In the afternoon, it was still evening in the United States, and Ding Ming made a transatlantic phone call: "Old Song, Sogou will ring the bell tomorrow." ”

"Tired, aren't you?" asked Song Weiyang.

"It's ok. Ding Ming said with a smile.

Ding Ming has led a team to the United States for a month and a half, and he doesn't like to give speeches in public, so he has done an IPO roadshow for three weeks in a row.

When he was in college, Ding Ming's English grades were good, but unfortunately he was dumb English, and even his listening level deteriorated after graduation. Ding Ming's performance in this IPO roadshow is similar to Rebus in another time and space, and he speaks English stumblingly. In the face of on-site questions from investors, he sometimes had to ask the CFO translator of the accompanying team, and his lame spoken language often made the audience laugh.

The current CFO of Sogou is called Pei Yigen, and he is an old acquaintance with Song Weiyang. In the original time and space, Pei Yigen has been working at Citi China, from a small staff member all the way to the vice president of Citi China and general manager of the CTS department.

But the butterfly effect brought by Song Weiyang completely changed Pei Yigen's life trajectory. When Song Weiyang was still in college, the two were both Fudan alumni, so Pei Yigen worked as Song Weiyang's account manager and financial consultant for more than two years. When Taurus Capital was first established, Pei Yigen was transferred to Hong Kong City by Citi China because of his relationship with Song Weiyang, and was specifically responsible for the business dealings of Taurus Capital.

Soon Pei Yigen changed jobs, first working at the Bank of Bahrain Asia Investment Company (Hong Kong City), then transferred to the mainland, and then promoted to Singapore. Subsequently, he went to the United States for two or three years, and by the way, he obtained a master's degree in finance from Stanford, during which he worked at Credit Suisse First Boston.

About three years ago, Sogou's CFO was incompetent, and it happened that Pei Yigen was poached by Citi and sent to China, so Ding Ming fooled this person into becoming Sogou's CFO.

This time, Sogou went to NASDAQ to be listed, and Pei Yigen was in charge of IPO-related matters, and even the main underwriters were brought in by him, namely Citibank and Credit Suisse First Boston.

On June 20, 2005, Ding Ming rang the bell on NASDAQ.

Sogou, which shares under the ticker symbol SOGO, has a total share capital of 65.2 million shares after the IPO, with an initial public offering of 5 million shares and plans to raise $150 million. After a series of negotiations, the issue price of Sogou was set at $28, and before the opening of the market, there were several rounds of inquiries, and the opening price was determined to be $70, and investors have full confidence in Sogou.

Sogou shares soared to $68 just an hour after the market opened, closing the first trading day at $128.37.

Ding Ming and Pei Yigen were stunned on the spot, and the news quickly spread back to China, and the Chinese media were also stunned and speechless. The issue price of $28 and the opening price of $68 rose to $128 in just one day, making it the highest-priced Chinese company listed in the United States.

This situation is a bit like Baidu in the original time and space.

At that time, Baidu's issue price was $27, the opening price was $66, the highest price on the first day was $151, and the closing price on the first day was $122, an increase of 354% on the day.

And Sogou, which was founded earlier than Baidu in history, has better development, stronger strength, and has a greater increase on the first day!

The reason for this is that it boils down to Google's success.

Google's stock price has soared to nearly $300, so search engine stocks are considered to have great potential, and Sogou, as the largest search market share in China, is naturally favored by investors. If you take Sogou to the United States before Google's skyrocketing, it is very likely that it will fall directly below the issue price on the same day, because there is no precedent for success before Google.

As for why it is not listed on China's A-shares?

Sogou's performance has reached the A-share listing standard, but the A-share market has been too miserable in the past two years. When the Shanghai Composite Index fell to 1,300 points last year, investors thought the sky had fallen, and this year, the Shanghai Composite Index fell below 1,000 points after various official policies bailed out the market. How to make money in the face of a super bear market?

How good it is to go to the United States to borrow Google's east wind!

