Chapter 343 Brewing

Chapter 343 Brewing

Chapter 343 Brewing
Penguin made a big move to exchange stocks for funds, and chose the time when Alibaba B2B was delisted from Hong Kong in an extremely tit-for-tat manner, sending out a strong signal of competition to the end.

WeChat has made Penguin anxious!

Ma Dian's public disclosure of the data in person also drove Pony crazy!
Soon, the media and related practitioners' detailed interpretation of this additional issuance plan increased everyone's understanding of Penguin's competitive attitude.

Penguin's issuance of 19.5% of shares this time is almost at the fastest limit of its process, because according to the Hong Kong Stock Exchange regulations, once the issuance exceeds 20%, in addition to disclosing relevant information in detail in the announcement, the approval of independent shareholders is also required.

This means that controlling shareholders and persons acting in concert, directors and senior executives, their spouses and affiliated companies, stakeholders involved in related transactions and other stakeholders cannot vote, while independent shareholders' votes have a dual threshold of 75% in favor and no more than 10% against.

In that case, the plan for additional issuance will undoubtedly be subject to great changes.

Therefore, this is the largest and fastest amount of funds that Penguin can currently obtain from public channels.

On the contrary, Ali B2B's delisting from Hong Kong requires the repurchase of public shares, which is expected to cost nearly HK$200 billion. In addition, in order to solve the problem of transfer and strengthening of control of Alipay and for subsequent listing, Alibaba has reached an agreement with Yahoo to repurchase the latter's 20% stake.

It is said that one of the conditions for Yahoo to agree to sell this part of the shares is that Alibaba Group must complete a new IPO by 2015 at the latest, and the price of this part of the shares is as high as US$76 billion.

On the one hand, the additional issuance brought in about HK$720 billion, while on the other hand, operations required expenditures of HK$200 billion + US$76 billion.

Because of Penguin’s movements, Alibaba’s operations were also revealed.

Regardless of whether it is in or out, the funds operated by these two companies amount to more than 100 billion...

Yu Xing’s first impression was – awesome!
He really didn't expect that Penguin's counterattack would be at this level, and that it would come at a time when Alibaba was relatively short of funds.

This kind of operation is quite worth learning.

Yu Xing immediately created a WeChat group, wanting to hear what Mr. Xiong and Mr. Xu thought. After all, they had been in the business longer than him and had dealt with many people, so they had a lot of experience.

However, he felt that it was not a good idea to discuss the issue in the WeChat group, so he decided to meet and chat in person at his free time, hoping to discuss the impact of the fight between the two giants.

Secretary Zhang Yangxu repeated the numbers in the news several times and couldn't help but sigh: "Why didn't Penguin do this right from the start? If they had done that, WeChat wouldn't have survived to the end."

"Good question." Yu Xing smiled and said, "It's like, your cousin took money to open a small supermarket at the entrance of the community, and Alibaba immediately spent a huge amount of money to acquire Yonghui Supermarket, just to block your cousin's growth."

Zhang Yangxu was silent. He actually had a cousin who ran a supermarket.

A few seconds later, he suddenly said, "Eh? Baidu seems to be quite quiet recently."

The two giants were fighting each other till they were bleeding, but nothing happened to Baidu.

Seeing that his boss didn't say anything, Zhang Yangxu speculated, "Is Baidu playing dead and preparing for a big attack? The mantis stalks the cicada, while the oriole waits behind!"

Yu Xing replied: "It may really be a little dead."

Zhang Yangxu was puzzled, but he didn't get any further answer from his boss, so he could only sigh at the giant's strong strength.

The same is true in the media. The "embarrassed silence" described by Pony Ma at the Internet Conference not long ago quickly turned into "the calm before the counterattack." Obviously, tens of billions of dollars of funds are shocking enough.

This was also quickly reflected in actual actions.

WeChat's "Tangyuan" event, which was supposed to expire on the Lantern Festival, has reappeared in a revamped form. This time it is a promotion for collecting penguins to win bonuses. Users can obtain different penguin cards by shaking, sharing and attracting new users, and nine penguin cards can be combined into a cash red envelope.

The essence of this is still exactly the same as the previous Fuka activities, except that it lacks the natural atmosphere of the Spring Festival, but it has a longer period of participation.

According to the information released on WeChat, the first phase of the Penguin Collection event will end at the end of April, and the total amount of cash red envelopes will reach 4 billion Chinese Yuan.

There is no doubt that Penguin wants to exchange money for users and quickly catch up with the number of users that lag behind!
Moreover, according to its tone, this is only the first phase, and there will most likely be more funds in the future to directly pile up users.

As for how much money Penguin will spend on this kind of activity...

Yu Xing met Xiong Xiaoge and Xu Xin on Sunday and discussed this issue: "Penguin wouldn't spend all its billions on this, would it?"

