Chapter 973 Preparation for Listing
The call with Ruth lasted for more than an hour, and the phone became hot before it ended.
On the phone, Song Chaoyuan carefully inquired about many situations about Netscape. Ruth knew some of them, and some of them she did not fully understand because of the tight time. However, through communication, Song Yuanchao had a rough estimate of the basic situation in his mind.
Currently, Netscape has begun to seek capital cooperation due to funding issues. The ultimate goals of capital cooperation are nothing more than two: one is to find capital investment, and the second is to seek a listing.
Either way, it represents that Netscape's development has entered a critical stage, and judging from the current enthusiasm of capital for Netscape, the success of this company is already doomed. What is even more surprising is that capital is very optimistic about Netscape's prospects, which can be judged from the valuation given.
Capital is not stupid, especially with companies like Microsoft as an example. Although Netscape is just a small company that was established not long ago, its potential is visible to everyone.
Microsoft became famous with the DOS system, and Bill Gates has now become a wealthy man known all over the world. With Netscape's current market share and development speed in the browser market, if you can invest in Netscape at this time, then once Netscape goes public, it may become the second Microsoft. Even if it cannot become the second Microsoft, you can definitely make huge profits.
Faced with such a situation, Song Chaoyuan couldn't help but be moved. He even wanted to call Zhang Hao immediately and tell him, "Aren't you short of money? It doesn't matter if you are short of money, you can come to me!" It would be absolutely no problem for him, Song Chaoyuan, to invest in Netscape. Not to mention millions of dollars, even investing tens of millions of dollars would be easy.
But as soon as he picked up the phone, Song Chaoyuan hung up again.
Lighting a cigarette and smoking it silently, Song Chaoyuan was thinking about how to gain some benefits from Netscape while also ensuring Zhang Hao's interests.
There is no problem with Song Chaoyuan investing money in Netscape, but this is not domestic, this is an investment in the United States. As a Chinese businessman, even if you have a company in the United States, it is not easy to get involved in it.
The power of capital is strong. This is not about who has more money. Moreover, although Song Yuanchao is a rich man, he is still nothing compared to the large-scale and deep-rooted capital in the United States. Moreover, the United States is not Song Yuanchao's home court. In the competition with capital in the United States, Song Chaoyuan has no chance of winning. It may even lead to suppression because of Song Chaoyuan's intervention. Once such a situation occurs, not only will it not benefit, but it will also affect Shenghua's industry in the United States.
Shenghua's US company is not related to Shenghua headquarters in name and exists independently. But Americans are not stupid. No matter how well you cover up some things, it is easy for the US to investigate. When interests are not affected, the capital side may not take you seriously, but once interests are affected, the result will be completely different.
Therefore, it is no longer appropriate for Song Chaoyuan to intervene in Netscape at this time. Once he does so, it will attract the attention of those investors who are eyeing Netscape, and they will target Song Yuanchao because of the competition for interests.
Thinking of this, Song Chaoyuan couldn't help but give up the idea of bypassing capital to intervene in Netscape's investment, but he was not prepared to completely avoid contact with Netscape. As Zhang Hao's brother, Song Chaoyuan felt that it was okay to give Zhang Hao some help in business operations, and he also felt that Zhang Hao really needed this help at this time. If he could get some Netscape shares appropriately in the process of helping, it would be even better if these shares were within the affordability of Netscape and capital.
Song Chaoyuan picked up the phone and called Hong Kong, contacting the financial personnel at Shenghua headquarters to consult on the matter. The next day, Song Chaoyuan held another internal Shenghua conference call, which also included the participation of the American company.
The conference call lasted from morning to afternoon. Due to the time difference, the American side had to work overtime all night. After discussion among all parties, a decision was finally made. Finally, several professionals from Hong Kong flew to the United States overnight. After arriving in the United States, they reunited with the team formed by George and Ruth, and then contacted Zhang Hao privately.
When Zhang Hao was contacted, he and others were worried about how to choose, because except for Zhang Hao who had some knowledge of business, Mark and Jimmy had never been exposed to business. Now several investors were vying for the possibility of cooperation with Netscape. The competition was extremely fierce and the temptation was also great. For a while, they didn't know how to choose.
Zhang Hao was surprised when Song Chaoyuan's team arrived and contacted him, but he was also relieved.
Professional matters should be done by professionals. Zhang Hao and his colleagues are good at writing code, but it is not their strong point in this kind of business negotiation situation.
The arrival of these professionals made Zhang Hao and his team feel much more relaxed from the headache-inducing business negotiations. After the contact, they had detailed communication with Zhang Hao and his team, carefully inquiring about Zhang Hao and his team's ideas on the company and the bottom line of cooperation. In addition, they also asked about some specific circumstances of Netscape and provided several options based on these.
