America is in control

Chapter 186 Financing finalization roadshow and Bob’s appeasement plan
The surprise on Moritz's face was fleeting, and he glanced at his ally from the corner of his eye.

Just as he had guessed, everyone was shocked by the second plan proposed by Son Zhengyi.

damn it! These guys were knocked unconscious by 100 million US dollars!
Something is not good! It seems that I have to take action myself!
Moritz cursed secretly in his mind, and the expression on his face became serious.

He cleared his throat and asked everyone in the conference room to focus on him.

Moritz looked around at everyone with a meaningful look, reminding his allies not to forget what they had discussed before.

His low and firm voice sounded.

"Mr. Masayoshi Son, your valuation of Yahoo in the first plan still lacks a little sincerity, and I cannot agree with it!"

"The second plan sounds interesting, but the shares you ask for have exceeded the limit that I can accept! Forgive me for not agreeing!"

"This is my opinion, and you can also listen to the opinions of other Yahoo shareholders."

The second option is undoubtedly very attractive, and the valuation of US$3 million even exceeds the goal set by Moritz himself.

The only thing that is unacceptable is the shareholding ratio required by the other party.

The 36.7% shareholding means that SoftBank Group has a veto power on major matters of Yahoo. (Yahoo’s non-dual-class share structure)
This is equivalent to Moritz actually losing Yahoo's dominance.

He would rather disrupt this financing than agree to this request.

"Mr. Moritz is right! Does Mr. Son ask for so many shares because he wants SoftBank Group to annex Yahoo?"

"We have no intention of selling Yahoo!"

"I think so too, this request is a bit too much!"

"Are you asking for so many shares to completely control Yahoo?"

Yahoo's shareholders came to their senses and started talking about it.

Talking about it, talking about the past, means the same thing.

The valuation of US$3 million is acceptable, and I would like to get US$1 million, but it is impossible to give so many shares!

Sun Zhengyi suddenly felt a little dizzy. He was stunned by the shameless remarks of Yahoo shareholders.

Isn’t this what you want to do and also want to build a memorial arch?

He stretched out his hands and made a downward gesture, signaling everyone to calm down.

Sun Zhengyi thought for a moment, and when the conference room became quiet again, he opened his mouth to explain.

"SoftBank Group has no intention of swallowing up Yahoo, we just want to play a greater role."

"The investment amount of both plans is linked to the valuation, and the required number of shares is also very reasonable."

"I am very optimistic about Yahoo's development prospects, so I proposed this plan!"

Moritz did not accept the other party's tactics, and he immediately started a verbal confrontation with Son Zhengyi.

General Liu and others were not to be outdone. From time to time, they made insinuations, provided assists to Moritz, and launched a round of encirclement and suppression against Son Zhengyi.

The conference room suddenly became very lively, and everyone was quarreling, and everyone was red-faced.

The negotiations were very difficult, with both sides threatening to terminate the third round of financing several times.

Moritz and Son are indeed business veterans, and both are extremely smooth.

Whenever negotiations faced collapse, they saved the situation with just a few words.

After several rounds of confrontation, the two gradually figured out each other's bottom line.

Perhaps Son was really optimistic about Yahoo's prospects, or perhaps Moritz and everyone else were extremely determined, shattering his illusions.

In the end, Masayoshi Son took a step back. He kept Yahoo's valuation of US$3 million unchanged and decided to use US$9000 million to acquire 30% of Yahoo's shares.

Leave the $10 million in financing to co-investors or other companies that want to invest in Yahoo.

Including its previous shares, SoftBank Group will hold 33.3% of Yahoo's shares after Yahoo's third round of financing.

This shareholding ratio does not give Son Zhengyi a veto power on Yahoo's major matters.

Moritz led everyone to win again, and everyone was very satisfied with the result.

Because Yahoo's valuation was pushed too high in this round of financing, when Moritz asked Yahoo's shareholders whether they would choose to participate in the investment.

Liu Jiang waved his hand and shook his head, flatly refusing to follow the investment.

Moritz thought twice and did not join the third round of financing on behalf of Sequoia Capital.

Everyone discussed and discussed, and finally decided to send an invitation to Reuters.

Reuters expressed its interest in taking a stake in Yahoo during its second round of financing.

