Chapter 723 Everyone Feels It’s Outrageous
After hearing Lu Yiming's "crazy words", everyone started breathing faster.
"Oh my god, three and a half billion dollars?"
"Lu, are you serious?"
Musk was also excited, but he considered more things and said worriedly: "Three and a half billion dollars is indeed good, but I am worried that eBay will not accept such an offer."
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "Then we will force them to accept it."
After hearing what Lu Yiming said, Musk not only did not feel disgusted, but became even more excited. Because he himself is a person who likes to PUA others, whether it is payment now or cars in the future. He always hopes that everyone will do what he says, even the customers who pay him. Although the customer is God, it is obvious that this guy's belief is not very pious.
"Force them to accept? How do we force them to accept?"
Lu Yiming said calmly: "Go spread the news that we at PayPal are also planning to launch an e-commerce project, and like eBay, we are also doing C2C."
When Musk heard this, he immediately became restless: "You want to do e-commerce? Are you crazy?"
In the United States, eBay is one of the two kings in the e-commerce field, along with Amazon, and its position is unshakable. Lu Yiming is now running to do e-commerce, isn't that courting death?
No matter how many trump cards it has, the United States has its own national conditions.
Lu Yiming raised his eyebrows and jokingly said, "Why? Can't you do it?"
Musk shook his head like a rattle: "It can't be done."
Although Musk is a person who does not play by the rules, he just does not follow the rules, not that he does not understand them.
Lu Yiming had no choice but to explain: "Don't worry, I'm not really going to do e-commerce, I'm just putting on a corresponding gesture. Of course, although the project is fake, we have to do it as if it were real. After all, if we don't touch eBay's cheese, how can we stimulate their nerves?"
Musk instantly understood Lu Yiming's intention, and laughed, "That's right, compared to negotiation, intimidation is more effective."
He asked excitedly, “What are we going to do?”
On the third day after Lu Yiming arrived in the United States, reports about him suddenly appeared in the media. His handsome face once again occupied the front page headlines, and the title of the article was even more aggressive - "The Harvester from the East, He's Here Again".
Speaking of Lu Yiming, he is now well-known in the capital market of the United States. To put it in an exaggerated way, at least half of the people on Wall Street want to eat him alive.
Now, as soon as this report came out, it immediately caused a sensation in the US capital market. Even many companies began to become uneasy, fearing that they would become the next leeks in Lu Yiming's sickle hand.
Since ancient times, the capital market has always been about cutting off shareholders, but in Lu Yiming's case, it is the old shareholders who are ruthlessly cutting off the leeks of the capital market. It is simply terrifying.
This time, the company mentioned in the report is eBay.
Other companies breathed a sigh of relief, but eBay was facing a severe threat.
At eBay's headquarters, Meg Whitman, who had received the news, had a very ugly expression on her face and asked her subordinates, "Can anyone tell me what's going on? Why did Lu Yiming come to the United States? When did he come?"
The subordinate was also helpless and said, "Lu Yiming did not take his private plane this time, but took a regular flight. We only learned about his arrival now."
Meg Whitman has a headache. Although eBay is now in its heyday, the impact of the Internet winter has not completely passed.
It would be fine if someone else announced that they were entering the e-commerce field. Meg Whitman didn't think that eBay would lose given its current size. But the one who wanted to "rebel" now was eBay's biggest threat - PayPal!
As an e-commerce company, the importance of payment software is self-evident. It is definitely the company's lifeline.
However, eBay's technical team was too poor, a hopeless case. Even with Meg Whitman's crazy bias, they were still beaten badly by PayPal.
If not, why would she spend a huge amount of money to acquire PayPal?
Now, this small company that holds its own lifeline in its hands actually says that they are also going to engage in e-commerce?
Meg Whitman thought it was a little funny, but she still felt a little uneasy.
After all, if it was only PayPal that was causing trouble, she was confident that she could suppress it. After all, eBay was a behemoth compared to PayPal.
At worst, we can use the power of capital to crush them.
However, the key to the problem is that Lu Yiming also has capital. He is too rich. If he is willing to spend money on PayPal's crazy plan, it is really possible for the rebellion to succeed.
Even if it is just to split the land and become king, it is an unbearable burden for eBay, and the stock price will definitely suffer a heavy blow.
In fact, in the few days when PayPal released the news, eBay's stock price had begun to fluctuate violently due to the appearance of Lu Yiming.
As a last resort, Meg Whitman could only grit her teeth and order her subordinates: "Help me make an appointment with Mr. Lu. I want to meet him."
At PayPal headquarters, in order to create the illusion of an e-commerce platform, Lu Yiming was doing everything according to the real standards.
Whether it was recruiting a technical team or starting to spend money to rent servers, it all looked very serious.
