Chapter 2661 Cheer Up
San Francisco.
In the past two days, people in some mansions on Nob Hill have had the illusion when they go out or go home. Am I living in Japantown (a Japanese-populated area in San Francisco)?
Those who got off the luxury cars, those who got off the clang cars, and even those who walked leisurely from the sidewalk... all in this weather, still wearing suits, speaking weird English, or simply speaking Japanese people.
This is actually because Masayoshi Son’s SoftBank has booked most of the rooms in the Fairmont, a luxury hotel on the mountain, to hold SoftBank’s impromptu executive meetings.
It is common for SoftBank to take senior executives to foreign countries for meetings, but it has never happened before that SoftBank senior executives were summoned to San Francisco and held an impromptu meeting in such a luxurious hotel.
The main reason is that Son Zhengyi, who was very strong on the outside and hard on the inside when bidding, now has a bulging pocket.
He just wants to use this method to show the outside world that we are not short of money now.
Of course, even if there is no shortage of money, Masayoshi Son will not squander like a nouveau riche. There are other deep-seated considerations in convening this temporary executive meeting.
Because, just like before, the acquisition of Yahoo was almost a decision he made on his own at the last minute, and not all of the senior management team supported it; in addition, not long ago Facebook and Twitter publicly announced that they were negotiating for acquisitions, which brought a lot of challenges to the SoftBank team. blow; and in recent talks with Yahoo, the M&A team has been almost always suppressed by the teams of Microsoft and NEXTDOOR; and this time, although he has raised enough funds to acquire Yahoo, it also means that, SoftBank has therefore taken on high debt...
It can be said that the morale of the entire SoftBank team is quite low at this time.
No matter how confident Son is, he knows that under such circumstances, no matter how powerful he is, it will not be easy to perfectly complete such a big move as the acquisition of Yahoo.
After all, he's not a Super Saiyan.
Boosting morale was his inevitable choice at this time.
…………
In the presidential suite, Son was practicing his next speech in front of the mirror, a habit he has always retained.
"We...we..." Like an actor who is very strict with himself, he adjusted his facial expressions and gestures in front of the mirror.
"Kunkou", the door was knocked, and a gentle female voice came, "Sir,"
Son Zhengyi looked at the person in the mirror again, adjusted his collar, and walked towards the door calmly step by step.
On the way to the banquet hall surrounded by his assistants, he kept his mouth tightly closed and said nothing, and his movements were calm to the point of being a little slow. But as soon as he entered the banquet hall and looked at the senior executives standing up, his movements suddenly became swift. stand up.
He walked quickly onto the stage with a confident and steady smile on his face, but in a consistent tone, as if he was talking to people in the office, he asked the audience, "Hello everyone!"
In any case, everyone in the audience stood up at this time, applauding enthusiastically, and cheering. It was not difficult to create such an atmosphere, especially since most of the people present were Japanese who like to follow the crowd.
"Please sit down, please sit down," Son greeted. He gently pressed the remote control in his hand, and a chart was quickly displayed on the projection screen.
"Twenty-seven years ago, Global World, the predecessor of SoftBank, was established,"
Speaking of this, he couldn't help but think that when he returned to Japan from the United States 27 years ago to start his own business, Feng Yiping probably hadn't even left yet.
Well, Feng Yiping had just turned one year old at that time and it was true that he couldn't walk.
"At that time, we had no funds, no connections, and no mature business ideas. It was just me, two colleagues, and a firm belief,"
This time there was real laughter in the audience.
Because everyone knows that not long after the company was established, the first two employees resigned one after another because they felt that this guy, who was considered short among Japanese, was too unreliable and too arrogant.
So much so that the later "Internet Emperor" almost became a real loner.
"I said on the day we were established that we would be the number one company in Japan...the company's turnover should reach 10 billion yen in five years and 50 billion yen in 10 years..."
"In the first two years, our progress was relatively slow. At one time, we lost as much as 300 million yen a year..."
