Chapter 2031 Final Preparation

"How much cash can you raise in one to two months if you try your best?" Whitman asked the person sitting across from his desk on the eBay campus.

Faced with her question, eBay's CFO, Indian-born Rajiv, said calmly, "In addition to the need to maintain business operations, we can raise US$1.5 billion,"

"Not enough," Whitman shook her head. "I hope it can be raised to $3 billion,"

"You know, this is going to be a little troublesome," said Rajiv, who did not feel too embarrassed even though Whitman doubled the goal.

He is so confident, naturally because eBay's cash reserves, when combined, can meet Whitman's requirements.

"Is the only way to use overseas cash reserves?" Hearing him talk about trouble, Whitman immediately understood what this so-called trouble was.

Like all qualified companies in the United States, eBay also places a large amount of cash reserves overseas in order to avoid high taxes in the United States. Some of them may be stored in Chinese banks.

"Yes," Rajiv nodded.

"Give me a report first." This issue also gave Whitman a headache. The U.S. Internal Revenue Service is really not so ruthless. If it transfers billions of overseas cash reserves back to the country, it will have to pay taxes. , would make Whitman's eyes turn green with pain.

"It's really a last resort and this is the price we have to pay," she said.

Who makes her now think that Skype has an incomparable role in the further development of the company?

"Does everything have to be paid in cash?" Rajiv also scratched his head.

As the person in charge of finance, he would naturally not be too happy about the situation where the family savings that had been accumulated for many years could be wiped out in one fell swoop.

If you have food in your hands, you won't panic in your heart.

If all the cash reserves are spent, he will be left scratching his head if he encounters some unexpected situation next. Who will let him be responsible for the management of funds?

"For them, using cash is also very uneconomical,"

The principle is the same. For cash payments, the IRS (U.S. Internal Revenue Service) does not want to wipe off a layer of oil, but to cut off a solid piece of meat.

"Can't it be part cash and part stock?"

As long as you don't cash in on stocks, the IRS can't cut you off.

"Aren't you aware of Mr. Feng's love for cash transactions?" Whitman said angrily.

Rajiv said "tsk", indeed, all the mergers and acquisitions carried out by Feng Yiping so far have been paid in cash.

"Besides, can't you see that he is too confident in our stock?" Whitman added.

This truth is also obvious.

If Feng Yiping is optimistic about eBay, then he will want to ask for eBay's shares rather than forcefully asking for PayPal's shares.

This is another point that makes Whitman feel uncomfortable. Feng Yiping acquires other companies and is unwilling to sell his own company's shares. That is because he is confident in the development of his company.

Selling the company's shares now may be seriously undervalued, which is very uneconomical, so it is better to pay cash, even if it increases a large financial cost, from bank financing, in the long run, it is still a cost-effective deal.

The reason why he doesn't want eBay's shares is the same, but it means that he is not optimistic about eBay's development, and the stock may depreciate in value if he gets it.

How does this make Whitman, who is proud of developing eBay into the world's number one e-commerce company, feel embarrassed?

Do you think so little of my grades?

If it weren't for this, it would be really hard to offend Feng Yiping, and Whitman would really have a good talk with him.

Because everyone in the industry knows that Feng Yiping has a good vision, he does not want eBay stock. If it is exaggerated by some stock commentators or financial reporters, it may affect many people's confidence in eBay, and then affect eBay's stock price.

"Not to mention 50-50 cash and stocks, at least stocks account for 30% of the total price. This is a plan they can accept," Rajiv said.

"I would fight for a deal like that, but we still have to be prepared for a higher share of cash or an all-cash deal," Whitman said.

"The Chinese people have always liked cash. This should be the best proof," Rajiv couldn't help but complain.

However, his confidence is somewhat lacking, not only because Feng Yiping has made so many achievements that cannot be complained about, but also because in this regard, the Indians are not much better.

He decided to change the angle and asked Whitman to strive to increase eBay's stock share in the settlement of the acquisition. "So, what about the dividend you mentioned before?"

