Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

Take the future Jumei Youpin, for example. Its IPO price was 20 US Dollars per share, but when it delisted, the company was only willing to offer 7 US Dollars. The first privatization application was rejected.

The second time, the offer dropped from 7 US Dollars to 2 US Dollars, and this time, it succeeded.

It wasn’t that the investors in the Lighthouse Country had suddenly become reasonable. Rather, Jumei Youpin’s stock price had plummeted so violently, its market value shrinking by 96%, that if they didn’t agree, their shares would become completely worthless.

Chen Yansen frowned slightly. This price was a 22.8% premium compared to the market price.

His own psychological limit was below 13 US Dollars. Clearly, Cheng Congwu’s demand had exceeded his ceiling.

”I’m sorry, President Cheng. Senlian’s finance department has conducted a comprehensive evaluation based on Gaode’s revenue, profits, cash flow, market share, user data, and technology patents over the past three years. The most reasonable price should be 12 US Dollars, but to show our sincerity, I’m willing to raise the price to 12.4 US Dollars per share.”

Chen Yansen shook his head, directly rejecting Cheng Congwu’s offer.

”President Chen, Gaode Map has huge market potential. It absolutely deserves a premium of 14 US Dollars per share. Five years ago, Nokia acquired Navteq Maps for 8.1 billion US Dollars. Although Gaode Map’s coverage and user base can’t compare to Navteq’s, its future market value won’t be less than 5 billion US Dollars.”

Cheng Congwu frowned, his smile vanishing as he replied in a low voice.

He brought up Nokia’s acquisition of Navteq Maps as a case study, trying to persuade Chen Yansen.

”But after Navteq was merged into Here Maps, its current market value is only 1.37 billion US Dollars, just 17% of the original acquisition price. And Here Maps covers 174 countries with a total area of over 46 million kilometers. What about Gaode?”

Chen Yansen retorted nonchalantly.

Cheng Congwu was suddenly at a loss for words. He hadn’t expected Chen Yansen to be so knowledgeable about the market value of similar overseas competitors.

The very talking point he had intended to use to persuade Chen Yansen had backfired and stabbed him instead.

”Whether it’s financing or an acquisition, the price is the easiest issue to settle, as long as both Senlian and Gaode are interested in cooperating.”

Liu Zhiping, fearing Cheng Congwu would lose face, chimed in with a cheerful laugh to smooth things over.

His words were also a reminder to Cheng Congwu: go back, think it over, and come back with a more reasonable offer if he wanted to close the deal.

’12.4 US Dollars?’

’That’s one US Dollar higher than the market price!’

Cheng Congwu mulled it over for a moment, couldn’t help but sigh, then quickly adjusted his mindset. He raised his glass and said, ”President Chen, to be honest with you, a price of 12.4 US Dollars per share is indeed lower than my expectation. I’m not confident I can convince the other two shareholders with this number.”

”12.4 US Dollars isn’t a low price. Perhaps President Cheng should try lowering his expectations.”

Chen Yansen clinked glasses with him and said with a light chuckle.

He knew very well that if he waited until the second half of 2013, when 3G networks began to speed up and drop in price on a large scale, and after Qian Du and Gaode Map successively announced their free-to-use strategies for low-end individual users, the possibility of a low-cost acquisition would disappear.

But with a year and a half still to go, he wasn’t worried at all.

Cheng Congwu’s expression tensed. He downed his drink in one gulp, then immediately changed the subject, bringing up the gossip about Lei Yijun and Zhou Hongyi.

It was obvious that, having realized they couldn’t agree on a price in the short term, he had decided to postpone the negotiation to the formal meeting the next day.

”They didn’t end up fighting. Before I came, I had my driver circle Chaoyang Park. I saw plenty of reporters, though.”

Zhang Chaoyang said with a grin.

”President Zhang, you don’t know the half of it. The two of them were at the east fifth gate of Chaoyang Park. After the people from the Inspection Institute rushed over, those two guys went to a boxing gym.”

Liu Zhiping burst out laughing, then paused and said, ”Guess who won in the end?”

”Definitely Zhou Hongyi. He’s a small guy with a fiery temper. He’d definitely fight dirty.” Zhang Chaoyang thought for a moment, adopting the air of a serious analyst.

Cheng Congwu already thought it was ridiculous enough that the two had scheduled a fight, but he never expected Zhang Chaoyang and Liu Zhiping to start betting on it.

”Probably Lei Yijun. After all, Zhou Hongyi is nearsighted. Break his glasses first, and after that, Lao Zhou can only take a beating.”

Chen Yansen said with a mischievous smile.

”You were there?” Liu Zhiping was momentarily stunned and asked subconsciously.

The actual situation was more or less exactly as Chen Yansen had described.