"...But in the end, because we found the right path and because of our success in magazine publishing, we successfully completed the 5-year and 10-year goals ahead of schedule, and laid a solid foundation for the current SoftBank..."
"...17 years ago,"
At that time, Feng Yiping should still be attending primary school in a backward rural area in China?
Yes, that was the year before Feng Yiping was about to undergo a "big change".
"After careful consideration in many aspects, we decided to officially focus on the Internet field, which is also our lifelong career..."
If Feng Yiping were at the scene, he would definitely sneer at Son's remarks.
Bullshit "careful consideration".
In fact, SoftBank ultimately suffered a huge loss in its initial publishing business.
A large number of magazines are piled up in the warehouse with no buyers. What's even worse is that the final return rate of the magazines that have been sold is as high as 85%!
The so-called publishing industry, which laid a solid foundation for SoftBank, eventually added to various aftermath issues, and the total loss reached more than 1 billion yen. What was left were pieces of paper cut from new magazines in several large warehouses...
A good man never mentions his cowardice.
What Son Zhengyi is saying now is entirely based on the highly processed description in his autobiography.
And his autobiography is mainly based on interviews with him...
Of course, as a businessman, bragging is not called bragging, but it is called packaging or publicity.
"...because of our precise timing," - everyone can hear that the "we" in his words clearly refers to "me".
“We became Japan’s first company with a market capitalization exceeding one trillion yen!”
When he said this, his tone couldn't help but become louder, and some of the old employees in the audience also felt proud at this time.
That was indeed SoftBank's shining moment.
It was during that period that Son Zhengyi was named the "Internet Emperor" and briefly became the world's richest man.
However, the good times don’t last long!
"Although we encountered the Internet cold wave that swept the world, because of our focus on the Internet field and our consistently successful decision-making, our market value has now approached 2 trillion yen!"
This seems to be the case at the moment, but this actually depends on how the situation develops next.
“Whether it is compared with 17 years ago or compared with 27 years ago, SoftBank now has better financial strength, human resources, business philosophy, corporate influence, and many other aspects. Got an unimaginable improvement,”
"...We have invested in more than 400 companies and are shareholders of more than 50 listed companies. Among the companies we have invested in, there are hundreds of them waiting in line to go public,"
"We have generated more than $40 billion in returns on these investments,"
Well, on the books.
After all, he was once the world's richest man for a day.
"Our investment layout covers all Internet fields such as portals, search, social networking, and e-commerce,"
"We are also a world-renowned broadband service provider,"
"..."
"We have become a world-class Internet investment company!"
"We have become the most successful Internet investment company in the world!"
"After 27 years since the company was founded, I want to set another 10-year goal,"
Masayoshi Son's actions have become more aggressive. "Our goal in 10 years is to increase the company's market value from the current 2 trillion yen," which is not yet 2 trillion yen.
He clenched his hands into fists and waved them vigorously in the air, "Raise it to 200 trillion yen!"
Some people were stunned, while some stood up cheering.
Those standing up are all Japanese, and those sitting down are basically not Japanese.
"To this end, we will continue to focus on the Internet field, but we will no longer be wedded to specific technologies and business models,"
"We will further develop all our advantages, and we will perfectly copy our successful experience to a larger platform,"
“This platform is Yahoo!”
"This platform, Yahoo, is also our platform to enter the largest Internet market in the world,"
"This platform, Yahoo, is also the key platform for our market value to increase from 2 trillion yen to 200 trillion yen,"
"I also want to tell everyone that the total amount of funds we have raised so far exceeds 50 billion US dollars!"
"We have sufficient funds to win this platform, and we also have sufficient funds to invest in other promising projects,"
"The key is," he pointed to the audience, "we now have so many high-quality talents to realize our vision,"
At this time, the whole audience stood up.
At this moment, the roar of applause from SoftBank drowned out the clanging car bells outside.