The acquisition of Apple was 60% complete even before the money arrived.
Li Mu used Mango-ME2 and YYtunes to uproot Apple's profits, and through the addition of Andy Rubin, he made everyone at Apple give up resistance, and then made Jobs agree to sign a non-competition agreement. After doing this, Apple It's already a piece of meat on the chopping board, just waiting to sharpen the knife.
Now, when the money arrives, it means that the knife has been sharpened, and 80% of the acquisition progress has been completed. The last hurdle left is Nasdaq. After all, some of this meat is still in the hands of Nasdaq investors. Here, the remaining problem is to liquidate investors like Nasdaq.
If it is listed in Hong Kong, according to Hong Kong's privatization method based on the number of shareholders, even if Li Mu holds more than 66% of the shares, he may not be able to pass the privatization vote. Once the number of people does not account for enough, the privatization will be difficult to succeed. However, in the U.S. stock market There is no such "people-oriented" operating model. As long as Li Mu obtains a majority of the shares, he can directly pass the privatization process at the shareholders' meeting and then forcibly liquidate the shareholders of those tradable shares.
In contrast, Li Mu prefers the simple and crude operating model of the United States.
During the meeting, Li Mu immediately formulated a strategic process for acquiring Apple and completing the privatization. He said to Lin Qingya and Ding Jian: "Mr. Lin is responsible for following up on Apple's shareholders meeting and completing the contract signing as soon as possible; Mr. Ding, you In cooperation with Louis, Apple shareholders only had to sign, and immediately took the agreement and money and submitted a privatization application to Nasdaq."
The two people immediately nodded solemnly. Louis Martin from Sequoia said at this time: "As long as Apple shareholders sign and the equity transfer is completed, we will immediately convene a shareholders' meeting to vote on the privatization issue. However, as long as Apple shareholders They all signed as scheduled, and the shareholders' meeting is just a process. We will directly inform Nasdaq of the results of the shareholders' meeting, and then transfer the funds used for privatization to Nasdaq's regulatory account, and then we can apply for forced privatization. , shareholders holding tradable shares have no room for rebuttal at all, and various stock agencies will assist us in completing subsequent share repurchases."
"Very good!" Li Mu nodded with a smile and said, "Since our money has arrived, let Apple's senior management sign it as soon as possible."
After that, Li Mu said to Li Ziwei: "Ziwei, please notify Cook now and ask Cook to notify all Apple board members that they will be ready to sign in the afternoon. After signing, we will immediately pay them 50% of the acquisition price and the rest." 50%, and I will pay it all within three months as agreed.”
Li Ziwei nodded and asked Li Mu: "Mr. Li, would it be a bit hasty to sign this afternoon?"
Li Mu said: "It's better to choose the day than to hit it. Anyway, all the details have been negotiated, the framework agreement has been signed, the actual transfer agreement has been drawn up, and our money has arrived. What else is there to wait for? Let's do that, You tell them that if they sign today, in addition to the 50% payment stipulated in the contract, they will be paid an additional 20%!"
The contract template stipulates that 50% of the acquisition price be paid immediately after signing, and the remaining 50% is divided into three months. Li Mu can divide the 50% evenly into three months and pay it little by little, or he can pay it all in one go on the same day. Pay it all, or postpone it until the last day of three months. In short, it is within the scope of the contract, as long as he likes it, he can do whatever he wants.
Therefore, Li Mucai decided that as long as Apple signed the contract happily today, he would pay them 70% of the acquisition price today. They have been eager to cash out recently, and they will take out 70% on the same day, which must be very attractive to them.
Li Ziwei immediately said: "Then I will contact Cook now and ask him to communicate and reply as soon as possible."
…
Recently, everyone at Apple is experiencing a special kind of anxiety.
This anxiety stems from their distrust of Li Mu. While they are looking forward to Li Mu acquiring Apple, they are also worried that Li Mu will tear up the framework agreement at any time and let Apple fall into the abyss alone.
The reason for this feeling is that Apple's stock price has fallen a bit in the past two days. When the framework agreement was communicated with Li Mu, the stock price was 4.15, but at this moment, the stock price has dropped to 3.74.
The reason why it has hit bottom and is still falling slowly is that the mess left by the iPod business is constantly fermenting, just like a box of spoiled fruit. It is only spoiled at first, and then begins to rot, mold, and The smell changes and smelly water flows out all over the floor.
A large number of iPod users who want to return their iPods have not been dealt with effectively. The dealers have not paid back the money they paid in advance to Apple, and they have not received funds from Apple to handle the returns. At this time, they dare not accept the returns from the users. You must apply for a loan, otherwise, the costs and risks will be double-bundled to yourself.
However, users' demands have not been effectively resolved, which has caused users' anger to continue to accumulate. They continue to protest against Apple and Apple dealers online and offline, which has had a serious negative impact on Apple.
In addition, dealers have also begun to constantly fight with Apple, and some dealers have even joined forces to sue the court. This has made Apple's current scandal even more serious.
At this time, the foundries began to jump in and join in the fun. They announced that Apple still had a considerable amount of unpaid payments, which put huge financial pressure on the foundries and made Apple miserable for a while.
Because of this, Apple is particularly looking forward to Li Mu's acquisition as promised. After all, the stock price is still falling. If Li Mu suddenly announces that he has given up, their assets will shrink a lot.
If Li Mu abides by the framework agreement, then Li Mu will make the acquisition based on the stock price of US$4.15. According to the agreement, the actual acquisition price is 90% of US$4.15, which is US$3.73. However, if it is converted to 90% based on the current price of 3.74, then The actual purchase price is only 3.36, and by that time, their assets will have shrunk by more than 60%. This is really tragic for Apple's shareholders.
