It took Li Mu three hours to make Zhong Xinhua fully understand why he wanted to acquire Hikvision instead of investing.
Zhong Xinhua regards Hikvision as his own child, and it is indeed not easy for him to understand why he wants to adopt his child into his own name.
At the beginning, when Zhong Xinhua heard the word "mergers and acquisitions", he almost immediately expressed his position to Li Mu: "It is impossible for Hikvision to accept any form of mergers and acquisitions!"
Merger and acquisition means giving up control, and it also means selling one's hard work to others. Not only Zhong Xinhua, but also the entire Hikvision may not agree.
However, Li Mu convinced Zhong Xinhua bit by bit with his own thinking model of integrating resources, building a complete industrial chain, and creating a complete technological closed loop.
Li Mu's strong strength in resource integration also made Zhong Xinhua clearly realize that as Hikvision's biological parents, neither Zhong Xinhua, nor Hikvision, nor 52 Institutes, have the ability to convert the name "Hikvision" Raise your children well.
The most fearful thing about everything is comparison. If I can raise a child by myself, I can ensure that the child has enough food and a school education, which I think is already good. However, after comparing with capable people, I realize that I don’t have the money to feed him well or clothe him. Okay, there is no money for him to receive the best education, no money to send him to study abroad, and no money to give him a generous starting capital to start his own business. The gap is obvious.
Although Hikvision will be extremely powerful in the future, at present, Hikvision has been in the army for less than a year. It is impossible for them to have real vision and confidence, and it is impossible to realize how powerful they will be in the future. If Hikvision’s team hopes that this child will end up mediocre and mediocre, he does not have to accept his own suggestions, but if he hopes that this child can become a master, the only chance is to adopt the child to him, because of these things he Whatever you can't satisfy, you can satisfy yourself.
In order to make Zhong Xinhua willing, Li Mu directly pointed out their biggest pain point: "You are now short of money for research and development, and even more money for hardware. You don't even have the ability to produce front-end camera equipment. How will you provide users with a complete set of solutions in the future? If a competitor can provide a complete set of solutions, how will you defend yourself in the market?"
This really hits Hikvision’s biggest pain point, which is a lack of money, and a lack of big money!
It's okay that Li Mu didn't mention the entire solution. Mentioning this concept just hit the most depressing part of Zhong Xinhua's heart.
The entire Hikvision hopes to form an industrial chain. Zhong Xinhua dreams of Hikvision having its own camera equipment manufacturing company, but currently Hikvision has no ability to be involved in the production of camera equipment. The capital cost required is too high, and neither Hikvision nor 52 Institutes can afford it.
It is precisely because there is no money to play with hardware that Hikvision originally chose "coding and decoding technology" and "back-end storage products", two areas with lower R&D costs, in order to overtake in corners. However, cars with insufficient horsepower cannot overtake. It's not easy to drive. I press the accelerator to the bottom, the engine roars, but I can't pick up the speed. This feeling is very painful.
Li Mu struck while the iron was hot and said: "If Hikvision is willing to accept mergers and acquisitions, I will invest 200 million in the new company in the future. 100 million of this can be used to acquire a camera equipment manufacturer with certain strength, and the remaining 100 million I will jointly research and develop for you and strive to come up with a complete set of software and hardware solutions! As for the subsequent publicity and sales, you don’t have to worry about it at all. I will import all my resources unconditionally and will not be included in the valuation."
Zhong Xinhua's heart was moved.
His heartbeat was much faster than Li Mu expected, and he didn't hide it at all.
Zhong Xinhua is neither a businessman nor a capitalist. He is a scientific researcher. Although he has left the business establishment, his habit of doing scientific research has not changed over the years. He himself does not pursue high interests. All his pursuits are actually based on the hope that he can Let Hikvision develop better and come up with more industry-leading technologies and solutions.
For a person who is deeply rooted in scientific research, sufficient scientific research funds are simply unimaginable. But today Li Mu gave a solution that can get hundreds of millions of R&D funds in one go. Zhong Xinhua can’t wait to make the decision and agree immediately. Li Mu's request.
Li Mu saw a different kind of fanaticism in Zhong Xinhua's eyes. This look was very similar to when he watched the fifth episode of the third season of "Breaking Bad" when the drug lord GUS brought Lao Bai to where he was. When he built the drug-making laboratory, Lao Bai was so excited and enthusiastic when he saw all kinds of ultra-high-standard drug-making equipment.
He firmly believes that people like Zhong Xinhua are the so-called "craftsmen" who are most lacking in the society of later generations. It means little sense how much money he promises to make. He promises how much money he can give him to let him focus on his research and give him How much improvement and promotion his research has brought, this is what attracts and impresses him the most.
…
Early the next morning, Hikvision conference room.
