Before Zhou Shi returned to the United States, he saw that the central bank issued a notice: "Measures for the Administration of Payment Services of Non-financial Institutions", which has an article: The business scope of foreign-invested payment institutions, the qualifications of overseas investors and the proportion of capital contributions shall be separately stipulated by the People's Bank of China and submitted to the State Council for approval. That is, for third-party payments such as Alipay and Time Pay, without the approval of the State Council, it is likely to face the result of suspending their use. This matter is not a big deal for Zhou Shi, and the complete financial layout at home and abroad can perfectly avoid any risks. But it's different for Ali, once the government is more serious, Ali will suspend Taobao, Tmall's third-party transaction payment services, such consequences are difficult for Ali to bear. However, surprisingly, Ma Ali did not have any communication with Zhou Shi about this. I don't know what he thinks, but it's okay, once he is notified, no matter what decision is made, it will be a dilemma.

Of course, it is not necessarily true to say that Jackma's choice is entirely for Zhou Shi's sake, and by October this year, the voting rights of SoftBank and Yahoo will be the same as the equity, which means that Ali's control is likely to be sidelined. Seizing a core company like Alipay would obviously deter SoftBank and Yahoo and maintain long-term control of Alibaba's existing management. Alibaba's later partnership system is actually somewhat similar to HSBC's, with the separation of ownership and management, but HSBC's situation is caused by a long period of evolution and a special geopolitical landscape. Ali's situation was caused by Jackmar's excessive transfer of shares in the company during the start-up stage. Maybe in Jackma's view, as long as he can control the company, wealth is at his fingertips, and the fact is that Jackma bought a mansion, invested in Huayi, and established a series of investment activities of Yunfeng Fund, where did the funds come from? You know, Ali has not been listed at this time. Another case of the richest man in China can also show that it is easy for the founder or CEO to get rich by controlling a giant company. That is Shi Zhengrong of Wuxi Suntech, a star enterprise in the solar industry, who hollowed out the company as the boss and fattened himself. Of course, it is difficult for outsiders to know what the specific situation is, if you are like Zhou Shi, you can still get a lot of money by mortgaging the company's shares, and for the powerful and rich, there are not too many investment opportunities to outperform the loan interest.

A large part of the reason why the outside world is suspicious of whether Zhou Shi is an entrepreneur or an investor is that Zhou Shi's debt ratio is very high. Under normal circumstances, it is a corporate debt, and if it can't pay it back, it will go bankrupt, and if the individual is in debt, it will go bankrupt if it can't be repaid. The harm of personal bankruptcy is much worse than that of corporate bankruptcy. If there is a personal bankruptcy system in China, it is almost impossible for the wealthy people in the country's well-known entrepreneurial godfather industry who sell fake goods and advertise to deceive consumers, have almost no chance of turning over. Because after bankruptcy, the bankrupt can only maintain the funds for the minimum living guarantee, and if he wants to turn over, he may still have to be cheated and abducted.

Zhou Shi's investment in Apple and Netflix was all borrowed, and the money to invest in the establishment of Fengyun Sports Company was also borrowed, and some money was borrowed from Time Holdings, Galaxy Capital, Sixiang Fund and other places. These companies themselves do not borrow much, and they all have sufficient cash flow. At first, the purpose of doing this was to brush credit, thinking that if he borrowed more, his credit would be higher, but then he purely saw investment opportunities, and the cash did not come together, and he borrowed more and then borrowed, anyway, the interest rate of the bank's loans is getting lower and lower, and now it is a waste not to borrow. In general, everything is within the controllable range, even if the bank forces the debt, you can repay the money in the shortest possible time (for example, if the investment and wealth management funds are close to the total amount of loan cash plus interest, they will be automatically redeemed, and their own enterprises can be set up in unreasonable regulations). After all, he didn't borrow much, less than $3 billion. There is not even a fraction of Zhou Shi's personal wealth.

Zhou Shi's main wealth is Galaxy Capital and Sixiang Fund, two private companies, the outside world is difficult to know the details, Forbes does not count or difficult to know the details of these assets, just like the wealth in charitable trusts, Forbes does not count. The others are the shares of Amazon, Netflix, Apple and Baidu, which are four listed companies, and the shares of Time Holdings, Fengyun Culture and Sports Investment Company and Yelp, three unlisted companies. As for Ali and Guoke, their shares are classified under Galaxy Capital and Sixiang Fund, which are different according to the laws of each region. As for the cash flow in Zhou Shi's hands, it has always been higher than his debt scale, exceeding three billion US dollars. However, it seems that the debt is much larger now, and the market value of 55% of Miramax's shares is about $660 million, and there are nearly $700 million in loans.

To be honest, in the eyes of people who don't know, Zhou Shi's investment is very aggressive, he is equivalent to borrowing money to manage his finances and investing in high-risk investments such as hedge funds (on the surface, he is not directly investing in hedge funds, and the bank's risk control cannot agree). But even so, it is unimaginable that Buffett still praised his investment in front of the media.

However, if you look at Zhou Shi's wealth appreciation, this is also understandable. In less than half a year, due to the rise in the share prices of these companies, coupled with the successful financing of Yelp. Zhou Shi's fortune has risen to $16 billion after deducting cash and debt. It is difficult to lose the status of the richest man in China, and I don't know if it can be maintained for decades.

Although Buffett spoke openly and wanted to meet with Zhou Shi, he didn't have time for the time being. After dealing with Disney's acquisition of Marvel and the repurchase of Miramax, and then returning to Yelp to deal with the things that piled up, I received a phone call, and I still couldn't escape the fate of buying, buying, buying, buying. That's right, he's going to buy a company again.

This matter has actually been determined a long time ago, but he has never been available, and it has dragged on until now, no, the continuous losses have made people take the initiative to contact Zhou Shi.

The company that Zhou Shi wants to buy is actually a magazine, that is, Newsweek, which used to be as famous as Time Magazine, but now it is somewhat out of character. With only 1.9 million subscribers last year and 1.5 million this year, and Newsweek lost $16.1 million in 2008 and $28.1 million in 2009, there is no way to control the loss in the future.

Newsweek is now part of the Washington Post Group, and it is time for Zhou Shi to return the favor after receiving Zuckerberg's help from Zuckerberg and Donald Graham in the last crisis.

The decline of Newsweek began with the emergence of new Internet media, and with the first loss in 2007, the magazine began to reform itself to save itself, such as changing the purpose of the magazine from the "news gathering model" to the "opinion presentation model", the reasons for this are very complex, there are political pressures and realistic choices. In 2009, Newsweek raised its subscription and advertising prices at the same time as major layoffs and expenses. Clearly, these measures do not work, but instead go down the path of a vicious circle. Zhou Shi is facing such a bad situation.

(End of chapter)