Volume 2: Storm Rising 2015 Chapter 224 The Brave Man and the Dragon
After pondering for a moment, Lu Sifang gave his answer to this question.
"We at Dongsheng Investment chose Mihayo because we are very optimistic about your company's huge potential in the field of mobile games, when many game companies only focus on making skin-changing krypton gold games to empty players' wallets.
Mihayo did not choose to go along with the crowd, but instead focused on developing its own IP and creating a mature work to win the favor of players. Mihayo's persistence in this regard allows us to see extraordinary possibilities."
Lu Sifang paused here, organized his words and continued.
"The current domestic gaming environment is deplorable. Game giants such as Tengda and Zhuchang dominate the entire gaming industry in a near-monopolistic manner, like an evil dragon entrenched in the gaming field."
"They have the two powerful weapons of traffic and capital and are invincible. They do whatever they want in the gaming field and set industry rules. In order to survive, many gaming companies have no choice but to bow their heads and go along with them."
"Mihayo, which focuses on technology research and development and IP creation, is exploring a new direction, a direction to fight against dragons."
Cai Haoyu smiled from the bottom of his heart when he heard this, and said with a little emotion: "We, Mihayo, are just a small workshop with a little reputation. We don't have the lofty ambitions that Mr. Lu mentioned. We are just doing our best. If we can't change the world, we don't want to be changed by the world."
Lu Sifang smiled slightly and said confidently: "What we at Dongsheng Investment want to do is to provide guns and ammunition to companies that have the ability to change the world, just like the investments we made before."
"Originally this is a commercial secret, but since I had a pleasant conversation with Mr. Cai, I don't mind revealing some information to him. Dongsheng Investment has already completed two investments before this."
"One is to support a new e-commerce company that can change the landscape of the e-commerce field, and the other is to support a game company that is committed to creating a game that is as popular as League of Legends."
"In our opinion, Mihayo is a player with the potential to break the monopoly of big companies in the mobile gaming field."
The skill of making big promises is obviously not exclusive to Zhou Dongsheng. For Lu Sifang, who has extensive investment experience, dealing with entrepreneurial teams is a common thing.
If you want to fool a startup team into successfully obtaining investment, the skill of painting a rosy picture is essential. After all, if you want everyone to form a community of interests, the easiest way is to set up a target for common hatred of the enemy.
And in the field of domestic games, who is more hated than Tengda? Lu Sifang is just trying to please them.
"Mr. Lu's words make it seem as if Dongsheng Investment is a charity organization. All the investments it makes are high-risk investments that are likely to go to waste. This seems to go against the profit-seeking nature of capital."
Upon hearing this, Cai Haoyu raised the question with a bit of surprise. Although different industries have different mountains, in Cai Haoyu's opinion, the e-commerce field is just like the gaming field, with unshakable mountains standing in between.
"Investing is like starting a business. It is a behavior of going to the tiger mountain even though you know there is a tiger there. High risk means high return. Although there is a risk of losing your life and money in the tiger's mouth, once you succeed, the reward will be world-famous."
Lu Sifang explained with ease, Cai Haoyu nodded in agreement, and finally raised the key question.
"What Mr. Lu said makes sense. So what is the valuation of our Mihayo in Mr. Lu's eyes ? I am still very interested in this. After all, you are the first capital that favors Mihayo."
Cai Haoyu himself is not very resistant to the matter of financing. After all, focusing on technology research and development and IP creation is very expensive in itself.
Especially for the "Honkai Impact 3" that is currently being developed, because of the abundant cash flow brought by the revenue of "Honkai Impact 2", Cai Haoyu also has the ambition to create a mature and high-quality work!
To achieve this goal, the more funds the better.
"Based on Mihayo's revenue last year, we can give a valuation of 10 times the PE, and are willing to exchange 100 million in cash for 20% of the shares." Lu Sifang gave a reasonable price.
However, at this stage of the business, it is natural for people to ask for a high price and then pay a low price, Cai Haoyu said very directly when he heard it.
"Based on last year's revenue, this valuation is still within a reasonable range, but it is easy for our company to estimate this year's revenue to exceed 100 million yuan."
"According to Mr. Lu's 10 times PE valuation, 100 million in cash can only get you 10% of the shares at most."
It has to be said that game companies really make money. A mature game is like a company's cash cow, providing a steady stream of cash flow.
The success of the "Honkai Impact 3" series IP has indeed given Mihayo enough confidence to reject the covetousness of capital.
"If we take out 400 million in cash, would Mr. Cai be willing to give up 40% of the shares?" Zhou Dongsheng said with a smile.
"This is the boss of our Dongsheng Investment, Zhou Dongsheng." When Lu Sifang saw the boss speaking, he cleverly introduced Zhou Dongsheng and then stepped aside.
After all, the one who can really make the decision is the boss Zhou Dongsheng. However, he was secretly shocked when Zhou Dongsheng asked for 400 million yuan.
Why is the boss so optimistic about this game company? However, Lu Sifang has gradually adapted to the boss's usual style.
Although it looked like the behavior of a typical prodigal gambler, Lu Sifang believed that the boss had his own considerations. After all, Zhou Dongsheng had demonstrated his convincing strength before.
"Oh? Is this pretending to be a pig to eat the tiger? I didn't expect that Mr. Zhou actually has such a hobby." Cai Haoyu made a harmless joke.
Then he said, "But I'm sorry that I can't follow Mr. Zhou's proposal. Although I am very tempted by this money, this company does not belong to me alone."
"If we sell 40% of our shares, Dongsheng Investment will become Mihayo's largest shareholder, which means we are at risk of losing control of the company, which is something I cannot accept."
Any entrepreneur has an extremely strong desire to control his or her own business, and it is even more impossible for him or her to give up control.
Zhou Dongsheng was not surprised by this, he just found an excuse to say something. Even though he had such a large sum of money, it was not realistic to invest it all in Mihayo.
After surviving this wave of the stock market, there won't be so much quick money to be made next time, and Zhou Dongsheng also needs a certain amount of cash reserves to deal with emergencies.
What's more, Zhou Dongsheng himself doesn't care much about the issue of control over the company. After all, his definition of investment is people, not companies.
"Just kidding. Our investment philosophy at Dongsheng Investment has always been to respect the independence of startup teams and never seek control of the company. In my opinion, talent is the most valuable asset of a startup company. Only talent is irreplaceable and cannot be copied."
"Only Mihayo, led by President Cai, is qualified to challenge the evil dragon . Mihayo is just a sword, and President Cai is the brave man holding the sword."
Zhou Dongsheng said in a relaxed tone that this is like buying an aircraft carrier without a corresponding team at the helm.
A tiger without claws is just a big cat.