$1 billion, and all cash.

After listening to Zhang Yida's conditions, Mao Wenchao and Qu Fang admitted that they were tempted.

Xiaohongshu's current market valuation is about $1.5 billion.

However, all-cash mergers and acquisitions are also a regular means in the industry.

Xiaohongshu has been founded for four or five years, and it has never been profitable, and it has tried many businesses such as direct e-commerce and e-commerce shopping guides, but it can't make money.

If you can't make money, you can only tell stories to fool venture capital: we have to do large-scale, and we want to be China's Ins Yunyun.

But how long can this story be told, whether it can really usher in the day of listing, and whether it will fall into a dog if it is listed, these are not easy to say.

The two glanced at each other, and Qu Fang said, "Yida, add a little more, how about 1.5 billion US dollars?"

Go to the shit ideal!

Zhang Yida scolded secretly, if you are not satisfied with the price, you should say it earlier!

Lao Tzu was stupid to talk to you about his ideals for a long time, and said that he would take Xiaohongshu to the sea and enjoy the scenery of the world.

$1.5 billion, that's not outrageous. Zhang Yida remembers that in his previous life, just next year, Xiaohongshu completed a $300 million Series D financing led by Ahri and followed by Penguin, with a post-investment valuation of more than $3 billion.

Since then, the market has continued to report news of a valuation of $5 billion and $6 billion, but Xiaohongshu has not completed a new round of financing.

The biggest problem should be that we have encountered a bottleneck, and the imagination space is already very limited.

In addition, Zhang Yida also heard that Ahri has always had the idea of acquiring Xiaohongshu to strengthen the entrance of e-commerce traffic.

How can this work? We must not let Xiaohongshu join Ahri's camp.

Although Xiaohongshu is good, if it can cut the price, Zhang Yida will not be too troublesome. After all, now Zhonghe Group is short of funds, and it is a little bit to be able to save a little.

After cutting the price with Qu Fang and Mao Wenchao for a while, Zhang Yida was very resolute, and he would not add more than $1 billion.

Qu Fang and Mao Wenchao glanced at each other, and the latter said: "We don't want all cash, half of the equity and half of the cash, can the price be raised?"

In the eyes of many people, Zhonghe Group is a crumbling ship.

But Qu Fang and Mao Wenchao have witnessed the whole process of Zhang Yida's rise, and they are very confident that Zhang Yida will create another miracle.

Zhang Yida's face softened, he did not do much in the operation of stock exchange, and naturally knew the pros and cons.

The company has a lot of cash on its books, and the project prospects are particularly good, so it is naturally better to spend cash than to exchange shares;

However, in the current state of Zhonghe Group, share exchange is the most rational way to trade.

Save a little more cash and spend it on other businesses, which can also enhance the strength of Zhonghe Group in all aspects to a greater extent.

In the end, Zhang Yida chatted with the two again and reached a compromise on the $1.3 billion merger price.

Zhonghe Group acquired Xiaohongshu in the form of "US$650 million in cash, plus US$650 million in additional shares".

Penguin is also a shareholder of Xiaohongshu, but its stake is less than 10% and it does not have a veto.

Although it voted against it on the board of directors of Xiaohongshu, it could not stop Xiaohongshu's sale.

After the acquisition of Xiaohongshu, Zhonghe Group's reserve cash fell below $4 billion again.

In addition, Zhonghe Group issued an additional $650 million of shares to all shareholders of Xiaohongshu at a valuation of US$63.3 billion, accounting for about 1.03% of the total share capital of the entire Zhonghe Group.

Qu Fang and Mao Wenchao also obtained 0.1%-0.2% of the shares of Zhonghe Group.

After the handover is completed, the two will fade out of Xiaohongshu. Whether it's starting a business again, or being an investor, it's up to them.

However, there is also a non-compete agreement restriction that you cannot engage in content and e-commerce entrepreneurship for five years.

These are the basic operations of mergers and acquisitions, preventing the original founder from taking away all kinds of resources of the enterprise and starting anew, and the acquirer eventually buys an empty shell.

