Chapter 211 Snake Swallows Elephant

The summer nights in Shanghai are not long. At four o'clock in the morning, the sky is just turning pale.

There was a light drizzle in the sky, but it was evaporated by the heat before it hit the ground, leaving only tiny, twisted water marks on the windows of the high-rise buildings.

It was like Zhu Xiaohu's mental state was revealed. He paced back and forth by the window with bloodshot eyes and untidy beard. He put his hands on his hips and turned around abruptly, saying for the nth time: "No, Mr. Xie, you have to tell me the truth."

"The market situation is fierce. Forcibly confiscating the commander's military power will cause big problems! I know you must have a backup plan. You have to tell me. This is not the first or second time we have cooperated."

He raised his voice unconsciously: "What if Zhang Xuhao refuses to cooperate with the management and causes trouble, or forcibly seeks external capital to join the game?!"

"Wait a little longer, it's almost dawn."

Xie Jingxing lay flat on the sofa, as still as a rock.

It was smelly and hard, Zhu Xiaohu cursed inwardly. He was suppressed by the stone the whole night and had no chance to mediate.

Two lights flashed on the phone screen. They were messages from Shen Nanpeng and Peng Zhijian. They had both taken the earliest flight from Beijing and were lucky enough to avoid delays and make it in time for breakfast.

[Hurry up, I can't bear it anymore, he must replace Zhang Xuhao. ]

Zhu Xiaohu sent a message in a small group that was temporarily created, including all shareholders except Xie Jingxing and Zhang Xuhao. He represented several small shareholders who collectively held 8% of the shares.

Sequoia China holds 11% of the shares and Tencent holds 15%, for a total of 34%.

[What does Zhang Xuhao think? ] Shen Nanpeng asked in the group.

Zhu Xiaohu glanced at Xie Jingxing, who was lying on the sofa like a corpse, and found a place to sit down unhappily: [His assistant booked two high-speed rail tickets to Hangzhou this afternoon. ]

【Xie Jingxing didn't respond?】Peng Zhijian asked immediately.

Zhu Xiaohu drew a circle in his heart and replied vaguely: "I can't say for sure. You guys come over first. Let's sit down and talk frankly, and then we'll know what's going on."

It takes more than two hours to drive from Shanghai to Hangzhou. Zhang Xuhao went to great lengths to ask his assistant to book a high-speed rail ticket to emphasize his attitude. He agreed to acquire Dianping and was willing to make adjustments to some of the company's existing problems.

Unless the talks completely break down today, he will not easily go to the extent of bringing in Alibaba.

Xie Jingxing was clearly determined to get rid of Zhang Xuhao, but he chose to maintain a stalemate all night to give the other party a chance to react, which was most likely also to give the shareholders time to react.

When everyone is gathered together, put the matter on the table and solve it once and for all by cutting the Gordian knot.

Both Shen Nanpeng and Peng Zhijian are very busy people. They were not in a hurry when they received the notification from Zhang Xuhao about the launch of the E-round financing. However, when they learned that Xie Jingxing was going to lead Dianping to acquire Ele.me, they immediately changed their flights and rushed over.

How come they are both in the capital by coincidence?
Xie Jingxing didn't trust them so he didn't want to reveal anything in advance. Zhu Xiaohu put down his phone and rubbed his face. Could it be that Tencent and Sequoia Capital were secretly plotting something?

"Old Peng, what's the situation with your Human Resources Director Liu Lin?"

Thousands of miles away, Shen Nanpeng walked through the jet bridge and onto the plane. The situation was urgent and he didn't have time to use euphemisms to ask direct questions.

Peng Zhijian said in a low voice with a deep expression: "There was a problem with communication. Some things were not coordinated well."

"I think you should try to control yourself as much as possible and avoid doing inappropriate things if possible." Shen Nanpeng probed more sharply.

