America's Road To Fame Chapter 145

"The second thing." William Chen said to Yang Zhiyuan, "I hope to acquire Ali's shares in Yahoo."

Hearing his words, Yang Zhiyuan looked at Chen William in surprise, and said after a while: "That's not easy, William, how much do you want? Although those shares were exchanged for 1 billion US dollars at that time, but the current price Not cheap."

Hearing Yang Zhiyuan's words, Chen William just thought hehe. At that time, the cash paid by Yahoo was far less than that. One of them, Yahoo China, cost hundreds of millions of dollars. To be honest, the so-called 1 billion dollars is not small.

"I know, Jerry, I want to buy all the 40% of Ali shares you hold. I heard that you have had some unpleasantness with Jack Ma recently, and have complaints about his desire to split Alipay."

The fact is also true. Yahoo recently had a bit of an unpleasant quarrel with Ali's boss Ma. The reason is that in order for Alipay to obtain the first batch of third-party payment licenses, Boss Ma hopes to split it from Ali and be controlled by all mainland capital. , because there were regulations in this regard at that time.

However, Yahoo believes that their shareholding itself includes the Alipay project, and now Boss Ma splits Alipay alone, which will harm their interests, so they are very dissatisfied with this move.

This incident not only had an impact on the relationship between Yang Zhiyuan and Boss Ma, but also the CEO of Yahoo at this time, Carol Bartz, who is known as the Iron Lady of Silicon Valley, even criticized Boss Ma, and the contradiction between the two sides attracted attention for a while everyone's sight.

"You know, William, I have now stepped down as bsp; you should talk to Ms. Bartz about this matter, and from my personal point of view, I am still very optimistic about the development of Ali, and do not want to sell shares, at least not now time."

Yang Zhiyuan said lightly.

"Even though you've stepped down as CEO, you're still the chief of Yahoo, aren't you. And with all due respect, things aren't going well for Yahoo right now, and I know your ad revenue has been down a lot lately, and you've been pulled too far by Google, so I don't think it's a better choice for Yahoo to keep holding on to these stocks in Alibaba."

As the subprime mortgage crisis spread to more industries, Yahoo was also deeply affected, and its advertising business fell sharply. Although those companies have a need for promotion and advertising at any time, in such difficult times, they will choose a more effective way and reduce their advertising investment in other channels.

Therefore, what will happen is that advertising resources are concentrated to the top companies, and Google's advertising business has even grown, because under the trade-off, advertisers are more willing to put advertising there. Correspondingly, Yahoo's advertising business has been greatly reduced.

"Don't you want to listen to my offer? Jerry, Yahoo's fundamental business is the search business. If it were me, I would rather use Ali's stock in exchange for funds to acquire and develop Yahoo, instead of shrinking its main business and eventually becoming a company that only holds Fund companies with shares in other companies, I believe you don't want the companies you founded to end up like this.”

It may be Chen William's words that finally moved Yang Zhiyuan. After thinking about it, he asked, "How much are you willing to pay to buy Ali shares? If the price is too low, the board of directors will not agree."

William Chen knew that after Carol Bartz took office, he cut expenses through drastic layoffs and closed many poorly run businesses. Therefore, on her side, there will be no obstacles to selling Ali's shares. As long as Yang Zhiyuan is persuaded, then his acquisition will be half successful, and the rest is nothing more than price.

Thinking of this, William Chen said directly:

"I am willing to spend $4 billion in cash to acquire your Alibaba shares."

"It's a bit low." Yang Zhiyuan shook his head and said, "You know, earlier this year, those shares were worth at least US$6 billion. With your current bid, I'm afraid it will be difficult to satisfy the board of directors."

"You also said that it was the previous price, Jerry, you know the current situation, many stock prices have been cut in half, and even the stock price of Alibaba's listing in HK has been greatly affected, so it is impossible to trade in such a situation. I'm still going to buy it at its all-time high price. You should think that while it's lower than it was before, the valuations of every other company have come down a lot. In fact, if it's an acquisition, this It is also the best opportunity for Yahoo, to get this cash, your purchasing power has not declined in any way, but it is the best opportunity to grow Yahoo in the crisis."

