Chapter 186 Lei Jun and Huang Zhang

When Xie Jingxing bluntly used the surname Yu as a shield, Teacher Ma remained silent and the negotiation ended.

Li Ying left the cabin to notify the ship to turn around and return. He made small talk: "Investing in Meizu is interesting. What do you think?"

“It’s better to be early than late.”

Xie Jing Xing scratched his wet hair: "Last month, Huang Zhang released a video announcing his return, and I conducted preliminary research. I made an appointment with him to meet at the end of the month. We can go over and chat together."

"You're going there yourself?"

Teacher Ma's energy had faded. He folded his arms and rubbed the sandalwood Buddhist beads with both hands. He looked lazy.

Xie Jingxing nodded: "Their performance last year was very bad and their cash flow dried up. The vice president jumped to LeEco and took away the entire software development department. The overall situation is very bad. If you want to invest, I estimate it will cost 20 billion."

"Renminbi or US dollars?" Teacher Ma asked rigorously.

Facing Alibaba’s upcoming IPO, Xie Jingxing felt the pressure from his money ability for the first time since his debut: “…It can’t rise to the level of the US dollar for the time being.”

"The hardware sector is more money-intensive than ours. Alibaba has strategic needs, so funding is not a problem."

Mr. Ma changed the subject and said, "According to your judgment, from the perspective of financial investment, Meizu is not an optimistic project?"

"Taihe and Xiyou's investment matrix needs a mobile terminal to support it. For example, I am planning to acquire a film and television company recently. If there is a mobile phone manufacturer as an online distribution channel, it will be able to leverage a lot." Xie Jingxing said half-truthfully.

It has great ambitions, using investment in mobile phone manufacturers as resources to radiate the entire upstream and downstream Internet software industry.

In short, the Meizu project is also a strategic investment by Taihe and Xiyou, just like holding Didi shares and then laying out the entire new energy vehicle map.

Mr. Ma seemed to be thinking about smart phones and new energy vehicles, and then continued the conversation: "The cultural and entertainment industry has great development. I will organize a party and invite some good friends in the entertainment industry to get together later."

"No problem, why don't you just organize a group to shoot a martial arts movie, and I can invest and make a cameo appearance!" Xie Jingjin couldn't help but joked.

Mr. Ma calls himself "Feng Qingyang" and has a passion for martial arts. He also invested in Huayi and has a close relationship with Zhao Wei and her husband. Alibaba Group's pan-entertainment strategy started from there, connecting industries such as theater distribution, music, and film and television production.

Tencent has a powerful army. In the field of general entertainment, it may be possible for it to bring in ByteDance and Jack Ma to perform a battle of three heroes against Pony.

Putting aside work, Lao Ma was obviously more talkative. He talked about everything from how great heroes serve their country and their people to the era of change. Before they knew it, the yacht had returned to the dock.

"I'm flying to New York tomorrow. I'll discuss the details with Huang Zhang about how you should communicate with Chongxin," he said finally.

The amount of money in this project is not large but Alibaba wants to strive for the lead investment rights. Xie Jingxing has to come forward personally and must arrange for a player who can control the situation to deal with him.

Yunfeng Fund cannot participate. Zuo Wei has just taken over the position of CFO within the group. Zeng Ming might as well not mention it and just stay as a military advisor.

Counting on my fingers, only Cai Chongxin can match Xie Jingxing. How could there be such a talented and unreasonable young man!

I heard that it was Martin Lau who dealt with him at Tencent, so it wasn't a loss of face.

Teacher Ma waved his hand secretly, and Li Ying handed over a long gift box.

"The hasty meeting at the CEO conference last time doesn't count. There should be a meeting gift today," he said carefully.

Xie Jing Xing was quite surprised: "I came here empty-handed and I have to eat and take away. I am really embarrassed."

"Come on, stop being polite. Friends are not together for a while, and the charm of getting to know each other slowly will come out."

Teacher Ma patted Xie Jingxing's shoulder in a savage manner, his hands were covered with wet marks, and he smiled and sent him away first.

Jingjing stood there for a while, then walked towards the car parked on the shore: "Contact Xiao Xie later and ask him to help with the land auction in Hangzhou. Don't take today's incident to heart."

"It's my problem today. I'm sorry to have caused you trouble." Li Ying explained quickly.

Teacher Ma said calmly: "You are embarrassing me by saying that. I think you and Xiao Xie are of the same age and have common topics. You should communicate more in the future."

The two bargaining chips, namely, the right to subscribe for 500 million shares of Alibaba and the unspecified amount of investment in Grapefruit Capital, indicate that his bottom line in today's negotiations is not necessarily to pull Xie Jingxing onto the Zhejiang Merchants' ship.

Let’s make friends first, and we will talk about specific projects later during the competition in the local life field.

Xie Jingxing's friendship with Tencent did not happen overnight. From the arguments over the WhatsApp acquisition to the mutual compromises over the Didi project, it took a long time for them to establish initial trust.