After the issuance of additional $650 million in shares, Zhang Yida's personal shareholding ratio also decreased, from 60.09% to 59.47%.

This shareholding ratio is still much higher than his shareholding in Ruixiang.

After the latter completed a financing of $6,666.66 million, he held only 34.36% of his shares.

After Xiaohongshu was merged, it belonged to the e-commerce business group of Zhonghe Group together with Pindodo.

Zhonghe Group attaches great importance to Xiaohongshu and wants to build it into an e-commerce platform that is different from Pindodo, focusing on young female users.

In fact, nearly 90% of the platform's users are women, and their ages are concentrated in 18-35 years old.

Many of these users overlap with Shake Vision, so Zhang Yida decided to open up the two platforms.

Shake the eyes plus Xiaohongshu, and Kuaishou plus Douduo to form two pairs of CPs.

Why do we want to build a dual e-commerce platform strategy? The main purpose is to cut high-end users, and Pindodo can't do this job yet.

Of course, live e-commerce is not achieved overnight.

The GMV made by Taobao Live accounts for only a small part of Ahri's entire e-commerce system.

This industry is far from ushering in an explosion.

What Zhang Yida did was just to slowly lay the foundation and grab traffic everywhere.

......

"Pony, SoftBank has talked to us a dozen times.

Ruixiang that part of the equity, they are willing to take over 20% off, Zhonghe this part of the equity, they are only willing to ...... 6-fold hand. ”

Speaking of this, Liu Zhiping was also full of indignation. SoftBank took advantage of the fire to rob him, and he was simply bullying the goose too much.

Knowing that the relationship between Penguin and Zhonghe Group, and even with Zhang Yida had deteriorated, Penguin was eager to cash out his equity, so he kept hanging Penguin and bargaining in various fancy ways.

It's been almost two months, and there has been no substantive progress in the negotiations.

Bonima also covered his forehead, distressed. It looks like it's going to be 2018, and the equity of Ruixiang and Zhonghe just can't be sold.

According to SoftBank's quotation, compared to the investment, the penguin is actually not a loss.

But Ponima just can't swallow it!

Ming Ruixiang and Zhonghe are still alive and kicking, especially Zhonghe, which is also a holding and a merger and acquisition of Xiaohongshu, where is there a little bit of decline?

Ponima asked, "What about the other investment institutions?"

Liu Zhiping frowned, shook his head and said: "I can't eat it at all, Gaoling is only willing to eat 1 billion US dollars, CDH is more than that, and is willing to buy 2 billion US dollars, but they only need Ruixiang's shares, and let us get a 20% discount." ”

"Damn, these funds are better than a dog!"

Liu Zhiping sighed, the order was wrong, the equity should be sold first, and then the contradiction should be made public.

Now, even if the equity is sold, there will be a lot of losses.

However, he did not dare to accuse Boniema, so he could only slander it in his heart.

"Contact a few more funds, a few funds can't work, dozens of funds are headquartered, right?"

Liu Zhiping shook his head again, "It's useless, tens of billions of dollars in a company, how many VCs are willing to come in?"

Even if Ruixiang and Zhonghe don't have problems in the future, what is the rate of return?"

"Is there a PE connection abroad?"

"Contacted. Liu Zhiping said, "But most of them are already sharp shareholders and are unwilling to increase their holdings."

Zhonghe, these PEs are not very optimistic, and the prices offered are lower than those of Softbank. ”

Ponima pondered for a moment, and then spoke: "Continue to negotiate the price with SoftBank, and by the end of December, we will have to empty all the shares no matter what." ”

Liu Zhiping nodded, there is still more than a month to go, and he is sure that SoftBank will raise the price by another 10%.

As for more, he didn't have the bottom either.

"PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is going to be launched in China?" Bonima asked again.

"Yes, it has started to warm up on multiple platforms such as Doushi, Kuaishou, Station B, and Panda Live. ”

Ponima heard the live broadcast of the panda for a moment, and asked with a smile: "That panda that Xiao Wang did?"

Liu Zhiping nodded.

