Son came quickly, much faster than Jeff had imagined. At 3 o'clock in the afternoon www.biquge.info May 22, U.S. time, Jeff received a call from the customer service under the office building, and the president of SoftBank Group, Masayoshi Son, asked to see him!

In the slightly luxurious president's office, Jeff meets Masayoshi Son himself, a five-foot-tall, bald-haired, unattractive Korean-Japanese man known as the "godfather of the Internet."

Although angel capital has not established a relationship with most of the current venture capital institutions, it is not very well-informed in the venture capital circle. But in one day, it is still easy to gather information about SoftBank Group and Masayoshi Son, after all, Masayoshi Son and SoftBank Group put $100 million on Yahoo to make SoftBank and Son's information basically public.

Whether it's the Chicago Daily News, or the Washington Post, or the Wall Street Journal, or even some small American newspapers, they all have information about SoftBank Group and Masayoshi Son.

Son studied at the University of California, Berkeley, so there was no need to worry about interpreting the conversation between Son and Jeff, because they were able to communicate directly and fluently.

Jeff took the initiative to hand it out and said, "Welcome to your visit, Mr. Son!" Your arrival has flattered me and all of us at Angel Capital! Of course, the founding teams of Blogger, eBay, and ICQ must also be ecstatic. ”

"Thank you! Please forgive me for taking the liberty of visiting! Mr. Adrian, whether it is ICQ, Blogger, or eBay, the results of the three companies are very good, I am very impressed, successful businessmen will not sit back and watch business opportunities slip away from their eyes! Son smiled and explained his intentions.

"Mr. Sun's vision is admired by the world. The $100 million stake in Yahoo to get a 33 percent stake was a big bet. At present, judging from Yahoo's market capitalization, Mr. Sun's vision is very vicious. Jeff beckoned his secretary to serve Son a cup of coffee and complimented.

"The $100 million investment in Yahoo doesn't seem to make much money at the moment, Yahoo's profit model is unknown, and many people can look at me and laugh at it!" Suddenly, Son's style of painting changed, "If you want to say that you have a vicious vision, Mr. Adrian deserves to be the best in the world." Not everyone can discover Blogger, eBay, and ICQ, and no one dares to play a big knife in front of President Adrian! ”

"If Mr. Sun is interested in selling Yahoo's shares, we Angel Capital are willing to take over!" Jeff smiled, he was very optimistic about Yahoo, not to mention that he had heard his boss complain.

"I'm afraid that Mr. Adrian's wish will be disappointed, and I will hold Yahoo's shares for a long time. Once I, Masayoshi Son, decide to invest in a certain company, I will do it without wavering, and I will not care what the outside world says about me. Personally, I think it is precisely because of the short-sightedness of most people that I have opportunities and opportunities. SoftBank can spend a lot of money on Yahoo, and the same will be true for Blogger, eBay, and ICQA. Of course, the details still need to be negotiated in detail by both parties, but I believe that we will have a wonderful opportunity to cooperate. "There is no shortage of experience in dealing with Westerners, and he must have both a heart and a bold and direct approach.

"The achievements of Blogger, eBay and ICQ are undoubted, and Angel Capital has unanimously negotiated with the heads of the three companies and the founding team: Blogger and eBay have raised $200 million, and ICQ has raised $400 million." Seeing that Masayoshi Son had already stepped into the right topic, Jeff didn't talk nonsense, and directly set out his own conditions.

Jeff was able to be so frank and not play a little scheming, mainly because Liu Dashao had confirmed that he would give 2 billion US dollars to Angel Capital and Phoenix Capital. Therefore, Jeff is not very enthusiastic about Son's money offensive, and he hopes that Son will give up the Series A financing of Blogger, eBay, and ICQ, and then he can use part of the $2 billion given by his boss to monopolize the future of Blogger, eBay, and ICQ.

As an American, Jeff doesn't know Liu Si's hard work, if Blogger, eBay, and ICQ become bigger in the future, and there are only two shareholders Angel Capital and Phoenix Capital, the three companies will definitely be sanctioned. After all, there are only the Chinese behind the three companies, which is not good news for the United States, not to mention the huge interests represented by three of the Internet companies.

The financing amount of Blogger and eBay was determined to be 200 million US dollars, and the financing amount of ICQ was 400 million US dollars. The interests of Blogger and eBay are small, and the impact on Internet security is not great, so Liu Si's equity transfer is only about 40%; ICQ, which has a larger interest, has sold 50% of the equity, which is not reluctant, but there is no way, after all, the Internet security issues involved in ICQ are too important for a country.

"Oh, so that the Series A financing of Blogger, eBay and ICQ will set a record for the world's Internet industry. I just don't know how Mr. President evaluates the valuation of the three companies? Son didn't care about the big amount of money in Jeff's mouth, and instead pointed out a problem that SoftBank and his son had known for a long time.

