Return to 88: Starting from Marrying My Sister-in-law

The hustle and bustle of the NASDAQ trading floor and the numbers flashing on the electronic screens were gradually left behind.

As Lu Yang predicted, the afternoon market did not continue the rocket-like surge of the morning and even dipped slightly at one point, but ultimately held steady at the psychological level of $40 per ADR.

The closing bell marked the successful conclusion of Little Genius Technology (LGT)'s IPO, with the $9.975 million raised finalized.

Inside and outside the trading hall, there was an atmosphere of joy at success and anticipation of wealth, but deep in Lu Yang's eyes lay a calm insight into the ways of the world.

That evening, the ballroom of New York's most prestigious hotel was brightly lit as Little Prodigy Technology's IPO celebration banquet was being held.

The champagne tower gleamed with light, and the air was filled with the scent of wealth and success.

As the company president, Xiao Jun was beaming, holding a wine glass as he moved among Chinese and foreign shareholders and Wall Street elites, enjoying the moment of being the center of attention.

Representatives from underwriters such as Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley were all smiles, clearly extremely satisfied with the successful issuance and opening performance.

The successful IPO of Little Prodigy, a Chinese company, not only represents a substantial underwriting fee for them, but also serves as excellent proof of their investment acumen and operational capabilities.

Next, they will be confident in operating more innovative science and technology companies from mysterious Eastern countries like Little Prodigy, and listing them in the United States.

Just one small prodigy company has made them a fortune. What if there were 10, 100... or even more?

No one would complain about having too much money.

The success of Little Prodigy proves that as long as the story is told well, even if the company comes from a mysterious and unfamiliar East, it can still ignite the buying enthusiasm of Wall Street investors who are fervently pursuing tech stocks. Does this also mean that even if the tech companies from mysterious Eastern countries that they subsequently introduce to ring the IPO bell on Nasdaq don't have the same profitability and solid data as Little Prodigy, as long as the story is told well, they can still sell at a good expected valuation?

No surprise.

Everyone's eyes lit up at that moment, they looked at each other and smiled knowingly.

Next, they will raise their sickles and embark on a grand feast of harvesting leeks.

As long as the story is told well and the shares are sold after the listing, as long as the stock price doesn't fall below the issue price on the first day of listing, even if the stock price plummets and unfortunate shareholders go bankrupt and line up to jump off the roof, it's just a normal barometer of stock market fluctuations.

Even if Satan came, he couldn't stop them from making money.

After the victory celebration banquet.

In the small conference room upstairs, Lu Yang sat at the main table, his posture relaxed yet exuding an invisible aura of authority.

He gently stroked the rim of the crystal glass with his fingertips, his gaze sweeping across the noisy venue before finally settling on the core shareholders and foreign representatives beside him.

As the noise subsided, everyone's eyes turned to him, waiting for the true mastermind behind this child prodigy to speak.

Lu Nini stood quietly behind him, her notebook already turned to the floor.

"Everyone."

Lu Yang's voice was not loud, but it clearly pierced through the background noise, carrying an undeniable calmness.

"The successful listing is the result of the team's hard work and the recognition of the capital market. The $9.975 million raised has been secured, which is a new starting point for Little Prodigy's development."

He paused, his gaze deep, "However, we cannot use all, or even most, of this money solely for the development of the child prodigy himself."

He tapped on the table.

Drawing everyone's attention, he continued, "To put it bluntly, Little Prodigy isn't short of money, as you all probably know. So far, of the $600 million raised in our Series C funding round at the end of last year, aside from plans to expand several production lines and increase advertising spending this year… there's still $500 million sitting idle in the company's overseas accounts. I see absolutely no need to convert it into RMB and invest it domestically. Little Prodigy is a healthy company; it receives a net profit every month, and the company's cash flow will only increase. So, going forward…"

Everyone burst into laughter, and Hun Sen, the representative from Goldman Sachs, laughed even more exaggeratedly, raising two chubby fingers and making a money-counting gesture.

Lu Yang shook his head: "The company has just gone public and it's not suitable to distribute dividends yet, so I plan to use part of this money for overseas investment."

Xiao Jun frowned. As the president of Little Prodigy, he naturally hoped that the company's cash flow would be as abundant as possible.

