Chapter 216: A Billion-Dollar Acquisition of Gao De, Chaoyang Park

"How much equity is Zhang Yiming willing to give?"

Chen Yansen stood by the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, watching the gradually dimming sky, and asked expressionlessly.

Last time Gao Weilin reminded him that after Zhang Yiming returned to Yanjing, he had been in frequent contact with several investment firms, and Chen Yansen had already had an expectation in mind back then.

Chen Yansen understood Zhang Yiming's little scheme—it was nothing more than wanting to pull in a few more venture capital firms to spread out the equity ratio, so that while securing controlling interest, he could also obtain a large amount of project startup capital.

On this point, Zhang Yiming handled things more tactfully and maturely than Zhang Xuhao did—facing interested investors, he agreed to everything across the board, rather than taking the first firm's offer to negotiate a higher price with the second.

"10%, two million yuan, and together with the other three firms, the total equity released in the seed round is 25%."

Gao Weilin said with a smile.

In his view, ByteDance's financing scale was pitifully small, even inferior to Kuaidi Dache.

Two million yuan for 10% of ByteDance?

Chen Yansen smiled faintly—as long as Senlian Capital kept following up with investments, the value of this equity would reach as high as 40 billion US dollars more than a decade from now.

But now, with Zhang Yiming having gone off course, can he still build a commercial empire with a 400 billion US dollar valuation?

Often, a single thought can change a person's entire life.

Chen Yansen couldn't be sure either!

"Invest. Whether to follow up later, we'll decide when the time comes."

Chen Yansen thought for a moment and replied.

In reality, what he was thinking was: rather than waiting for Zhang Yiming to build Toutiao, he might as well do it himself.

Content distribution and recommendation algorithms were hardly programming technologies with extremely high barriers for him.

"Got it, boss, I'll handle it properly." Gao Weilin responded.

"By the way, I'm going to Yanjing tomorrow. Don't go back to Xucheng yet. The day after tomorrow I've arranged to meet Liu Zhiping and Cheng Congwu at the headquarters of Gao De Maps."

Before hanging up the phone, Chen Yansen gave Gao Weilin one more instruction.

"Alright, got it." Gao Weilin nodded in response—he had heard Chen Yansen mention this before.

Taking a stake in or acquiring Gao De Maps, to form an O2O closed loop with Yun Su Express, Kuai Pao Waimai, and Kuaidi Dache, completing the complementarity of traffic, data, and capital.

This was a merger and acquisition case involving several billion in capital—Gao Weilin had to take it seriously. Thinking of this, he hurriedly opened the documents he had prepared last time, planning to review them once more, so as not to slip up when meeting the day after tomorrow.

After finishing his call with Gao Weilin, Chen Yansen took the elevator down to the first floor, got in the car, and sent a message to Song Yuncheng, then drove toward Xu Yuan.

"I'm going on a business trip to Yanjing tomorrow. Remember to bring the clothes I gave you."

Song Yuncheng was sitting at her workstation. Seeing the text message from Chen Yansen, a blush unconsciously rose on her cheeks.

"Mm."

Song Yuncheng didn't refuse, simply replying with one word.

Meanwhile.

The war of words between Zhou Hongyi and Lei Yijun had already shifted from Weibo to text messages. Without the public's attention and restraint, the two were becoming increasingly impolite when speaking.

"We've been old friends for years. Just to develop new business, you take a knife to an old friend?" Lei Yijun questioned.

"I've already said it—the phone is manufactured by Haier. 360 is merely acting as a sales channel. I never intended to compete with Xiaomi. But you hired trolls to smear me—how do you explain that?" Zhou Hongyi replied.

"That was posted by netizens, what does it have to do with me? Dare you say the Haier W910's screen has no problems? A 4.5-inch screen paired with a 1600 mAh battery, users have to charge it three times a day—if that's not garbage, what is?" Lei Yijun was blunt and straightforward, hitting people right in the face.

Although Zhou Hongyi understood he had been screwed over by Haier, he wouldn't back down: "Isn't Xiaomi garbage? Poor signal, crashes and restarts, severe overheating. The fact that you can sell two million units is only because there are too many fools!"

"Idiot!" This time Lei Yijun only replied with two words.

"Do you dare say it to my face?" Zhou Hongyi had practiced Tai Chi and judo in college. Even though Lei Yijun was bigger than him, he wasn't intimidated in the slightest.

"Say it to your face? I'd still curse you. I'd slap you across the mouth directly." Lei Yijun looked refined and elegant, but deep in his bones he had a streak of "life and death mean nothing; if you won't submit, then let's fight" spirit, and immediately fired back.

"Tomorrow afternoon at three, Chaoyang Park. Whoever doesn't show up is a grandson."

Zhou Hongyi lost his head and chose to arrange a face-to-face fight.

"Fine, I'll be waiting for you." These past two days, Lei Yijun had been cursed out by Zhou Hongyi online enough.

Xiaomi phones also suffered collateral damage—after all, Zhou Hongyi, as the boss of 360 and an internet tycoon worth several billion, spent all day cursing Xiaomi online, which would definitely affect sales.

The other side's Haier W910 wasn't selling well, and now they wanted to drag Xiaomi down to die as well.

"Li Wanqiang, tomorrow find me a few colleagues from the marketing department who can fight. Come with me to Chaoyang Park."

Putting down his phone, Lei Yijun simply couldn't contain the fury in his heart. He yanked open his office door, called Li Wanqiang over, and gave the order.

"Lei Zong, when you say 'can fight,' do you mean marketing and promotional ability, or channel integration ability?"

