My Age of Investment

   Chapter 1036

  Time entered March, after half a month of see-saw negotiations, the joint buyer group finally reached an acquisition agreement with Yahoo—

  Completed the largest acquisition in the Internet/media field since AOL merged with Time Warner in 2000 at a total transaction consideration of US$33/share, totaling US$47.5 billion.

  At the hotel signing ceremony, Xia Jingxing, Ballmer, Yang Zhiyuan, Ma Yun, and Christina stood on the stage to shake hands and posed for a group photo.

  The flashlights under the stage kept on, and hundreds of reporters from all over the world focused on the five people on stage.

  Especially Xia Jingxing, even if he stood on the very edge, he couldn't hide the dazzling light on his body.

  The negotiations between Microsoft and Yahoo were deadlocked several times, and progress was slow. Until half a month ago, Envision Capital suddenly led Ari and Facebook to join Microsoft’s acquisition camp to form a joint buyer group. Things immediately ushered in a turning point!

  Most people think that such a large-scale deal may take two to three months or even more arduous negotiations before the dust is settled. Unexpectedly, the curtain will come to an end in only half a month.

  You know, Microsoft has been talking about it for a month before this, but there is no progress.

  Now the media is most concerned about the details of the entire transaction and what kind of key role Darren Xia played in it.

  Unsurprisingly, new technology aristocrats and financial tycoons will have another title of acquisition expert.

  At the end of the group photo, the five people returned to their seats and entered the reporter's questioning session.

  The uncontrollable reporter left behind the protagonists Yang Zhiyuan and Ballmer, and was the first to ask Xia Jingxing's questions.

  "Dalun, how much did Vision Capital invest in this transaction? Are you only interested in Ari's equity assets? I heard that it was your personal friendship with Jerry that accelerated the completion of the transaction?"

  The reporter’s mouth kept firing like a cannon, and he also asked the voice of the people present.

Xia Jingxing glanced at the four people who were smiling and groaning beside him, picked up the microphone and said to the reporter: "Well, you have a lot of questions, and you didn't ask the right person, but I'll answer it. But remind the reporter friends behind. But ask the right person, we only played a negligible role in this transaction..."

  Because Yahoo and Microsoft are both listed companies, the transaction details will be disclosed to the SEC in detail later, so Xia Jingxing did not conceal all the transaction details.

  "...Yahoo’s overall valuation is US$47.5 billion, and its 26% stake in Ari is valued at US$6.5 billion."

  "All Yahoo’s main businesses, including Yahoo mailbox, search, portal, etc., are merged into Microsoft. Microsoft will assume the consideration of $41 billion, half of the cash and half of the equity payment, and Yahoo’s shareholders can choose."

  "Vision Capital invested 2.5 billion US dollars in cash and increased its shareholding in Ari by 10%. It is currently the largest institutional shareholder of Ari, holding 33%."

   “Facebook issued approximately 6.43% of new shares in exchange for 11% of Ari’s shares, becoming the third largest institutional shareholder after Envision Capital and SoftBank.”

  "Ari’s management invested US$1.25 billion and acquired 5% of Ari’s equity."

  ...

  The reporters listened very carefully, and some people quickly calculated in their hearts, and soon came up with the result of the valuation of Ali at US$25 billion and Facebook’s US$427.5.

  For this valuation result, most of the American reporters present had questions about how a Chinese e-commerce company could be comparable to Facebook.

  Strictly speaking, it’s a bit high, and this share swap is not worthwhile.

  However, Xia Jingxing did not give the reporter the opportunity to continue to inquire. After quickly answering the details of the transaction, he handed the microphone to Ballmer with a smile on his face.

  This old man has worked well in the past half a month, so there is no need to grab the limelight.

  The reporter's attention quickly shifted to Ballmer. Microsoft invested 41 billion US dollars, which is indeed the well-deserved protagonist in this transaction.

  Ballmer first affirmed Yahoo’s past brilliant achievements, affirmed the contribution of Yang Zhiyuan and other founders and management to Yahoo, and then talked about Microsoft’s follow-up arrangements for Yahoo.

  "...We will retain Yahoo, an Internet brand with countless honors, but Yahoo’s online advertising, search engines and other resources will be integrated into Microsoft."

  "Are you ready for Google's fierce counterattack? Hahaha, Google should be careful, Microsoft and Yahoo, looking at the global Internet market, are not afraid of any challengers!"

   "Yes, the original purchase price was US$31/share, and the total transaction price was US$44.6 billion. The increase of US$2.9 billion also represents our recognition of Yahoo."