It would be unreasonable to really expect to deal with this guy in one go today, so it doesn't matter how Li Ying performs. She is just a human mascot that combines political, business and interpersonal resources, and there is no expectation in the first place.

Whether she is personally willing to play the role of a mascot to maintain the relationship is negligible.

[Mr. Xie, there is a plot of land backed by the West Lake Scenic Area in Hangzhou’s recent land auction. Are you interested? ]

Li Ying looked at the two cars that left one after another, endured the tightness in her chest, took out her cell phone and sent a message.

They both rely on the power of marriage, so why is there such a big difference?

【Please send me the specific information. 】

On the way back to the Magic City, Xie Jingxing politely replied a message, then opened the chat box with Yu Nian, and laughed softly when he saw the message she sent.

【Ignore it.】

——In a sense, these four simple words are his biggest cheat. He has a natural special position, so he can be aloof and get along with everyone, and no one can force him to take sides.

At least that’s the case for now. When Taihe and Xiyou grow to a scale of hundreds of billions, there will be deeper teams to stand in. After all, the gift of fate has already been secretly marked with a price.

But that is something to be considered later. Now we have to cooperate with Alibaba to invest in Meizu, and the good friendship between the two sides will begin from now on.

Apart from that, there is no need to think about the 500 million shares subscription rights for Alibaba's IPO, and the benefits of the land auction in Hangzhou and the fundraising of Grapefruit Fund are insignificant.

Sunac, Greenland, Vanke and several other real estate companies are competing fiercely in Hangzhou. It is impossible for Li Ying to help him manipulate the land auction price. The most he can do is to get the green light for the approval procedures.

Xiyou Fund has many star projects in hand and is not short of LPs, but the fact that the Zhejiang business LPs have a strong background and are particularly strong in groups is more helpful.

This minor benefit is not as good as the painting of "Fisherman on Snowy Mountain" by Xiang Shengmo in the late Ming Dynasty that Teacher Ma gave as a gift.

"Knowing that I like collecting antiques, Mr. Ma is really a thoughtful person. On the other hand, Brother Ma, we have known each other for such a long time, but he didn't give me a gift on my birthday."

Xie Jingxing thought about it in a non-tune way, unfolded the scroll, took a photo, and sent it to his friends circle to edit a 200-word appreciation essay. He also commented below: [Unified reply, today I was at Qiandao Lake with Teacher Ma to enjoy the lake and mountains, eat a whole fish banquet and taste rice wine. Teacher Ma is really chivalrous. This is the first gift I received this year. I am happy (smiley expression).]

【When you come to Beijing, I will invite you to sing karaoke at Qiangui. 】

[No one asks you who gave you the painting (smiling expression).]

[Was the computer host in my group taken away by a dog? ]

Zhang Chaoyang, Xiao Ma Ge, Xiao Wang, a bunch of people posted spam comments, but Teacher Ma silently clicked the thumbs up and kept his merit and fame to himself.

…………

Just when some gossipers in the circle started gossiping about whether Xie Jingxing really loved Lao Ma after divorcing Xiao Ma, he went to Zhuhai with Alibaba's general manager of strategic investment Ji Gang, and Cai Chongxin deliberately avoided the event.

The Meizu headquarters building is located in Tangjia Bay, Zhuhai. The overall design style is consistent with its mobile phone products, which is simple and exquisite with a touch of softness.

Meizu's president Bai Yongxiang is a middle-aged man with a slightly high hairline and a thin body. His forehead is shining in the sunlight and looks a little oily, and it is obvious that he has been standing outside for a long time.

Seeing a tall and handsome young man and a slightly fat middle-aged man with a slicked-back hair appear in his field of vision, he took a few steps forward and extended his hand: "Mr. Xie, Mr. Ji, welcome to our research."

"You're welcome. I just told President Ji on the way here that it's easy to show my shyness when I come to your headquarters for the first time."

Xie Jingxing said modestly and self-deprecatingly, and Ji Gang frowned unconsciously.

Bai Yongxiang observed his expression and looked at him and said, "That's not necessary. Let's go to the office first. Mr. Huang has already set up the tea table. Let's have a simple lunch at noon and rest up in the afternoon before visiting."

"Then let's go in first. Mr. Huang's time is precious, so let's not waste any more time." Ji Gang nodded his chin.

In the lobby on the first floor of the building, the girl at the front desk was writing a visitor card with a note saying "I am visiting".

On both sides are exhibition areas and several fitness lounges. Many employees were quietly observing the group of people and whispering to each other.

Xie Jingxing and Ji Gang looked at each other, both sensing a subtle sense of awkwardness.

As expected, when he arrived at the office on the second floor, he saw a thin man with messy hair and triangular eyes who stretched out his hand directly to Ji Gang: "Thank you, Mr. Xie, I am sorry for not welcoming you in person."

