Chapter 709: Lightning Acquisition

Zhang Yiming and Zhang Lidong nodded, their faces filled with worry, and replied:

"Alright!"

"What's wrong? Today's my son's full-moon celebration, why so gloomy?" Fang Hong casually slapped Zhang Yiming on the chest.

"It's about the acquisition—it's gotten complicated," Zhang Yiming sighed.

"What kind of trouble?" Fang Hong asked, puzzled.

This matter had been going on for some time, always a key strategic project for Chang'e Technology, and he had been closely following it.

"We were just talking about it, planning to tell you—the acquisition has hit some obstacles."

Zhang Yiming continued: "Facebook is playing dirty, constantly accusing us of threatening their national security—even some lawmakers want to halt the acquisition, claiming we can't merge or take American users' data away."

Facebook has even raised the acquisition price to $1.2 billion, and their executives are wavering—we're under heavy competitive pressure."

Facebook has always been the biggest obstacle to the acquisition, and they've shown interest in this too, but according to Fang Hong's memory, it wasn't their priority project—otherwise they wouldn't have lost to ByteDance in the past life.

"What exactly are they worried about? I mean, the U. S. government—is it the data?" Fang Hong asked.

"Yes, they fear the data will be exploited by our country," Zhang Yiming said.

This is why Chinese companies struggle so much to acquire U. S. tech firms—always demonizing you, always citing "security" as an excuse.

"U. S. policy swings wildly—four years from now, everything will be different. My suggestion: agree to their terms, promise to store the data on their soil."

"What happens later can wait—but the merger must happen," Fang Hong said.

How could we not merge? Not merging means adding a competitor, adding an enemy—would we fight ourselves on the global stage?

Wouldn't that be a waste of resources, a waste of money!

They don't have the resources like Tencent to raise monsters—they must concentrate all resources, all technology, onto one platform.

"I understand!" Zhang Yiming nodded, grasping his meaning—it was about easing the government's concerns.

Just agree to everything—four years from now, who knows what state we'll be in?

Fang Hong added: "Also, negotiate with them—we'll pay $1 billion in cash, deliver immediately upon signing, but the entire process can't take longer than one month."

Hearing the last sentence, others were taken aback; Zhang Yiming frowned: "One month? That's too short!"

Such a massive project—a billion-dollar acquisition—must be completed within a month?

Just the approvals alone would take ages!

"Yes, one month. We can still mobilize the funds," Fang Hong said.

$1 billion is just 7 billion RMB—Chang'e Technology can afford this now; if needed, we can borrow—dozens of financial institutions are eager to lend.

In the past few months, TikTok's ad revenue has multiplied several times, breaking 1 billion RMB in a single month and still climbing monthly.

This is the power of Information Flow Advertising—TikTok's explosion alone could generate financial freedom through ads; we could even cut games entirely.

Of course, currently we're still self-sufficient, easing the financial pressure from games.

"I'm not too worried about that—I'm worried about the U. S. government," Zhang Yiming said.

"Then focus all your efforts on winning over the U. S. government. Everything else on our side—cut the red tape, skip procedures, move at maximum speed to seal the deal."

Hearing this, everyone grew serious—even funding wouldn't require approval.

Legal and finance departments—cut all formalities, no reporting, make decisions directly!

"That carries financial risk," Zhang Yiming said—such a short timeline means even reviewing legal documents would take time.

"Special situations demand special handling. Work overtime if needed—it's just hard work," Fang Hong said.

Zhang Yiming understood: others work eight hours, we work sixteen—this isn't some technical breakthrough requiring a flash of genius.

"This deal cannot exceed two months. Facebook is a giant—they'd need Zuckerberg's approval, committee review, legal and financial checks—minimum three months. That's too many variables, too uncertain."

Fang Hong held up three fingers, explaining: "Our advantage is speed—direct decisions, sign and pay immediately, no delays."

"The Principal is right," Zhang Yiming understood.

This is a lightning strike against bureaucracy—typical big companies take months or even half a year to finalize an acquisition.

Every step requires boss approval, 'Is this okay?' 'Is that acceptable?'—we skip all that, cut the middle layers, let headquarters decide, then act immediately.

Zhang Lidong and the others thought the Principal was decisive.

But lightning acquisitions aren't easy—the Principal assumes the other side is bureaucratic, but what if they move fast too?

Besides, they're offering $1.2 billion—the target company wouldn't mind waiting.

"Also…"

Fang Hong pulled Zhang Yiming aside.

The others knew the two were about to whisper secrets—things they weren't meant to hear—and quietly stepped away.

