Vol 5 Chapter 1128: The bait

Before faebk, another popular Internet product, the founder of Skype, Niklas Zenstrom, hurried to Silicon Valley from Denmark, and then immediately entered the nextdoor campus non-stop, many people know.

Less than an hour later, he couldn't conceal the disappointment on his face, and soon many individuals and organizations knew what happened to the nextdoor campus.

This gave everyone a lot of room for reverie, because before entering nextdoor, his face was full of excitement and expectation.

In open parks like nextdoor, where tourists are always there, it is not difficult to hear the news.

Soon, Zengstrom's assistant received many invitations to meet and visit.

Some of these invitations are issued by companies that have publicly expressed their interest in Skype, such as Yahoo and eBay.

There are also companies that have not publicly expressed their interest in Skype before, and the representative one is Amazon.

In addition, there are many invitations from institutions and individuals, including some companies and experts engaged in mergers and acquisitions, as well as media, experts and scholars who wish to interview him.

However, none of these invitations were followed. Zengstrom took the accompanying team, and after arriving at the hotel, it seemed that he had been kept behind closed doors.

Soon, news came out of the hotel that Zenstrom was holding a meeting.

He rented a conference room with teleconference equipment in the hotel and has been in meetings since arriving at the hotel.

Although the content of the conference room alone could not be inquired, but in general, at least many people have reliable guesses about the target of this conference.

According to the information received from some venture capital companies, it is not surprising that the target of the Zenstrom meeting should be other shareholders of his company, including these venture capitalists.

Based on this speculation, many people can naturally come to a series of conclusions. It seems that this meeting with Feng Yiping not only disappointed Zengstrom, but also put a lot of pressure on it.

But this is really good news for many people.

But soon afterwards, a bad news came out. Zengstrom and his party had already booked a flight back to Denmark tomorrow morning.

At this time, the group of people who were still waiting to watch the show acted immediately. In this case, it would be hard to wait any longer. It was time for them to get in the car.

…………

In the Silicon Valley Amazon campus, Andy Wilk, the head of Amazon’s M&A department, was the one who had approached nextdoor and directly offered $1 billion. Later, he quickly proposed to buy nextdoor for $1.5 billion and asked his subordinates again. , "Our invitation, haven't we received a reply?"

"Yes," the subordinates were also somewhat helpless.

Now they are not just sending invitations, but directly coming to the door to invite them. As a result, the attitude there is more clear. "Because of time, the founder and CEO of the company, Zengstrom, has no additional meeting plans."

This is the reason that makes them a little unhappy and worried, because everyone knows that time can obviously be squeezed out. It is not for you, and it does not mean that it is not in front of other people.

The difference may be whether you are big enough or not important enough to others.

Obviously, the current Amazon is not big enough, so generally speaking, it can't talk about how important it is to people.

Because there are obviously more M&A opportunities in Silicon Valley than in Seattle, Andy Wilk, who is based here, naturally has a deep enough understanding of this situation. They have put forward good conditions more than once before. As a result, But it was cut by other well-known companies on more favorable terms.

Apart from other things, overall, Amazon’s stock, which has been losing money, is not as attractive as the stocks of some companies.

Cash plus stocks is the most common payment combination in mergers and acquisitions today. Few people are willing to pay cash only like Feng Yiping.

The reason for this is mainly because of the hateful IRS. When they saw such a large cash transaction, their eyes were instantly brightened. Afterwards, the tax bills they issued made many people's eyes pale.

As long as stocks are not cashed out, the IRS obviously cannot collect taxes.

The problem is, your stock must be trending well. Otherwise, if you got it yesterday, it is still worth $1 million, and today it is only worth 997,000. This is even more uncomfortable for everyone.

Andy Wilk only cares about one thing now, "What about over there?"

The subordinates clearly know that the "over there" in his words refers to which side, "As of just now, eBay's meeting invitation, they also did not agree."

"Oh," Andy Wilk nodded, and I felt relieved.

For him, as long as eBay and his side are treated the same, or encounter, it is sunny.

…………

On the other side, Yahoo’s CEO Semel is also listening to direct reports from several subordinates on the matter.

In the period after Chief Yang returned from China, Yahoo reorganized the mergers and acquisitions. As a phenomenon-level product, skype ranks quite high on the list of objects that can be acquired.

