Lao Lu rarely came back and wanted to go back to Pengcheng to see his relatives and friends. Lu Yu didn't have time to accompany him, so he went to Pengcheng with Hu Weidong, while Lu Yu was preparing to fly back to Chicago.
There was something wrong with Yi Jianlian's visa. He came to the embassy to apply for it again a few days ago and said he would pick it up today.
Lu Yu accompanied Yi Jianlian to Shencheng.
Firstly, the visa was changed, and secondly, Yi Jianlian also wanted to come back to see his parents.
When I walked into the embassy, the visa officer who handled Yi Jianlian's application was very enthusiastic and went through all the procedures. After asking the reason, I found out that the visa officer was also a fan of Lu Yu.
Suddenly, Lu Yu saw a man wearing rimless glasses and meticulously combed hair in the corner, who looked like a little boy talking on the phone.
Lu Yu walked over casually and listened to what the man was saying.
"My visa was rejected... Well, it was just rejected. The visa officer asked me why I went to the United States. I can't tell him how to go to the United States to watch games... IDG wants to sell shares? How much does it cost? 50 million
U.S. dollars? Where did I get so much money..."
Lu Yu confirmed that he was correct and that this man was Ma Huateng.
idg is Tencent’s first round investor.
Idg and Yingke each held 20% of the shares, worth US$2.2 million each. After two years, Idg saw that Tencent was developing well and now wanted to sell the 20% shares. Ma Huateng definitely wanted to buy them back immediately. Unexpectedly,
The other party actually asked for $50 million.
Of course he couldn't afford so much money.
Tencent is currently burning money. Let alone 50 million, it has to tighten its belt even if it is 5 million.
As soon as Ma Huateng hung up the phone, Lu Yu came over and said, "I'm sorry, I just heard you say that your visa was rejected?"
Ma Huateng glanced at Lu Yu warily. Because Lu Yu was wearing a mask, he didn't recognize him. He just felt that the person in front of him was a bit tall: "You are..."
He originally wanted to ask Lu Yu if he was a scalper, because there were several scalpers in front of the embassy negotiating prices with people who couldn't get visas.
"First of all, I'm not a scalper."
Lu Yu smiled and then took off his mask: "I am a player, playing in the NBA. My name is Lu Yu. If your visa is rejected, I think I can help."
Ma Huateng was stunned.
He recognized Lu Yu. Although he was not a basketball fan, Lu Yu was so famous in China, especially since Anta's advertisement had been on CCTV, it was impossible not to recognize Lu Yu.
"Can you really help?" Ma Huateng said in surprise.
This time he plans to go to Los Angeles to inspect the annual video game show to see if Tencent has an entry point into gaming.
When applying for a visa at the embassy, the visa officer asked Ma Huateng: "Why are you going abroad?"
The sincere Ma Huateng hesitated and couldn't answer. The visa officer became impatient and refused Ma Huateng's visa.
Accompanying Ma Huateng abroad was Zeng Liqing, one of Tencent's five entrepreneurial veterans, who was in charge of sales. After Ma Huateng was rejected, Zeng Liqing went up to submit the materials, and then talked to the visa officer about Tencent's great prospects.
With his sharp tongue, the visa officer was actually persuaded and agreed to grant Zeng Liqing a visa. Then he asked, are you the only one in your company? Who else is going with you?
Zeng Liqing pointed to the information of Ma Huateng who had just been refused a visa and said, "There is also him, he is my boss."
By the way, Zeng Liqing was born to be a sales person. When Ma Huateng founded Tencent, he summoned three classmates: Zhang Zhidong, Chen Yidan, and Xu Chenye.
Each of them has their own expertise, but they all have the personality of men in science and engineering and are not good at speaking, so they need to find an eloquent sales talent. By coincidence, they found Zeng Liqing.
Zeng Liqing was a tall man with a strong aura. When he and Ma Huateng went out to discuss matters, others thought he was the boss and Ma Huateng was the secretary of his attendant.
