My Age of Investment

   On March 30th, Qihoo 360 was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and the stock was enthusiastically sought after by many investment institutions on Wall Street.

The stock price closed at US$34 on the day of listing, a 134.45% increase from the issue price of US$14.5. The market value of 360 reached US$3.956 billion in one fell swoop, surpassing the US$2.876 billion of Shanda, the old king of the game industry, and also surpassing the US$2.876 billion of the old portal giant Sohu. With US$3.326 billion, it ranks among the top 4 market capitalization of listed Internet companies in China, after Qianxun, Ahri, and Penguin.

Zhou Hongyi, who rarely put on a well-tailored black suit, stood tall and straight at the gate of the New York Stock Exchange surrounded by everyone, posing as an upstart on the Internet. When interviewed by reporters, he also looked very handsome. With ease.

   "I am very excited at the moment, and I am very grateful to the shareholders for their long-term trust and support. Today's glory belongs not only to me, but also to all employees and shareholders of 3600..."

"Mr. Xia didn't come to ring the bell? Uh... Don't get me wrong, Mr. Xia and I have always been the closest partners. Vision Capital still holds 17.48% of Qihoo's diluted shares after listing. It is our largest The institutional shareholder is also the largest shareholder other than myself, holding only one point less than myself.”

  Seeing that a reporter was digging holes to "provoke" his intimate relationship with Mr. Xia, Zhou Hongyi hurriedly explained a few more words.

   Today's Xia Jingxing is no longer the "lucky" returning young rich man who made his name on the other side of the ocean in the past, but has become a world-renowned top rich man and technology hero.

  At the same time, Vision Capital is no longer the grass-roots small workshop a few years ago, but has made rapid progress to become a new asset management giant on Wall Street.

   Because of this, even though Xia Jingxing did not personally come to the bell-ringing scene today, his influence and credit endorsement still deeply affected the newly listed 360 Company.

  Zhou Hongyi is a rogue, she mentions herself whenever she meets, and there is also the close cooperative relationship between 360 and Xia Jingxing.

   I have to say that his tricks are quite easy to use. At least it helped 360 to save a lot of publicity and promotion time in the listing work, and it has also won unanimous optimism from many investment institutions and analysts on Wall Street.

   Rao Lei, who was standing not far from Zhou Hongyi, was also being interviewed by financial media reporters.

  Compared with Zhou Hongyi, there are also a lot of microphones and cameras aimed at him.

   "Mr. Rao, is 360 the first IPO of Vision Capital this year?"

"The prospectus shows that Vision Capital invested 8 million US dollars in 360 Company five years ago. If calculated based on today's highest intraday price, the market value of your holdings in 360 Company has exceeded 700 million US dollars, so this Is it another investment case with a 100-fold return?"

  “There was a joke on the Internet recently, saying that you have been ringing the bell for the past two years, or you are on your way to ringing the bell! May I ask how you managed to discover so many successful startups?”

  …

  Thanks to the blessing of the invested companies queuing up for listing in the past two years, Rao Lei has also successfully obtained a large amount of media exposure. Unknowingly, he has become one of the most famous investors in China.

  Facing the reporter's interview questions, he himself was extraordinarily magnanimous, with witty remarks, and some new Internet golden sentences kept popping out of his mouth, which made the reporter laugh out loud.

  Being an Internet celebrity investor is not without benefits, at least you can gain some advantages when grabbing projects.

   Therefore, not only Rao Lei, but Lin Bing, Zhang Yong and other executives have also frequently appeared under the spotlight in the past two years, and they have begun to be well known to the domestic public.

   On the contrary, Xia Jingxing himself has become more and more low-key. Apart from hosting some product launches in recent years, he has seldom appeared in other public occasions.

   Zhou Hongyi and Rao Lei were mainly interviewed by some Chinese financial reporters, while Zhao Peng, who attended the listing ceremony of 360 Company on behalf of Envision Capital hedge fund, was surrounded by a group of blond and blue-eyed American reporters.

   "Zhao, congratulations, you have once again proved your vision and strength, and made another successful business!"

   "If calculated based on the highest intraday price, the $20 million shares subscribed by the Vision Capital hedge fund as a cornerstone investor of 360 has become $47 million, more than doubling in one day!"

   "At the same time, your VC department is also the biggest beneficiary of 360's listing. Backed by the imaginative Chinese market, I think you will definitely become the most glorious investment institution on Wall Street in the next few years."