Just as they were trying to arrange for Meituan to acquire Dianping, Xie Jingxing pushed for a merger between Dianping and Ele.me.

Liu Lin is just a small human resources director and is not qualified to make decisions on her own to represent Tencent. As for you, Peng Zhijian, as the general manager of Tencent's strategic investment, are you more inclined to the merger of Dianping and Ele.me?

Or maybe you didn't know about this at all, and it was completely your own initiative to come and hook up with Meituan to acquire Dianping. Tencent didn't have this idea.

Shen Nanpeng yawned, took off his glasses, pressed his eyebrows and dozed off.

The merger of Ele.me and Dianping is what Wang Xing fears most at the moment. It is like a strong blind man carrying a lame man with good hearing and eyesight on his back and competing with a normal person in a long-distance race.

After a half-blind man and a lame man became one person and their disabled parts were optimized, the competitor became stronger inexplicably!
Shen Nanpeng had seen this a long time ago, but because he was more optimistic about Meituan, he did not take the initiative to point out the secret to Zhang Xuhao.

Meituan acquired Dianping to fight Ele.me, and Ele.me acquired Dianping to fight Meituan.

Obviously, the latter of these two trends will lead to more brutal and prolonged market competition. He felt that Xie Jingxing also thought so, and he had been trying to acquire shares in Meituan in a very early stage using various fancy operations.

But Wang Xing is not easy to control, and Zhang Xuhao is not a career-oriented person, so the current situation has become like this for no reason.

So the question is, should we support the merger of Ele.me and Dianping, or continue to match Meituan with the acquisition of Dianping.

"The key is what Zhang Tao thinks." Peng Zhijian made small talk in the depressing atmosphere.

Shen Nanpeng perfunctorily said: "Zhang Tao still has drive and should want to merge with Ele.me and continue to work hard."

"In fact, if he merges with Meituan, he may not necessarily take the money and leave. The situation is different now, and Wang Xing is under a lot of pressure, so it is reasonable for him to make concessions."

Peng Zhijian said something he didn't even believe: "Besides, I personally think that at the stage of enterprise development, Zhang Xuhao is a young man with more drive."

Shen Nanpeng was stunned for a moment and then almost laughed out loud. It seemed that this person was worthless and had started talking nonsense and talking in his sleep.

Xie Jingxing broke the window paper on the merger of Ele.me and Dianping.com, and no one would object. The two companies have been cooperating deeply for half a year and their shareholders are closely related, which is in the interests of everyone.

The only controversy is whether to support Zhang Xuhao and let him take charge of the new company after the merger, or to support Xie Jingxing and let Zhang Tao take charge of the new company.

Not to mention Zhang Xuhao's ability, the idea of ​​getting rid of Xie Jingxing was too outrageous. This guy personally carried the entire takeout industry to its current scale.

If Wang Xing were given a chance to travel through time, he would definitely choose to go back to six months ago, slap himself in the face, and happily accept the investment from Taihe Capital.

Why is it that he has to watch powerful competitors merge now, causing even him, as an investor, to feel worried?

Shen Nanpeng simply asked the flight attendant for a blanket and lay down on the seat to catch up on some sleep. Seeing that he was in a "do not disturb" attitude, Peng Zhijian had countless thoughts flashing through his mind, and took out his phone to reply, "Got it."

The message flashed a no-signal circle in the chat box, and the contact note was particularly eye-catching - A Mr. Liu.

【I arrived in Shanghai this afternoon. 】

The last message from the other party was an hour ago, and he also stayed awake all night.

…………The morning sun poured down, filling every corner of the hotel suite. Several waiters came in with a dining cart and gently placed breakfast on the long dining table.

"Boss Xie, the chef specially recommends steamed dumplings today. The vinegar they serve is brewed by our kitchen staff. Please try it and give me your opinion."

The hotel manager placed two trays of steamed dumplings and a bowl of porridge in front of the young man sitting at the main seat, then nodded and greeted the five men and three women sitting on both sides, and left with the employees without any delay.

