Chapter 764: Selling Zhou Hongyi as well
In the villa in the beautiful country, Lu Yiming sat on a large leather sofa with his legs resting on the coffee table in front of him, talking on the phone and drinking coffee.
The one who could be chatting so happily at this time was naturally Shi Qingxue calling.
"When will you be back?"
Listening to Shi Qingxue's voice, Lu Yiming's thoughts had already crossed the ocean and arrived at Shi Qingxue's side.
As the saying goes, a day without seeing each other feels like three years, and the two have been separated for a century .
Lu Yiming smiled slightly and said, "Don't worry, I'll go back as soon as I finish my work here, and I'll definitely be able to catch up with your birthday."
Shi Qingxue was very happy to hear that Lu Yiming remembered her birthday and wanted to rush back before her birthday. However, she was a reasonable person, so she did not ask Lu Yiming to come back before then. Instead, she said, "Didn't you say that the negotiations were not going well when you called yesterday? Birthdays come every year anyway, and your career is more important over there."
Lu Yiming laughed and said, "Haha, don't worry about this. Yang Zhiyuan didn't think it through before. I think he should have thought it through now."
"That's good. Then you go ahead and do your work. I have to go to bed. It's too late."
"Go to sleep, good night."
"Good night, muah."
Just recently, he received a call from Li Yiwen, saying that everything was going according to plan.
At this time at Yahoo headquarters, Yang Zhiyuan had just received a long-distance call from CEO Terry Semel in mainland China. His expression was a little grim: "You said Li Hongyan's attitude suddenly changed?"
Terry Semel said: "We had a good chat the first time we met, and Li Hongyan was very tempted by Yahoo's $150 million offer. But for some reason, when we talked to him the second time, his attitude suddenly changed completely, and he refused to sell the company no matter what."
Yang Zhiyuan was confused after hearing this. He didn’t really want to buy Qiandu. After all, he was actually more optimistic about 3721.
But now that Baidu is not selling, Yahoo has lost its room for maneuver and can only be forced to accept Lu Yiming's huge demand.
Christmas is just a month away. If the company's stock price is not boosted, the days ahead will be even more difficult.
By then, the loss in stock price will not be a matter of one or two hundred million US dollars. If it drops by just a few percentage points, billions of dollars will be lost.
"Can we only accept the offer of 3721?"
"The current situation may only be like this."
Although Yang Zhiyuan didn't want to deal with Lu Yiming, he had to call Lu Yiming given the current situation.
"Mr. Lu."
Hearing Yang Zhiyuan's voice, Lu Yiming's face immediately lit up with joy. After all, this was the boy who brought wealth, who wouldn't be happy?
"Oh my, Mr. Yang, I was wondering why the magpies outside the window were chirping so early this morning, and I thought something good would happen. And now you've called me, Mr. Yang."
Facing Lu Yiming's ridicule, Yang Zhiyuan felt like his teeth were about to break. But now the situation was stronger than him, and even if he wanted to cut Lu Yiming into pieces, he had to put on a smile and talk nonsense with Lu Yiming.
"Mr. Lu, you are really humorous. Mr. Lu, you are very busy. If there is nothing important, I would not dare to disturb you, right?"
Lu Yiming said cheerfully: "Boss Yang is too modest. Boss Yang, you are the one who is busy with business."
Jerry Yang felt even more depressed. If he kept talking like this, the call would not get to the point in three hours. He said directly, "Mr. Lu, I'll be frank. I'm calling you to talk to you about the acquisition of 3721."
Although he had known that it would most likely come to this, when he received Yang Zhiyuan's call, Lu Yiming still showed a look of surprise and said, "Ah, Mr. Yang, have you figured it out?"
Before coming to the United States, Lu Yiming dared to make such a promise in front of Zhou Hongyi, so he was sure of it. If Yahoo wants to expand its business, it must cooperate with Baidu or 3721. Lu Yiming is the major shareholder of 3721, and Li Yiwen is the major shareholder of Baidu. It can be said that both companies are controlled by Lu Yiming. It can be said that no matter how to talk, Yang Zhiyuan can't turn the ground to get rid of Lu Yiming's Five Fingers Mountain.
