Chapter 2352 Yahoo has so many assets

Zhou Buqi wasn't finished with his work in South Korea, but he couldn't stay any longer and quickly arranged a flight to the United States. In another half month, Senior Sister Zhen Yu’s due date will be.

You need to accompany them in advance, and you can't just go back.

On the plane, Zhou Buqi asked Sun Wanran to arrange to contact Carl Icahn and ask him to come to Silicon Valley. If he had important matters, he wanted to talk to him face to face.

Sun Wanran sent the email in broken English, feeling a little worried, "Can he come?"

Zhou Buqi said: "I don't know, let's see if the world's richest man has enough face."

It turns out, enough.

Before the plane even landed, an email came back saying that Mr. Icahn would arrive in San Francisco on Monday, three days later.

The Bay Area is surrounded by the sea and is typically warm in winter and cool in summer.

Much more comfortable than Seoul.

Zhou Buqi slept for a few hours on the plane and didn't go home yet. Seeing that it was getting late, I planned to go to the company first to pick up Teacher Wen from get off work.

Wen Zhixia is now back at work.

There is no milk tea shop.

Instead, he really followed Zhou Buqi's suggestion and became Zheng Xiaoli's assistant to develop Yahoo App.

Since he came to the company, Zhou Buqi went to meet Lu Qi first and briefly talked about his trip to South Korea.

Lu Qi was stunned, "Can you really sell Yahoo Korea?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Why not? Yahoo Japan's market value is nearly 20 billion U.S. dollars. Judging from this standard, how can Yahoo Korea reach the expected market value of 10 billion U.S. dollars."

Lu Qi twitched his lips, feeling that Boss Zhou was really capable of talking nonsense.

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "You don't have to worry about this, I'll just handle it! Just wait until Li Zairong leads a team to discuss the details of the acquisition in a few days, and you can come forward."

Lu Qi took a deep breath, "If Yahoo Korea can really sell it at a good price and get a lot of cash back, then the company's operating pressure will be relieved in the second half of the year."

Zhou Buqi asked: "How much money does the company have on its account now?"

Lu Qi said: "There are still US$630 million in available funds reserved for payment to Yahoo shareholders. Oh, by the way, the share repurchase funds for Alibaba and Yahoo Japan have already been received."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Where's Facebook?"

Lu Qi said: "It's a bit troublesome."

When Facebook went public, Ziweixing International sold a large amount of its shares.

However, there is still more than half left.

Zuckerberg is working hard to eliminate the company's "bad" shareholders, and Ziweixing International also wants to sell shares to collect money. Both parties are very consistent in this intention.

Although Facebook has only been on the market for a few months, it is far from the end of the ban.

But it doesn't matter, the ban only targets the secondary market, as long as the stocks are not sold on the stock market.

Transactions in the primary market are unrestricted.

According to Facebook's current market value, the share price in Ziweixing International's hands is worth US$6 billion. Which big institution can buy so many stocks?

The Internet is too risky!

For those private equity funds, it is necessary to optimize the allocation. It is okay to have a few selling points, but it is a bit unaffordable to invest a lot of money.

Also, the transfer of shares in the primary market needs to go through the board of directors. This is the most basic business ethics. At least with Zuckerberg's permission, you can't sell shares to his competitors.

So when something like this happens, it’s usually the CEO who takes action.

That is, Zuckerberg will contact large investment banks, large institutions or private equity capital, and he will lead the formation of a large consortium to take over the stocks held by Ziweixing International.

Zhou Buqi asked: "What's the trouble? Zuckerberg is causing trouble?"

Lu Qi said: "The price he offered is 20% lower than the current stock price."

"What?" Zhou Buqi thought he heard it wrong, "Can't you? The Facebook stock in my personal hands has also been cleared. It was also an institution that Zuckerberg found, and the transaction was based on the stock price that day."

Lu Qi said: "You are the young man, right?"

Zhou Buqi said: "It's quite a lot!"

Lu Qi shook his head, "Maybe I'm a personal friend with you, but this is business with Ziweixing, and we have to do business with each other. Anyway, we didn't reach an agreement, and his bid was only 4.6 billion US dollars. Calculated based on Facebook's current stock price, these stocks are worth at least $5.8 billion.”

Zhou Buqi was not very happy, "Is this deliberately lowering the price?"

Lu Ji said: "It's not surprising. The whole world knows that in order to acquire Yahoo, we had to pay US$12 billion in cash alone, including taxes and fees. Ziweixing International is not a listed company, and it is expected to encounter a cash flow crisis. ."

Zhou Buqi touched his chin, "This is a bit unethical!"

Lu Qi said with a smile: "Now the two are competitors, and they are competing across all product lines! The fight is fierce! Even Facebook has launched a special app called Facebook News, targeting Yahoo."

Zhou Buqi asked: "How about overcoming him? Let's find an investment institution ourselves."