"Eat something simple, there will be a big meal at noon." Xie Jingxing started the conversation.

Peng Zhijian was the first to speak up and pointed the finger at Liu Lin: "Director Liu, is the content of the report letter you mentioned true? Is there any misunderstanding?"

"Let Mr. Zhang solve this problem internally. Today we are mainly discussing the feasibility of merging Ele.me and Dianping." Shen Nanpeng interrupted.

Zhang Xuhao was relieved. It seemed that Tencent did not completely stand on Xie Jingxing's side, and Shen Nanpeng was impartial and only focused on the project and did not want to get involved in internal fighting.

He quickly assessed the situation and said bluntly: "I think Mr. Xie's proposal is completely OK. The excellent case of Didi and Kuaidi's merger is right in front of us. The brothers in the company all believe in Mr. Xie!"

"However, Mr. Xie and I have a slight disagreement on the M&A approach. I prefer that we take the lead. After all, the group buying market has reached its peak, and the food delivery market is still in a fiercely competitive stage. We need to invest more energy in this business."

Zhang Xuhao's words sounded high-sounding, but Zhu Xiaohu watched coldly on the sidelines to observe everyone's reactions. He didn't care who won or lost, he just wanted to make money safely.

"Mr. Zhang, your idea makes sense. We are willing to support it, but we cannot accept the specific merger and acquisition plan. To put it bluntly, where can we find the money?"

Su He leaned his arms on the edge of the table with his fingers crossed, unabashedly bringing breakfast into the atmosphere of the meeting negotiation: "Ele.me's valuation is 15 billion yuan at most, and Dianping's valuation cannot be less than 25 billion."

"Mr. Chang from JD.com and Mr. Lu from CITIC Industry Fund have not left yet. If the acquisition of Dianping is written into the contract, I think they will definitely be interested in acquiring shares."

Zhang Xuhao raised his eyebrows and said amiably, "We occupy the largest market share in food delivery and are far ahead of Meituan. Dianping is the second largest in group purchase market share, and the gap with Meituan is not too big, fluctuating by only 10 percentage points."

"Our merger is a combination of 1+1 greater than 2, and the overall valuation can increase significantly. It's just that we will give this part of the valuation increase to Ele.me in advance, solve the financial problems, and then acquire Dianping."

"…If I understand correctly, what you mean is that Mr. Xie and I have a combined assets of 99.99 billion, so you only need to invest 100 billion in me first, and I can acquire all of Mr. Xie's assets." Su He gave a difficult example.

Zhang Xuhao banged the table and screamed at her like a manic patient for an entire night, and finally figured out this "snake swallowing an elephant" game in the secondary market.

First, he raised a large amount of funds at a sky-high valuation far higher than the actual value of Ele.me to ensure his actual control over the shares, and then acquired Dianping to realize the super-high valuation.

What’s funny is that the money he raised in advance was used to pay Dianping’s shareholders, and the company itself did not get any cash flow.

Without professionals to offer advice, it is really difficult for naive founders.

Without waiting for Zhang Xuhao to argue, Su He turned his head to look at Shen Nanpeng and Zhu Xiaohu: "We advocate launching a new round of financing for Dianping and Ele.me at the same time, solving the financial problems, and merging them to form a new company."

"We will reduce the risk of capital debt leverage as much as possible, provide more financing for the company's development, and introduce strategic investment from Yunhe Logistics for in-depth cooperation."

No one commented. It didn't matter which merger plan was used. The key point was what to do after the merger.

Zhu Xiaohu accidentally made eye contact with Shen Nanpeng, and they immediately reached a tacit understanding and quietly lowered their heads to look at their phones. In their minds, Zhang Xuhao and Xie Jingxing were not on the same level.

Zhang Xuhao expressed his willingness to mend his ways and be a good person, and it was a complete waste of expression to say how well Ele.me would develop in the future under his leadership.

