Chapter 206 Tencent's Three Points of Fading

[Dear Professor Joseph, thank you very much for your support for fund raising and your academic guidance on demonstrating the moral risks of the virtual currency market. Next, we still need you to promote the feasibility of platform compliance supervision from the academic field. 】

In mid-May, Xie Jingxing sent a lengthy email of several thousand words to Professor Joseph, a strategic consultant for Grapefruit American Capital, and at the same time, he negotiated the details of the cooperative investment with Mark Mellon.

The two parties jointly invested US$1000 million, mainly used to develop a new type of virtual currency, invest in Bitcoin mining studios, and develop trading platforms.

Grapefruit America holds a 35% stake, Marc Mellon personally holds 51%, and the remaining shares are used for public relations expenses.

As for CCPM Capital, Xie Jingxing took the time to go there and took advantage of the early investment in Didi and Ele.me and the reserved follow-up investment opportunities. With the help of Mark Mellon, he easily secured a fundraising quota of 2000 million.

After taking care of the trivial matters in New York, I headed to Silicon Valley as planned, the last stop of my trip to the United States.

The Gulfstream business jet flew across the sky silently. Zhou Fenglan was curled up in the soft big bed in a black long skirt, with a coat draped over her knees to prevent exposure.

She was holding a thick reference book in her arms with a focused expression. Xie Jingxing was in the next cabin confirming with the lawyers and financial team that there was no problem with the equity change agreement. When he came back and opened the door and saw this scene, he felt inexplicably embarrassed.

"You want to get a pilot's license?" He made small talk and sat down on the chair next to the dressing table.

Zhou Fenglan put down the reference book and said, "Find something to do during the holidays."

"I'll help you contact the aviation school in Los Angeles." Xie Jingxing responded without hesitation.

Columbia University had a long summer vacation, so he obtained his pilot's license and skydiving license at the Los Angeles Aviation Base.

Zhou Fenglan smiled and said, "I want to go back to China for training."

“The domestic aviation bases are not up to par.”

Xie Jing Xing paused for a moment and changed the subject, "But if you want to go back, that's fine. After all, you haven't been back to China for several years, and your family misses you."

"Let's talk about it later. Let's finish the things at hand first." Zhou Fenglan raised his hand to tidy up the hair around his ears.

Xie Jingxing said dryly: "All three parties of Apple have dealt with you before. If nothing unexpected happens, they have no reason to refuse the equity change."

"I'm sleepy. I want to take a nap."

Zhou Fenglan did not comment. She lifted the jacket on her legs and looked upward along the smooth calves revealed under the hem of her skirt. The beautiful scenery at the end was looming.

She lay down and tilted her head: "Don't you need to rest?"

The cold voice echoed in his ears, and Xie Jingxing felt that he had no choice but to nod.

"To take a bath."

Zhou Fenglan put his hand on his chest, half-closed his eyes and spoke softly.

Xie Jingxing exhaled, took off his shirt, turned around and walked into the bathroom. The flight from New York to Silicon Valley took six or seven hours, so it was very reasonable to rest during the journey.

The water flowed for a few minutes and then stopped. He walked out of the bathroom wrapped in a bath towel and saw Zhou Fenglan's fair face covered by a sleep mask and her ears were plugged with a pair of earplugs.

"..."

Xie Jingxing was speechless for a moment, so was it just a rest, or was it really a rest?
The eye mask was a bit perverted, and it was really hard to grasp the tone. I stood there and thought about it, and finally lay down on the bed obediently with my hands folded on my lower abdomen in a flat position like being pushed into a crematorium.

The warm body beside me suddenly turned over, and the hot and moist breath exchanged with each other through the thick blindfold.

…………

[Investing in Indian payment product Paytm, funding is not a problem, $1 million will be received next month. ]

The Gulfstream business jet landed smoothly, and Xie Jingxing walked down the plane holding the gangway handrail. He immediately sent a message to remotely control Cheng Sen to expand the scope of investment.

After several hours of communication, Zhou Fenglan decided to adopt his financial management advice in full and pledge 7% of WhatsApp's equity to cash out US$15 billion.

Allocate $10 billion to the secondary market for long-term investment in Tesla, Apple, and Netflix stocks.

Another 5 million yuan was injected into Xiyou Capital to establish her own special asset management fund. As the fund manager, Xie Jingxing will receive 50% of the profit dividends and 2% management fee each year.

The financial difficulties were solved in an instant by transferring money from one hand to the other.

The only drawback was that the flight was too long, and when I first landed my feet felt like they were stepping on cotton, so soft that I couldn't exert any strength.

"The interim shareholder voting meeting is ready. WhatsApp CEO Jan Koum will attend to represent management shareholders. Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon have sent shareholder representatives. Tencent's Mr. Martin Lau will attend the meeting online."

On the way to WhatsApp headquarters in San Francisco, Choi Yun-su quietly introduced the situation.

