As Lin Feng expected before, in this kind of CEO class, learning and communication in the classroom are certainly the focus, but more importantly, through this kind of collective peer learning, for these entrepreneurs who are leaders in various industries, an equal social platform with classmates but no stakes.

Every successful entrepreneur is usually in an environment where power and profit are intertwined, their work is very busy, and they have the responsibility of leading the employees of the enterprise to forge ahead, and they are responsible for the company's performance, employees, shareholders, subordinates, and customers, and they are under great pressure. And in such a life, with the change of status, many friends are gradually estranged.

To participate in this CEO class, the students are all bigwigs in various industries, although they are of different ages and industries, but they are at the same level and the problems they face.

They have a common language, share and communicate with each other across industries, and they all benefit a lot, and at the same time, because there is not much at stake, this friendship has become much more sincere.

In just a few days, Lin Feng and the classmates in the class became acquainted.

Among these people, such as Fu Chengyu and Li Dongsheng, they are all leaders of super-large enterprises, and although their homes are not in Hong Kong, they all have branches or offices in Hong Kong.

It can be said that everyone has different circles and friends in the Hong Kong business community.

Every night, there are classmates who treat them to the east.

In addition to classes, there are also many gatherings in private.

On the last day of the course, Lin Feng also invited all his classmates to come to dinner in his mid-levels mansion, Ye Weiyu cooked it herself, and also invited the three-Michelin-starred chef of The Peninsula Hotel to cook a big meal for everyone.

After a full meal and drink, some people have other social arrangements and leave early.

The remaining few who have a good relationship with Lin Feng in the past few days are sitting in the living room, drinking red wine, smoking cigars, chatting and laughing.

Although Lin Feng is the youngest in the class, he is by far the most accomplished (just referring to wealth), and his net worth has soared to 2.6 billion US dollars (20.2 billion yuan) on last year's Forbes rich list. Although Menglong has been affected by the supervision of the domestic mobile value-added industry, the stock price has declined (in fact, Lin Feng is depressing the stock price), but because he owns joint-stock companies, such as Fengxing, Tencent, Facebook, youtube and other companies, they are all star enterprises in the Internet field in China and the United States, and the rapid development of business has made Lin Feng's net worth increase in the past year.

Therefore, the younger people in the class, like a group of people in their 60s and 70s, have a good relationship with Lin Feng.

Like tonight, Jiang Xipei (Chairman of Far East Holdings, born in 63), Guo Guangchang (Chairman of Fosun Group, 67 years), Yu Feng (Co-Chairman of Focus Media, 63 years), Ma Yun (Chairman of Alibaba, 64 years), Jiang Nanchun (Chairman of the Board of Directors of Focus Media, 73 years) and others.

For Ma Yun, although Lin Feng regards him as the biggest opponent in the Internet industry, he actually admires him very much.

Ma Yun can become a "Chinese business card" in the future and enjoy a good reputation around the world, which is indeed his uniqueness.

In terms of personal personality, unlike the image of Silicon Valley entrepreneurial entrepreneurs such as Zhang Chaoyang and Robin Li, Ma Yun has a low starting point, aggressive, tenacious, and high-profile, and he seems to be a natural businessman, immersed in the low-level business environment, with a keen eye and a strong ability to grasp the general trend. Above all, he is very good at using the economic and political situation to shape the image of himself and his company, and in this respect he is like a traditional capitalist.

From a business point of view, on the one hand, Alibaba's main business e-commerce, especially the B2B part, naturally has the role of connecting the global economy, especially the development of small and medium-sized enterprises in developed and developing countries, on the other hand, Alibaba has a very strong executive team, Ma Yun's own "bragging" level is very high, but the team's execution of his "bragging" content is higher, so that everyone is not optimistic about him, and in the end they are slapped in the face very painful.

The most terrifying thing about Alibaba is that every time Ma Yun "brags", the people below can really realize what he says!

This is not "bragging", but "strategic vision......

Of course, at this stage, in addition to competing in the two products of "Alipay" and "Honest Pay", Lin Feng's popularity and Ma Yun's Alibaba are still on different battlefields for the time being, and they are not the enemies of life and death.

Therefore, the two can also sit together and talk happily.

Everyone chatted casually, and unconsciously talked about the recently completed case of Focus Media's acquisition of rival Focus Media.

On January 9, 2006, Focus Media, founded by Jiang Nanchun, wholly acquired Juzhong Media, the largest competitor in the domestic building advertising field, Yu Feng, for $325 million ($94 million in cash + $231 million in stock).

After the merger and acquisition, Focus Media became the absolute hegemon of domestic building advertising in one fell swoop, accounting for 98% of the market share, becoming a monopoly oligopoly in the industry.

Yu Feng entered Focus Media as co-chairman with a 20% shareholding ratio.

It happened that the two parties were present, and Lin Feng asked Yu Feng a little curiously: "Lao Yu, don't you regret selling the crowd to Lao Jiang?"

Yu Feng's eyes behind his glasses flickered slightly, he glanced at Jiang Nanchun, who was sitting on the side smiling, and sighed: "Of course I don't regret it, but ...... There are still regrets. ”

Jiang Nanchun smiled and answered: "At this point, I really admire Lao Yu very much, his rationality and decisiveness are very human...... , Lao Yu, I toast you. ”

Yu Feng smiled faintly and raised his glass to show from afar.

