Chapter 403 Waiting for price

"In this case, just buy the Android company directly..."

Barron ordered Ivanta.

Because DS Capital and Rich23 Capital hold large shares of Apple, they are not suitable for investing too deeply in Android companies.

At present, it is most appropriate to acquire Android companies in the name of IC Capital.

Later, when Android companies need more development or mergers and acquisitions to enrich their content, other investment companies will join in the financing and provide more funds.

"By the way, that new friend you mentioned last time is Murdoch's wife...?"

"Yes, her name is Wendi. We met at a party in New York. I met her yesterday..."

As Murdoch's wife, Wendi Deng quickly entered the circle of New York's socialites. In Barron's previous life, she and Ivanta had always been close and could be called best friends.

At present, News Corporation has also set its sights on the hot Internet economy and hopes to enter this field through acquisitions.

In the original time and space, they finally chose MySpace and announced in July 2005 that they would acquire it for US$580 million.

It's no surprise that News Corp. is now in contact with MySpace.

Barron knew that although she did not have a formal position in News Corporation, Murdoch's wife Wendy Deng served as Murdoch's adviser on matters including China and the Internet and had some influence on him.

Just like News Corporation's acquisition of MySpace, Wendy Deng was also involved. Especially in the development of the original MySpace in China, Wendy Deng can be said to have participated in the entire process.

Ivanta told Barron that as the manager of IC Capital, MySpace's largest shareholder, Wendy Deng herself had told her several times about her desire to acquire MySpace.

Through two rounds of financing, IC Capital spent a total of US$30 million to acquire 49% of MySpace's shares, exceeding the previous shareholding of MySpace's parent company, Intermix Media. Although they mainly made financial investments, they were involved in the sale of MySpace. matters, it still has a decisive influence.

Although the current offer from News Corporation makes Ivanta very excited, but she is not without the idea of ​​​​continuing to operate MySpace.

When he first invested in MySpace, Barron told Ivanta that he would sell the company at a profit when the time was right. But now social networks have become a new trend, especially driven by the development of Woaw technology. As the biggest competitor of Woaw.com in North America, MySpace's own user growth is also very impressive-otherwise with Murdoch's How could you be so smart and willing to spend $650 million to acquire MySpace?

Yes, this time News Corporation's bid for MySpace.com is higher than the US$580 million it paid in the original time and space. The main reason is that driven by Woaw technology, MySpace's performance is even better than that of the original time and space in the same period. The number of users is still the degree of perfection.

After all, there is Woaw.com as a "reference" object, and the previous financing of Woaw Technology has also raised the valuation of websites in the field of social networks.

Just like many Chinese Internet companies going for IPO in the United States, they always need to benchmark against an American Internet company of the same type in order to increase their own valuation. It is the same reason.

But now among the technology companies invested by IC Capital, in terms of social networking, there is MySpace; in terms of Internet advertising, there is DoubleClick; in terms of video sharing websites, there is YouTube; in terms of smartphone operating systems, there is Android.

Therefore, under such circumstances, Ivanta could not help but think about it. Perhaps when MySpace is currently developing well, he would not choose to sell it and develop it on his own, not to mention becoming a giant like Yahoo and Google. Even if For a company that has become the second group, its income will be higher than if it were sold for US$650 million at this time...

"There is no need to rush to reach an agreement with News Corporation. With a little delay, MySpace's valuation will be higher, but the sale is still necessary, because if they reject News Corporation, they will inevitably choose other inferior ones. website, so assuming that News Corporation is determined to enter the social network, it is equivalent to adding a strong competitor to MySpace in addition to Woaw, and I am afraid that users will be divided in the future."

Barron understands that MySpace's development is limited. In his previous life, after News Corporation acquired MySpace, it did have two years of glory and once posed a great threat to Facebook.

But this does not mean that MySpace can really challenge Woaw's status now. He said that the purpose of delaying the delay is to see if the acquisition price of News Corporation can continue to be increased, but it cannot really make News Corporation feel that the acquisition is hopeless, or The price is too high, so it would be unsightly to choose other websites.

