CHAPTER 65 INVESTING IN EBAY

Benefiting from the development of the western region and the promotion of maritime interests in the Pacific Ocean, California has become one of the most developed states in the United States, especially California's Silicon Valley and Hollywood are famous all over the world. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The main purpose of Liu Si's visit to the United States this time is Robin Li, and the secondary purpose is those famous Internet companies in his previous life. Especially in 96 years, those famous Internet companies in the previous life have just been founded, and many of them have not yet emerged, which is the best time for them to show their talents and invest.

Silicon Valley is a pioneer in high-tech technology innovation and development, and venture capital in the region accounts for one-third of the total venture capital in the United States.

"Boss, we're going to Silicon Valley." As a former staff member at IDG Capital, Jeff. Adrian is no stranger to Silicon Valley.

"yes, we're going to Silicon Valley now."

Jeff. Adrian's head is not stupid, and he understands that when he comes to Silicon Valley, the boss wants to do venture capital, "Boss, I don't know which company our angel capital invests in this time?" ”

"Ebay, Askjeeves, Craigslist, Pyralabs." Liu Si glanced at Jeff. Adrian, bland preaching.

Four companies, Jeff. Adrian's family had never heard of it, and as a staff member of IDG Capital, he was very curious about where his boss had learned about these four companies, "I haven't heard of any of these four companies. Boss, can you tell me about it? ”

"You have been dismissed from IDG Capital for nearly a month, so naturally you don't know much about it." On the plane to Los Angeles, Li Haiping told Liu Si about Jeff. Adrian's detailed information, only to know that this product was caught by his rival because of his girlfriend's leg splitting and was fired by IDG, and after having no job, he faced Liu Si's solicitation and Li Haiping's persuasion to join Angel Capital.

I thought that after going to Silicon Valley, I had to talk to these companies about investment. Adrian stepped out, closed his eyes and meditated for a while on the information of the four companies he had found with his golden finger, and then said: "eBay was founded by Pierre Omidia in September 1995, and it is an auction site. The first item sold on the site was a broken laser indicator with 14. $83 sold. At the moment, the site is still very popular, and perhaps some venture capital has noticed this site. I think eBay has a good future, but it's not easy to win. One of the reasons is that it is currently noted that this company has a bit too much risk capital; The second reason is that the founder of this company, Pierre Omidia, is not simple, he is a millionaire and he is not short of money. In '95, Microsoft acquired an e-tailing company called eShop, in which Pierre Omidia was a shareholder. ”

Askjeeves was founded in June 1996 and is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. ask。 Corn, the flagship site of ASK, is a question search engine company. ”

"Craigslist is a large-scale online free classifieds website founded in 1995 by founder CraigNewmark in the San Francisco Bay Area of California, USA. This company is not outstanding at the moment, and it should be easy to win him. ”

"Pyralabs is just a small web company, and I need to buy it entirely."

Jeff. Adrian listened to Liu Si's introduction to the four companies, and had a relatively clear impression in his heart, "I wonder if the boss thinks we should start negotiating investment issues from that company?" ”

"As the president of Angel Capital, I will not interfere in this direct face-to-face investment negotiation again. In other words, it will be up to you Jeff to negotiate the investment with these four companies. Adrian went to negotiate face-to-face with the founders or teams of the respective companies. I want to negotiate the investment I want to get as many shares as possible and invest as little money as possible, of course, I don't want to engage in any wholly-owned acquisitions, after all, a large part of the investment in venture capital is invested in the entrepreneurial team, and a large part of the success of the project depends on the entrepreneurial team and the founders. ”

"Understand, I will show the results to the boss, so that the boss understands that the 1 million annual salary you paid is not a waste." Jeff. Adrian sat in the co-pilot seat and turned his head to Liu Si and smiled.

"After going to Silicon Valley today, let's talk to Pierre Omidia first, eBay has not yet established a company, and only the consulting company echobaytechnology can find Pierre Omidia." Liu Si ignored Pierre Omidia, who was smiling on the side, and spoke to Li Haiping, who was driving a car.

"Okay, boss."

EchobayTechnology is located in San Jose, and naturally Li Haiping informed Xu Gang, who was driving a Volkswagen in front, and the last line of two cars rushed to San Jose at a speed of 80 miles.

San Jose is located in the southern Silicon Valley of the San Francisco Bay Area, and is the third largest city in California in terms of population.

EchobayTechnology isn't huge, it's located in an office building in downtown San Jose, and it's currently impossible to search for a company's address even on the Internet in the United States. EchobayTechnology's address was obtained from the San Jose City government, and of course it cost Liu Si $1,000 to get the address.

When I got downstairs to the office building, I parked the car and went upstairs to find Pierre Omidia's only Xu Gang and Jeff. Adrian, Xu Gang as Jeff. Adrian's bodyguard.

Jeff. Adrian met Pierre Omidia in his office, "Hello, I'm glad to meet you, my name is Jeff. Adrian. ”

"Hello, Jeff. Mr. Adrian. I don't know Jeff. What is Mr. Adrian looking for me? Pierre Omidia stood up and asked Jeff. Adrian sat down and asked, "Jeff." What does Mr. Adrian need to drink? Coffee? Drink? Or water? ”

"Let's drink! I love the sweet taste. ”

Pierre Omidia looked at Jeff. Adrian, as he went to get a drink, "I also like drinks, especially Coca-Cola. ”

"I prefer Pepsi." Take the Coca-Cola from Pierre Omidia, Jeff. Adrian shook his head.

