Rebirth 2002: Nano Life

In June 2005, the biggest news in China was the listing of Baidu's IPO.

Compared with the previous life, Baidu embarked on the road to IPO listing earlier, because Baidu in this life is larger than the previous life in terms of domestic share and overall scale.

Baidu's annual revenue in 2004 exceeded 27 million US dollars, which was more than double the revenue of Baidu during the same period in the original history.

When Li Yanhong came to Pengcheng last year, Chen Yizhe communicated with him about the business model of bidding ranking. Chen Yizhe said to Li Yanhong, "Also on a highway, Baidu is currently making money by building toll stations, and can't wait to build 100 meters. One, the retail price is 10 yuan for 100 meters. If users want to go faster with less harassment, they can choose a value package of 80 yuan for 1000 meters.”

"Google, which is also a PPC, makes money by placing billboards next to highways. Google's way of increasing its revenue is to help widen, maintain the road, and even help with screening, telling everyone to avoid drivers with poor driving skills or poor car conditions. , in a word, let more cars pass by unit time, more people watch ads, and Google's billboards will be more valuable."

"The PPC model will only make Baidu drift away from its core values ​​in the future. As for search engines, my opinion is: don't let users stay on their own pages, but tend to do it in the shortest possible time. Figure out a way to get the user to where he wants to go instead of lingering on this page of search.”

In fact, Robin Li will not be clear about the harm caused by PPC. On the one hand, due to the small paid search market in China, "a lot of searches are wasted."

However, in view of Chen Yizhe's advice, Robin Li has made many improvements in this regard.

In February 2005, some Internet media said that Baidu's search technology, which imitated Google's origin, was approaching Google, and even surpassed Google in algorithm.

This is not the bragging of the domestic media, but the conclusion of a technology media in the United States after tracking Baidu's search technology, which has caused Baidu, which is preparing to go public, to attract a lot of attention at home and abroad.

Baidu performed well in its first U.S. roadshow at the end of May. There were 109 fund managers in the morning, and the luncheon at noon set a record, increasing to 170. The original banquet hall was not enough seats. After the speech started, many fund managers still came to hear the news, but because of the tight seats, some fund managers who managed billions of dollars had to sit against the wall and listen to Li Yanhong's speech on an empty stomach.

One of the investment bankers said optimistically, "China Life, which is 10 times larger than Baidu, has not attracted so many underwriters and fund managers to participate. It is conceivable that Baidu's new stock offering will be a hot sale."

According to Baidu's previous prospectus released in mid-April, Baidu previously issued about 3.7 million American depositary receipts (2.6 million issued shares, 1.1 million sold by existing old shareholders), at a price of $35 to $40 per share. U.S. dollars, raising capital of approximately $140 million.

This price was decided by Robin Li after several suggestions by Chen Yizhe.

Baidu's roadshows in Hong Kong and the UK are also highly sought after. Investors who attended the Hong Kong roadshow complained that Baidu had allocated too little subscription quota for new shares in Asia, only about 10% of the total offering size. In the UK, investors who came to Baidu's roadshow were also packed.

In addition to the fact that the number of new shares issued is not very popular, another reason is that many media have indicated that Baidu's search technology and algorithms are likely to become Google's international challenge. When Google went public in 2004, its valuation was as high as 23 billion US dollars, while Baidu's value was only close to one billion US dollars if it was valued at the issue price. In this comparison, you can think of Baidu's huge growth space.

Baidu has become the world's sixth-largest Internet website by traffic, and its operating income has grown rapidly. In the first quarter of this year, its revenue reached 81.8 million yuan, or about 10 million US dollars, an increase of 300% over the same period last year. Revenue in 2005 is expected to reach $60 million.

"Baidu is a company with powerful search engine products that has grown in China and has slowly entered the world." This is a media report.

Before 2003, Google was far ahead, and the "late young people" like Baidu were almost negligible.

In the last life, Baidu was always compared with Google before it went public. First, it had no financial advantage, second, it had no brand advantage, and third, it had no technological advantage. However, in this life, Baidu only lacks the first two points. As long as it is successfully listed on Nasdaq this time, the first two points will be supplemented.

