People are afraid of being famous, and pigs are afraid of being strong. The same is true for icq. Once they see the potential of this company, the capitalists behind Wall Street will certainly not let it go. In order to obtain the maximum benefits, a conspiracy against icq begins.
Cifius, the Chinese name is the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, is a department that is extremely unfriendly to foreign investment, especially capital from countries that are not allies of the United States.
In just one week, icq's registered accounts in the United States exceeded 500,000, and the number of registered accounts in Japan exceeded one million. At this time, cifius took action and put icq on the distrust list.
They also held a press conference to clearly point out that icq was suspected of infringing on U.S. information security, and cifius would investigate icq in the future.
On the other hand, investment banks such as Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, and Morgans all contacted Xu Xinrong with one purpose, which was to invest in ICQ.
The fate faced by icq and Yahoo is not the same. Perhaps the United States does not want to see too many Chinese becoming American Internet giants, perhaps because some opponents do not want icq to exist, or perhaps because Xu Xinrong and Yang Zhiyuan have different nationalities.
Xu Xinrong is from Xiangjiang, while Yang is from the United States.
Due to various reasons, just when icq was about to take off, cifius jumped out and started targeting icq.
However, what is a bit strange in the United States is that when the government began to target icq, there was a huge explosion in registered users of icq. On July 10, the number of registered users hit a single-day high, exceeding more than 560,000 users.
, which also enabled icq to have more than 1 million registered users in the United States within ten days of its launch.
During this period, Yahoo only had more than 20,000 users entering the web page every day. As long as icq can maintain the activity of registered users, its potential will definitely not be worse than Yahoo.
Even though icq has not developed any profitable projects at present, its valuation has also risen. Goldman Sachs, who was the first to contact Xu Xinrong, has already offered a market value of US$300 million.
In the office of the general manager of icq, Xu Xinrong was not dazzled by the fact that the number of registered users in the United States exceeded one million. The biggest problem facing the company now is the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States. If it cannot block this attack from the other side, then no matter how well icq develops,
It's of no use either.
Compared to Xu Xinrong, who is anxious, Li Yuhang is much calmer? Did he consider this issue before establishing this company? Many facts in the past life show that the US market is not as open as it appears, and there is no fair competition here.
There are only two ways to solve the icq problem now? First, Xu Xinrong changes nationality? This will prevent cifius from finding a reason to attack.
In this regard, Li Yuhang will not force Xu Xinrong to change nationality. In Li Yuhang's opinion? For the Jianan system, Xiangjiang is much more important than here? Xu Xinrong is just temporarily in charge of the company here? In the future, he still has to return to Xiangjiang to become Jianan
He is the helmsman of a financial group, and this financial group is the flagship of the Jianan Group.
As for the second method, that is to introduce American consortium capital. As long as they enter? Cifius' investigation will naturally be blocked.
As for the 30% shares of icq Japan controlled by icq America? Li Yuhang has no intention of taking it out. The reason is quite simple. With American capital in it, Japan does not dare to target icq Japan casually.
If you are willing to give up, you will get something if you give up? Internet companies, if they don’t introduce capital? If a company wants to be alone, it is impossible to become a giant.
Look at those giant founders in previous lives. Some of them controlled more than ten percent of the shares, while some only controlled a few percent. The main reason is that individuals control too many shares, which is not conducive to the development of the company.
Of course? The main reason is that our own strength is not strong enough? If these companies were established by those consortiums, it would be a different version.
"Xinrong, don't worry, cifiis is just an investigation. You let the company's lawyers deal with the other party. It won't affect the development of icq yet. Start contacting Merrill Lynch, Goldman Sachs, First Citigroup, etc. to conduct the first round of investigation of the company.
Financing, and Gaode, who newly joined the company, will serve as the company’s deputy general manager, responsible for technology development.”
Although he knew that the matter was not too serious, Li Yuhang still had to make some preparations. If he had to, Li Yuhang would ask Xu Xinrong to give up the position of general manager of icq and let Zhou Lin, the current executive deputy general manager, take over.
This Zhou Lin is a Chinese-American whose ancestors were from Fujian Province. His grandfather traveled across the ocean to San Francisco in the 1930s and began to take root here.
As long as capital from several major American consortiums is introduced and Zhou Lin is appointed as the general manager of the company, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States will not find any reason to attack ICQ.
Moreover, the person in the White House of the United States in this era is not the person who was more than 20 years ago, who is not so arrogant and unreasonable.
In addition, this year is 1996, and Xu Xinrong is from Xiangjiang, so the US government has to take some of its own image into account.
Xu Xinrong is unwilling and helpless. Now that icq is developing at a high speed, financing at this time is really a loss for the Jianan Group. As long as icq is given one year, Xu Xinrong is sure to achieve a market value of more than one billion US dollars, even surpassing Jianan.
It is not impossible for supermarket groups.
It’s just that he knows that the U.S. government, its opponents, and the consortium will not give her this opportunity. If it delays introducing U.S. capital, I’m afraid the U.S. government will really take action against icq.
"Mr. Li, I wonder what your expectations are for the company's market value. Is there any time limit?"
"I won't give you the specific market value this time. You can talk about it casually. Anyway, our investment in this company is only tens of millions, and it's only been more than two months. No matter what, we have made a profit, but I can't
Take note, there is nothing I can do in the US market, and I have to settle accounts with American companies elsewhere."
It's impossible for Li Yuhang not to be angry in his heart. Unfortunately, this is the United States and his arms can't hold his thighs.
However, there will be opportunities in the future. Although American capital is strong, it is not unmatched by them. For example, Japanese capital and Western European capital will give Li Yuhang a chance to regain his position in some markets.
In terms of time, Li Yuhang is also quite generous, as long as the first round of financing is completed before August.
On the contrary, Li Yujia and Li Yukang were filled with indignation. One was still in an innocent and romantic campus, and the other had only developed in the southwestern inland of the country and did not understand the complexity of international business at all.
This involves not only business, politics, culture, race, country and other aspects that need to be considered.
As for the United States, they will never allow such a company to be wholly owned by foreign capital. This is the same in any region. Cifius mentioned that it threatens the information security of the United States. This is actually not wrong. After all, these people's chat data and personal online information
The icq server has records here and can also keep files.
The reason why Li Yuhang established similar companies in multiple regions is to avoid being blocked. Only in this way can he better occupy the market.
What’s more, when Li Yuhang’s industry expands overseas, he can only rely on himself more often, at least in the past two decades. For some reasons, if his industry is blocked by the other party, no one will support him or carry out the project.
Counter-blockade.
In order for his industries to develop well in various places, Li Yuhang also had to make good friends with some consortiums in Japan, the United States and even Western Europe.