The richest person in Chinese entertainment

Chapter 349 Three Apologies, Changes in Rights

"Sign it."

This time, it was not Li Yanhong who went to the Morning Glory Building, but Zhang Chen who went to Zhongguancun in person.

After his aunt's advice, he also figured out the bottom line.

His superiors can give her a lot of tolerance on some things, but on some sensitive issues, he also has to be sensible and not want everything.

However, it is not that you cannot have everything, but it is also not that you cannot get nothing.

For Baidu, the most important thing is undoubtedly the Class B shares held by the founding team, which is exactly the same as Google's equity structure.

Baidu's shares are divided into two categories, A and B. One share of Class B stock has 10 votes, and one share of Class A stock has one vote. This also means that even if the shareholding ratio of Baidu's founding team is reduced to a certain level, they can still have absolute say in the company.

Among them, Li Yanhong currently holds 22.4% of the shares personally, and other founding team members hold 21.1% of the shares, totaling 43.5%.
In fact, such shareholding is beneficial to Li Yanhong.

First of all, he is a world-class expert in search engines, which is acknowledged even by the two founders of Google. Before Google was founded, they had attended an open class given by Li Yanhong in the United States, which gave them the idea of founding Google.

This resulted in Li Yanhong having absolute say in the company's technological development route. Combined with the voting rights of the shares he holds and his wife's equity, the other founders cannot play any restraining role at all.

Combining the two, it is no exaggeration to say that Baidu has the final say over Li Yanhong.

There are indeed many advantages, but the disadvantages were revealed today.

When a person has absolute say, he or she will basically make decisions on major company events based on his or her own preferences, mood, and self-judgment.

When Baidu decided to target Zhang Chen to attract users to Tieba last year, many shareholders expressed objections. Even their overseas capital had tried to dissuade them, but Li Yanhong still adopted a laissez-faire attitude towards his subordinates.

The price of all this is that today Zhang Chen sits in Li Yanhong's position as chairman, but other shareholders dare not say a word.

"Zhang Chen, are you really not afraid?"

Sitting opposite Zhang Chen, he looked more like an outsider, but he still couldn't help asking Zhang Chen a question.

"Afraid?" Zhang Chen answered without even thinking, "What do I have to be afraid of?"

"call--"

He didn't know whether Zhang Chen's extremely confident answer was true or not, but it was impossible for him to get the answer to this question now.

There is still an important decision he needs to make.

Li Yanhong looked at the various terms in the contract with a hint of bitterness on his lips. He signed his name with slightly trembling hands, then took various official seals from his subordinates and pressed them in the corresponding positions one by one.

Afterwards, several other members of the founding team also picked up the contracts in front of them, signed, stamped, and spread them on the backs of their chairs, all in the same action.

From this moment on, Li Yanhong could no longer control all the power of Baidu as before.

Because the contract Zhang Chen gave him directly took away half of the Class B shares held by him and the founding team, as well as an equal number of Class B shares.

Zhang Chenxin’s newly-founded “Chenxi Wealth” not only holds a 12% stake in Baidu, but also has 45.8% of the voting rights.

Although he does not have absolute controlling rights, he does have a veto power. The future development of Baidu may not be decided by Zhang Chen alone, but any decision will be subject to the constraints of Zhang Chen.

Currently, Baidu's total share capital is 3230 million.

Although the stock price has dropped due to a series of negative news about Zhang Chen, Hollywood, the world's seven major record companies, Facebook, Weibo, etc., due to the 180-day freeze period, the original shareholders cannot cash out and leave, so the stock price has fallen, but it has not fallen off a cliff.

The current share price is approximately US$305 per share. Chenxi Wealth's 12% stake is 387.6 million shares, with a total value of US$11.8218 billion.

"Okay, here's the money for you to buy the stocks."

After Zhang Chen had his legal team check the contract, he left a dollar on the table.

Li Yanhong looked at the coins on his desk, which were emitting a metallic luster under the sunlight, and fell into a long silence.

However, in order to ensure that the stocks they hold can remain stable after 180 days, to prevent their wealth from shrinking, their hard work from going to waste, and Wall Street capital from losing all their investment, he can only passively accept this humiliation.

This was one of the prices he had to pay for listening to his men and provoking Zhang Chen.

The next day, Baidu held a grand press conference.