It would be better to explain it directly. If he is kicked out, how will he fight to the death and how much damage will it cause to Ele.me.

If Xie Jingxing can make up for the loss, he should leave as soon as possible, otherwise he will miss the No. 2 bus. If he can't make up for it, it won't be too late to discuss whether he can stay and not leave.

"Mr. Zhang, I'm wondering if you can demonstrate the feasibility of a direct merger with Meituan. A three-way deal between Ele.me, Dianping, and Meituan. Meituan can separate its food delivery business and merge it with Ele.me, and then Meituan can merge with Dianping."

Facts have proven that human potential is indeed infinite. Peng Zhijian, who was eager to save himself, proposed a creative suggestion: "In this way, you can integrate the food delivery market, and Meituan integrates the group purchase market. Then everyone will be peaceful and don't have to burn money."

He almost said clearly that he didn't want to compare himself with Xie Jingxing in order to bring anything to Ele.me, and that there was only hope if he muddied the waters with some nonsense.

Everyone present was stunned. Zhu Xiaohu and Shen Nanpeng looked at each other again. This statement sounded really bad at first glance... It was just that. If you think about it carefully, you can't go through the discharge procedures of the mental hospital...

Even Xie Jingxing, who had just finished a bowl of porridge, raised his head and slowly wiped the corners of his mouth: "Does Ele.me need financing after the merger with Dianping?"

"Yes, the targeted blasting plan you proposed has yielded significant results."

Song Anli was prepared to give detailed data: "Take the Dali market in Yunnan as an example. In February, Ele.me took the lead in launching a subsidy burning plan. By March, the cumulative budget was 830 million yuan, and the market share increased from 27% to 67%."

"Meituan did not respond during this period. In late March, we reduced our subsidy plan, and Meituan counterattacked by increasing subsidies. By mid-May, a total of 1000 million yuan had been burned, and the market share returned to 51%."

She looked at Kang Jia and said, "According to Mr. Kang, we plan to launch a large-scale subsidy spending plan again next month, with no budget cap, subject to the market share returning to more than 60%."

"In the past six months, our Dali city agents have suffered a cumulative loss of 600 million yuan, while Meituan's Dali city agents have suffered higher losses, and Ele.me and Meituan have also suffered losses of more than 500 million yuan."

Song Anli finished speaking in one breath, paused for a moment and emphasized: "The situation of repeatedly burning tens of millions of dollars in a city will continue. Ele.me and Meituan are both in a state of serious bleeding, and they must have large-scale financing support."

"Ele.me is bleeding dry, and CEO Zhang is thinking about launching a round E financing. Meituan's situation won't be much better, as they are also about to raise funds."

Xie Jing Xing drowned a steamed dumpling in the vinegar dish with an expressionless face: "Boss Zhu, do you want to fight till the end of time?"

Zhu Xiaohu had a dead look on his face and said nothing. He was thinking a bunch of shit. He wished that the guy in front of him, along with Xiao Ma Ge, Teacher Ma, and Wang Xing would all die suddenly.

"Mr. Shen, you are more optimistic about Meituan. Do you want to help Meituan acquire Ele.me, or acquire Dianping?" Xie Jingxing asked again.

Shen Nanpeng frowned slightly, and Peng Zhijian felt his heart skip a beat.

"So I'm not bothered, what are you bothered about?"

Xie Jing Xing stood up and stretched: "You guys chat slowly, I'll take a nap, don't leave, let's have lunch."

After watching him walk away with ease and confidence, Song Anli clenched her hands and sat down at his main seat. She looked around the room and nodded slightly at the steamed buns in the vinegar dish: "In any case, Mr. Zhang is not in your core target plan."

"Crench."

The chair made a harsh sound as it rolled across the floor. Kang Jia supported himself on the dining table with one hand while leaning forward with the other hand hanging down.

(End of this chapter)