How are the valuations of Logger, eBay, and ICQ assessed? It's not a simple question. Angel Capital's valuation of eBay and Blogger at $500 million, and ICQ's valuation at $800 million is basically well-known in the industry, and the deeper meaning of Son's question is that Jeff needs to explain the evaluation criteria for such a valuation of angel capital.

Are there any traces of the current valuations of all companies in the Internet industry? No, there are no evaluation criteria.

How is it assessed? This requires a lot of data to illustrate, not to be rhetorical. One of the most important evaluation criteria is prospects, i.e. a company's future profitability or even its profit model. But in 97, the Internet site had an absolute profit model.

"The ideas of Logger, eBay, and ICQ are all very good, and in this era of Internet pioneering, the three companies have grown rapidly with their unique ideas. Blogger's growth rate is amazing, and the number of users has reached 4 million, setting a record of more than 400,000 registered users in a single month; eBay has developed rapidly, registered users are the leader in the United States auction site, registered users have exceeded more than 2 million, and currently occupies 53% of the market in the US auction site, with absolute right to speak and market share, and in the past six months, its transaction volume has also exceeded 8 million US dollars, deeply loved by users and investors; ICQ is the fastest growing enterprise of the three Internet companies, with unprecedented creativity, soon has a large number of users in the world, even in Asia, where the Internet is not very developed at that time, the number of market users accounts for 70%, the use of ICQ users has grown rapidly, and in the past six months, ICQ has become the world's largest instant messaging software. ICQ has 12 million registered users and 1 million regular users. "Every time Jeff talks about the achievements of the three companies, he feels like he's dreaming, and it's so beautiful.

"Mr. President, it is true that venture capital pays the most attention to the company's performance, but the prospect of a company is also important!" No one chooses the path of uncertainty about the future, Son pondered for a moment and said.

"Now there are only more than 80 million Internet users in the world, but how many people are there in the world? That's just over 6 billion. I believe that in the next few years, more than ten years, the development of science and technology will even develop to the point where every family has a computer. No matter how the number of Internet users increases and how technology develops, as long as Logger, eBay, and ICQ develop steadily, the three companies in the Internet industry will still dominate their respective fields in the future. Instead of answering Son's question head-on, Jeff went around in a circle and played a sideshow.

"President, what you said makes a lot of sense!" Logger, eBay, and ICQ are like Yahoo, Masayoshi Son is determined to win, but he hopes that angel capital will take the initiative to reduce the valuation of the three companies by a part, so he aggressively asked one question after another in the hope of stumping Jeff and taking the initiative in the negotiations, "But sir, you said so much, but you didn't mention the profit plan!" ”

"The rapid growth of the three companies quickly consumed their original funds, and the development team tried to reverse the decline and prepare to introduce a paid model and add an online advertising business to recover the funds, but I vetoed it." Jeff also knew that this negotiation could not fall into disadvantage, so he also told some more secret things.

"Oh, why?" Son was surprised that Jeff had vetoed the three companies' profit plans.

"Although the three companies are leaders in their respective fields, they are not without rivals. ICQ has MSN, eBay has IBAZAR and other rivals, and Blogger also has many follow-up websites. Although the premature release of the profit plan has eased the pressure on the company's profitability, it will also cause the market to be divided! Jeff said calmly, "Mr. Sun should understand very well that there is no profitable market that has the opportunity to create a de facto monopoly!" ”

Monopolize! It's an imaginative word!

"Mr. President's words are thunderous, and I firmly believe in the prospects of the three companies. However, the value of Internet companies such as Yahoo and Amazon, which have been listed, is only about $1 billion, doesn't Mr. President think that the valuation of Logger, eBay and ICQ is too high just for the A round of financing? After talking for so long, Masayoshi Son finally stated his true purpose, hoping that Angel Capital would reduce the valuation of some third-tier companies.

A month before Yahoo's IPO, Mr. Sun invested $100 million to acquire a 33% stake in Yahoo, and until now Mr. Sun has not seen him sell or sell his shares. Why? Jeff smiled and took a sip of tea, "Even Yahoo's current market capitalization of $1.3 billion is too low for Yahoo, so Mr. Sun hasn't sold Yahoo's stake yet." What is Yahoo's market cap? $4 billion, $5 billion, or more. Are the three Internet companies Logger, eBay, and ICQ worth only a few hundred million dollars? Personally, I think it's not just worth hundreds of millions of dollars! ”

"Does Mr. President really think that the valuation of the three companies is reasonable?" Son looked straight at Jeff, hoping to see something on his face.

After listening to Son's speech, Jeff showed a bright smile on his face and said confidently: "Angel Capital believes that Logger, eBay, and ICQ have a future, so Angel Capital participated in the seed round investment of the three companies; Mr. Sun believes that the three companies are very promising, so you are here for this Series A financing! ”

After listening to Jeff's words, Son was also silent.

So far, the trial of both SoftBank Group and Angel Capital has almost come to an end, and if SoftBank does not give up the Series A financing of the three companies, then the real negotiation will follow.

So, will SoftBank Group give up?