Chapter 150: That Year at 19, With Only a Cold 10+ Billion in the Account

September 19, Hangcheng, Mama Ali Headquarters.

Last time, Chen Yansen visited Mama Ali Baba as a partner; this time, he became the seller.

Only, what he was selling wasn't goods, but the company itself.

After the acquisition was completed, the shareholders of Fox Tao would change from the original four (Senlian, Siwei, IDG, Tencent) to multiple shareholders.

Lotte and Augusta decided to retain some equity in the new Fox Tao while exchanging their Ali equity.

After Yitao merged into Fox Tao, a new Fox Tao would be formed and operated as an independent business unit.

"Boss, we've arrived." Gao Weilin parked the car and whispered the reminder.

Chen Yansen acknowledged with a sound, unbuckled his seatbelt, and got out of the car.

Behind them, six well-dressed men and women got out of a business car; among them were financial analysts and legal advisors, and together with Gao Weilin and Ye Qiuping, they formed the core team for Fox Tao's negotiation this time.

Song Yuncheng, standing nearby, looked at Chen Yansen with complex eyes.

This man never speaks a single true word.

In early September, he had solemnly convened an all-staff meeting to announce that the rumors of selling Fox Tao were all false.

Only now did she understand that the financial analysts and legal advisors Chen Yansen had recruited were all preparations for selling Fox Tao.

However, the fact that Chen Yansen brought her to such an important occasion instead of Meng Jie made her secretly delighted.

At this moment, Zhang Yong, accompanied by his assistant, hurried forward to shake hands and exchange greetings with Chen Yansen: "President Chen, welcome! President Ma, Lotte, and Augusta's people have all arrived."

"Then let's handle the main business first." Chen Yansen smiled slightly, his tone calm.

In 2011, the Mama Ali Headquarters had not yet moved to the Xixi Park; it was squeezed together with other internet companies in Hangcheng at the Paradise Software Park.

The group took the elevator straight to the 10th floor, Block G.

"Ding—!" The elevator doors slowly opened.

Zhang Yong led Chen Yansen and others straight inside, stopping at the door of a spacious conference room.

"President Chen!" Several familiar greetings immediately came from inside the room.

Ma Liyun sat with a middle-aged man wearing glasses, while Augusta sat with a petite woman; several empty seats were left in the middle, obviously reserved for Chen Yansen and his party.

"President Chen, let me introduce you; this is Wu Cunhe, President of SoftBank's China Region."

Cunhe?

Just hearing it sounded like a Japanese person who had changed to a Chinese surname.

Chen Yansen nodded slightly and said nothing; it was well known that SoftBank was an important investor in Mama Ali Baba, and Ma Liyun's ability to repurchase that 40% equity from Yahoo was largely thanks to SoftBank's support.

Even for the acquisition of Fox Tao, SoftBank had sent a representative to attend.

"President Chen, this is Miss Su Jingzi, the representative from Lotte." Jody, Augusta's investment manager, introduced her to Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen extended his hand and offered a polite smile to this "sucker."

These Japanese people coming to China to do business, afraid of being hated, all changed their faces and names, half-hidden and half-revealed.

Little did they know that Chinese people would never use such naming methods.

"President Chen, I have long heard of your fame." Su Jingzi, originally named Mikiya Jingzi, scrutinized Chen Yansen with burning eyes.

This boy, not yet twenty years old, turned out to be today's protagonist, which was surprising.

The other party was tall and handsome, like a man walking out of a manga; even Su Jingzi, who had seen much of the world, couldn't help but sigh inwardly: Chinese men's genes are truly excellent.

"President Su, a pleasure." Chen Yansen glanced at her and replied lightly.

Everyone took their seats, and the negotiation officially began.

The offer price had already been communicated online; the key points to confirm now were nothing more than Yitao's valuation and, after merging with Fox Tao, the shareholding ratios of Lotte and Augusta, and other information.

Among Fox Tao's original shareholders, IDG planned to exchange its equity for Ali equity, while Siwei and Penguin Investment decided to exit and cash out early.

The valuation of 20 billion was undisputed; converting according to the 74.48% equity held by Chen Yansen, it amounted to nearly 14.9 billion yuan.

With this money, the expansion speed of Sister Chengzi's factory could be greatly increased; on one hand, it could solve the problem of insufficient production capacity for Chengzi phones, and on the other hand, it could enter the OEM market and compete with Foxconn, Inventec, and BYD.