Faced with the plans put forward by professionals, Zhang Hao discussed with Mark and Jimmy, and asked about the pros and cons and details of each plan. After receiving detailed answers and explanations, the three of them closed the door and discussed for a whole day. Finally, the three of them reached a consensus, selected one of the plans and proposed several modification requests on the details. The team immediately made the modifications, and after the final confirmation, they began to communicate on behalf of Netscape with those capitals that intended to cooperate.
After repeated meetings, contacts and discussions, half a month later, some capitals were kicked out one after another, and finally three capitals with similar conditions remained.
The capital strength of these three companies is not much different, and they are all leaders in the investment community. Two of them have backgrounds in securities companies and banks, while the other one also has its advantages and has a very strong background in business and politics.
The next step was the most important one. After more than 40 days of continuous meetings and bargaining, a final agreement was finally reached with one of the capitals. This capital would invest in Netscape at a premium of US$15 million and obtain 33% of Netscape's shares.
This investment ratio is much higher than the previous valuation of Netscape. According to this ratio, Netscape's valuation has reached 50 million US dollars. At the same time, Shenghua American Company also invested 2.5 million US dollars with an equal capital ratio and obtained 5% of the shares. This investment was recognized by the three founders of Netscape and the capital, and it was also the biggest benefit for Song Chaoyuan.
Because of the capital injection, the equity ratio of Zhang Hao and others also decreased accordingly. When Netscape was first established, Zhang Hao held 60% of the shares because he was an investor, and Mark, as the main technical personnel and the core figure of the browser, held 35% of the shares. As for Jimmy, he joined the company with Zhang Hao and Mark, so he held the lowest proportion of shares, only 5%.
Now, the entry of capital has diluted their equity. Zhang Hao's share ratio has been reduced from the original 60% to 31.5%, Mark's share ratio has been reduced from the previous 35% to 20.7%, and because Jimmy originally did not hold many shares, his share ratio has been reduced from 5% of the raw materials to the current 3.8%.
In addition, the remaining 6% is held as employee shares by Netscape's technical team and administrative staff. They are distributed according to their respective abilities, the importance of the team, and the order in which they joined the company. The highest is around 0.7% and the lowest is over 0.15%.
After the capital investment was completed, Netscape's cash flow suddenly became much more abundant, and the company's development obstacles caused by financial reasons were no longer a problem. Then Zhang Hao and others increased their investment in product research and development and promotion. In the second month after absorbing the capital, Netscape launched a new browser version 2.0. The new version of the browser is more powerful than the previous version 1.40, and even added a preview web page function in the browser, which can be said to be a cross-era function. In addition, it also has the function of sending emails.
After the new 2.0 version of the browser was updated and released, Netscape's market share and number of users exploded, making the newly invested capital ecstatic.
By the end of 1994, Netscape had become the undisputed leader in the browser market, with more than 90% of the entire browser market share belonging to Netscape, and the number of global users was growing by leaps and bounds. With the huge increase in the number of users, Netscape began to have real profits. Although this profit was not much from the perspective of Netscape as a whole, the first official profit was only a mere 600,000 US dollars, but you have to know that this was profit in the Internet era, and before the second month was completely over, the profit exceeded nearly one million, which made Netscape very excited as if it had been injected with chicken blood.
At this time, Netscape's listing was a natural outcome. The original purpose of capital investment was to make a profit from the listing, and now was the best time to go public.
Under the operation of capital, Netscape began to prepare for its listing. Just a few days after the Chinese New Year in 1995, the listing time of Netscape had been determined. Compared with the historical listing of Netscape on August 9, 1995, the listing time of Netscape is now much earlier, and the listing time is set for February 22. On February 21, Zhang Hao, Mark, Jimmy and others flew from California to New York and stayed in the Royal Palace Hotel in Manhattan, because they were going to ring the bell at Nasdaq tomorrow.
Among the three, Zhang Hao is the undisputed core. Although Netscape was established because of Mark's technology and initial products, Zhang Hao is an indispensable part of the three founders in truly building the company, transforming the original technology into products and achieving today's achievements.
Even Mark, who has better technical skills than Zhang Hao, has to admit this point, because without Zhang Hao, there would be no Netscape today.
Unfortunately, Mark will represent the company to ring the bell tomorrow, accompanied by Zhang Hao and Jimmy as the founders. Mark feels sorry for Zhang Hao because in his heart, Zhang Hao is the one who can truly represent the company.
Although Zhang Hao felt a little regretful, he understood the arrangement. He comforted Mark and Jimmy, who was angry for him, and said, "It doesn't matter who rings the bell. Mark is the soul of Netscape. The first browser was proposed by Mark and completed on his original basis. Mark is fully qualified to ring the bell on behalf of the company."
