Reborn since 1993

Chapter 492 Caught a sheep

Looking at the business card in front of him with only a name and a phone number, Li Yanhong knew clearly what it would mean if he dialed the number on this business card one day.

At that time, his life may change drastically in an instant. From a senior engineer, he may become the founder of a search company. His identity, status, and net worth may change drastically!

After hesitating for a moment, Li Yanhong put away the business card, nodded to Li Dongling, and walked out of the office.

Li Dongling touched his chin. If Li Yanhong returned to China and jointly established a search company with Tianya, then as an investor of Yahoo and Soxin, Li Dongling might be able to make some arrangements to allow Tianya's search department to directly merge Soxin and Yahoo's search businesses in Asia and become the largest search company in Asia!

Of course, these things are still unknown, and Li Dongling can only make some backup plans and prepare for the future.

……

"Robin!"

Steve Kissir, who had just finished discussing the new investment contract and equity distribution with Zhou Hualiang, saw Li Yanhong coming back, called out Li Yanhong's English name, and took him aside.

"What did Li talk to you about?" Steve Kissir stared at Li Yanhong. He noticed the scene where Li Dongling left Li Yanhong behind just now.

"Nothing, just some things from my hometown," Li Yanhong thought for a moment and said, looking at Steve Kissir's eyes, "He also asked me if I had any intention of returning to the mainland!"

Hearing what Li Yanhong said, Li Yanhong clearly saw that Steve Kissir was relieved. What Steve Kissir feared most was that Li Dongling, as an investor and major shareholder, would promote Li Yanhong to a senior executive position in SouXin, or even replace him as the founder.

It is normal for Steve Kissir to have such an idea. The various ethnic groups in America all support each other. After all, Li Yanhong is from China, and Li Dongling is also from China. It is normal for Li Dongling to promote Li Yanhong to serve as the agent of Zhixing Foundation in Souxin Company.

Hearing that Li Dongling had no intention of letting Li Yanhong replace him, Steve Kissir returned to normal, "Robin, I understand your feelings, but the mainland is still an Internet desert. We don't even know if there are 50,000 Internet users. What's the point of you going back?"

"Sooxin needs you, we all need you. As long as Sooxin can go public, you will be able to become a millionaire or even a multi-millionaire!" Steve Kissell painted a big picture for Li Yanhong.

Li Yanhong listened to Steve Kissir's words without refutation, but just agreed with a smile. However, judging from the size of the pie, Li Dongling gave Li Yanhong the status of a partner, while Steve Kissir seemed much more stingy. He was unwilling to divide the equity, nor was he willing to let Li Yanhong join the ranks of Souxin's senior executives.

"Steve, this is the latest agreement. Zhixing Foundation and Yahoo will invest two million US dollars in Soxin in exchange for 35% of Soxin's equity!"

Zhou Hualiang handed a drafted agreement to Steve Kissinger, waiting for him to sign it, which meant that the Zhixing Foundation would become the major shareholder of Souxin with a 55% stake.

Zhixing Foundation previously held a 25% stake in Soxin, and now it has joined forces with Yahoo to invest $30 million in Soxin, with Zhixing Foundation receiving 5% of Soxin's shares and Yahoo taking %.

Zhou Hualiang had some doubts about this investment. He was about to become a major shareholder through stock speculation, and he was not sure whether Souxin could make a profit in the future.

After all, the average survival period of a newly established company in Silicon Valley is only a few months. The Silicon Valley Internet companies whose names are remembered are all the survivors who have survived rounds of fighting. As for those who did not survive, the grass on their graves is several feet high and they have long been forgotten...

As the general manager of Dongling Hi-Tech America, all the businesses of Dongling Hi-Tech, Feiyan Technology, Zhixing Foundation and others in America are under the management of Zhou Hualiang, including the investment in Souxin, which will also be the responsibility of Zhou Hualiang in the future, so he has to consider these things.

But it was Li Dongling's decision to add the letter search, and Zhou Hualiang could not refute it. He just hoped that he would not lose money on this investment in the future.

Steve Kissir looked at the agreement in front of him and knew that if he signed it, he would lose his status as a major shareholder, but there was no other way. Souxin was almost out of money, and if he didn't sign, what else could he do?

As for losing controlling rights, it is a common occurrence for founders in Silicon Valley. The founders of companies such as Cisco, Yahoo, and Apple have also lost controlling rights.

However, Li Dongling was still polite to Steve Kissinger. Although he took away the controlling stake, he did not directly interfere with the operation and management of SouXin. This made him feel a little more at ease. Compared with those venture capital companies in Silicon Valley, this was already quite "friendly"!

