Top of the big era

At the end of the year, many financial institutions begin to summarize the entire year.

For the financial market, the most watched IPO case this year is undoubtedly Changyou, with a financing scale of an astonishing US$2.65 billion.

Because the scale of financing was too large and too many shares were issued, many difficulties were encountered during the initial IPO. Fortunately, at the critical moment, Boss Zhou stepped forward and used his strong courage and sense of responsibility to spend US$810 million of his own money to acquire 70 million issued shares, promoting the smooth progress of the IPO.

Ranked second is Yandex, a Russian search company, which also chose to be listed on Nasdaq, with a financing scale of US$1.3 billion.

On the first day of listing, the company's stock price soared 55%, another exciting capital carnival.

But the fun didn't last long.

It’s almost the same as Changyou’s listing.

Affected by the general environment, the stock prices soon fell and broke... Generally speaking, the stock prices of technology companies that conducted IPOs in the first half of the year basically broke by the end of the year.

Even Zynga, which attracted much attention at the end of the year, went public and quickly went under.

Affected by this, Facebook has adjusted its IPO plan. It was originally said to be launched in February next year, but it was postponed to May next year.

What’s interesting is that Zhou Buqi saw a report from the Wall Street Journal.

There are several eye-catching Chinese characters - Hidden Dragon in the Yuan.

The financial editorial department of the Wall Street Journal used the term "a hidden dragon lurking in the abyss" to describe the current general situation of the technology industry and gave a very good outlook for the future.

In addition, Zhou Buqi also saw an industry rumor.

Some insiders broke the news that Yahoo's board of directors has determined a new CEO candidate, and co-founder Yang Zhiyuan will resign from all positions at Yahoo and leave the board of directors.

It seems that this matter is really confirmed.

Sure enough, Zhou Buqi received an invitation from Masayoshi Son and wanted to have a chat, which was most likely related to Yahoo. Senior Sister Zhen Yu often attends SoftBank's board of directors and reads internal materials, so she is well informed.

Masayoshi Son's operation led to the formation of a large consortium to acquire Yahoo by uniting various forces. It was aggressive and aggressive at the time, and even offered the highest acquisition bid of US$25 billion.

I thought it would work.

Unexpectedly, the result was completely different from what he expected.

It made him very angry.

"Angry?" After listening to Senior Sister Zhen Yu's statement, Zhou Buqi felt serious, "Isn't that true? A successful acquisition is an unexpected surprise, but a failure is normal."

Zhen Yu said softly: "That's the truth, but Sun Zhengyi is determined to win this time, and he fervently hopes to get it done. On the one hand, it is to show his personal strength and industry influence, and on the other hand, it is to successfully take back the 35% of Yahoo Japan shares."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Fortunately it didn't succeed."

Zhen Yu rolled her eyes at him, "Sun Zhengyi has a little trouble this time, because he has spent more than 27 million US dollars on preliminary preparations."

"How much?" Zhou Buqi was stunned, "27 million U.S. dollars? 2.7 million U.S. dollars, right?"

For acquisitions of such blockbuster transactions, especially for listed companies, the entire process will be very complicated and require the organization of a very large team.

It is necessary to hire negotiation experts, financial experts, and legal experts, conduct asset mapping and due diligence on Yahoo, and find a public relations company to operate with the board of directors and maintain good relations with important shareholders.

These all require money.

The further the acquisition process enters, the more money it will cost. The contact between the consortium organized by Masayoshi Son and Yahoo was not smooth from the beginning and did not proceed at all.

This means that it doesn’t cost much at all.

Millions of dollars to the sky.

Zhen Yu said: "It's 27 million U.S. dollars. Blackstone Group and Bain Capital are angry. They think Masayoshi Son is a lunatic. They also threatened to hire an investigation company, thinking that Masayoshi Son might have enriched his own pockets."

Zhou Buqi also found it hard to understand, "Why would you spend so much money?"

Zhen Yu said: "Give it away."

"What?"

Zhou Buqi opened his eyes wide.

Zhen Yu pursed her lips, "It's not the kind you think, it's the legal kind. In order to promote negotiations between the two parties, Sun Zhengyi participated in more than a dozen charity dinners during this period, donating an average of 1 million US dollars each time, and donated a total of Gone for $16 million."

"No wonder."

Zhou Buqi was speechless, feeling that Sun Zhengyi was really too impatient this time.

As a trader, you must be steady.

The more anxious you are, the more the other party will eat you.

In this space of Wall Street and Silicon Valley, some of the smartest people in the world gather. The Yahoo case brought together the elites of Wall Street and Silicon Valley.

Once you find a wealthy local who is stupid and rich, you will definitely take turns to harvest them.

The most commonly used method is charity funds.

Those in the "upper class" basically have a charity fund. It’s hard to say whether the charity fund will do charity after receiving the money.