But because of the emergency situation at the time, Moritz and the other party did not reach an agreement on resource cooperation.

This round of financing just brings the other party in, providing funds while also providing Yahoo with sufficient news resources.

After everyone reached a consensus, Moritz immediately called someone from Reuters, and the response was extremely enthusiastic.

The two parties hit it off almost immediately. After several rounds of discussions, Reuters will invest US$1000 million in Yahoo and obtain a 3.3% stake.

Since then, Yahoo's third round of financing was finalized, and the signing ceremony was successfully held two days later.

Liu's stake in Yahoo was diluted to 16.7%, but his paper wealth instantly increased by $5000 million.

After the signing ceremony, Moritz proposed to Yahoo's shareholders to immediately submit a listing application, targeting Nasdaq.

His proposal won the support of all shareholders, and Yahoo officially launched a sprint for the IPO.

With the strong influence of Sequoia Capital, SoftBank Group and Reuters, Yahoo soon received the first opinion letter from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

Yahoo revised its registration statement based on the SEC's opinion letter and sent it back to the SEC.

During this quiet period, Liu will have a difficult time. There are so many things happening in Yahoo's sprint for IPO.

He finally managed to cope with it with the help of Harvey, Li Chengxiong and other confidants.

It was during this period that Bob began to put increasing pressure on General Liu.

The other party's methods of attacking cash flow are endless, which makes General Liu very confused.

Fortunately, Bob's methods did not cross the line and were still within control.

Because he was busy with Yahoo's IPO, the preparations for the new Caesars Entertainment Company were naturally suspended.

However, Liu Jiang also successively received many scripts from USC classmates and Theresa Peters.

He is so busy that these scripts can only sit in the Irvine villa and gather dust for the time being.

With Jacob watching over New Caesar Sporting Goods Company, General Liu didn't care much and let him do whatever he wanted.

AuctionWeb also has Chris watching, and he is equally reassured.

After a period of time, Yahoo finally received the listing reply from the SEC.

Yahoo is about to have a road show, and the first stop is New York!
General Liu muttered something while silently reciting a set of road show techniques taught to him by Moritz.

"Yahoo is the first website in the world to provide Internet navigation services. We are your navigation map for navigating the Internet ocean!"

"Yahoo has the world's first-class web search engine, and we are your key to unlocking the treasure house of Internet information!" "Yahoo is the exclamation point of the Internet era! We want to change the way people surf the Internet!"

"Yahoo is committed to being the richest, most entertaining, visually engaging and easiest-to-use site on the Web."

"Yahoo will provide people with the most direct and convenient information search tools and provide free services to users."

After Jerry Yang and David finished their speeches, he also had to go on stage to say something.

It can be regarded as using one's fame to recommend Yahoo to possible investors and increase investors' investment intention.

At this moment, Alfonso hurried over with his cell phone in hand.

"John, Bob's phone!"

General Liu's face darkened. That old fox Bob called him at this time to do something serious. Is he still thinking of some trick?
He reluctantly took the phone from the other party and pressed the answer button.

"Boss, what can you do?"

Liu Jiang's tone has not changed at all from before, even though he hates the other party in his heart.

"John, have you come to New York? Why didn't you tell me?"

Bob's pretentious and kind tone came out from the phone receiver, which made Liu Jiang just want to gag.

New York is indeed the other party's home base, and he actually got the news of his arrival so quickly.

"Boss, I came to New York to work on an investment matter. I'll leave as soon as I'm done. I didn't want to disturb you!"

Liu Jiang felt that the other party should know about the road show of the company he invested in, but he was not sure how much the other party knew.

He simply continued to act stupid and replied vaguely.

"Do you mean Yahoo by investing? You are participating in Yahoo's IPO road show, right?"

Bob continued to ask, and it seemed that he had received specific information.

"Uh! That's right, Boss. I was lucky enough to invest in Yahoo under extremely special circumstances."

It seemed that he could no longer hide it, so General Liu simply admitted the matter, but he did not disclose the specific amount of his investment to the other party.

Not to mention how many shares it holds in Yahoo!

"What a boy! I can't tell! Your investment vision is so accurate! You should be able to make a lot of money when Yahoo goes public!"

