Chapter 349 Cut off the beard

In fact, to put it bluntly, occasions like the White House New Year's Dinner are much the same as those parties Barron attended in London before.

It's just that the whole process is more "American", like the repertoire includes talk shows and singing performances by singers. After the banquet begins, it's time for everyone to exchange "feelings" with each other.

It is nothing more than the invitations to the White House dinner. In addition to the most well-known figures from all walks of life, those capital bosses have higher influence.

For example, the supporters behind the Republican Party, such as the Koch family, the Amway family, and Bridgewater Associates, all appeared at this dinner, and Barron also had interactions with them.

Most of these capitals have no conflict with Barron's industry, and the Amway family has also invested in DS Capital's Mars fund, so the atmosphere between them is quite good.

…

"I thought you had forgotten me..."

After attending the New Year's dinner at the White House, Barron took the time to meet with Ivanta, but it seemed that this person still had a lot of feelings for Barron.

But when Barron saw the photo of Barron and Bonnie printed on the newspaper in the room - it was the report when the two attended the White House New Year's Dinner that day, he understood why.

When a woman is jealous, no matter how she coaxes her verbally, it is better to do something practical...

So without saying a word, Barron just took the young lady to learn various knowledge...

The effect was indeed immediate. After replenishing the essence of knowledge during the study, Ivanta's little mood finally subsided.

But she still said with some dissatisfaction:

"Is our company just investing in MySpace and doing nothing else?"

"Of course not, honey, be patient. Didn't I ask you to do some research before?"

This year...well, last year in 2004, Ivanta finally graduated from Wharton Business School with a bachelor's degree in management, so now she has more time.

After she graduated, she made several calls to Barron to inquire about IC Capital's next investment direction. It seemed that she had exhausted her patience in waiting - since she had previously obtained MySpace with an investment of US$10 million. After acquiring 40% of the shares, Barron never asked her again. No wonder she was a little anxious.

However, Barron was busy with a series of acquisitions at the time and was not in a hurry to use IC capital for investment, so he asked Ivanta to use this time to investigate Internet companies in the United States. On the one hand, he was familiar with the situation in this area - he wanted to do a good job To invest, you must first have a relatively in-depth understanding of the investment industry. Even though Ivanta is mainly an executor of Barron's in IC Capital, she said that she must have an understanding of the Internet industry in order to invest in it. Communication with those company founders gives people a sense of trust.

In addition, in fact, in Barron's previous life, he was still engaged in the financial investment industry. Although he was familiar with the mergers and acquisitions of some Internet companies, at this period, it was not clear how clear the context was. Therefore, he also hoped to pass the Ivanta's investigation is to see if it can inspire him to "inspire" and invest in some start-up companies that are "familiar" to him.

After hearing Barron's words, Ivanta didn't care about her "spoiled love" anymore. She got up from the bed, took out a piece of information from her bag and gave it to Barron. It seemed that she came here this time as well. Be well prepared:

"I have sent you all the previous survey results via email. These are the information on some projects that I have recently screened again."

Barron looked through the information handed over by Ivanta. Not to mention, he really found a company worth investing in...

But it is not a start-up, but a company with relatively "old" qualifications.

In fact, Barron’s original plan was to wait until February this year to see if YouTube would be created in the same time and space as before, and then IC Capital would be able to invest...

But since Ivanta is a little impatient now, this company is more suitable.

Turning to look at Ivanta's expectant eyes, Barron showed a smile on his face and said to Ivanta:

"Next, you will help me collect information about this company, including the changes in their stock price in recent years, the shareholdings of each shareholder, and what proportion of the circulating shares can be purchased in the secondary market..."

Listening to Barron's words, Ivanta's eyes fell on his finger and saw the company he mentioned - DoubleClick.

The reason why I have an impression of this company is because Barron remembers that in 2007 in the original time and space, Google would acquire DoubleClick for US$3.24 billion.

Prior to this, DoubleClick will be acquired by two investment companies, Hellman \u0026 Friedman and JMI Equity and Management, at a premium of nearly 50%, at a price of US$1.1 billion, at the end of April this year.

Of course, when their acquisition was completed, the price of US$1.1 billion was a premium of more than 10% compared to the company's average price in the previous 30 trading days.

Therefore, based on this calculation, these two companies should have already started the acquisition of DoubleClick in March. Therefore, if they want to acquire this company, they must start preparing now.

The reason why Barron wants to acquire DoubleClick is not just to sell it to Google at a high price later, at least this is not the main reason.

It is also because of this company that it will be helpful to the future development of Woaw Technology.

Founded in 1996, DoubleClick is an online advertising service provider, mainly engaged in the development of online advertising management software and advertising services, and centralized planning, execution, monitoring and tracking of online advertising activities.

They currently have more than 500 corporate customers. It can be said that they are a very powerful company in the Internet advertising industry in the United States at this time. The reason why Google will not hesitate to acquire this company at a sky-high price of 3.24 billion US dollars in the future is because they value Google. The company's Internet advertising revenue supplement - at that time, their acquisition was protested by Microsoft, Yahoo and other companies, and the acquisition was only completed after passing antitrust investigations in the United States and the European Union.

Well, speaking of Yahoo, I have to say that this company is indeed a negative example in corporate acquisitions. In the original time and space, it is well known that it missed the acquisition of Google and Facebook. In fact, DoubleClick also It can be regarded as one of the victims of Yahoo...

In 1996, DoubleClick negotiated with Yahoo, hoping to sell the company to the other party for $1 million...

But Yahoo, which was at its peak at the time, was only willing to provide US$950,000, and its attitude was tough and refused to give in.

So this "selling oneself" ended in failure...

Then, DoubleClick was successfully listed in 1998. By 2000, when the Internet bubble was at its peak, the company's market value once exceeded US$10 billion!

Good guy, I can only hit 666 against Yahoo...

However, despite DoubleClick's success, after the Internet stocks plummeted in March 2000, DoubleClick's market value fell by more than 95% in August 2002, reaching its lowest point of only about US$350 million.

According to the information provided by Ivanta, DoubleClick's market value at this time is around US$700 million. However, overall, the company's current advertising business revenue is also recovering after the Internet bubble.

This is why in the early days, when the acquisition team headed by Hellman \u0026 Friedman wanted to acquire DoubleClick, the founder of the company would lobby the board of directors, hoping to reject the other party's acquisition, because the other party saw their market value, which is similar to Internet advertising. Compared with the prospects, it is underestimated.

But when the other party's bid increased to US$1.1 billion, DoubleClick's board of directors was finally persuaded to agree to the acquisition...

Now, what Barron's is preparing to do is to use IC Capital to complete the acquisition of DoubleClick first.

His previous offshore companies had nearly US$8.2 billion in funds, of which US$8 billion was invested in Caesars Fund, and another US$200 million will be invested in IC Capital to absorb this company in the secondary market in advance. stocks, and looking for opportunities to acquire shares from other shareholders.