Huayu started as a substitute director

Chapter 717 Lightning Acquisition
Zhang Yiming and Zhang Lidong nodded, their faces full of worry, and responded:
"well!"

"What's wrong? You look so listless today when you attend my son's full-month celebration?" Fang Hong patted Zhang Yiming on the chest.

"It's because of the acquisition of Musical.ly. There are some troubles." Zhang Yiming said worriedly.

"What's going on?" Fang Hong asked puzzledly.

This matter has been going on for some time and has always been a key strategic project of Chang'e Technology, and he has always been paying attention to it.

“We were just talking about this, and we were about to tell you that we encountered some difficulties in acquiring Musical.ly.”

Zhang Yiming continued: "Facebook is playing tricks and has been accusing us of threatening their country's security through our acquisition. Some congressmen even want to stop the acquisition, saying that we cannot merge and cannot take away the data of Americans.

Even Facebook raised the acquisition price to US$12 billion, and Musical.ly executives were wavering, and we were under a lot of competitive pressure.”

Facebook has always been the biggest obstacle to acquisitions, and has also set its sights on Musical.ly, but according to Fang Hong's impression, it is not their key project, otherwise it would not have lost to ByteDance in its previous life.

"What are they worried about? I'm talking about the US government, is it the data?" Fang Hong asked.

"Yes, I am worried that the data will be used by our country," said Zhang Yiming.

This is also the reason why it is very difficult for Chinese companies to acquire American technology companies, because they tend to demonize you and use security as an excuse.

“The US policy fluctuates greatly. Four years later, the situation will be completely different. My suggestion is to agree with them first and promise them to store the data in their own country.

As for the future, we will talk about it later, but the merger must be done." Fang Hong said.

How can we not merge? Not merging means having one more competitor, one more enemy. Are we going to fight against ourselves internationally?

Isn’t that a waste of resources and money?

They don't have as many resources as Tencent, so they must concentrate all their resources and all technologies on one platform.

"I understand!" Zhang Yiming nodded, indicating that he understood what he meant. This was to address the concerns of the government over there.

Anyway, just agree to whatever is offered. Who knows what your situation will be like four years later.

Fang Hong said again: "Also, talk to Musical.ly. We will pay 10 billion US dollars in cash and deliver it directly after the contract is signed. But the process cannot take too long. It will take one month."

Hearing the last sentence, others couldn't help but be a little surprised. Zhang Yiming was also puzzled: "One month? That's too short!"

Such a large project, an acquisition project worth billions, had to be completed within one month.

The approval process alone takes a lot of time!

"Yes, if we draw on the funds for a month, we can still get the money out." Fang Hong said.

One billion dollars is only 10 billion, which is an amount that Chang'e Technology can come up with given its current size. At worst, it can just borrow money, and there are a lot of financial institutions willing to lend.

In addition, Douyin’s advertising revenue has increased several times in the past few months, exceeding 10 billion yuan in a month, and is still rising month by month.

This is the power of information flow advertising. It can be said that if Tik Tok becomes popular, financial freedom can be achieved just by relying on advertising, and games can be cut by then.

Of course, it is currently at a self-sufficient level, which reduces the pressure on game revenue.

"I'm not too worried about this. What I'm worried about is the US government," said Zhang Yiming.

"Then just focus on conquering the US government. As for other matters, we should keep it simple and not go through the formalities. We should take down Musical.ly as quickly as possible."

After hearing what Fang Hong said, everyone else became serious and said that even the funds did not need to be approved.

Legal and financial affairs are all kept simple, no notification is required, decisions can be made directly!

"There will be financial risks if we do this," Zhang Yiming said. It's so short that it will take a lot of time to check the legal provisions.

"Special matters need special treatment. We have to work overtime to get them done. It just means more hard work," said Fang Hong.

Zhang Yiming said he understood that others worked 8 hours while they worked 16 hours, and it was not some technical skill that required a sudden inspiration.

"This matter cannot be completed in more than two months. Facebook is a large company. Even if they are interested in acquiring the company, it will take at least three months for Zuckerberg to agree, go through the committee, and then go through their legal and financial affairs. So there are a lot of variables in the process and we cannot be assured."

Fang Hong held up three fingers and explained the reason: "Our advantage is speed. We make decisions directly and pay money as soon as the contract is signed without any delay."

"The principal is right." Zhang Yiming understood.

This is a blitzkrieg against the bureaucratic system. Generally, if a large company wants to acquire a company, it is difficult to reach an agreement within several months or half a year.

Every time they have a discussion, they have to report it to the boss for approval, and ask if it’s okay or not. But they don’t waste time on this, they skip the intermediate processes, and make decisions directly from the headquarters, and then they get it done.

Zhang Lidong and others also felt that the principal was very decisive.

But a lightning acquisition is not that easy. The principal just assumed that it was a bureaucratic company. Who knows if they will be quick?

Besides, the other party is willing to pay 12 billion US dollars, and the acquired party is willing to wait for a while.

"And there's also..."

