Back at the company, Su Hua immediately told the founding team about the entire process of today's negotiation with Zhang Yida.
"Did Zhang Yida really say that?"
The speaker was a geek with glasses, wearing a shirt, who looked like a technical person.
In fact, he does come from a technical background. His name is Chen Yixiao, and he is the co-founder of Kuaishou.
I was in charge of products at Renren and was also the real founder of Kuaishou. At that time, Kuaishou was still called "GiF Kuaishou" and made animated funny pictures.
Su Huadu joined Kuaishou later. At that time, Kuaishou had already been in business for several years.
"Yeah, $5 billion, all cash."
Su Hua smiled and said: "If we agree, the four of us here will have wealth and freedom."
This is no joke. Su Hua joined halfway. The original three-person founding team, including Kuaishou angel investors and Chen Yixiao, diluted 50% of the shares to him and the team he brought.
Of this 50% share, 40% was given to Su Hua, and the other 10% was given to the team brought by Su Hua.
The shares of Chen Yixiao and the other two founders dropped from 80% to 40%.
Angel investment institution Morningside Capital's stake dropped from 20% to 10%.
After four rounds of financing, Su Hua still has 20.42% of the shares, and the three former Kuaishou founders Chen Yixiao and Chen Yixiao also have the same amount combined.
Among the four, Yinxin and Yang Yuanxi, who have smaller shares, also have two or three shares.
If the company is sold for US$5 billion, more than US$100 million in cash will be immediately available.
Chen Yixiao can probably get 7.8 billion U.S. dollars, and Su Hua has the most, just over 1 billion U.S. dollars.
It is true that all four of them have become wealthy and free!
So Chen Yixiao, Yinxin, and Yang Yuanxi were all smiling.
Several of them are programmers, their ideas are very direct, and they don’t like to hide their emotions.
Su Hua looked at the three of them and asked again: "You three, plan to sell?"
"I think it's almost done. With Dioshu standing in the way, we'll double the data if we can't hold on fast enough.
200 million daily active users, this is almost the limit!
After the company goes public, the market value may be over 10 billion US dollars.
If you want to cash out, you have to wait a few years, and maybe you won’t be able to sell it for so much money..."
Yinxin is a straightforward person and started analyzing directly.
But when he looked at Su Hua, whose face was slowly darkening, his voice became softer.
For Su Hua, the three original founders respected and feared him.
Respectfully, it’s because Kuaishou has been unable to grow bigger and stronger in their hands, and it almost died because it couldn’t raise capital.
Once in Su Hua's hands, it immediately turned decay into magic.
At the beginning, their angel investor Zhang Fei wanted to introduce a CEO to them at the cost of selling 50% of the shares.
At first they had objections, but later they realized how valuable the 50% shares were.
Without Su Hua, what if the three of them held 80% of the shares? The company might have collapsed in four years.
I'm afraid, because although Su Hua is a programmer, he is very independent.
Before joining Kuaishou, he started several businesses and served as CEO.
One of the startups successfully exited through mergers and acquisitions, achieving financial freedom.
So when facing Su Hua, the three of them always felt a little unconfident and mentally weak.
After Su Hua joined Kuaishou, he launched drastic reforms.
The three of them were often criticized by Su Hua, but it turned out that Su Hua's decision was indeed correct.
Over time, they became accustomed to acting based on Su Hua's expression.
Seeing Su Hua's bad expression, they knew something was wrong and he said the wrong thing.
"Brother Hua," Chen Yixiao hurriedly came out to smooth things over, "we are just joking.
You tell me, you can do whatever you want. Whether it's a merger or acquisition, or a fight with Dou Vision to the end, it's all up to you."
Su Hua's face softened slightly, "I also respect everyone's opinions. After all, Kuaishou is a part of everyone.
but……"
Su Hua glanced at the three of them, "Can we not let our eyes light up when we hear 5 billion US dollars? Look at your potential.
Is 5 billion U.S. dollars high? There are still investment institutions offering 8 billion U.S. dollars to invest in us!"
