Chapter 895: Giving up Interests

Also because of Woaw's success in the social field, Woaw Technology's stock price has reached US$43.45. In the global IT company market value list released in the first quarter of this year, Woaw ranked fourth with a market value of US$220 billion.

Prior to Woaw, there are Apple, Microsoft and Google - it is worth mentioning that Google's market value is US$225 billion, which is only US$5 billion higher than Woaw.

Although Google now has no YouTube and Android companies, and its market value potential is much weaker than that of the original time and space, through acquisitions, they have still entered the field of mobile instant messaging (Whatsapp) and video sharing, but these fields are compared to Woaw's WoawChat and For YouTube, the user share is much lower.

As for mobile operating systems, the GOS system has been basically abandoned by Google. Currently, Android’s main rival is Apple’s iOS.

At the same time, starting from the fourth quarter of last year, DS Holdings (Cavendish Trust) has begun to reduce its holdings of Woaw shares. In fact, in the first quarter of this year, Woaw’s share price was affected by the market and was slightly lower. In the fourth quarter of last year...

This is also related to the announcement by its major shareholder DS Holdings to reduce its holdings.

The current total share capital of Woaw Technology is 5.06262 billion shares. Before the reduction, DS Holdings had been holding 2.2 billion shares of Woaw shares, with a shareholding ratio of 43.45%; the second largest shareholder, IC Capital, held 855 million shares of Woaw Technology. The shareholding ratio is 16.89%.

However, because DS Holdings holds 200 million Class B shares in Woaw, its voting weight in Woaw exceeds 58%.

Since the fourth quarter of last year, when Woaw's stock price was above 45 US dollars, DS Holdings began to reduce its holdings. Until now, they have basically completed the reduction of approximately 500 million shares of Woaw shares and received nearly US$19 billion in taxes. post income.

After reducing its holdings, DS Holdings still holds 1.7 billion shares of Woaw Technology, with a shareholding ratio of 33.58%, which is significantly lower than before.

However, DS Holdings’ voting weight in Woaw remains at 51%.

The reason why DS Holdings began to reduce its shareholding in Woaw Technology was not only to cash out, but mainly for the future development of Woaw Technology.

After all, the previous shareholding ratio of DS Holdings in Woaw Technology was too high, which is rare among large IT companies in the United States. Just like Apple, Microsoft and Google, there are no shareholders who hold close to half of the shares...

If such a shareholding ratio continues, a company of the size of Woaw Technology will inevitably arouse the dissatisfaction of many other capitals - they must be given the opportunity to share profits.

Currently, among the major shareholders of Woaw Technology are Sequoia Capital, Goldman Sachs, and Blackstone Fund, but this is not enough. There are also more large capital groups including Vanguard Group, BlackRock Group, and State Street Group, which have invested in Woaw needs.

Only by allowing more such capital to enter will most of the resistance to Woaw's subsequent mergers and acquisitions and development be reduced. Otherwise, if you want to carry out a larger-scale merger and acquisition, an antitrust investigation will be enough. You drink a pot.

You don’t even need to carry out mergers and acquisitions, and you can directly conduct antitrust investigations driven by certain capital.

Just like when Woaw acquired Instagram last year, it aroused opposition from Google, Yahoo and other companies. At that time, the U.S. Department of Commerce also intervened in the antitrust investigation of the acquisition.

Even though Barron's relationship was strong enough, the matter was settled after he privately promised to reduce Woaw's shares.

After DS Holdings reduced its holdings in Woaw, capital such as Vanguard Group, BlackRock Group, and State Street Group almost took over the shares he reduced. It can be said that Woaw Technology has been able to make it at the same time at the capital level. The competition of IT giants such as Microsoft and Google will not be hindered by special settings.

For this situation, Barron has long expected it. It is said that if you give up, you will gain. Otherwise, under the attack of other capital groups, Woaw's development will inevitably be curbed, and its market value will definitely not have much potential, even if it is The more shares you hold, the more wealth you gain.

After all, if you think about it, you will understand that we hold more shares in Microsoft and Google, so when Woaw faces their competition, do we still need to consider who to help?

Only under the premise that these companies all hold shares, they will not try to "bias". Anyway, whoever wins in the end, I will win.

In fact, Barron is also a beneficiary of this system. After all, it is not just Linghang and BlackRock who say this, but the Standard Chartered-Merrill Lynch Group he controls also does the same. The trillions of funds they control also need to be "spread equally" and invested in almost all large listed companies. of.

This competition is competition. As long as these companies occupying the middle and upper levels of the pyramid on earth continue to control most of the global economic interests, they will be able to maintain the growth of their asset scale.

Of course, what is different from these capitals is that in addition to this, Barron's has also used its friendly relations with China to invest heavily in many related industries in China.

It’s not that other capitals didn’t invest in the Chinese market, but there are some restrictions on such investment, and because of the interests, those old Western capitals didn’t enter as much as Barron.

Later, the Vanguard Group even reduced its investment in China...

After all, the logic of these American capitals is that there were countries that could challenge the American industry before, such as Germany and Japan, which were eventually suppressed by the United States. This long-term successful strategy also made them path-dependent, believing that they could still do so in the future and achieve their goals.

But Barron knew very well that this time was different.

After all, there are only three permanent members in the world that can be called independent and autonomous. If you want to be more specific, it can only be considered three and a half, and a certain Eastern power can be considered half...

India: That’s me...

The same method may work for Germany and Japan, but it may not work for a certain independent and autonomous country...

After all, they have been gritting their teeth to get out of this since the beginning.

This spirit, which is different from other "developed countries", is more or less imprinted in Barron’s soul.

…

"Dear John, how are you doing recently?"

After hugging Barron, John Smith squeezed out a bright smile and said:

"Not bad, nice to meet you, Barron."

Barron came to America again. This time he first sent Jenny directly back to Baltimore, the largest city in Maryland. The headquarters of the Sinclair Group is located here, and John Smith has returned to Baltimore from New York.

Speaking of which, it is no wonder that the Sinclair Group chose this place as the headquarters. In addition to the fact that the Sinclair Group started by acquiring a local TV station in Baltimore, the location of Baltimore is also very good. It is less than 300 kilometers away from New York and only 60 kilometers away from the capital Washington.

At the same time, Baltimore is also located on the west side of the top of the Chesapeake Bay and is one of the main ports in the United States.

This time when he came to America, Barron needed to go to Washington to meet some "old friends" on Capitol Hill. After that, it took only an hour to get there from Baltimore...