1. On November 4, 2008, Lin Feng and Ye Weiyu arrived in Chicago on a private plane.

They will be attending the "Celebration Party" at the McCormick Lakeside Center in Chicago that evening.

Yes, on this past day, Oguanhai successfully won the presidential election and became the newly released 44th president of the United States!

As one of the earliest behind-the-scenes financiers to support Aoguanhai, Lin Feng, who donated more than tens of millions of dollars to Aoguanhai's campaign before and after in the past few years, is naturally one of the important guests who are qualified to share the joy of victory at this time.

It is no secret that Lin Feng and Ao Guanhai have a very good personal relationship.

As early as 2005, when Lin Feng held a castle wedding in the United Kingdom, Ao Guanhai was one of the guests and friends from the United States.

Today, it is undoubtedly the best return on his previous investment.

It also indicates that in the next eight years, Linfeng's industries will receive a more relaxed development environment and stronger support from the upper level in the United States......

"Rich, it seems that your vision is really as accurate as people say!" Ao Guanhai wore a neat black suit, walked over with his wife Michelle, and clinked glasses with Lin Feng with a smile, at this moment, he is one of the most brilliant peaks in life. At 47 years old, he is in the prime of life for a politician, far from being as gray as he was when he left office eight years later.

"Yes, I can't be wrong, Barack, I said a long time ago, you will be president...... , Congratulations, Mr. President!" Lin Feng also smiled and clinked glasses with him.

"Thank you, Rich, I won't forget your support for me all the time!" Ao Guanhai was in a good mood at the moment, and made wishes to his supporters one by one, even Lin Feng, a foreigner.

Lin Feng smiled and nodded: "I chose the right one, didn't I?" sir, this is the best result!"

Okuguanhai smiled proudly.

There were still a lot of guests present that night, and he was about to leave, but Lin Feng said, "Barack, when is it convenient, let's talk?"

Ao Guanhai looked at him, nodded and said, "Okay, let's talk in private later." ”

Lin Feng obviously had something to look for him, which was a good thing for Ao Guanhai, if it wasn't too troublesome, he could solve it with a word now.

This is also the reward that Lin Feng deserves.

…………

"What, you're planning to buy Amazon?"

Later that night, after the celebratory people had finished their party, in a secluded reception room, Ao Guanhai and Lin Feng smoked cigars and talked.

After Ao Guanhai was elected, his schedule was very tight, and he could only spare half an hour to talk to Lin Feng in secret.

Later, he had to negotiate with the campaign team to form a composition of government officials and staff after entering the White House.

But the topic that Lin Feng talked about with him still surprised Ao Guanhai.

You know, not long ago, Fengxing Group was just approved to acquire Skype for $2.2 billion.

In the tragic situation of the intensifying financial crisis and the market being full of sorrow, even Ao Guanhai has to admire Lin Feng's courage to make frequent and intensive acquisitions with such a large amount of money.

"Amazon, there may be some problems......" Ao Guanhai was a little entangled.

You must know that the companies acquired by Fengxing before, even Skype, are not related to the core area of the industry, and when they are acquired by foreign capital, the reaction of all parties will not be too great.

Amazon is different!

Founded in 1995, this e-commerce site was originally known as an online bookstore, and was one of the first companies in the world to start running e-commerce. At the same time, it is one of the symbols of the Internet age in the United States.

As a rare survivor of the last Internet economic bubble, Amazon is known for its unique stability and long-term planning, although it has been losing money and not making a profit, so the market value is relatively large with several other famous Internet companies, Google, Yahoo, etc., but its influence in American society is not small!

Not only is it "the world's largest online retailer", with more than 60 million unique users in the United States, but users are highly dependent on it, and more and more items are being purchased on Amazon, including DVDs, music CDs, computers, software, video games, electronics, clothes, furniture, and more.

Living in the U.S. today, people can deal with almost just one company: buy everything from milk and cereal to lawn mowers and couches on Amazon, read e-books, newspapers, and magazines with a Kindle, download songs from Amazon's MP3 music store, or watch movies through Amazon's streaming service......

That's it, after all, in the area of online shopping, in addition to Amazon, Americans can also choose Ebay.

Another important place is that in 2006, Amazon launched AS (Amazon eb Services (AS)), which provides IT infrastructure services to enterprises in the form of eb services, that is, professional cloud computing services, and its customers have expanded to the government and enterprise level, and it is currently the No. 1 company in the cloud computing market.

About 90% of Silicon Valley startups use Amazon Web services.