“…Hahaha, I said that President Xie is too young. Even after reading media reports in advance, I wouldn’t have recognized him in person!” Bai Yongxiang tried to smooth things over with a green face.

Ji Gang smiled awkwardly: "Indeed, when I was Mr. Xie's age, I was scolded by my teacher every day."

"Excuse me, Mr. Xie, you are smoking."

Huang Zhang threw Ji Gang aside and grabbed the cigarette on the table and threw it at Xie Jingxing's face.

Xie Jing Xing held his wrist and pressed it: "I think I have verified one thing today. Excellent product managers are often very focused and not good at being polite. The same is true for Steve Jobs."

“Have you met Steve Jobs?”

Huang Zhang breathed a sigh of relief, lit a cigarette and took a deep breath. He didn't mean to cause trouble, he just didn't read the information prepared by his assistant in advance.

"I met him once backstage at an Apple event. We didn't have any direct communication, but he left a very deep impression on me."

谢景行耸耸肩说道：“他对一位音频软件产品的创始人咆哮，你只有20分钟说清楚我为什么要花5000万美元收购你制造的东西，如果你试图用这20分钟把5000万美元变成5000万零1美分，现在就可以滚蛋了。”

"Steve Jobs is that kind of person." Huang Zhang nodded slightly.

When Meizu was designing its first mobile phone, he was so amazed by the first generation of Apple phones that he completely overturned the original design and decided to copy Apple.

It's not just the design, from the mobile phone screen supplier to the UI design, everything was copied extremely hard and it took a whole year to come up with the Meizu M8.

The result was a copycat phone that looked 10% like Apple's, but it was hailed as the "king of domestic mobile phones" at the time, with 5 units shipped in two months and sales of million in five months.

Therefore, he read all the books and materials related to Jobs. Xie Jingxing was right, Boss Jobs was a tyrant.

But that was not the case for Ji Gang and Bai Yongxiang. The core team had run away and they were almost unable to pay salaries, so top investors took the initiative to visit them for research, and the president personally stood outside in the sun, sweating profusely to greet them.

But you, old man, acted like you didn't care at all, and let the front desk deceive themselves by registering as a 'visit', and you couldn't even tell the difference between people?
Although Ji Gang was mainly unhappy with Xie Jingxing, Huang Zhang's behavior, who he didn't know whether he was really an idiot or pretending to be crazy, still made him feel that he was insincere.

I’m from Alibaba, and people look up to me wherever I go. Why are you trying to trick me like this?
Xie Jingxing was clearly trying to intimidate you by making a veiled attack, but you actually nodded.

Bai Yongxiang's mood was indescribable. He felt as if he had eaten a piece of shit. He asked a few people to sit down and talk, trying his best to ease the atmosphere and say nice things.

"Mr. Huang, in fact, our main purpose of coming here is not to visit you. We hope to communicate with you about your attitude towards financing." Ji Gang felt like he had something stuck in his throat and couldn't get it out.

Huang Zhang leaned forward, his arms resting on his knees, puffing smoke from a cigarette between his fingertips: "We do have the idea of ​​raising funds."

"Recently, several interested parties have contacted us. Compared with financial financing, we pay more attention to win-win cooperation at the strategic level," Bai Yongxiang added.

"We at Alibaba came here with this idea in mind. There are many types of strategic cooperation. What does Mr. Huang need most?" Ji Gang asked.

Huang Zhang held his chin and said, "I need some money to catch my breath."

"Currently, the entire industry is facing great competitive pressure. The performance of the products we released last year did not meet expectations, and the company's cash flow is facing certain difficulties. The problem will be solved once the next product is released," Bai Yongxiang added.

Ji Gang glanced at Xie Jingxing, and seeing that he had no intention of speaking, he continued to ask: "Before coming here, we did some industry research. Currently, Meizu's main competitors are Xiaomi and Huawei. I see that their performance is very good. Do we have any ideas for developing comparable products?"

"We are different. Xiaomi can only copy our marketing, but not our core competitiveness." Huang Zhang sat up straight and declared seriously.

He and Lei Jun have a grudge against each other. When Jun retired from Kingsoft with a huge amount of money in his pocket and nothing to do, he planned to make mobile phones taking Steve Jobs as his role model.

He found Huang Zhang, who was known as the 'young version of Steve Jobs'. The two of them fell in love with each other and spent more than a month together all day long. Huang Zhang even kept Junzi's favorite iced cola in the office refrigerator.

I hope Junzi will come to Meizu to serve as CEO. The two of them, one will be responsible for products and the other for management. The brothers will walk together for life to make Meizu bigger and stronger and create greater glory.

But he never expected that he was greedy for Junzi's people, and Junzi was greedy for Meizu's shares.

In the end, the deal failed and Lei Jun left, taking with him the supply chain and monkey-like hunger marketing that he learned from him, and founded Xiaomi.

He was so angry that he cursed Lei Jun on the Internet, and Junzi replied lightly that it was just his personal opinion...

(End of this chapter)