Baidu's entire listing process is accompanied by constant price revaluation, which is not only the revaluation of Baidu by investors, but also Baidu's continuous self-revaluation.

On June 2, after a series of meetings with investors, Robin Li and the underwriters have felt strong demand, and Chen Yizhe is still dissatisfied with the current price, and has been suggesting Robin Li to raise the price to $80. This time, Robin Li decided to adjust the price again. This adjustment is actually quite large. Although it did not reach Chen Yizhe's ideal price, it was much better than before. This time it was raised to $68.

On June 3, data released by the Nasdaq website showed that Baidu will go public on July 5, U.S. time, raising $250 million.

June 4th was the last day of the Baidu Roadshow. The final pricing time was around 18:00. Li Yanhong and other Baidu board members who had just returned to New York gathered together. After two hours of discussion, the issue price was finally determined at $70.

June 5, 10 a.m. New York time.

Under the leadership of Robin Li, the people involved in Baidu's listing entered the Goldman Sachs Bank office in the New York building, waiting to witness the historical moment of Baidu's first listing.

This time, Chen Yizhe and Xu Yong also came to the scene as personal holdings.

In the office of Goldman Sachs Bank, Mario Draghi, general manager of Goldman Sachs International, suddenly found Chen Yizhe after communicating with Li Yanhong, "Mr. Chen, it's nice to meet you."

"It seems that the hound has smelled the prey!" Xu Yong whispered in Chinese beside Chen Yizhe, and then walked away very consciously.

"Mr. Draghi, hello!" Chen Yizhe shook hands with the other party. He did not know that in future generations, the general manager of Goldman Sachs International would serve as the president of the European Central Bank and the helm of the central banks of 19 euro zone countries. .

"I've always heard that there is a Chinese Bill Gates, and this time I finally met, but you are much younger than Bill Gates." Draghi smiled, shook his hand lightly and let go.

"Mr. Draghi, you flatter me too much. There are still many very capable entrepreneurs in China, but I just happened to meet China's current economic situation. Standing on the wind, anything can fly!" Chen Yizhe politely typical.

Draghi stared directly at Chen Yizhe, "Goldman Sachs has been paying attention to the Chinese market, Goldman Sachs is also very optimistic about China's economy, and even more optimistic about the companies under Mr. Chen's name such as Xiameng Electronics, Xiameng Display, etc. Mr. Chen can even Put these companies in operation one by one and list them abroad, such as Xia Meng Electronics and Xia Meng Display, Goldman Sachs is very happy to cooperate with Mr. Chen!"

"Mr. Draghi, if Xiameng Electronics wants to seek overseas listing, I will definitely contact you!" Chen Yizhe lightly took the business card handed over by Draghi.

It is a pity that many companies under Chen Yizhe will not choose to go public, including Xiameng Electronics and Xiameng Display.

Looking at Draghi's back, Xu Yong walked back to Chen Yizhe and said, "What did he talk to you about?"

Chen Yizhe shrugged and said, "Apart from money, what do you think we can talk about?"

"Yes! It is estimated that in their eyes, you are a big gold mine!" Xu Yong laughed.

Chen Yizhe said helplessly, "I guess it's not a big gold mine, it's Roshan, right? And it's not a good thing to be seen by Goldman Sachs. To cooperate with the wolves of Wall Street like Goldman Sachs is often to seek skin from a tiger!"

In the past life, many internationally famous mergers and acquisitions or crisis cases occurred, in fact, the ABN Amro merger, the Greek debt crisis, and the Dubai debt crisis all have the shadow of Goldman Sachs behind them. In Chen Yizhe's view, Goldman Sachs not only has the ambition to control the European economy, but also cooperates with the US government to put pressure on Europe to achieve a deeper political purpose. Such as passing on the damage of the subprime mortgage crisis, such as disrupting the Middle East to achieve the oil strategy.

Two years later, the financial tsunami hit Wall Street, the subprime mortgage market collapsed, and a large number of U.S. investment banks went bankrupt. In just one year, three of the top five investment banks with a long history - Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers - collapsed one by one, Morgan Stanley was also hit hard, but Goldman Sachs was an exception.