Xie Jingxing yawned and turned his thoughts. Tencent had no reason to refuse. After all, he would still hold the shares on behalf of Tencent after the equity change.

Glancing at Zhou Fenglan who was lying on the chair and sleeping soundly, he couldn't help but pursed his lips. She really trusted him.

"Postpone the meeting, prepare a small meeting room for me, and ask Jan Kum to come see me first."

Arriving at the destination, Xie Jingxing jumped out of the car: "Let her sleep for a while."

Cui Yunxiu responded softly with "OK", and the two of them walked straight into the office building.

Jan Koum's aesthetic taste for products extends to the entire company. Everything is kept simple. Not only was there no welcome ceremony, but even the office decoration remained the same as last year.

The only thing is that the coffee machine has been replaced with a new super luxurious brand, and it even provides ice cubes to go with iced American coffee.

After all, it is a company valued at more than 30 billion US dollars, but it still drinks iced American coffee every day. This bad habit must be changed as soon as possible.

Xie Jingxing casually exchanged a few pleasantries and got straight to the point: "After the equity change, I will hold it on your behalf. The equity structure will remain unchanged and you will still have absolute control."

"Sounds good."

Jan Kum was in low spirits; he had not had a very good year.

It is said that they took advantage of the different interests of several shareholders and relied on Tencent's technical support to launch video calls, video conferences and other functions early. But in fact, how to make WhatsApp profitable is a tacit agreement among all shareholders that cannot be challenged.

Not only shareholders, but also old employees, once acquired by a giant, began to actively consider adding value-added paid services such as advertising to create profits in order to obtain higher salaries.

This is the trend of the times, and even if he does have actual control over the company, he cannot resist it. Even co-founder Acton has the idea of ​​retiring.

Perhaps whether it is Facebook or Tencent, once they think of selling themselves to the giants, WhatsApp will no longer be the most ideal and perfect social product.

——Jan Koum has been unable to help but summarize like this recently.

"So any new suggestions?" he asked slowly, taking a sip of coffee.

Xie Jingxing cheered up: "It's still early. In the future, we can launch a special version of the software for enterprise management to maintain the simplicity and smoothness of WhatsApp's daily social attributes."

"I mean at the equity structure level, Tencent's options are about to expire," Jan Koum corrected.

Since the acquisition, Xie Jingxing has proposed many effective optimization solutions for the product, which must be admitted to have effectively helped WhatsApp's user growth. Last year, a large part of the payment method for the M&A transaction was paid by Tencent's targeted issuance of additional shares according to the deadline. This year, he and Acton can cash out about 3% of Tencent's shares.

It is almost possible to enter Tencent’s board of directors in reverse, and WhatsApp’s equity structure has become more complicated.

Xie Jingxing thought for a moment and said, "If you want to cash out, you can sell your shares to me."

"What a genius idea! Are you trying to persuade me to leave?" Jan Kum said bluntly.

"I would rather advise you to experiment with some features through the Indian market, such as mobile payments."

Xie Jingxing made a downward gesture: "Listen to me, I know you will remind me that WhatsApp only does subtraction and not addition. We can't add complex functions, blah blah."

"But this is the trend and is in the interests of all shareholders. So I would rather suggest that you cash out first to prevent you from misunderstanding that I am plotting to gain management rights of the company."

Jan Koum knew very well that Amazon had wanted to do this for a long time, and out of envy of PayPal, which relied on its e-commerce platform, it was more eager than Tencent.

Apple also has this idea, but it prefers to do mobile payments based on its own hardware terminals, without relying on WhatsApp.

"PayPal has made a large number of acquisitions of global third-party currency settlement companies this year to accumulate offline mobile payment technology capabilities. We do not have any competitive advantage," Jan Koum said angrily.

"50% of the Indian population does not have bank cards, and there are no bank branches in third- and fourth-tier cities. The largest denomination of banknotes is 2000 rubles, which provides an excellent breeding ground for money laundering and tax evasion."

Xie Jingxing raised his eyebrows: "It was the same in the United States a hundred years ago. After a hundred years of accumulation, the most commonly used banknote denomination on the market is now $20. Anyone who takes out a $ bill will be suspected of robbing a bank."

“The most popular payment method is credit card, which has created a trillion-dollar payment market and a number of traditional payment giants with a market value of hundreds of billions.”

"The Internet is much more convenient than credit cards. So, Koum, facing such a trillion-dollar market in transition, is competitive advantage something you need to consider?"

He finally asked a tough question.

This is a question that capitalists should consider. There are trillions of dollars on the gambling table. If someone stands up and says that the dealer is cheating, then you can stop gambling.

The gambler would not hesitate to pull out a gun and blow the man's head off, dissect his organs and put the last penny in his pocket on the table.

“Well, the demographic dividend.”

Jan Koum was silent for a long time and concluded that the Indian market has always been used by WhatsApp to experiment with new features.

Thinking about the tens of millions of users, he said angrily: "If it is as you said, I will consider selling my Tencent shares to you."

