I can become stronger by paying salaries. I have one billion employees!

Chapter 215: The $10 billion Gaode acquisition deal, a duel at Chaoyang Park!

How many shares is Zhang Yiming willing to give up?

Chen Yansen stood in front of the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, looking at the gradually darkening sky, and asked expressionlessly.

Gao Weilin had reminded him that Zhang Yiming had frequently contacted several investment institutions after returning to Yanjing, and he had already formed an expectation at that time.

Chen Yansen understood Zhang Yiming's ulterior motives: he wanted to attract more venture capital firms to diversify the equity stake, thereby securing a large amount of start-up capital for the project while maintaining controlling interest.

In this respect, Zhang Yiming was more tactful and mature than Zhang Xuhao. He readily agreed to all potential investors' offers instead of taking the first offer and going to negotiate prices with a second one.

"10%, 200 million, plus the other three companies, the total equity released in the seed round is 25%."

Gao Weilin said with a smile.

In his view, ByteDance's financing scale is pitifully small, even less than that of Kuaidi Dache.

200 million for 10% equity in ByteDance?
Chen Yansen smiled faintly. As long as Senlian Capital continues to invest, the value of these shares will reach as high as 400 billion US dollars in a dozen years.

But can Zhang Yiming, who has now gone astray, still build a business empire valued at 4000 billion US dollars?
A single thought can often change a person's life.

Chen Yansen wasn't sure either!
"Let's invest. Whether we'll follow up with more investments later will be decided then."

Chen Yansen thought for a moment and replied.

In reality, what he was thinking was that instead of waiting for Zhang Yiming to create Toutiao, he should create it himself.

For him, content distribution and recommendation algorithms are not particularly high-barrier programming technologies.

“Okay, boss, I’ll handle it,” Gao Linwei replied.

"By the way, I'm going to Yanjing tomorrow. Don't go back to Xucheng yet. I've arranged to meet Liu Zhiping and Cheng Congwu at the headquarters of Gaode Maps the day after tomorrow."

Before hanging up the phone, Chen Yansen gave Gao Weilin one last instruction.

“Okay, I understand.” Gao Weilin nodded in response; he had heard Chen Yansen mention it before.

By investing in or acquiring AutoNavi, it can form an O2O closed loop with Yunsu Express, Kuaipao Takeaway, and Kuaidi Dache, thus achieving complementarity in traffic, data, and capital.

This is a merger and acquisition case involving billions of dollars, so Gao Weilin has to be cautious. Thinking of this, he quickly opened the documents he had prepared last time and planned to review them again to avoid any mishaps when they meet the day after tomorrow.

After finishing his conversation with Gao Linwei, Chen Yansen took the elevator to the first floor, got into his car, sent a message to Song Yuncheng, and then drove towards the direction of the Xuyuan Academy.

"I'm going to Yanjing on a business trip tomorrow. Remember to bring the clothes I gave you."

Sitting at her workstation, Song Yuncheng blushed slightly after seeing the text message from Chen Yansen.

"Ah."

Song Yuncheng did not refuse, and simply replied with one word.

at the same time.

The war of words between Zhou Hongyi and Lei Yijun has moved from Weibo to text messages. Without public attention and restraint, the two are becoming increasingly impolite in their conversations.

"We've been friends for many years. Are you going to take advantage of an old friend just to open up new business?" Lei Yijun questioned.

“I already said that the phone was manufactured by Haier, and 360 was just acting as a sales channel. We didn’t intend to compete with Xiaomi. But you hired online trolls to smear me. What do you say about that?” Zhou Hongyi replied.

"That was posted by a netizen, what does it have to do with me? Do you dare say that the screen of the Haier W910 is fine? A 4.5-inch screen with a 1600 mAh battery, users have to charge it three times a day, what is this if not garbage?" Lei Yijun was outspoken and always knew how to hit people in the face.

Although Zhou Hongyi understood that he had been tricked by Haier, he was not going to back down: "Isn't Xiaomi garbage? Poor signal, crashes and restarts, serious overheating, and you can sell 200 million units? That's because there are too many fools!"

"Idiot!" Lei Yijun only replied with two words this time.

"Do you dare to curse me to my face?" Zhou Hongyi had practiced Tai Chi and Judo in college, and even though Lei Yijun was taller and bigger than him, he was not intimidated at all.

“Should I insult you to your face? I’ll slap you across the face.” Lei Yijun looked refined, but deep down he had a “life and death are nothing to me, if you’re not convinced, then fight” attitude, and he immediately retorted.

"Tomorrow at 3 PM, Chaoyang Park. Anyone who doesn't show up is a coward."

In a moment of impulsiveness, Zhou Hongyi chose to arrange a fight offline.

"Fine, I'll be waiting for you." Lei Yijun had been getting a lot of flak from Zhou Hongyi online these past two days.

Xiaomi phones also suffered as a result. After all, Zhou Hongyi, as the boss of 360 and an internet tycoon worth billions, was constantly criticizing Xiaomi, which definitely affected sales.

The other party's Haier W910 isn't selling well; they're trying to kill Xiaomi as well.

"Li Wanqiang, find me a few capable colleagues from the marketing department tomorrow to accompany me to Chaoyang Park."

Lei Yijun, unable to contain his anger after putting down his phone, yanked open the office door and called Li Wanqiang over to give him instructions.

"Mr. Lei, when you say 'capable,' do you mean marketing and promotion capabilities or channel integration capabilities?"

Li Wanqiang was slightly taken aback, looking puzzled, not understanding Lei Yijun's meaning.

