iQiyi has a total of three headquarters in China, located in Beijing, Shanghai and Chengdu. Among them, the headquarters building in Beijing is in Zhongguancun, which was converted from a 17-story building purchased by iQiyi.
Name: iQiyi Innovation Building.
Jing Gao drove to the downstairs of iQiyi Innovation Building today. Bodyguard Chen Aiyang and assistant Guan Yujia were already waiting downstairs. There were also a number of iQiyi executives from Gong Yu on down.
A senior executive wisely stepped forward and took the car key from Jing Gao, "Mr. Jing, let me park the car for you."
Jing Gao smiled and nodded to him, then greeted Guan Yujia and Chen Aiyang, "Guan Guan, Ai Yang."
"Mr. Jing."
"Mr. Jing." Guan Yujia smiled, with a sense of being moisturized by the rain. She returned to the capital from vacation a few days ago. Jing Gao was in her villa last night. At this time, Guan Guan was wearing a white suit.
, wearing high heels and wearing her hair in a bun, she was looking at a charming and beautiful young woman.
Jing Gao nodded and shook hands with Gong Yu, "Old Gong, I have caused trouble for you."
Gong Yu, wearing glasses and 51 years old, smiled and said: "Mr. Jing, you are the controlling shareholder of iQiyi. It is our honor to come to inspect the work. Mr. Jing, please come over here!"
The work in the iQiyi headquarters building is orderly. Gong Yu did not pave the way for the red carpet. The employees lined the streets to welcome this kind of routine. After all, he is not a figure in the system, so it seems nondescript.
Instead, they just summoned a group of senior executives to accompany them around each office area, and the senior executive in charge gave a general introduction to Jinggao.
Jing Gao didn't speak or burst into applause, he just looked at the situation.
Compared with the executives of iQiyi's content production department that Jing Gao met at Phoenix Film and Television a few months ago, all of them were new faces here.
Surrounded by more than a dozen senior executives, Jing Gao asked Gong Yu, "Are these new senior executives promoted from within or recruited from outside?"
Gong Yu smiled and said: "Half and half."
Jing Gao laughed, "Personally, I like to promote executives from within. But every company has its own corporate culture. Every industry has its own organizational structure. In terms of personnel, start from the perspective of work that is beneficial to you. I only look at work."
result."
Gong Yu felt relieved and said, "Mr. Jing, thank you."
After looking around in the building for more than an hour, visiting various departments of iQiyi, the group went to the luxurious conference room on the 7th floor for a meeting.
Jing Gao sat comfortably at the head of the long oval table in the conference room, listening to Gong Yu introduce the "reforms" of iQiyi in the past few months.
The first thing to mention is iQiyi’s board of directors, management personnel, and company structure issues. Although Gong Yu only holds 1.8% of the shares, as the founder, he is still the chairman of iQiyi.
In fact, from Jing Gao's point of view, the first thing is to understand iQiyi's equity and market value. This is his perspective as a capital and a big boss when looking at the problem.
As of November 12, 2018, after iQiyi was listed on the U.S. stock market in March, the equity distribution was as follows: controlling shareholder Phoenix Group held 63.2% of the shares, Baidu held 10%, Hillhouse Capital held 7.7%, and Xiaomi held 6.4%.
%, Hongbin Capital accounts for 5%, Gong Yu among the founding team accounts for 1.8%, and the remaining founding veterans together account for 1.6%.
Phoenix Group had invested in iQiyi at the beginning and got 10% of the shares. Jing Gao had a good personal relationship with Li Yanhong and had been discussing the acquisition of iQiyi with him. In the first half of the year, iQiyi was about to go public, and Baidu also
Maybe sell it to him at a low price. In the end, the two parties reached an agreement in July, more than three months after iQiyi went public.
In July, iQiyi's market value in the U.S. stock market peaked at US$7 billion. Baidu sold 40% of its shares to Phoenix Group at this price, for US$2.8 billion. Phoenix Group paid US$600 million in cash + Uber equity
.
At the same time, the two parties also signed an agreement at that time. Within two years, as long as iQiyi's market value reaches US$14 billion, Baidu will need to sell 20% of its equity to Phoenix Group at this price.
In fact, by September, iQiyi's highest market value had soared to a market value of US$31.5 billion. This equity acquisition agreement was executed.
Baidu, which is making every effort to transform into "intelligent driving", also needs a large amount of cash to supplement its assets.
