Chapter 231 Strategy and Unexpected Gains
After Li Xiaofan said these words, not only Masayoshi Son was shocked, but also Moritz from Sequoia Capital, Jerry Yang, Filo and other three Yahoo shareholders in the conference room.
Yang Zhiyuan was surprised and happy: Why didn't Li Xiaofan ventilate himself before?
Sun Zhengyi then took out a piece of information, looked into Li Xiaofan's eyes and said: "Mr. Li, according to the investigation, your Singapore Yifan Pte Ltd was established just over 2 months ago, and the company's paid-in capital is only NT$10,000. "How can you invest such a sum of $4.8 million in Yahoo?"
Li Xiaofan smiled and said: "Mr. Sun, you may not have noticed that Tang Xinyi, another shareholder of Singapore Yifan Company, is one of the successors of the famous Tang Group in Nanyang. At present, our Singapore Yifan Company is already a joint venture between two companies in the United States and Singapore. We are a qualified supplier of a famous large supermarket chain, and now our company’s monthly turnover is quite considerable..."
At this time, Yang Zhiyuan quietly briefly introduced to Sun Zhengyi on the side, they and Sequoia Capital had previously carried out background investigations on Singapore Yifan Private Co., Ltd., Tang Xinyi, Tang Group, etc.
After hearing this, Sun Zhengyi's face became a little gloomy, and he said to Yang Zhiyuan and Filo: "Anyway, this is a preliminary proposal of our SoftBank Group. Please consider it carefully as several shareholders of Yahoo. I will give it to you the day after tomorrow." Leaving San Francisco, if you are interested during this period, you can contact me at any time! ”
After finishing speaking, Sun Zhengyi took his leave with his entourage and left.
After Sun Zhengyi left, the three remaining Yahoo shareholders in the conference room all stared at Li Xiaofan. Yang Zhiyuan first asked: "Afan, are you really planning to increase capital and invest in our Yahoo company?"
"Well, I have this plan, but it may not be that soon. I originally planned to propose a capital increase proposal to you shareholders later in the second half of the year... Just now, I was really forced by SoftBank Group to say it. of."
Moritz smiled and said: "Li, so you just made a false shot to scare Mr. Sun of SoftBank Group first?"
"Well, yes. Just now I personally felt that SoftBank's investment advice was too aggressive. If one of their companies now takes 40% of the shares at a valuation of US$12 million, we old shareholders will suffer too much. Jerry, Ferro, if today’s SoftBank Group plan is followed, the shares of the two founders will be greatly diluted, and you will face losing Yahoo! The risk of control! Therefore, my strategy today is to first attack the aggressive momentum of SoftBank Group. If Mr. Masayoshi Son continues to be optimistic about our company, he will come to negotiate. By then, we can significantly improve our Yahoo. The company’s valuation, and make sure that the shares of the two founders of the company are not diluted too much!”
Li Xiaofan continued: "Everyone, I personally suggest that the best time for Yahoo to introduce other strategic investors is the second half of this year. Currently, according to Netscape's plan, they will be listed on Nasdaq in the second half of the year, with Netscape as the first investor. Once an Internet company goes public, I predict that Netscape will be popular in the capital market in the second half of this year. The post-market capital market environment is conducive to a substantial increase in Yahoo's valuation. At present, one of my suggestions for Yahoo is to vigorously increase marketing efforts and do everything possible to increase the company's main Internet advertising business income. Making the reports more beautiful is the most direct way to increase the valuation of our company Yahoo!”
"Li, what you said makes sense, and I support you!" Moritz first expressed his support.
He has long disliked SoftBank Group's aggressiveness.
He agreed very much with Li Xiaofan's suggestion that the report should be made more beautiful. Sequoia Capital almost rejected the project of investing in Yahoo before at a voting meeting because Yahoo's financial statements were too ugly. It was only investment and almost no income.
The two investors are on the same page, and Jerry Yang and Ferro are at a loss for the time being.
Jerry Yang said: "Mr. Moritz, Affan, what I'm more worried about now is how long can the first 2 million US dollars you invest in us support our company? At present, our company's monthly maintenance expenses The cost is about US$300,000. At this rate of burning money, the US$2 million will soon be burned out by the end of the year..."
"Jerry, I will try my best to persuade other directors of our company to increase investment in your project..." Although Moritz comforted Yang Zhiyuan in this way, he was not sure at all. At present, the old antiques on the investment decision-making committee of Sequoia Capital are not optimistic about Internet industry projects at all, which makes Moritz very helpless. The last small investment of 1.6 million US dollars to test the water was a result of his great personal efforts and was barely passed at the voting meeting.
For Sequoia Capital to increase its investment in an Internet company that reported losses, Moritz knew that the possibility was very slim.
Li Xiaofan comforted him: "Jerry, don't worry too much. My Yifan company in Singapore is currently making considerable profits from its trading business. If your Yahoo company needs money, call me at any time, and I will do everything possible to help!" Believe me, as long as we make it to the end of the year, When Netscape is successfully listed, the capital market will likely have a wave of investment in Internet projects in Silicon Valley. If Yahoo's financial statements are better, I believe there will be too many companies like SoftBank. We have powerful strategic investors to choose from!”
Jerry Yang smiled bitterly and said, "Okay, Afan, I hope that good things like what you said will happen in the second half of the year..."
During their stay in San Francisco, Li Xiaofan and Lin Muchu also had the biggest gain. They met the two founders of Cisco Systems, a couple of professors at Stanford University, through Jerry Yang's introduction: Professor Leonard, director of the Computer Center of the Computer Department, and Professor Santi, director of the Computer Center of the Business School.
Lin Muchu's purpose was of course to attract investment. At that time, Cisco Systems had been listed on NASDAQ in 1990. Last year, in 1994, Cisco launched the first intelligent CisCatalyst series switch for client-server workgroups, which has a very high reputation and influence in the IT industry.
Lin Muchu's idea is to attract Cisco Systems to Singapore to set up its Asia-Pacific headquarters or a research and development center.
Through Jerry Yang's arrangement, Li Xiaofan and Lin Muchu invited Professor Leonard and Professor Santi to have a meal together at Tangyuan Chinese Restaurant.
Coincidentally, Professor Leonard and Professor Santi also like Chinese food very much.
During the meal, Lin Muchu asked curiously, "Professors, why did you name your company Cis?"
Professor Leonard smiled and said, "In order to name the company Cis, there was a tortuous story when we registered our company..."