"Literally, the kind that can fight!"

Lei Yijun put his hands on his hips and then started cursing Zhou Hongyi in his hometown dialect.

The main problem was that Zhou Hongyi's insults were so vulgar that even Lei Yijun lost his composure and forgot all his composure and self-restraint.

This morning, Lei Yijun accused Zhou Hongyi on Weibo of plagiarism, claiming that Zhou copied Xiaomi's phone design one-to-one. He accused Zhou of calling him "big brother" to his face but stabbing him in the back, comparing Zhou's treachery to that of "Invincible East." Zhou Hongyi countered by bringing up Meizu, stating that two years ago, Lei Yijun visited Meizu and then immediately founded Xiaomi, copying all of Meizu's projects and technology. He retorted, "If you call me Invincible East, then you're Lei Buqun (a notorious scoundrel)."

Finally, even Huang Zhang chimed in, making a few sarcastic remarks.

fight?

Li Wanqiang was stunned. He subconsciously asked, "President Lei, who are you going to fight?"

“Of course it’s that bastard Zhou Hongyi,” Lei Yijun replied.

"..." Li Wanqiang opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

He knew about the war of words between his boss and Zhou Hongyi, and thought it was just a verbal battle to generate buzz and boost Xiaomi phone sales.

But who would have thought that Lei Yijun would now say he wants to challenge Zhou Hongyi to a fight offline? This is truly astonishing.

He really wanted to say: Mr. Lei, you are all worth billions, how come you act like street thugs?

After cursing for a few minutes, Lei Yijun calmed down.

It wasn't that he regretted it, but rather that he felt that if he was going to fight, he had to win. He knew that Zhou Hongyi had studied Tai Chi and Judo, and that he had a height advantage, but the two of them had never fought before, so he wasn't sure he could win.

In addition, will Zhou Hongyi hire outside help or bodyguards?

"Find four first, then wait, find eight capable colleagues."

Lei Yijun thought for a moment and then spoke to Li Wanqiang.

Before knowing the number of the other side, Lei Yijun decided to take ten people, including himself, with him first.

“…Okay, Mr. Lei.” Li Wanqiang was silent for a few seconds, then nodded with a wry smile.

the other side.

Seeing the two arguing fiercely online, some netizens suggested: "Xiaomi and 360 are both headquartered in Yanjing. You two should stop arguing and, if you're real men, go to Chaoyang Park and have a fight! Win or lose, don't bother the police."

There's a bunch of people stirring things up below, frantically tagging Zhou Hongyi and Lei Yijun.

Not long after, Zhou Hongyi responded proactively: "Meet me at the East Gate 5 of Chaoyang Park at 3 PM tomorrow. If you're a real man, come and have a chat with me in person!"

Lei Yijun initially didn't want to respond, but then he thought that if he didn't reply, netizens would think he was a coward, so he also posted a Weibo: "I will definitely keep you company."

The news of two industry giants challenging each other to a duel quickly rose to the top three on the trending topics list.

Some netizens who were unaware of the background initially thought it was a photoshopped image and fake news, but they were completely dumbfounded when they looked at Lei Yijun and Zhou Hongyi's Weibo posts.

Two billionaires are going to have an offline showdown?

This is similar to Zuckerberg and Mark Snyder challenging each other to a duel more than a decade later, which is equally eye-catching.

That evening, Li Ling from YY Live called Lei Yijun and asked him if he wanted to do a live broadcast to generate even more buzz.

As a savvy businessman, Li Ling never imagined that Lei Yijun's challenge to Zhou Hongyi wasn't for publicity, but simply to knock out the other.

Lei Yijun forced himself not to curse, said a few perfunctory words, and hung up the phone. Then Chen Nian called, patting his chest and saying that he would go with him tomorrow.

It left him both amused and exasperated!
Reporters from the Yanjing Daily, Yanjing TV, and 21st Century Business Circle were also notified to go to the scene tomorrow to conduct follow-up reports.

Netizens from other places left messages asking those near Chaoyang Park to film high-definition videos so that people across the country could enjoy them.

The next morning.

Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng took a plane directly to Yanjing.

Gao Weilin rented a Mercedes-Benz and picked the two up from the airport to their hotel.

"Boss, Lei Jun and Zhou Hongyi from 360 have arranged to fight offline. This marketing plan is absolutely brilliant. To be honest, I've been in Hong Kong for so many years and I've never seen a similar tactic."

In the hotel lobby, Gao Weilin smiled and remarked.

Marketing plan?

Chen Yansen smiled. He had heard about the two challenging each other to a duel in his previous life. From a businessman's perspective, he also thought it was just hype, like the duel between Mark Slim and the founder of Facebook.

Releasing videos of themselves training in boxing every now and then—isn't that just hype?
"It's really clever, it looks just like the real thing."

Chen Yansen squinted and nodded slightly.

But he wasn't interested and skipped the topic, continuing to discuss the purpose of their trip with Gao Linwei.

Gaode Maps' current stock price is $11.4 per share. The market performance is sluggish, and it has fallen a few points compared to half a month ago, with a total market value of only $6.2 million.

According to Chen Yansen, Ali spent a total of US$13.4 billion to privatize AutoNavi and make it a wholly-owned subsidiary of the group.

However, it was after 2014, when 4G licenses were issued and the domestic mobile internet entered a period of rapid growth, that the premium of more than doubled occurred.

It was only 2012, and 3G still dominated the market; the mobile internet was just beginning to emerge.

At this point, launching an acquisition of AutoNavi could save at least several billion yuan.

(End of this chapter)