Goldman Sachs should have gone bankrupt in the financial tsunami, but the US government made two moves in an emergency.

One is to urgently grant Goldman Sachs Commercial Bank holding company status. Goldman Sachs has no ATM machine at all, because it is not a commercial bank, but at a time when Goldman Sachs was in crisis, the US government allowed Goldman Sachs to call itself a commercial bank, which enabled Goldman Sachs to obtain a large amount of life-saving funds from the Federal Reserve.

Another is the SEC ban on shorting financial stocks. This is also a protection for Goldman Sachs in crisis.

"Goldman Sachs manipulates the U.S. economy? It seems so!" Chen Yizhe thinks so, and even if Goldman Sachs does not manipulate the U.S. economy, its influence on the U.S. political economy is evident.

Goldman Sachs is a giant wolf of Wall Street in the United States!

As for this giant wolf, Chen Yizhe actually wanted to shoot it directly with a gun. Because this wolf has actually done more damage than contribution to this society.

The emergence of the financial industry was originally aimed at realizing the effective allocation and flow of resources. However, today, such as Goldman Sachs or most of the financial industry on Wall Street, it is more like realizing the cutting and monopoly of resources. The financial industry is essentially It has changed within the rules!

At about 11:35, the first transaction of Baidu's listing was completed, and the stock price rose to US$92, an increase of 30%. All the staff applauded!

Chen Yizhe and Xu Yong couldn't help but feel happy when they saw Baidu's share price soaring. You know, one of them currently holds 9.1% and the other holds 6.8%. At present, Baidu's share price has suddenly increased their respective net worth. Several hundred million dollars.

At around 14:40 in the afternoon, Chen Yizhe and Xu Yong were on their way to Nasdaq when they heard the news that the stock had exceeded $150.

"I feel that the underwriters like Goldman Sachs are not as good as you. They should set the price of $80 as you said from the beginning!" Xu Yong sighed.

"Only from the perspective of pricing, in fact, the underwriters are relatively reasonable. The original pricing is similar to Google's. After all, the price-earnings ratio is based on the price-earnings ratio. However, the price-earnings ratio is only one of the reference values. The key question is whether investors understand it. If you have great expectations for the potential of your business model, investors are buying the future, and the price-earnings ratio is no longer a very important criterion at this time." Chen Yizhe explained.

In fact, in the process of listing Baidu this time, to a large extent, it borrowed the momentum of Google. Investors did not consider the price-earnings ratio, but expected that Baidu could one day perform like Google.

Like the pricing of Baidu in the previous life, the stock rose so much on the first day, which shows that the investment bank did not do a good job and the pricing was too low. Under normal circumstances, it is normal for the stock to rise by about 50% on the first day, but it has risen more than three times, which means that the IPO issuance in the primary market is not well regulated, and a better issue price can be obtained. After all, the growth is too intense, which is actually not conducive to investment by second-tier investors.

"Mr. Xu, are you nervous?" Chen Yizhe joked to Xu Yong.

"Do you think everyone looks like you?" Xu Yong said while leaning on Chen Yizhe's shoulder.

When they got out of the car, they saw the real-time Baidu search keywords scrolling on the big screen of Nasdaq. At the same time, the huge Baidu logo was interspersed. Many investors took pictures on the roadside.

"Yizhe, if your company goes public in the future, it is estimated that the momentum will be greater?" Xu Yong asked with a smile when he saw Li Yanhong, who was being interviewed by a CCTV reporter in the United States.

"Forget it, it's too troublesome to go public, I'd better keep a low profile and make good money!" Chen Yizhe laughed.

In fact, the American media also attaches great importance to the Internet from China. NBC invited Robin Li to interview twice, which has never happened in history.

When there were more than ten seconds before 4 o'clock, surrounded by investors and bankers, the Baidu listing team boarded the rostrum. Standing in the center of the rostrum, Baidu CEO Li Yanhong started the closing ceremony. All the staff counted down 5 seconds. Five seconds later, after an unusual day, nasdaq successfully closed the market, while Baidu's stock price stopped at $156.54, and the hall again burst into applause.