Yahoo also values ​​the number of Skype users that is still growing rapidly.

This is an era when even Chinese state-owned enterprises do not have too many users. Although Yahoo has many problems with large companies, it is certainly not.

In addition, regarding the reasons for acquiring skype, there is one that Yahoo executives would be happy to see, "it will effectively promote the company's expansion in the social field."

Skype is an Internet-based call software.

Since it is a call, it is naturally related to social interaction.

Think about the one who made the chief defeated this time, his faebk, how good is his current development momentum?

This is a strong proof that now is a good time to return to the social field.

In this regard, Yahoo is no longer a newcomer. They spent US$3.65 billion in 1999 to acquire the early social networking site gecities. Of course, it was also a somewhat untimely merger.

Gecities failed to survive the outbreak of social networking sites today-in fact, when the Internet bubble burst, Yahoo gave up on its transformation.

"Do you still refuse our invitation?" Semel stood at the window holding his hand, "What do you think?"

This is also Yahoo’s tradition. In order to reduce conflicts, their senior executives pursued the concept of "letting more subordinates make decisions." The later results naturally proved the fallacy of this concept, but Semel and others did not think so at this time.

"I think it’s a good opportunity to have a face-to-face chat with Zenstrom now, but even if you don’t get such an opportunity, I don’t think it matters, because first of all, at least Zengstrom personally, It showed the willingness to sell; secondly, the final decision-making power for such mergers and acquisitions is mainly in the hands of the board of directors," said an executive.

Meaning, this time I just couldn't meet Zenstrom, and that didn't matter.

"I believe that even if they ignore our invitations, all other invitations must be rejected," another executive said.

The reason and pride in this statement is self-evident. We are Yahoo, but a great Internet company. Since Zengstrom doesn't even see us, how can we still see you?

"This," Semel hesitated, and still made a suggestion of his own, "Even on the board of directors, Zengstrom must have a lot of influence, so in any case, this is always a good opportunity. If we can, we still have to try our best, okay?"

He is still willing to adhere to the principles he has always adhered to. The reason why he broke the principles that he has always adhered to and directly made such a proposal is because, as the company's CEO, he knows more things than the executives under him.

Chief Yang is not only unhappy with Ali's merger and acquisition this time.

That Mr. Feng successfully initiated two mergers and acquisitions in a short period of time, and Chief Yang suffered two blows in a short period of time.

After unsuccessful mergers and acquisitions and investment in Ali, he immediately re-examined the M&A strategy in the Chinese market. This time, Sina, which they had also been interested in before, was put on the agenda again.

But when Chief Yang successfully obtained the authorization of the board of directors to start the merger and acquisition immediately, an unexpected incident ruined their conspiracy: another Chinese company, China’s largest online game operator, Shanda suddenly announced a few days ago that it had acquired 19.5% of Sina's issued common stock and intends to continue to expand the number of acquired shares-that is, to acquire Sina.

These 19.5 shares were all acquired by Shanda with cash and acquired from the open market. It can be seen that they have been preparing for not a day or two...

In other words, in order to acquire Sina, in addition to the original Sina, Shanda, who seems to be determined by Sina and has become Sina's largest shareholder, has to be more difficult and complicated.

After weighing it up, Chief Yang had to abandon this acquisition intention again.

Semel felt that if it was possible, Chief Yang, who had been plagued by misfortunes recently, should be able to hear some good news.

Several subordinates, look at me, I look at you, "Okay, we will continue to fight for it,"

…………

In eBay, the dark circles are bigger than Feng Yiping, and Whitman is even more obvious. At this time, his face is quite unsightly~www.wuxiaspot.com~ Others are in Silicon Valley, and we also know that he personally supports the sale. Under such circumstances, none of you can get the opportunity to meet with him. Are you sure that you are currently qualified for your job? "

This is obviously a ceo who is not afraid of conflicts with his subordinates.

Of course, the later eBay did not develop well. It can be seen that this so-called management, or the governance of the company, really does not have a universal rule.

"Whitman, we have tried everything we can, more than other companies, but they still don't agree to the meeting, so we think that this should really be our effort and one thing that cannot change the result."

"Are you sure you have done what you can do?" Whitman stared at the executive who was speaking.

"yes, I'm sure,"

"So, did you know which restaurant he is going to eat tonight?"