After a day off, Lin Zuhui turned on the work mode.

In an office building in Los Angeles, Lin Zuhui and Lu Bingwen, the president of Matrix Capital, and several investment managers are in a meeting.

At present, Jingwei Capital has invested in 9 projects, of which Netscape Browser, Activision Blizzard, and Kingsoft (Huaxia) are familiar to Lin Zuhui, and the remaining 6 projects are favored by investment managers; Lin Zuhui didn't care, and gave these investment managers some privileges, allowing them to have a certain amount of investment.

For example, those six projects cost a total of $15 million, which is completely acceptable to Jingwei Capital, which bets on Netscape Browser; Because Lin Zuhui knew that this business could bring him about $400 million in income.

Although Netscape failed to compete with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, it was still acquired by AOL in 1998 for $4.8 billion. Netscape went public in 1995 and had a market value of $20 billion at the end of that year. Therefore, no matter when Lin Zuhui cashes out, he can have a minimum income of 400 million US dollars.

Lin Zuhui held the information about the 'Kingston Company' in his hand and listened to the report of the investment manager.

"In 1992, Kingston was named the fastest-growing private company in the United States by the American press."

In 1993, Kingston further expanded its network and storage product lines. And set up a branch in the UK to develop the business in Europe. ”

"This year (1994), their development speed is very fast, and the annual output value is expected to be 3~500 million US dollars."

Lin Zuhui nodded and said decisively: "Make an appointment with Du Jichuan and Sun David for me, I want to talk about the acquisition in person." ”

The investment manager nodded and said, "No problem, BOSS!" You are all Chinese, and I believe it is easy to communicate. ”

Lin Zuhui is noncommittal, compared with Masayoshi Son, who acquired Kingston in his previous life, Jingwei Capital has a shortcoming, that is, it cannot bring much development help to Kingston. Of course, in his previous life, Masayoshi Son also connected Kingston and Toshiba PC to upgrade the memory business, which did not affect the development of the entire Kingston.

He wanted to buy Kingston for two reasons:

First, Kingston has great development prospects, and has been the king of the memory field for 18 consecutive years in its previous life, with a market share of about 80% and annual sales of $13 billion, making it a very good technology company. And once Xiaomi Technology develops a USB flash drive and obtains a patent license, there is no need to worry about Kingston making most of the profits in the USB flash drive field. After all, in Lin Zuhui's view, even if Kingston pays patent fees, it will make a lot of money, and Xiaomi Technology will not become his opponent, so he will collect some patent fees.

Second, Jingwei Capital and Lin Zuhui himself need to make a name for themselves in the technology industry, so as to facilitate follow-up investment. Recently, Lin Zuhui plans to package himself as a big man in the technology industry to create conditions for future venture capital projects.

To sum up, Lin Zuhui intends to acquire 80% of the shares of Kingston at a price that cannot be refused, so as to make a name for himself.

In his previous life, Son spent $1.44 billion to buy 80% of Kingston's shares in 1996, when Son and Kingston founders Du Jichuan and Sun David talked about buying Kingston for $1.44 billion, which was enough to scare Du Jichuan and Sun David, which was too high.

Although they were selling the company they founded, Du Jichuan and Sun David thought that the cyclical nature of the memory field is very strong, and they can make money today, and maybe they will lose a lot of money tomorrow, so they agreed to buy it, after all, Sun Zhengyi gave too much.

As a result, after the acquisition, Son Masayoshi found that there were still more than 300 million US dollars that could not be scraped together, so he called Du Jichuan and David Sun, hoping to pay the last sum of money later.

What is incredible is that Du Jichuan and Sun David simply communicated with each other, and then said to Sun Zhengyi, you don't need to pay that money, because a lot has already been given before.

In this way, Son won Kingston for more than $1.1 billion.

In 1999, Son saw that Kingston's growth was slower than expected, and the Internet was booming; So he returned 80% of Kingston's shares to Du Jichuan and Sun David at a price of only $440 million, and turned to invest in the Internet, including Ali Mama, of course, that actually only cost $20 million.

At that time, Son Masayoshi could definitely sell higher, after all, Kingston's business development was still good in those years; However, he was worried about the friendship of the year, and selling it to others would inevitably be not good to Du Jichuan and Sun David, so he sold it to the two of them cheaply, and returned the favor back then.

From this point of view, there is no problem with Son's character, but his ability is limited. Although he has won a lot, he belongs to the 'wide net' and can always encounter some.