"No." Xiong Xiaoge denied it immediately, but then hesitated, "It certainly won't all be spent on that. The competition in group buying is very fierce now. Penguin also invested a lot of money in group buying last year. The market has great potential. In addition, Penguin has to invest heavily in Tenpay and increase its promotion to make up for the gap between it and Alipay. As for WeChat chat..."

He looked at Xu Xin and asked, "Mr. Xu, do you think Penguin will have a base price of 100 billion?"

100 billion Hong Kong dollars is equivalent to 13 billion US dollars, which is twice what Alibaba paid for WeChat.

Xu Xin added his opinion very seriously: "Group buying, payment, WeChat chat, and e-commerce. Penguin will definitely launch a large-scale attack on Alibaba in e-commerce. JD.com is already discussing the entrance issue with Penguin. WeChat chat will open an e-commerce entrance, similar to the information on the WeChat interface. This means investment in four areas."

Then, she said, "I suspect Pony's heart is so burned that he can't even bear it anymore..."

Penguin's share issuance plan only caused the stock price to fall by 3%, which is a good performance and shows that the secondary market recognizes its full efforts to maintain the communications market.

Now there is a possibility that if the funds for this additional issuance are used up and the two sides are still tied, will Penguin continue to issue additional shares?

We won’t get as much as we did this time, but it will still be a huge amount of money.

Just as Yu Xing was about to speak, he received a call from Bi Sheng on his mobile phone.

"Mr. Yu, I have some news to share with you, and I also want you to give me some reference opinions." Bi Sheng went straight to the point, "Penguin's Liu Chih-ping called me and hoped to promote the merger of LeTao.com and Vipshop. He believed that a larger scale was needed to adapt to the competition of e-commerce in the mobile Internet era. What do you think?"

Yu Xing was stunned for two seconds and asked, "What is the goal of your merger? Do you want to continue with the tail goods model or expand into more categories?"

Bi Sheng replied: "More. Liu Chih-ping believes that after the merger, the two companies will be able to explore more e-commerce markets."

Yu Xing thought quickly and said hesitantly: "The competition between Penguin and Alibaba is getting more and more intense, and the e-commerce market is also going to become chaotic. If you ask me, I can't answer it for a while..."

Bi Sheng interrupted, "Mr. Yu, Mr. Yu, don't beat around the bush! If you have anything to say, just say it directly!"

Yu Xing said bluntly: "Just one question, what does Liu Chih-ping know about e-commerce?"

Bi Sheng immediately laughed and said, "Look at you, I feel the same way. Mr. Liu's words are not very convincing. Besides, Penguin has not achieved much in e-commerce. I am not willing to do so."

"How does he want you two to merge? You to be the CEO?" Yu Xing pressed for details.

"Penguin will invest in Vipshop. If they merge, we can have two CEOs and keep both brands." Bi Sheng replied. Yu Xing gave an idea that he was considering a few days ago: "This incomplete integration is worse than no integration at all. According to Liu Chih-ping's plan, it will not end well. It will only become cannon fodder against Alibaba. The GMV of Taobao and Tmall combined last year was more than 600 billion. Even if you completely integrate, you will still be beaten..."

Bi Sheng said "hmm" and said what he was worried about: "I am afraid that Vipshop will completely lean towards Penguin, which will cause great pressure on our development."

"Penguin's traffic has been proven to be not a panacea in many fields, especially e-commerce," said Yu Xing. "If Vipshop changes its model in order to get Penguin's traffic and funds, I think this will be another opportunity for you to pull ahead. First, it cannot beat Taobao, and second, it will give up the advantages of its model, which is just a dead end."

Letao.com received support traffic when Penguin intended to pose a threat to Alibaba's e-commerce, but Vipshop hesitated at that time. This helped Letao to overtake Vipshop to a certain extent.

But now, if Vipshop joins Penguin and is tied to it to fight against Alibaba, its traffic will most likely be poison.

Bi Sheng sighed: "Boss Yu, I feel much more at ease now that you said that."

Yu Xing said seriously: "This is just my opinion, you can just take it as a reference."

Bi Sheng smiled and said, "I'll take your suggestion of free operation into consideration."

Yu Xing said a few more words, ended the call, and shared Penguin's developments in the e-commerce field with Mr. Xiong and Mr. Xu.

Xu Xin nodded slightly and pointed to her phone: "Penguin is very anxious, and someone else has come to JD."

Xiong Xiaoge also said: "Alibaba may have some financial moves. It must need some funds to supplement liquidity. Now both e-commerce and communications have support. Others may be scared by Pony's funds. It may take time to withdraw funds from Alibaba, but it will definitely be in place within this year."

