"Mr. Bitnet, we at Ali are very sincere. If you hand Zanda over to us, we will not only retain this brand, but also make it the leading e-commerce leader in Southeast Asia."
Pang Lei, who was entrusted by Jack Ma to develop overseas business, came to Singapore after the Chinese New Year, and the first company she found was Lazada.
Because this platform has the best data and its business has entered many countries in Southeast Asia, it is the most suitable springboard for Ali.
"But your acquisition price of US$2 billion is too low and seriously underestimates the potential of Lazada."
Bitnet, CEO of Lazada, shook his head and added: "We at Lazada are not short of development funds now."
"But is your German parent company willing to continue to burn money?" Pang Lei said with a confident smile, "Ali has nearly 20 years of experience in e-commerce. We naturally know how much resources and money need to be invested from establishment to profitability.
."
“Southeast Asia consists of 11 countries, the markets are scattered, and the infrastructure is far inferior to that of China and the United States.
Unless the infrastructure problem is solved, the cost of goods distribution cannot be reduced.
This is an urgent problem that needs to be solved whether it is for Lazada's profit or e-commerce business promotion.
It is difficult for e-commerce companies to make profits, and it is even more difficult for self-operated logistics e-commerce companies to make profits. These are all practical problems facing Lazada."
Pang Lei said persuasively, "The person in charge of your German parent company Rocket Network is a very typical businessman. He imitates whatever makes money.
Whether they are copying Zappos, an online shoe retailer, or imitating Groupon, the originator of group-buying websites, what they consider is to take other people’s creative ideas, invest in them, incubate them and expand them, and finally sell them at a good price.
They have no patience at all to run Lazada. But Ali is just the opposite. We have the patience and the strength."
"Ms. Pang, I know Ahli is a great company, and I admire Ahri very much.
However, Lazanda is like my own child in my mind.
You Chinese, would you be willing to sell your children?"
Pang Lei smiled and said, "I will not sell my children, but I will work hard to provide them with a better growth environment and living conditions."
"Lazada is doing very well now. It just received huge financing from Ruixiang Group, which is also a Chinese Internet giant like you."
Pang Lei shook her head and smiled: "Ruixiang is not an Internet giant. They still have a long way to go."
"But they are rich and trust us, and they won't say they want to acquire us."
Bitnet's slightly sarcastic words made Pang Lei a little angry, and she said seriously: "Since Mr. Bitnet is unwilling to negotiate, let's go talk to Rocket Network!
I believe that those German gentlemen would prefer green dollars instead of financial statements with heavy losses."
Bitnet naturally knew the virtues of people on Rocket Network, and he was quite annoyed, "Ms. Pang, you are threatening me."
"No, no, no! You misunderstood!" Although Pang Lei is a woman, she is not timid at all when faced with Bitnet, a tall and strong white man of Germanic descent.
She smiled at Bitnet and said, "Mr. Bitnet, we are all people in a civilized society, how can we use the word threat?
I'm just stating a fact!"
In this way, the first meeting between Pang Lei and Bitnet ended on bad terms.
…
"Mr. Bitnet, are you saying that Pang Lei came to negotiate with you? Want to acquire Lazanda?"
Zhang Yida received a cross-border call from Bitnet, and Bitnet began to tell Zhang Yida about the negotiations with Ali on the phone.
"Yes, Mr. Zhang, I know you are a helpful gentleman.
Now the management and I have encountered such a big problem and we really need your help."
Bitnet's posture was very low, which was very helpful to Zhang Yida. The latter asked the former:
"Didn't you reject them on behalf of the management? Are there any other problems?"
Bitnet smiled bitterly and said: "As you know, we were incubated by Rocket Network Investment, and the management and I only have a small amount of equity.
Rocket Network holds the vast majority of the shares and even has a veto power.
I am very worried that the short-sighted investors in Germany will be persuaded by Ahri, and then I will watch my "children" being sold by them."
After hearing this, Zhang Yida's face turned serious. He didn't care who Laizanda sold it to.
When I first bought shares in Lazanda, I wanted to make a quick buck, and I was just waiting for Ahri to take over.
What he is most worried about is that Ahri and Rocket Network reached some PY deal and sold the company at a low price, causing Ruixiang's investment income to suffer.
However, this worry is somewhat unnecessary. Ruixiang is currently the largest shareholder of Lazada, with a shareholding ratio of 24.72%.
It has a higher shareholding ratio in Lazada than Rocket Network, but because it bought shares late, all it holds are A shares, and its voting rights are far inferior to those of Rocket Network.
The voting rights are not as high as those of Rocket Network, but it is also the legitimate largest shareholder. It is impossible for Rocket Network to secretly sell the company or its shares. It must go through the resolution of the board of directors.
"Mr. Bitnet, what do you need me to do?" Zhang Yida asked on the phone.
"Ruixiang is our largest shareholder. I want to win your support and support Lazada in maintaining independent operations."
Zhang Yida thought to himself, now you know you are scared, but I'm afraid I can't help you!
"Mr. Bitnet, Ruixiang only has a little more than 2% of the voting rights, so I'm afraid I can't help you."
Bitnet regrets it now. At first, Ruixiang was worried that Ruixiang would affect the management's control over the company. Ruixiang was not given a single B share with 10 voting rights, and was given all A shares, not even a single veto right.