Yang Yuanxi scratched his head, "The valuation of 8 billion US dollars, people invested tens of millions of US dollars, which is different from the 5 billion US dollars of pure cash in this merger!"
Su Hua quickly stopped, "What's the difference? Since someone is offering 8 billion US dollars, it means we are worth this price.
It doesn’t matter whether the company is sold or not. If we really want to sell it, we must stick to the price of US$8 billion.”
"Can Zhang Yida agree?"
Chen Yixiao's eyes widened. He felt that 8 billion US dollars was too exaggerated.
Su Hua chuckled twice, "Now it is Zhonghe Group that needs quick help, not that we have to sell the company."
Chen Yixiao and the other three nodded. Since Su Hua said so, it must not be wrong.
After unifying the opinions of the founding team, Su Hua convened the board of directors and broke the bombshell news that Zhonghe Group wanted to acquire Kuaishou.
Investors are in a heated debate, with some supporting and some opposing, with different opinions.
Penguin, Blackshirt Capital, Qiandu, and Ruixiang several investment institutions strongly support mergers and acquisitions;
Chinese Cultural Industry Investment Fund, Guangyuan Venture Capital, DST Global, DCM China, and Shunwei Capital expressed neutrality and paid more attention to the merger and acquisition price.
At the board meeting, Zhang Fei, a partner of Morningside Capital, said very directly: "Kuaishou has found the right way to monetize business, with monthly live broadcast revenue of several hundred million.
Why merge when there is clearly an opportunity to go public independently?
I know that some shareholders are both Zhonghe Group shareholders and Kuaishou shareholders, so they want to promote the merger of the two.
But have you ever thought about what this merger means to Kuaishou?"
Liu Zhiping choked directly and said: "Why is it meaningless? Didi merged with Kuaiduo, Mei Tuan merged with Dianping, 58 merged with the same city, Fenzhong merged with Juzhong...
The merger of two companies in the same track can make the moat deeper, making it difficult for latecomers to catch up;
At the same time, we can concentrate resources to develop overseas markets and launch an impact on the valuation of hundreds of billions of dollars..."
Shen Beipeng also came out to support Liu Zhiping, "Merger is the wisest choice. If the two companies start a subsidy war, Zhonghe Group has more than 5 billion US dollars in cash reserves."
What about Kuaishou? Does it have a cash reserve of US$500 million?
The disparity in strength is too great. Regardless of whether you can win or not, fast players will definitely suffer more if they fight.
The live broadcast business that just showed hope of making a profit may fall into a quagmire, competing for anchors, subsidizing users... and entering a vicious cycle."
Zhang Fei turned his face to the side. You guys have crooked butts. What you said is all nonsense. I am too lazy to argue with you guys.
He looked directly at Su Hua and said: "Su Hua, you are the CEO, you decide! Whether to go public independently, or sell yourself to someone else and be a little brother."
Su Hua still respects Zhang Fei very much. If he hadn't introduced him to Kuaishou, he wouldn't be where he is today.
He heard Zhang Fei's dissatisfaction, and it seemed that he was unwilling to promote the Kuaishou merger.
So he smiled and said, "Isn't this just to discuss with the shareholders?"
Zhang Fei was a little dissatisfied with Su Hua's Tai Chi practice, but the board of directors couldn't openly attack him as a CEO.
He sighed and said with some disappointment: "Su Hua, please talk to them. I will support you no matter what decision you make."
Seeing Zhang Fei's disappointment, Su Hua smiled apologetically at him.
Then Su Hua elaborated on what Zhang Yida once said to him.
"It's that simple. After acquiring Kuaishou, Zhonghe Group will end its domestic short video war and focus all its attention on overseas short video layout.
If it can really reach the point described by Zhang Yida, Zhonghe Group's short video platform will reach 1 billion daily active users and 2 billion monthly active users."
Representatives from several neutral investment institutions couldn't help but nod. As expected of Zhang Yida, his ambition is really not that big!
"As long as the price is okay, we at Shunwei Capital agree to the merger!"
“Chinese Cultural Industry Investment Fund agrees!”
“DCM China agrees!”
