There is a saying that only envy the thief for eating meat, but do not see the thief beaten.

Many years later, people looked at the shareholder composition of major Internet companies and found that this company was invested by Son Masayoshi, and that company was also invested by Son Masayoshi.

But at this moment, it is the time when Son is most confused.

Before the global dot-com bubble was burst, Son owned shares in more than 300 internet companies and had more than $70 billion in personal assets. But at the end of the year, Son's book assets shrank by 95%, leaving only a pitiful $3.5 billion, all of which evaporated in the cold winter of the Internet!

Historically, Son invested in Alibaba at this time, and he was really not afraid of death. At that time, Ma Xiaoyun made bold remarks, and after his passionate speech, Sun Zhengyi said with a smile: "During this time, when I met the CEO of my network company, the content of the speech has all changed, only you are still the same set of rhetoric a few years ago." ”

To what extent has the Internet industry exploded?

Bill Gates, who sells operating systems, has been greatly affected, with a net worth of more than $100 billion last year and a direct drop to $63 billion this year.

Song Weiyang had just finished a conference call on Sohu when he received a call from Tencent.

Xiao Ma said: "The company's funds are urgent, and the venture capitalists I contacted before are now all reluctant to invest. I'm going to let QQ charge, maybe I can get back a little money, what do you think, old Song?"

"QQ can't be charged, at least not at this stage, and I'll provide funds when I don't have money," Mr. Song said, "and we must attract as many users as possible." ”

Brother Xiao Ma complained bitterly: "I'm worried that there are too many QQ users now, hundreds of thousands of new registered users every day, and two new servers will be added in a month, and the cost of the server will soon bring down the company!"

Song Weiyang said: "Don't be afraid, I'll pay for it." ”

Brother Xiao Ma said: "Old Song, no matter how much money you have, you can't stand burning like this." Now QQ's server fees are too high, and the income is pitiful. I asked QQ to register and charge, not only to make money, but also to limit the number of QQ users, otherwise if it burns like this, sooner or later the company will be burned to death!"

This really belongs to black humor, an Internet company, which has a headache because of too many new users.

Song Weiyang said: "Two ways. First, Tencent will directly withdraw the account of QQ that has not been online for three months, so as to avoid malicious registration and false accounts, and save some server resources; ”

Xiao Ma asked: "How much can you invest this time? If it is less than 2 million US dollars, I still have to limit the growth of QQ users, because Tencent can't afford it." ”

Song Weiyang said: "I am willing to invest an additional $3 million. If you contact Yingke and IDG again, I am willing to buy the Tencent shares in their hands. ”

"Okay, since you're not afraid, then I'll let it go too!" said Brother Pony gritted his teeth.

Historically, Pacific Century Digital and IDG jointly invested more than $3 million in Tencent in 1999. These shares were later sold to South Africa's MIH, and Li Chaoren's son made a profit of $10 million, which was cited as an investment story at the time, and was later proven to have missed out on 400 billion yuan (RMB).

There is still no change, Song Weiyang sat back and watched IDG and Yingke Investment last year, and he was not afraid that Tencent shares would be robbed.

Whether it is Yingke, IDG, or Brother Xiaoma, they all want to sell Tencent shares now. And it's a cheap sale, not trying to make much money, as long as you don't lose money. Because the general environment is too embarrassing, no one is willing to continue to invest, and Tencent's income is not even as good as Sohu, but the server cost is far more than Sohu.

Historically, the reason why Xiao Ma didn't sell Tencent was because he couldn't find a buyer, and they all thought that QQ was a pit goods. The same is true for NetEase, during the Internet winter, Ding Sanshi couldn't sell it if he wanted to, so he could only continue to carry it hard.

In the case of not finding a profit point, Tencent will die!

If Huawei had not developed domestic intelligent network technology, and China Mobile launched Montnets with it, Tencent would probably have died with no scum left, and NetEase would have no money to develop "Journey to the West".

After Brother Xiao Ma conveyed Song Weiyang's opinion, IDG and Yingke Digital immediately responded, willing to sell all Tencent shares they held, only 10% higher than when they first invested. Song Weiyang bargained on the phone, pressed down 5%, and the remaining 5% should be paid to the two families with interest.

IDG and Yingke Digital actually agreed, and more than 30% of Tencent's shares were bought back by Song Weiyang for less than $4 million.

It's normal to think about it, these two originally wanted to invest and make a profit, and judging from the current market, it is fortunate not to lose money. It is a miracle that they can still earn 5% interest, and they still regard Song Weiyang as the wronged leader.

Song Weiyang did not have enough cash in his hand, so he immediately contacted Bank of China Investment to sell 1.8% of his personal shares in Taurus Capital and cash out $30 million.

Of that amount, $7.5 million was used to invest in Tencent, and with the previous shares, Song Weiyang now owns a total of 43.5% of Tencent.

Another $1.5 million was invested in Sogou, because Sogou was almost unbearable, and Song Weiyang owned 51% of Sogou's shares after the increase.

