Chapter 972 Capital Negotiation
Although Netscape didn't have much money in its account, it didn't mean the company couldn't get money.
With the success of its browser, Netscape now has a large number of users. Moreover, Netscape's browser is powerful and updates quickly. Currently, users of Netscape browser account for the vast majority of the entire Internet market.
According to preliminary statistics, Netscape Navigator now occupies a large part of the market share, and the number of users is growing by thousands every day.
This situation was very encouraging, but the substantial increase in users also caused Netscape's expenses to begin to exceed its income. In addition, Zhang Hao and Mark both insisted on updating technology and products, and had extremely high requirements for servers. As a result, while the number of users increased significantly, most of the profits were invested in the company's operations, resulting in the company always operating in debt.
But even so, capital has keenly smelled the scent of wealth. Due to the success of Bill Gates, the capital market has begun to shift from traditional industrial investment to IT industry investment. In particular, the birth of the emerging Internet has attracted great interest from capital.
In view of the current situation of Netscape Navigator, many investors began to contact Netscape and actively expressed their intention to invest. However, during the first few contacts, the conditions offered by the capital side did not satisfy Zhang Hao and others, so they had never agreed to the capital side's suggestions .
But the situation has changed now. Before, due to the small scale of the company and the number of users not reaching the current level, Zhang Hao could still come up with money to barely support Netscape's operations. But now the company is getting bigger and bigger, and the number of browser users is growing exponentially. All the money in Zhang Hao's hands has been invested, and there will be no more funds injected in the future. If there is no new capital injection, the company will not be able to develop, let alone continue to maintain it. It will be very difficult.
The other way Jimmy mentioned was to negotiate investment with capital. In fact, Netscape had been continuing to contact capital, mainly because the conditions offered by capital were unacceptable to them. In addition, although the browser had been successful before, the Netscape browser was only completed a few months ago and had not been fully accepted by many people. But now it is no longer needed. Now the market share and number of users of Netscape browser are constantly increasing, and the capital's quotes are getting higher and higher. In addition, their money is almost spent, so they can only choose this path now.
"But who should we choose to cooperate with?" Mark asked with a frown.
"This is irrelevant. The key is the conditions offered by the other party." Zhang Hao is different from Mark. Mark is a pure technician, and although Zhang Hao's technology is not bad, he has been exposed to business matters since he was a child. He understands a lot about business operations through what he has heard and seen.
"Mike is right. The key is who has better conditions. We have to cooperate with capital anyway. We will cooperate with the one that offers more benefits and better conditions." Jimmy agreed with Zhang Hao's point of view and immediately expressed his agreement.
"Mark, what do you think?" Zhang Hao asked.
Mark thought about it and nodded in agreement. Since the three of them reached a consensus, the matter was settled. Then the three of them discussed the next capital contact. This discussion took a long time. By the time they finished the discussion, it was already dark.
A few days later, Netscape released the news that it was in contact with investors. On the same day, several investors took the initiative to contact Netscape, intending to cooperate with Netscape. What was even more surprising was that the famous Microsoft also contacted Netscape.
However, when Zhang Hao read Microsoft's conditions, he immediately sneered. Microsoft had no sincerity at all and was extremely arrogant, as if cooperating with Netscape was a kind of charity. The cooperation conditions proposed were simply outrageous. It was not cooperation at all but recruitment. Zhang Hao would only cooperate with Microsoft if he was out of his mind. He directly threw the faxed document sent by Microsoft into the wastebasket and was too lazy to even reply.
When Netscape started to contact capital, Song Yuanchao also received feedback from Ruth.
Because the situation of Netscape was rather complicated and difficult to explain over the phone alone, Ruth first faxed the information she had collected about Netscape to Song Chaoyuan. After Song Yuanchao received the information, Ruth explained the situation of Netscape in detail to Song Yuanchao over the phone.
"Boss, your cousin is really amazing. Can you imagine? A company that has just been established for less than a year has an investment company giving it a highest valuation of 36 million US dollars, and the lowest valuation is 29 million US dollars..." Ruth exclaimed on the phone. As the former general manager of Si Te and now one of Shenghua's shareholders, Ruth is an absolute business elite.
But you have to know that Si Te has grown from a small company to its current size. Last year, that is, in 1993, Si Te's annual sales exceeded 4 billion yuan for the first time, making it a giant in the domestic fast-moving consumer goods industry.
In particular, the two major products of Sitter, beverages (drinking water) and instant noodles, each accounted for 87% of the total sales, and the rest was shared by other products, such as snack foods and other products launched in the past two years.
