Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Chapter 159: Chapter 148: That Year, at 19, Just an Ice-Cold 10-Plus Billion in the Card

September 19th. Hang City Ah Li Headquarters.

Last time, Chen Yansen visited Ali Baba as a business partner. This time, he was here as a seller.

Except, what he was selling wasn’t a product, but a company.

Once the acquisition was complete, FoxTao’s shareholders would expand from the original four (Senlian, Siwei, IDG, and Tencent) to include multiple parties.

Lotte and Augusta had decided to swap for Ah Li equity while also retaining a portion of the equity in New FoxTao.

After Yitao merged into FoxTao, they would form New FoxTao and operate it as an independent business division.

”Boss, we’re here,” Gao Weilin said softly, having parked the car.

Chen Yansen acknowledged him, then unbuckled his seatbelt and got out of the car.

Six sharply dressed men and women emerged from a business van behind him. Among them were financial analysts and legal advisors. Together with Gao Weilin and Ye Qiuping, they formed FoxTao’s core negotiation team.

Standing to the side, Song Yuncheng looked at Chen Yansen with a complicated expression.

’Not a single thing this man said was true.’

In early September, he had confidently held an all-hands meeting to declare that the rumors about selling FoxTao were completely false.

Only now did she understand that the financial analysts and legal advisors Chen Yansen had recruited were all in preparation for selling FoxTao.

However, the fact that Chen Yansen had brought her to such an important occasion instead of Meng Jie also made her secretly pleased.

Just then, Zhang Yong and his assistant hurried forward. Shaking Chen Yansen’s hand, he said warmly, ”President Chen, welcome! Mr. Ma and the teams from Lotte and Augusta have all arrived.”

”Then let’s get down to business,” Chen Yansen said with a slight smile, his tone calm.

In 2011, Ah Li Headquarters had not yet moved to the Xixi Park District. It was still crammed into the Heaven Software Park along with Hang City’s other internet companies.

The group took the elevator straight to the 10th floor, Block G.

”DING—!” The elevator doors slowly slid open.

Zhang Yong led Chen Yansen and the others straight inside, stopping at the door of a spacious conference room.

”President Chen!” came several familiar greetings from inside the room.

Ma Liyun was sitting with a middle-aged man in glasses, while a representative from Augusta sat with a petite woman. There were several empty seats between them, clearly reserved for Chen Yansen and his people.

”President Chen, let me make an introduction. This is Wu Cunhe, president of SoftBank’s Huaguo District.”

’Cunhe?’

’Just from the name, I can tell he’s one of those ”Little Days” people who’s adopted a Hua Country surname.’

Chen Yansen gave a slight nod without saying anything. It was common knowledge that SoftBank was a key investor in Ali Baba; Ma Liyun had been able to buy back that 40% stake from Yahoo largely thanks to SoftBank’s support. SoftBank had even sent a representative to participate in the acquisition of FoxTao.

”President Chen, this is Lotte’s representative, Miss Su Jingzi,” said Jody, Augusta’s investment manager, introducing her to Chen Yansen.

Chen Yansen extended his hand and gave this ’sucker’ a polite smile.

’These ”Little Days” people come to Hua Country to do business, afraid of hostility, so every last one of them tries to change their face and name, hiding who they really are.’

’What they don’t realize is that people from Hua Country would never name themselves like that.’

”President Chen, I’ve heard so much about you.” Su Jingzi—original name Mikiya Kikizaki—sized up Chen Yansen, her gaze intense.

It was astonishing that this young man before her, not even twenty years old, was the key player today.

He was tall and handsome, like a man who had walked straight out of a comic book. Even the worldly-wise Su Jingzi couldn’t help but inwardly marvel, ’The men of Hua Country have excellent genes.’

”President Su, a pleasure,” Chen Yansen replied coolly, glancing at her once.

Everyone took their seats, and the negotiations officially began.

The offer price had already been discussed online. The key points to confirm now were simply Yitao’s valuation and the equity percentages Lotte and Augusta would hold after the merger with FoxTao.

Among FoxTao’s original shareholders, IDG planned to swap its equity for shares in Ah Li, while Siwei and Penguin Investment had decided to exit and cash out early.

The 20 billion valuation was undisputed. Based on Chen Yansen’s 74.48% stake, this translated to nearly 14.9 billion yuan.

With this money, the expansion of the Orange Factory could be greatly accelerated. On one hand, it would solve the Orange Mobile Phone’s production capacity issues; on the other, it would allow them to enter the contract manufacturing market to compete with Foxconn, Innolux, and BYD.