Therefore, Chen Yansen and Gao Weilin were relatively relaxed, watching Ma Liyun communicate with Su Jingzi and Jody throughout the process.

The three parties engaged in a fierce discussion around the valuations of Ali and Yitao.

"There is nothing to discuss about Ali's valuation; this month, Silver Lake Capital and Digital Sky invested 1.6 billion US dollars, with a valuation of 32 billion US dollars. If the two of you do not recognize it, we can talk slowly."

Ma Liyun wore a confident expression; he could afford to wait.

The valuations of both Fox Tao and Ali were in an upward phase, but as the e-commerce hegemon, Ali's market value was rising even faster.

The longer Lotte and Augusta Capital dragged on, the more advantageous it was for him.

Moreover, in Ma Liyun's view, Ali's market value had to reach at least 100 billion US dollars to be considered a success; if not for completing the external traffic entry, he would not have been willing to give up Ali equity.

"President Ma, I recognize Ali's valuation of 32 billion US dollars, but is it unreasonable to value Zhifubao at 18 billion US dollars?"

Su Jingzi frowned and directly raised the objection.

The equity exchange plan proposed by Ali was a combination of equity from Ali, Zhifubao, and the new Fox Tao (reorganized with Yitao).

In fact, they had no dispute over the valuations of Ali and the new Fox Tao; only Zhifubao's valuation of 18 billion US dollars made Su Jingzi and Jody feel that this Chinese person who looked like an ET had ill intentions.

Both sides argued until their faces turned red, each presenting valuation models and algorithms, arguing with reason and evidence.

After listening for a while, Chen Yansen became impatient, took out his phone, opened a scanned version of "The Physics of Light-Speed Sound Waves," and used it to pass the time.

This argument continued until noon without any result.

Ma Liyun's eloquence and negotiation skills were indeed strong, showing a posture determined to refute Su Jingzi and Jody and make them recognize the valuation calculation method provided by Ali's financial director.

Seeing that it was mealtime, Cai Xin stepped in to smooth things over, smilingly suggesting they have lunch first and continue the discussion in the afternoon.

After all, a single percentage point represented hundreds of millions in funds; no one was willing to compromise, which was only human nature.

The group arrived at the floor where the cafeteria was located; the dishes were quite abundant.

They had originally planned to go to a nearby restaurant, but Su Jingzi and Jody refused, stating plainly that the cafeteria was fine, and they wanted to tour the Mama Ali Baba cafeteria environment.

After all, once the cooperation was achieved, Lotte and Augusta Capital would also be considered important shareholders of Ali.

Cai Xin and Zhang Yong didn't really let these company bosses and corporate executives serve themselves; they casually called over a few cafeteria staff, gave a few instructions, then led everyone to the private rooms.

Chen Yansen looked around and felt that although Mama Ali hadn't yet moved to the Xixi campus, the office environment was already quite nice.

In the cafeteria, there were masters making boiled dumplings and boiled wontons, as well as chefs hand-pulling noodles on the spot.

In front of the two noodle-pulling masters, the line stretched very long; their two arms were practically smoking from pulling, muscles bulging high, entering a state of blood congestion.

The Zhuxian Town Tech Park also had a cafeteria, but that one served all the companies located there, and its taste couldn't even compare to the Virtual Academy cafeteria.

Usually, Sister Chengzi Tech's employees mostly chose to take the shuttle bus to eat lunch at the Virtual Academy's east gate.

"President Chen, how about opening an Orange Phone flagship store on Taobao Shangcheng?"

During the meal, Zhang Yong probed and asked.

Taobao Shangcheng, established just three years ago, on its path of transforming to B2C, still had very strong demand for digital and home appliance categories.

Plus, Orange Phone's pre-orders reached as high as 3 million units; if these sales were generated on Taobao Shangcheng, it would equal adding 6 billion in sales to the group.

Zhang Yong was naturally tempted!

"Orange Tech's e-commerce department was only recently established, but since President Zhang has spoken, I'll definitely cooperate. Yuncheng, you follow up on this matter."

Chen Yansen said with a smile, giving Zhang Yong plenty of face.

Fox Tao's current situation couldn't be achieved without Zhang Yong's support.

Chen Yansen had heard that within Mama Ali, attitudes toward Fox Tao varied; Hu Zhilong of the Mama Ali Alliance and Wu Ming of One-Tao had long wanted to use the group's power to suppress Fox Tao, but were blocked by Zhang Yong.