For example, in order to protect small animals, I bought a Rolls-Royce; in order to take care of marginalized people in society, I bought a set of paragliding equipment.

Silicon Valley is actually not that good.

It is most popular in Wall Street and Hollywood. Charity dinners and charity receptions are everywhere. It is more about public relations than charity.

It’s about spending money to buy relationships.

Zhou Buqi also had to do as the locals do, and he often participated in similar "donations".

But it’s not that we’ve never seen someone like Sun Zhengyi, who spends money so indifferently, but it’s relatively rare. Generally, people who throw away large sums of money are mostly rich or second-generation people from Asia with many complicated connections. In order to obtain local asylum, obtain identity, or allow the transfer of large amounts of funds to the United States, they have to constantly do so. Participate in various charity evenings to manage relevant people.

The most popular thing recently is, of course, the Malaysian swindler Low Taek Jho, who managed to get supermodel Miranda Kerr and singer Elva Hsiao together. His money-splitting behavior in Hollywood has shocked the world.

Zhen Yu said with a smile: "In SoftBank, some people also told me privately that Sun Zhengyi was stimulated by you. The Ziweixing Global Group that you have run has made Sun Zhengyi very eager. This time I want to Attack Yahoo. Once you get impatient, your actions will easily change. Now that the dust has settled on Yahoo, Masayoshi Son will have a headache."

"What about the $27 million?"

"Normally speaking, all parties share the burden in proportion. Boss Ma seems to have agreed to share the burden as previously agreed. Blackstone Group and Bain Capital are very unhappy, very angry with Son, and want to default on the debt."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "If it were me, I would also want to default on the debt. This trader's business is like a knife with an inward edge."

Zhen Yu asked: "Then are you going to see Masayoshi Son tomorrow?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "See you, why don't you see me? They happily organized a big consortium back then, and they were afraid that I would rob them, so they would avoid me. Now it's okay, let's see what he has." In other words, you will learn a lesson after every experience, so you have to teach him a lesson and let him know who is playing with whom."

Zhen Yu hesitated for a moment, then said thoughtfully, "I think he wants to ask you about Boss Ma."

Zhou Buqi will not talk to Sun Zhengyi. He and Boss Ma are the ones he can talk to. No matter how Sun Zhengyi claims that his ancestors are from China, he is now a real foreigner. As far as the old god is concerned, : "Then I don't know anything. Let's prepare the money now and wait for Lao Ma's action to take over Ali's shares."

Zhen Yu said with a headache: "This costs a lot of money! It costs billions of dollars!"

"Um."

"What should I do? Should I take out a loan?"

"Ha ha!"

Zhou Buqi couldn't help but laugh when he saw her face was complicated and she pursed her lips tightly, looking resentful.

However, Senior Sister Zhen Yu’s worries are not wrong.

Last week, they just obtained US$1.5 billion in six-month short-term debt from two hedge funds, directly increasing the Zhou family's total debt from US$5.5 billion to US$7 billion.

You know, Ziweixing International’s current debt is only US$6.5 billion.

The debt scale of the Zhou family has even exceeded that of Ziweixing International, a technology giant with a valuation of up to 100 billion U.S. dollars!

Zhou Buqi is very confident and has no worries at all.

Moreover, he had other considerations.

"Don't be in a hurry to borrow money. It's not certain when Boss Ma will be able to confirm it." Zhou Buqi always felt that the Yahoo incident was not that simple. "Maybe there will be new changes."

Zhen Yu raised her eyebrows, a little strange, "Didn't you say that the board of directors approved it?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Passed means passed, it doesn't matter when it will be implemented."

Zhen Yu frowned slightly, "How could it be? Is there a timeline?"

Zhou Buqi said: "What you said is a normal situation. If an accident occurs or some special circumstances arise, there will be reasons to postpone the transaction according to additional terms."

Zhen Yu blinked, very surprised, "Accident? Special situation?"

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "It's just my guess, it may not be accurate. Anyway, you don't have to worry at all. With our credit and reputation, the borrowing efficiency will be extremely high, and it will definitely be higher than Yahoo's efficiency. Hear that. It’s too late to act once the news is out. Let’s settle down first and finalize the matter with the Warriors and Giants first!”

Zhen Yu pursed her lips and smiled, got up from the sofa, walked around behind the desk in the study, leaned down and kissed him, "I know, the Warriors have signed it. Next, we'll wait for the review from the Giants. The results should be available after the New Year’s Day holiday.”

These are the two most important asset transactions of the Zhou family in December.

Bought 65% of the San Francisco Giants for $1 billion.

Bought 10% of the shares from Joe Lacob, another investor in the Golden State Warriors, for $60 million. At this point, Zhou Buqi's shareholding in the Golden State Warriors has reached 60%, becoming a major shareholder.

At this point, Zhou Buqi will own three professional sports teams in the Greater Bay Area, namely the San Francisco Giants, Golden State Warriors and San Jose Earthquakes.