Baidu's stock price has more than doubled, and this time Baidu's listing has increased Chen Yizhe's net worth by another $460 million.

Baidu's listing celebration dinner will officially start at 6:30 minutes. In addition to the Baidu listing team, only investors and bankers will participate. At the banquet, investors recalled the situation when they invested in Baidu. Although everyone was very tired, It is hard to hide the excitement of the successful listing.

For Chen Yizhe, at this banquet, he received business cards from many investors and bankers, and he didn't know where the news came from. Many bankers were staring at his fat.

The banquet lasted until nearly 11:00 in the evening, everyone left one after another, and Chen Yizhe sighed.

On this day, Baidu's listing has added seven billionaires and 51 multi-millionaires to Baidu's internal team.

In one day, Baidu's market value reached $5 billion, more than NetEase, Sina, and Shanda combined. The price miracle it created not only shocked Wall Street, but also shocked the domestic media.

The next day, both online and offline media, all they could see was news of Baidu's listing.

"Crazy Baidu, Crazy China Concept"

"Baidu's listing makes June hot in advance! 》

"A Big Bubble"

"Are Chinese Search Engines Ushering in Spring? 》

…

However, in the news of Baidu's listing, Chen Yizhe's name also appeared. Because the important information of Baidu's listing on the first day has been disclosed, among the major shareholders, Chen Yizhe's 9.1% ranked after Defengjie, which is similar to Integrity.

"Who is Chen Yizhe, the main shareholder of Baidu who holds 9.1% of the shares? 》

One of the news headlines reads: "Baidu's listing finally blows up the head of Xiameng Group! 》

In 2004, Baidu once acquired the search engine of Xiameng Internet under Xiameng Group, and the author speculated from this point, and finally showed that Chen Yizhe is very likely to have a great relationship with Xiameng Group.

However, these news quickly sank. After all, the protagonists are Robin Li and Baidu.

The next day, after selling off part of the shares, Chen Yizhe flew back to China from the United States regardless of changes in Baidu's share price.

On the 11th, Chen Yizhe suddenly received a QQ message from Lin Xiaoxiao.

In the past two years, Chen Yizhe has been in contact with Lin Xiaoxiao, but since this year, she has rarely been seen online looking for him. After all, this year is the second semester of the third year of high school. Chen Yizhe estimated that she might be sprinting, so she did not go to her.

"Are you there?" Lin Xiaoxiao's screen name was changed, from Ayiko Inoue to Feng Xiaoxiao.

"Well! I haven't been in touch for a long time. How is the college entrance examination?" Chen Yizhe asked. June 6th, 7th, and 8th are the time for the college entrance examination, which happened shortly after the end of the college entrance examination.

"What else can I do, it's just the last two books to play normally!" Lin Xiaoxiao replied.

"Two is better than a junior college! Which college did you apply for?" Chen Yizhe asked.

"Pengcheng University!" Lin Xiaoxiao replied.

"Then when you pass the exam, I invite you to have a good meal!" Chen Yizhe seemed to feel that Lin Xiaoxiao was in a bad mood.

"Yeah! But I'm not in the mood to eat a big meal recently!"

"What's wrong?"

"Something happened at home, it's a little annoying!"

"Do you need my help?" Chen Yizhe asked.

"You can't help me!"

"If you don't tell me, no one can help you!" Chen Yizhe replied.

"If you Chen Yizhe is a shareholder of Baidu, then it's still possible!"

"I am a shareholder of Baidu!"

"Chen Yizhe, it seems that you haven't seen each other for a few years, you are more and more bragging!"

"Uh~www.wuxiahere.com~ I never brag!"

"And you said you don't brag? You said a while ago that you have a pair of twins, and you're still three years old!"

"Tell you the truth, but you don't believe it, what can be done about it! Don't say there are none, if you really want to ask me for help, then hurry up and don't wait until it expires!"

"Okay, lend me two million dollars! Big boss!"

"Send the account number!"

"5201314…"

"...The account number is sent."

"real?"

"yours!"

"It's just the same, then I really sent it, 6212..."

"Okay, I have someone turn over, you can check it out!"

(=)