Ma Yun sat on the single sofa on the other side, and also said: "At this point, I also admire Lao Yu, the way of advance and retreat, enterprising and easy, it is extremely difficult to give up, and what I give up is the glory of landing on the NASDAQ." The word "willing" is easier said than done. ”

Yu Feng said with a smile: "Now I think this decision is still wise, and the capital market is still very recognized from the performance and stock price of Focus." But at that time, I really suffered for a long time, and it was an extremely painful choice. I had insomnia for three weeks and couldn't sleep......"

Maybe it was pressed in his heart for a while, and it was such a private occasion, Yu Feng's chatterbox couldn't help but open.

The war between focus and crowding began in 2003 when the two companies were just founded.

In 1999, Yu Feng found a building video advertisement in Chicago at that time, and he found that this was a new business opportunity. And when the LCD screen dropped to 8,000 at the end of 2002, he resolutely stepped into this market!

I thought this was a wilderness with no people, but I didn't want to, and I met my biggest opponent - Focus Media.

At the end of 2002, at the elevator entrance of the Pacific Department Store in Shanghai, Jiang Nanchun, who had a whim, figured out the "new idea" of video advertising in the elevator building, and began to promote it in the office building in Shanghai, but when he went to the capital on a business trip in 2003, he accidentally found that the one he had just "invented" had appeared in the office building in the capital!

The two companies are like in the Peking Opera "Three Forks", and their opponents suddenly encountered in the dark, and they both panicked.

But then they realized that this was a "crazy" game of racing for speed and grabbing buildings.

As a result, the two companies began to enclose the land on a large scale, and the bayonets were red.

This is a competition for capital, a game that burns money!

Because the model of building video advertising is very simple, whoever has high-quality building resources will have more target customers and be able to attract more advertisers.

The "enclosure movement" intensified, at that time, both of them were often woken up by phone calls in the middle of the night, and the people below generally only asked one thing: "This building is a landmark office building in XX City, and the other party has come out to XX million, should we take it down at a higher price?"

For example, in the elevator advertisement of an office building, the entrance fee was initially discussed at 80,000 yuan, and the crowd went out to 100,000 yuan, and the price was increased by each other, all the way up, and finally 250,000 yuan was sold!

The "head to blood" fought by the two sides has achieved little except to push up their own costs and encircle limited building resources.

The business war eventually turned into a money-burning game, a near-zero-sum game: the cost of entering the building was rising, advertising revenue could not keep up with the rate of burning money, and the sheer amount of capital was being used to feed the property that was lying down and making money.

In this case, both sides realize that whoever goes public first will be able to take the lead and upset the balance of this competition.

As the saying goes, "the world's martial arts are only fast and unbreakable".

In the end, Jiangnanchun's focus was one step faster, and on July 13, 2005, it was listed on NASDAQ and took the lead.

Then, at the end of 2005, Juzhong also submitted an application to NASDAQ for listing, and planned to go public in early 2006.

At this time, investors on both sides couldn't stand it......

The investors behind the group, Carlyle Group, the underwriter Morgan Stanley, and Softbank, the investor behind the focus, have all vigorously pushed the two sides to talk about whether there is a possibility of a merger.

The reason is simple, what can be done if you gather crowds to go public?

Isn't it that the two sides continue to burn each other with dollars? A meaningless price war will not benefit the two sides or the investors behind them.

For Yu Feng and Jiang Nanchun, they sat down and chatted, only to find that the two sides were very similar in strategy, vision, and realm, and they both felt that there was no sense of accomplishment in price wars, grabbing people, and grabbing buildings.

Coupled with the fact that the price given by Focus was not bad, in the end, Yu Feng, who had learned from the pain, resolutely decided to give up on the eve of listing and merge with Focus......

As soon as the news came out, the stock price of Focus immediately rose, and after the two sides joined forces, they realized a monopoly in the domestic building advertising industry, with the shares they held, Yu Feng and Jiang Nanchun's net worth soared to 1.6 billion and 4 billion, which can be regarded as a win-win situation.

Hearing this, Lin Feng sighed secretly in his heart.

This is almost the standard template in the future Internet industry......

58.com and Ganji, Youku and Tudou, Meituan and Dianping...... , the "boss" and "second" in each industry, who have been working hard for a long time and are incompatible, suddenly merged, and netizens exclaimed "I believe in love again......".

In fact, it is just a game of capital competition.

After all, when the market enters the price war, it becomes a meaningless "money burning" war.

When no one can kill anyone, in order to ensure the interests of both investors, merger becomes the best choice.

It's just that who's merging whom? After the merger, who's the primary and who's secondary?

The key is to look at the strength, or who goes public first and who has the advantage, such as Youku and Tudou, and for example, the focus and gathering at the moment.

In the final analysis, fighting a war depends on grain and grass......

Thinking of this, Lin Feng glanced at Ma Yun, who was sitting on the side, holding a wine glass thoughtfully.

Recalling that when he met with Financial Secretary Tang Ying-yen two days ago, Jack Ma asked a question quite positively.

Lin Feng suddenly thought that perhaps at this time, Ma Yun had already begun to consider the issue of Alibaba's listing in Hong Kong!

If that's the case......

The pace of listing is also going to be accelerated!

At the very least, the privatization of Menglong must be on the agenda.

Lin Feng raised his wine glass, took a sip of red wine, and thought to himself.