In the early days of starting a business, Ma Huateng and three classmates typed code in the office, while Zeng Liqing went out to run business.
With his efforts, Tencent received a US$5.5 million investment from idg and Hong Kong PCCW when it was about to be unable to survive.
After Tencent got on the right track, Zeng Liqing served as Tencent's chief operating officer, second only to Ma Huateng.
The visa officer took one look at the information and shook his head in disbelief.
At this moment, Lu Yu came over.
"Sorry, Mr. Visa Officer, I have something to trouble you with. A friend of mine is the CEO of Tencent. He is going to Los Angeles to inspect this year's video game show. He only has this opportunity once a year. I hope you can help him apply for his visa.
It’s the Mr. Mahuateng whom you rejected just now.”
When the visa officer saw it was Lu Yu, he quickly stood up.
"It turns out that Mr. Ma is your friend. When I asked him a question just now, he didn't answer, so I refused the visa. If he is your friend, I would be relieved. It just so happens that Mr. Zeng has just certified that Mr. Ma
As for your identity, I will handle it right away."
Zeng Liqing glanced at Lu Yu in surprise.
He also recognized Lu Yu as the Chinese star playing in the NBA.
"Thank you so much, Mr. Lu." Zeng Liqing shook hands with Lu Yu.
On the other side, Ma Huateng also breathed a sigh of relief. If he couldn't go to Los Angeles this time, he might miss this video game show.
He also expressed his gratitude to Lu Yu.
The three people started chatting in the lobby of the embassy. They talked about Lu Yu's identity as an NBA player, Lu Yu's media industry in the United States, and the domestic communications market and future network layout.
Ma Huateng was surprised by Lu Yu's business vision.
In his opinion, if Lu Yu didn't play basketball, he would be able to dominate the business world even if he was a businessman.
Suddenly, Lu Yu changed the topic: "I would like to ask, Mr. Ma just said that idg will sell their Tencent shares. I wonder if this news is true or false?"
Zeng Liqing didn't know the news yet, so he was stunned for a moment and looked at Ma Huateng standing aside.
Ma Huateng smiled helplessly: "Yes, they may think they have almost made enough money, so they plan to sell it. Logically speaking, we should have the right of priority to repurchase it, but their bid is too high, and I definitely can't afford so much money.
"
"Then if I want to buy this share, can Mr. Ma communicate with the people at idg and introduce me there?" Lu Yu finally showed his fox tail.
"certainly."
Ma Huateng smiled and said: "It just so happens that this time I will go to Los Angeles first. After I finish my work, we can meet in Boston. IDG's headquarters is in Boston."
The previous 20% shares of Yingke had been purchased by South African mih Holding Group.
If this share is bought by the South African mih holding group, mih will hold a full 40% of the shares, which is a situation that Mahuateng does not want to see.
But Lu Yu was different. From the conversation just now, he could tell that Lu Yu was not involved in many industries. Even if Lu Yu owned 20% of the shares, he was just an ordinary shareholder like idg.
"Great, then I'll wait for you in Boston." Lu Yu said with a smile.
At this time, Yi Jianlian's visa problem was also resolved, and he came over and prepared to leave with Lu Yu.
After Lu Yu and Yi Jianlian left.
Zeng Liqing asked doubtfully: "Mr. Ma, do you really want to use your preemptive repurchase rights to help Lu Yu acquire idg's shares?"
Ma Huateng nodded calmly, with a smile on his face: "Have you not noticed that Lu Yu's business vision is different from others?"
"What's the difference?"
"I have heard Mr. Ren mention it before. When he endorsed Anta, he did not ask for too much endorsement fee, but chose 5% of Anta's shares. If it were you, and on the other hand, you would have a contract worth tens of millions of dollars from Nike.
On one side is Anta, whose annual revenue is only US$3 million, which one will you choose?"
"This..." Zeng Liqing thought for a while, but the final result made him not satisfied.
At that time, Anta's annual revenue was only a few million US dollars. Even if he was given 50% of the shares, let alone 5%, he would not do it.