Not only are many startups in Silicon Valley in love with Amazon cloud computing, but more and more enterprises and institutions in other industries have begun to accept and use cloud computing services, from U.S. government departments to Fortune 500 companies, they are using Amazon cloud computing in different fields to improve their service quality.

According to the data, many U.S. government departments, including the CIA, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Recovery and Accountability Commission, the U.S. Department of the Treasury, the U.S. Department of State, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the European Space Agency, NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration), etc., are using Amazon's cloud computing business to varying degrees......

This one is very sensitive!

In addition, in 2007, Amazon also launched the Kindle e-paper book reader, which was also widely acclaimed and was called the "iPod of reading".

It can be said that Amazon has always been one of the most watched and influential Internet companies in the United States.

Lin Feng actually wanted to buy Amazon......

Even Ao Guanhai felt that his courage was a little too big!

But when you think about it, it's not entirely incredible.

With a market capitalization of around $80 billion today (it lost nearly $20 billion during the financial crisis), the acquisition is not unacceptable from a commercial point of view compared to Amazon's market capitalization of $23.8 billion.

Moreover, Fengxing has nearly $10 billion in cash reserves and a high level of profitability.

On top of that, Xmobile, which is invested by Fengxing, also has one of the hottest money-attracting tools today, the Xphone, an emerging smartphone product that has sold more than 10 million units worldwide in the past six months, with revenues of more than $3.6 billion.

In terms of strength, Fengxing has the strength to acquire Amazon.

It's just that......

Ao Guanhai had a headache, he understood Lin Feng's purpose for asking him for help.

Fengxing wants to acquire Amazon, and the real difficulty is not at the commercial level, but in policy supervision!

In addition to the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), this acquisition also requires the approval of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and even the Department of Justice!

To be honest, if Lin Feng were an American, this would be easy to do.

But Lin Feng is Chinese!

If Fengxing Group buys Amazon, the repercussions could be huge.

For Ao Guanhai, whether it is necessary to exert influence on this matter during the sensitive time when he has just been elected needs to be considered in more detail......

Lin Feng can also understand his difficulties, but the 2008 financial crisis can be said to be the only opportunity to acquire Amazon!

Since the financial crisis, Amazon's stock price has plummeted 44% in the past month, from $86 in early August to $49 now, and its market value has also fallen from $37 billion to $23.8 billion, which can be said to be the best time for acquisition.

From this year on, Amazon will begin to walk out of a magnificent bull market that has lasted for nearly ten years, and its market value has soared from 23.8 billion to 460 billion US dollars!

If you miss this opportunity, Lin Feng will regret it for the rest of his life!

From a global perspective, except for Alibaba, there is almost no company with more growth value than Amazon.

In particular, in addition to the layout of e-commerce, logistics, warehousing, etc., Amazon is also very competitive in cloud computing, big data and even artificial intelligence.

Although JD.com's growth is good, from a global perspective, Amazon is certainly a better choice......

"Barack, I know that some of Amazon's businesses are more sensitive, what do you think? After the acquisition of Amazon, Fengxing will continue to maintain Amazon's independent operations, and will not integrate Amazon's data content, that is, Amazon still belongs to the United States. Including Bezos, who can also continue to serve as Amazon's CEO. Fengxing will only be a major shareholder and carry out in-depth cooperation with Amazon at more business strategic levels. ”

Ao Guanhai perked up: "Oh, is it just a holding?...... That's workable. ”

After all, he is now the president of the United States, and he is not willing to let foreign countries get involved when it comes to sensitive livelihood data.

But holding is a different matter, which is the operation of the capital level.

Americans are familiar with this set.

He didn't have much time, so he raised his hand and looked at his watch: "Rich, then so be it, as long as you can convince Bezos and Amazon's shareholders, in terms of approval, I will help you find a way." ”

Lin Feng followed him and stood up, with a grateful face: "Barack, thank you for your friendship and help, this will be the most important treasure in my life." ”

Ao Guanhai smiled: "Rich, we are friends, aren't we?"

The dark chess that Lin Feng played many years ago finally played an important role at this critical moment!

…………

After clearing the regulatory hurdles, Lin Feng began to embark on the big plan to acquire Amazon!

On November 10, 2008, Lin Feng led the core management team of Fengxing to secretly visit Amazon's headquarters in Seattle, met with Jeff Bezos and members of Amazon's board of directors, and expressed his intention to deepen cooperation between the two sides, and for the first time proposed whether it was possible to acquire Amazon at a premium.

Bezos, who was strong and maverick, did not hesitate to reject the proposal.

He has a very long-term plan for Amazon, and has an unimaginable desire to control, and he has always been popular in the capital market, Amazon is not short of funds, and there is no need to sell at all.