Therefore, Chen Yansen and Gao Weilin were quite relaxed, spending the entire time watching Ma Liyun negotiate with Su Jingzi and Jody.

The three parties engaged in a heated discussion surrounding the valuations of Ah Li and Yitao.

”There’s nothing to discuss regarding Ah Li’s valuation. This month, Silver Lake Capital and Digital Sky invested 1.6 billion US dollars for a valuation of 32 billion US dollars. If the two of you don’t accept that, we can take our time with this negotiation.”

Ma Liyun looked completely confident. He could afford to wait.

The valuations of both FoxTao and Ah Li were on the rise, but as the dominant player in e-commerce, Ah Li’s market value was climbing much faster.

The longer Lotte and Augusta Capital dragged things out, the more advantageous it was for him.

Besides, in Ma Liyun’s view, Ah Li’s market cap wouldn’t be considered a success until it reached at least 100 billion US dollars. If not for the need to acquire an external traffic portal, he would have been unwilling to give up any of Ah Li’s equity.

”Mr. Ma, I accept the 32 billion US Dollar valuation for Ah Li. But isn’t calculating Wealth Treasure’s valuation at 18 billion US Dollars a bit unreasonable?”

Su Jingzi frowned, voicing her doubts directly.

The equity swap plan proposed by Ah Li was a combination of equity in Ah Li, Wealth Treasure, and the New FoxTao (reorganized with Yitao).

In reality, they had no issue with the valuations of Ah Li or New FoxTao. It was only the 18 billion US Dollar valuation for Wealth Treasure that made Su Jingzi and Jody feel this ET-lookalike from Hua Country was up to no good.

The two sides argued until they were red in the face, each presenting valuation models and algorithms to support their well-reasoned arguments.

After listening for a while, Chen Yansen grew impatient. He pulled out his phone, opened a scanned PDF of a book titled *Physics of Light-Speed Acoustics*, and started reading to pass the time.

By noon, the debate had still not reached a conclusion.

Ma Liyun’s eloquence and negotiation skills were truly impressive. He seemed on the verge of refuting Su Jingzi and Jody entirely, forcing them to accept the valuation method provided by Ah Li’s CFO.

Seeing that it was time for lunch, Cai Xin stepped in to smooth things over, smiling as he suggested they eat first and resume talks in the afternoon.

After all, a single percentage point represented hundreds of millions in funds. It was only natural that no one was willing to concede.

The group went to the floor where the cafeteria was located. The selection of dishes was surprisingly rich.

The original plan had been to go to a nearby restaurant, but Su Jingzi and Jody refused, stating that the cafeteria was fine and that they wanted to see the dining environment at Ali Baba.

After all, once the deal was done, Lotte and Augusta Capital would be considered major shareholders in Ah Li.

Cai Xin and Zhang Yong didn’t actually make these company bosses and high-level executives get their own food. They casually called over a few cafeteria workers, gave some instructions, and then led the group to a private room.

Chen Yansen glanced around. He felt that even though Ah Li had yet to move to the Xixi Park District, its office environment was still quite nice.

In the cafeteria, there were chefs for boiled dumplings and wontons, as well as chefs making hand-pulled noodles on the spot.

The lines in front of the two noodle-pulling chefs were incredibly long. Their arms were moving so fast they were practically smoking, their muscles bulging and engorged with blood.

There was also a cafeteria at Zhuxian Town Science and Technology, but it served all the companies located there, and the food wasn’t even on the same level as the Xuyuan cafeteria.

Normally, most employees of Orange Technology chose to take the shuttle bus to the East Gate of Xuyuan for lunch.

”President Chen, how about opening an official Orange Mobile Phone store on Taobao Mall?” Zhang Yong asked tentatively during the meal.

Having been established for just three years, Taobao Mall was in the process of transitioning to a B2C model and still had strong demand for digital appliances and electronics.

Furthermore, pre-orders for the Orange Mobile Phone had reached as high as 3 million units. If those sales were generated on Taobao Mall, it would mean an additional 6 billion in sales revenue for the group.

Zhang Yong was naturally tempted!

”Orange Technology’s e-commerce department was only recently established, but since you’re asking, President Zhang, I’ll certainly cooperate. Yuncheng, you follow up on this.”

Chen Yansen said with a smile, making sure to show Zhang Yong plenty of respect.

FoxTao wouldn’t have reached its current position without Zhang Yong’s support.

Chen Yansen had heard that attitudes toward FoxTao within Ah Li were mixed. Hu Zhilong of the Ali Alliance and Wu Ming of Yitao had long wanted to use the group’s power to suppress FoxTao, but had been blocked by Zhang Yong.