On the first day of trading alone, Sogou's market value soared to $8.369 billion, Song Weiyang's net worth skyrocketed by $5.5 billion (including Song Weiyang's shares in Sogou through Taurus Capital), Zhang Chaoyang's net worth also increased by $150 million, and Ding Ming became a billionaire with assets of nearly $1.6 billion.

In the Forbes China Rich List at the end of this year, Zhang Chaoyang's ranking must have risen several times, and Ding Ming is 100% directly in the top ten!

Baidu headquarters.

Li Yanhong hung up the phone and looked at the ceiling in a daze. Shareholders forced him to speed up the IPO process, this is really no way, if he doesn't go public quickly, he will be fired by shareholders, and it is possible that he will be removed from the position of CEO directly.

Because Baidu's major shareholder has long been not Li Yanhong himself, several rounds of financing have diluted the shares too much.

Any AB share model is, and that thing must be listed before it takes effect. The AB share model of an unlisted company is not recognized by the laws of any country unless a relevant agreement is signed.

It's a pity that Baidu's current development situation is far inferior to another time and space. It is fully qualified to go public in the United States, but it will certainly not meet expectations, and it is unlikely that there will be a rise of more than 300% on the first day.

But for the sake of control of the company, Li Yanhong must go public as soon as possible, so that Baidu's cattle card plan (AB shares) can take effect as soon as possible.

……

On June 28, Ding Ming led the team back to China.

The next day, well-informed media reporters rushed to block the gate of Sogou when they heard the news.

"Mr. Ding, Sogou's listing has been an unprecedented success, did you expect it in advance?"

"Mr. Ding, with Sogou's current stock price, your personal assets are almost $1.8 billion, what do you think is the difference between now and before?"

"Mr. Ding, will Sogou develop overseas markets in the future?"

"Mr. Ding, how far do you think Sogou's stock price can rise this year?"

"Mr. Ding......"

Ding Ming was surrounded by a group as soon as he arrived at the company, and after looking confused, he quickly smiled: "Please let me go, since the media friends are so enthusiastic, then I will hold a special press conference to answer your questions." Forget it today, I have been abroad for almost two months, I just came back yesterday, and I still have a lot of work to deal with. Three days later, three days later, everyone will come back, and I'm so sorry for today!"

Finally persuaded the reporters to leave, Ding Ming came to the company sweating profusely, and the employees of Sogou headquarters applauded and welcomed.

Sogou's listing this time not only made Song Weiyang, Ding Ming, and Zhang Chaoyang's net worth skyrocket, but also gave birth to dozens of millionaires and several multimillionaires. Of course, not the dollar, but the yuan.

Mr. Zhang Chaoyang, a famous film and television investor who has successfully entered the entertainment industry, also rushed back from other places at this time. He opened his arms very exaggeratedly, and smiled and hugged Ding Ming: "Mr. Ding, this trip has been hard, I have a treat tonight!"

"Then let Brother Zhang break the bank. Ding Ming didn't refuse, he was so happy in his heart.

Zhang Chaoyang is naturally very happy, he has never taken care of Sogou, but it is the fourth largest shareholder after Song Weiyang, Taurus Capital, and Ding Ming, and now his net worth has risen by $150 million out of thin air.

It's no different from picking up 150 million US dollars for nothing!

Well, it's more than 150 million, and with the rise of Sogou's share price, it is now more than 160 million.

However, as one of the founders of the company, Zhang Chaoyang's shares cannot be cashed out in the short term, unless an investment institution is willing to take over at a high price. His money is all book wealth, and he will have to wait two or three years to fully realize it, and then he won't know whether it will fall or rise.

Ding Ming doesn't want to work normally today, even if most of the calls are blocked by assistants, there are enough twenty or thirty congratulatory calls to his personal mobile phone.

In addition to Daoist Nie Jun, the brothers in the former dormitory have all called over in the past few days.

Especially Zhou Zhengyu, this kid chatted with Ding Ming for half a night last night, and said that he flew to the capital for dinner on the weekend.

Another phone call came, Ding Ming looked at the number, and answered: "Dad, what's the matter?"

Ding Daodao asked: "When you are free, go back to your hometown." ”

"Go back for the Mid-Autumn Festival or National Day. Ding Ming thought for a while and said.

