Li Mu's $5 million + $5 million for Louis Martin quickly worked out.

Although Louis Martin is in Yenching, he used his personal connections to obtain first-hand information from Apple at this moment in an unethical way.

Since Tim Cook was appointed to take over the position of CEO of Apple, there have been several fierce debates within Apple on the next direction, and the Apple executives at this time are mainly divided into two camps, one is the stop-loss faction and the other is the counter-offensive faction.

The attitude of the stop-loss faction is very simple, immediately split and sell Apple, so as not to fall below the net assets of Apple's stock price in the future, this faction is mainly investors and the capital behind them, they see the money invested in Apple draining at the speed of light, and the instinct of capital drives them to just want to end this failed investment as soon as possible, and then quickly find profits from other projects to make up for this hole.

For many private equity funds, the money invested at the same time may exceed billions of dollars, and it is not the end of the world to lose tens of millions or even hundreds of millions of dollars on a single project, as long as other projects can compete to make up for this part of the funds, they can make up for it normally, so it is very important for them to stop the loss in time, because they don't know how big this black hole will spread next, if you want to make up a hole, you must first stop the hole from expanding, and then according to the actual size of the hole, go all out to find a way to make up for it.

As for the counter-attackers, most of them are Apple's founders and senior management team who have been fighting side by side for so many years, like Tim Cook, who joined the company five years ago with great trust in Apple's future, although he didn't make much money, but he pinned his passion and faith on this company, and now let them surrender immediately, which is unacceptable to them.

The counter-offensive view is that Apple is different from most Internet companies, Apple is a company with hardware as the core, supported by patented technology and software technology, and pure Internet companies may lose 95% of their market value when they encounter a bubble, that is because they are like a huge rubber balloon that has been blown up, and after it is blown up, it is basically a lump of rubber skin;

But Apple is a polar bear of more than 1,000 pounds, even if it runs out of food in the cold winter, it can rely on its own fat for a long time, even if it is hungry to the skin and bones, the polar bear still has strong combat effectiveness, and Apple is the same, at this critical moment, Apple should calm down and think about countermeasures, and find a breakthrough to counterattack the opponent.

These two factions have their own advantages and disadvantages, for example, although the number of stop-loss factions is not large, but the proportion of shares controlled is high, and although the counter-offensive faction is large, most of them are employees of the company and professional managers, and their actual control over the company is somewhat insufficient.

From a legal point of view, the stop-loss faction has the absolute power to make a decision and implement it, but they are also afraid that the counter-offensive faction accounts for the majority, once they completely lose confidence in the company, they are very likely to leave at any time, if Apple sells to the outside world, the core team loses most of the part, then the company's market value will inevitably suffer a greater blow, which is the result that the stop-loss faction does not want to see anyway.

When Apple's stock price fell below the $4 mark on the third trading day, the stop-loss faction and the counter-offensive still did not reach a consensus.

According to Louis Martin, the stop-loss faction is constantly persuading the counter-offensive to accept the company's capital plan, so as to at least ensure that everyone's work has a chance to be retained, and if not retained, at least get the compensation they deserve;

The counter-offensive is also persuading the stop-loss party to have more confidence in the company, believing that with Apple's existing technology accumulation, Apple's team will definitely find an opportunity to turn things around.

Li Mu is very concerned about the counteroffensive led by Tim Cook within Apple, whether there is a clear counteroffensive strategy at present, the iPod business has been ravaged by the unlisted Mango-ME2, if Apple still wants to win back a city on Mango-ME2, it is really likely to trigger the nerves of these guys, forcing them to decide to raise the iPod by half a generation, or even a generation.

However, judging from the information found by Louis Martin, the counteroffensive has not yet found a very clear entry point.

Louis Martin also contributed another very valuable information to Li Mu, Microsoft is going around several circles of indirect control of offshore companies through one of its funds, and issued an acquisition offer to Apple, but Microsoft is not ready to take the whole Apple into their hands, they only want to acquire Apple's operating system and Mac business line, as for the iPod and iTunes, which have become junk assets in the eyes of investors, Microsoft is not interested.

After Li Mu got the news, he applauded excitedly.

Others don't quite understand why Li Mu is excited about Microsoft's motivation to acquire Apple, after all, Microsoft is a behemoth in the IT field, even Makino Technology looks a little weak in front of them, market capitalization, cash flow, technical reserves and profitability are much worse than Microsoft, if Microsoft also wants Apple, Makino Technology is obviously difficult to ensure competitiveness.