  ...

  After asking Ballmer, the reporter soon began to ask Yang Zhiyuan.

   "... Yahoo has encountered a series of challenges in recent years, and we have also tried to make some changes, but none of them have helped much."

  "Instead of indulging in past grades, it is better to learn to let go and give Yahoo a chance to be a freshman."

   "I believe in Microsoft and Mr. Ballmer, it will definitely bring some positive changes to Yahoo."

   "No, no, I'm not frustrated at all, on the contrary, I think I made the right choice."

  "Dalun is indeed good friends with me, and he also gave me some suggestions, but it is not the "Mr. Key" as everyone thinks. Mr. Key is our Yahoo shareholder and we made the decision together."

  "Where is the next stop? Please allow me to keep it secret first, everyone will know soon, hahahaha~"

  ...

  In the face of the reporter's criticism or praise, Yang Zhiyuan calmly responded, and it seemed that he had completely recovered from Yahoo's shadow of failure, pressure to sell himself, and psychological baggage.

  Kristina also received a lot of questions from reporters, most of which were about the motives of acquiring Ari.

"We will not enter the Chinese market for the time being, but Facebook has been preparing for it. We are very concerned about that piece of land with rapid economic development. Including Ari, we have already invested in two Chinese Internet companies, both in their respective fields. The outstanding ones will consider investing in more outstanding Chinese companies in the future."

  "Will not be an e-commerce platform, but will consider providing richer services to the 600 million Facebook users."

  " Facebook’s IPO plan has been postponed in the future. Maybe when the stock market improves, the IPO plan will be restarted."

  ...

  A group of financial reporters from China kept asking Ma Yun questions.

  "The feeling of participating in this kind of cross-border M&A? Hahaha, great! I believe this experience will bring some insights to Ali Baba and move firmly in the direction of internationalization."

   "We welcome the investment of Vision Capital and Facebook. You should all know that Mr. Xia and I have been cooperating very well, and he is also very supportive of our management's work."

"Vision Capital and Facebook together do hold 44% of the shares, which is close to half, but they are two companies. Now the management team holds up to 36% of the shares. We are the one who holds a veto and security control. Shareholders, so everyone should not raise these unprofessional questions, lest foreign friends read our jokes."

  ...

After the successful conclusion of the acquisition signing ceremony and press conference, Yahoo held a cocktail party in the evening.

  Xia Jingxing was holding a tall wine glass, accepting piles of compliments and flattery around him.

No matter how humble and low-key he is, he can't conceal the outstanding performance of Envision Capital in the whole transaction. Even his PE funds are also very famous.

  People no longer regard Envision Capital as a hedge fund predator, and they have another PE rookie label. At least they know that this company also used to engage in mergers and acquisitions!

   is called a rookie because the Yahoo deal is not dominated by Vision Capital. The $2.5 billion investment is just sprinkling water in front of top transaction cases of the order of tens of billions and hundreds of billions of dollars.

   Therefore, it is still a long way for Vision Capital to catch up with Blackstone and KKR in the PE field.

  But one night, Xia Jing still received a bunch of business cards in his pocket, all of them were brokers and pimps, and wanted to recommend projects to Envision Capital.

  This posture Low is a bit Low, but as long as a successful big deal is introduced, the commission is calculated at tens of millions of dollars or hundreds of millions of dollars.

  Thinking of this, Xia Jingxing suddenly became a little annoyed, and forgot to ask Gates for the agency fee!

  47.5 billion US dollars of order, the collection of 475 million US dollars is not excessive, right?

   Ballmer came from a distance, and after approaching, he clinked glasses with Xia Jingxing, "Dalun, happy cooperation! I have a chance to cooperate again."

  Looking at Ballmer who was proud of Chunfeng, Xia Jingxing gave up the idea of ​​asking for intermediary fees. This old man was just a miser.

  He is thinking, after waiting for two years, will this old man ask himself to settle the accounts?

  This is really not him digging a hole for Microsoft. It can only be said that Microsoft has dug the hole by itself, and he just pushed it.

  Have a hand, what a hang!

   Ballmer didn't feel that he had lost the watermelon, picked up a sesame, and had a few conversations with Xia Jingxing before leaving.

  The old man stands tall, he seems to be in a good mood, maybe he has a good dream of beating Google.

  Xia Jingxing was about to find Christina and go home with him, when a small figure suddenly stood in front of him.

  "Dalun, congratulations, you made a good deal!"

  (End of this chapter)