If Google and Baidu were to merge and go public, Henry would not personally take action and find Zhou Xin as a lobbyist.
The significance of this incident is that they hope to make the listing of the merged Google a landmark event, rebuild investors' confidence in Internet companies, and take the opportunity to make profits from it.
Preparations for the merger of Google and Baidu began in June, and they were scheduled to be listed in early 2001, which is the new year, which means that the millennium Internet crisis has passed.
The potential benefits to Goldman Sachs are immeasurable. Without the storm effect brought by Zhou Xin, it would have been PayPal's listing that took on this important task.
However, PayPal's listing was far from achieving the expected results, and later Google was forced to go public.
When Google went public, it had more than one billion US dollars in cash on its books. There was no shortage of money at all. It was Wall Street investment banks who used various means to force Google to go public.
Because he rejected Henry's first two requests in succession, Zhou Xin couldn't refuse the third request anymore.
However, he did not say anything, but said that he would talk to Robin about the merger of Google and Baidu.
It’s better to bump into the next day than the next day, and Pony Ma also happened to come to Amerikan. Zhou Xin thought of setting up a game and called both Pony Ma and Robin, which can be regarded as the BT in BAT meeting in Amerikan in advance.
"Brother, come and sit down. This is Pony, Pony Ma, the founder of Tencent. QQ is their product." After introducing Pony to Robin, Zhou Xin continued:
"Pony, this is Robin, Robin Li, a senior from Yenching University, just ten years older than me.
I only stayed at Yanda for one year, and my senior brother stayed at Yanda for four full years. He is the founder of Baidu, a very popular search engine here. "
The reason why Pony came to America is because Enterprise QQ is doing very well in China.
During the communication process with Pony, Zhou Xin told him that the profits from selling enterprise software in China are very thin, most companies do not have the concept of informatization, and the market is also very narrow.
As for Amerikan, its demand and profits are much higher than those of China at present. Zhou Xin plans to hand over the enterprise communication software of his company to Tencent.
Among them, Matrix has the greatest demand. Matrix has more than a thousand employees, most of whom are R&D personnel and involve multi-department collaboration.
Instant messaging software like QQ can greatly improve the efficiency of collaborative work.
It is equivalent to Zhou Xin wanting to cooperate with Pony to jointly build Enterprise QQ into an enterprise-side instant messaging software, starting with Matrix and Riot Games, and then promoting it to other companies.
Originally, Zhou Xin wanted to talk to Bill Gates and make Enterprise QQ become Microsoft's office software, but this was a case of meat buns beating dogs.
Microsoft developed instant messaging software as early as 1997. They bought Enterprise QQ. After discovering that it was a good thing, they would imitate a similar product at a faster speed, and then use their powerful resources to promote it.
Therefore, the disadvantages of promoting enterprise QQ to Microsoft far outweigh the advantages.
When it comes to marketing to other companies, the later other Internet companies realize it, the more advantage they have.
"Pony, hello, I have always heard from my classmates in China that there is a very popular software among the Internet groups in China, which is QQ, and your QQ show is also very unique.
ICQ was the first to find a profit model than Americen. "Robin has always paid attention to the development of the domestic Internet industry.
If Zhou Xin hadn't invested in Baidu, he would have returned to China to start his own business.
"Hello, I have been hearing about Baidu. Baidu's valuation last year seemed to be over 100 million US dollars. Compared with Baidu, Tencent still has a long way to go." Pony is very modest in private, and it is difficult to put business into perspective. Tencent's aggressive attack is closely related to his personality.
Robin continued: "Haha, I have seen the news. My junior brother also invested in Tencent. We all work for my junior brother.
So my junior brother called me to come for dinner, and I came without hesitation. This was a hard-earned meal. "Robin teased.
Because he had dinner with Henry two days ago, Zhou Xin knew that Robin was under a lot of pressure. He could see from the other person's expression that even if he was joking, the sadness on Robin's face had not completely dissipated.
The pressure to promote the merger of Baidu and Google was transmitted to Zhou Xin. As a representative of Wall Street, Goldman Sachs came to try to persuade Zhou Xin to put pressure on Robin.
