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Chapter 744 Investing in the Internet Industry

……

"Chairman, this is the company's business report for the first half of the year!"

After taking the text handed over by Zhang Fan, Liu Dong quickly finished it, and the flow of every fund recorded on it was very clear.

"Are you so optimistic about the future of Google, Amazon, and eBay?" asked Liu Dong after putting down the text.

Most of the money he handed over to Zhang Fan was invested in these three companies. Amazon and eBay are a little better, the former has an 8.9% stake after the latter, and the latter is 12.3%, but Google is exaggerated, and it has reached 23%!

In contrast, none of the remaining dozen or so Internet companies exceeded 5%!

"Yes, Liu Dong! I am very optimistic about the future of these three companies, Google has taken the lead in the search field, and Amazon is the leader in the B2C field, that is, the leader in the field of online retail, and eBay is the first in the online auction industry, and I have seen the leaders of these three companies, they are all Internet industry operators, and they have a very clear strategic plan for the industry positioning and future company development strategy, and they are all Internet companies that have persisted and can expand under the Internet bubble, so I think the future of these three companies is limitlessZhang Fan said seriously.

Liu Dong nodded, "You are the president of Qingyang Venture Capital." Since you feel that the future of these three companies is limitless. Then you can do it. I'm still the same as before, just looking at the results!"

"Thank you Chairman for your trust!" Zhang Fan said hurriedly while breathing a sigh of relief.

"You're welcome, this trust is earned by your own hard work, since the establishment of Qingyang Venture Capital, the performance has doubled in more than a year, you have made a lot of contributions!"

Liu Dong's words made Zhang Fan feel deeply gratified, and of course he was more confident in the next talks!

"Tell me, this time you risked your plane to come to Phoenix, I'm afraid it's not just to ask me to report the company's performance, right?" Liu Dong said with a smile.

Hear the words. Zhang Fan also smiled and nodded, if it weren't for Liu Dong's stay in Los Angeles for too short a time, and he happened to be absent, he would definitely not have chased Phoenix.

"Chairman, I ask you to invest another $200 million into Qingyang Ventures!"

Zhang Fan quickly clarified his intentions, and he guessed with Liu Dong correctly, he was here to ask for money, and it was a huge amount of money!

"$200 million?" Liu Dong was a little surprised.

He didn't expect Zhang Fan to have such big ambitions.

Of course, this is also related to Liu Dong's previous strategy, his generous loan of 20 billion Huaxia coins in China without scruples allowed Zhang Fan to see the huge energy of his boss. Therefore, Zhang Fan, who is eager for further development of his company, naturally has greater confidence to put forward requirements.

"That's right, Chairman!"

said. Zhang Fan took out another document from his briefcase and handed it to Liu Dong.

"ICQ, Internet instant messaging?" Liu Dong said in surprise looking at the beginning of the article.

"Yes, Chairman!ICQ is an instant messaging software. In 1996, three Israelis, Wisger, Wadi and Goldfinger, got together and decided to develop a software that would allow people to communicate quickly and directly on the Internet. THEY NAMED THE NEW SOFTWARE ICQ, WHICH MEANS "ISEEKYOU". ”

“…… As soon as the software was launched, it was immediately responded to worldwide, and with its unprecedented creativity, it quickly gained a large number of users around the world, even in Asia, where the Internet was not very developed at that time, the number of market users accounted for 70%, and even more in China accounted for 80%. In 1998, ICQ was acquired by AOL for $407 million, at which point it had more than 10 million users. ”

“…… In 1998, AOL purchased ICQ and released more versions of the 99a, 99B, and 2000, but at the same time added advertisements to the ICQ. The built-in search function has made the software bloated, coupled with the less popular advertising columns, and the introduction of software such as MSNMessenger and SkyPE, which has led to a decline in the number of people using ICQ. ”

"In other words, this is a company that is going downhill!" Liu Dong said after listening to the introduction.

"Yes, Chairman, the Internet bubble in 2000 when more than 80 percent of the world's Internet companies went bankrupt, and because of AOL's wrong policy, the number of ICQ online users has been declining year by year, but now it is still the world's No. 1 instant messaging software, with about 30 million users worldwide, and it still has a very big value, so I think this is an opportunity for us!" Zhang Fan said.