There was a hint of envy in Bob's tone, which made Liu Jiang's skin crawl.

"Boss, the money I invested in Yahoo is not much, and this is just paper wealth. There will be a long lock-up period after the listing!"

Liu Jiang didn't know what Bob was planning. To be on the safe side, he tried his best to keep his profits down. To say it was an understatement.

"John, I'm asking you very seriously now, whether you still want to continue the path of professional boxing."

Bob's tone instantly became extremely solemn, and he asked word by word.

General Liu's investment was about to be a great success, and this news panicked Bob.

What if the opponent makes a lot of money and no longer wants to box professionally?
He was worried about losing this golden money tree, so he couldn't wait to ask General Liu.

Liu Jiang was stunned when he heard this, why did the other party suddenly ask this question.

After thinking for a moment, he roughly guessed the reason.

Bob was not anxious about starting his own film production company, collecting scripts from everywhere, and planning to make movies.

Instead, when he heard that he was going to get rich, he was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot.

He is worried that he will give up his game and stop playing!
According to the fixed thinking of Americans, who would get into the boxing ring and fight desperately after making a fortune?
But he is different. Liu Jiang needs the aura of boxing champion very much.

He has become accustomed to the feeling of being able to do anything with great fame.

Boxing career is his foundation and the basis for him to start from scratch.

Those boxing fans who support him are the foundation for maintaining Liu's huge influence.

If a man of Chinese and Italian descent wants to keep this incredible wealth, he must not lose his huge influence!
Liu will not be able to give up his boxing career easily before finding a replacement base.

Not to mention that he has yet to reach the pinnacle of professional boxing and become a true heavyweight boxing champion, a world boxing champion!

After pondering for a while, Liu Jiang organized his words and spoke in a deep voice into the phone's microphone.

"Boss, I haven't given up on professional boxing for the time being, but if I continue to be unable to win a boxing title unification fight, I may change my mind!"

There was a burst of rapid breathing from the phone receiver, and Bob understood the meaning of Liu Jiang's words.

That’s right! General Liu was taking the opportunity to attack and made a faint threat to the other party.

If you don't arrange a boxing championship unification fight for me as soon as possible, I'll be careful that I give up my fight!

Wall Street, Silicon Valley, Hollywood, and Washington, DC, there are plenty of places in the United States for me to run wild, but a professional boxing ring is nothing!

"John, arranging a boxing championship unification match is not an easy task. The difficulty is quite high."

"I have to conduct long negotiations with the boxing promoters of those boxing champions to balance the interests of both parties."

"These boxing promoters are extremely smart guys, and they charge a very high price!"

"Besides, you beat your opponents so badly every time you compete, which has already become a great deterrent to those boxing champions!"

"Those boxing champions are not fools. When faced with your challenge, of course they will hide if they can, and drag them if they can't."

"You should be able to detect this kind of avoidance of fighting. I'm not omnipotent. You can't expect me to defeat all the fighters every time!"

After Bob huffed and puffed for a while, he began to bombard General Liu wildly.

I try my best to emphasize how difficult it is to arrange a boxing championship unification fight!

This is of course an objective fact, but it is not the whole reason why it is difficult for boxing champions to have a unification fight.

Bob was still taking chances, and he wasn't sure how much benefit Liu would get from Yahoo.

He is still prepared to wait and see. When Yahoo is successfully listed, he can also find out the other party's shareholding ratio from public information.

In this way, we can roughly calculate how much Liu Jiang has earned and whether he is really determined to leave the professional boxing ring.

It would be easier if Yahoo failed to go public this time.

The other party's efforts were in vain, and with heavy losses, they couldn't withstand his efforts, so they had no choice but to accept his contract renewal conditions.

Now he just wants to temporarily stabilize General Liu and prevent him from making any drastic moves.

After listening to Bob's long speech, Liu Jiang snorted in his heart. He didn't want to get too entangled with the other party on this issue.

"Boss, then try your best to arrange it! I look forward to good news from you! I'm very sorry, I'm going to be busy here, how about this?"

"Okay, John, good luck with the Yahoo Roadshow!"

After hanging up the phone, Liu Jiang was about to collect his thoughts when Moritz's voice suddenly rang.

"John, it's your turn!"

(End of this chapter)