Chapter 831 They Don't Care

Amazon's Silicon Valley branch, Wilke, who returned without success, immediately reported to Seattle, "They refused? What is the objection? Is the acquisition method or the acquisition price?" Jeff Bezos asked.

If you look at it from the front, you can only see some hair on the temples, and the head seems to be a bald guy. According to Uncle Ge, this is a smart head.

And indeed a clever mind.

In 1994, he was already successful in his career. He happened to see on the Internet that netizens were growing at a rate of 2300% per year. His eyes lit up immediately. What a huge group this is! And how many opportunities will there be in such a large group?

He immediately thought of online sales. After some screening, he chose books as his main business direction. In July 1995, he officially changed the name of the online bookstore he founded, called Cadabra, to Amazon. Start your journey to build a business empire.

In order to compete with offline traditional bookstores for the market, he adopted a large-scale expansion strategy, exchanging huge losses for market share. In order to win users, various discounts are his usual means. After such a series of operations regardless of cost, in 97 In May 2010, Amazon's stock was successfully listed, establishing itself as the largest bookstore in the United States.

Later, he first expanded his business field to music, and then in 2000, he was no longer satisfied with only these two aspects of business, and transformed into the largest online retailer. In 2001, he began to promote third-party open platforms on a large scale. Beyond the scope of an online retailer, like Taobao later, it has become a comprehensive service provider.

Speaking of which, Netflix, which Feng Yiping is eyeing, and Amazon, which is eyeing Feng Yiping, are essentially the same. They both have the idea of ​​online sales, but one company not only has a wider business scope, but also has transformed into a platform. On the other hand, it still only sells DVDs.

What is rare is that when the dot-com bubble burst a few years ago, although Amazon was also struggling, it managed to persevere, and finally succeeded in making a profit in the fourth quarter of last year—although it was only a few million dollars, it was still strong. Countered rumors in the market about Amazon's imminent bankruptcy.

Bezos, who is also a computer major, has paid great attention to the technology of his website since he started his business, but he has always adhered to the concept of customer-centricity, which is why he fell in love with NEXTDOOR at a glance.

The rest of NEXTDOOR is not important. There are more than 30 million registered users, and more than 10 million people participated in the "Finding Nemo" group buying, which made Bezos shine. So many active users, and so sticky High, and this user base is still growing at a high speed - it is impossible to overestimate this wealth.

The overall acquisition of NEXTDOOR, in addition to the sake of business development, Bezos also plans to influence the capital market and boost the sluggish stock price through such an operation.

Although it is more important to do a good job than the stock price, when many shareholders in your board of directors express dissatisfaction with the sluggish stock price, if you are still indifferent, then, like Jobs, you will be kicked out of the company you founded. company, it is not impossible.

"No, Jeff, they weren't bargaining, they weren't interested," Wilke said.

"Did you end up raising it to $1.5 billion?"

"Yes Jeff,"

"What about the backup plan?"

"They don't even want to look at it,"

This situation is really a bit beyond Bezos' expectations.

Silicon Valley is a place where rich people come out. However, mergers and acquisitions with an amount reaching 1 billion US dollars are actually rare. Although there are more than other places in the world, compared to so many companies in Silicon Valley, this proportion is very, very small.

Moreover, it was only a company established less than two years ago.

"In that case, let's do it according to the original plan," Bezos' voice could not hear any fluctuations.

People who have achieved a certain level of success almost all have this virtue. Most of the time, it is easier for them than ordinary people to not be happy with things or sad for themselves.

"Okay, I'll contact that Ms. Huang right away, and the other two institutional investors, Jiaqiang Capital and Leading Capital, is there any result of the background check?"

Although Buchanan said that he is the only member of the board of directors in the United States, Wilke already knows that Huang Jingping, the fourth largest shareholder, is currently in the United States.

It's just that she only holds 10% of the shares, even if she can buy all her shares, that's not enough.

"Investigating, I believe it won't take long,"

"Where is Mr. Feng?"

"If necessary, I will contact him directly," Bezos said.

Although Bezos doesn't care about Feng Yiping's wealth on the bright side, but just to show equality and respect, Feng Yiping should also be contacted by him.

Yes, although Buchanan clearly expressed on behalf of the board of directors that he did not want to be acquired at all, these people at Amazon don't care at all.

