Top of the Great Era

Chapter 3074 Diversification

Lu Qi and Tang Binchen are both members of the board of directors.

After the meeting, they went together to talk to Zhou Buqi.

I think he went too far.

We shouldn't have been so ruthless to Yang Zhiyuan in the board of directors.

It was normal for Yang Zhiyuan to complain. After all, when Yahoo was sold to Ziweixing International, the price was only over 200 billion US dollars... Considering the stock price of Yahoo at that time, this was reasonable. But more than two years have passed, and everything has changed.

Not to mention that under the leadership of Zheng Xiaoli, Yahoo has successfully completed its transformation to mobile Internet.

  Just looking at Yahoo's mobile business, its value is at least $500 billion!

If this is the change that Ziweixing International has brought to Yahoo, there is no need to be jealous, then the part of Yahoo shares held in his hands is really too heart-wrenching. Investing in Alibaba was a desperate choice made by Yang Zhiyuan at the beginning, and he paid a huge price and took on huge pressure.

  The results of it?

Alibaba will be listed in less than a month, and it is about to bear fruit... Yang Zhiyuan, who planted the trees, took on everything, but the fruits were picked away by Zhou Buqi.

  The assets of Yahoo's current 10% stake alone are worth more than $200 billion!

But in fact, Yahoo should have 40% of the assets!

This was because Ziweixing International was not listed at the time and had limited strength, so it could not afford to buy Yahoo. In addition, Alibaba and Yahoo had a repurchase agreement... So Boss Zhou simply united several forces, used leverage, and used the method of "selling future assets to raise money" to sell a large number of Alibaba shares to Boss Ma's joint actors.

Ziweixing International got the money by selling Yahoo's assets, and then turned around and bought Yahoo.

This is actually the capital operation method of the notorious junk bond leveraged buyouts in the 1980s and 1990s. Carl Icahn is the best at this. Relying on this model, Carl Icahn even took over Marvel and appointed himself as the president of Marvel.

This is why Marvel later sold the copyrights of its classic comic characters such as "X-Men", "Hulk", "Spider-Man" and "Fantastic Four".

Because this acquisition model is mainly based on the model of "selling future assets to acquire existing assets".

Carl Icahn used the future Marvel assets as collateral to borrow money from hedge funds, and then raised some money on his own to buy Marvel. He became the president of Marvel. In this way, although he controlled Marvel, Marvel was heavily in debt.

He doesn't care.

He wants to divide up Marvel's assets.

Later, comic book enthusiasts came out and couldn't bear to see him messing around with Marvel, so they had no choice but to pay a high price and buy Marvel away. Carl Icahn made a fortune and left the company in style, leaving behind Marvel, which was heavily in debt.

  The new person who bought Marvel is not a wealthy man, and he doesn’t have that much money. What should he do with his debts?

The only way to repay the debt is to sell part of the superhero copyrights.

As a result, the copyrights of "X-Men" and "Fantastic Four" have not yet been returned.

Zhou Buqi, in conjunction with Carl Icahn and Boss Ma, used a similar strategy in the acquisition of Yahoo by Ziweixing International. Under a series of complex circumstances, he semi-actively and semi-passively sold 20% of Alibaba shares...

Of the 20% of the shares, Alibaba bought a portion, and Boss Ma and his persons acting in concert bought a portion. Among the persons acting in concert, Zhou Buqi was the biggest contributor, who alone bought 10% of Alibaba's shares.

However, with the listing of Alibaba, the 20% stake held by Ziweixing International will be reduced to 10%.

Because the listing requires issuing additional shares, diluting 20%. In addition, according to the agreement between Alibaba and Yahoo, Yahoo must issue 5% of Alibaba's shares... diluting one part and issuing another part, the remaining share is only 10%.

Zhou Buqi's personal stake of 10% in Alibaba will be reduced to 8% as the listing dilutes it.

But even so, the remaining 10% of Ziweixing International and the remaining 8% of Zhou Buqi would be an astonishing fortune. Alibaba has now grown into a behemoth and a super giant company.

All this was a huge blow to Yang Zhiyuan.

Everyone could understand him complaining at the board meeting. After all, all the advantages that Boss Zhou had taken were taken from him.

However, he didn't expect that Boss Zhou didn't give him any face at all and directly retorted.