And Du Jichuan and David Sun, the two founders of Kingston, are also good, and they don't want to pay hundreds of millions of dollars, which makes people have to admire.

In addition, after the two got $1.1 billion in their previous lives, they immediately took out $100 million in dividends to employees at the end of the year, and were rated as the 'most generous boss' by the American media for a while, and Kingston has always been the 'most suitable company to work for' in the United States, because the benefits are particularly good.

The next day, Lin Zuhui came to Irvine in the Los Angeles metropolitan area to visit Du Jichuan and David Sun of Kingston.

Looking at the two Chinese faces, Lin Zuhui not only sighed, the Chinese nation is really powerful, and there are many talents in the science and technology industry, especially there are many Chinese from the treasure island, such as Yahoo Yang Zhiyuan, TSMC Zhang Zhongmou, including Kingston, all of whom can be regarded as technology bosses.

As soon as Du Jichuan met, he said, "Mr. Lin, welcome to Kingston. ”

He spent some time in Germany before immigrating to the United States, where he endured some hardships, which laid a good foundation for his future achievements, and he is now responsible for developing global business, which is the equivalent of 'outside the home'.

He wanted to go to the United States back then, but because he had not graduated from high school, he smuggled to Xiangjiang, obtained Xiangjiang status, and then completed his studies in Germany, and finally successfully immigrated to the United States.

Lin Zuhui said gracefully: "Two, take the liberty to disturb!" ”

Sun David smiled and said, "Don't bother!" Mr. Lin, why don't we visit the company first, and then sit down and talk! ”

From this point of view, David Sun's personality is relatively fast, of course, Lin Zuhui is the two people who want to visit Kingston and make an appointment.

"Of course, it's my pleasure!"

"You're welcome, please come here!"

On the way to visit, Lin Zuhui asked the two about the working environment of Kingston while visiting; The conclusion was that Kingston was a very human company, ditching some red tape, not controlling internal budgets (employee benefits expenses), and creating a culture of employee autonomy with a unique human touch.

This is similar to Lin Zuhui's management model, of course, Lin Zuhui also learned something from Li Chaoren.

In New Era Group, the Western business philosophy is embodied in the system and development, while in the management of employees, it is integrated into the Confucian culture. As a result, there are almost no employees who resign from the New Era Group, especially the old employees after Lin Zuhui took over, and the turnover rate is almost zero. Xiangjiang does not have a government pension, but the New Era Group has an employee pension, Lin Zuhui also asked the investment department to invest the pension in the overseas securities industry (not recommended stocks, but will look at it slightly), if the loss is made up by him personally, if he makes money, then increase the employee pension. There are many similar cultures, and Lin Zuhui even 'closed positions' for several colleagues around him during the 87 stock market crash (no debts, no impact on life), so as not to encounter difficulties in their lives.

Back in the office, everyone sat on the couch.

Lin Zuhui said: "I heard that Kingston employees go to and from work and do not need to clock in? ”

David Sun pointed to his friend Du Jichuan and said: "Their bosses are like this, they only arrive at the company at 12 o'clock at noon every day, haha, just kidding, Lao Du is because of his perennial business trips, which leads to chaotic life and rest." However, what Mr. Lin said is the truth, our company management is more flexible, people-oriented, advocating respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity. ”

Since he is here to investigate, and he is a compatriot, David Sun also hopes that Lin Zuhui can see a real Kingston. Of course, he thought that Lin Zuhui was here to study and investigate.

Lin Zuhui nodded, and then said: "To be honest, I am very optimistic about your model, and I think the development prospects of Kingston will be very good!" ”

Du Jichuan said: "Thank you Mr. Lin for your recognition, we believe that you are a real management master, otherwise you would not have become a world-class enterprise." ”

New Era Group is, of course, a global enterprise, and a heavyweight in commercial real estate in the United States, as well as the development of London, Southeast Asia and other regions.

The kind words are almost done, Lin Zuhui said: "This visit to Kingston, I don't want to hide it, I hope to buy 80% of the shares in your hands, I am willing to pay $1 billion in cash for this, and Kingston is still under your management." ”

The room was suddenly silent, and even Lu Bingwen and other people from Jingwei Capital were incredible.

