After rebirth, I became a great master

Chapter 522 Capital is Like a Game

"$50 billion...$100 billion..."

Xu You listened to these words as if they were child's play.

Zhang Chaoyang also thought it was a fantasy. "Zhou Haoran, are you kidding me? Do you know what 50 billion US dollars means?"

"Is $50 billion a lot? We can do that just by going public!"

Zhou Haoran didn't know how to tell them.

The US stock market is now in the super bubble period of the Internet, with Wall Street waving checks and rushing in, and all kinds of Internet companies have gone public on Nasdaq.

Once listed, any internet company can easily achieve a market capitalization of several billion dollars.

Even a terrible company like AOL has seen its market value soar to $1000 billion.

During this process, another earth-shattering deal emerged, resulting in a massive plunder of traditional assets by the internet bubble: the merger of AOL and Time Warner.

At the time, AOL's market capitalization exceeded $1000 billion, making it the world's second-largest internet company after Yahoo.

Although the company is terrible, the board of directors behind it is clear-headed.

The decision to merge with Time Warner, then the world's largest entertainment giant with a market capitalization of $1000 billion, became a landmark merger. Because AOL's market capitalization was higher than Time Warner's, the newly formed company, AOL Time Warner, had a board of directors dominated by AOL, and the Hollywood giant Time Warner fell into the hands of internet entrepreneurs.

Then, the main show began.

The bubble burst.

AOL's market capitalization plummeted from $100 billion to less than $1000, but they didn't suffer significant losses because they had already completed a transaction, exchanging the bubble for Time Warner's assets.

AOL has a guaranteed minimum return.

Time Warner is in a terrible state.

Especially Ted Turner, the big boss. He was incredibly excited when the two companies merged, saying it was the last piece of his puzzle from the past few decades. Then it all fell apart, and his fortune, built up over decades, shrank by 80% overnight.

Zhou Haoran also had this plan.

We need to act quickly.

Go public as soon as possible.

After listing, the company completed the acquisition of several authoritative financial magazines, thus transforming its bubble assets into real assets.

As for the reason...

Zhou Haoran is an experienced person; he has a hundred new internet concepts to brainwash the entire business world.

For example, O2O, new retail, OMO, online traffic to offline conversion, experiential services, and even new directions of online-offline integration driven by technologies such as big data and artificial intelligence...

Xu You found it hard to keep up. "A market capitalization of 50 billion US dollars, how much revenue would that require? It's impossible to support that with just the trademark certification business!"

Zhou Haoran countered, "Is Yahoo's high market capitalization supported by its profits?"

Xu You remained silent.

Zhou Haoran said, "This is the internet industry, which is completely different from traditional business. Especially at this stage, there's no need to look at revenue data. Just tell a good story and build a bright future."

"A market capitalization of $50 billion is supported by storytelling?"

Xu You took a deep breath.

Zhang Chaoyang hesitated for a while before slowly saying, "That's right, internet startups don't rely on data for funding, but on dreams."

Zhou Haoran laughed and said, "The greater your ambition, the greater your market value. Tell a good story, create a good PPT, and design a few dazzling and captivating new internet concepts. Why worry about not having investors?"

Xu You couldn't help but ask, "I have a question."

"explain."

"What exactly is the purpose of this project we're undertaking? Is it to build up the business of trademark certification and even various business information services? Or is it to create a bubble and use that bubble to acquire business magazines like Fortune and Forbes?"

"Isn't it contradictory?"

Zhou Haoran glanced at him.

Xu You thought for a moment and said very honestly, "I want to do something practical and down-to-earth."

Zhou Haoran sighed, "President Xu, starting a business is almost always a death sentence!" "Yes," Xu You nodded, "I know."

“Our current plan is to work on a trademark certification project. If it succeeds, that would be ideal, with the valuation rising steadily, then we could go public and pursue a series of mergers and acquisitions. That would truly solidify the business, and we would have truly succeeded in starting a business.” Zhou Haoran then changed the subject, “But what if it fails? If the trademark certification business doesn’t take off, then we’ll have nothing left.”

Internet companies are all asset-light.

Being asset-light means that if the company goes out of business, nothing will be left.

If we can inflate valuations through storytelling and acquire traditional financial media outlets by leveraging new concepts and major trends... even if the internet projects fail, at least these financial magazines will survive.

I did earn a little extra for my hard work.

Just like AOL acquired Time Warner at its peak.

Xu You suddenly realized and said, "Using business strategies to acquire those authoritative financial magazines is the final guarantee. Even if the project fails, the magazine publishing house will still be yours."

"Without further ado, let's split up. You go to the US, register the company, find a location to recruit people, and prepare the project proposal. I'll arrange things here and start by creating the website template."

Zhou Haoran could make it by finding some students at the school.

“If it’s about making a website…” Zhang Chaoyang felt it wasn’t that simple. “Making a website is easy, but getting people to use it is difficult. Even Sohu has to operate under the name of the domestic version of Yahoo to do it.”

"They're just users!"

"Yes, user."

"easy!"

Zhou Haoran waved his hand.

He has experience.

In my past life, many Chinese internet companies went to the US to develop their businesses. Their dazzling tactics completely outmaneuvered the Americans. Even Apple and Google were left bewildered.

Zhang Chaoyang's eyes widened. "You have a way to attract users? When internet projects raise funds, they don't look at data like revenue and profit, but they do value user growth."

“No problem.” If Zhou Haoran hadn’t been prepared, he wouldn’t have entrusted Xu You to transform the trademark certification project into an internet-based approach. “Right now, the world’s understanding of the internet is too superficial. Overcoming obstacles is easy! Let’s get this internet project up and running first!”

"What about the money?" Xu You couldn't afford to pay out of his own pocket. "We need some seed funding, like angel round financing. How do we get that?"

"I'm out!"

It's easy for Zhou Haoran to pay this money, but the pretext under which he pays it is something to consider.

How much money was raised in the angel round, and who provided the funding...?

This all relates to the subsequent judgments of venture capital firms.

If Bill Gates had funded the angel round, it would have been a project that even he was optimistic about, making it a completely different story and far more attractive than if Zhou Haoran had invested.

“I know some people who are angel investors, should I go and ask them?”

Xu You felt it was too risky and that it was best not to use his own money to start a business.

Zhou Haoran disagreed, "If you find other angel investors and get $50, they might only want 20% of your shares. That valuation is too low. For our project, we need to inflate the valuation; the angel round valuation needs to be $1000 million!"

"Huh?" Xu You was taken aback. "This won't do, will it?"

“Hmm, that’s not quite right.” Zhou Haoran nodded. “1000 million US dollars is a bit low, so let’s make it 2000 million US dollars. You make a PPT, and a valuation of 2000 million US dollars will be perfectly reasonable.”

Xu You felt like fainting.

This gentleman...

Is he in business or committing fraud?
Zhou Haoran waved his hand, "It's settled then. I'll put up $100 million and take a 5% stake."

"Only 5%?"

"These shares aren't something you can have as many as possible. If we succeed, 5% of the shares will be worth a fortune; if we fail, 100% of the shares will become worthless. That's settled then, the valuation for this angel round will go straight to $2000 million."

"This is a game of capital!"

Zhang Chaoyang understood Mr. Da's strategy.

Zhou Haoran hummed in agreement. "Yes, capital is like a game."

(End of this chapter)