Of course, from the current point of view, Baidu is doing a loss-making business. After all, when the market value of 14 billion US dollars was sold, it was far from the peak of iQiyi. However, as time entered November, iQiyi’s market value had already fallen.
Back to $18 billion.
There are three reasons for this.
First, in March, when iQiyi went public during the window period, the story Gong Yu told the U.S. capital market was "the Chinese version of Netflix." Think about it, what is the market value of Netflix? A market value of US$177 billion
.
However, no matter how good the story is, it will be false without the support of fundamentals. Therefore, iQiyi fell rapidly after its market value soared to US$31.5 billion.
Second, Phoenix Group has spent a lot of cash to increase its stake in iQiyi, and Uber's expansion has reached its peak in China. The cash flow generated by shared travel is not enough to support Phoenix Group's continued expansion.
In fact, Phoenix Group's shareholding in core member company Uber is gradually declining. As of today, Phoenix Group's shareholding has dropped to 17.8%. Uber's market value in Hong Kong stocks has also dropped to a high point of US$38 billion.
The reduced shares were cashed out on Hong Kong stocks and used to support Phoenix Group's other businesses.
Jing Gao was in the capital during this period. In September, An Xiaoqian left her assistant, the 1.8-meter-tall beauty Fei Jiayi, who graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, in the capital. He asked Fei Jiayi to organize his
For the assets, Fei Jiayi has completed this work and the report was submitted to him.
He saw the changes in Uber's equity when he read the report. At present, Fei Jiayi has left the capital and returned to Shenzhen to work with Xiao Qian.
Therefore, Phoenix Group sold part of its shares in the secondary market, that is, the open market of U.S. stocks. This had an impact on iQiyi's stock price.
Third, iQiyi is significantly reducing its business and is packaging the original content production department, as well as the e-commerce and game departments that can bring cash flow, and selling them to the original shareholders at a suitable price. The new company formed: Qiyi Chaomei.
This new company will operate variety shows, online dramas and other content related to the original iQiyi. The online website and software are called "iQiyi TV". It has already obtained an online video license through mergers and acquisitions.
However, the U.S. capital market is not convinced of iQiyi's comprehensive transformation and comprehensive study of Netflix's strategies. The market value has been declining.
…
The market value of iQiyi is declining. During this period, Phoenix Group also sold part of its equity to obtain funds. This part of the funds will be provided to iQiyi in the form of debt to ensure that iQiyi has cash to transform and film dramas.
When iQiyi's market value was US$28 billion, Phoenix Group sold a 5% stake to Hongbin Capital for US$1.25 billion. Shen Nanpeng and Jing Gao had an intersection, and he led the business.
Phoenix Group also sold 1.8% of its shares in the open market when iQiyi's market value dropped to US$22 billion, raising US$396 million in funds.
At the same time, changes among shareholders also include early financial investor Xiaomi reducing its holdings, but Zhang Lei of Hillhouse Capital chose to increase its holdings in iQiyi. Therefore, the equity interests of both parties have changed.
As for the changing hands and purchases of other small shares in the stock market, it will not affect the member structure of iQiyi's board of directors.
Jing Gao took his mobile phone and opened the iQiyi software. At the same time, he looked at the projector in the conference room and listened to Gong Yu using a PPT to introduce iQiyi's board of directors and management structure.
iQiyi's board of directors has a total of six permanent directors + 3 non-independent directors. The six permanent directors are each composed of Chairman Gong Yu and one representative from Phoenix Group, Baidu, Hillhouse, Xiaomi, and Hongbin Capital.
The management structure is still the same, adopting the model of an operations management committee. It is led by the CEO, plus the COO, CTO, CFO and other members, and then down to the presidents of each business segment.
The president is divided into senior vice presidents and vice presidents. Each department is divided into directors, senior deputy directors, deputy directors, senior managers, managers, and staff.
Corresponding positions have their own grades, which are linked to benefits, salaries, and bonuses.
After introducing the personnel issues, Gong Yu said: "Mr. Jing, according to your instructions, we at iQiyi are currently facing two major events. First, we are preparing to delist from the U.S. stock market and return to the Hong Kong stock market. We have submitted an application to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. .
The second thing is to change our drama purchase model and fully learn from Netflix. At present, the production orders we have placed have been approved by a batch of scripts, and the pilot episodes have also been filmed. They are now online. Currently, our main focus is a movie called A large-scale costume suspense drama of "The Nine-Floor Mystery"."