Even some ordinary PayPal employees thought that their company was really planning to enter the e-commerce field and steal eBay's cheese.
In the conference room, Lu Yiming was giving a speech to the new technical team when the phone in his pocket rang.
"Saury, I need to take a call."
Lu Yiming answered a phone call, said a few words and then hung up, saying to everyone: "That's all for today, everyone go home."
Musk came over and asked curiously, "What's wrong?"
Lu Yiming smiled and said, "Meg Whitman called. She couldn't sit still. She asked me to meet her and wanted to talk to me."
Musk immediately raised his head and laughed: "Your strategy is really effective."
The next day, Lu Yiming met with Meg Whitman.
Meg Whitman's expression was quite complicated when she saw Lu Yiming. She didn't say much politely and said straight to the point: "Mr. Lu, what do you want to do?"
Lu Yiming smiled and asked, "Beautiful lady, what do you think I want to do?"
Meg Whitman sneered, "Your purpose is not hard to guess. You just want to force eBay to make concessions on the price. Do you think you can fool me with this trick?"
Obviously, as a working woman, Meg Whitman is very intelligent to be able to become the CEO of eBay and to be in charge of such a large company that is famous throughout the United States .
But business negotiations, to put it bluntly, are all about deception.
They bluff each other, test each other's bottom line, and then guess each other's purpose and means. They play the game of pretending to be real when pretending to be real.
Lu Yiming smiled slightly and said calmly to the aggressive Meg Whitman: "PayPal is an excellent payment software, and it is also a sword that can pierce eBay. The question is, who will hold this sword?"
Meg Whitman frowned slightly: "What do you mean by that?"
Lu Yiming looked at Meg Whitman leisurely and said slowly, "In 1998, Google wanted to sell to Yahoo for one million dollars, but Yahoo refused. In 2002, which was the previous year, Yahoo wanted to acquire Google for two billion dollars, but this time Google refused because they felt they were worth five billion dollars."
"I believe that it is only a matter of time before Google surpasses Yahoo. Ms. Whitman, how much do you think PayPal is worth now? Is money more important, or is eBay's market more important?"
Meg Whitman understood the hidden meaning behind Lu Yiming's words. He was threatening her not to make the same mistake that Yahoo made.
A problem that could be solved with a million dollars has now failed to be solved even after spending two billion dollars.
In comparison, how similar is the relationship between eBay and PayPal?
PayPal wants to engage in e-commerce, but this may just be an illusion.
But what if it’s true?
Can eBay afford the gamble?
Meg Whitman stood up and said, "You have a point. I think I need to discuss this with my colleagues."
Lu Yiming said: "Then I will wait for your good news."
Meg Whitman felt that she had seen through Lu Yiming's cards, and she had indeed seen through Lu Yiming's cards.
That’s what Lu Yiming thought.
This is an open hand.
Back at eBay headquarters, Meg Whitman immediately convened a board meeting.
Several eBay investors were present.
"Boss, what's the matter with calling us here?"
"Yes, what important matter can't be discussed at the company's regular meeting tomorrow? Why do we have to hold such a meeting this afternoon?"
Many people are complaining, and it is obvious that they don’t like holding meetings.
After all, the United States is a free country, and holding meetings here is not free at all.
Meg Whitman didn't even bother to say an opening statement, and spoke directly: "This morning I talked to Lu Yiming from Xiaguo. He said that he represented PayPal and expressed his willingness to sell PayPal to us."
Several investors were overjoyed after hearing this.
"Thank god those nerds are finally willing to sell PayPal."
"They can't bear it anymore, can they?"
Last year, eBay had already set its sights on PayPal, but no matter how much Meg Whitman offered, Musk and others refused to sell, causing everyone a lot of headaches.
“How much are they asking?” one executive asked eagerly.
Meg Whitman said: "$3.5 billion."
When they heard the price, everyone at the scene was shocked.
"$3.5 billion? Is he crazy?"
"There is no doubt that his price is not sincere at all."
"Is he kidding me about that price?"
Many people had angry looks on their faces. Without a doubt, they felt that the price was too insincere, or even that Lu Yiming was deliberately humiliating them.
However, what shocked them even more was that Meg Whitman slowly said, "I have verbally agreed to his offer."
Upon hearing this, all investors immediately turned their attention to Meg Whitman.
“This is ridiculous!”
"Ms. Whitman, we need a reasonable explanation!"
"It's just a payment software. We can find someone to make a hundred or a thousand of these software for $3.5 billion. Why should we spend money to buy it?"
Many board members could not understand the decision made by Meg Whitman. They even suspected whether Meg Whitman and Lu Yiming had reached some secret deal.
But in the face of these people's doubts, Meg Whitman's answer was unhurried: "We have tried countless times to promote our own payment software, but users are obviously more willing to accept PayPal. All attempts have ended in failure. So everyone, I think it's time for everyone to accept reality."