However, Li Mu has his opinion, he said to everyone: "The U.S. government will not allow Microsoft to buy Apple, so Microsoft can only use this way to achieve its goals, so they use corporate funds, The purpose of the fund is very simple, that is, to get Apple's OS operating system, and then make it into a human in the operating system, so that OS can breathe a breath and live like, so that OS will not only not bring any follow-up threats to Microsoft, but also prevent Microsoft from receiving sanctions under the anti-monopoly law. ”

Speaking of this, Li Mu said: "First of all, I don't have any discrimination against the gay community, I just use some scum in this group as an analogy, Microsoft's mind is actually a gay man who is eager to find a woman to marry, he doesn't want to fall in love with a woman, he just wants to marry this woman, so that no one will doubt his sexual orientation, and his parents will no longer put pressure on him." ”

Everyone nodded in agreement, and it did sound like that.

Li Mu said: "For Apple, Microsoft should be the company they are most reluctant to acquire, and now, the company they are most reluctant to be acquired, but they took the initiative to find them, I believe that the Apple team must be extremely unhappy, in this case, even if we are the initiator of the death of Apple, Apple will feel much more cordial than Microsoft." ”

"Really?" Louis Martin laughed, "If I were Apple, you would be the one I hate the most." ”

Li Mu smiled: "You people who purely play with capital, you only look at money, but you must know that the geeks who play technology value not only money, but also dignity, you can defeat them, and even kill them on the battlefield, but you can't buy them at home as slaves, and then throw their children into the dung pit." ”

Louis Martin said: "Apple's internal stop-loss faction is the same as me, they are pure capitalists, they only care about who gives more money, if Microsoft gives them a higher price, they will not hesitate to sell Apple, those who have a sense of honor, they have no voting rights, they can't decide the future fate of this company." ”

Li Mu said: "Luis, look at the details, why is Microsoft only willing to buy Apple's operating system and computer business? To put it bluntly, they are not willing to spend a penny more for Apple at all, they only want to use the least amount of money to achieve their own goals, so they don't care about the iPod and iTunes business at all, let alone the life or death of Apple's employees in these two business lines;

Even if Apple's stop-loss faction is all capital thinking, they also have to consider a problem, the only cash-out opportunity for iPod and iTunes business is to package and sell it with the whole Apple, otherwise there are only these left, no one will be interested, and then this part of the assets will become bad debts, and the stop-loss faction still has to pay severance pay for all employees of iPod and iTunes two business divisions, compared with Microsoft, I, the takeover man who is willing to take over the whole market, is the savior that Apple is most looking forward to. ”

Louis Martin shrugged his shoulders and smiled, "That makes sense. ”

Lei Jun said: "I think Mr. Li's analysis is very correct, even the stop-loss faction does not want to leave useless bad assets in the end, and at the same time take out a part of the limited money to compensate employees, Microsoft now must feel that no one in the capital market is willing to take over Apple, they may be the only buyer of Apple, so they are not willing to give Apple any extra offer, if Microsoft maintains this attitude, it will be a huge help to our acquisition of Apple." ”

Ding Jian, who was in charge of capital operation, asked Li Mu: "Mr. Li, since Microsoft has made contact with Apple, is it necessary for us to contact Apple in the near future?"

Li Mu said: "Not for the time being, otherwise if Microsoft knows that we are also staring at Apple, it is very likely to increase its offer and conditions, so as not to have too many dreams at night." ”

After that, Li Mu said to Louis Martin: "Luis, let your eyes be fixed on the movements of Apple and Microsoft, I want to know what kind of price Microsoft quoted Apple, and Apple's internal reaction to Microsoft's offer." ”

Louis Martin nodded: "Please rest assured, I will keep an eye on it and report to you as soon as there is any movement." ”

Li Mu said: "Tell the top management of Sequoia, let them also keep silent, and don't reveal the news that Makino Technology is preparing to buy Apple." ”

Louis Martin hurriedly said: "Understood, I will communicate." ”

Li Mu smiled with satisfaction and said, "The rest, after I arrive in the United States, I will talk to them in person." ”

As soon as the words fell, Li Ziwei hurriedly knocked on the door and came in, and said to Li Mu excitedly: "Mr. Li, the World Health Organization has just released the news that the whole of China has lifted the epidemic warning!"