Raj Singh flipped through the slides page by page, and talked about what he had just said again, looking at Zhang Chen who was silent from time to time, and he was a little apprehensive in his heart.

For these reasons, Cerent wants to be able to exchange 20 percent of the equity for an investment of $8 million. Of these, 1.5 million will be used for company operations, 3.5 million will be used for recruitment and scale-up, and more than half of the remaining 3 million will be used to develop or purchase patents and technologies related to core routers. ”

Raj Singh stumbled to finish talking about the financing needs, and a thin bead of sweat couldn't help but ooze from his head.

After more than ten seconds, no one spoke in the entire conference room, and Raj Singh felt embarrassed, sweat seeping through his shirt, and soon several obvious wet stains appeared.

"Hmm. Zhang Chen still didn't have any expression, "Finished?"

Raj Singh breathed a sigh of relief: "It's over, it's over." ”

Zhang Chen casually put Cerent's information on the table, "Fifteen million dollars, buy Cerent in full, is it still it?"

Raj Singh didn't react at all, "What?" The middle-aged man with a Mediterranean appearance next to him swept away his bored look, and his eyes lit up.

Zhang Chen felt something, and subconsciously glanced at the middle-aged man.

"Ten million, full acquisition of Cerent, Yes or No?" Zhang Chen repeated.

Raj Singh took a deep breath: "This, this... We... ”

Zhang Chen said with a little impatience: "Cerent has just been established for half a year, and the price of 20 million US dollars is already very high. ”

Raj Singh was in a state of disarray, and their original intention was to find the right investors to complete the Cerent454 project. Although Cerent454 has been successfully developed in theory, it is still a long way from being introduced to the market, at least three months to half a year.

As long as the product can be launched, there is hope for the next round of financing.

But who would have thought that Zhang Chen would offer to buy this fledgling small company for $10 million in full?

8 million for 20 percent shares, in which they have already reserved room for negotiation, their real psychological bottom line is 8 million 30 percent or 5 million 20 percent. That said, their own current valuation of Cerent is around $25 million.

But for startups and venture capitalists, a $25 million valuation is a very different concept than a company that can sell for $25 million.

In the start-up stage, a start-up company with a valuation of 25 million may have a seed venture capital investment of 5 million or 20 percent of the shares, and no company will pay 20 million or less to buy the company as a whole, which is caused by the different stages of the value curve that the startup is in.

Seed investment can make a high valuation for a start-up, but invest a large amount of money but account for a small number of shares, and the demand is that when the company grows bigger, its shares can increase exponentially, which already contains a part of the premium for the company's future development.

But from an acquisition perspective, the actual value of a startup is very low.

Generally speaking, before there is no achievement, a large company buys a startup, either for the people of the acquired company or for the technology of the acquired company.

For start-up teams, it is really difficult to say which is better than getting a seed investment compared to being able to be acquired by a large company at the beginning.

Even if they had exchanged 20 percent of the shares for an investment of $8 million as they expected, the $8 million would not really be given to them, but for the development of the company.

In all investment agreements, the use of the investment money will be clearly stated, and the investment company will also send financial personnel to the investee company to ensure that the money invested by itself will not be misused.

Of course, in the investment agreement, it is generally stipulated that 10 to 20 percent of the money can be given to the founding team individually. For a manufacturing company like Cerent, the proportion is not even more than 10 percent due to high costs.

No matter now or in the future, entrepreneurs who have received tens of millions of seed investments still crowd the subway to work every day and live in shared houses.

In other words, even if Cerent can get an investment of 8 million, several of them can share it in their hands, and the total amount of money that belongs to them is less than 1 million. If you take one more penny, there may only be more than 100,000 US dollars left.

Now, as long as they agree to Zhang Chen's conditions and sell the company, the money they get is real, and each of them can become a millionaire.

Indeed, making the company bigger, or even going public, will indeed make more money, but the road of entrepreneurship is nine deaths, no, it should be said that it is ninety-nine deaths. When the time comes to lose all your money, will you regret not taking the money at that time?

What is the purpose of making the company bigger? Isn't it still to make money? How many people have really dreamed of changing the world since the beginning of their business?

At least not the Cerent team.

But everyone who chooses to start a business has some feelings, and Raj Singh is no exception, and he is really hesitant to sell the company.

The Mediterranean-looking man's eyes flickered, and he stopped Raj Singh who was about to speak: "Zack, I'm sorry, we are very confident in Cerent's future, and now we just want to find a financier who can give us eight million dollars in operating capital. ”

Zhang Chen glanced at this man, he didn't have this person's information in his hand. "Who are you?"

The middle-aged man said unhurriedly, "My name is Mike, and I am Cerent's legal advisor. ”

Zhang Chen sighed, looked at Raj Singh and said: "Cerant plus Siara, sixteen million dollars, all employees are retained, this is the final offer." ”

Paid plus Siara?

Raj Singh is really intrigued, Siara is another independent subsidiary of Fiberlane, and unlike Cerent, Raj Singh has the majority of the shares in Siara. Raj Singh can at least share more than half of the extra $6 million.

"We need to talk about it. Mike saw that Raj Singh was already very shaken, and quickly pulled him to stop him from agreeing immediately.

Zhang Chen shrugged: "Okay, you can discuss it outside first." Cheryl, tell the next one to come in. ”

As the Cerent team streamed out of the conference room, Mike whispered in Raj Singh's ear, "Don't be fooled by them, they just want to test your entrepreneurial acumen, and if you don't show your determination, you won't get the money." ”

Raj Singh took a breath and nodded, but he was a little worried: "Just now they said that the next one, is there a similar company to do financing negotiations?"

Mike shook his head and whispered, "Impossible, these are their little tricks, in order to increase psychological pressure on you." ”

"JuniperNetorks, it's your turn. As soon as a few people turned around, they saw Cheryl Sandberg say something to the lounge area, and three men in straight suits stood up from the lounge area, tidied up their clothes, and followed Cheryl Sandberg into the conference room.

"Pradisindhu?" Ajabbadar muttered in confusion.

Raj Singh turned his head: "Do you know him?"

Ajab Bardell frowned: "I haven't seen him in years, Prady and I used to be Xerox engineers. When I was at Xerox, he was my boss, and since they were both Indians, I knew him well. ”

Raj Singh stopped, and several people glanced at each other, and invariably put their ears to the closed door of the conference room.

Obviously, Prady's company is also looking for investment. Judging from the sound coming from inside, the company called JuniperNetorks is doing a PPT presentation.

"Edge routers?" the faces of the Cerent team couldn't help but change, JuniperNetorks is actually engaged in the development of network communication equipment, which is not good news.

"$28 million, full acquisition, you're going to get a new position in a new company, sign a non-compete agreement. Yes or NO?" Zhang Chen's voice sounded for the first time, or the words they heard.

(End of chapter)