But in just over a year, Anta's revenue has doubled several times.
And with Lu Yu's development in the NBA, Anta's brand influence will only grow. The market for sports brands is worth hundreds of billions of dollars, and it maintains an annual growth rate of 20%.
Maybe after ten years, Lu Yu can rely on this 5% equity to provide for his retirement.
Zeng Liqing had to admit that Lu Yu's business vision was extraordinary.
"But what does this have to do with your support for him to purchase idg's shares?"
Ma Huateng said with a smile: "Doesn't this mean that we also have great potential?"
It seems that Ma Huateng was joking. In fact, he did not tell the real reason. In fact, Lu Yu has another advantage of owning Tencent shares -
Isn’t Lu Yu just a free spokesperson?
Anta needed to give Lu Yu 5% of its shares, but Tencent asked Lu Yu to buy it with real money.
What's more, if Lu Yu doesn't buy it, idg will still sell it, and it's not clear who it will be sold to.
It would be more cost-effective to sell it to Lu Yu.
…
On February 1, Lu Yu did not fly to New York, but to Los Angeles.
Yi Jianlian returned to Spokane from Los Angeles.
He still has games to play next. If he had not already obtained a spot in the March Madness seeding team, Mark Foyo would not have let Yi Jianlian follow Lu Yu back to China for so many days.
After arriving in Los Angeles, Lu Yu directly dialed Kobe's phone number.
After confirming that Kobe was at home, Lu Yu took a taxi directly to Kobe's home, said hello to Vanessa, and sat directly opposite Kobe.
"Kobe, I want to borrow some money from you." Lu Yu said straight to the point.
Before coming back, he had confirmed with Snoopy that the company's account now only had 30 million US dollars, which was the remainder from more than a year's magazine sales, his own salary, restaurant profits and endorsement fees.
The main reason is that the magazine has recently invested a lot of money on the Internet. Before the traffic increased, the website only had market value, and the channels for monetization were limited, and the market value could not be monetized, so this was a hole that light could not get out of.
The restaurant has also opened many branches, and rent, decoration, and employee wages are all considerable expenses.
If you come and go like this, there won't be much money left.
But compared to other NBA players, which player can have 30 million in cash in his first season?
But this is not enough.
IDG wants to sell its Tencent shares for 50 million US dollars. You know, they only spent 2.2 million when they bought it, which is a huge profit.
IDG is currently selling for 50 million, and the most disturbing thing is Li Zekai from Yingke.
In fact, from the beginning, both IDG and Li Zekai were not optimistic about Tencent. It is said that IDG discussed with Ma Huateng for a long time and asked how Tencent made money. Ma Huateng's answer was helpless: "I don't know either."
Therefore, the two are not optimistic about the "unreliable" Tencent and have been looking for opportunities to sell it.
Later, Li Zekai sold 20% of his shares to the South African MIH Investment Group for US$12.6 million.
At that time, Lu Yu had just entered the NBA and was broke. Moreover, he had been developing in the United States and had never thought about investing in domestic business.
If he hadn't happened to apply for a visa with Yi Jianlian this time, he wouldn't have met Ma Huateng.
When he met Ma Huateng, he thought of Tencent. When he thought of Tencent, he thought of Tencent News, the originator of the first online media in China.
To put it bluntly, what Lu Yu is doing is still building his own media empire.
It just happened to take advantage of the rise of Tencent.
Of course Li Zekai was depressed because he sold the shares for 12.6 million US dollars, but just a few months later, idg wanted to sell the same shares for 50 million US dollars.
Of course, Lu Yu knew that idg would also regret it in the future.
But the problem now is that Lu Yu doesn't have enough money, so he found Kobe and wanted to borrow some money from Kobe.
Kobe was stunned for a moment, glanced at Vanessa guiltily, and then looked at Lu Yu.
"land……"
Before he finished speaking, Lu Yu interrupted him.
"Okay, I know it's very difficult for you, just don't borrow it!"