Lu Qi was a little worried. "If that happens, I'm worried he will resign."

"Resign?"

Zhou Buqi was not worried at all.

Lu Qi nodded, "Well, I am very sure that if we don't take some positive actions to retain him, he will resign from the position of director in the next few days." Zhou Buqi glanced at him, "Do you think we should keep him?"

"what?"

Lu Qi was slightly stunned.

  It was obvious that there was something else behind Boss Zhou's words. He didn't want to stay!

Zhou Buqi said: "Now the mystery is solved. He suffered a great loss when he sold Yahoo to us for 245 billion US dollars. Although the price of 245 billion US dollars is equivalent to a 10% premium compared to Yahoo's market value at the time, human nature is like this. No one cares about the hard work in the past, and they only focus on the current achievements. Now, Alibaba's market value is only 2000 billion US dollars, but what is the development trend of domestic e-commerce? Alibaba still has huge room for growth!"

Tang Binchen agreed, "Well, Alibaba's market value will get higher and higher! And as Alibaba's market value continues to rise, Yang Zhiyuan's choice to sell Yahoo to Ziweixing International will become more and more wrong."

"This is the key." Zhou Buqi felt that the fire should be put out in time. "Old Yang is a little weird... Of course, this is not directed at him. Anyone in his position would be the same. If it were someone else, their mentality would have exploded long ago. We have to admit that Yang Zhiyuan's mentality is very unbalanced now, and there are already some small flames. In order to avoid hearing some weird words in the board of directors in the future, it is best to put out the fire as soon as possible."

Lu Qi took a deep breath and said, "Kick him out of the board of directors!"

Zhou Buqi said: "We don't want to kick him out. It would be best if he is willing to leave. If he doesn't want to resign, at least this is a warning to him. Yahoo is no longer an independent company. It is part of the assets of Ziweixing International. The board of directors should consider the interests of Ziweixing International, not the historical legacy of some other companies."

Lu Qi said confidently: "He will resign."

Tang Binchen is a member of the most loyal family, and he clearly treats his own people and outsiders differently. He narrowed his eyes and said, "I think it's best for him to leave the board. The integration of Yahoo has been completed, and the strategic transformation and business transformation are proceeding in an orderly manner. We no longer need Yang Zhiyuan to come and keep the situation stable. We don't need him to maintain the stability of Yahoo's structure."

"Ah."

Zhou Buqi also had such considerations.

It's time to get rid of it.

Tang Binchen said: "Yang Zhiyuan's presence has no effect on the stability of Yahoo. On the contrary, he is a representative of Yahoo's conservatives. His presence will hinder Yahoo's reform to a certain extent. This will hinder Zheng Xiaoli's work in the future."

"You are talking about the business level. In fact, there is a bigger level. I just wanted to talk to you about this." Zhou Buqi has been thinking about this for a long time. "You can see the current situation in the United States. Europe is even more extreme. They are all moving more and more to the left and are aggressively promoting diversity. We have to make arrangements in advance. If we really wait for public pressure to come, we will be in a passive position. There are too many Chinese faces on the board of directors of Ziweixing International."

There are a total of 11 directors, 5 of whom are Chinese, namely Zhou Buqi, Yang Zhiyuan, Lu Qi, Tang Binchen and Xu Liangjie.

This is really outrageous.

Anyone with a discerning eye can tell that this is not an American company at all, it is a Chinese company!

So blatant!

The overall situation in Europe and the United States is very serious now, and there are risks in the US policies, so we must hurry to make adjustments.

Changyou's board of directors has completed its adjustment, with four directors replaced.

Ziweixing International also needs to make changes.

Lu Qi felt it the most. “It is indeed necessary. I have received many letters from social institutions and community organizations, saying that our board structure is too single and too homogeneous, and needs to be more open and transparent.”

Zhou Buqi looked at Tang Binchen and said, "I think it's enough to keep Lu Qi and me on the board of directors now. How about you withdraw as well?"

Tang Binchen smiled and said, "Sure, I'm free!"

Zhou Buqi said: "Let Kurian take your place."

"Ok?"

Tang Binchen raised his eyebrows.

Lu Qi's heart skipped a beat.

This is not an adjustment of directors, this is a change of the "crown prince"!