Google, which almost monopolized the search engine market in later generations, could not resist such pressure, let alone Baidu now.
Zhou Xin chatted with the two for a while and then asked: "Robin, have you been under a lot of pressure recently? Goldman Sachs came to me and asked me to convince you to accept the merger of Google and Baidu."
Robin looked dissatisfied: "It's said to be a merger, but it's actually Baidu being acquired by Google.
Goldman Sachs still has great powers. Recently, previous investors have been trying to persuade me to accept the acquisition by Google.
After Google acquires Baidu, I can get the shares of the merged company, and then they will push the new Google to go public. After the new Google goes public, the market value will definitely skyrocket.
I can gain huge benefits from this.
Not only investors are trying to persuade me, but many of Baidu’s internal executives have similar ideas.
Because they all have option incentives, it's good for everyone.
Baidu itself cannot go public in the short term. Even if it does go public in the short term, it will not enjoy the same monopoly premium in terms of market value as the merger of two companies.
After all, in terms of second-generation search engine technology, Baidu and Google together are equivalent to monopolizing this market.
So except for myself, almost everyone is telling me to let it go.
Junior brother, do you also want to persuade me? "
Zhou Xin waved his hand: "I'm not here to persuade you, I just want to hear your thoughts.
When I invested in Baidu, we reached a gentleman's agreement. I will not interfere with Baidu's specific operations and will remain consistent with you on major matters.
Although we have not signed a concerted action agreement, I will still abide by this.
I can gain huge benefits from the merger and listing of Baidu and Google, but this huge benefit is nothing more than a few hundred million dollars, and I still look down upon this benefit. "
To be honest, since the Nasdaq bubble burst and the blue-chip stocks of the S&P 500 surged, weekly book profits have been approaching tens of billions of dollars.
Although there will be losses after cashing out, he really looks down upon the benefits brought by the merger and listing of Google and Baidu.
If Baidu and Google can continue to fight and disrupt Google's development process, this will make him feel more happy than this profit.
It’s not that Zhou Xin has an opinion on Google, but that for many of the things he wants to do, Google will be a direct competitor.
For example, mobile operating systems, without Google, could directly dominate the mobile operating system market other than Apple.
If there were Google, even if Matrix acquired Android, Google would develop other open source operating systems to compete.
There will also be one less major competitor in public cloud services.
Moreover, search engines require a large number of servers. In later generations, Google’s data centers were built to the bottom of the sea.
The existence of Baidu means that Zhou Xin controls half of Google's server supply in the future, which is also related to the entire chip industry chain.
After hearing Zhou Xin's words, Robin felt a little regretful. At the beginning, Zhou Xin's shares accounted for nearly 50%.
The agreement between the two on people acting in concert was just a gentleman's agreement and was not written down on paper.
Therefore, in order to prevent subsequent financing, Zhou Xin's shareholding proportion was further expanded, causing him to completely lose control, and he found ways to dilute Zhou Xin's shares in the next two rounds of financing.
Now I know that this trick is to drive away the wolf and swallow the tiger, and Wall Street investment institutions have much more demands than Zhou Xin.
Robin smiled bitterly: "In terms of voting rights, the combined voting rights of the two of us are close to 65%.
As long as we remain consistent, the other party cannot force Google and Baidu to merge within the rules.
But the problem is that all the executives seem to have been persuaded. They all want Google to acquire it and then make a fortune by going public.
People's minds change, and if this continues, executives will not be able to focus on their work, and the company will not be able to maintain normal operations. "
Pony listened and memorized it. Maybe these experiences will be used in the future.
After listening, he realized that venture capital institutions not only have a tender side that provides help in times of need, but also have an aggressive and aggressive side.
Zhou Xin asked: "Brother, what you need to think clearly is whether to accept the merger of Google and Baidu.
If you decide not to accept it, just replace these executives.
Replacement of the entire senior management team will not affect business operations. Baidu is on the right track after the launch of its advertising distribution system.
If these executives are disobedient, wouldn't it be better to replace them with more obedient executives?
Are there too many Internet companies going bankrupt in Silicon Valley during this period? Three-legged toads are hard to find, and two-legged executives are everywhere.
When they buy back their options, isn't that what the cash on the books will be used for?
