America's Road to Fame

Chapter 379 Wal-Mart Has an Idea

Seeing that it has already reached the second half of 2011, the financing negotiations have dragged on for more than a month. Facing Zoom, Amazon’s logistics and warehousing system in the United States has become more and more comprehensive, and the transaction volume has caught up rapidly. , They also have a sense of crisis.

Therefore, in a recent financing negotiation, they directly shouted a high price, which is also the final bid they claimed, which is the valuation of Groupon, which has reached an unbelievable US$250 billion!
Seeing this quotation, Chen William can only sigh that Amazon is really rich. For Groupon, it can call out the valuation of 250 billion US dollars without hesitation.Of course, it's not that they will spend so much money to buy all of this company, because even if they want to, I'm afraid Andrew will not be willing, because according to the current predictions of many institutions, Groupon will be the next 300 billion dollar independent company. Horn beasts, and after their IPO, their market value will definitely exceed [-] billion U.S. dollars.

However, Amazon also has a condition for quoting this price, that is, after their financing, they will hold no less than 40% of Groupon's shares, and most of them must come from the two early investments of Zoom and Meta Investment. Buy the shares directly in the hands of the parties.

Bezos of Amazon is not stupid. His purpose of this request is to gain control of the company, at least a part of it, after joining Groupon. Weaken the influence of the company, so that they can carry out the next step of planning, integrating Groupon to fight against Zoom.

But in this way, for Groupon, although Amazon needs to pay up to 40 billion US dollars to get the 100% of the shares, in fact, the funds that Groupon can get are very few, and most of them will It was Amazon who bought shares from Zoom and Meta Investment, which is equivalent to cashing out and leaving.

But even so, for Andrew, he is extremely supportive of Amazon's proposal, because it will at least allow the largest shareholder among his shareholders to invest 60% of the shares of these two related parties from Zoom and Meta. 40% stake in Amazon.com.

And in his view, Amazon is a better partner for Groupon than Zoom.

William Chen returned to the United States this time to deal with Groupon's financing.In fact, the biggest problem he faces now is how to persuade Rick Walton to agree to the financing conditions proposed by Amazon.

Yes, William Chen is naturally willing to agree to Amazon's conditions and sell his shares in Groupon to Amazon at the company's valuation of 250 billion US dollars, so as to cash out.

Because he understands that the peak of Groupon's valuation should be a very short time after the company's IPO. For the stock price performance after IPO listing, the general company will have a special agreement with early investors, setting a lock-up period of 90-180 months for the original stock, during which they cannot sell the shares they hold.

Therefore, if there is such an agreement at that time, it will be difficult for Zoom and Meta Investment Company to sell their shares at the initial high point after Groupon’s listing. Entering Groupon at a high valuation and acquiring their shares is a very good opportunity to cash out.

Groupon is bound to be a trap, so if Amazon wants to jump in, why does William Chen stop it?
The problem with Groupon is that they are too optimistic, spread out too much in the group buying field, and did not predict the recovery speed of the global economy.

As for transformation, is it that easy?So what if they have Amazon's help in the future?In the previous life, there was no retail e-commerce giant like Zoom, and they still failed to transform into e-commerce, let alone Zoom's obstruction?

If Zoom, which has been invested for so long, can't even beat Groupon, let alone challenge Amazon, it should close as soon as possible.

Therefore, after arriving in the United States, Chen William first went to Los Angeles to meet with Rick Walton to discuss matters related to the Group company.

What William Chen didn't expect was that after meeting with Rick Walton, what they mainly talked about was not the financing and listing of Groupon, but Zoom.

To be exact, Wal-Mart Group once again made a request to acquire Zoom.

The last time Wal-Mart Group wanted to acquire Zoom was when Rick Walton got engaged. At that time, the spokesperson of the Walton family, Rob Walton, Rick’s uncle, saw William Chen mentioned that he hoped to acquire the Zoom company at the time at a valuation of US$15 billion.

Of course, there is no doubt that this offer was rejected by William Chen. He said to Rob Walton at the time that when he thinks that Zoom’s value exceeds 150 billion US dollars, there may still be a basis for negotiation.

As a result, Wal-Mart Group has once again made a request to acquire Zoom. The timing is quite interesting.

"Rick, you have to know that according to Amazon's quotation, even if only 40.00% of Groupon's shares held by Zoom are counted, the value is as high as 100 billion U.S. dollars. I don't know what kind of valuation Wal-Mart will give Zoom this time. Worth it?"

"I just received such a request, and I didn't really talk about it in detail. You know, William, I said before that it is not appropriate for me to come forward for this kind of negotiation with Wal-Mart Group, so I will hand it over to your."

Rick shrugged and said to William Chen.

"I can go and meet them, Rick, but you know, if it's a valuation of $200 billion, I won't waste time negotiating, and you know the times are different now, with Amazon's market value We are moving towards US$1000 billion, and now as long as it is a project related to e-commerce, the valuation will not be too low.”

William Chen said without hesitation:

"Look at what Groupon has. It's just a group buying idea to help merchants clear inventory during the economic crisis. Now its valuation has been called 250 billion U.S. dollars. What about Zoom? You and I know the company's Huge potential, definitely more valuable than Groupon."

"You should say these words to the people of the Wal-Mart Group. Although I am also a member of the Walton Family, William, the Walton Family is not completely equal to the Wal-Mart Group. In this matter, our interests are the same. "

Rick thought for a while and added:
"In fact, Zoom has developed to the present, and my original idea of ​​combining it with Wal-Mart Group has been shaken, because I found that even if Zoom develops alone, it may not be able to defeat Amazon."

It was also the booming development of Zoom during this period that gave Rick Walton such confidence.

Up to now, Zoom has completed the layout in the entire American region, especially the logistics and warehousing systems of various companies, which have spread all over the states of the United States, covering 100% of the major cities and covering more than 80% of the population of the United States.

After all, the situation of each one is different from Huaguo. Their population density is smaller, and there are remote areas where many people live. For Zoom, comparing the cost and profit of its coverage, giving up is the best strategy.

Now the company has begun to cross the border of the United States and deploy in Canada, which is their next priority market.

Canada has very close ties with the United States, both economically and socially. It is very convenient for people from the two countries to travel. This can be seen from the NBA. Canadian teams are directly members of the NBA.

Therefore, it is very convenient for Zoom to enter the Canadian market after the completion of the system construction in China and the United States.

Like the United States, in Canada, Zoom does not pursue full coverage of the crowd, but gives priority to building networks in large cities with dense crowds.

After completing coverage in North America, Zoom's next target is the European market. China, Japan, and South Korea were originally very good e-commerce development markets with stable economies and dense personnel.

However, due to various reasons, the development of overseas e-commerce in these markets is not smooth, so the best choice is to start from Europe

(End of this chapter)