It's not that Song Weiyang wants to eat alone and make the shareholding ratio of the two companies so high, but now only he is willing to stand up and take over. Just think about what happened to Masayoshi Son, within a year, his personal net worth shrank from $70 billion to $3.5 billion, just because this guy invested in Internet companies everywhere.

At this difficult time, Ma Xiaoyun launched the first "West Lake Sword Debate", intending to convene a meeting of industry bigwigs as the host. But Ma Xiaoyun was afraid that his influence was not enough, so he invited Jin Yong to sit in charge, Wang Jundong, Wang Zhidong, Ding Sanshi and Zhang Chaoyang were all fans of Jin Yong, and they ran over.

What is particularly surprising is that Song Weiyang is also invited, and he is a special guest like Jin Yong.

CCTV 2's "Dialogue" column was postponed again, because of the cold winter of the Internet, part of the content needed to be rewritten.

Song Weiyang came to the shore of West Lake, and Ma Xiaoyun said when he met: "Old Song, I'm afraid I'm wrong, very wrong." Other shareholders, I don't tell the truth, I just want to talk to you. ”

"Shrink your business. Song Weiyang said.

"I can only accept it, but I can't accept it. Ma Xiaoyun shook his head and sighed.

The vast majority of people in business will take a lot of detours, just to see if they can learn from their failures.

Ma Xiaoyun has also experienced ups and downs, but he has never controlled a multinational company, and in just one year, Alibaba was about to collapse by him.

Due to the huge capital injections one after another, Ma Xiaoyun, who has deep pockets, lost his mind and wanted to become a multinational group overnight.

At the beginning of 2000, Ma Xiaoyun moved Alibaba's headquarters to the United States, with the domestic headquarters in Shenghai, implementing a dual-headquarters structure, and only one branch remained in the Linzhou base camp. At the same time, he also set up branches, joint ventures and offices in Asian and European countries, invited the vice presidents of the world's top 500 companies to join, and invited a large number of high-end talents. Even the branch in Linzhou has foreign employees, and the monthly salary is six figures, and the unit is US dollars.

It became a big stall in a vain attempt to dominate the global B2B market and appeared on the cover of Time magazine.

Now it can't hold on, and the general environment is bad, which will detonate Alibaba's internal hidden dangers early.

Song Weiyang didn't care, and said with a smile: "This is a good thing, the hidden danger is discovered early, and you can take the opportunity to clean it up, otherwise it will be difficult for the ship to turn around." ”

"You have invested so much money, so you are not worried at all?" Ma Xiaoyun said, "Foreign shareholders are going crazy and have been putting pressure on me, and Alibaba may now go bankrupt directly." ”

"I believe in your abilities. Song Weiyang said sincerely.

Ma Xiaoyun was quite moved when he heard this, patted Song Weiyang on the shoulder and said, "Thank you for your trust! Now I don't know what to do, you can help me come up with an idea." ”

Song Weiyang said: "The headquarters was moved back from the United States, and all the overseas branches were cut, leaving only a few key offices. ”

Ma Xiaoyun said: "If this is done, the employee severance pay will be nearly 10 million US dollars, plus other losses, at least 20 million US dollars!"

"A strong man broke his wrist. Song Weiyang said.

Ma Xiaoyun still can't make up his mind, and historically, he didn't make up his mind until early next year to send a high-ranking official who had just taken office to do the work of laying off employees.

I have to say that Alibaba's corporate culture is doing a good job. Years later, the party who presided over the layoffs recalled that the most repeated word was "crying". Even though he was given a severance pay of three months' salary, he cried when the foreign employees working in China left, the employees who worked in the port city also cried when they were dismissed, and even the employees in South Korea cried and said that they were willing to reduce their salaries and stay to tide over the difficulties together.

They are all very dedicated and passionate employees, and they didn't make any mistakes, they just quit, and it was a collective layoff of dozens of people. It's even more cruel for Chinese employees, because it coincides with the Spring Festival, and people go home for the New Year, and they are laid off with a phone call.

This mess was all made by Ma Xiaoyun, who swelled up a lot some time ago.

Ma Xiaoyun said: "Once the global layoffs, the company's funds will bottom out. Judging from the current market, I am afraid it is not easy to attract investment. Old Song, do you have any ways to help introduce a few Wall Street investment institutions?"

Song Weiyang smiled: "I just sold some shares of Golden Bull Capital and raised tens of millions of dollars. Tencent and Sogou are also almost unable to hold on, I have invested some, and there is still some left that can be injected into Alibaba. ”

Ma Xiaoyun waved his hand and said, "No, no." This time, the basket I poked was too big, and the environment was not good, so I was not sure that Alibaba would come back to life. If you invest now, you are likely to be in vain, and I can't fool my friends like this. ”

"Anyway, I've invested so much, do you care about the rest?" Song Weiyang said with a smile.

Ma Xiaoyun took a puff of cigarette, and suddenly threw the cigarette butt on the ground and stepped on it: "I'm out of the way, if I don't succeed, I'll become a benevolent, and if the company dies, I'll jump off the building directly!"

Song Weiyang was still joking: "Then I'll prepare a coffin for you in advance, I hope this coffin won't be used." ”