Chapter 597 [1 billion US dollars to buy horse bones]
After a day's rest, Lin Zuhui started working mode.
In an office building in Los Angeles, Lin Zuhui, President of Matrix Partners Lu Bingwen, and several investment managers were having a meeting.
Currently, Matrix Partners has invested in 9 projects. Among them, Netscape Browser, Activision Blizzard, and Kingsoft Software (China) are familiar to Lin Zuhui. The remaining 6 projects are favored by investment managers; Lin Zuhui did not care and gave these investments.
Managers have certain privileges that allow them to have a certain investment amount.
For example, those six projects cost a total of 15 million U.S. dollars, which is completely acceptable to Matrix Partners, which bet on the Netscape browser; because Lin Zuhui knew that this business could bring him about 400 million U.S. dollars in income.
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Although Netscape Browser failed to compete with Microsoft's IE in its previous life, it was still acquired by America Online (AOL) in 1998 for US$4.8 billion. Netscape Browser went public in 1995, and its market value at the end of that year was as high as US$200.
100 million U.S. dollars. Therefore, no matter when Lin Zuhui cashes out, he can have an income of at least 400 million U.S. dollars.
Lin Zuhui held information about ‘Kingston Company’ in his hand and listened to the investment manager’s report.
"In 1992, Kingston was rated by the American media as: the fastest growing private company in the United States."
"In 1993, Kingston further expanded its network and storage product lines and established a branch in the UK to develop its business in Europe."
"This year (1994), their development speed is very fast, with an estimated annual output value of 300 to 500 million US dollars."
Lin Zuhui nodded and said decisively: "Make an appointment with Du Jichuan and David Sun for me. I want to discuss the acquisition in person."
The investment manager nodded and said, "No problem, BOSS! You are all Chinese, so I believe you can communicate easily."
Lin Zuhui was noncommittal. Compared with Masayoshi Son, who acquired Kingston in his previous life, Matrix Partners has a shortcoming, that is, it cannot bring much development help to Kingston. Of course, Masayoshi Son in his previous life also connected Kingston and Toshiba's PC department to reach an agreement.
Upgrading the memory business will not affect the development of the entire Kingston.
He wanted to acquire Kingston for two reasons:
First, Kingston has great development prospects. It has been the king of the memory field for 18 consecutive years in its previous life, with a market share of about 80% and annual sales of US$13 billion. It is a very good technology company. And once Xiaomi Technology develops a USB flash drive,
After obtaining the patent license, there is no need to worry about Kingston making most of the profits in the USB flash drive field. After all, according to Lin Zuhui, even if Kingston pays the patent fees, it will still make a large portion of the profit. Xiaomi Technology will not become his opponent, so it will just take the profit.
Click on patent fees.
Second, both Matrix Partners and Lin Zuhui need to make a name for themselves in the technology industry to facilitate subsequent investments. Recently, Lin Zuhui has planned to package himself as a big shot in the technology industry to create conditions for future venture capital projects.
To sum up, Lin Zuhui plans to acquire 80% of Kingston's equity at a price that is "unrejectable" to build his reputation.
In his previous life, Masayoshi Son spent US$1.44 billion to purchase 80% of Kingston's equity in 1996. At that time, Sun Zhengyi and Kingston founders Du Jichuan and David Sun discussed acquiring Kingston for US$1.44 billion. This price scared Du Jichuan and David Sun. It was too high.
.
Although they were selling the company they founded, Du Jichuan and Sun Dawei thought that the memory field is very cyclical. If you can make money today, you may lose a lot of money tomorrow, so they agreed to the acquisition. After all, Sun Zhengyi gave too much.
.
As a result, after the acquisition, Sun Zhengyi found that more than 300 million US dollars were still missing, so he called Du Jichuan and David Sun, hoping to pay the final sum later.
What is incredible is that Du Jichuan and David Sun simply communicated with each other and told Sun Zhengyi that you don't need to pay that money because you have already given a lot of it.
In this way, Masayoshi Son won Kingston at a price of just over 1.1 billion U.S. dollars.
The drama was yet to come. In 1999, Sun Zhengyi saw that Kingston's development was slower than expected and the Internet was booming. So he returned 80% of Kingston's shares to Du Jichuan and David Sun for only 440 million US dollars, and transferred them to Du Jichuan and David Sun.
When it comes to investing in the Internet, one of them is Alibaba Mama. Of course, that investment actually only cost 20 million US dollars.