Of course, he wouldn't object if overseas investment could make a lot of money.

only……

With his limited intelligence, he simply couldn't think of anything. Which businesses should he invest in?

Besides...

"Brother Lu is just like me, he's only been abroad for a few days and I'm already completely clueless. He arrived a few days later than me, shouldn't he be just as clueless? Or is it..."

He immediately had a sudden thought, remembering that Lu Yang had mentioned before that he was planning to invest in building a wafer fab in Singapore. It seemed that he was planning to have the little prodigy contribute money and effort as well!
Unlike Xiao Jun, the foreign investment representatives were initially disappointed that they wouldn't receive dividends, but when they heard that Lu Yang planned to use the money for overseas investment, their faces immediately lit up with smiles again. They warmly welcomed the idea and even started recommending several of their own investment projects to Lu Yang.

Lu Yang smiled and refused them one by one.

Then he turned around and nodded to his assistant secretary, Lu Nini.

Lu Nini didn't dare to be negligent. She quickly took out several pre-printed plans from her briefcase, went around the room, and distributed one to everyone present.

Once everyone had received the plan.

Lu Yang didn't rush to speak.

Let everyone finish reading first.

While sipping his coffee, he took a document from Lu Nini behind him.

Actually, the content above is quite simple.

Lu Yang simply published a few drafts of the funding allocation plan in a very straightforward manner. First, he clearly stated at the beginning that Little Prodigy itself is a cash cow with ample operating funds and substantial year-end shareholder dividends, so there is no need to overly rely on this financing for capital injection.

Core Plan A: Investment in chip research and development.

He plans to use a "significant portion" of the funding (the exact percentage will be specified later, such as 3-4 million US dollars, with the specific amount to be determined) for in-depth cooperation with the chip lab under the Century Group to jointly develop the next-generation "Century Chip" framework.

In his proposal, he further emphasized that the first-generation "Century Chip" is the result of Century Group's investment of hundreds of millions of yuan and many years of effort, and is its core strategic asset.

The development of the second generation not only requires Xiaoshentong (as the main customer and beneficiary) to contribute money and effort, but also requires BBK (Duan Yongping's company), which also uses Century Chip, to share the R&D costs (Lu Yang had communicated in advance, and Duan Yongping made a commitment in the plan, indicating that he was willing to bear part of the R&D costs and was very eager to deepen the cooperation with the chip laboratory under Century Group).

Core Plan B: Singapore 8-inch wafer fab project!

Investing in an 8-inch wafer fab overseas is not only a key investment project for Century Group, but also a logical and reasonable choice for Little Prodigy, as the only listed company under Century Group and one of the beneficiaries after the wafer fab goes into production. This is also to ensure that Little Prodigy's interests are not neglected in the future (after all, no one can guarantee that Lu Yang, the major shareholder behind Little Prodigy, will not choose to withdraw his investment and leave one day). The specific investment amount is yet to be determined, but it must not be less than 300 million US dollars.

Core Plan C: Strategic investment in Microsoft.

Lu Yang proposed to use approximately $5 million to purchase Microsoft stock on the open market.

His reasoning was that he was optimistic about the revolutionary impact of Microsoft's Windows 95 operating system, released at the beginning of the year, on the popularization of personal computers and its long-term growth potential. He believed that its stock value was far higher than other stocks on the market, and the possibility of loss was extremely low.

Soon, everyone finished reading the document.

Xiao Jun only said two words: "Awesome."

He didn't have much to say, only that he thought the plan was pretty perfect. Apart from Microsoft, he couldn't see any growth potential there. Why use the remaining overseas funds to hold shares in this listed technology company in the United States, instead of holding shares in other listed companies? Logically speaking, even diversified investment would be safer than concentrated shareholding!

He wouldn't say these things in public; this was his good brother-in-law, whom he had taken advantage of, and who had never made a mistake in his investments.

He listened to whatever the other person said, whether he understood it or not.

Furthermore, he found the other plans in the document to be very good. Whether it was the subsequent research and development of the chip, the partnership with Little Prodigy and BBK Electronics, or the investment in a wafer fab in Singapore to develop an ultra-powerful eight-inch frame scale and prepare to enter the 0.5μm chip mechanism, he thought they were all very good. In any case, he couldn't have come up with such a perfect plan.

But what about the representatives of the foreign shareholders?

They have objections.