  …

American reporters are very interested in Zhao Peng, the star fund manager who replaced Liu Hai as the head of the stock trading department of Vision Capital, and even more interested in Vision Capital. After a few friendly compliments to Zhao Peng, their questions gradually changed. It got sharper.

   "Zhao, as the biggest beneficiary of the subprime mortgage crisis, what is your attitude towards the recently released Dodd-Frank Act? Have you started re-registering with the SEC and providing transaction information and asset portfolio information to the SEC?"

  Zhao Peng became vigilant in an instant, but still had a smile on his face, "First of all, let me correct you, we are not the biggest beneficiaries of the subprime mortgage crisis, but we are just investing in the right direction.

  Also, the Dodd-Frank Act was voted and passed by the House and Senate last year, and Vision Capital has been actively cooperating with the SEC to complete various risk assessments as early as last year..."

  Zhao Peng had already received an order from his boss to reduce the size of the hedge fund a few days ago. At first, he still didn't understand this self-defeating move, but now he fully understands it.

  In the past year, in order to fight for re-election, Ao Guanhai, who complied with public opinion, began to free up his hands to vigorously rectify the financial order in the United States. Against this background, the opportunities left for Envision Capital to fish in troubled waters have become less and less.

  In the past, the United States has always held a laissez-faire attitude towards hedge funds, and the result was the financial crisis in 2007-09.

But now that Ao Guanhai has launched "Dodd-Frank", which is called the most comprehensive and severe financial reform bill since the "Great Depression" in the 1930s, Wall Street's big and small giants will continue to do so for a long time. You have to be a man with your tail between your legs.

  One of the biggest impacts of this bill on Vision Capital is that it requires PE private equity investment funds other than venture capital VCs, including hedge funds, to register with the SEC and be regulated by the US Securities and Exchange Commission at the same time.

  Before, except for listed institutions, PE and hedge funds did not need to register and make public disclosure.

Now it is necessary to disclose to the SEC the transaction information and holdings of Vision Capital other than VC funds on a quarterly basis. This is not only unsafe, but also very inconvenient. It is equivalent to putting shackles on Vision Capital. Made it.

  The introduction of this bill also prompted Xia Jingxing to make up his mind to liquidate the hedge fund ahead of schedule, and put the profit share of the fund earned after 2009 into his pocket first.

   Moreover, there is still a discordant voice on Wall Street, saying that Envision Capital made a lot of money in the subprime mortgage crisis and is the chief culprit for exacerbating the financial crisis.

  So Xia Jingxing completely extinguished his desire to become the king of Wall Street hedge funds, and kept a low profile for a while.

  Zhao Peng has fully understood the boss's intention at this moment, and has no misunderstanding about the "low-key principle" that the boss intends to follow next.

   At the same time, he admired the boss's plan for a rainy day, and he had found all the escape routes in advance.

  Although the Dodd-Frank Act has brought PE and hedge funds into regulation, the management of family offices is quite lax. For example, Daxia Capital does not need to disclose information.

  Recently, some super-rich Wall Street and the United States have begun to vigorously build and improve their own family offices, obviously determined to start taking advantage of loopholes.

   Even the protagonists who will make big news in the financial market in the future may have to change, from hedge funds that are becoming more and more transparent to family offices with more confidential information.

   "Sorry, I have a call!"

   Rao Lei suddenly interrupted the reporter's interview and walked aside with his mobile phone.

   After a few minutes, he came back again, walked up to Zhou Hongyi who had just finished the interview, and handed over the phone, "Old Zhou, Mr. Xia's phone number."

Zhou Hongyi answered the phone without thinking, and chatted with Xia Jingxing with a smile on his face, but the smile on his face disappeared soon. After looking around, he covered his mouth with his hand and said in a low voice: "President Xia , this matter is too important, and 360 has just been listed, I suggest that it is better to take it slow."

   "You don't think you're retreating, do you?" Xia Jingxing on the other end of the phone said half-jokingly.

  Hearing this, Zhou Hongyi became impatient, and said in an excited tone: "Mr. Xia, my old Zhou has always been a spittle and a nail. I will never go back on what I promised."

  The other end of the phone quickly fell silent, and it took half a minute to say: "Okay, let's take a moment, but we must start action within this year."

   Now it was Zhou Hongyi's turn to hesitate, but he didn't think too long, and quickly replied "Yes".

