Chapter 303: Important Decisions for Fortress Golf Course
;
Recently, the internal morale of Yahoo in the United States has been high. First, the stock price of Netscape, which was listed in August this year, has been rising steadily and has exceeded 90 US dollars. The stock price is heading towards 100 US dollars and the total market value of the stock is 2 billion US dollars. Netscape is equivalent to Wall Street. It has set a benchmark for Internet stocks and is an example for Yahoo, which will be listed on Nasdaq early next year and follow in the footsteps of Netscape. Secondly, a lot of Wall Street investment companies have come to Yahoo for research recently, and everyone has felt the enthusiasm from Wall Street investment institutions. Last week, Li Xiaofan's Singapore company introduced two large advertising orders totaling US$1.46 million. These recent good news have made Yahoo's operations and management team very excited. They seem to see the hope that the company's books will turn losses into profits this year, and the stock price will skyrocket after the company is listed on Nasdaq next year...
In order to thank Li Xiaofan for his support for the Singapore company, the day after Li Xiaofan arrived in San Francisco, Jerry Yang and several other shareholders first invited him to play a round of golf at Presidio Golf Course, the oldest course in San Francisco.
In addition to its beautiful scenery, San Francisco is home to the densest concentration of Chinese in America, and its "Chinatown" is famous far and wide. Another area that is very prominent in the United States is its golf courses.
San Francisco is also one of the major golf towns in the United States. The 17-mile area of the adjacent Monterey Peninsula is home to many famous golf courses in the United States, such as Pebble Beach.
Le Beach, Cypress Point, etc. are known as golf resort paradise.
Even in the San Francisco area, there are some courses that play an important role in the star-studded American golf landscape in terms of course quality and historical status. Such as the San Francisco Golf Club, which is ranked among the top in the United States, the Harding Park Course named after the 29th President of the United States Harding, the prestigious Half Moon Bay Course, the Olympic Course that once hosted the U.S. Open, and so on.
This time, the San Francisco Fortress Stadium arranged by Jerry Yang and the others is known as a "historic landmark", the oldest, most storied, and most historic stadium in the United States.
The Presidio Golf Course is actually open to the public year-round. The Presidio where the stadium is located has a dangerous geographical location, guarding the Pacific Ocean and the Golden Gate Strait of the San Francisco Bay. Therefore, it has become a battleground for military strategists. Previously, Spain, Mexico and the United States had heavily guarded this place. It was once an important military base. , garrisoned by the US military.
The US military has a tradition. Whether it is at home or overseas, if it is a large-scale military camp that is stationed for a long time, it will build a golf course for the entertainment of officers and soldiers, similar to the basketball court in our mainland army.
The Fortress Course was built in 1895 with only 9 holes. It was the earliest golf course on the West Coast. In 1910, the course was expanded to 18 holes and had been an exclusive course for the US military.
Last year, in 1994, the fortress ended its 219-year military use and was converted into a national park. The golf course became a public course and began to be open to the general public.
In the early morning, after Yang Zhiyuan drove Li Xiaofan to the golf course in his Dodge Ram, Li Xiaofan was immediately attracted by the scenery of the course.
This golf course is now part of the Golden Gate National Park. There are many lush and tall trees on the golf course, mainly pine and eucalyptus. The fairways are built along the hills, with undulating changes. The surrounding scenery is beautiful and charming. You can see the Golden Gate in the distance. The view of the bridge, San Francisco Bay and the Pacific Ocean is breathtaking!
"This golf course is so beautiful, Jerry!" Li Xiaofan sighed.
"Afan, I heard that you are learning golf now, so we specially arranged it for you! Can you guess how much it will cost for us to play at the course I booked?"
"200 US dollars?" Li Xiaofan guessed.
"15 dollars!" Jerry Yang laughed.
"Oh my God? $15, unbelievable!"
"It's very cheap to play golf courses in the United States. Our current Fortress Golf Course costs US$15 for residents of San Francisco, US$30 for residents of Northern California, and US$110 for foreign tourists like you..."
"Oh, even at US$110, it's not expensive at all compared to the price of golf in Singapore! In Singapore and mainland China, golf is called a noble sport!"
While talking, Ferro and Moritz from Sequoia Capital also drove over.
After everyone changed into their equipment, they got off the court and started playing.
While playing ball, several shareholders began to discuss the company's imminent new round of capital increase and share expansion plan.
"Afan, Moritz, what opinions and thoughts do you two have on the investment plan proposed by SoftBank Group this time?" After playing nine holes, several people took a rest under an oak tree on the edge of the green to drink water. , Yang Zhiyuan asked.
Moritz said: "I don't have any big objections to SoftBank's plan. But I want to remind you two founders, Jerry and Ferro, that if Yahoo successfully lands on the Nasdaq in the first quarter of next year, Morgan Morgan Mary Meeker, a well-known Internet industry analyst at Stanley Company, estimates that our market value of Yahoo is at least US$500 million. If we can survive, we may wait and see for a while..."
After Moritz finished speaking, Li Xiaofan continued: "Everyone, my personal opinion is that the current valuation of our Yahoo is at least 300 million US dollars! Currently, SoftBank Group is negotiating to acquire Ziff-Davis, the world's largest IT publisher, with a bid of about 1.8 billion US dollars. If this acquisition is completed, SoftBank Group will be burdened with huge debts. According to my understanding, in order to solve the huge debts brought by the recent continuous acquisitions, SoftBank Group is planning to go all out on Internet companies like Yahoo that may go public in the near future! Therefore, I think there is still room for negotiation between us and SoftBank Group. The valuation of our Yahoo should be at least 300 million US dollars!"
300 million US dollars, did you hear it wrong?
After listening to Moritz and Li Xiaofan, the two founders, Jerry Yang and Filo, were shocked! Originally, they were overjoyed at the valuation of 250 million US dollars proposed by SoftBank Group. Now Li Xiaofan proposed that Yahoo is worth 300 million US dollars. Is this reliable?
"Afan, is your valuation of 300 million US dollars a bit too much?" Jerry Yang said.
"Jerry, if you all trust me, can you authorize me to represent all the shareholders to talk to SoftBank Group again?" Li Xiaofan smiled.
"I support Mr. Li to talk to SoftBank Group again!" Moritz immediately replied.
Seeing that the two investors had reached a consensus, Yang Zhiyuan thought that it would not be bad to let Li Xiaofan talk to SoftBank Group. If the talks were successful, everyone would be happy. If they failed, they would have room for maneuver. So he and Filo also agreed to let Li Xiaofan talk to Mr. Masayoshi Son of SoftBank Group on behalf of several shareholders of Yahoo.
"Afan, you'd better hurry up and negotiate with SoftBank Group again!"
:. :