Under the circumstances at that time, Sun Zhengyi could definitely sell for a higher price. After all, Kingston's business development was good in those years; however, he was thinking about the friendship back then and selling it to others would definitely not be very good to Du Jichuan and David Sun, so he
Sold it to two people cheaply and paid back a favor.
From this point of view, there is no problem with Son’s character, but his ability is limited. Although he won a lot of bets, he casts a wide net and can always encounter some.
The two founders of Kingston, Du Jichuan and David Sun, also have good character. They gave up hundreds of millions of dollars at any time, which makes people admire them.
In addition, after the two received 1.1 billion US dollars in the previous life, they immediately allocated 100 million US dollars to employees as dividends at the end of the year. They were rated as the "most generous boss" by the American media for a while, and Kingston has always been the "most generous boss" in the United States.
It's a great company to work for because the benefits are very good.
The next day, Lin Zuhui came to Irvine in the Los Angeles metropolitan area and visited Du Jichuan and David Sun of Kingston Company.
Looking at the two Chinese faces, Lin Zuhui not only lamented that the Chinese nation is really powerful. There are many talents in the scientific and technological field, especially there are many Chinese from Taiwan, such as Jerry Yang from Yahoo, Zhang Zhongmou from TSMC, including the two from Kingston.
He can be considered a technology tycoon.
Du Jichuan said as soon as they met: "Mr. Lin, welcome to Kingston Company."
Before immigrating to the United States, he experienced some hardships in Germany for a period of time, which laid a good character foundation for his future achievements. Currently, he is responsible for expanding global business, which is equivalent to "main foreign policy".
He wanted to go to the United States at that time, but because he had not graduated from high school, he smuggled himself to Xiangjiang, obtained a Xiangjiang identity, then completed his studies in Germany, and finally successfully immigrated to the United States.
Lin Zuhui said gracefully: "You two, I take the liberty of disturbing you!"
David Sun smiled and said: "Don't bother me! Mr. Lin, why don't we visit the company first and then sit down and talk!"
From this point of view, David Sun has a faster personality. Of course, Lin Zuhui was the two people who made an appointment because he wanted to visit Kingston.
"Of course, it's my pleasure!"
"You're welcome, please come this way!"
During the visit, Lin Zuhui asked the two about Kingston's working environment while visiting. The conclusion he came to was that Kingston is a very humane company that abandons some red tape and does not control internal budgets (employee welfare expenses).
Create a culture of employee self-management with a unique human touch.
This is similar to Lin Zuhui's management model. Of course, Lin Zuhui also learned something from Li Chaoren.
In New Era Group, Western business philosophy is reflected in the system and development, but in terms of employee management, Confucian culture is integrated into it. Therefore, there are almost no employees who have resigned in New Era Group, especially the old employees who resigned after Lin Zuhui took over.
The rate is almost zero. There is no government pension in Xiangjiang, but the New Era Group has employee pensions. Lin Zuhui also asked the investment department to invest the pension in the overseas securities industry (not recommending stocks, but will check a little). If there is a loss, he will
Personal top-up, if you make money, you will increase employee pensions. There are many similar cultures like this. Lin Zuhui even "closed positions" for several colleagues during the August 7th stock market crash (no debt, no impact on life),
To prevent them from encountering difficulties in life.
Back in the office, everyone sat on the sofa.
Lin Zuhui said: "I heard that Kingston employees don't need to clock in and out of get off work?"
David Sun pointed at his friend Du Jichuan easily and said: "Their bosses are like this. They don't arrive at the company until 12 noon every day. Haha, just kidding. Lao Du is on business trips all year round, which leads to a chaotic life. But what Mr. Lin said is true.
Our company management is relatively flexible, people-oriented, and advocates respect, loyalty, flexibility and integrity.”
Since he was here for inspection and he was a compatriot, David Sun also hoped that Lin Zuhui could see a real Kingston. Of course, he thought that Lin Zuhui was here for study and inspection.
Lin Zuhui nodded, and then said: "To be honest, I am very optimistic about your model and think Kingston's development prospects will be very good!"
Du Jichuan said: "Thank you for Mr. Lin's recognition. We believe that you are a true management master, otherwise you will not become a world-class enterprise."
New Era Group is of course a global enterprise and is also a heavyweight player in commercial real estate in the United States. It is also developing in London, Southeast Asia and other regions.
The polite words were enough, and Lin Zuhui said: "This visit to Kingston, to be honest with you, I hope to buy 80% of your shares. I am willing to pay US$1 billion in cash for this, and Kingston will still be managed by you.
"
The room suddenly fell silent, and even Lu Bingwen and other people from Jingwei Capital were in disbelief.