In terms of business vision, especially on the Internet, Ivanta still has great trust in Barron. After all, she also understands that most of IC Capital's current success is the result of her implementation of Barron's decisions.

So now that he has decided, Ivanta has begun to think about how to better reflect the value of MySpace.

…

"Baby, you're hotter than the weather outside today."

Although the two of them exercised and studied again the next morning, after Ivanta changed her clothes and came downstairs, Barron saw her wearing a beige dress that showed off her beautiful figure. Sometimes, I still couldn't help but praise her.

It seemed that Ivanta was in a good mood. After coming over to kiss Barron, the two sat at the dining table. She looked at her lover with beautiful eyes and asked:

"Do you have any plans later?"

"Yes, I'm going to meet the CEO of Goldman Sachs..."

With a smile on his face, Barron put down the newspaper in his hand. This was a copy of the Wall Street Journal. The front page reported that China's CNOOC had once again made an offer for Unocal and was involved in the dispute with Chevron. in competition.

Knowing that her lover would definitely not talk about simple things when meeting with the CEO of Goldman Sachs, Ivanta would not ask these things casually. She nodded and said:

"I made an appointment with Wendi to go to the gym and maybe talk about MySpace again."

…

"Have you read today's newspaper? Your Highness the Duke."

In the office of the president of Goldman Sachs, Barron met Lloyd, and he asked with a cautious expression.

"Yes, the whole of America is talking about this now, and I definitely know about it."

"In fact, as early as the end of last year, Unocal had secretly contacted CNOOC, and the two parties had communicated. They took the initiative to hope that CNOOC would join the acquisition, because Unocal's management was not interested in other American companies that might acquire them. They all know it too well and know that if they want to get better conditions, they can only find buyers outside the United States..."

Lloyd recounted some of the inside information about this acquisition, some of which Barron already knew, and some of which he had heard of for the first time.

After all, as the CEO of Goldman Sachs, he not only knows something about American oil companies including Unocal, but also has more knowledge about some situations at CNOOC because Goldman Sachs participated in CNOOC’s acquisition of Unocal. information.

In fact, it can be said that CNOOC's acquisition of Unocal was originally something that Lang Youqing and his concubine had intended. If not for some twists and turns, they might have completed the acquisition of Unocal now.

In fact, CNOOC was already preparing for cross-border mergers and acquisitions earlier.

Although CNOOC has achieved rapid growth in the past few years, it is difficult to achieve their mid- to long-term goals through sustained internal growth alone, especially in achieving overseas production targets.

So in mid-2004, CNOOC conducted a study on the acquisitions of 12 Asian oil and gas companies in the past few years and found that relying on the acquisition of block assets to achieve sustained growth was ineffective.

Generally speaking, the more successful acquisitions of oil and gas assets occurred in the era of low oil prices. Entering the era of high oil prices, the difficulty and cost of asset acquisitions will increase.

Since before and after the Iraq War, international oil prices have begun a rising cycle, gradually leading the world to enter an era of high oil prices.

In response, Fu Chengyu, chairman of CNOOC, decided that they would shift from asset acquisitions to company acquisitions.

When screening acquisition targets, among dozens of companies in North America, West Africa and the Caspian Sea, according to various criteria such as "asset value less than US$20 billion; potential for reserves and production growth; CNOOC's affordability, China's LNG business and availability" After three rounds of screening, CNOOC finally targeted Unocal for acquisition.

Unocal, headquartered in California, is an old oil company with a history of more than 100 years and ranks ninth among American oil companies.

Its operations have been sluggish in the past two years, and its market value is about 30% lower than similar companies. Therefore, the board of directors has been considering finding a buyer.

CNOOC chose to acquire Unocal mainly because of its oil and gas resources in Asia.

Of Unocal's proven 1.75 billion barrels of oil and gas reserves, 70% are located outside the United States, including Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Bangladesh in Asia, Azerbaijan in Central Asia, and the Caspian Sea region.

Unocal's asset distribution and CNOOC's intensified implementation of natural gas strategy in China's southeastern coast can be described as a "natural match" - Southeast Asia, where Unocal's gas assets are most widely distributed and geographically closest to China, is the most ideal gas source for CNOOC's coastal natural gas market.