Chapter 195

"Mainland company acquires Japan's Wan Dai!"

"Japan's largest toy giant, Wan Dai, acquired by Dongling High-Tech!"

"Overseas companies are buying up all of Japan; the Japanese Ministry of Finance should introduce laws to restrict acquisitions of Japan by overseas companies!"

When news broke that Dongling High-Tech had become the largest shareholder of Japan's Wan Dai, various Japanese media outlets were in an uproar. Even though Dongling High-Tech only took 17.7% of Wan Dai's equity, it still caused all sorts of Japanese people to mourn as if their parents had died, as if all of Japan had already been bought out.

The media naturally loves eye-catching headlines. Coupled with Japan's small territory, this has caused the Japanese people's character to be both arrogant and inferior. Frequent earthquakes have left the people on the island with a strong sense of anxiety, yet they are also somewhat sensitive.

The Japanese character, coupled with the media's fanning of the flames, has caused headline-grabbing to run rampant, making many people who saw the Japanese media reports feel as if Dongling High-Tech had already bought the entire Wan Dai...

You have to know, ten or so years ago, Japan was shouting about buying up America, but now news comes out that Japan's own Wan Dai has actually had a mainland company become its largest shareholder. This made many Japanese people whose thinking was still stuck before the bursting of the Japanese bubble jump with rage.

However, from now on, Japanese people will likely get more and more used to this kind of thing. After a few years, Sharp will be acquired, Toshiba will be split up, the television business will be given to Hisense, home appliance businesses will be given to Midea, the remaining Panasonic and Sanyo home appliances will be bundled together and sold off to Haier, and the Panasonic television business will be given to Changhong.

Other Japanese companies will basically be the same. Except for Sony, which is barely holding on with cameras, the rest of Japan's television, home appliance, and other businesses will be picked off by mainland companies, and by the way, the Japanese market will also be occupied. As for businesses like semiconductors, that is the territory of Japan's suzerain, America; anyway, it doesn't belong to Japan...

It is estimated that by that time, Japanese people will be used to Japanese brands and companies being acquired. But for now, Dongling High-Tech suddenly becoming Wan Dai's largest shareholder is still enough to shock countless Japanese people.

The news first spread from Japan to Southeast Asia, and media outlets in Xiangjiang, Singapore, Malaysia, Siam, and other places followed suit and reprinted it.

Li Dongling's reputation in Xiangjiang was already quite significant; he was one of the mainland tycoons that Xiangjiang media paid the most attention to. From the initial Microsoft lawsuit to the "Mouse King," "Telephone King," and so on, Xiangjiang media had been reporting on him.

But the previous media reports were far less intense than this sudden news of Dongling High-Tech becoming Wan Dai's largest shareholder. Historical reasons, coupled with Japan's strength in the economic field over the past few decades, meant that Xiangjiang companies were also at a disadvantage when facing Japanese companies, and Japanese goods were also prevalent in Xiangjiang.

And now, Dongling High-Tech had become Wan Dai's largest shareholder. Regardless of what tier of company Wan Dai was in Japan or what its current situation was, once the news broke, the entire Xiangjiang media industry moved with the wind in an instant.

"Dongling High-Tech, founded by Asian Telephone Wang Li Dongling, becomes Japan's Wan Dai's largest shareholder!"

"A first for Asia; the first time a mainland company has invested in and acquired a stake in a Japanese company!"

"The world's fifth-largest toy giant changes hands; Dongling High-Tech becomes Wan Dai's largest shareholder!"

Think about it, what was the scene like in the domestic media when Lenovo acquired IBM back then? If it weren't for the subsequent mess, Lenovo would have almost completely cleared its name through the battle of acquiring IBM, becoming the pride of domestic brands, and being sought after by countless people.

How Lenovo was praised by the media when acquiring IBM is exactly how Dongling High-Tech was being praised by the Xiangjiang media now, and perhaps even more so.

In this era lacking self-confidence, Dongling High-Tech being able to become the largest shareholder of a Japanese company belonging to a developed country—many people might not know what Wan Dai does, but that didn't hinder the praise for Dongling High-Tech!

"Dongling High-Tech spends 300 million USD to invest in Wan Dai!"

On the mainland side, the media in Guangdong Province, which was closest to Xiangjiang, was the first to release the news, and subsequently, domestic media outlets began to report on this matter in an overwhelming manner.

Wan Dai, which originally didn't have much of a reputation domestically, was also reported on by various domestic media outlets at the same time, which caused Wan Dai's reputation to skyrocket domestically.

……

"I think this is an irrational investment. I admit that Dongling High-Tech is a company that has repeatedly created genius products and also has experience in developing digital pet machines, but Wan Dai's current situation is very bad, with a massive loss of hundreds of millions of USD, setting the largest loss record since Wan Dai's founding!

Is such a company that could go bankrupt and close down at any time really worth spending 300 million USD to invest in its stock?!"