"Then let's come back on National Day. Ding Daodao said with a smile.

Ding Ming hurriedly admonished: "Okay, just go home to visit relatives, don't let me see those business friends of yours." ”

Ding Daodao: "It's not a business friend, it's Secretary Zhang in the city." Let's attract investment here, we want to build a digital city, and your father and I also participated in the investment. Now the opening time has not been determined, you will open on the National Day when you come back on the National Day, and Secretary Zhang will personally cut the ribbon. You must come then, and don't let me release pigeons!"

Ding Ming said speechlessly: "You are a building materials and hardware, what kind of digital city do you invest in?"

"My son is a billionaire (RMB) on the Internet, why can't he invest in Cyber City when he is Lao Tzu?" Ding Dao said with a smile.

"Okay, okay, I'll definitely participate when the time comes," Ding Ming was so annoyed that he admonished, "Okay, let's not take an example, let's do our own business." ”

Ding Daodao spoke in English: "OK, no problem." ”

The world knew that Ding Ming's hometown had already caused a sensation.

Even the new Cyber City project in the city urgently recruited Ding Ming's father as a shareholder, although there was only a loss of shares, but in exchange for a publicity stunt can be very big.

As for Ding Daodao, someone rushed to send him money, and he couldn't get so many shares with his little investment. There is no negative impact on this matter, as long as his son shows up on the opening day, and he can solve the rest of the matter himself.

It's always been like this with red top white, and if you fall into trouble, countless people will step on it. And when you are developed, people you don't know come to add icing on the cake, and they can't wait to worship you as a brother.

There wasn't much business today, but his heart was very tired, Ding Ming couldn't help but call Song Weiyang: "Old Song, ask you a question." ”

"What's the matter? Mr. Ding. Song Weiyang teased.

"Don't be, I'm annoyed. Ding Ming was so angry that he laughed.

Song Weiyang said: "It's still annoying to be a billionaire?"

Ding Ming said: "Although Sogou used to do a lot of things, I was relatively low-key, so I wouldn't have so many messy people and things to bother me. In the past two days, it has been very annoying, Sogou's stock price has skyrocketed, everyone has come to congratulate, and my assistant's phone is about to be blown up. I'm full for dinner this week and next week, and it's all for me to celebrate, and it's even more tiring than normal work. ”

Song Weiyang said: "If you don't know a special person, don't pay attention to them." ”

"You want to offend people. Ding Ming said.

Song Weiyang said: "You, it's still the same as when you were studying, for fear of offending anyone." Now that you are the CEO of a listed company, it's time to change your mentality. I really couldn't save face, so I asked the assistant to politely refuse, saying that you were going on a business trip. ”

Ding Ming was quite curious: "You are a super rich man, how do you usually maintain your mentality?"

"What should I do? Song Weiyang said.

Ding Ming smiled: "Okay." When the dinner of this half month is over, I will also learn to refuse, regardless of those cats and dogs. By the way, I decided to get married this year, and I'm picking a date. ”

"Congratulations," Song Weiyang asked, "The bride is the one who brought the rabbit out of the laboratory to eat?"

Ding Ming said proudly: "It's her." She joined a life science laboratory in the United States, and this time I went to the IPO roadshow in the United States, and accidentally made her belly bigger. If she doesn't get married, she also decided to return to China and develop in China after giving birth. ”

"Haha, it's a trap, congratulations on entering the grave of love. Song Weiyang gloated.

An hour later.

Song Weiyang received a call from Chen Tao: "I am pregnant, I just came out of the hospital, and the doctor said that the child is eight weeks old and should be conceived in Gangcheng." ”

"Uh......" Song Weiyang was speechless for a while.

Chen Tao said: "I'm going to give birth, it doesn't matter if you don't recognize it, I can support myself." The child will not inherit your assets in the future, I have assets to leave to him (her), so be it, hang up!"

What the heck?

Before Song Weiyang could speak, Chen Tao had already hung up the phone.

Lao Tzu didn't say that he didn't admit it, why are you excited? Could it be that pregnant women have such strange tempers?