Of course, this is also an opportunity for himself, as an IT professional, in fact, what he is best at is not investment, but business management, so he is likely to be able to control a large Internet company.

After thinking about it for a while, Liu Dong said: "Since you think it still has a lot of value, I believe that there are still many people who can see the value of this instant messaging software, but why is it still in the hands of AOL now?"

"Chairman, there are many companies pursuing ICQ, but AOL's asking price is too high, coupled with the impact of the recent Internet bubble, which has lowered the favor of capital in the Internet industry, and the profit prospects of instant messaging software are not too clear, so now ICQ is still in the hands of AOL!" Zhang said.

"In that case, are you confident that after acquiring it, you will be able to reverse the decline of ICQ and turn it into a profit?"

Hearing this, Zhang Fan knew that whether he could get Liu Dong to agree to his acquisition plan was to see if he could come up with a plan that could perfectly solve these problems!

Of course, Zhang Fan has long been prepared for this problem!

"Chairman, ICQ's problems are mainly caused by AOL's wrong business policies, too many ad insertions affect the user experience, and too many feature sets, which not only affect the opening efficiency of ICQ, but also affect its most basic instant messaging function!"

“…… Therefore, if we take over ICQ, we can start from these two aspects, delete the search function that does not change, reduce the program core of the product, and return to the original instant messaging function of ICQ......!

From the article prepared by Zhang Fan and his explanation, Liu Dong can see that in order to solve the problem of ICQ after the acquisition of it, and let it have a better development, Zhang Fan has really put a lot of effort into it.

However, Liu Dong is not a real business leader, he positions himself as a 'Liu Bang' role, he is not as good as Feng Jianhui in company management, and he is not as good as Zhang Fan in terms of understanding of the Internet, but as long as he can make these talented business talents die for him!

Moreover, Zhang Fan's achievements in operating Qingyang Venture Capital for more than a year also show that he is indeed a talent who truly has a deep understanding and control of the Internet.

So, after he finished speaking, Liu Dong thought about it and said, "If I agree with your plan, then how much will it cost us to take ICQ down?"

Hearing this, Zhang Fan's heart was shocked, he knew that his plan was finally coming true, so he hurriedly said: "It is expected to be between 80 million ~ 120 million!"

"Are you sure?" Liu Dong said in surprise.

After all, this is a company that was worth $400 million when it was acquired in '98.

The impact of the Nadash crisis in 2000 on global Internet companies was decisive, and now is the time for this crisis to reach its bottom, and the outbreak of 9/11 has caused severe turmoil in the US economy, hindered the recovery of the Internet industry, and also affected the confidence of capital to enter the Internet industry now. In addition, the outbreak of the 9/11 terrorist attack also caused the shares of ICQ's parent companies AOL and Time Warner to fall, and I believe that as long as our price is right, they are willing to sell us ICQ, a money-losing product!"

"Losing money, Zhang Fan, you make me very unconfident when you say this!" Liu Dong shook his head and smiled.

"Chairman, I believe this is an opportunity for us to build the world's No. 1 instant messaging software with the good foundation laid by ICQ!" Zhang Fan immediately assured.

After nodding, Liu Dong said, "I know, if I didn't have confidence in you, I wouldn't have listened to you for so long!"

"So, the chairman agreed?" Zhang Fan said in surprise.

"Of course, but I don't have so much money on hand right now, but I can also guarantee you that at the end of this month, I will transfer a lot of $200 million to the company's account!" Liu Dong said.

"Thank you, chairman, for your trust!" Zhang Fan stood up and said excitedly.

"Hey, don't be in a hurry to thank me first, I'm still the same sentence, I just look at the result...... In addition, I will give you a year to adjust the company, and if after a year, I don't see ICQ growing in revenue or number of people online, then I will not hesitate to replace you or sell the company!" Liu Dong said seriously.

Of course, this is also a goal he set for Zhang Fan, and it is also an encouragement!

"Don't worry, chairman, I will definitely not let you down!" Zhang Fan said confidently.

After sending Zhang Fan away, Liu Dong also began to prepare for a direct flight from Phoenix to Vancouver!

Of course, after a person came to the airport with a backpack, in the empty waiting hall except for the staff who were idle and chattering, there were really few passengers on the plane, and Liu Dong, who saw the impact of 9.11 so intuitively for the first time, was not very afraid, but enjoyed this emptiness. (To be continued......)