The finance channel of Shanghai Television was arguing endlessly about Dongling High-Tech becoming Wan Dai's largest shareholder. One of the guests invited to the television station, Huang Yajian, was the boss of a toy company in Shanghai and could be considered an old veteran in the toy industry; naturally, he was most clear about the situation in the toy industry.

At this moment, he was fiercely criticizing Dongling High-Tech's investment this time. His experience told him that Wan Dai was finished, unless Dongling High-Tech needed to throw another few hundred million USD into it.

This was completely a blunder by Dongling High-Tech; apart from gaining a false reputation, it had no other use. Wan Dai was already beyond saving; he really couldn't think of any way out for Wan Dai.

"I believe in Dongling High-Tech. I have interviewed Mr. Li Dongling, the founder of Dongling High-Tech. Dongling High-Tech is a company that can create miracles itself. Since they are investing in Wan Dai, they must have their reasons!"

Sitting opposite Huang Yajian was a reporter from a financial newspaper who had once gone to Hanxi to interview Li Dongling together with other media outlets.

In recent years, as long as it was technology or financial media in the country, they had basically reported on Dongling High-Tech's news. And after reporting on Dongling High-Tech's news many times, the trust these financial and technology media reporters had in Dongling High-Tech would become higher and higher. Just like this time, these reporters in the technology and financial industries had much more confidence than Dongling High-Tech!

"Unless Dongling High-Tech can make Wan Dai develop another project like the digital pet machine, then Wan Dai might be saved."

"But is that possible?!"

Huang Yuanjian looked at the reporter opposite him, shook his head, and said, with the air of the reporter in front of him being too young.

As an old veteran in the industry, Huang Yuanjian knew too well that a project like the digital pet machine was full of too much contingency. He didn't believe that Li Dongling could come up with any other tricks comparable to the digital pet machine. If he could really pull it off, then he would willingly admit defeat.

The debate on the Shanghai Finance Channel about Dongling High-Tech's investment in Wan Dai was not the first. After praising Dongling High-Tech for investing in Japan's Wan Dai, many media outlets also began to raise doubts: is it worth spending hundreds of millions of USD to invest in a company that could go bankrupt at any time?!

……

"Dongling High-Tech acquired Japan's Wan Dai?!"

In Yanjing, Lenovo's Boss Liu, after seeing the reports in the media, also asked his subordinates with some surprise.

"It's an investment. Dongling High-Tech only obtained less than 17% of Wan Dai's equity, but it has indeed become Wan Dai's largest shareholder!" Boss Liu's confidant, Guo Wei, said.

After flipping through several finance channels in a row, they were all news about Dongling High-Tech investing in and acquiring a stake in Wan Dai. After seeing this, Boss Liu couldn't help but feel envious.

"300 million USD, Dongling High-Tech is really making a big move. However, investing in Wan Dai is really not attending to proper business!"

Boss Liu shook his head, his words filled with disdain for Dongling High-Tech's reckless spending and not attending to proper business, but only he himself knew whether he was envious or not.

Looking at the news on the television, Boss Liu couldn't help but think, if one day Lenovo acquired an overseas computer giant, he wondered what that scene would be like.

"Domestic companies are probably very difficult to replicate this investment!"

Inside the Sitong company, they were also discussing this investment. Although they had "missed" the opportunity to invest in Dongling, a lean camel is bigger than a horse; Sitong was still one of the domestic giant companies, but it was becoming increasingly sluggish.

The person speaking was Chu Zhong, who was in charge of Sitong's finances. "Dongling High-Tech this time borrowed this money from overseas banks and financial groups. Other domestic companies don't have Dongling High-Tech's reputation overseas. Wanting to borrow so much foreign exchange is really too difficult!"

Hearing this, Sitong's leader, Duan Yongji, sighed. When he first saw the news about Dongling High-Tech and Wan Dai, he was indeed very excited.

Now Sitong was stuck in a bottleneck. Dongling High-Tech's investment gave him inspiration. If Sitong could also initiate overseas acquisitions and enter overseas markets, would that be able to boost Sitong's stock price and performance? Of course, he could also cash out more stocks.

But Chu Zhong's words poured a bucket of cold water on Duan Yongji. Sitong had no reputation overseas. Wanting to get USD and JPY from overseas banks and financial groups was really too difficult. Hearing that there was no chance to replicate Dongling High-Tech's operation this time, Duan Yongji immediately lost interest.

A host of domestic companies like Sitong, Giant, Nande, and BBK all looked at Dongling High-Tech. This overseas investment was the first time a mainland company had invested in an overseas listed company. Whether it was a success or a failure, for domestic companies, it was an experience and a lesson.

Of course, if it were a success, then the value of domestic companies would also be a bit higher for those overseas banks and financial groups. Borrowing money in the future would also be a bit easier, and the opportunities to go overseas would also be a bit greater.

……

"Blind box?!"

At the Wan Dai company in Japan, Yamashina Makoto, who was sitting back in the president's office, took the business plan handed over by Ren Yuefeng and couldn't help but softly say the name of the plan.

(End of chapter)