Reborn since 1993

Chapter 852 The dust has settled
It would be too difficult to earn back the acquisition fee just by selling mobile phones. Judging from the revenue of Xiaolingtong last year, it seems to be very profitable and has high profits.

But based on Xiaolingtong's net profit of US$740 million last year, it will take a full 20 years to make back the US$14 billion acquisition fee.

Dongling Hi-Tech collected all the taxes on Xiaolingtong in one go until 20 years later. As for what the mobile phone industry will be like 20 years later, only God knows. It is even hard to say whether the companies in the conference room will still exist.

Of course, the calculation is not done in this way. The fact that they were able to acquire Xiaolingtong means that they were optimistic about the future of Xiaolingtong phones and believed that PHS phones would explode in the future, with both revenue and profits soaring.

But when making an acquisition, it is absolutely impossible to only look at how much money can be made from the purchased items. Sometimes, there will be a situation where Zhang San invites Li Si to dinner, and Wang Laowu pays the bill in the end!
"Maybe what Mr. Wu said is right, but this is not a problem that Dongling Hi-Tech needs to consider now. You all need to face it in the future. Dongling Hi-Tech has decided to completely withdraw from the PHS industry!"

Although Li Dongling did not refute Wu Ying, he still said, "But you guys, when you acquired Xiaolingtong, I think you didn't just rely on Xiaolingtong's revenue to make back your investment. I heard that UTStarcom is applying for a NASDAQ listing?"

"It seems that there are also rumors that Nippon Benzene Telephone and Telegraph Company wants to be listed on the New York Stock Exchange or the London Stock Exchange?"

Li Dongling's eyes passed over Wu Ying and Nakamura Weifu's faces in turn, and finally he looked meaningfully at the Microsoft people.

Be it UTStarcom or Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, can their shareholders and investors just sit and wait for twenty years to get their money back?

It's impossible to imagine it with your toes. The most common routine is to acquire Xiaolingtong and then package Xiaolingtong's performance to make it look glamorous. Then, UTStarcom is listed on NASDAQ, and the stock price and market value soar, and then the shareholders cash out!

Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Company and Microsoft can also use this trick to push up their stock prices, which ultimately allows the "leeks" to take over.

The entire process can be completed in three to five years at most, and if it goes well, not only can you recover your investment, but you can also make a fortune.

This is also the reason why Microsoft came over after hearing the news, because it is really profitable. No matter how much money it spends, there will always be people who take over and pay the bill in the end.

Of course, there are risks here. What if the PHS market collapses before three to five years?

Not to mention recovering the cost, there may even be a backlash, with the stock price collapsing and everything lost. The management team that led the acquisition will be fired.

However, even Wu Ying, who felt that PHS phones would be risky in the future, felt that such unfortunate things would not happen so soon. Right now, PHS phones are still in full swing in the mainland and many overseas markets. Where can we see any signs of collapse?

After hearing Li Dongling's insight into the final thoughts of each company, Nakamura Weifu also realized that it was impossible to bargain further because the final bid would come between NTT, Starcom and Microsoft.

"I've said before that Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Company is willing to accept Dongling Hi-Tech's pricing for Xiaolingtong phones, and it's still valid now!"

Nakamura Sue was the first to speak. Among the several acquiring companies, Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Company was the most unable to accept the failure of the acquisition.

In front of the media, Nakamura Sue had made a big promise, and after the Asahi Shimbun reported his return to Japan, it caused quite a stir in Japan.

When Nakamura Sueio linked the acquisition of PHS with the national destiny of Nippon, he reaped the benefits, as the share price of Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Company had already surged.

But if the acquisition fails, Nakamura Weifu will be hit back, so Nakamura Weifu must not allow himself to fail today!
"The Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Company is willing to accept the Xiaolingtong mobile phone at a purchase price of US$14 billion!"

When they heard Nakamura Yuifu, he agreed immediately. Wu Ying and Lu Hongliang couldn't help but twitch their faces slightly.

Afterwards, both of them couldn't help but look towards Kitao Yoshitaka. This time, whether UTStarcom could acquire Xiaolingtong depended entirely on how many US dollars Softbank was willing to support.

Kitao Yoshitaka saw the look Wu Ying was giving him, and the two looked at each other and nodded.

Just as Li Dongling expected, SoftBank's plan was to list UTStarcom in the Americas after acquiring PHS. By then, relying on UTStarcom's market value, major investors would be able to cash out their invested money!

In Kitao Yoshitaka's opinion, this acquisition is worth doing, even if there are risks, but after an overall evaluation, it is still affordable and can make a lot of money.

"UTStarcom is also willing to purchase PHS mobile phones at the same price!"

As for the bid, Wu Ying was actually still cautious. At the beginning, she only dared to quote the same purchase price as Nippon Telephone and Telegraph, as she did not want to raise the purchase price of Xiaolingtong too high.