"It seems that the two of us don't have much in common to communicate!" Pierre Omidia raised the corners of his eyes, his face did not change, and he still said with a smile and a smile.

"No, no, no...... Mr. Omidyja, I think we have a lot of common language. Like Yana Kova, Aschlin Brooke and, of course, eBay. ”

glanced at Jeff, as if he didn't understand the little humor in his words, "Yana Kova and Aschlin Brooke are in good shape, but I prefer ****** and Iijima love those Japanese chicks, who are petite and obedient." ”

Hear Pierre's bull-headed answer to the horse's mouth, Jeff. Adrian decided to talk straight to the point, "ebay is very interested in angel capital, and I believe that on ebay, the two of us have a lot of common language." ”

Not long ago, Jeff Schol was hired as the first employee of eBay, according to the history of September 1997, Pierre officially established eBay company, and now the eBay website is named by Pierre under the name of his own consulting company, echobaytechnology?. This is also the reason why Liu Si thinks that he can win eBay at a certain price, of course, Pierre is also surprised that someone came to him to do venture capital, after all, eBay has some achievements at present, but the prospect is not visible.

In fact, I have received invitations from others to invest before, but unfortunately, the other party has not invested much money, but the shares requested are too many. Pierre relied on eshop to earn his first pot of gold, but unfortunately in the past two years, he has not had much spare money to buy a house, buy a car, wife, children and other family expenses, not to mention in Silicon Valley, he is naturally welcome to venture capital, but he hopes to be satisfied with the investment funds and the shares he has paid.

"Mr. Adrian is sitting here drinking tea with me, which shows that eBay is a good project, and there are people who have invested in me before, but I didn't agree. Since Angel Capital is interested in eBay this time, then I would like to see your sincerity. Pierre took a sip of tea, but the corner of his eye was focused on Jeff. Adrian's every move.

"$5 million 80% stake." Jeff's eyes lit up, and the final word was struck.

Pierre gently placed the Coca-Cola in his hand on the coffee table, "Mr. Adrian is very insincere, $5 million asks for 80% of the shares, this is impossible." ”

"Mr. Omidyar, don't be so quick to refuse. Ask a question, how much does Mr. Omidia think it will cost to rebuild an eBay of the same size? Jeff didn't wait for Pierre to answer, and replied to himself, "It only takes up to $3 million to rebuild a sizable eBay." ”

After listening to Jeff's words, Pierre was stunned for a moment, "Since it only takes 3 million to re-establish a sizable eBay, why does Angel Capital spend $5 million to invest in eBay?" ”

Since Liu Si had done enough homework for Jeff before, he naturally would not be frightened by Pierre's contradictory words, "The auction website we Angel Capital can re-establish one, but in the end we still have to face ebay, so in order to avoid competition in the future, we have to invest in ebay." The more time passes, the more auction sites will be, and eBay will have to rise quickly to seize the market if it wants to make a difference, but this will require a huge amount of money to support it. I wonder if Mr. Omidia has heard of Amazon, an online bookstore where Jeff Bezos does much better than eBay. Truth be told, if eBay wants to make a difference in the future, then it must be a pioneer in financing quickly! ”

Pierre had heard the story of Amazon, and although Silicon Valley was far away from Washington, he still learned about it from Yahoo and Silicon Valley newspapers. He is very envious of Amazon's large-scale expansion strategy, trading huge losses for business scale, as the founder of eBay, from 95 years to the launch of Amazon for a year, Amazon has invested at least tens of millions of dollars, or even hundreds of millions of dollars.

"50% stake for $5 million." There have been people who have recognized eBay before, but no one has ever come up with more than $1.5 million in investors, and Pierre also believes that if you want to develop eBay, it is necessary to find investment, but Jeff's $5 million 80% stake is really difficult for him to accept.

In fact, as long as you wait for the first half of ebay, when ebay develops to a new stage, investment will naturally come, otherwise ebay suddenly established a company in 97 and hired Meg Whitman, you must know that Meg Whitman is not cheap.

"What if our angel capital poured $10 million into eBay?" Jeff turned his head and stared at Pierre motionlessly, and smiled slowly.

The bottom line given by Liu Si is $10 million and 50% of the shares, and $5 million can meet the requirements of his boss, and Jeff is very happy so he is in a good mood. Of course, he also remembered that his boss had said that the maximum amount to invest in eBay was $10 million, but he asked for as many shares as possible, so Jeff had this last question.

Pierre was excited, and he knew how important $10 million was to eBay's development. eBay has only cost him nearly $100,000 to go from nothing to this size, and "I will only give up 70% of eBay at most." ”

"For 70% of eBay's shares, we Angel Capital will only pay $7 million." After thinking for a while, Jeff gave Angel Capital's reply.

After thinking for a long time, Pierre looked up and said solemnly, "Yes, but I hope that your $7 million will arrive sooner." ”

$7 million is crucial to eBay's growth, and angel capital's investment in eBay means that his Pierre's worth has increased by $3 million. Although this is a bit far from my imagination, fortunately, this is also within the range of my expectations, and the most important thing is Jeff. Adrian is right, if eBay wants to develop in the future, it must quickly attract investment and seize the market.

"No problem. However, Mr. Omidia should register the company first, and as soon as the eBay company is registered, we can sign the contract immediately. Jeff was happy to have completed an investment, smiling slightly.

"Okay, I'll register with the government tomorrow, and I should be able to get the relevant documents in the afternoon."

Jeff and Pierre exchanged phone numbers before they got up to say goodbye and leave EchobayTechnology.