As we all know, Mr. Ma's Bole is the boss of the island country.

It is said that this Boss Sun is the descendant of Sun Wu, the author of my country's "Art of War", as for whether it is true is debatable, even if it is true, it is not of much significance, because it is impossible for Boss Sun to recognize his ancestors and return to his ancestors.

No matter what Boss Sun's reputation is, if you don't blow it or black, you have to say that people's investment vision is indeed awesome enough.

On February 20, 1999, the fifth day of the Lunar New Year, at his home in the Lakeside Garden Community of Hangzhou City, Mr. Ma gathered 17 friends and gave a speech for nearly 2 hours, just to say one thing:

We want to be a great company and make it easy to do business in the world.

Ma Yun spoke impassionedly, but the people below had cold expressions.

Later, Ali's executives Jiang, Peng and others recalled: "I couldn't understand what he said anyway, but I was embarrassed to interrupt when I saw him speak so passionately." ”

Someone ridiculed: "You haven't done a good job in your own business, why do others do business with you?"

Sure enough, half a year after the company was established, even the salary could not be paid, and several employees even prepared resignation letters.

Mr. Ma was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot, and he hoped to get investment to solve the company's business problems.

For this reason, he once again searched for the big guys on the various mountains at that time.

However, there is no use for eggs.

Boss Liu, the founder of the conscience of the American imperialists, said: "The Internet, I can't understand it, you can find someone else." ”

At that time, Boss Lei, the chairman of Jinshan, who was already a little accomplished, said more bluntly: "He looks like a thief and runs a train with a mouth, this guy used to do pyramid schemes, right?"

"Liars" and "pyramid schemes" sought financing 37 times, but Mr. Ma was all rejected.

Mr. Ma returned to the company in despair, and he also painted a big pie for the employees: "In order to do the right thing, we refuse the investment of 37 companies, and everyone must persevere!"

Until the end of 1999, Mr. Ma, who was almost desperate at that time, met Boss Sun. At the dawn of the new century, this meeting between the two people has changed the lives of countless people.

For Mr. Ma at that time, the company's business conditions were so poor that he himself was about to give up. He didn't bring a business plan, nor did he wear a suit, but he met Boss Sun with the idea of being able to learn Boss Sun's way of doing business.

Mr. Ma briefly talked about what his company wants to do and the idea of building a business empire. Even though he had said this countless times, the passion in his heart still made him more and more excited.

In less than 6 minutes, Boss Sun interrupted him, and Mr. Ma thought that he was about to usher in another closed-door soup.

However, the super-rich man on the other side said: "You are as crazy as Yang Zhiyuan, how much do you want?"

At that time, Mr. Ma was stunned, and he replied to Boss Sun: "I don't want money." ”

That year, Boss Sun was 42 years old and worth tens of billions of dollars.

Mr. Ma is 35 years old and is only one step away from bankruptcy.

Since then, from 1999 to 2019, for 20 years, no matter what kind of disputes Mr. Ma has fallen into or the company's growth has been sluggish, Boss Sun has been extremely optimistic about Mr. Ma.

Therefore, it is very difficult for Liu Xiahui to buy Ali's shares from Boss Sun, the largest shareholder of Alibaba, and even if he succeeds in the end, I am afraid he will have to pay a great price.

Therefore, Yanagishita Hui can touch it a little, but he does not hold out hope.

The only thing that makes Liu feel promising is Yahoo, Alibaba's second largest shareholder, Yahoo, who became Alibaba's largest shareholder in 2005 with $1 billion and 100% of Yahoo China's equity in exchange for 40% of Alibaba's equity.

But in 2012, Yahoo's performance was very dismal, with a loss of hundreds of millions of dollars a year, and in order to alleviate the company's losses, Yahoo's new CEO sold 20% of Alibaba's shares for $7.6 billion.

This made Boss Sun the largest shareholder of Alibaba, and Yahoo became the second largest shareholder.

In the following years, Yahoo also made frequent moves, and in the eight years after becoming a shareholder of Alibaba, it sold a total of 30.6% of Alibaba's shares, losing at least tens of billions of dollars, which is embarrassing.

There are three main reasons why this happens:

One, Yahoo itself has a problem with its operations and is in dire need of funds.