"This is almost impossible." Lu Qi doesn't think this is a good idea. "After Facebook goes public, it is already a public company. Important shareholders will attend the shareholders' meeting. If Zuckerberg bought us without his consent, The stocks in the company may not be able to participate in shareholders’ meetings in the future, let alone be nominated for directors.”

In the final analysis, Ziweixing International still holds too many Facebook shares.

After making large purchases, investors want to have a certain say, at least to enter the shareholders' meeting or the board of directors and gain some inside information.

Only in this way can we make the most accurate investment analysis, whether to hold for a long time or sell decisively.

You can't be like many small retail investors who make investment choices with no information and just make investment choices firmly and rationally.

Zhou Buqi asked: "How long can the funds in the account be used?"

Lu Qi said: "We are losing US$200 million every month, and we can still sustain it for three months."

Although Yahoo is in a mess, Yahoo can generate a net profit of about US$70 million every month. Ziweixing International's business is not doing well. It is doing prosperously and attracting worldwide attention. Each of them is a big project that burns money and cannot make ends meet.

Counting the high debt interest burden, Ziweixing International is losing at least US$200 million every month.

Seeing that Boss Zhou was silent, Lu Qi quickly expressed his position, "Of the US$200 million loss, US$100 million is from the cloud computing business. The other US$50 million is debt interest."

Zhou Buqi felt that his tone was a bit heavy, so he said easily: "Money matters don't matter! It's okay. I'll ask Zuckerberg later."

Lu Qi tentatively asked: "Should we appropriately shrink the front line? Reduce external mergers and acquisitions and business expansion..."

"No need!" Zhou Buqi rejected the suggestion without hesitation, "Now is a critical period. Whoever is faster will be able to rush to the front line. If you hesitate even a little, you will definitely fall behind."

Lu Qidao: "If Facebook's shares can be sold smoothly, the cash flow pressure will be basically resolved, and there will be no worries until the listing..."

Zhou Buqi said: "Don't worry! Yahoo still has a lot of assets!"

…

The transaction value of Ziweixing International's acquisition of Yahoo is approximately US$23.5 billion, half of which is cash and half of which is shares.

This part of the cash expenditure emptied Ziweixing International's wealth.

Fortunately, Yahoo has enough assets.

Just break it up, dismember it, sell it, sell it.

Carl Icahn has been working hard for several years, hoping to win Yahoo, then dismantle the core assets and sell them all... so that he can make a lot of money.

Now, Zhou Buqi has taken control.

His style is no worse than that of Carl Icahn.

First, it sold Yahoo’s 20% stake in Alibaba and then its 20% stake in Yahoo Japan, returning approximately US$10 billion.

If Yahoo Korea can be sold smoothly, it can also bring back a wave of blood.

That’s not all!

Zhou Buqi has set his sights on Flickr, a wholly-owned and independent subsidiary of Yahoo!, which is a photo social networking site.

Two years ago, after Microsoft failed to acquire Yahoo as a whole, it proposed a new acquisition plan and wanted to acquire Flickr for US$1 billion. However, at the time, Yahoo's board of directors believed that Flickr was the key to revival and were not willing to sell it at all.

It's Zhou Buqi's turn, this is different.

Ziweixing International owns Ucgram, a popular smartphone-based picture social product with 140 million users worldwide. There is no need to repeat this.

Someone within the company suggested that Flickr and Ucgram could be merged.

Zhou Buqi thought the same way for a while.

But after Xu Liangjie went to Yahoo to become the president, he found that something was not right, so he reported the situation to Boss Zhou. From top to bottom, Flickr is opposed to merging with Ucgram.

Mainly three points.

First, after the merger, there will definitely be layoffs, and those laid off must be Flickr employees;

Second, after the merger, managers will definitely choose Ucgram. There is almost no upward path for Flickr. One is his biological son and the other is his godson. Everyone knows the stakes;

Third, the Flickr team is full of disdain for the Ucgram product and is unwilling to "downgrade" it.

This is not unreasonable.

There is a sharp comment in the industry: "High-quality users can buy a SLR after posting pictures on Ucgram and receiving dividends from advertising fees. Then they can take photos with the SLR and send them to Flickr."

The photos on Ucgram are all taken with mobile phones and are relatively low-end.

Flickr is a more professional, experienced and high-end photo website. Photos taken by SLR cameras are only entry-level. It has the best photos on the Internet.

Zhou Buqi was rude upon hearing this.

Depend on!

So much trouble!

Then just dismantle it and sell it!

With the popularity of smartphones, the global digital camera industry has been hit hard in the past two years, shrinking by 30%. The camera giants in Europe have all transformed one after another. Some provide cameras for mobile phones, while others provide camera modules for drones, looking for new ways out.

Under this general trend, Flickr's vitality will only become worse and worse, and it will sink along with digital cameras.

However, before that, Yahoo Korea’s business must be done well.

Go home in the evening and check your email.

There is good news.

Li Zaiyong acted very quickly and sent an email.