Tim Cook is also worried about Li Mu breaking the contract, because he also holds a considerable amount of Apple stocks. Under normal circumstances, due to Apple's internal restrictions, it will take several years for these stocks to be gradually cashed out, but if this continues, it won't be long before Apple The stock price will fall below the net assets, and by that time, I will have nothing left. However, according to the company's regulations, if I leave my job early, the remaining shares will be repurchased by the company at a very low price. Then Basically there is not even a hair left.
However, if Li Mu fully takes over the deal, he will be able to cash out all the Apple stocks in his hand in one go. No matter what, the price of US$4.15 will be much higher than the company's repurchase price. In this way, he will be able to cash out the shares in advance. Cash out a fortune.
In addition, Li Mu promised to give himself 150% of his salary after joining Makino Technology. Not only did he make more money, but he also joined the world's top Internet company. Therefore, no matter how he calculated the account, Tim Cook felt that he was being neglected. Acquisition is the perfect fit.
This is not to blame for Tim Cook’s lack of loyalty to Apple. After all, everyone is here to make a living. In front of individuals and companies, everyone must first consider the individual, and then the collective.
When resisting, it is time to carry the gun and fight the war; when the battle is lost, he throws the gun away, bends the waist, and surrenders; if there is an opportunity to transform and lead the party, he will definitely not hesitate. This is the thinking logic of normal people in a capitalist society.
There are many people in the company who have ideas like Tim Cook's, because when Li Mu originally proposed the acquisition conditions for Apple, he required that most of Apple's middle and senior management must stay, so the company organized large-scale talks at that time. After informing these employees of Makino Technology’s acquisition intention and soliciting their opinions, what is surprising is that almost the vast majority of Apple’s middle and senior management are willing to join Makino Technology after Apple is acquired.
For current Apple employees, the attraction of waiting for the company to be acquired, then incorporated into Makino Technology, and enjoying higher wages is too great, and they don’t know how to refuse at all, just like BAIC employees who have the opportunity to Working at Mercedes-Benz and getting 1.5 times the salary, no one can think of a reason to refuse.
At nine o'clock in the morning, Tim Cook drove to the company. Apple's working hours are flexible working hours from 9:30 to 10 o'clock in the morning, but Tim Cook has always been used to arriving early.
After arriving at the company, Tim Cook asked his secretary to prepare a cup of coffee for him. He used the time before going to work to read today's latest newspaper that the secretary had prepared long ago.
Tim Cook cares most about newspapers in two places, one is Silicon Valley and the other is Wall Street. The former leads the global Internet and the latter leads the money in the United States.
While flipping through the pages quickly, Tim Cook saw a piece of news published in today's Wall Street Journal. The title of the news made him break out in a cold sweat: "According to reliable information, Makino Technology is planning to acquire Apple and realize Apple's Privatize!”
After carefully reading the content of the news, Tim Cook found that the entire article was written from the perspective of "according to insiders". Although there was no source of information, the content was described in detail, including the official information of Makino Technology. Plan to purchase non-tradable shares from Apple shareholders at 90% of the stock price, and then purchase tradable stocks from Nasdaq retail investors at 150% of the stock price.
This news also commented on the practice of Makino Technology. They concluded that Li Mu gave Nasdaq investors a 150% premium. It seemed that he had been taken advantage of, but in fact he was quite scheming. He hoped to use this opportunity to win over Nasdaq investors. The goodwill of Stark investors has paved the way for Makino Technology to be listed on Nasdaq.
Tim Cook's face turned pale after reading this news. He immediately turned on the TV in his office and started watching the pre-market news on the financial channel.
There are still more than ten minutes until the opening of Nasdaq, and the pre-market news at this time can easily affect the trend of today's stock price.
Sure enough, the economists in the pre-market news are interpreting the authenticity of the "Wall Street Journal" report. Economists support this report and believe that most of the content of this report has sufficient basis for judgment, and the degree of authenticity should be very high. And he also predicted that Apple's stock price will see its first major rebound in many days today.
rebound…
Tim Cook’s lungs are about to explode! Today's stock price rebound makes no sense, no matter how much it rebounds, because even if today's stock price rebounds, it is all due to the good news about Makino Technology's acquisition of Apple. Apple's real shareholders have already signed a framework agreement, so they cannot enjoy it at all. With such a benefit, it would be useless even if the stock price soared to the eight yuan level before the fall, because Li Mu would only purchase their shares at a price of 90% of US$4.15.
Moreover, none of them dare to renegotiate with Li Mu at this time, because once Li Mu gets angry and officially announces that he will not acquire Apple, Apple's stock price will suffer a retaliatory drop. By then, it will not be enough to lose all the money it has risen. To make up for the decline, the price may fall directly to a price of less than three US dollars.
That's why Tim Cook is particularly angry, because the leakage of such news will not do any good to Apple. Instead, it will anger Li Mu, because Li Mu will definitely think that the news has leaked from within Apple, and it looks like this. , this possibility is indeed very high. At the same time, if Apple's stock price rebounds sharply today and exceeds the US$4.15 in the framework agreement, Li Mu's privatization price will change from "premium" to "discount". It could have been He used generous repurchases to win the favor of Nasdaq investors, but in the eyes of investors, Li Mu became the culprit for buying their stocks at a low price. It would be strange if Li Mu was not furious!
(End of chapter)