"That being said, William, the final decision depends on what the board of directors has to say. Also, does Ali's Jack Ma know about your acquisition?"

"I haven't talked to that side yet, because I have to get your approval first before I can continue this acquisition, but I believe that I can convince that side."

"Everything has to wait for the board to discuss before a final decision can be made, William, but I think your bid needs to be more sincere."

Yang Zhiyuan said noncommittally.

"Then I'll formally submit my offer to Yahoo right now, Jerry, but hopefully you can make them understand that Yahoo was a great company, but missed too many opportunities before, and can't keep missing any more. , If this matter drags on for too long, I am afraid it will not be a good thing not only for me, but also for Yahoo."

So, on the second day, William Chen called Nielsen, who formally submitted to Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz a proposal to buy 40% of the shares they held in Ali with $4 billion in cash.

Chen William, on the other hand, took a flight directly from Los Angeles to China. He has contacted Ali's boss Ma, hoping to meet him on this matter.

After receiving the news of William Chen, Boss Ma was extremely shocked, and even doubted the authenticity of his words at that time. After all, he knows that the shares held by Yahoo are worth more than US$6 billion. Although Ali's stock price in Hong Kong has been affected by the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States recently, it is somewhat sluggish, but it should not be able to be bought by the other party.

He first contacted Chen William because the other party invested in Huayi Company at that time. At that time, he also specially knew this person. He is indeed a young billionaire, but his assets should be at most 1 billion US dollars. Now suddenly When he said that he wanted to buy so many shares in Ali, he couldn't help but be shocked.

In fact, Boss Ma has long wanted to buy back these shares in Yahoo's hands, especially after he recently had a bad relationship with Yahoo because of the Alipay incident, he felt more and more threatened by Yahoo's holding 40% of Ali's shares.

When Yahoo became a shareholder in Alibaba, it handed over the voting rights of some shares to Boss Ma for a period of 10 years, which will expire in 2015. Even so, Yahoo held too many shares. At that time, money was urgently needed and there was no way to do it. But after he recovered, Boss Ma has been planning to reduce Ali's shareholding.

But unfortunately, at this time, I haven't found a strong enough partner to buy back the stock, because now Yahoo's Alibaba stock is too valuable~www.mtlnovel.com~ In William Chen's previous life, until a few years later, Boss Ma, Finally, he joined a group of companies that supported him from the mainland, and invested 7.6 billion US dollars to buy back half of the shares held by Yahoo.

At this time, although he was still a little confused, he heard that William Chen was going to buy the shares in Yahoo, so he gritted his teeth and called Yang Zhiyuan to ask about the situation. In addition, Cai Zhongxin, a military advisor in his capital operation, was also found, and asked him to help inquire about Chen William's information.

After Chen William arrived in Hangzhou, China, Boss Ma had already learned from Yang Zhiyuan that the fund under Chen William's investment company had made huge profits due to short selling during the recent subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. Definitely have the strength to buy Ali shares in the hands of Yahoo.

Nielsen of &a Investment Company has indeed formally submitted a request to Yahoo for US$4 billion to acquire Ali shares in their hands, and Yahoo is also very interested in this. It is a good opportunity for company development and acquisition. This kind of temptation is difficult to refuse.

It's just that the two sides are still negotiating on the price, and there is no result yet.

Since John Paulson's email to Fund No. 3 investors was sent, it is no longer a secret that Meta Investment Co. shorted the subprime mortgage crisis and achieved great success. These were also expected by William Chen. After all, every day now Companies can receive numerous calls from investors asking about investing in Fund 3.

In New York alone, Goldman Sachs has held three fund-raising receptions with John Paulson, and the intentional funds raised so far have exceeded 2 billion US dollars. In the next few days, they will move to other cities until the 5 billion fundraising quota is full.

Chapter end

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