In one morning, Elon Musk had been completely fooled by Li Mu.
For him, who holds 11.7% of Paypal shares, whether Paypal can be sold for US$1.5 billion or US$1.6 billion has no real impact on his personal interests.
Every time Elon Musk increases Paypal's transaction price by US$100 million, it is equivalent to creating an additional US$11.7 million in income for himself. The amount is quite considerable, but if calculated on a proportional basis, the additional income of US$11.7 million is not proportional. Less than 7% of total revenue.
However, if we cooperate with Li Mu, bring eBay in, and the three parties jointly hold shares in Paypal, the additional income that can bring to us will have the opportunity to reach more than 50% of the original planned income in the short term, and may even reach 100%.
In this case, Elon Musk had one idea in his mind: no matter what, bring eBay in.
Near noon, Elon Musk asked Li Mu for an unmanned conference room and a laptop. Then he logged into his YY and had a video call with Peter Thiel in Silicon Valley.
As soon as the video was connected, Peter Thiel asked Elon Musk in surprise: "Aren't you supposed to be meeting with Li Mu? Why are you suddenly online?"
Elon Musk said: "Li Mu has long seen through our little trick, and basically all the contents of the original meeting were useless."
Peter Thiel said in surprise: "Did that Chinese see through it? But it doesn't matter. I have already let the news out to the media. eBay should be paying close attention now. It doesn't matter what you and Li Mu talked about, as long as it can make eBay anxious, We will win!"
Elon Musk laughed at himself and said: "Peter, we all underestimated Li Mu. Not only did he see through our tricks, he even dug a hole for us, waiting for me to jump thousands of miles away."
Peter Thiel asked in surprise: "What hole did he dig for you?"
Elon Musk said: "Li Mu just gave me an offer and asked us to help him get eBay involved. I personally found this offer very exciting, so I suspended the meeting with Li Mu and borrowed a computer to communicate with you via video. one time."
Peter Thiel was confused and asked: "Bringing eBay in? What do you mean?"
Elon Musk said: "To put it simply, Li Mu wants to invest in Paypal."
Peter Thiel's expression immediately darkened and he said disdainfully: "That's bullshit. The capital behind us is already complicated enough. I don't want to add another new investor. You have to understand that we are now going to Sell the entire Paypal instead of financing!”
"I know." Elon Musk said: "Don't get excited first, listen to what I have to say before you express your opinion."
Peter Thiel pursed his lips and said helplessly: "Okay, you go ahead, but I can tell you clearly that if it's financing, I don't agree."
Elon Musk said: "Li Mu's idea is not to simply raise funds, but to join forces with eBay to acquire most of our shares, so that all the capital behind Paypal can be cashed out, and then we, the original team members, can cash out some of our shares. , and finally leave some shares to jointly hold shares with Makino Technology and eBay."
"Joint shareholding? Makino Technology and eBay? What the hell?"
Elon Musk described Li Mu's entire proposal to Peter Thiel in great detail. As Peter Thiel listened, his expression changed from disdain at the beginning, to shock, and then to ecstasy. He shouted excitedly: "Oh-My-God! Oh-My-God! Oh-My-God!"
Elon Musk looked at Peter Thiel who was shouting excitedly in the video, and suppressed his excitement and asked him: "What do you think of Li Mu's offer?"
Peter Thiel held his head in his hands and said almost crazily: "This offer is simply great! Once Makino Technology and eBay jointly invest in Paypal, Paypal's market value will definitely increase sharply, and our remaining shares will be worth more." With money, your future is limitless!”
Elon Musk nodded and smiled: "There is no doubt about the strength of eBay and Makino Technology. If they take shares, I guess Paypal will not conduct additional financing in the future. It is very likely that after a period of development, If it is directly listed, the market value can reach more than 5 billion US dollars in the next two to three years. If it is listed, it may exceed 10 billion US dollars. By then, the shares in our hands can be exchanged for hundreds of millions of dollars at least."
Peter Thiel said: "The key depends on whether eBay will agree. Do you need me to do anything here?"
Elon Musk said: "It is already night in San Francisco now, right? In this way, your mobile phone and all other contact methods will be turned off later. In this case, if eBay wants to contact you urgently, it will not be able to establish contact with you. I and you After the meeting, Li Mu will go back and make a plan. I will send it to you offline using YY at that time. After you arrive at the company tomorrow morning, send this plan to eBay to see if they are interested and if they are interested in this three-party shareholding. If you are interested in the method, we will make an appointment for detailed communication.”
…
As the CEO of eBay, Meg Whitman is in charge of a huge Internet empire with a market value of more than 16 billion US dollars. As a woman, Meg Whitman has almost become the most accomplished female professional manager in the world. one of.
