Chapter 1216: Making Light of a Heavy Task

Silicon Valley, NEXTDOOR headquarters.

The secretary knocked on the door, "Cummins, Mr. Douglas from Goldman Sachs is here,"

"Invite him in," Cummins said without looking up.

"Hello Cummins," a middle-aged man with hair combed into a two-eighth part, a dark blue suit, a light blue shirt and a red tie walked in quickly.

"Douglas, please take a seat." Cummins stood up and shook his hand. "Please wait a moment. I have to process this document."

Douglas gracefully made an invitation gesture, and the old man sat down opposite Cummins, looking at the layout of his office.

In fact, there is no need to look at it. Firstly, he has been to this office more than once. Secondly, this office is really lackluster and lackluster.

Apart from a few photos of Cummins' family, the only one that was interesting was the painting made of lines of various colors with unknown meanings.

Cummins's document must be important because he had left Douglas hanging on the table for nearly five minutes.

Douglas looked a little unable to sit still, and changed his posture in his seat with great movements. Everyone's time is precious, okay?

Finally, Cummins stopped writing, "Sorry Douglas," he smiled and walked to sit next to Douglas, "I really envy the days when I worked in an investment bank. Like you, you can only be responsible for one project at a time, even though it is the same pressure. Big, but simple, once the plan is set, just follow the plan, unlike me now,"

He complained to his former colleagues, "You just finished handling one thing in this company, and another thing in another company is already there waiting for you. The two are completely unrelated."

"One moment, you are still thinking about website design, and the next moment, you have to consider the solar power development plan they reported,"

"It's tiring," he shook his head, "and there are always emergencies, and my schedule has to change frequently."

"Come on Cummins," Douglas said, "don't think I can't hear that you are showing off. Being in charge of a project does not bring the same sense of accomplishment as taking full responsibility for it?"

Cummins smiled, "Haha, that's all I'm satisfied with. So, is the work going well?"

Financial consultants for M&A projects are the main external team hired during a company's M&A. Their work covers a wide range of areas, and they will be involved in the entire process from early preparation to the final takeover and integration stage.

From assisting in formulating M&A strategies, to analyzing the possibility of M&A success, to assisting in designing M&A plans and transaction structures, formulating overall M&A plans and schedules, recommending other intermediaries such as law firms, assisting with financing, tax planning... Provide consulting opinions on the development of the company after the merger and acquisition is completed.

It can be said that they are a very comprehensive set of crutches. As long as you pay for them, they can really help you accomplish many things.

At the current stage of acquiring Netflix, their main task is to prepare and submit approval materials, obtain approval from the approval agency, and prepare for the next step, such as payment according to the agreement, and related work for takeover and integration.

"It went very smoothly. From what we have learned, there will be no setbacks in the SEC's approval. Of course, this is also related to Mr. Feng's outstanding performance a while ago," Douglas said.

The five members of the SEC are all nominated by the president, and the chairman of the SEC is directly appointed by the president. Therefore, the president’s opinions will definitely be taken into account in the actual work process.

They are very clear about George W. Bush's personal support for this record-breaking merger and acquisition and Feng Yiping.

"Then I'm really looking forward to officially hearing the good news," Cummins said.

He knew what Douglas wanted to talk to him about when he came here, so he didn't take the initiative to bring it up.

After several rounds of pleasantries, Douglas brought up the topic, "Cummins, what are your opinions on the equity in the Chinese company we intend to sell?"

"We understand very well that because Feng is in China at this time, it will take time for you to make a decision. I mentioned it again, mainly because after knowing the news, there are already several institutions interested in taking over, and they have all entered the quotation stage. So, Cummins, I want to know your opinion now, are you interested in the equity of this company that we are selling?”

"Oh, so that's what you're talking about," Cummins said, pretending not to care.

In fact, it's not that they pretend not to care, but that the possible transaction that Dagras mentioned is so different from the merger and acquisition that they serve as financial advisors that they really don't care much about it.

"You know, Feng has always had a good relationship with Goldman Sachs. He has known Mr. Paulson for several years. In recent years, Goldman Sachs and Mr. Paulson have also provided him with a lot of conveniences. Therefore, although this company At least for now, there are many difficulties, and even the business model is not clear, but as long as the price is right, Feng authorizes me to acquire the shares you sell, which is a piece of cake,” he said.

"But Douglas, how long do you think it will take for the SEC to approve our acquisition of Netflix? Will it be approved within this month?"

He always acted like he didn't care about it.

There is even a hint that Goldman Sachs deliberately brought these two things together to discuss it, as if if you don’t agree to acquire these shares, we may not work so hard on the approval matter.

“We can’t really guarantee the SEC’s approval time, maybe next week, maybe next month,” Douglas said. “But Cummins, one thing I can assure you is that no matter what your intention is to acquire Alibaba’s shares, Whether you are interested or not, we will still go all out to do this consulting work,"

"Of course I didn't mean that, I know we are all a very professional team," Cummins said as if you really misunderstood me, how could you misunderstand me like this.

“I’m really looking forward to the SEC’s approval next week,” he said.

If you say that again, do you mean you didn't misunderstand me?