  Rao Lei stood a few meters away, seemingly talking with others, but in fact he had been secretly observing Zhou Hongyi's various subtle expressions and movements.

  It was already late at night in China. After finishing the call with Zhou Hongyi, Xia Jingxing did not rush to sleep, but called Zhang Yong again.

   "You really guessed it right, this old boy Zhou Hongyi is starting to swell."

  Xia Jingxing's brows were a little dissatisfied. Zhou Hongyi started to shirk things that had been settled a long time ago. He was very, very unhappy!

  Although Zhou Hongyi still kept saying that he would continue to cooperate, Xia Jingxing could no longer trust him.

   "Normal, the company has gone public, its wings have stiffened, and some new ideas that shouldn't have started to emerge."

   Zhang Yong on the other end of the phone sneered twice, and then asked: "What should we do now? Keep things going?"

   "It can't be delayed. The cooperation period between Sogou and 360 is only one year, and the agreement will expire at the end of the year. At that time, Zhou Hongyi will definitely plan to launch his own search engine brand."

  Xia Jingxing paused, and then said: "I guess his idea is to delay the plan to deal with Qianxun until the end of the year. We will detonate the bomb, and then he will launch the 360 ​​search engine, swallowing the biggest victory in one gulp."

   "That can't be done! We put all our energy into dealing with Chihiro, not to make wedding dresses for 3600."

  Xia Jingxing let out a "hmm", and then said, "Why don't you get rid of 360 and go it alone?"

   "Aren't you afraid of breaking the relationship with Zhou Hongyi? Vision Capital holds so many shares in 360, but Sogou alone still needs 360's website navigation and browser traffic."

Xia Jingxing lazily said, "I bet he doesn't dare to lift the table! If he terminates the cooperation with Sogou early, he will not only have to pay a sky-high liquidated damages, but also bear the heckles of the shareholders, and may even face the collective appeal of US stock investors." litigation.

  He won't commit such stupidity! I understand him, aggressive but not crazy. "

   "How to deal with the large amount of shares in Vision Capital?" Zhang Yong asked again.

   "If it's a big deal, I'll sell it. If Zhou Hongyi is willing to buy it back, I'll sell it to him."

  Zhang Yong chuckled and said, "Then he cashed out for you?"

   "It doesn't matter if he buys it or not. If he doesn't buy it, I will continue to be lazy at three or sixty."

  Zhang Yong became silent. If he stood in the position of Sogou and the CEO of Overseas Holdings, he would naturally be happy to see Qianxun dealt with in advance.

  Because there is no sign of the 360 ​​search engine at the moment, after Qianxun is closed, Sogou can exclusively enjoy the market share lost by Qianxun.

   But this exclusive period is only limited to this year. Next year, the 360 ​​search engine will definitely make its debut. Even Zhou Hongyi may have secretly arranged to develop this project.

However, if he violated the verbal agreement with Zhou Hongyi and gave Qianxun a fatal blow in advance, Sogou would benefit greatly, but at the same time Xia Jingxing would suffer other losses. The disciples began to lose their morals again, and Xia's sect fell apart in a blink of an eye, and there would be a certain loss to Envision Capital, Xia Jingxing's contacts and reputation.

   It was because of this consideration that Zhang Yong cautiously reminded the boss.

  Of course he can choose to encourage the boss to join Zhou Hongyi, but he knows that the boss is not a fool, such important decisions can only be made by the boss himself, and he dare not cross the line even if he is not a good professional manager.

   "Let's do it!"

  Xia Jingxing quickly made up his mind. Before Zhou Hongyi could cooperate with him, the old boy would obviously choose a time that was more beneficial to 360.

   This contradicts the interests of Sogou!

   In addition, considering that 360 has been listed safely, although both parties still have a common enemy Chihiro, sooner or later they will drift away. This is an unavoidable problem.

   And the whole thing is that Zhou Hongyi ungrateful for profit first, he left Zhou Hongyi to do it alone, in fact, he didn't have much moral burden.

Of course, when he made the agreement with Zhou Hongyi, he also intentionally avoided a key issue. It's just that they have ghosts in their hearts, and they all want to choose a time point that is more beneficial to their side.

  Actually, Xia Jingxing can also choose to wait, at least he won't make the relationship with Zhou Hongyi too rigid.

  But Robin Lee has been dancing too much recently, and the hand in hand with the penguin has touched his inverse scales. He is completely impatient, and immediately, immediately wants to teach Robin Lee a profound lesson.