Chapter 14: The White Wolf with Empty Gloves

……

"Hello, I have an appointment with Mr. James Carr of the Credit Department!"

Through the front desk, Guo Shouyun met James Carr, the credit manager of Citibank's San Francisco branch. Because they had already been in contact on the phone before, the two sides talked directly about the core content after meeting.

"Mr. Guo, based on our overall assessment of Google and our review of your own repayment qualifications, you can only lend up to $50 million in cash for your 40% stake in Google. ”

Although it will take two months for Guo Shouyun to officially become the majority shareholder of Google, the equity transfer contract signed by him at this time is indeed a formal and legally binding contract, and it has been filed with the industrial and commercial department.

The reason why Guo Shouyun must sign two contracts is that he wants to use this equity transfer document to get the large amount of money he urgently needs.

As for the existence of non-disclosure agreements, neither Sergei Brin, Larry Page, nor George Davis and other people involved in the negotiations can disclose any specific details about the negotiations to the outside world. So, even if it was a Citi investigation, it wouldn't find anything unusual.

Guo Shouyun nodded undeniably.

"Mr. Carr, if I sign the contract, what is the interest rate on your loan?"

“3.48%！”

As the Nasdaq crisis deepens, the Fed has been cutting RRR and interest rates in an attempt to stimulate the economy. Therefore, low interest rates are not surprising. Even after 9/11, commercial lending rates fell to 1%, which was a trigger for the subprime mortgage crisis, but that's for later!

"I want to take out a full loan, and the interest rate is acceptable at 5%!" Guo Shouyun said calmly.

"This... I need to ask the supervisor!"

Guo Shouyun stretched out his left hand and made a 'casual' posture.

James Carr stood up and walked out of the room briskly with the papers. About five or six minutes later, he pushed the door open again and walked in. But this time, in addition to himself, there was also a bald middle-aged white man with gold-rimmed glasses, who also walked in.

"Mr. Guo, let me introduce you to Mr. Clos Rodriguez, Vice President and Head of Credit at Citibank Bank of San Francisco. ”

"Mr. Guo, it's a pleasure to meet you!"

"Hello, Mr. Rodriguez!"

After a brief handshake, the three of them sat down.

"Mr. Guo's loan request, Carl has already told me. Mr. Guo has no problem getting a full loan of 80 million, but the 5% loan interest rate is too low!"

"How much do you want?" Guo Shouyun said indifferently.

“8%！”

A gleam flashed in Rodriguez's eyes.

“8%？”

Guo Shouyun glanced at the middle-aged white man in front of him mockingly, "Mr. Rodriguez, I have long heard that people in the financial industry are extremely greedy, and I didn't believe it much before, but now you have succeeded in making me believe it." … Give me back the information, we don't need to talk about it anymore. ”

Of course, Rodriguez can't return the information to Guo Shouyun, and his credit department doesn't have many big customers like Guo Shouyun recently.

"Mr. Guo, 8% is just our expectation. If you don't accept it, we can move on. ”

Looking at Cross with a smile on his face, Guo Shouyun said with a cold face: "It's 5%, if you still want to go higher, I would prefer to go to **** and ask Bank of America." ”

“7%！”

"5%!" Guo Shouyun said firmly, "Mr. Rodriguez, please understand one thing, it is the NASDAQ crisis, and the US economy is in a depression. According to the report released by the Federal Reserve, the amount of commercial loans nationwide fell 11% in March compared with February, and in April it was only $148.7 billion, down 8.4% from the previous month. And now the Nasdaq has no intention of bottoming out. According to the U.S. economic survey report released by McKinsey and Roland Berger, the inflection point of the Nasdaq stock market will not be until next year at the earliest. This means that the stock market will continue to fall throughout the year 2000. As a result, the national loan quota and the lending interest rate of commercial banks will fall for at least half a year. In order to avoid paying the Fed more excess reserves, I think there are many banks that are willing to lend money, and on good terms! At the very least, the yield on commercial loans is far higher than the yield of less than 1% on 'overnight repo'! And it is easier to operate. ”

Rodriguez took a deep look at the confident and calm young man sitting in front of him.

"Mr. Guo, who graduated from the Department of Economics of Stanford University, should come to work in our financial industry!"

"I'm sorry, I'm still more interested in the technology industry!" Guo Shouyun said indifferently.

Rodriguez smiled and pondered for a moment, "6%! Mr. Guo, if it is lower, we really can't cooperate with you!"