Although Zhang Yong’s actions were only intended to protect the group’s market share and total sales volume, for FoxTao, it had undoubtedly provided the freest possible environment for development.

”Manager Song, let’s exchange contact information,” Zhang Yong said to Song Yuncheng. ”I’ll start a group chat and have the colleague in charge of onboarding for Taobao Mall connect with you.”

Having seen Song Yuncheng by Chen Yansen’s side at three meetings in a row, he had his own speculations, which was why his attitude was especially cordial.

”Thank you, President Zhang,” Song Yuncheng replied politely.

Across the table, Ma Liyun and the others had lost their morning’s tension. They were now smiling and introducing Hang City’s local cuisine to Su Jingzi and Jody.

One look at Su Jingzi and you could tell she had been in the country for a long time. She was extremely knowledgeable about the dishes on the table and selectively skipped the local specialties.

Jody, on the other hand, was very interested in the hand-pulled noodles. He just couldn’t manage the noodles with his chopsticks and had to helplessly switch to a fork, twirling the noodles to eat them.

After lunch, Zhang Yong signaled for the administrative staff to lead the representatives from each party to a lounge. The negotiations would resume in two hours.

This wasn’t really for rest, but to let everyone cool down, report the morning’s negotiation details back to their respective headquarters, and find an offer acceptable to all parties.

In the lounge, Song Yuncheng was very quiet. Knowing that Chen Yansen was truly selling FoxTao, she felt a pang of unwillingness to let it go.

”Boss, if they keep wrangling like they did this morning, I estimate it’ll take another two or three days. Otherwise, Ah Li, Lotte, and Augusta will never compromise,” Gao Linwei said seriously after twisting open a bottle of mineral water and taking a sip.

”It’ll get settled eventually,” Chen Yansen replied with a smile. ”They’re not in a hurry, so we have even less reason to be.”

This was because FoxTao’s valuation in Q4 would only rise, not fall. The longer things dragged on, the more disadvantageous it would be for Lotte and Augusta Capital.

Sure enough, the afternoon’s negotiations proceeded just as Chen Yansen had predicted.

Before long, Lotte and Augusta had negotiated the 18 billion US Dollar valuation for Wealth Treasure down to 16 billion US Dollars. Seeing that Ah Li would not yield any further, the three parties finally reached an agreement.

Lotte would contribute 8 billion yuan and Augusta 4 billion yuan to jointly acquire 60% of Chen Yansen’s equity in FoxTao.

Ali Baba would exchange 0.8% of Ah Li’s equity and 1.13% of Wealth Treasure’s equity for the remaining 14.48% of FoxTao equity that Chen Yansen held.

With this, Senhai Technology was spun off from Senlian Capital, and FoxTao was no longer associated with Chen Yansen.

Based on the 20 billion yuan valuation, all of the FoxTao equity held by Penguin and Siwei was transferred to Lotte.

Penguin had invested 150 million yuan in the angel and Series A rounds; in just half a year, that investment had turned into nearly 2 billion yuan.

When Lin Chenfeng from the venture capital department brought his team to Hang City to sign the contracts, he made a point of pulling Chen Yansen aside to thank him. His year-end bonus was now in the bag.

A return on investment of more than tenfold was enough for every member of the team responsible for this investment to receive a handsome year-end bonus equivalent to 5 to 12 months’ salary.

Zhang Jiancheng of Siwei Investment had a similar attitude, repeatedly congratulating Chen Yansen. They had earned a lot, but Chen Yansen had earned even more.

Not even twenty years old, and Chen Yansen now had over 10 billion yuan in his account.

Furthermore, he was also a shareholder in Ah Li and Wealth Treasure. This seemingly minuscule amount of equity would be worth at least 4 billion US Dollars in the future!

That 4 billion from Rebus Carri was just a cold, hard number. How could it compare to the red-hot 10-plus billion that President Chen just made?

After signing the equity transfer agreement, Chen Yansen entered the final phase of communication regarding the retention of FoxTao’s team members.

「Meanwhile.」

Rumors gradually began to spread. Word was that Ah Li, Lotte, and Augusta Capital would jointly launch an acquisition of FoxTao, with Yitao Network later merging into it to form the New FoxTao business division.

In an instant, all of FoxTao’s employees were thrown into a state of confusion.

Wu Ming of Yitao Network felt the same way. In terms of performance, he couldn’t compete with FoxTao. ’After the merger, who will be in charge?’

For him, this was a question of vital importance.

Of course, Ah Li, Lotte, Augusta, and FoxTao never gave a direct response, so the outside world could only speculate, unable to confirm anything.