Second, Yahoo's confidence in Ali is not as sufficient as Boss Sun.

Third, Yahoo had a disagreement with Mr. Ma because of the problem of Alipay, and there was an irreparable rift in the cooperation between the two sides.

Therefore, as long as Yanagi is willing to make a bid to buy Alibaba's shares from Yahoo, there is still a certain success rate.

In addition to SoftBank and Yahoo, the first and second largest shareholders, there are really not many other companies to choose from, such as China Investment, CITIC Capital, China Development Bank Capital, Boyu Capital and the founding team of Alibaba.

Needless to say, the state-owned capital of CIC and CDB Capital is too complex, and even Tencent is a member of it, which is also very difficult.

As for Boyu Capital, its helmsman is a well-known female general in the domestic investment community, and it is extremely difficult to take advantage of her.

As for Alibaba's founding team, Yanagi Hui didn't bother to contact it at all.

After all, today is different from the past, Mr. Ma is no longer the person who was desperate and treated as a liar, he brought Ali to today's scale step by step, and the people in the founding team have long treated Mr. Ma as a god, at this time let them sell Ali's shares, then it is better to talk to Boss Sun more!

It came full circle, and it turned out that starting with Yahoo was the only chance.

Thinking of this, the heart-warming Yanagishita Hui contacted Mayer, the current head of Yahoo, to make an appointment to talk about Ali stocks.

Ms. Mayer, a star executive in Silicon Valley who worked at Google, has high hopes that she will lead the company to turn things around.

At this time, Mayer, who had been in charge for two years, had acquired a number of companies and invested heavily in new products, as well as increased investment in search and media content, but her performance in increasing the company's market share and attracting advertising investment had not been satisfactory.

Investors complained a lot about this, so Mayer Alexander urgently needed to make achievements to prove himself.

Now, Ali's listing is imminent, and the value of the stock will rise, which is certain, as for how much it can rise, no one can predict it before the results come out.

Although I don't want to sell Alibaba's shares at this time, if the price is right, it is not impossible to negotiate.

Therefore, Mayer went to the appointment very happily and flew directly to Hangzhou City to discuss with Liu Xiahui.

......

Yanagi and Mayer met at a well-known French restaurant in Hangzhou.

Although he had already read Mayer's information, when they met, Yanagi Hui was still amazed by her.

I saw that she was wearing blonde hair, fair skin, 1.73 meters tall, big where it should be big, small where it should be, and her smile was very charming, full of mature style, which is a rare beauty among executives.

Of course, in Mayer's eyes, Yanagi Hui, a man nine years younger than her, is also a very charming handsome guy, not only is he handsome, but he has a net worth that is even more handsome.

Mayer also looked at Liu Xiahui's information and knew that the man in front of him, who was only thirty years old, was already the richest man in China a few years ago, and no one knew how much wealth he had.

If it weren't for knowing that Yanashita Hui has always been known for his dedication, if it weren't for the fact that Mayer was no longer young, she would have the intention of chasing after each other, it is too rare for such an excellent man to be seen.

The two don't understand the language, but fortunately, Liu Shita Hui brought a secretary and translator, so he couldn't communicate.

I won't mention this polite remark here.

After the routine business exchange, Yanagi Hui cut to the chase and asked: "Ms. Mayer, you know the purpose of our meeting this time, I won't get straight to the point, I don't know how many shares you Yahoo still holds in Ali?"

Mayer said with a smile: "Mr. Liu is really quick to talk, I like it! We Yahoo still hold 22.6% of Alibaba's shares, which is the second largest shareholder after SoftBank!"

Yanagishita Hui said bluntly: "Ms. Mayer, let's make a price!"

Mayer obviously met a Chinese who spoke so directly for the first time, so he couldn't help but be stunned for a moment, and said: "Mr. Liu, you should know that Ali is about to go public in New York, and the price is ......."

Liu Xia Hui waved his hand and interrupted: "Ms. Mayer, you don't need to say anything, you directly offer the price, if there is something to talk about, we will continue to talk, otherwise we should make friends and enjoy this French meal together!"

Mayer was stunned again, then quickly adjusted his negotiation strategy, pondered for a while, and made a price: "If Mr. Liu wants to buy all the 22.6% of Ali shares owned by Yahoo, then you only need to pay 40 billion US dollars!"