Zhou Hongyi had practiced Tai Chi and Judo, but Lei Yijun used his longer reach to give the other man a harsh P.E. lesson.

Gao Linwei and Song Yuncheng exchanged glances, struggling to suppress their laughter. Liu Zhiping’s and Zhang Chaoyang’s assistants weren’t doing much better, each covering their mouth to stifle a smile.

The dinner lasted from six in the afternoon until eight-thirty at night. As they left the restaurant, Zhang Chaoyang suggested going to a bar for a while.

Liu Zhiping looked to Chen Yansen, asking for his opinion.

Chen Yansen nodded, not refusing.

He could see what Liu Zhiping was thinking. Since the other man wanted to go, he would naturally oblige him.

「Meanwhile.」

As soon as Lei Yijun walked through the door of his home, he quickly grabbed some ice from the freezer and pressed it to his face.

”That bastard really doesn’t pull his punches!”

Lei Yijun looked at himself in the mirror. His right cheek was red and swollen, looking as if he had the mumps. His face looked a size bigger, and he couldn’t help but curse under his breath.

Just then, the phone on the table suddenly rang.

’Chen Yansen?’

Lei Yijun glanced at the caller ID, but without thinking too much about it, he pressed the answer button and said, ”President Chen, what’s up?”

”I’m in Yanjing. I’ve made plans with Liu Zhiping, Zhang Chaoyang, and Cheng Congwu from Gaode to relax at a bar tonight. Is President Lei free to come out and join us?”

Chen Yansen invited.

’If I go looking like this, won’t I just get laughed at?’

Lei Yijun gave a bitter smile and politely declined.

”President Lei, in that case, I’ll visit your company tomorrow,” Chen Yansen said with a smile.

Lei Yijun actually wanted to say they could meet some other time, but when Chen Yansen mentioned he had a partnership to discuss, he immediately nodded and agreed.

With that, Chen Yansen hung up the phone.

He wasn’t calling to laugh at Lei Yijun’s expense; he genuinely had a partnership he wanted to discuss with Xiaomi.

Orange Mobile Phone’s Factory No. 3 was set to begin production next week. At that point, the combined monthly production capacity of Factories 1 through 3 would reach 6 million units.

However, after nearly twenty days on the market, the total online sales for the Orange C1, C2, and D1 had already dropped to an average of 130,000 orders per day. This was a decline of over seventy percent compared to the sales velocity of the first week.

In addition, Super Factory No. 4 in Luzhou was also under intense preparation. Once it entered the production phase, the total monthly capacity would exceed 10 million units.

Orange Mobile Phone alone could never absorb such a huge production capacity!

Therefore, Chen Yansen wanted to talk to Lei Yijun about snatching the manufacturing contract for the Xiaomi Mobile Phone away from Innolux.

Lei Yijun put down his phone, privately pondering Chen Yansen’s motive.

So far, the only collaboration between Xiaomi and Orange Technology was a licensing agreement for a memory-cleaning algorithm patent. But after the Orange C2 was released, he had quickly learned a crucial piece of information.

The patent Orange Technology had licensed to Xiaomi, Meizu, and OPPO was version 1.0, while the more advanced algorithm-cleaning technology had not been made available to other friendly competitors.

’Could it be that Chen Yansen has had a change of heart and is preparing to license the patent to third-party phone manufacturers?’

「On the other side.」

Zhou Hongyi, his face covered in bruises, returned to a villa within the Second Ring Road. He had made up his mind: he would go back to the office when his injuries had healed.

’This Tai Chi is useless, and Judo is fucking useless too!’

The moment they started that afternoon, the two of them just started swinging haymakers.

Zhou Hongyi’s glasses were shattered in the first exchange. After that, he could only see Lei Yijun’s blurry figure. Fortunately, he managed to land a punch on his opponent, so he didn’t feel like he’d completely lost out.

The feud between the two of them was now completely sealed.

After sitting on the sofa and thinking for a long time, Zhou Hongyi shot to his feet. He felt that Lei Yijun had been right about one thing: he shouldn’t be looking for Haier, but for established brands in the telecommunications industry like Huawei and ZTE.

Thinking of this, he dialed Yu Chendong’s personal mobile number.

After understanding the purpose of Zhou Hongyi’s call, Yu Chendong agreed to the collaboration request for a ”360 special edition phone” without much thought.

Although Huawei was in the middle of a critical transition period, it wasn’t impossible to make a special edition phone. They could just come up with a sub-brand name for it. That way, they could make money without affecting Huawei’s brand image.

The two hit it off immediately, and Zhou Hongyi took the opportunity to suggest a visit to Huawei.

’Since I’ve already had a falling out with Lei Yijun anyway,’ Zhou Hongyi thought, ’I’ll make the special edition phone, and I’ll build a 360 Mobile Phone too!’