But in terms of the overall scale of Sit, Sit's current total assets are around 1.4 billion, which is about 240 million US dollars. You should know that the entities owned by Sit are not small. In addition to Sit's headquarters, main factory and branch factories, there are many acquired and reorganized bottling plants all over the country, which all belong to the industrial part.
Moreover, Sit has a huge number of employees. In Jinling alone, the total number of employees at Sit's main factory, raw pulp headquarters is nearly 5,000. If other branches and bottling plants are included, the total number of employees in the company has long exceeded 13,000.
This does not include Nandu. With the successful shareholding reform of SiTe and Nandu, Nandu now also belongs to the Shenghua Group. Although they are separate in terms of operations, in fact, the two companies are no different from one company.
Such a huge scale has gradually grown through the efforts of Song Chaoyuan in the past decade. It is also inseparable from the rapid domestic development after the reform and opening up. The financial investment and manpower involved are simply incalculable, which led to the current result.
But what about Netscape? It was just an IT company that had just been established for a year. From the founder to the current technical team members of the entire company, including administrative staff, there were less than 20 people in total.
It is unimaginable that such a newly established company, and such a small one at that, could have the capital to give such a high valuation.
"What did you say? Netscape?" When Song Chaoyuan heard the name of Zhang Hao's company, his head buzzed for a moment. Before Ruth could continue to talk on the phone about how hot this company was now, Song Chaoyuan couldn't help but interrupt her and asked.
"Yes! It's Netscape, Boss. You haven't heard of this company before, have you? The fax I sent you has the company's detailed information written on it."
"No, no, no, I haven't heard of it. I just think the name of this company is a little..." Song Chaoyuan was frantically looking for the faxes sent by Ruth. There were too many faxes and they were too long. Moreover, Ruth called Song Yuanchao right after sending the faxes, so Song Chaoyuan didn't have time to read them carefully.
Soon, Song Yuanchao found the introduction of Netscape and the information about the browser in the fax. After looking at it carefully, he was sure that this company was indeed the one he remembered.
Netscape was very famous in the past. As the creator of the world's first web browser, even though Song Chaoyuan was not proficient in computers, he knew of the existence of this company.
The Internet era in China came later than that in foreign countries, but not by much.
In his previous life, Song Chaoyuan only started to get in touch with the Internet around 1996, when he was already a small leader in a telecommunications company.
After the telecommunications company was separated from the postal service, Internet access services were mainly operated by domestic telecommunications companies. At that time, Internet access was still dial-up. Because of his work, Song Chaoyuan was one of the first generation to come into contact with the Internet, and the browser used for Internet access at that time was Netscape Navigator.
Thinking of this, Song Yuanchao felt dizzy for a moment. He had never thought that Zhang Hao would have a connection with Netscape. Moreover, from the information he had heard from Ruth, Zhang Hao was one of the founders of Netscape and was currently the largest investor and shareholder of Netscape.
"Wait, when was this company established? Last year? Why does the company's address look so familiar?" Song Chaoyuan asked while looking through the information, holding the phone on his shoulder.
"Of course you are familiar with the address. The office they are currently using is our company's office. Last year, Zhang Hao contacted our company and asked to rent the office... By the way, boss, I asked George, and George said he reported it to you and you agreed."
Slapping his head, Song Chaoyuan suddenly remembered that what Ruth said was right. Last year, George reported to him that Zhang Hao found George and asked to rent an unused office in the American company. At that time, Song Chaoyuan was busy with other things and did not ask in detail. Moreover, Zhang Hao had been interning at the American company at that time. Song Chaoyuan also authorized George to give Zhang Hao some convenience as much as possible. So when George mentioned it, Song Chaoyuan thought that Zhang Hao just wanted to find an ordinary office for internship and experimental needs, so he agreed casually. Who would have thought that this was the beginning of the establishment of Netscape.
Thinking back, he couldn't help but smile bitterly. Song Chaoyuan never thought that Zhang Hao would establish Netscape with his friends in this way.
Song Chaoyuan worked in telecommunications in his previous life, so he naturally knew something about the Internet. He had also heard of Netscape, but he never expected that Zhang Hao would become the founder of Netscape. This was really surprising.
No wonder Zhang Hao spent so much money in such a short time. As an IT company, especially an Internet-related company, Song Chaoyuan knew that the cost of funds was huge. It was not easy for Zhang Hao to use $300,000 to build Netscape to its current level in such a short time. Moreover, Netscape was now in contact with capital. If Song Chaoyuan guessed correctly, Zhang Hao's money might have been burned out.