Jerry Yang sighed, as if he had lost a battle, and said weakly: "Boss Lu, you are really amazing. You have planned everything out. I just learned that the major shareholder of Qiandu is your CFO and your cousin. Whether I am talking to 3721 or Qiandu, I am actually talking to you."
This makes people very desperate.
You have changed opponents countless times, only to find that your opponents have never changed. That feeling of despair, perhaps only those who have experienced it can understand?
Lu Yiming said with an innocent expression: "Well, this is not my intention, it's just a coincidence. After all, to be honest, I basically own shares in all the Internet companies that have made it big now."
At this point, Jerry Yang no longer had any say and could only accept any proposal from Lu Yiming. If he didn't, Yahoo would be beaten by Google.
In the reception room of Yahoo headquarters, Lu Yiming looked relaxed and smiling. On the other hand, Jerry Yang had a gloomy face, as if someone owed him 100 million US dollars.
And in fact, this is indeed the case. Although no one owes him 100 million US dollars, he is willing to spend 100 million US dollars more than his psychological price to acquire 3721.
Rounding off, doesn't this mean a loss of 100 million?
"Boss Yang, what's wrong? You don't look very well. Aren't you happy about our future cooperation?"
Jerry Yang really wanted to say "I'm happy for you, you idiot", but after all, they were all people of status and swearing was indeed a bit inappropriate, so he could only purse his lips and keep silent, secretly swearing in his heart that when he had the chance to find Lu Yiming, he would vent all his anger today.
Seeing that Jerry Yang didn't say anything, Lu Yiming comforted him and said, "Hey, Mr. Yang, why are you so sad? The successful acquisition of 3721 is a great thing for Yahoo. By integrating 3721's leading Chinese keyword search technology, Yahoo has directly mastered the tool to enter the Chinese search market, and the future prospects are unlimited."
Although there are many jokes in this statement, it is an indisputable fact.
In fact, 3721's technical strength is still very strong, and it can even compete with Qiandu at this time.
This has been personally confirmed by relevant technical experts from the Ministry of Information Industry . Although Zhou Hongyi's moral bottom line is very flexible, his technical level is really not to be underestimated.
The Chinese keyword search system with independent intellectual property rights developed by 3721, also known as the online real-name search system, adopts the industry-leading algorithm and scalable distributed architecture at the time, and has good reliability and fault tolerance, and can support search queries for massive amounts of data.
This technology is what Yahoo is most in need of right now.
In the Internet field, technology is priceless, especially for a technology with broad application prospects. Safa Ratschy, a well-known American Internet analyst, once pointed out in the "Golden Search" report that search services are developing towards precision, capitalization, native language, elite and regionalization.
To put it bluntly, the previous land-grabbing model of portal websites is no longer effective. In the future search market, the competition will be about who is more professional, more meticulous, and can provide users with a better user experience.
This is also a sign of the arrival of the Internet 2.0 era.
Only by winning 3721 can Yahoo have a ticket to enter a new era.
Therefore, although the price of 220 million US dollars is very high, Yang Zhiyuan has to pay the money because if he does not buy it, he will only lose more.
But no one is willing to spend more money, so when Yang Zhiyuan faced Lu Yiming, he naturally didn't give him a good face, and said sarcastically: "Boss Lu, you are good at doing business. You only invested 5 million at the beginning, and now you have made a net profit of more than 500 million. In just a few years, you have a hundred times return. It's true that the younger generation pushes the older generation. You are not polite to me, an old senior."
Lu Yiming said calmly, "Hey, you can't say that, Mr. Yang. We are talking business. I am giving you the market price, or even the friendship price. I don't mean to be rude to you. From a personal perspective, I still respect you very much. After all, we are of the same bloodline of the Xia Kingdom, and your achievements are my pride."
