Pierre and he had met, and the other party should also understand that it was taboo to talk superficially and deeply.
Zhou Xin replied calmly: "I also think Nasdaq gives me the feeling of a bubble, but I don't know the specific bubble situation.
The company under my name is not listed, the valuation given to me by Riot Games Goldman Sachs is not high, and I don’t buy Nasdaq stocks, so I don’t know the specific situation of the bubble.
However, my desire to sell Quora has little to do with the bubble. I simply think that Quora does not overlap well with what I want to do in the future, and my energy is limited. "
Pierre nodded: "It's either luck or strength. I don't believe Newman will just rely on luck. You can choose to sell at this time, which obviously means you have strength.
As the founder of Ebay, Ebay is the main place where transactions occur. I have seen too many transactions occur on Ebay. There is no essential difference between the transactions on Nasdaq and the transactions that occur on Ebay.
One thing cannot rise forever, and the Nasdaq index cannot rise forever.
In my opinion, this bubble will burst sooner or later. The only difference is time.
Quora can be sold before the bubble bursts. There is no doubt about your business vision.
So are you considering selling NewPay? Ebay doesn't have much cash lying around in its account, but before the bubble bursts, Ebay's acquisition of NewPay was rumored, and we were able to solve this problem through financing.
Or if you accept the stock exchange, I can also use Ebay stock to buy NewPay, so that you don't have to pay income tax. "
The transaction is tax-free. When AOL acquired Broadcast, the founder of Broadcast took this approach.
Zhou Xin finally understood the other party’s intention. It turned out that he wanted to acquire NewPay. ,
Pierre continued: "If you acquire it now, Ebay can offer you a high price. US$5 billion is the bottom line, and US$10 billion is not impossible."
Pierre is very sincere: “In an era when a company with revenue of only US$33 million can have a market capitalization of over US$10 billion, NewPay’s value of US$100 billion is not an exaggeration in my mind.
But the problem is that eBay can't spend $100 billion anyway.
At a $10 billion valuation, if you think about it, I really want to acquire NewPay. "
Zhou Xin asked: "If I remember correctly, EBay's current market value is only about 10 billion U.S. dollars. How can you spend 10 billion U.S. dollars? This is already EBay's price."
Due to the butterfly effect brought by the protagonist, some data will change from the actual existence.
For example, the First Commerce they talked about was listed on July 1, but here First Commerce was listed in May in advance, and the stock price soared 170% on the day of listing.
Pierre: "I am willing to merge with NewPay through stock exchange. If you are willing to accept this method, after the additional issuance of EBay shares, you will become EBay's largest shareholder, owning nearly 50% of the shares."
Zhou Xin thought to himself, I would only agree if you were Bezos. Compared with the development of Amazon, the development of eBay is quite tepid.
Until 2020, eBay is still alive and well. As a niche e-commerce website, it looks a bit like Dangdang.
Later, after eBay was spun off from Paypal, its market value was less than a quarter of Paypay's.
Zhou Xin is not that familiar with these, but when he was at Amerikan, there were very few people around him who used eBay.
From this point alone, Zhou Xin could tell that EBay was not doing well.
"I have no intention to sell NewPay at the moment. For me, NewPay is not for sale."
Pierre has heard too much about the so-called not for sale. In transactions on eBay, some sellers will say that their goods are not for sale.
Once this sentence is uttered, the subtext is that more money must be added.
Pierre sighed. In fact, he had always insisted that EBay be its own payment channel, but it was not strong enough. After EBay acquired Billpoint, Billpoint's electronic payment products made slow progress.
Can't get online for a long time.
Direct competitors, after accessing NewPay, continue to encroach on EBay's market share.
EBay has conducted questionnaire surveys and telephone interviews with commercial institutions. Among users who have not used EBay for more than a month, the biggest reason for abandonment is that EBay does not support NewPay payment.
This reality forced Pierre to accept NewPay as EBay's only payment channel.
Another payment channel is checks. Since NewPay was integrated into EBay, only 20% of customers use checks as a payment method.
And this number continues to fall.
Pierre originally thought that Zhou Xin's willingness to sell Quora was a rare opportunity. Since Zhou Xin was willing to sell Quora, then he was willing to sell NewPay.