When CEO Li Yanhong and his group entered the venue, there was a person around them who no reporter at the scene had expected.

"Yifei!????"

There was a commotion among the people at the scene. They had never expected that Liu Yifei, as the closest person to Zhang Chen, would actually appear at the Baidu press conference where she had a life-and-death battle with Zhang Chen's Chenguang Group some time ago.

The reporters looked at Liu Yifei, who was dressed in home clothes, and their minds went blank.

They racked their brains but couldn't figure out what was going on.

Liu Yifei backstabbed Zhang Chen?
After Li Yanhong, Liu Yifei and others sat down, reporters swarmed in front of them, and questions poured out like machine guns:

"Mr. Li, what is the relationship between you and Yifei?"

"Mr. Li, after so many lawsuits and official investigations, will Baidu go bankrupt?"

"Mr. Li, may I ask how Baidu will respond to the lawsuit filed by the Morning Light Group and most of the world's film and television companies and record companies against Baidu?"

"There are rumors that the reason why Baidu was jointly targeted is because your company deliberately smeared Zhang Chen, which aroused the vigilance and disgust of many public figures. Is this true?"

Faced with the reporters' anxious questions, Li Yanhong did not answer, but just stared silently at the large number of microphones in front of him.

After a full 10 minutes, the noisy scene gradually quieted down.

The reporters also realized that Li Yanhong didn't know how to answer their questions in such a disorganized manner.

After they all shut up, Li Yanhong spoke, raised his head, and let everyone see his bloodshot eyes.

"First of all, I want to apologize for allowing the rumor mongers on Baidu Tieba to openly slander Mr. Zhang Chen on the Internet."

After saying this, without waiting for the reporters to react, Li Yanhong stood up and bowed deeply. Ten seconds later, he stood up straight, but did not sit back down. Instead, he continued:

"In addition, I would like to apologize to all the public figures whose private information was leaked on Baidu Tieba some time ago."

After Li Yanhong finished speaking, he bowed deeply again.

"Secondly, I would like to apologize for the proliferation of pirated resources from film and television companies, record companies, singers, movie stars and others from all over the world on Baidu."

The reporters watched as Li Yanhong bowed deeply to the camera again.

The reporters who witnessed the whole scene were also a little dumbfounded. Isn't this operation exclusive to the Land of Sakura? When did Baidu learn this trick?

If you can be forgiven simply by apologizing, then what is the use of laws?

If Li Yanhong couldn't come up with something substantial today, these reporters had already decided to blast Baidu to pieces when they got back. So they had to ask if Li Yanhong had anything else to say, especially Liu Yifei, who looked bewildered beside him. They were very curious.

"Mr. Li, by doing this, you are admitting that Baidu's lack of supervision led to all this, right?"

"No!"

Li Yanhong's answer really caused a stir among the reporters. She apologized before, but now she denies it. Isn't that contradictory?

However, Li Yanhong's next words shocked them so much that they stood up.

"These things were planned by the product manager of Baidu Tieba."

A stone stirred up a thousand waves.

The reporters never imagined that it was someone from Baidu who planned all this.

They originally thought that someone was doing this to attract attention, or that it was Zhang Chen's competitor who did this, and Baidu just went with the flow and allowed these people's remarks to run rampant on the forum.

As a result, the culprit turned out to be Baidu?
What surprised them was that Li Yanhong actually publicly admitted this!

Logically speaking, he could have just kept the matter vague and there was no need to acknowledge it publicly.

Li Yanhong looked at the reporters who were shocked and puzzled, and her face was also bitter.

Of course, he knew how much impact this would have on his and Baidu's reputation, but this was one of Zhang Chen's conditions.

Fortunately, Zhang Chen did not cut off his and Baidu's escape route, which was why he agreed to do so.

"In addition, you also saw Ms. Liu Yifei next to me."

Finally, Li Yanhong mentioned Liu Yifei who was beside her.

Liu Yifei also looked at Li Yanhong curiously.

In fact, she still didn't know why Zhang Chen asked her to come here.

Yesterday, Zhang Chen only explained it to her once, but unfortunately she didn't understand it thoroughly.

So now she is still in a daze.

"Buniang will strictly control the search engine's search results in the future and will not allow any pirated resources to circulate on Baidu. At the same time, Ms. Liu Yifei will also serve as an independent director of Baidu to supervise the decisions of the Baidu board of directors."