"Besides, if you buy 3721, you will be able to compete with Google. This deal is definitely worth it. And I am quite satisfied with the price, so we are in a win-win situation now."
Hearing Lu Yiming say this, Yang Zhiyuan was so angry that his teeth itched, but since things had come to this point, he had no other choice but to grit his teeth and say, "Then Mr. Lu, you still earn more."
Then, Jerry Yang said, "We at Yahoo can pay, but the original technical team of 3721 must stay, especially Zhou Hongyi. He cannot leave."
It was obvious that Yang Zhiyuan was impressed by Zhou Hongyi's talent.
However, how could Lu Yiming not know what Jerry Yang was thinking?
Besides, just because Jerry Yang is optimistic about Zhou Hongyi, does that mean Lu Yiming is not optimistic about Zhou Hongyi?
Lu Yiming invested in 3721 because he was optimistic about Zhou Hongyi.
He said decisively: "To be honest, I have a new project that I plan to give to him. Besides, Mr. Zhou is my beloved relative, brother..."
Yang Zhiyuan was very dissatisfied when he heard what Lu Yiming said, "Boss Lu, I spent an extra $100 million! Can't you even agree to this small request?"
Lu Yiming said with a smile: "I mean, you have to pay more."
Yang Zhiyuan almost sprayed a mouthful of salty soda at Lu Yiming. Then, he said in a muffled voice: "How much?"
Lu Yiming said cheerfully, "I don't want much. Ten million US dollars, let him continue to work at 3721 for a while, is that okay?"
Yang Zhiyuan wanted to say that there was a problem, but then he thought that he had already paid the 100 million US dollars, so he didn't need to worry about the 10 million US dollars, so he gritted his teeth and said, "Of course there is no problem."
In this way, Lu Yiming not only sold 3721, but also sold Zhou Hongyi.
It was late at night, Zhou Hongyi was lying in bed, but she couldn't fall asleep. Her wife Hu Huan woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom, and saw Zhou Hongyi looking up at the sky. She immediately asked curiously: "What's wrong with you? Have you encountered any difficulties in your business? I see that you don't seem to be sleeping well in the past few days."
In 1996, Zhou Hongyi joined Founder Group and met his wife who was also working at Founder at the time.
The two first met through a BBS. Later, Zhou Hongyi resigned from Founder and founded 3721. Every time he encountered a bottleneck in his career, Hu Huan fully supported him and could be regarded as his good wife.
Therefore, after much hesitation, Zhou Hongyi finally told his wife about Lu Yiming's negotiations with Yahoo.
Logically speaking, this should be considered the top secret of 3721 Company, but Hu Huan is a sensible person, and when 3721 was first established, he used the money from Hu Huan's mother's family to start the business. So, rounding it off, Hu Huan can be considered half a member of the company.
After hearing the whole story, Hu Huan was very surprised: "You want to sell 3721?"
Zhou Hongyi put his arm around her shoulders and sighed, "It would be great if we could sell it. I can just put the money in my pocket. What I'm most worried about now is that Mr. Lu's asking price is too high and scares Yahoo away."
Hu Huan frowned slightly, and first said comfortingly: "Mr. Lu should not be a person without sense of propriety." Then he asked: "How much is Mr. Lu's offer?"
Zhou Hongyi said: "US$220 million."
This price shocked Hu Huan.
She really didn't expect that after asking her biological parents for money to support her husband's business, 3721 would be so valuable in just a few years. Her initial investment had increased hundreds of times!
Just as the couple were becoming more and more excited in their conversation, Zhou Hongyi's cell phone rang.
Hu Huan said dissatisfiedly: "It's so late, who would call? Otherwise, don't answer it, just call back tomorrow during the day."
After Zhou Hongyi chatted with Hu Huan, her psychological pressure was relieved a lot. She was already a little sleepy. Seeing that Zhou Hongyi was yawning, Hu Huan was afraid that this phone call would drive away Zhou Hongyi's sleepiness again.