If you are not cruel now, when will you wait?
If you want to maintain control of your business, be ruthless when you need to be ruthless. Baidu is equivalent to your child, and these executives want to help outsiders steal your child. "
Robin has an extraordinary desire to control the company, and is too indecisive in internal management, lacking the courage of a strong man to cut off his own strength.
If it were Pony, he would have fired these executives who were not interested in corporate management.
This was also evident during the food delivery war in later generations. Baidu Nuomi paid to send delivery riders home for the New Year. Meituan and Ele.me have increased subsidies to retain food delivery riders. Don’t go back and deliver your food properly during the Chinese New Year.
Robin nodded: "I'll think about it again."
Zhou Xin said: "If you think about it, please reply to me as soon as possible so that I can prepare."
Zhou Xin knew that it would not be a problem to keep rejecting Wall Street. They had already been severely damaged when the Nasdaq bubble burst.
Only a few major investment banks escaped this disaster, and even the major investment banks were unable to avoid any losses.
Zhou Xin plans to throw out the upcoming Series A financing of NewPay to distract attention and give Wall Street some comfort.
Originally, NewPay was a bargaining chip in the hands of Zhou Xin. At the current scale, if it wants to continue to grow bigger and stronger, it is inevitable to introduce powerful investment institutions.
If you want to become a national-level electronic payment application, you need to have enough communities of interests.
So at this time, it is just right to launch NewPay financing.
In the long run, Baidu's value will not be lower than NewPay, even if Baidu is only half of the original Google.
"Wall Street investment institutions only think about profits. They are completely profit-driven organizations, and they only see short-term interests and do not care about long-term interests.
Therefore, when choosing investment institutions, investment institutions established by Silicon Valley entrepreneurs will be better than those on Wall Street. "Zhou Xin finally concluded.
"I'm not trying to put money on my face. Even if I wasn't as rich as I am now, and I only have a net worth of one billion US dollars, I would still support my senior brother's decision.
I can tell you a more naked logic, that is price.
Even if Google does not merge with Baidu, given the search engine's profit model and Google's market share, they will go public sooner or later.
If they wait until Google goes public before acquiring Baidu, the price they can offer will be several times or even dozens of times higher than now.
The market value of all Internet companies is falling. Why can Goldman Sachs guarantee that after the merger of Google and Baidu, their listing will definitely rise sharply?
If the situation becomes clear before going public, Goldman Sachs' underwriter fee ratio will also be lower. "
Robin nodded frequently, "When I was communicating with other entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, they put forward a point of view, which is to regard Wall Street investment banks as tools rather than partners.
If you treat Wall Street investment banks as partners, sooner or later they will take advantage of your trust in them and take a bite out of them. "
This is because you have suffered a big loss before you say this.
"Pony, it's okay for you. You only have me as an investor now, and the help I provide you is still obvious." Zhou Xin said.
Pony smiled shyly: "Newman, your insight into products is far beyond mine.
We have always been skeptical about QQ Show before, but the actual effect is far beyond our imagination.
At present, our point card sales channels only extend to first- and second-tier cities and all cities in Guangdong Province.
It has not yet spread to third- and fourth-tier cities in other provinces.
But QQ Show has been able to bring us tens of millions of revenue every month.
At least server costs and staff wages are met.
Just relying on the QQ show has achieved break-even, and the income from corporate QQ is pure profit.
It’s just that many Internet companies on the market currently want to do business QQ, and we are facing great competitive pressure. "
Zhou Xin said: "Have you ever played Teamfight Tactics?"
Robin: "Played with it."
Pony Ma: "I've seen the video and know what the game is."
Zhou Xin continued: “The charging model of TFT is very similar to QQ Show.
The QQ show is a character avatar. "Teamfight Tactics" sells both character avatars and the game environment.
Users are willing to pay for these virtual products based on the fact that the free services are of sufficient quality and they are willing to spend money to purchase virtual products to enjoy differentiated services.
The premise that the QQ show can be sold is that QQ has a large audience, and the premise that the avatar of "Team Fighter" can be sold is that the quality of the game itself is excellent. "
Crow is back to diligent updating!
(End of chapter)
