Reborn since 1993

Chapter 347: Breaking the Pot
"How is Jinshan now?"

Li Dongling pulled a chair and sat next to Lei Jun.

Upon hearing this, Lei Jun's face showed helplessness and distress again. The days in Jinshan were probably even more difficult than when he was working on new energy vehicles and was besieged by several major sects.

After all, even if his car business failed, he was still the cash king of Yanjing, with 140 billion cold yuan in his account. He also invested in hundreds of companies including ByteDance, NIO, Xpeng, Lalamove, Kuaishou, iQiyi, YY, Zhihu, etc. If he cashed out all the money, he would probably be able to add a few more cold 100 billion yuan to his account.

Not to mention these cold hundreds of billions, even if it is the cash flow of 140 billion in the account, theoretically, based on the market value, it can buy two Geely cars that are besieging Xiaomi Auto, and it can buy the entire SAIC Group.

还可以收购三个小鹏、两個蔚来，或者买下长安汽车80%的股权，亦或者买下一个半赛力斯、4.5个江淮汽车厂、3.5个宇通汽车、12个众泰、56个某大汽车、4个雅迪、4.5个零跑、两个极氪等等一帮跟汽车沾边的公司。

As for whether these companies will sell themselves, when more than 100 billion cold cash is placed in front of the presidents of major automobile companies, who would not be confused? These listed automobile companies will have to use various methods of cashing out for many years to earn this money.

Except for BYD and the state-owned automobile companies, no other automobile companies can withstand such a financial offensive.

But now, if Kingsoft collapses, all the hard work of Lei Jun, Qiu Bojun and everyone else in Kingsoft will be wasted. Kingsoft is not listed, so he cannot cash out his shares.

It is impossible that after Kingsoft went public, he left Kingsoft in a "confused and depressed" state, with only the 4 billion in cash from the sale of Joyo.com and Kingsoft shares to comfort him...

Except for Yu Minhong, everyone present today is from the same industry. Everyone can roughly guess Kingsoft's current situation. After all, the fact that Kingsoft is soliciting investments everywhere cannot be concealed at all.

"not too good!"

"We are redeveloping Kingsoft Office Software, but it takes time and requires development funds. Now, Brother Zhang is looking for new investors for Kingsoft!" Lei Jun said to Li Dongling.

Today, Lei Jun, like Yu Minhong, was invited by Li Dongling. The man surnamed Zhang he mentioned is Zhang Xuanlong, who is known as the "Godfather of Zhongguancun".

From Solitaire to Lenovo, and then to Founder's listing, they were all operated by Zhang Xuanlong. He is also the founder of Kingsoft. Although Zhang Xuanlong is from Hong Kong, the ups and downs of Zhongguancun are all related to him. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is a person who can influence the pattern of Zhongguancun.

Now Zhang Xuanlong is looking for new investors for Kingsoft, but to be honest, all of Zhang Xuanlong’s connections are in Zhongguancun.

The only three companies in Zhongguancun that have the strength to help Kingsoft are Solitaire, Lenovo and Founder, and all of them have close ties with Zhang Xuanlong. If nothing unexpected happens, Zhang Xuanlong will definitely use his connections to get one of them to save Kingsoft.

In the previous life, Lenovo, due to its relationship with Zhang Xuanlong, invested 450 million US dollars in Kingsoft and took 30% of Kingsoft's equity.

If the timeline is extended to ten or twenty years later, Lenovo must have made a profit. After Kingsoft went public, as the number one general software company in China, Kingsoft's stock price skyrocketed. However, in the few years after the investment, Kingsoft was still in the red.

Even though it launched a new generation of WPS office software and regained market share, Kingsoft is still suffering huge losses due to rampant piracy.

In order to make money and to keep Kingsoft alive, Kingsoft has done everything, but its four attempts to go public have all failed. Even when it was finally able to go public, it was not due to its software business, but to its games. The game revenue brought by Xishanju Game Studio made Kingsoft's successful listing possible.

At that time, the outside world did not regard Kingsoft as a software giant, but rather a gaming company. At the beginning of its listing, Kingsoft's market value was only around 5 billion Hong Kong dollars.

After Lei Jun finished speaking, he began to wonder why Li Dongling had asked him to come this time.