As the founder of eBay, Pierre Omidyar couldn't help but question this matter: "I know we need PayPal, but $3.5 billion is really too much. Can't it be cheaper?"
You know, the world's largest aircraft carrier costs only four billion US dollars.
If eBay really pays according to Lu Yiming's offer, it would be like buying an aircraft carrier. No one would be happy about it.
Meg Whitman shook her head slightly and said, "That's not how it works. eBay is now one of the two giants in the e-commerce field, and we control the C2C market. We bought PayPal because it has become a threat to us, and we must nip it in the bud."
Then, she brought up the case that Lu Yiming had told her: "Do you know that in 1998, Google wanted to sell to Yahoo for one million dollars, but Yahoo refused. In 2002, the previous year, Yahoo wanted to acquire Google for $2 billion because Google had seriously threatened their search business. But this time Google refused because they felt they were worth $5 billion."
After hearing what Meg Whitman said, the scene suddenly fell silent.
Anyone who can appear here is not stupid. They all know clearly what the case Meg Whitman talked about means.
This reason finally convinced the board of directors.
After all, they invested in eBay and they don't want eBay's market share to be taken away by other competitors.
In today's C2C field, eBay looks around and finds no decent competitor at all.
But PayPal has such potential. After all, it is a very popular payment software. If it really enters the e-commerce market and builds its own platform, it is very likely to snatch away eBay's users.
Even if there is just such a possibility, it won’t work!
eBay is a large company that seeks safety and avoids risks whenever possible.
What's more, there is already a negative case like Yahoo, where Meg Whitman finally got the board of directors to approve the resolution to acquire PayPal.
On the other side, Musk listened to a call from Meg Whitman in his office. Suddenly, he let out a strange cry, then walked around his desk and started dancing in the office.
He then left his office and announced the good news to all his employees.
"eBay accepted an offer of $3.5 billion. We're going to be rich, guys!"
Originally, the offer of 3.5 billion was considered outrageous not only by eBay, but also by everyone at PayPal.
In their view, either eBay would find ways to lower the price, at least by half, or eBay would simply turn its back on them and the cooperation would fall through.
But no one expected that eBay would accept such an outrageous offer without even bargaining!
"Is this true? eBay actually accepted our offer of $3.5 billion?"
"Oh my God! This is incredible!"
"Mr. Lu's ability!"
"How did Mr. Lu do it?"
"Mr. Lu is our hero!"
"It is only thanks to Mr. Lu's strategic planning that we were able to achieve this epic victory."
While cheering, everyone thought of Lu Yiming. After all, it was Lu Yiming's design that made this transaction possible.
Several people walked over, lifted Lu Yiming, and threw him directly into the air.
This scene scared Zhao Tiezhu who was standing next to him half to death.
If something bad happens to Lu Yimingshuai, it will be a lot of fun.
Musk curiously asked Lu Yiming: "How did you do it? eBay is willing to accept such an outrageous offer of $3.5 billion. I still find it unbelievable."
Lu Yiming smiled and explained, "Small companies and large companies have different business strategies. Small companies like our PayPal basically rely on finding a market gap and then investing everything into it. They either thrive or die quietly. But large companies are obviously different, especially large companies like eBay, whose market value has exceeded 24 billion US dollars. Their development strategy is completely different from PayPal. You should know that eBay's current market value is twice the sum of Ford and General Motors, and it is currently the world's largest e-commerce trading platform. Rather than competing fairly with their opponents, they are more willing to spend money to buy out opponents that pose a certain threat."
Seeing Musk lost in thought, looking as if he understood something, Lu Yiming patted him on the shoulder and said, "When you run a large group with assets exceeding 10 billion US dollars, you will understand. And I believe that day will not be too far away. I am very optimistic about you."
"Really?"
Lu Yiming's encouragement made Musk very happy.
Subsequently, the transaction between PayPal and eBay quickly became hot news in the circle.
The news headlines regarding this transaction are also very interesting.
The title given by the Wall Street Journal is: "Hunter from the East Completes Another Perfect "Hunting""
In the report, the news that PayPal was sold to eBay for US$3.5 billion directly shocked everyone.
The most interesting thing is that in this report, there is an illustration of a handsome young man with an Asian face holding a double-barreled shotgun, and not far away, there is a fallen elephant with the word "eBuy" written on its body.
This is definitely causing trouble!
The report not only mentioned the shocking deal that eBay bought PayPal for 3.5 billion, but also the explosive news that Lu Yiming had secretly acquired about 27.8% of PayPal's shares by continuously injecting capital to increase his holdings.
This means that from this transaction alone, Lu Yiming made a net profit of at least US$973 million, with nearly US$1 billion in cash!