Bonima shook his head again and again, and sighed: "Zhang Yida is really getting more and more mixed up, and he is wrapped up with such a person!"

Liu Zhiping said: "Although Xiao Wang is a bit maverick, he is still a little influential in the e-sports circle.

He not only posted a number of Weibo posts in a row to help PUBG publicity, but also asked his e-sports club to organize a team ......"

When Bonima heard this, his face was as gloomy as water. Games are the lifeblood of penguins!

Zhang Yida's overwhelming propaganda of PUBG, is this to fight with the penguins?

The pros and cons of PUBG have been proven in the PC version of the game. As long as the mobile game is not too bad, it should also be a hit.

He spoke: "Let Tianmei and Photon speed up the development progress, and be sure to launch our own battle royale game before Zhonghe." ”

Liu Zhiping said with a smile: "We fought with Zhonghe Group, but NetEase picked up a bargain, and I heard that Wilderness Action will be launched in the near future." ”

Boni Mahaha laughed: "Ding Sanshi looks harmless to humans and animals, but he likes to do these little things.

Now Zhang Yida has a headache, I want to see how much market PUBG can snatch from us and NetEase. ”

Liu Zhiping also smiled, anyway, PUBG didn't get an exclusive agent, and many NetEase came to snipe Zhonghe Games, they were happy to see it.

The domestic game market has been the bull's ear for Penguin and NetEase in recent years.

Now that there is a crowd to share the cake, everyone naturally has to unanimously put their guns on the outside.

On the side of the couch, how can you allow others to snore!

Poniema asked, "I heard that Rocket Video has a variety show, what is it called Rocket Girl 101?

"That's right, it's a girl group draft, and I bought the rights from South Korea. ”

Liu Zhiping said again: "iQiyi also has a men's group draft called idol trainees, do we have to follow up on our penguin videos?

Originally, Penguin Video lagged behind iQiyi. At such times, we must not take it lightly and must hurry up to catch up. ”

Ponima nodded, "Look at the arrangement!"

"Oh, yes. ”

Liu Zhiping suddenly remembered one thing, and said to Bonima: Zhonghe Chinese Network and Zhonghe Animation have also developed independent apps and officially started operation.

I heard that they also came to poach the authors of our platform, and many platinum and god writers heard that they were harassed by headhunters sent by Zhonghe Group. ”

"Is there such a thing?"

Ponima is a little unsettled. What's more, the headhunters have been sent, and it seems that Zhonghe Group has made a lot of moves.

"We must take strict precautions and not allow them to poach people. If necessary, the contract will also be changed, and it is important to retain people.

Online texts are the upstream of IP, and without online texts, where would comics, games, and online dramas be adapted.

For Dawen Entertainment, online articles are the key, and they must not be messed up. ”

Liu Zhiping said with a smile: "Don't worry, a newly opened site, just some people who haven't mixed up to try their luck."

Other famous writers, who is willing to give up a stable income of millions or tens of millions to try their luck at a small station with an uncertain future?

Last year, we distributed nearly 1 billion yuan in manuscript fees, and more than 100 writers paid more than 1 million yuan.

Now our stations have formed an ecology, and the foundation is very stable, and it is not so easy to be shaken. ”

Bonima was relieved and asked, "Is there any movement in Zhonghe Music?"

Liu Zhiping shook his head: "I only registered a trademark, and I haven't started operation, so I don't know what I'm doing."

Even if you start operating, you don't have to be afraid of them, the copyright alone will kill them.

Take NetEase Cloud Music as an example, how good is the user experience and community atmosphere?

I can't hear the song I want to hear, aren't you pushing users out?"

Ponima let out a long sigh and said with a smile: "It seems that all these years of hard work have not been in vain, the moat has been dug deep enough, and it is difficult for latecomers to cross it." ”

Liu Zhiping bowed his head slightly, and said with a smile: "It's still Pony, you have a long-term vision, and you have made relevant layouts early, otherwise how can there be such a penguin in the sky today?"

Boni laughed, it's all his own people, in fact, there is no need to shoot so loudly.