Zhong Xinhua said to everyone in an excited tone: "This is 200 million in cash, comrades! Li Mu said that this money will be paid directly in the form of corporate book funds within ten working days after the contract is signed. It will be remitted to the account of Makino Nuctech in the future! In other words, as long as we agree to the merger and acquisition of Makino Nuctech, we will immediately transform from the current situation where we cannot attract millions of investments to a company with 200 million available funds on our books. Although our shareholding ratio is much lower for a local tycoon-level enterprise, there are so many things we can do with 200 million yuan!”
For Hikvision's current core team, their professional skills are more in scientific research than in capital. They originally did not accept mergers and acquisitions, but under the shock of 200 million funds, they just met in person. Crushed into powder.
At the beginning of this year, Hikvision wanted to sacrifice 20% of its shares in exchange for 3 million in cash at a valuation of 15 million, but was rejected by many capitals. The proud people were hit hard. It was at that time that they realized for the first time that the rules of the capital market are very cruel. They only pursue profits and basically will not pay for their academic qualifications and qualifications.
Later, Hikvision was able to struggle out, relying on a newly developed video processing board to come back to life. However, because the industry space was only so small, it was said to be coming back to life, that is, it had just struggled out from the brink of death, but it still did not Can truly survive the dangerous period of survival.
For a team that couldn't get millions in cash, suddenly having 200 million in funds at its disposal felt like throwing a refugee who had been struggling with famine for a long time into a high-end and sumptuous cafeteria. For a refugee who only wanted half a hard steamed bun, so many delicious foods were so blissful that he didn’t know what to eat.
The founding team of Hikvision is, on the whole, an entrepreneurial team that focuses on intellectual property and core technologies. For their entrepreneurial approach, the most important thing is sufficient financial support, so the 200 million yuan promised by Li Mu , the appeal to the entire team is surprisingly great, it simply has extraordinary magical power.
Chen Enchao, the person in charge of Hikvision and the core figure of the entire team, couldn't hide his excitement at this moment and asked Zhong Xinhua: "Li Mu's 200 million grant, can our team make the decision? In other words, how much decision can we make?"
Zhong Xinhua said: "At least 50 million will be decided by us."
Chen Enchao asked him: "Why 50 million?"
Zhong Xinhua said: "Li Mu hopes to spend about 100 million yuan to acquire a camera equipment manufacturing company, and use it with our Hikvision's technology accumulation in the middle and back-end to directly open up the entire video surveillance industry chain!"
As soon as this sentence came out, the whole room was shocked.
Li Mu wants to acquire a camera equipment manufacturing company and merge it into the future Makino Vision? This is really great! You must know that this is the hardware field that Hikvision has always wanted to get involved in as soon as possible! However, due to lack of strength, it can only struggle in the middle and back-end fields.
At this time, Zhong Xinhua added: "And Li Mu promised that we can decide which camera equipment manufacturer to acquire!"
Chen Enchao's eyes widened: "Li Mu really said that?!"
"It's absolutely true!" Zhong Xinhua nodded repeatedly and said: "Li Mu also said that after the acquisition, all the remaining money will be used as research and development funds! Nearly 100 million, comrades! All of it will be used for research and development. Where can such great courage go? Looking for? Now others invest two million in us and have clear requirements for our performance, but Li Mu directly gives us 100 million as R&D funds. Even if we have to share it equally with front-end equipment manufacturers, there will still be almost 50 million in R&D. Who would have dared to think that the funds would eventually fall to our Hikvision team? With so much R&D funds, who would have dared to think before? After we get this money, how much can we do? How much research can we do?"
People with true craftsmanship will never put interests first. This is almost an eternal truth, because the most important thing in the minds of craftsmen must be the quality and reputation of their products, not pure profits.
Hikvision may continue to commercialize in the next ten years or so, but at the very beginning of this kind of enterprise, ingenuity must be the most important thing for the entire team. Hikvision has dozens of researchers who came from scientific research institutes. The same goes for personnel. What they are thinking about right now is how to develop better technology, better hardware, and better overall solutions. Instead, they don’t pay that much attention to money and capital.
Chen Enchao was silent for a moment, then suddenly stood up and said: "The valuation of 50 million is almost double the valuation we actually expected. With sufficient R&D funds and the strong support of Li Mu's entire ecosystem, this is the most suitable thing to do." The soil for the big event, you go back to your posts and continue working. Xinhua, please accompany me to the institute and have a good chat with the institute!"
Zhong Xinhua was overjoyed and asked subconsciously: "Mr. Chen, are you agreeing?"
Chen Enchao said impatiently: "I can't wait to sign a contract with Li Mu right now! But for such a crucial matter, my words don't count. It's better to act than to think. Come with me, let's go to the office to report now!"
(End of chapter)