After a long while, Du Jichuan said: "Why did Mr. Lin suddenly think of acquiring Kingston? Or how did he fall in love with us?"
Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "I am optimistic about the development of PCs and the Internet, and believe that computers will soon be popular in every household, so I have been investing in these projects recently. For example, we invested in the Netscape browser released last month. Earlier
I even invested in Microsoft stock last year.”
This is understandable. He is optimistic about this industry, and this person is rich, so he hopes to buy Kingston.
Du Jichuan thought about it and said: "Mr. Lin, with such a high offer, are you not worried about losing money? Our turnover this year is probably less than 500 million US dollars, and the profit margin is only about 10~15%. Not only that, our company is in the development period, so
If the company is making money and needs development, I’m afraid it will be difficult for you to make a return in a short period of time.”
Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "I'll leave it to you to manage. Of course, you have the final say in everything. If you don't pay dividends for ten years, I won't say a word."
He really doesn't care about not paying dividends for ten years. After all, once the dividend period comes, he will make a lot of money. In addition, this 1 billion US dollars of funds can also serve as a living advertisement for Jingwei Capital and establish the foundation in one sentence.
It is known as a 'big brand' and a 'big fool' in the investment community.
Du Jichuan and Sun David looked at each other for a few times, and finally Du Jichuan said: "Mr. Lin, how about I give you an answer tomorrow?"
"Of course, this is what it should be! By the way, we at Jingwei Capital are currently deeply involved in the technology industry. Assuming that we can acquire 80% of Kingston's equity, if you have the help of human resources, you can also help some Kingston. In addition, I am better at it.
I will analyze the industry prospects and make suggestions, and I can also make friends with you and chat with you."
When you are a venture capital investor, you sometimes have to make suggestions for the companies you invest in and provide human resources assistance. In the past year, Matrix Partners has been developing in the United States, and the investment managers are all locals, so it has gradually gained strength in this aspect.
Du Jichuan nodded and said, "Don't worry, Lin Sheng. We can see that you are very sincere and will definitely consider it seriously."
"Okay, no matter what the answer is tomorrow, I will be friends with you two!" Lin Zuhui said with a smile.
"Of course, we are already friends!" Du Jichuan already had a good impression of Lin Zuhui. He once obtained Xiangjiang status so that he could go to Germany to study at university. Lin Zuhui was not only a Xiangjiang native, but also the richest Chinese, which greatly boosted the morale of the Chinese.
On the road.
Lu Bingwen said: "Boss, is the price a bit high?"
Lin Zuhui smiled and said: "It doesn't matter, that's what venture capital is like. As long as the project is successful, high price is not a problem. Especially in the information technology industry, don't care about the little money. Of course, my acquisition of Kingston also involves my
A product plan.”
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! "Well, Kingston is indeed developing very fast, and this year it can actually reach an output value of nearly 500 million!" Lu Bingwen said with emotion.
Lin Zuhui said with a smile: "Maybe next year the output value will be 1 billion US dollars, and the PC industry will usher in a big explosion!"
Once Microsoft's Windows 95 is released next year, the PC industry will usher in a big explosion, and Kingston will also usher in an explosion.
Although US$1 billion is still expensive, in 1996, Kingston was definitely worth US$1 billion.
Kingston Company.
Du Jichuan said to his friend: "What do you think?"
David Sun said: "I'm very excited!"
"Haha" the two laughed.
Du Jichuan smiled and said: "Do you still remember when we sold our first company and used the money to speculate in stocks?"
David Sun nodded and said: "It turns out that we are not that material. Fortunately, you found 2,000 US dollars from the drawer, otherwise we would not have Kingston worth 1 billion US dollars today."
Du Jichuan said: "Nonsense, the two of us can't be beaten to death. If we don't have the 2,000 US dollars, we can borrow it."
David Sun thought for a while and said: "Sell it! The cycle of the storage industry is really powerful. The Japanese were wiped out. What if there is another cycle? Of course, we will only sell 80% of the shares, and the two of us will still manage the company.
, very good conditions.”
Du Jichuan nodded and said: "I also think selling is a good choice! Having said that, that person is really rich. When he said 1 billion US dollars, he didn't even blink, as if it was our hundreds or thousands of dollars.
.”
The two quickly agreed to sell Kingston.
The next day.
The two parties signed a preliminary agreement, and Jingwei Capital paid a deposit of US$100 million, and the rest must be paid within one month.
At this time, Jingwei Capital only had less than US$200 million on its books, and Lin Zuhui had no cash flow, so he planned to use loans. It was only a US$1 billion loan, which he could raise in a week.