In Pierre's opinion, the two are equally valuable.
Pierre shook his head helplessly: "Okay, Newman, you can think about it carefully and tell me if you change your mind.
Or is NewPay willing to accept investment? EBay acquires part of NewPay's equity.
Are you willing to sell your controlling stake to EBay for US$10 billion? "
If NewPay didn’t have strategic considerations, Zhou Xin would have really agreed.
But I won’t sell it to poor people like EBay. If I want to sell it, I will sell it to banks.
From Wells Fargo, Silicon Valley Bank and even Switzerland's Credit Suisse, they all found Zhou Xin through different channels and expressed their hope to acquire NewPay.
Silicon Valley Bank was founded in 1983, which has a long history.
Compared with these banks, EBay is indeed poor.
Zhou Xin continued to shake his head: “I currently have no plans to sell NewPay.
The income from selling Quora is enough to cover my expenses, and I am not yet ready to sell NewPay.
And I also think that there is a bubble in Nasdaq. This bubble will burst sooner or later, but when the bubble bursts, it will be blown up again.
The money from selling Quora is enough for me to wait until the bubble blows up again.
In Chinese terms, this is an iterative process. "
Pierre: "EBay hopes to invest in NewPay, and we hope to become one of NewPay's shareholders."
This is Pierre's bottom line. If NewPay accepts it, Billpoint will only be one of the options even after it is launched.
If NewPay does not accept EBay's investment, EBay will gradually use Billpoint to replace NewPay.
Zhou Xin nodded: "NewPay will notify EBay of the next round of financing. As for whether EBay can be shortlisted, it depends on the conditions given by EBay."
During the first round of financing, Pierre thought about buying shares, but the A/B share structure made him hesitate.
Because the logic of corporate investment and institutional investment are completely different. Institutions only pursue returns, and they generally do not interfere with corporate operations.
Even if they interfere, they only interfere with where your money is spent. They need to ensure that the money they invest will not be spent by the founders on their own food, drink and fun.
Corporate investment is to cooperate with the corporate development strategy. How can stocks without voting rights cooperate with the corporate development strategy?
Even if EBay obtains more than 50% of the A shares, it will not be able to obtain actual control of NewPay.
This is also an important reason why the big bosses of Internet companies in China in later generations did not have many stocks, but they firmly controlled the company.
After NewPay's A/B share structure was exposed by Silicon Valley media, Robin Li has been thinking about how to replace Zhou Xin's ordinary voting shares with shares with 0.1 voting rights.
It's just that he is still in his infancy, so making such a request will be flatly rejected by Zhou Xin.
Since Baidu became Quora's built-in search engine, with the help of Quora's traffic, Baidu has even overtaken Google in the search engine field.
Baidu is now one of the top five search engines in the United States.
At this time, search engines are not only Yahoo and Google, but also some other Internet companies are also developing search engines.
Pierre expressed his understanding: “No problem, EBay needs to join in the next round of financing.
I believe Bezos has the same idea as me.
He must be regretting now why he didn’t invest in NewPay’s angel round.
At that time, NewPay was valued at only one billion US dollars.
Now it has more than doubled, and even personal investment is a business that is sure to make money without losing money.
So looking back now, Quora's paid Q&A is simply a stroke of genius. It not only makes Yahoo Q&A look as ridiculous as a child challenging an adult in front of Quora.
It also completely revitalized NewPay.
In chess, this is equivalent to activating the rook, bishop, and queen in one move.
From this point on, I need to learn from you, Newman. Are you interested in joining EBay as chief strategy officer?
I have prepared a position just for you. "
Zhou Xin smiled: "Bill also gave me this position, but it wasn't called by this name. He gave me the title of chief product expert at Microsoft.
From my perspective, the two are similar positions.
I rejected them all, mainly because my field of knowledge is very narrow. In fact, I don’t understand operating systems or online shopping.
When I am placed in such a position, but I cannot make suggestions that match my position, it makes me feel guilty and like I am getting paid for nothing.
So let me grow for a few more years and wait until I think I have the strength to try different fields. "
Zhou Xin thought to himself that it would be too cheap to ask me to give you a God's perspective in just one position.
There are still two updates today. Please vote for me at the end of the month!
(End of chapter)