Zhou Hongyi looked at the number and said helplessly, "It's Mr. Lu who called."
"All right."
Hu Huan was speechless immediately. There was no way he would not answer the call from Mr. Lu.
As soon as the call was connected, Lu Yiming's voice came from the phone: "Congratulations, Lao Zhou, you are now a billionaire too."
Zhou Hongyi couldn't believe it: "Yahoo agreed to our offer?"
Lu Yiming smiled: "That's not the case."
"ah!?"
Zhou Hongyi was obviously frightened, but before he could ask further questions, Lu Yiming's voice came out from the microphone again: "Boss Yang is very sincere, he added another 10 million US dollars."
Zhou Hongyi was at a loss now. The offer of $220 million was already outrageous enough in his opinion.
Yahoo actually added an extra 10 million dollars?
What is this operation?
Was Yang Zhiyuan kicked in the head by a donkey?
"No, Mr. Lu, why do your words sound more and more strange to me? Didn't he refuse to agree to 220 million before? Now he has taken the initiative to increase the price by 10 million? I am confused."
Lu Yiming explained to Zhou Hongyi: "It was indeed like this before, but things are always changing. Old Zhou, the situation is like this now. Although you have become a billionaire, I am afraid you will have to continue to be an employee in the future."
"Continue to be a wage earner?"
Zhou Hongyi noticed that something seemed to be wrong.
He was thinking of traveling around the world with his wife after this wave of business success, but now he has become a billionaire and still wants to be a worker?
"Mr. Lu, I don't understand what you mean. You're planning to take my wife out for a good time, so how come I'm an employee again? Who am I working for?"
Lu Yiming also knew that once people have money, the first thing they think about is eating, drinking and having fun, but he had already sold Zhou Hongyi, so he naturally had to give an explanation to Yahoo, and he couldn't let Yang Zhiyuan's money go to waste. So he had to persuade him: "Although Mr. Yang agreed to our offer, he also told me that this price was given because of your face. Your appeal in the team and channels is irreplaceable. Yahoo spent so much money, in fact, not only to 'buy' 3721, but also to 'buy' you."
When Zhou Hongyi heard this, he suddenly felt numb all over and looked very unhappy.
He can be a rich man, why should he work for others?
The key point is, it was Lu Yiming who "sold" him.
He is not a person who is willing to work for others. If he wanted to work, he would not have resigned from Founder Group that year.
"Boss Lu, can't I just take the money and leave? The company has been sold, and there's no point in me staying here."
To put it bluntly, Zhou Hongyi doesn't like someone controlling him; he prefers to give orders himself.
However, Lu Yiming had already taken the money, so how could he let Zhou Hongyi be naughty? He immediately continued to persuade: "Old Zhou, I know you are a talented person, but the temporary dormancy is also for the purpose of flying higher in the future. After all, you founded 3721, and I think you can take it to a higher level. What's more, don't you want to use Yahoo's brand and technology to make achievements in the search field?"
Zhou Hongyi wanted to refuse, but she held it back.
There is no doubt that Lu Yiming's words touched his heart.
After all, it's Yahoo!
Although it is a bit in decline now, a lean camel is still bigger than a horse, and even a rotten boat still has three pounds of nails. How could Zhou Hongyi not be interested in a multinational Internet platform like Yahoo?
Finally, Zhou Hongyi couldn't resist the temptation and nodded shyly, saying, "Since you said so, Mr. Lu, I will definitely give you face."
Seeing that the task was finally completed, Lu Yiming breathed a sigh of relief and said, "That's right. Actually, I didn't say everything. You can go to Yahoo and work for a while. When you have learned everything about Yahoo, you can just leave. Anyway, you haven't signed a contract to sell yourself. By then, you will still be a billionaire, and you will have Yahoo's technology and experience in your hands. Isn't this a win?"