She led many major capital operations at eBay and acquired many companies for eBay, allowing eBay to have such a high market value after the Internet bubble. She has become a model of professional managers.
In recent times, one of Meg Whitman's most important tasks has been to promote eBay's acquisition of Paypal, striving to bring the entire Paypal into eBay's hands as soon as possible.
Meg Whitman has also seen clearly the current situation of Paypal, so she has been holding on to the US$1.5 billion offer without making any concessions. She believes that Elon Musk and Peter Thiel will definitely accept this acquisition price. It's just a matter of time.
However, she suddenly heard an unexpected news today: Elon Musk went to China! Moreover, she was going to China to meet Li Mu, who was currently very famous, which made her feel that the current situation was very bad.
Meg Whitman had heard of Li Mu's name. During this period, YY was at the height of its popularity throughout Western countries.
Anyone in the Internet industry will basically pay attention to Makino Technology and the twenty-year-old boss behind Makino Technology. A few days ago, YY and Paypal cooperated in depth, and the payment channel collected more than 10 million yuan on the first day it was opened. US dollars recharge, this data scares all Silicon Valley elites, including Meg Whitman.
Precisely because of YY's rocket-like development, its market value valuation is also rising. Considering the current strength of Makino Technology, it is not impossible to acquire Paypal.
Meg Whitman has coveted Paypal for a long time. She originally regarded Paypal as her own. However, Elon Musk suddenly met Li Mu, which made her feel uneasy, fearing that Li Muchen would be involved with Elon. ·Musk reached an agreement, cut him off halfway, and accepted Paypal.
Although eBay can also create a new payment channel on its own, for Meg Whitman, it is easy to create a payment channel, but it is difficult to promote and popularize the payment channel.
Now that eBay obviously has no experience in re-creating a payment channel, acquiring Paypal has become the best choice.
However, when the acquisition plan was about to be completed, Elon Musk temporarily ran to China, which made Meg Whitman anxious.
Just a few months ago, Meg Whitman led eBay's acquisition of China's eBay. eBay officially entered the Chinese market. Although it did not directly compete with Li Mu's Taobao, they were generally peers in the e-commerce field. , each poses a certain threat to each other.
Moreover, Li Mu's Taobao has achieved great development in China's Internet since its birth. It is not impossible to develop globally like YY in the future. Therefore, in view of this, Meg Whitman speculated that Li Mu may consider Even if it is not for Makino Technology, he will definitely consider the acquisition of Paypal carefully for the future global development of Taobao.
Meg Whitman is a veteran professional manager with many years of experience. She is well-informed. Because she has been immersed in large companies for many years, she knows the operations of big capital well. In terms of capital alone, she is better than Li Mu is much better than Elon Musk, and experienced people will inevitably complicate the problem when looking at the problem. Because of this, she obviously misjudged Li Mu from the beginning.
In fact, Li Mu has no intention of globalizing Taobao for the time being. E-commerce involves too many offline links. The cost of globalization is very high, and it requires good government relations in various countries. He is far from having the strength to take Taobao online. The Internet has developed all over the world, so in the next three to five years or even longer, Taobao's market positioning is the domestic market.
Taobao currently has no globalization strategy, so Paypal is naturally of much less significance to Li Mu. There is no need for him to spend a lot of money or a large number of shares to acquire Paypal at this time.
Meg Whitman failed to guess this, so she was extremely worried all day, fearing that eBay would miss Paypal.
During this day, she wanted to call Peter Thiel many times to ask what they thought. Seeing that the acquisition cooperation with eBay reached the most critical moment, Elon Musk went out to look for other buyers. Isn't this kind of behavior against professional ethics
Furthermore, do they really think that Chinese Li Mu can give them a better offer than eBay? Makino Technology simply does not have such a strong cash reserve. All they can do is probably exchange shares, which is far less straightforward than eBay's all-cash acquisition!
Although she was very dissatisfied, Meg Whitman still controlled her emotions and did not take the initiative to contact Peter Thiel. Instead, she convened the core team to work overtime for a meeting to discuss how to facilitate eBay's acquisition of Paypal as soon as possible. , to avoid long nights and many dreams, even if the purchase price is increased, Paypal must cut off the idea of continuing to communicate with Li Mu!
While everyone was arguing over whether to raise the price to $1.6 billion or $1.7 billion, Meg Whitman's assistant stepped into the conference room and whispered something in her ear.
Meg Whitman's face suddenly became serious, and she said to everyone with a cold face: "Everyone, the latest news is that ten minutes ago, Li Mu and Elon Musk of Makino Technology jointly announced to the Chinese media that Makino Technology has a plan. Take control of Paypal!”
(End of chapter)