Chapter 2983: Stop LinkedIn from coming to China

The work rhythm in the United States is different from that in China.

Here in the United States, December is the end of the year, which is often the busiest period, with many tasks such as year-end summary and annual settlement. By January, it's the beginning of a new year, and things will feel a little more relaxed. Therefore, many people will take the opportunity of New Year's Day to take a long vacation or annual vacation to travel and vacation in the tropics.

It's different in China.

December is not the end of the year.

January is the end of the year.

Most companies in China use the Lunar New Year to mark the year. When the work is done at the end of the year, everyone takes the Spring Festival holiday.

Zhou Buqi wanted to invite Reed Hoffman to meet and discuss the merger of the two companies with him. Unexpectedly, Hoffman had already gone to New Zealand for vacation with his family and was already in the southern hemisphere.

Then we can only communicate on the phone.

Hoffman proposed a video call using Apple's FaceTime.

Zhou Buqi was in his office, and the fat man Hoffman seemed to be by the swimming pool. The background was the vacation villa and white clouds and blue sky. He was wearing big sunglasses and looked very comfortable and relaxed.

This is also the habit of people in Silicon Valley.

The excess of freedom is accompanied by a bit of indulgence and laxity.

Zhou Buqi said: "Reed, I have decided to accept your suggestion! As you said, after my evaluation, I think the merger of the two companies is the best solution for both of us."

"Huh?" Hoffman was surprised. He took off his sunglasses. He was lying on his back, but he immediately sat up. "So fast?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Quick decision-making and decisive execution are the magic weapons for me to win in business."

Hoffman took a deep breath, "This is too fast!"

Zhou Buqi said: "Why, do you have a problem there?"

Hoffman was a little embarrassed and explained: "The merger of the two companies is just my personal idea. I haven't communicated with the board of directors and management yet. I thought I would discuss it with the company after returning from vacation, but I didn't expect You responded so quickly."

Zhou Buqi was sitting in the office, using a Mac to video chat with him.

The pixels of the Mac's camera are too poor.

It is far less clear than the opponent's iPhone, and the pictures taken look like they are mosaic.

Zhou Buqi said: "Then you have to make a decision as soon as possible. I have prepared to set up a team to take charge of this case. I don't like procrastination when doing things. Things that I approve of always have to be done as quickly as possible." Speed ​​is in place.”

"Is it starting now?" Hoffman was very surprised, "Isn't it going to be listed on the market?"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "It doesn't matter. Our initial plan is to complete the IPO at the end of May or early June. There are still a few months left, and it may be difficult to complete the acquisition of LinkedIn. It's too hasty. I Our plan is to wait until July or August, when the listing process is complete and the stock price stabilizes, before the two parties complete the transaction.”

LinkedIn is now worth over $10 billion.

Including acquisition premiums for potential companies, the total acquisition cost may exceed US$12 billion. Such a large transaction cannot be a cash transaction. It must be exchanged for Ziweixing International to issue an additional share of stock.

Listed in early June, the stock price will be very stable after one or two months.

Then you can officially promote the transaction.

You must move quickly.

Zhou Buqi didn't want to delay.

Microsoft cannot be given a chance to breathe.

In fact, as early as 2011, Microsoft intended to invest $500 million to acquire LinkedIn, and it almost succeeded.

Later, Reed Hoffman and his team evaluated and concluded that it would be too much of a loss to sell the company now, and they should still take the listing route. Then, they gave up the plan to sell and chose to continue financing. In this round of financing, Zhou Buqi also successfully participated and obtained less than 2% of the shares.

Later, LinkedIn went public smoothly.

Microsoft has long been interested in LinkedIn.

If Microsoft is allowed to come out of the CEO change and Nadella is relieved, there is a high possibility that he will rush in to compete, which will be troublesome.

"If that's the case..." Hoffman took a deep breath, "Well, I think this idea is feasible. But you have to show up. You must participate in LinkedIn's board of directors next month."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Yes, I will attend when the time comes to explain my acquisition plan to the directors."

Hoffman said: "The acquisition plan can be discussed slowly, but there is a very difficult matter, and you have to come forward quickly."

"What's up?"

"As I said last time, do you agree with LinkedIn to expand your country's market?"

"I don't agree!" Zhou Buqi responded without hesitation, "Let alone you, even I will be very cautious when developing our country's market. Look at my Ucgram, Snapchat, and Yahoo. There are also products like Spotify and Pinterest that are developing so well, but they have avoided that market. This is a path that is destined to fail. Don’t try it.”

Hoffman said: "I don't agree with this plan either, but the board of directors and management have reached a consensus of opinion, focusing on overseas strategy. In overseas strategy, the most important thing now is to open the Chinese market."