Li Dongling looked at Lei Jun in front of him, "I asked you to come here today because I have something to discuss with Jinshan!" "Dongling Hi-Tech has just reached a new cooperation project with Mr. Wang to develop domestic printers!

I hope that Kingsoft can join this project and develop printer driver software for Lingyun Printer. Of course, I know that Kingsoft is at an important stage in developing a new generation of office software and is very short of manpower, but Lingyun Printer is willing to pay considerable R&D compensation for this.

In addition, Dongling Hi-Tech is willing to invest US$30 million in Jinshan in exchange for % of Jinshan’s equity. I hope that Jinshan can have more cooperative projects with Dongling Hi-Tech in the future!"

Li Dongling said to Lei Jun. After hearing this, Lei Jun's throat moved suddenly and a look of joy appeared on his face. He wanted to agree immediately, but the current head of Jinshan is Qiu Bojun and Zhang Xuanlong is also a major shareholder, so he had to get their consent.

"I need to report this matter to the headquarters!" Lei Jun said while suppressing his joy. After that, he went straight outside and started making a phone call.

Li Dongling looked at Lei Jun's figure. Dongling Hi-Tech invested in Kingsoft not for the profit that would come after Kingsoft went public in more than ten years.

Instead, it plans to leverage Kingsoft's software development capabilities to develop office, industrial software, mobile operating systems, etc. for Dongling Hi-Tech's subsidiaries.

When it comes to the domestic software industry, there are probably only a few companies like Kingsoft that dare to compete with Microsoft and those overseas software giants.

It is not only for developing and running software for printers, but also for the EDA software platform of the chip industry. Chip design is inseparable from EDA software. EDA software is needed in all large and small processes and links, including chip design, simulation, verification, etc.

Different links correspond to different EDA software. Without these EDA software platforms, even if there are lithography machines, chips cannot be produced.

In the future, the cost of designing a 14-nanometer chip is $7 million. For a -nanometer chip, the process has doubled, but the cost has tripled to $ million. This is still developed with the help of EDA software. Without these software, it would be necessary to use the human wave tactics to complete the original software operation work, and the R&D cost would increase by more than two hundred times!
Now even office software is controlled by companies like Microsoft, not to mention industrial software, which is almost deserted in China. Now overseas EDA software companies are willing to authorize domestic use, but what about the future? What if overseas EDA software companies prohibit Dongxin Semiconductor from using it one day? !

Li Dongling had to plan ahead. Doxin Semiconductor needed to have its own EDA software. It didn't have to be advanced or efficient, but it had to be there.

Looking at the entire domestic software industry, who else can be recruited to help develop EDA and dare to compete with overseas software giants, except for the stubborn Kingsoft? !
In addition to these, Dongling Hi-Tech's mobile operating system will also need a research and development team in the future. If Kingsoft can be brought in to join, the research and development capabilities can be greatly increased.

"The Kingsoft board of directors has agreed to Mr. Li's investment, but the specific cooperation still needs to be discussed in detail after the meeting!"

Lei Jun came back from outside soon and said to Li Dongling with a smile, he seemed to be relieved. With the investment from Dongling Hi-Tech, Jinshan would not have to worry about the risk of running out of food in the next one or two years.

"The domestic software industry may not have a good future. Even if Kingsoft develops a new generation of WPS office software that can surpass Microsoft Office, it may be well received but not popular. It can gain market share and be accepted by users again, but it may not make money because of the existence of pirated software!"

Li Dongling's words were like a bucket of cold water poured down on Lei Jun, who was still in high spirits. Although he was unwilling to admit it, he knew that Li Dongling was probably telling the truth.

Given the current domestic environment for genuine software, even if Kingsoft defeats Microsoft Office software, how many paid genuine office software can be sold? At most a few hundred thousand sets, and then pirated copies are everywhere.

"In addition, Microsoft has always tried every possible means to deal with its competitors. If Kingsoft really defeats Microsoft in office software, even if Microsoft does not make money, it will probably not let Kingsoft have an easy time!" said Li Dongling.

Lei Jun, who had been somewhat excited just now and felt that Jinshan had temporarily overcome the difficulties, now had a look of helplessness on his face, even a little despair.

Lei Jun knew that if Microsoft really failed in the office software market, it would definitely do something to ruin its business in China. It would rather allow pirated Office software to spread than let Kingsoft make the money.

(End of this chapter)