"Thank you very much, I respect you very much. If I had the power to decide everything, I would choose to support your ideas as much as possible. Unfortunately, I can't." Xie Jingxing looked sincere.

The founders Jan Koum and Aktos are models of idealistic entrepreneurs. According to the original timeline, they sold themselves to Facebook because Zuckerberg wanted to use WhatsApp for value-added services including mobile payments and advertising.

The two brothers tore up the contract one after another, breached the contract and gave up cashing in equity worth billions of dollars, angrily quit the game, and publicly criticized Zuckerberg for being a villain and ruining the concept of WhatsApp.

Of course, there is no doubt that the process inevitably involves power struggles, but we can still see the extent of their perversion.

Xie Jing Xing deeply admired such idealists, even though he couldn't cut open their heads to see what the difference was between them and ordinary people.

"Come on, you are a capitalist too."

Jan Kum said mockingly, scratched his hair and then smiled: "But no matter what, I believe in your promise, at least you have fulfilled it so far. I will vote in favor later, and I will call in the next person you want to see."

"Who do you think I should meet?" Xie Jingxing asked.

Jan Kum shrugged his shoulders. "Don't test me, man. Like you said, you capitalists are all the same. I don't favor anyone."

"Okay, then Apple... Never mind, just let him contact Cook directly. I want to have a video call with Cook."

Thinking about Zhou Fenglan who was sleeping in the car downstairs, Xie Jingxing suddenly felt too lazy to meet the so-called shareholder representative.

Mr. Cook is extremely smart and will do whatever he is asked to do. If he continues to serve as Apple's CEO for decades, he will have the opportunity to be called an old friend of the Chinese people.

This guy knew very well how the policy regarding foreign companies building servers in China came about in the past two months. It was an extremely considerate and thoughtful move to lift Henan's mobile phone production to the country's No. 1 production chain, Foxconn.

Now please kneel down, Mr. Cook. Princess Zhou is begging you to vote for her. It shouldn’t be difficult, right?

Seeing the shareholder representatives from Apple busy debugging the online video conferencing function, Xie Jingxing took the opportunity to write down his evaluation of Jan Koum on a piece of paper.

It is extremely resistant to WhatsApp's entry into the mobile payment business and is not leaning towards either side for the time being.

Tencent has a headache. Xie Jingxing guessed that if Jan Koum was pushed too far, he might turn to Apple, Microsoft, or even Facebook.

Facebook has had a hard time recently. It first acquired Snap in full and then developed its own instant messaging product. However, it cannot achieve the same ecological integration as Tencent with just a traffic entrance.

Relying on the rapid growth of Instagram to survive, Zuckerberg's ambition to develop mobile payments has reached its peak, and WhatsApp, which has 300 million global users, has become more attractive than ever.

From Jan Kum's perspective, they are all being raped by the capitalists like bitches, so it's always better for them than for foreigners.

"Apple is willing to buy your 7% stake at a good price."

The video call was connected, and the shareholder representative stood next to the big screen like a wooden man. On the screen, Cook, with a serious face, came up and made a critical attack.

Sure enough, as WhatsApp became increasingly stable, Apple was ready to kick Tencent out and take over.

Xie Jingxing felt sad for his brother Liu Chih-Ping and reminded him lightly: "If I remember correctly, Tencent has the priority right to repurchase."

"This is not a constraint. All conditions can be negotiated. I can give you a valuation of 500 billion US dollars." Cook pushed his glasses.

Apple's mobile payment function is under construction and is expected to be launched in October this year.

Think about WeChat Pay across the sea, which saw its user base surge by 30 million in just one week. If it doesn’t want to find a way to kick Tencent out, it will have to find a way to avoid being kicked out by Apple’s board of directors.

"No, I have no intention of selling my shares for the time being. My fiancée plans to pass this shareholding on to our child to commemorate how outstanding his parents were."

Xie Jingxing was shameless and didn't say anything.

Cook was helpless. The 7% stake would not affect the overall situation. There was no need for Apple or him to take a hard approach with Xie Jingxing over this. They still had to start from Tencent.

Xie Jingxing successfully obtained the votes of approval again, and Tencent lost another point.

Cook is busy with work, so holding a temporary online meeting was enough to give him face. He said a few words about the business and then hung up in a hurry.

"Thanks. I heard that you bought shares in the New York Knicks. Do you know what happened to the Clippers recently? Our CEO Steve plans to acquire the Clippers in full and build a luxurious lineup to win the NBA championship trophy. If you love basketball as much as I do, Steve would like to invite you to buy shares."

The Microsoft shareholder representatives were even more important and presented enthusiastic greeting gifts.

Xie Jingxing couldn't help but grin. With four votes in favor, it didn't matter whether Amazon agreed to the equity change.

The Xiao Ma Ge brand roast suckling pig was about to be served in the center of the table, and the diners couldn't wait to raise their knives and forks.

(End of this chapter)