"It is right to expand into overseas markets, but we must avoid the Chinese market."

Zhou Buqi has already seen it.

Hoffman was frustrated in the board of directors. He had no choice but to find Boss Zhou as an ally to help. After all, he is the founder of this company, but he has lost the right to speak, which really hurts his self-esteem.

If you win over Boss Zhou, you will most likely be able to turn defeat into victory!

Hoffman sighed: "I have lost control of LinkedIn's board of directors, and your agent, Miss Jenny, always abstains from voting. If you can stand up, I believe that with your prestige and influence, We can definitely turn the situation around. Once I take back control of the board of directors, it will be easy to push forward the merger plan between LinkedIn and Ziweixing International."

"Huh?" Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows, feeling a sense of crisis, "Reed, you're not looking for an excuse, but you actually just want me to help you win back the support of the board of directors, right?"

"No! How could it be?" Hoffman smiled, and then said frankly, "In fact, I was worried a few years ago that LinkedIn's business scope was too narrow, and it only did business social networking, and it would be easy to be replaced by Facebook. , Ziweixing International and other social giants were defeated. I have already had such a plan. If LinkedIn wants to survive in the long term, it is simply not enough to rely on its own strength. This is an era where giants take all, and LinkedIn has not become a leader. If we have the potential of a super giant, we must merge into a super giant. This is the only way out.”

Zhou Buqi said: "I agree, the scale of LinkedIn is still too small. If industry giants rush into the business social networking market, LinkedIn is likely to be destroyed. To be honest, when we discuss internally, Many executives are opposed to the acquisition. Two executives even issued a military order, saying that if they give him $1 billion, they can create a better business social product than LinkedIn. But I have contacted you. After that, I won’t do one thing in person or another behind the scenes. If Ziweixing International wants to do business networking, acquiring LinkedIn would be its first choice.”

Hoffman said: "I will do my best and use all my abilities to promote the merger of LinkedIn and Ziweixing International. But first, you have to participate in the board of directors. You must come!"

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "I will go, you have to prepare quickly."

No matter what, he will cooperate with Hoffman's actions.

This has to do with his personal interests.

If LinkedIn comes to China to develop, it will definitely fail in the end. Even if Zhou Buqi is allowed to do it, it will definitely fail.

There is no market for business social networking in China, not only because of different social atmosphere, but also because of policy restrictions.

The users of business social networking are mainly professionals. The reason why these people can fight their way out among 1.4 billion people to become white-collar workers, elites, and quasi-elites in society is because these people are educated, capable, thinking, experienced, and opinionated. .

This makes it difficult for the official guidance of public opinion to influence them. Unlike most social platforms, broad "public opinion" will be formed with a little guidance, and a general trend of public opinion can be formed, whether it is praising someone or criticizing someone. , can be used to any disadvantage.

The user base of business social platforms does not have such characteristics.

They have their own social understanding and life experience. They do not live on the Internet or in TV series, but in the real workplace and business world. They are not easily fooled and have their own judgments, which often leads them to make some comments. An argument that is different from the mainstream view.

This is a bit taboo.

If LinkedIn comes to China, the final result will be the same as Google.

Not to mention social platforms, even gaming platforms.

Even Zhou Buqi, the game platform Steam owned by Ziweixing International, refuses to open a Chinese server, and at most it can open a Hong Kong server. Because the Steam platform also has social functions, and there are many foreign players here, you can communicate with foreigners here.

This is another taboo and creates an uncontrollable dialogue space, which will allow many patriotic young people to be corrupted by outside ideas.

Therefore, it is difficult for such a platform to survive in China.

To isolate.

Steam has opened the Chinese server, and it is destined to be cleared.

Rather than quitting in the future and having to pay a large amount of liquidated damages to the employees, cancel the lease, unsubscribe, and the Internet... it will cost a lot of money to quit, it is better to make a decision early and not come back.

Ziweixing International acquired LinkedIn, and LinkedIn will withdraw in the future, which will be a waste of Ziweixing's own money.

It also makes sense for the short term.

Zhou Buqi knew that LinkedIn's decision to come to China was wrong, but the capital on Wall Street didn't know that, and might still be very excited. I heard that LinkedIn has opened up the mainland market... With more than one billion potential users, they may be extremely optimistic about the future of LinkedIn, which will cause LinkedIn's stock price to rise sharply.

Once LinkedIn's stock price rises sharply, Ziweixing International will have to spend more money to acquire LinkedIn.

So it must be stopped.

Preventing LinkedIn from coming to China can, in the short term, reduce Ziweixing International’s acquisition cost of LinkedIn. In the long run, it can also save you from unbearable troubles in the future and a large amount of expenses that must be withdrawn.