Since the door-to-door negotiation with NEXTDOOR clearly disagreed, and the friendly merger failed, they immediately started the next step, a hostile merger, and prepared to directly contact the shareholders of NEXTDOOR.

Although they know that they are quite dishonest towards the goal of NEXTDOOR, whether it is 1 billion or 1.5 billion.

None of these successful people in the United States is good. Of course, this principle is probably universal.

Let’s just talk about Bezos. Later, there was a story about him in Silicon Valley.

A friend of his founded a company whose products were very helpful to Amazon and had a good momentum of development. When the company was preparing for a new round of financing, Bezos sent him a copy The acquisition offer, the founder of that company, a friend of Bezos, was very excited and decided to give up further financing activities, so what, how are you guys, Jeff should not treat me badly.

Then, the two sides negotiated the acquisition for a long time. When the company had nothing to eat, Bezos asked Amazon to withdraw the acquisition offer, and watched the company founded by his friend go bankrupt.

Of course, on the day this company was liquidated, people from Amazon came again. They brought luxury cars and contracts, and waited at the door of that company, waiting for the software engineers they valued to go out with boxes.

Bezos and Amazon got what he wanted at the lowest cost.

As for the friend who was severely cheated by him, well, it is estimated that he will not get a "sorry" from Bezos

The American business world is such a ruthless self-interested place.

Of course, at this point, even Jobs and Gates are no exception.

For example, Jobs heard that Microsoft launched its own graphical interface operating system that year, and immediately called Gates to scold Gates, "Why do you want to steal my idea? You are ruthless, shameless, and unreasonable."

Gates retorted, "Brother Steve, if you say this, you are also stealing, and you are also ruthless, shameless and unreasonable, because this thing was first thought of by the Xerox Palo Alto Technology Center,"

It was these two big names who later emphasized copyright the most, and they also did not hesitate when they plagiarized Xerox's ideas.

Perhaps the only criterion for these people to measure many things is whether they can bring benefits to themselves.

Wilke immediately dialed Huang Jingping's phone number. According to the information, this lady who had been applying for investment immigration not long ago was as young as Feng. She was only 24 years old and just graduated from university.

"Hello, Ms. Huang, I am Andy Wilke, Senior Vice President of Amazon. We are looking forward to further cooperation with NEXTDOOR, which you invested in. I want to visit you in your office. When is it convenient for you?"

Wilke heard the yelling of the adults and children over there. It was very lively. Is she on vacation?

"Mr. Wilke," Yiping said correctly, and he received their call, "Mr. Buchanan has already given you feedback on our opinion, so I think there is really no need to meet."

"Miss Huang, if possible, I still hope to have an interview with you. Our company is very sincere. According to your wishes, we have formulated several different plans. I think, listening to these plans, at least it will not hurt you. Nothing to lose, right?"

"In addition, as far as we know, NEXTDOOR is still in a loss-making state so far, and the business model is not very clear. Compared with the huge expenditure of building those sub-sites in various places, the group buying business currently launched cannot make the entire company's financial The situation has been completely improved, and we believe that it is a very wise choice to withdraw at this time.

Moreover, you are free to choose the way to withdraw, cash is fine, and it is also fine to exchange for our Amazon stock,"

Amanda was already calling her mother in Lisa's arms, Huang Jingping didn't want to talk to this person any more, "I'm honored, but, sorry, I'm really not interested, thank you for calling,"

No matter how gaudy Wilke said, how could she sell her shares?

If there is only one person in the world who supports Feng Yiping's approach the most, it must be her.

"Honey, do you still want to ride the carousel? Yes, mommy will take you,"

"Ping, is it about mergers and acquisitions?" Lisa asked.

It appears the news has spread.

"Yes,"

"What Feng means is that you really don't think about it at all?"

"Lisa, believe me, we operate independently, and what Mike can get in the future will definitely be much more than what Amazon can give now," Huang Jingping said with certainty.

Listening to the buzzing on the phone, Wilke felt that things were really getting tricky.

They can naturally find out that Huang Jingping is Feng Yiping's girlfriend. Feng's girlfriend has this opinion. Does it mean that Feng, the chairman of NEXTDOOR, also has this opinion?

If this is the case, it will be really troublesome, and other unconventional means can only be used to achieve this.