…
Several neutral investment institutions no longer persisted and turned to the party that agreed to the merger.
Liu Zhiping and Shen Beipeng were smiling, and the situation was very good.
Everyone on the board of directors looked happy, but Zhang Fei was expressionless and didn't say a word, looking a little lonely.
After the meeting, Zhang Fei walked into Su Hua's office.
"Mr. Fei, sit down quickly!" Su Hua greeted him with a smile.
"Why don't you persist?" Zhang Fei asked Su Hua directly with sharp eyes.
If it were anyone else, Su Hua would still say a few words even if he didn't get angry.
But Zhang Fei is different. He is not only an angel investor in GIF Kuaishou, the predecessor of Kuaishou, but also his own boss.
He smiled and pushed Zhang Fei down on the sofa, looked up at the ceiling, sighed loudly, and then slowly explained.
"That's it, are you afraid of Zhonghe Group and Zhang Yida?"
Zhang Fei also laughed. What kind of stupid reason is this? You just told me that you want to cash out 1 billion U.S. dollars at once and you won’t have to worry about it for the rest of your life. It’s better than this.
Just now, Zhang Fei's face was as dark as water, and Su Hua was smiling, but now it's the other way around.
Su Hua said with a heavy face: "Zhonghe Group has so much cash, if it is really used to subsidize the sinking market, the impact on us will be unimaginable.
I roughly speculated that it is basically impossible for Kuaishou to eliminate shaking.
Unless there is an administrative intervention!
On the contrary, I think our Kuaishou is more likely to encounter administrative intervention than they are.
The reason is simple. Sometimes the tone of the content is indeed a bit vulgar and over the top.
Also, there is no point in being the second best person all the time.
If Zhonghe Group keeps trying to fight us, I'm afraid that the number of users will drop, or growth will slow down, and the valuation will be seriously affected.
Never underestimate the power of market subsidies! This is a tried and true strategy!”
Zhang Fei shook his head and said: "Zhonghe Group does not only have one product, but the funds it can actually use to fight Kuaishou's subsidy war are astonishing US$2 billion.
Moreover, if these 2 billion US dollars are spent, the tastes of users may be spoiled and the benign business model will be destroyed.
This is a double-edged sword, hurting the enemy and yourself!"
"But as long as they curb Kuaishou's development, they will succeed."
"Then they don't care about the overseas market?" Zhang Fei said with a smile, "You think too much about your opponents. In fact, they are scaring you."
Su Hua firmly believed that Zhang Yida did not scare him. He was a ruthless man who had burned 3 billion US dollars in shared bicycles.
Will he spend four to five billion US dollars in the field of short videos? He has this motive and strength, and there is precedent.
Su Hua didn't dare to gamble. The consequences of losing the bet would be serious.
On one side, there are billions of dollars within reach, and on the other side, there is nothing after failure.
"What about Zhang Yida?" Zhang Fei asked again.
Su Hua thought for a while and replied: "He is good at strategy and foresight. You will know by yourself just by looking at our shareholders' meeting. How many investment institutions are biased towards him."
Zhang Fei nodded and kept silent. Zhang Yida was actually able to influence Kuaishou.
Being an opponent against this kind of person is indeed a bit... stressful!
After listening to Su Hua's analysis, Zhang Fei also reflected on whether he was a little too optimistic?
If Kuaishou really starts a fight with Zhonghe Group, I'm afraid it won't get anything good.
In addition, Su Hua is indeed rational and wise enough, and he is able to draw out the cocoons from probability and various strength analyses.
Finally, we came to the conclusion that “it is better to be acquired than to fight”!
Zhang Fei patted Su Hua on the shoulder and said with a smile: "You've decided, let's do it!"
"You have no objection?"
Su Hua was very happy to see that Zhang Fei finally figured it out. After all, he really didn't want to have any differences or conflicts with Zhang Fei.
"No objection!"
Zhang Fei shook his head and said seriously: "We must negotiate a good price and come back. I believe Zhang Yida doesn't want to fight this battle."
"Don't worry," Su Hua smiled, "it will take us until it reaches 8 billion US dollars."