"Finally, the celebrity forums will be managed by the celebrity team. Baidu will only provide a platform and supervise netizens' comments on the forums in the future."

After Li Yanhong finished speaking, she closed her eyes and no longer looked at anyone at the scene.

Today was the biggest blow he had suffered since he started his business. Just being able to fully state the conditions proposed by Zhang Chen had already exhausted all his strength. He now wanted to end this press conference quickly and go home to get drunk.

As for why the most important equity changes were not mentioned, it was also because of the 180-day equity freeze period. According to Nasdaq rules, he could not transfer the shares to Zhang Chen. The agreement signed yesterday could only be completed after the equity was unfrozen.

As for whether he would break the contract, the agreement was torn up after Zhang Chen let Guo Niang go and the company resumed operations.

Not to mention that the contract has already been signed, the terms drafted by Zhang Chen’s legal team cut off this possibility.

The most important thing is that after experiencing this incident, he never wanted to have a conflict with Zhang Chen again.

Although he was reluctant to admit it, an emotion still emerged in his heart.

He's scared
The resources Zhang Chen can mobilize are truly terrifying.

Seeing that Li Yanhong no longer answered their questions, the reporters could only turn their attention to Liu Yifei who was sitting next to him.

An independent director refers to a director who does not hold any other position in a listed company except that of a director, and who does not have any direct or indirect conflict of interest with the listed company he is employed by and its major shareholders, actual controllers, or other relationships that may affect his or her independent and objective judgment.

Independent directors can objectively supervise the management, safeguard the interests of small and medium shareholders, and prevent insider control.

Although independent directors are usually celebrities, such as experts and scholars, former presidents, successful business people, etc.

These people have broad vision, rich experience, and can provide practical and pertinent suggestions to enterprises.

When a company needs policy support, it will hire people with political experience and a legal background to serve as independent directors to help analyze and predict government behavior so that the company can judge the situation and effectively utilize the policy environment.

Independent directors not only serve the company but also safeguard the interests of small and medium-sized shareholders, thus achieving a "win-win" situation for the company and shareholders.

Although Liu Yifei does not meet the requirements of an independent director in the traditional sense, any discerning person can see that behind her stands Zhang Chen, Zhang Chen's think tank, and the entire Chenguang Group.

Therefore, there is no doubt about whether Liu Yifei is qualified to serve as an independent director of Baidu.

Their focus now is not on Liu Yifei's independent directorship, but on other things.

"Yifei, did CEO Li invite you to serve as an independent director of Baidu?"

Liu Yifei looked at the reporter who asked the question, and first breathed a sigh of relief that she no longer had to pretend to be a wooden man, then blinked and said, "It's my brother."

Before the reporter could continue asking, Liu Yifei asked curiously, "By the way, what is an independent director?"

Li Yanhong, who had originally planned not to speak, opened her eyes instantly when she heard Liu Yifei's question. She looked at Liu Yifei helplessly and said before the reporters could ask any more questions:
"Ms. Liu Yifei has not yet fully adapted to this role. Someone will help her understand the relevant responsibilities of an independent director. Baidu will also provide some help, so that Ms. Yifei can shoulder the interests of shareholders as soon as possible."

Li Yanhong had no choice. He originally thought that Zhang Chen would find someone who knew more about this position.

It turned out that the person who came was Liu Yifei, which really caught him off guard.

However, he had also heard about the relationship between the two, and after thinking about it, he understood Zhang Chen's intention.

This not only avoids being caught by others, but also keeps the control of Baidu firmly in hands.

Li Yanhong sighed deeply in her heart again.

"Then Yifei." After being interrupted by Li Yanhong, the reporter could only change his original question to another one, "Why did you agree to let Zhang Chen come here?"

"I was watching TV at home, and he asked me to attend a press conference, so I came."

Li Yanhong looked up at the ceiling, took a deep breath, and reluctantly gave up the position to answer the question.

He could see that Zhang Chen had no intention of giving him an easy time today.

Sending Liu Yifei, a person who knows nothing, is obviously intended to let him continue to answer the reporters' sharp questions.

After sending Liu Yifei away, Zhang Chen was planning another big event at home.

"Hurry up, let's have a meeting while she's not here."

　Okay, the matter with Baidu has come to an end.

　　As for what happens next, Lao Liu’s old fans should all know what the plot is, right?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)