Far from the group, Fang Hong said: "Actually, Facebook only has $500 million ready—not $1.2 billion. They're bluffing."

"Huh?!"

Zhang Yiming stared at him in shock, dumbfounded: "How did you get such a secret piece of information, Principal?"

"Don't ask how I know—just keep this knowledge to yourself. Leak it to top management, and our chances will skyrocket," Fang Hong said.

Facebook's real focus has always been the Metaverse—not short videos. Short videos were just an experiment, bought to test the waters.

How much money would you pour into an experiment? Most funds and resources went into the Metaverse.

Even if Facebook never acquired TikTok, they didn't give up—they launched several clones to compete with TikTok!

Facebook executives believed the product had no real tech value—could be cloned in a month.

Just like Tencent's early days: initially just an experiment, then when they saw it explode, they launched multiple clones.

They poured massive resources, huge advertising budgets, and constant tech iteration—but still couldn't replace TikTok—half their clones died before realizing it was impossible.

Financial analysts estimate Facebook's cloning costs exceeded $2 billion—imagine how hard it was to replicate.

Of course, even if Facebook acquired TikTok, they still couldn't guarantee victory—only save massive time and PR costs for global expansion.

The core technology is what matters—and that can't be copied.

"Is this information reliable?" Zhang Yiming was quite shaken inside. The Principal actually knew such secret information—he wondered what special channels he had.

Anyway, it was pretty impressive, that was for sure!

"Reliable, absolutely reliable. You just need to go probe around carefully and you'll know." Fang Hong said.

"If it's true, then I'm confident I can take it down within a month." Zhang Yiming suddenly had confidence.

"Good!" Fang Hong smiled.

The secret had been told to him; what came after was for them to handle themselves. This was already equivalent to cheating—telling them the reason Facebook had failed in his previous life.

Letting them know the other side's weaknesses in advance.

After Fang Hong left, Zhang Yiming immediately called Gao Zhun and Zhou Shouzi—they were leading their team in the United States.

Gao Zhun was in charge of the acquisition matters, Zhou Shouzi was in charge of lobbying the United States government.

After finishing the calls, Zhang Lidong saw Zhang Yiming looking full of confidence and couldn't help asking: "Yiming, is the Principal's lightning acquisition plan feasible?"

"Feasible, very feasible. If things go fast, it won't even take a month." Zhang Yiming said excitedly.

If Facebook really only had a budget of 500 million US dollars, that would truly be a fatal wound. All he needed to do was pass this information to the higher-ups.

"Really that fast? The Principal was only speaking hypothetically. Besides, Facebook offering 1.2 billion dollars is 200 million more than us—the higher-ups waiting and so on is also possible." Zhang Lidong said.

Zhang Nan and the others were also curious about this question and nodded in agreement.

"Who says Facebook offered 1.2 billion dollars? Just because they say 1.2 billion doesn't mean it's 1.2 billion. The enemy's words can only be trusted halfway—the other half doesn't count." Zhang Yiming said.

This remark startled Zhang Lidong and Zhang Nan. Just moments ago they had been worriedly discussing what to do about Facebook offering 1.2 billion dollars, how to respond.

After all, they were an international big company; in their eyes, they were just small fry—how could they compete?

Yet now he was so confident—they didn't know where Zhang Yiming's confidence came from.

Actually, Zhang Yiming had discussed with Zhou Shouzi and felt Facebook was very likely bluffing. They had been trying to stop their acquisition through security concerns.

Using their own influence to make them withdraw from the acquisition—throughout this process they didn't have any particularly strong intention to offer that much money for the acquisition.

If they really did, how would it be their turn? 1.2 billion dollars was already a lot. If negotiations had worked out, they would already be in the signing process.

But after so long there was still no signing—definitely no agreement reached, some obstacle in the middle.

And making Chang'e withdraw wouldn't that be perfect for driving down the price? Not to mention, look—Chang'e withdrew, no more competitor, then they could only sell to Facebook at a low price.

In general acquisition games, it's not about who offers more money, but about making the other side withdraw so you can drive down the price yourself.

Anyway, Zhang Lidong didn't know what information Zhang Yiming had heard to suddenly be so confident, and could only remain puzzled.

Business secrets are sometimes limited to just a few people.

"General Manager Fang!" Chen Zhixi ran to his side, panting.

"What's so urgent? Slow down and speak." Fang Hong gestured for her not to rush.

"I've been looking for you for ages."

Chen Zhixi swallowed, caught her breath, then said: "I just got news—a lot of our theater rental fees have been notified to increase, with increases ranging from 10% to 20%."

"That much?" Fang Hong's eyes widened.

(End of this chapter)