Regarding the investment in chip R&D, the Chinese shareholders of Xiaoshentong and the foreign representatives led by Goldman Sachs did not strongly object (because Lu Yang had already stated that Xiaoshentong was the beneficiary and had no shortage of funds). However, they put forward a key condition: Xiaoshentong must hold a certain percentage of shares in the chip subsidiary of Century Group, which is about to be established and will be responsible for the subsequent R&D and commercialization of "Century Chip", in order to ensure that the invested funds can obtain corresponding rights and future returns.

After a moment of silence, Lu Yang immediately agreed to let the child prodigy invest in the chip division.

This is a win-win situation for him: on the one hand, it secures important customers and sources of funding, and on the other hand, it greatly reduces the financial pressure on Century Group's parent company, which has been continuously "sacrificing" to support chip R&D (the same applies to BBK's involvement; Duan Yongping is believed to be a smart man).

However, when representatives from foreign companies such as Goldman Sachs offered to invest in the chip division and help it list on Nasdaq when the time was right, Lu Yang resolutely refused.

On the surface, he cited the reasons that "the chip business is still in its early stages, the technology is sensitive, and the timing for introducing foreign shareholders is not yet ripe." However, he had already made up his mind that the core chip company must be firmly in his own hands, and he would never allow foreign capital to interfere. In the future, he would most likely choose not to go public to ensure technological independence and strategic security.

Representatives from Goldman Sachs and other foreign companies immediately showed their displeasure, but were intimidated by Lu Yang's assertiveness.

They had no choice but to put the matter aside for the time being.

However, when Lu Yang proposed investing in an eight-inch wafer fab in Singapore, hoping that Little Prodigy, as a beneficiary, and downstream chip manufacturers would also join the investment camp and invest at least $500 million, and was prepared to use all the remaining overseas account assets to buy shares of Microsoft, a Nasdaq-listed company, he was met with strong opposition from these foreign investors.

Their reasons are based on the following two points.

1. Although Little Prodigy is a downstream manufacturer of chips and has an extremely strong desire and demand for chip purchases, it may not necessarily need to invest in a wafer fab for chip cutting.

After all, wafer fabs are capital-intensive, require large investments, and have a long payback period.

As shareholders of a listed company, they must be responsible to all shareholders.

2. Microsoft is very powerful. There is no doubt that after the release of Windows 95, its operating system almost dominated the global personal computer market, reaching a scale of more than 70%.

Unfortunately, his stock price has already passed the optimal time to buy it.

In 10 years, Microsoft's market value soared from $5250 million to $1282 billion, an increase of more than 2400 times.

This figure vividly illustrates Microsoft's explosive growth from the late 80s to the mid-90s, transforming it from a successful small company into an absolute global technology giant and a "juggernaut."

"Sorry, I'm sorry, Mr. Lu, Microsoft is powerful, but that doesn't mean its stock is worth buying. $53.42 per share, that was yesterday's closing price, and to be honest, that's not a good number."

A white representative from Goldman Sachs faced Lu Yang, made an exaggerated gesture, spread his hands, and smiled.

His eyes were full of mockery, which Lu Yang could read.

But he dismissed it with disdain: geniuses don't need to explain themselves to mediocrities, and besides, he was a prophet.

"As I have said, investing in an eight-inch wafer fab to solve the problem of chip self-sufficiency is not only a problem that our Century Group will face next, but also a problem that Little Prodigy will face next."

For Xiaoshentong to develop, grow stronger, and maintain its leading position in the domestic VCD market, the first thing it must solve is the problem of relying on a single source of high-end chips. Investing in an eight-inch wafer fab and continuing to conduct in-depth research and development of the next generation of Century Chips are all aimed at breaking this problem of relying on a single source of high-end chips, thus ensuring that Xiaoshentong can continue to maintain its leading position in the domestic VCD market.

I'm not discussing this with you; I'm informing you that, as the majority shareholder supported by more than half of the shareholders and as the chairman of the board, I have the right to demand that the child prodigy join this plan… There's no room for negotiation…”

After slapping him, Lu Yang decided to give him a treat instead.

"As for investing in Microsoft, buying Microsoft shares on the secondary market and holding them for at least a year, if you don't agree with this plan, I have a solution that could be a win-win situation..."

Lu Yang said confidently. (End of Chapter)