.
Now it has shot itself in the foot. The parent company, Rocket Network, is the dominant company and seriously lacks the ability to restrain its opponents.
"Okay, Mr. Zhang. I think it's time for me to go back to Germany in person."
"Well, good luck to you!"
…
Just when Bitnet was preparing to return to Germany, Pang Lei had already set foot on German soil.
She was quick and resolute in her work. She negotiated with Bitnet first, but it was out of respect for the management team.
But if Bitnet refused to drink a toast, she would have to resort to the second plan.
Today she is going to meet the three legendary founders of Rocket.com, Mark, Oliver and Alexander.
She was far away in China and had also heard of the reputations of these three people. Of course, the reputations were not good, or "notorious" would be more appropriate to describe them.
These three founders started out as business incubators, which are no different from other incubator platforms. That is, they invest in small companies with qualifications and potential, give advice on their development, and get a big share of the pie after they go public.
This model was unremarkable until they encountered a case that changed their original ideas and started a crazy way of making money through plagiarism.
Among Rocket Network’s investment cases, there is a German e-commerce platform named Alando. This company copied everything from the front-end design to the business operation model of eBay, a well-known American e-commerce platform. Even the LOGO design is exactly the same.
When eBay entered Germany, it saw a company with a large market share and a business model that was very similar to its own, so it directly purchased Alando with money, saving valuable business development time.
Rocket.com invested less than US$5 million in Alando, and sold it to eBay three months later for US$50 million.
Later, Rocket.com invested in a company that copied the American group buying website Groupon. It was incubated for 5 months and sold for US$170 million.
The three people who tasted the benefits twice no longer had to work hard and started their careers as "copycat kings".
They not only copied the product, but also copied the entire team.
In order to know the R&D team of the copycat object well, they suggested that the incubation object hire people with similar experience and aesthetics.
A team of Ph.D.s was also set up to carefully record the product changes of the copied objects, including fonts, colors, etc.
Rocket Network, as an investor, sends emails to the corresponding incubation team every week, and the content of the email is how to improve towards the target plagiarism target.
This kind of pixel-level replica was played by the three founders in various tricks, and the market value of Rocket Network was once speculated to 6.5 billion US dollars.
The three people also launched a theory for incubating e-commerce unicorns: the company must grow 100% every week in the first six months, and after the company's revenue reaches US$1 million, the monthly performance growth requirement is 20%.
A US$1 billion unicorn company can be created in 36 months.
Lazada was created by copying Amazon!
Pang Lei, who was sitting in the car heading to Rocket Network, carefully read the detailed information and achievements of the three founders, and she felt more confident about this trip.
She smiled. Penguin was shameless enough, but compared with Rocket Net, it was a breath of fresh air.
The three founders of Rocket.com are very welcoming to Pang Lei’s arrival.
China’s Ali! How could they not have heard of it in the German Internet circle? The Internet giant with a market value of hundreds of billions of dollars is a very good buyer.
They have long been unhappy with Lazada's losses. What if they continue to lose money like this and scare buyers?
"Gentlemen, Ahri's offer of US$2 billion is very sincere.
Except for Ali, I don’t think many Internet companies are so generous.”
Pang Lei has long seen through the behavior of the three of them. They are typical businessmen who plagiarize ideas, create some data, and finally sell them at a good price.
"Ms. Pang, we need to discuss with other shareholders. Especially China's Ruixiang Group, which is the largest shareholder of Lazada. We also need to seek their opinions."
Pang Lei frowned. Ever since Ruixiang rejected Ahri's investment, he had completely become the opposite of Ahri.
She was a little worried that Ruixiang would cause trouble at this juncture, so she nodded to the founders, "I will stay in Germany for a few more days, so I'll look forward to your good news!"
After Pang Lei left, Mark dialed Zhang Yida's phone number. Song Caiwei answered the phone, and then transferred it to Zhang Yida.
"Hello, Mr. Mark. What's the matter?"
Then Mark talked to Zhang Yida about selling the company. Zhang Yida smiled and said: "Mr. Mark, you don't understand Ali anymore. US$2 billion is too low."
"Mr. Zhang, what price do you think is appropriate?" Mark asked.
Zhang Yida explained to him: "Ali has always had the ambition to go overseas, and the most suitable acquisition target for them in Southeast Asia is Lazanda.
With scale and data, they can start business directly after acquiring it, which can save them a lot of time.
Therefore, I think US$2.5 billion to US$3 billion is more appropriate!”
Zhang Yida then explained to Mark the peak of China’s Internet dividends and the One Belt, One Road policy.
Mark was completely convinced by Zhang Yida. After finally catching such a fat sheep, he had to kill him!
He felt that the US$2.5 billion proposed by Zhang Yida was too low, and he would not let up if it was US$3 billion less.
Zhang Yida also thinks that Mark is very smart and a good businessman. If the two of them don't let go, Ahli will never be able to take down Zanda.
The two continued to conspire, and after reaching a consensus of "fighting to death", they ended the call.
Pang Lei, who was resting in the hotel, was a little worried. She was very afraid that the acquisition plan would abort, and was hesitating whether to call Zhang Yida.
But out of the pride and self-esteem of the giant, she was quite undecided.