Liu Shita Hui smiled: "Ms. Mayer, two years ago, you Yahoo sold 20% of Ali's shares for $7.6 billion, although Ali has also been developing in the past two years, and the listing is imminent, but the price should not be so outrageous, right?"

Mayer smiled and said: "Mr. Liu, you must know that two years ago was two years ago, and now it is now, and the current valuation of Ali is close to one trillion yuan, if this valuation is calculated, the price of the shares held by our Yahoo has reached more than 211 billion yuan."

And now that Ali is about to go public, according to this situation, it will definitely rise, so the premium of 30 billion yuan is really not much, and we will lose money in the long run!"

Liu Xiahui said: "Valuation is such a thing, it must be recognized by the stock market, and it can be cashed out at any time to count, otherwise it is meaningless to give you a valuation of ten trillion." ”

Speaking of this, Liu Xia Hui spread his hands and smiled, and then continued: "That's it, the food is current, we don't need to test the bargaining price, let me tell you a number, if you think it's OK, then make a deal, if you think it's not good, then let's change the topic, Ms. Mayer, what do you think?"

Mayer has been an executive for many years, and recently presided over the acquisition and negotiated with people every once in a while, but he really has never met someone like Yanagi Hui, and this tens of billions of dollars of business has made him feel like buying cabbage.

However, it feels good, there is no need to work hard, the price is OK, if it doesn't work, it will be pulled down, and this work efficiency can save I don't know how much time.

Thinking of this, Mayer smiled slightly and said, "Okay, then I'll follow the local customs and do what Mr. Liu said!"

Liu Xia Hui nodded with a smile, and then said: "30 billion US dollars, I mean that you Yahoo can get it, and at the same time, you Yahoo want to cooperate with me to avoid taxes, which is also a win-win cooperation, I wonder if Ms. Mayer can be satisfied with this price?"

Mayer didn't hesitate to stretch out his hand and said, "Deal, Mr. Liu!"

Seeing this, Yanagi Hui couldn't help laughing, stretched out his hand to shake her, and said, "Happy cooperation!"

"Happy working together!"

It's no wonder Mayer didn't hesitate at all, it was really Yanagishita's price that was really very conscientious, even more cost-effective than the $40 billion she opened before.

All this because of the existence of capital gains tax!

For stock trading like this, there is a 30% capital income tax, $3 billion in taxes for $10 billion, $12 billion in taxes for $40 billion, and Yahoo can only get $28 billion after tax at the previous price.

And now, as long as you cooperate with each other, you can get $30 billion, which is naturally a good thing for Yahoo.

Similarly, Yanagi Hui is not at a loss, and the method of tax avoidance has been demonstrated, that is, cash is abundant and stripped off.

In March, Berkshire Hathaway and Graham Holdings struck an agreement to allow the company to sell its stake in the former Washington Post company while avoiding capital income taxes.

Under the agreement, Graham will merge cash with a Miami television company — the same amount of investors as Berkshire Hathaway — to form a new subsidiary. Graham then transferred the new company shares to Berkshire Hathaway, which in turn transferred Graham shares back to the media company.

Financially, it appears that Berkshire Hathaway sold its Graham stake for cash and a television station. But since the transaction is designed to be an equity swap rather than an outright sale, it is also treated tax-free.

If Yahoo cooperates with Yanagi in this method, he can exchange Alibaba's shares for shares in the new company, and then get most of the new company's cash.

In this way, Yanagi Hui can legally transfer the cash to Yahoo, and at the same time legally obtain Alibaba's shares, which is really the best of both worlds.

After the two parties reached a verbal purchase agreement, the next step was to enjoy the food.

——————

Although there is still a difficulty in this acquisition, that is, Yahoo has signed an agreement with Mr. Ma, and Mr. Ma has the right of first refusal to repurchase shares at the same price.

But neither Yanagi nor Yahoo are worried that Mr. Ma will sabotage the acquisition.

On the one hand, Mr. Ma almost did not have the strength to come up with $30 billion to buy back shares at this time.

On the other hand, the relationship between Yahoo and Mr. Ma was originally a little stiff, and Yahoo was willing to play in advance, so it would be good to appear, and Mr. Ma would not mind.

Therefore, this business, if nothing else, should be done!