Li Wanqiang was slightly stunned, his face full of confusion, not understanding what Lei Yijun meant.

"Literal meaning—the kind that can fight!"

Lei Yijun stood with his hands on his hips, then switched to his hometown dialect and cursed Zhou Hongyi from afar.

Mainly because Zhou Hongyi had cursed too filthily—even Lei Yijun's defenses were completely broken, and at this moment he had forgotten all his composure and cultivation.

That morning, Lei Yijun had accused Zhou Hongyi on Weibo of plagiarism, saying he had copied Xiaomi's phone plan one-to-one, calling him 'big brother' to his face while stabbing him in the back, and that his treachery was no less than that of 'Eastern Heretic.'

Zhou Hongyi then brought up Meizu, saying bluntly that two years ago, after Lei Yijun visited Meizu, he turned around and founded Xiaomi, copying Meizu's projects and technology wholesale. "You say I'm Eastern Heretic? Then you're Lei Buqun."

In the end, even Huang Zhang popped up and made a few snarky remarks.

Fight?

Li Wanqiang was stunned. He instinctively asked, "Lei Zong, who are you going to fight?"

"Of course that bastard Zhou Hongyi." Lei Yijun replied.

"……" Li Wanqiang opened his mouth, not knowing what to say.

He knew about the war of words between his own boss and Zhou Hongyi. He had assumed it was nothing more than a verbal spat, while also stirring up some buzz to drive Xiaomi phone sales.

But who would have thought that now Lei Yijun was saying he wanted to arrange a face-to-face fight with Zhou Hongyi—this was truly jaw-dropping.

He actually really wanted to say: Lei Zong, you're both worth several billion, how can you act like street thugs?

After cursing for several minutes, Lei Yijun's head also cooled down.

It wasn't regret—he just knew that if they were going to fight, they had to win; he knew Zhou Hongyi had trained in taiji and judo, and though he had the height advantage, they'd never fought before, so he had no confidence.

Also, would Zhou Hongyi bring in outside help or hire bodyguards?

"First, find four—wait, find eight coworkers who can fight."

Lei Yi considered for a moment, then said to Li Ling.

Uncertain of the opponent's numbers, Lei Yi decided to take ten people total, including himself.

"... Alright, Lei Zong." Li Ling fell silent for several seconds, then nodded with a bitter smile.

On the other side.

Online netizens, seeing how fiercely they were arguing, had a curious suggestion: "Both Xiaomi and 360's headquarters are in Yanjing—stop cursing each other. If you're real men, meet at Chaoyang Park and settle it! No cops, no matter who wins or loses."

Below, a flood of people egged them on, frantically mentioning Zhou Hongyi and Lei Yi.

Not long after, Zhou Hongyi responded voluntarily: "Tomorrow at 3 p. m., meet at East Gate Five of Chaoyang Park. If you're a real man, come talk to me face-to-face!"

Lei Yi hadn't wanted to reply, but then he thought—if he didn't respond, netizens would think he was scared—so he posted a Weibo: "I'll be there."

In an instant, news that the two industry giants were arranging a physical fight shot straight to the top three trending topics.

Some netizens unfamiliar with the backstory had assumed it was photoshopped images or fake news—but when they checked the comments under Lei Yi and Zhou Hongyi's Weibos, they were stunned.

Two billionaires are going to fight offline?

It was like Zuckerberg and Musk arranging a brawl years later—equally astonishing.

That evening, Li Ling from YY Live called Lei Yi, asking if he wanted to livestream the event to stir up even more attention.

As a proper businessman, Li Ling had never imagined that Lei Yi and Zhou Hongyi's fight wasn't for publicity—it was purely to knock each other out.

Lei Yi barely held back from cursing, gave a few vague replies, then hung up; right after, Chen Yansen's call came in, slapping his chest and declaring he'd come along tomorrow.

It left him both amused and exasperated!

Reporters from the Yanjing Daily, Yanjing TV, and the 21st Century Business Circle had also been notified to go to the scene the next day for on-site coverage.

Netizens from outside Yanjing left comments begging locals near Chaoyang Park to shoot high-definition video for the nationwide onlookers.

The next morning.

Chen Yansen and Song Yuncheng flew directly to Yanjing.

Gao Weilin rented a Mercedes to pick them up from the airport and take them to their hotel.

"Boss, Lei Yi and Zhou Hongyi from 360 arranging a physical fight—this marketing strategy is brilliant. Honestly, after all these years in Hong Kong, I've never seen anything like it."

In the hotel lobby, Gao Weilin remarked with a smile.

Marketing strategy?

Chen Yansen smiled; in his past life, he'd heard about their fight, and from a businessman's perspective, he'd assumed it was publicity—just like Musk and Facebook's founder staging a duel.

Releasing videos of them training martial arts every few days—what else could that be but publicity?

"It's indeed brilliant—makes it seem real."

Chen Yansen squinted and gave a slight nod.

But he had no interest in it; he skipped the topic entirely and continued discussing the purpose of this trip with Gao Weilin.

Gao De Map's current stock price is $11.40 per share; market performance is weak, down several points from half a month ago, with a total market cap of only $620 million.

According to Chen Yansen's knowledge, Mama Ali spent a total of $1.34 billion to take Gao De Map private and make it a wholly owned subsidiary of the group.

But that was after 2014, when 4G licenses were issued and China's mobile internet entered a phase of rapid growth, causing more than a doubling in valuation.

Now it's only 2012; 3G still dominates the market, and mobile internet has just begun to sprout.

Launching an acquisition now could save at least several billion in funds.

(End of Chapter)