If all the cash reserves are spent due to the acquisition of Skype, how will there be money to pay dividends to everyone?

But he really brought up the wrong topic. Whitman said angrily, "With such good acquisition targets, what kind of dividends do they need?"

Rajiv wanted to scold his mother and said that dividend distribution was also your proposal and he mentioned it more than once, okay?

It turns out that the high-tech circles in the United States, from Microsoft to Cisco to Oracle to Hewlett-Packard..., they are all greedy.

Of course, Apple, the largest company later, really wanted to pay dividends, but it really couldn't. It didn't have much cash reserves.

This is actually good. Anyway, these big companies are great. Unlike Google, they hope to go public and give retail investors some opportunities. Most technology companies just use the rule of not paying dividends and coldly treat those who are affected by it. Investors driven by short-term gains are excluded.

Do you expect to buy my stock and get dividends at the beginning of the year? no way!

No matter how much cash you have, it has nothing to do with you. It can only be used to help the company's development, mergers and acquisitions, stock buybacks, etc.

So, if you don’t want to hold our stocks, just sell them and we’ll keep them.

However, Gates, the world's richest man, suddenly took the lead in breaking the rules in 2003. At that time, he not only announced Microsoft's stock split plan of splitting its shares into two shares, but also announced that before the stock split, the US stock market would pay a dividend of 16 cents!

This is okay originally. He is the boss. He wants to play whatever he wants and how he wants to play. Who can do anything about him?

But who is Whitman? I am the Queen of Silicon Valley. If Microsoft pays dividends, then I naturally have to show my style as a queen. So she immediately told reporters, "We are also currently considering using excess cash to pay shareholders Pay dividends,”

As soon as this news came out, she did gain a lot of fans, and there was a vague trend in the American high-tech world, where men regarded Gates as the king, and women respected her.

However, she was not as easy to talk to at eBay as Gates was at Microsoft, and she had been thinking about this for a long time.

We know that such a promise that will not be realized is the most hurtful. Seeing that the dividend has been delayed, Whitman has naturally received a lot of criticism.

But that's not all. Last year, Microsoft, intentionally or unintentionally, gave Whitman a heavy blow. They announced a one-time dividend of $3 per share!

And Whitman, who repeatedly said to the outside world that it was "still under consideration" and "still designing plans," faced this collateral damage and for the sake of personal reputation, really tried his best to promote the dividend plan.

Now, are you saying no to sending?

Rajiv lowered his head, you are the boss and you are right.

"I will come out and explain the situation to investors at that time," Whitman said.

She has some integrity and doesn't want her subordinates to take the blame for something like this.

Of course, she mainly believes that investors should understand the benefits of doing so.

Rajiv felt a little better and asked another question of his, "Do you think this is a bit too much?"

It seems that there are several companies competing for it. Judging from the situation disclosed so far, News Corporation seems to have the biggest advantage. Why should we be prepared to win with one hit?

Where does such confidence come from?

Whitman stood up, "Didn't you see that we can't give him more time? I don't know how high the purchase price of Skype will be if he continues to fight openly and secretly like this,"

She really felt that Feng Yiping would be unworthy of his talent if he didn't work in the auction house.

He just releases some news from time to time, and News Corporation, Yahoo, and his own company can't help but raise their bids. Therefore, we really can't continue like this.

"We just have to be ready to win the battle in one go, and set out all our conditions. If he agrees, we agree. If he doesn't agree, then we give up."

Whitman spoke with great force.

We have to say that for a woman to reach the point where she is today, she is definitely not a soft-hearted person, she is more capable of taking things and letting them go than men.

She has seen clearly that no matter what, she can no longer follow Feng Yiping's rhythm.

After Rajiv, she met with the heads of other business departments separately, conveying the same spirit.

In short, she was ready and waiting for Feng Yiping's next response.

ps: I rarely ask for votes. Today, Monday, no matter whether the effect is good or not, I still have to ask for votes regularly. Just pass by and don’t miss the vote!