But Wu Ying wanted to play a tacit game, but some people didn't want to indulge him!
"One hundred and fourteen billion one hundred and fifty million dollars. Microsoft is willing to pay one hundred and fifty million dollars in cash and the rest in the form of stock!"

Panos from Microsoft's hardware division directly raised his hand and added 50 million US dollars in one go.

Microsoft's hardware department has always been criticized for being too soft. Even the hardware project, the Stargazing Video Recorder, which has caused Microsoft's stock price to rise for several consecutive waves, was also developed by Ed Fleiss's game department.

This puts the position of Microsoft's hardware department in an extremely awkward position. There are even rumors that Microsoft is going to lay off the hardware department because it seems that it has no idea what use it is!

Panos also knew that Microsoft's hardware department must take action, whether it can be done or not, to show Microsoft Emperor Bill Gates and the Microsoft board of directors that the hardware department still has ambitions. Although the mobile phone industry is still not as good as the computer industry, it has begun to show its influence. Microsoft has suffered consecutive defeats in computer hardware in the past, and does not want to suffer another Waterloo in mobile phones.

Therefore, when Panos proposed to acquire PHS and directly enter the mobile phone industry, the Microsoft board of directors agreed without much consideration.

For a behemoth like Microsoft, acquiring PHS is not cheap, but what it cares more about is time efficiency, that is, achieving results faster.

The larger the company, the less patience there is. It's not that the management lacks vision and patience, but that the investment institutions lack patience with the stock price.

If a project takes three to five years and costs a huge amount of money, but still may not succeed, then the investors are voting with their feet and won't reason with you at all.

On the contrary, buying a brand is a bit more expensive, but the effect is immediate. It tells Wall Street what Microsoft is going to do and its future prospects, and the stock price will rise. For Microsoft, it is actually a good deal.

Just like the big teams, it is not that they cannot train rookies, but buying a superstar is more efficient and less risky than training one, so why not do it?
Panos' words suddenly made the atmosphere in the conference room tense.

"Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Company, add another 50 million dollars, and you can pay 1.8 billion dollars in cash!"

Without giving it much thought, Nakamura Weifu also started raising the price.

Wu Ying and the people from UTStarcom sat there and watched the verbal battle between Microsoft and Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Company as they kept raising the price. Each price increase was tens of millions of dollars, which made Starcom's people terrified.

After raising the price several times in a row, the purchase price directly reached 14.4 billion US dollars. Kitao Yoshitaka couldn't help but whisper something to Wu Ying.

Wu Ying whispered a few words to Kitao Yoshitaka. Kitao Yoshitaka shook his head and took out his cell phone. It seemed to be a message from someone, and he showed it to Wu Ying.

Seeing this, Wu Ying took a deep breath, looked at Li Dongling and said, "One hundred and fourteen and a half billion dollars, this is UTStarcom's last offer!"

The acquisition price of US$14.5 billion is already a sky-high price even for SoftBank. SoftBank has already found a lot of financial groups for support and it is impossible for it to spend more dollars on this project.

After hearing that UTStarcom was no longer willing to make an offer, Li Dongling looked at Nakamura Weifu and Panos.

Nakamura smiled softly, then moved his lips and said, "One hundred and fourteen six hundred million dollars!"

This offer directly announced that UTStarcom was eliminated. Although somewhat unwilling, Wu Ying still stood up and walked out of the meeting room with Lu Hongliang and others.

……

"Mr. Wu, who bought the Xiaolingtong mobile phone?"

"Has UTStarcom received the PHS phone?"

"Excuse me, how much does your company quote for the PHS?"

As soon as she walked out of the Dongling Hi-Tech headquarters, Wu Ying was surrounded by a large group of media and reporters, with cameras almost pointed at their faces.

"No comment!"

Wu Ying said something expressionlessly, then got into the car and left. However, the media reporters present could see that he was in a bad mood, and they also judged that UTStarcom might have lost in this competition!
There was a stalemate in the meeting room of Dongling Hi-Tech's headquarters. After Nakamura Weiwei offered the price of 14.6 billion US dollars, Panos went out to make several phone calls, but after coming back, he did not easily offer the price again.

"Microsoft is willing to make the acquisition at the same price, but can increase the cash scale to $2 billion!"

Panos said that generally, acquisitions of this amount could not be paid entirely in cash. Unlike the companies of later generations that had hundreds of billions of dollars in cash flow, no company these days could come up with such a large amount of cash.

"Nippon Telephone and Telegraph Company can pay Dongling Hi-Tech US$2.4 billion in cash!" Nakamura Weifu said unwillingly.

When the acquisition amount is the same, generally speaking, whoever pays more cash will have the advantage.

After Nakamura Weiwei made his offer, Panos shrugged his shoulders. It was impossible for Microsoft to raise its offer any further. Everyone in the conference room looked towards Li Dongling.

Li Dongling pondered for a moment. Now it was just a matter of time for him to decide which sucker, no, the lucky guy, would get the Xiaolingtong.

(End of this chapter)