...After Steve Kissell left, David Burnett and Gruner, the founders of GeoCities and ASK, came to Li Dongling's office.

"Lee, it's an honor to meet you!"

Gruner was quite respectful when facing Li Dongling. To him and other Silicon Valley newcomers like David Burnett, Li Dongling was definitely a "big shot".

As a search company like Soxin, Soxin is having a hard time, so how much better would ASK have it? GeoCities had met with some investors, but ASK was turned away. When it went to the venture capital companies, they were too lazy to meet Gruner.

“Ask is different from other search engines. We plan to design it as a natural language engine that can answer users’ questions!

It first gives the possible answers in the database, which allows users to get answers as quickly as possible when searching for the same question. If there is no similar question in the database, it will link to the website! "

Gruner told Li Dongling about the concept of Ask search, which is actually more similar to the search concept of later generations.

During the search industry war, each search company did not allow other search engines to crawl their own databases. In fact, whether a search engine is good or not depends on the amount of database and web page content. This is also the reason why emerging search companies find it difficult to develop, because the database has no content at all, who would be willing to use it?
After listening to Gruner's words, Li Dongling just nodded, then looked at David Burnett, who also talked about the concept of the GeoCities website, which was mainly to use the Internet to record time and allow users to store photos, etc. on the GeoCities website!
“I believe that ASK and GeoCities will become companies that will be remembered by countless users in the future.

We all know the purpose of Gruner and his team’s visit, and Zhixing Foundation is willing to invest!”

Li Dongling's words made David Burnett and Gruner look happy. Without the expected long talks, Li Dongling was willing to invest in their website. The Silicon Valley venture capitalists they met before, however, had been critical of them and finally said they would go back to discuss it, and then there was no news from them again.

“The Zhixing Foundation can invest one million US dollars in each of ASK and GeoCities, and demand 41% of the equity of ASK and 35% of the equity of GeoCities!”

Li Dongling spoke to Gruner and the other man. After hearing Li Dongling's offer, different expressions appeared on their faces. Gruner was obviously tempted, while David Burnett was a little hesitant.

Regardless of their reactions, Li Dongling continued, "If necessary in the future, the Zhixing Foundation may recommend Yahoo or even Netscape to follow up on the investment in ASK and GeoCities!"

Li Dongling left an ambiguous statement, asking David Burnett and Gruner to guess. If the company was invested in by Yahoo or Netscape in the future, the chances of going public would greatly increase. If the company failed to go public, it might also be acquired. It all depended on how they guessed.

As for what Li Dongling said, Gruner and the others did not doubt it. After all, Li Dongling was one of the shareholders of Yahoo and one of the earliest people to invest in Yahoo. How could he deceive them, greenhorns?
Li Dongling felt that Yahoo's tiger skin was about to be used as a wool to pluck the wool. In the future, when he was in Silicon Valley and the American Internet area, Li Dongling would inevitably pull out Yahoo's tiger skin.

As for the websites we invested in, such as SouXin, ASK, and GeoCities, if they fail to go public, they will inevitably be handed over to Yahoo, which will acquire them at a high price...

Anyway, Li Dongling is not the only one who did this. He is carrying a fancy sedan with many people. Do you really think that Yahoo acquired so many useless companies at a huge price in its previous life? How did they get them?

There are even some acquisitions that seem incomprehensible to outsiders, but Yahoo did it anyway. Why? Because the companies being acquired were invested in by Yahoo board members, Silicon Valley venture capital firms, and Wall Street institutions!

Just like Souxin, if it was backed by Sequoia Capital, what should be done if Souxin has no hope of going public and Sequoia Capital does not want to waste the money invested in Souxin? The simplest way is to merge the two companies it invested in, which will not only solve the problem but also make a lot of money!
During the Internet frenzy, stock prices would soar no matter what happened, so naturally all kinds of crazy operations were done frequently. In the past, Yahoo made so many big acquisitions, not because it wanted to acquire, but because the board of directors and investors wanted it to acquire. Yahoo was actually like a fat sheep, being fleeced by all parties!

……

On Li Dongling's side, under the banner of Zhixing Foundation, he invested in several Internet companies including Souxin and ASK.

Larson is also recruiting suitable creators for Himalaya podcast programs in accordance with Li Dongling's requirements.

In the game between the New York Knicks and the Chicago Bulls, Larson's eyes were on the player sitting next to the water dispenser on the bench.

(End of this chapter)