"5.5%, the loan term is five years, the interest will be repaid before five years, and the principal will be paid in a lump sum after five years! If you repay the loan early, I will pay you an additional 1% of the handling fee in addition to the interest paid. That's my last condition, if you don't accept it, I'll go to another bank. ”

Looking at Guo Shouyun's determined expression, Cross Rodriguez, who is good at observing words and feelings, understands that this is the real bottom line of the other party.

"Mr. Guo, you are really a master of negotiation!"

Standing up and holding the other party's hand that took the initiative to stretch out, Guo Shouyun said indifferently: "If I were really a master negotiator, I wouldn't let Mr. Rodriguez make such a big bargain." ”

If he had enough time, he was confident that he could squeeze interest rates to around 4%, but what he lacked most now was time. Faced with the opportunity that was about to come, he could not wait any longer.

"Haha, Mr. Guo is really humble... Carl, get the contract!"

The latter nodded and hurried down to prepare the contract.

Everything that followed was naturally logical, and Guo Shouyun got the $80 million in liquidity that was crucial to his future. After getting the money, he did not transfer it to Google, but immediately transferred the funds to Phoenix Capital's account in a Swiss bank.

Two days later, Guo Shouyun received an affirmative answer from George Davis.

"Boss, you've found a house!"

"Where?"

"It's less than a kilometer from the company, five minutes by bike and two minutes by car!"

After taking the photos of the house from Wendy's hand and looking at it, Guo Shouyun nodded.

"Let's go and see it!"

"Yes!"

The latter agreed, followed Guo Shouyun out of the company, and it was indeed quite close to drive for two minutes.

This is a very typical American-style villa, the front is a small fence courtyard of about fifty or sixty square meters, and the back is a bungalow, three bedrooms and two living rooms, about 140 square meters. Coming out of the back door, there is a small park not far away, and you don't have to worry about having nowhere to run in the morning. And, it's located halfway between the offices of LinkedIn and Google, making it easy to go to work anywhere.

"How much is the rent?"

"$400 a month, one pay three!" Wendy Solo said immediately.

"Yes, here it is. Rent from the financial settlement!"

"Yes!"

"By the way, don't change the furniture here, just clean it and disinfect it. However, the sofa covers, bed sheets, and quilt covers were all new. ”

"Understood!"

After explaining, Guo Shouyun returned to the company, and as soon as he entered the door, Martin came up.

"Bruce, you're moving out of school?"

"Well, the school is too far away from the company. Commuting to and from work for more than an hour, too wasteful. ”

"It's a bit of a waste of time. Martin Alexander nodded, and then his eyes lit up, "Why don't we find a house together, just like in Stanford, let's live together!"

Guo Shouyun couldn't help but roll his eyes.

"Go, go, who's going to live with you! I don't want people to mistake me for being bent!"

"Hey, we're brothers...!"

After waving his hand to interrupt his words, Guo Shouyun pointed to the document in his hand, "Something?"

The brain circuit of the program ape is different from ordinary people, Martin instantly forgot the loss of being 'abandoned' by Guo Shouyun before, and happily put the document in his hand in front of him.

"Bruce, or you, since we developed the address book upload and group rental functions, LinkedIn has achieved explosive growth in registered users, and in just one month, our registered users have exceeded 600,000!"

After taking the document and looking at it twice, although Guo Shouyun was excited in his heart, he was not as exaggerated as Martin, after all, he had seen too much from later generations. It's just 600,000 registered users, and if it breaks through 100 million that day, maybe he will really feel excited.

"Not bad. When will the profile program be developed?"

"Three months, three months at most...!"

"One month, I'll give you a month. If there are not enough people, you can recruit again, there is not enough space, there are still many empty office areas around, and there is not enough money I can continue to inject capital into LinkedIn. But you have to lead the development department to solve the program development of the 'personal homepage' within a month!"

"Then I'm going to recruit 10 more engineers!" Martin Alexander said through gritted teeth.

"Yes, I'll send an email to the human resources department later!"

After Martin left full of ambition and energy, Guo Shouyun sat at his desk and pondered for a while, and then took out a document from the safe next to him.

"Let Tim come to my office. ”

Guo Shouyun, who let go of his fingers, once again felt the benefits of having a secretary.

It didn't take long for Tim George, who was found by Wendy, to push open the door of Guo Shouyun's office.

"Boss, are you looking for me?"

"Sit!"

After nodding, Guo Shouyun pointed to the chair in front of his desk.

"Martin just told me that LinkedIn has more than 600,000 registered users!" said Guo Shouyun after Tim George sat down.

"That's great news!"

So, I think it's time to think about the company's profit model!"

After the words fell, Guo Shouyun handed the document he had just taken out to Tim George.

"Let's read it first!"

The latter nodded, took the document and read it carefully.