However, unlike Bezos, representatives of investment institutions on Amazon's board of directors have become somewhat interested in the acquisition conditions proposed by Lin Feng.

$28 billion purchase price!

The offer is a "cash + stock" approach, consisting of $6 billion in cash and $22 billion worth of 235 million popular Class A shares......

You know, Fengxing is a very popular new giant in the industry, and its stock value has been rising, and even during the financial crisis, it fell much less than other companies.

On top of that, the profitability of Fengxing is extremely high!

In 2008, Fengxing's projected revenue will exceed US$2.6 billion (20 billion yuan) and profits will be as high as US$1.53 billion (11.9 billion yuan).

Xmobile, a subsidiary of Fengxing, is now hailed by the media as the "next Apple", with a revenue of $3.5 billion in the past six months, and a profit estimated to be close to $1.6 billion, and the future is even greater!

On the other hand, Amazon at this time......

The revenue was 19.2 billion US dollars, but it continued to grow as always, but the operating profit was only 645 million ......

Well, after so many years, Amazon has finally made a profit in these two years!

If only from the perspective of investment and making money, popular stocks are still attractive to these investors.

However, while some of Amazon's directors suggested that the proposed acquisition could be seriously discussed, the Amazon's board rejected the acquisition plan in the face of strong opposition from Bezos.

Lin Feng knew that this matter was not easy, and he did not give up, but actively communicated with the consortium of investment institutions behind Amazon, including Amazon's second largest shareholder, The Vanguard Group, Inc., and the fourth largest shareholder, Puxin Group of Companies. Roe Price Group, Inc.), BlackRock Fund Advisors, the fifth largest shareholder, and others.

Most of these institutional shareholders of Amazon are also institutional shareholders of Fengxing Group, so they are still very interested in the acquisition plan proposed by Fengxing.

Now the biggest obstacle is Bezos himself.

Lin Feng had another secret conversation with Bezos.

"Jeff, the reason why I want to buy Amazon is because I see a brilliant future for Amazon! I am as convinced as you are, and I also believe that it is only under your leadership that Amazon has a chance to reach the heights of its dreams. "He came up to express his approval of Bezos.

"However, you must know that although capital has enough patience and trust in Amazon and you, they are not satisfied with Amazon's stock price...... "This is a fact, even if Bezos is arrogant, he has to admit it.

"I know that in your heart, you have a grand blueprint for the future of Amazon, which requires up to ten years or even more layout and investment, frankly speaking, it is difficult for Amazon to maintain profitability all the time, and market capitalization pressure, performance and profitability pressure, which will continue to bring you trouble and influence in the future, hindering your strategic layout!"

Lin Feng is pure foolishness, but who knows that Amazon's market value will increase 20 times in the next ten years?

At this point in time, everyone is still full of fear about how to survive the global financial crisis!

"What I can promise is that after this merger, Fengxing will not merge the two companies, but keep Amazon continue to operate independently, and you are still the CEO of Amazon, in other words, not only will it not affect your planning for Amazon, but Fengxing will also help you bear the pressure on capital and market. ”

Lin Feng put his heart into his mind: "I am very optimistic about the future of e-commerce and cloud computing, Fengxing currently lacks this aspect of business, but has its own advantages in the field of social networking, mobile communication and entertainment content, if Amazon and Fengxing can unite, it will complement the business of both sides, which is a win-win situation!"

"Jeff, I want you to seriously consider my suggestion. ”

Bezos remains stubborn.

Of course, he understands that Fengxing and Amazon complement each other's businesses, but in his opinion, why not Amazon acquisitions?

It's a pity that the general trend is like this, with a market value of 80 billion and a market value of more than 20 billion for Amazon.

Lin Feng is worth $30 billion, and he Bezos is worth only $7 billion......

That's the difference!

Salute first and then soldier, Lin Feng has done his best.

On November 15, 2008, Fengxing Group announced that it had sent a tender offer to Amazon's board of directors, planning to acquire Amazon Inc. for $28 billion!

For this acquisition, Fengxing Group has hired Goldman, Sachs. Co. (Goldman Sachs) acted as financial advisor, achtell Lipton, Rosen . Katz, Vault's overall No. 1 firm and No. 1 firm for M&A transactions, and ilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP, which are leaders in U.S. antitrust and antitrust litigation and securities litigation, served as outside counsel.

As soon as the news was announced, the whole world was shocked!

$28 billion?!

Buying Amazon?!

It has been a long time since there has been such a large-scale M&A case in the Internet industry, and this is also the second largest M&A of an Internet company in the world since AOL spent $124 billion to acquire Time Warner in 2001!