Fang Hong pulled Zhang Yiming aside.

The others knew that the two were going to talk in private, and that it was not their place to listen to any secrets, so they consciously walked away. The two were a little further away from the crowd, and Fang Hong said, "In fact, Facebook has only prepared 12 million US dollars in funds, not billion US dollars. They are just trying to make a fortune!"

"Uh?!"

Zhang Yiming looked at him in shock and asked blankly, "How did you know such a secret news, Principal?"

"Don't worry about how I know it. It's enough for you to know the news. If you reveal this news to the senior management of Musical.ly, your chances of winning will greatly increase." Fang Hong said.

In fact, Facebook’s focus has always been on the metaverse, not short videos. Short videos are just one of their experiments, which they bought for testing.

How much money can be invested in a test product? Most of the money and resources are invested in the metaverse.

Even though Facebook didn’t acquire Musical.ly later, they didn’t get discouraged and instead launched several clones to compete with TikTok!

Facebook executives believed that this thing had little technical content and could be cloned in a month.

It’s similar to the situation of Tencent, which was just a test product at the beginning, but when they saw that others’ products were very popular, they launched multiple clones.

Then they spent a lot of money on promotion, resources and technology iteration, but still couldn't replace TikTok. More than half of its clones died, only to find that it was impossible to replace it.

A financial estimate showed that the cost of copying Facebook later exceeded 20 billion US dollars. You can imagine how difficult it is to copy.

Of course, even if Facebook acquired Musical.ly, it is hard to say that it could beat TikTok. It’s just that Musical.ly saved a lot of time and public relations costs in promoting TikTok globally.

The technical core is the key point, which cannot be copied.

"Is this news true?" Zhang Yiming was shocked. The principal actually knew such secret news, and he didn't know if he had any special channel.

Anyway, it’s pretty amazing!
"It's authentic, absolutely authentic. You'll know if you try and inquire carefully." Fang Hong said.

"If it's true, then I have the confidence to take over Musical.ly within a month." Zhang Yiming suddenly became confident.

"Okay!" Fang Hong smiled.

The secret was told to him, and they handled the rest on their own. This was already equivalent to cheating, as he was told the reason why Facebook had failed in the previous life.

Let them know each other's weaknesses in advance.

After Fang Hong left, Zhang Yiming immediately called Gao Zhun and Zhou Shouzi, who were leading a group in the United States.

Gao Zhun was responsible for the acquisition, and Zhou Shouzi was responsible for lobbying the US government.

After the call, Zhang Lidong saw that Zhang Yiming seemed very confident, so he couldn't help but ask, "Yiming, is the principal's lightning acquisition plan feasible?"

"It's feasible. It's very feasible. If it's fast, it won't take more than a month." Zhang Yiming said excitedly.

If Facebook really only has a budget of US$5 million, that would be a fatal blow. All he needs to do is pass this information to the top management of Musical.ly.

"Can it really be that fast? What the principal said is just an assumption. Besides, Facebook offered 12 billion dollars, which is 2 million dollars more than us. It is also possible that the Musical.ly executives will wait." Zhang Lidong said.

Zhang Nan and the others were also curious about this question and nodded in agreement.

"Who said Facebook offered 12 billion dollars? If they say 12 billion dollars, then it is 12 billion dollars. You can only believe half of the enemy's words. The other half does not count," said Zhang Yiming.

This surprised Zhang Lidong and Zhang Nan, who were just discussing what to do if Facebook offered them $12 billion.

After all, they are a large international company. In their eyes, they are just small fry. How can they win?

He is so confident now. I wonder where Zhang Yiming gets his confidence from.

In fact, Zhang Yiming had talked with Zhou Shouzi and felt that Facebook was very likely to be a fraud, and they had been preventing them from acquiring it from the security perspective.

They used their own influence to get them to withdraw from the acquisition, and in this process they did not have a particularly strong desire to pay such a high price to acquire Musical.ly.

If there really is one, it would not be their turn. 12 billion dollars is already a lot. If they have reached an agreement, they would have entered the signing process.

But since there has been no contract signed for such a long time, it must be that no agreement has been reached and there are some obstacles in between.

Wouldn't it be a good opportunity to lower the price by letting Chang'e withdraw? Not to mention that if Chang'e withdraws, there will be no competitor, and Musical.ly can only be sold to Facebook at a low price.

The general acquisition game is not about who pays how much, but about getting the other party to withdraw so that you can lower the price.

Anyway, Zhang Lidong didn't know what news Zhang Yiming had heard and why he suddenly became so confident, so he could only remain confused.

Business secrets are sometimes known only to a few people.

"Mr. Fang!" Chen Zhixi ran to him breathlessly.

"What's so urgent? Speak slowly." Fang Hong motioned her not to be anxious.

"I've been looking for you for a long time."

Chen Zhixi swallowed his saliva, took a deep breath, and then said, "I just got the news that many of our theaters have been notified that their rents will increase by 10% to 20%."

"So many?" Fang Hong opened his eyes.

(End of this chapter)