"I'm looking forward to it as much as you are,"

"So Douglas, what is the transfer price you want for Alibaba's shares?" Cummins picked up the coffee cup and asked seemingly casually.

"$35 million,"

"How much? Ahem," Cummins' performance was definitely above the standard. He almost spit out a sip of coffee. He touched his chest and coughed a few times. "You should be aware of its current situation. According to what we know, it has been since its founding. So far, they have not made a profit, and their new business has not yet started. There are very few customers who choose to sell and buy on their website. What is even more unfortunate is that it has been targeted by a shopping website owned by eBay. , the future is extremely bleak, you actually want to ask for as much as 35 million US dollars?”

He almost said that you were joking.

"No Cummins, the situation you have learned is not comprehensive enough. We admit that Alibaba's profitability has not been optimistic in the past few years. However, they have already developed a large number of enterprise users and can collect a large number of customers every year. There is a fixed management fee, and the number of enterprise users who choose them is still growing rapidly,”

"Secondly, their new business, Taobao, is their transition from B2B to C2C. Although it has just started, it is definitely a direction in the right direction. Otherwise, why would eBay have such a big reaction?"

"The fact that eBay is so targeted just illustrates the threat Taobao poses to it. Coupled with China's large population base, our offer is based on the company's always good relationship with Feng,"

"No, what eBay did can only be said to be eliminating all possible hidden dangers. It does not prove that Taobao will pose a fatal threat to it. Our analysis is that with China's current completely blank credit construction, such e-commerce , the development prospects are not too optimistic,”

This was the reason Feng Yiping asked him to say, but it was really what Cummings was thinking.

If you don't know the creditworthiness of the other party in the transaction, at least he will not trust the website to shop.

"So, why is Feng still interested in investing like this?" Douglas asked what he thought was the most powerful question.

"Quite simply, a good relationship with Goldman Sachs was a factor," Cummins said.

Although they all know that this is definitely an excuse.

"The main thing, Feng thinks, is that if the cost of the investment is not high, then he doesn't mind giving it a try. Even if it proves to be a failed attempt, that doesn't matter. We can accept their technical personnel,"

"You may know that our convenience store network in China is very complete at present. Feng intends to rely on convenience stores to build an online shopping mall. Technical talents who have built shopping websites are in great need, and such technical personnel who have experienced a failure are a Good choice,”

This is what Feng Yiping told him seriously.

In order for people at Goldman Sachs to believe what he said, Feng Yiping had to let Cummins believe it first.

"That is because Feng is also optimistic about the development of this model in China, so our bid is completely reasonable,"

"No, Feng is optimistic because we have so many physical convenience stores, and it is also a more reassuring B2C model,"

"Based on Alibaba's current valuation, our offer is also reasonable,"

"No, your quotation is completely unreasonable. You invested 3.3 million yuan in 1999, and now you have quoted 35 million yuan, which is a return of nearly 11 times. As far as I know, many of your successful projects are at this level,"

"No, the return after a successful IPO will be at least 10 times the price sold to you,"

Douglas must have felt that he said too much at this time, but in fact, he really said too little.

"However, considering our good cooperation with Feng, we can make some concessions, 33 million,"

"33 million? My personal authority is to approve investments within 20 million. If it exceeds 20 million, I am not interested at all,"

"I'll give in one more step, 32 million...,"

These two people are testing each other's bottom line, and they are bargaining back and forth. Although every concession seems to have a very good reason, in the final analysis, except that the amount is larger, in essence, it is the same as When we buy clothes in the wholesale market, we are no different from bargaining with the street vendors.

When Douglas conceded to 25 million, Cummins, who had been insisting on his bid, felt that it was really close to Goldman Sachs's lowest price.

"I will make the biggest concession, 22 million," Cummins said. "I still have to find a way to explain this offer to Feng."

Douglas looked at him for a while and said, "I will also make a final concession, 23 million."

"23 million, 23 million," Cummins muttered a few words and stretched out his hand. "Our time is precious. I hope the SEC's approval will be passed soon. Okay, then 23 million,"

He said with a heartbroken look, but actually he was smiling in his heart.

Feng Yiping's original instruction to him was to cut off a symbolic 10% based on Goldman Sachs' quotation.

But Cummins, who is familiar with this industry, knew that when venture capital chose to exit through the current secondary acquisition method, there was a lot of room for bargaining, so he finally obtained Feng Yiping's full authorization.

"I hope that the agreement can be signed as soon as possible. I think that after completing this agreement as soon as possible, can the SEC's approval of the merger with Netflix be faster? I don't expect it to be next week, but can it not be later than next month?" He will still connect this matter with mergers and acquisitions.

"The relevant legal documents will be sent to Silicon Valley tomorrow." It took less than an hour to finalize the deal with a good bid. Douglas was actually quite satisfied. "Cummins, let me reiterate, we did not This transaction is the premise to promote the approval work,"

"Come on Douglas, I've been on Wall Street for as long as you have, so I still don't understand what this means? I hope that next, you can push for approval with all your strength," Cummins said.

Watching Douglas walk away, Cummins didn't care that it was two o'clock in the morning at Feng Yiping's side, and couldn't wait to call him to tell him the good news, "Feng, haha, good news!"