After a long time, Du Jichuan said: "Why did Mr. Lin suddenly think of acquiring Kingston? Or how do you like us? ”

Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "I am optimistic about the development of PCs and the Internet, and I think that computers will soon be popularized in every household, so I have been investing in these projects recently." For example, we invested in Netscape, which was released last month, and in the early years I invested in Microsoft stock. ”

This is understandable, optimistic about the industry, and this one has money, so he wants to buy Kingston.

Du Jichuan thought for a while and said, "Mr. Lin is so high, aren't you worried about losing money?" Our turnover this year is probably less than 500 million US dollars, and the profit margin is about 10~15%. Not only that, our company is in the development period, so if the company makes money and needs to develop, I'm afraid it will be difficult for you to get a return in a short time. ”

Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "Leave it to you to manage, of course, everything is up to you, you don't pay dividends for ten years, and I won't say a word." ”

He really doesn't care about not paying dividends for ten years, after all, once he reaches the dividend period, he will make a lot of money. In addition, the $1 billion fund can also give Jingwei Capital a live advertisement, and establish the reputation of "big brand" and "stupid big business" in the investment industry.

Du Jichuan and Sun David looked at each other a few times, and finally Du Jichuan said, "Mr. Lin, how about giving you an answer tomorrow?" ”

"Of course, that's as it should be! By the way, we at Jingwei Capital are currently deeply involved in the technology industry, and if we can acquire 80% of Kingston's equity, if you have the help of human resources, you can also help some Kingston. In addition, I am good at analyzing the industry prospects and making suggestions, and I can also make friends with you and talk about it together. ”

As a venture capitalist, you sometimes have to advise the companies you invest in and provide human resources assistance. In the past year, Matrix Capital has developed in the United States, and the investment managers are all locals, so it has gradually gained strength in this area.

Du Jichuan nodded and said, "Lin Sheng, don't worry, we can see that you are very sincere, and we will definitely consider it seriously." ”

"Okay, no matter what the answer is tomorrow, I'll be friends with both of you!" Lin Zuhui said with a smile.

"Of course, we're already friends!" Du Jichuan originally had a good impression of Lin Zuhui, and he once obtained the status of Xiangjiang before he could go to Germany to study at university. And Lin Zuhui is not only a native of Xiangjiang, but also the richest man in China, which greatly boosts the morale of the Chinese.

On the road.

Lu Bingwen said: "Boss, will the price be a little high?" ”

Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "It doesn't matter, venture capital is like this, as long as the project is bet on, the high price is not a problem." Especially in the information technology industry, don't care about that little money. Of course, my acquisition of Kingston also involved one of my product plans. ”

"Well, Kingston is really developing very fast, and it can reach an output value of nearly 500 million this year!" Lu Bingwen said with a sigh.

Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "Maybe next year will be 1 billion US dollars in output value, and the PC industry will usher in a big explosion!" ”

Once Microsoft's Windows 95 is released next year, the PC industry will usher in a big explosion, and Kingston will also usher in an explosion.

A billion dollars is still expensive, but in 1996, Kingston was definitely worth a billion dollars.

Kingston Corporation.

Du Jichuan said to his friend: "What do you think? ”

David Sun said: "Very excited! ”

"Haha," the two laughed.

Du Jichuan said with a smile: "Do you remember when we sold our first company and used the money to speculate in stocks? ”

David Sun nodded and said, "It turns out that we are not that material, fortunately you found $2,000 from the drawer, otherwise we would not have the $1 billion worth of Kingston today." ”

Du Jichuan said: "Nonsense, the two of us can't be killed, we don't have the 2,000 US dollars, and we can borrow it." ”

Sun David thought for a moment and said, "Sell it!" The cycle of the storage industry is really powerful, and the Japanese were wiped out back then, so what if there is another cycle. Of course, eighty percent of the shares will be sold, and the company is still managed by the two of us, which is a very good condition. ”

Du Jichuan nodded and said, "I also think selling is a good choice!" Then again, that guy is really rich, and when he says a billion dollars, he doesn't blink his eyes, as if it were hundreds of thousands of dollars. ”

The two soon agreed to sell Kingston.

Following.

The two sides signed a preliminary agreement, Jingwei Capital paid a deposit of 100 million US dollars, and the rest could be paid within a month.

At this time, Jingwei Capital had less than $200 million on its books, and Lin Zuhui had no cash flow, so he planned to use all the loans. The $1 billion loan is just a week's worth of money.

Take 10,000 steps back, he's still running a bank!

(End of chapter)