Although Zhang Yong's move was only to avoid affecting the group's market share and total sales, for Fox Tao it undoubtedly gained the freest development space.

"Manager Song, leave a contact method, I'll create a group chat and have the colleague responsible for Taobao Shangcheng onboarding come to coordinate."

Zhang Yong said to Song Yuncheng.

Meeting three times in a row, he had seen Song Yuncheng by Chen Yansen's side every time, so he had some guesses in his heart, and his attitude was especially gentle.

"Thank you, President Zhang." Song Yuncheng responded politely.

Across from them, Ma Liyun and the others, no longer as confrontational as in the morning, were smiling and introducing Hangcheng cuisine to Su Jingzi and Qiao Di.

Su Jingzi clearly had been in the country for a long time, was extremely familiar with the dishes on the table, and selectively skipped the local dishes.

Qiao Di, on the other hand, had a strong interest in the hand-pulled noodles, but couldn't grip the noodles with chopsticks, so she reluctantly switched to a fork and twirled the noodles up to eat.

After the meal, Zhang Yong signaled the administrative staff to take representatives from all sides to the lounge, and continue negotiations two hours later.

This wasn't really for rest, but to let everyone calm down first, report the morning's negotiation details to their respective headquarters, so as to find a price acceptable to all sides.

Inside the lounge.

Song Yuncheng spoke very little today; learning that Chen Yansen was really going to sell Fox Tao, she felt several more parts of reluctance in her heart.

"Boss, I think if we keep wrangling like this morning, it'll probably take another two or three days, otherwise Mama Ali, Lotte, and Augusta won't compromise."

Gao Linwei twisted open a bottle of mineral water, took a sip, then said in a serious tone.

"It'll be settled eventually. They're not in a hurry, so we don't need to be in a hurry either."

Chen Yansen responded with a smile.

Because Fox Tao's valuation in Q4 would only rise, not fall; the longer it dragged on, the more disadvantageous it would be for Lotte and Augusta Capital.

Sure enough, the afternoon negotiation progressed just as Chen Yansen had predicted.

In no time, Lotte and Augusta negotiated Zhi Fu Bao's valuation down from 18 billion USD to 16 billion USD; seeing Mama Ali no longer concede, the three sides finally reached an agreement.

Lotte contributed 8 billion, Augusta contributed 4 billion, jointly acquiring 60% of Fox Tao's equity from Chen Yansen.

Ali Baba exchanged 0.8% of Mama Ali's equity and 1.13% of Zhi Fu Bao's equity for the remaining 14.48% of Fox Tao's equity from Chen Yansen.

At this point, Senhai Tech was separated from Senlian Capital, and Fox Tao had no further connection with Chen Yansen.

The Fox Tao equity held by Penguin and Siwei, based on a 20 billion valuation, was all transferred to Lotte.

Penguin's 150 million invested in the angel round and A round, in just half a year, became nearly 2 billion.

When Lin Chenfeng of the venture capital department brought his team to Hangcheng to sign the contract, he specifically pulled Chen Yansen aside to thank him; his year-end bonus was a sure thing.

A ten-plus-fold investment return was enough to let all members responsible for this investment receive generous year-end bonuses ranging from 5 to 12 months.

Zhang Jiancheng of Siwei Investment had a similar attitude, repeatedly congratulating Chen Yansen; they had earned quite a bit, but Chen Yansen had earned even more.

Not yet twenty years old, Chen Yansen had over 10 billion on his account.

In addition, he was also a shareholder of Mama Ali and Zhi Fu Bao; these seemingly tiny stakes would be worth at least 4 billion USD in the future!

The 4 billion in Lei Bu's card was indeed cold; how could it compare to the fiery 10-plus billion of President Chen.

After Chen Yansen signed the equity transfer agreement, he was making final communications regarding the retention or departure of Fox Tao members.

At the same time.

Gradually, rumors spread that Mama Ali, Lotte, and Augusta Capital would jointly launch an acquisition of Fox Tao, and One-Tao would later be merged into Fox Tao to form a new Fox Tao business division.

In an instant, all Fox Tao members fell into confusion.

Wu Ming of One-Tao felt the same; in terms of performance, he couldn't compare to Fox Tao; after the merger, who would be in charge?

For him, this was of vital importance.

Of course, Mama Ali, Lotte, Augusta, and Fox Tao never made a direct response; the outside world could only guess, unable to confirm.

(End of this chapter)