Yu Xing asked: "I don't think Pony is unaware of this. Is Penguin trying to take advantage of Alibaba's current financial situation to beat the slower one? At least, its Penguin Card activity has been launched, which will inevitably narrow the gap with WeChat and offset the space for the Spring Festival offensive."

Xiong Xiaoge and Xu Xin nodded at the same time. This was most likely a key point that Penguin was considering.

It is impossible to make it in time for the activities before the New Year, so if that’s the case, just spend your money and choose a relatively cost-effective time.

In addition to the funding scale of this additional issuance plan, Penguin has more than 20 billion in cash reserves in its account. The added funds must be used to invest in multiple fields at the same time.

Yu Xing took a sip of tea and mentioned something else besides the discussion: "Carbon Silicon Data is working on several mobile apps. The latest hotspots connected to WeChat have a good effect. They have also made a tool for sharing WIFI. We hope to create a new content-based super app."

Xiong Xiaoge laughed and said, "Oh? Super APP? How super is it? Does it also have 1 million users?"

Xu Xin didn't ask, but just stared at Yu Xing's expression.

Yu Xing nodded directly: "Yes."

Xiong Xiaoge raised an eyebrow, put down the teacup he had just picked up, glanced at Xu Xin who remained expressionless, and quickly assessed the current situation and the feasibility of the goal. Then he asked with some doubt: "I remember you thought Zhai Yifei's ability was not enough."

"Well, it was difficult for Zhai Yifei to start his own business, so now he is under Carbon Silicon Data Company, and Zhong Zhiling went over to help. Several software programs have good potential." Yu Xing introduced the situation and said, "Mr. Xu knows more about Carbon Silicon Data."

Xiong Xiaoge asked in surprise: "Mr. Xu, has Today Capital invested in Carbon Silicon Data?"

Xu Xin's face darkened slightly: "No, Zhejiang Investment invested one, and Ali invested another. Didn't Zhang Suyang tell you?"

Carbon Silicon Data also communicated with Zhang Suyang, but Zhang Suyang was not very interested and said that he would wait and see the performance. Then Alibaba quickly cooperated because of the super golden idea.

Yu Xing briefly explained the situation.

Xiong Xiaoge finally understood the full situation and thought: "Making a fortune through content... this is quite difficult."

Although Xu Xin did not invest in it, he did help by saying, "The current situation is chaotic. BAT may not pay much attention to this area. Sina, NetEase and Sohu all have their own boundaries. Their content will not be authorized to each other. Other information content companies may not be able to operate better than Mr. Yu."

Xiong Xiaoge couldn't help but take out a cigarette. He didn't expect that such a potential stock would emerge right under his nose.

Is it a potential stock?

The two investments by Zhejiang Industrial Investment and Alibaba have raised the valuation of Carbon Silicon Data to a very high level.

But if measured by the standards of super APP, it is still a potential stock and the mobile Internet market is far from reaching its boundaries.

Xiong Xiaoge hesitated and brought up the past again: "Mr. Yu, you don't do it yourself, and you let Zhong Zhiling and others do it. Are they qualified enough?"

"Zhong Zhiling recently proposed an idea about the revenue of super apps, which is the part we didn't do when we were working on WeChat before." Yu Xing did not give a direct answer, "He believes that if there is a reshuffle in the e-commerce market, Carbon Silicon Data can attract and integrate an e-commerce team to pave the way for subsequent development."

Xu Xin is good at e-commerce, so he immediately asked: "E-commerce team? Subsequent development? Who to benchmark against? Taobao? JD?"

Yu Xing pondered and said, "I've been thinking about this recently. I've also met some people at the Internet Conference. For example, Mogujie and Meilishuo provide content shopping guides. Carbon Silicon Data also wants to provide content information. If we have to say who we are benchmarking against, it's probably the e-commerce model rooted in content traffic, which is probably closer to Taobao."

Xiong Xiaoge and Xu Xin looked at each other and fell silent.

Yu Xing did not explain further, but smoked silently. He just discussed the possibility and also discussed it under the name of Zhong Zhiling.

After a while, Xu Xin said, "I can't imagine it."

Then, she added: "But if we talk about the revenue of a super app, e-commerce is undoubtedly a very safe way."

"Ali and Penguin are fighting fiercely, and you..." Xiong Xiaoge thought again and again, "You are trying to fish in troubled waters."

Yu Xing's thoughts jumped for a moment, and the troubled waters where he fished had already been made.

He smiled and said, "Zhong Zhiling and I both feel that Mogujie and Meilishuo are too dependent on Taobao. There will be changes in the future, so we have some forward-looking considerations. Mr. Xiong, you can go and take a look at the situation of those two companies."

Xiong Xiaoge nodded: "Let me take a look."

He added, “I’ll help you take a look, but you have to save some space for me on the carbon silicon data side.”

Yu Xing handed over a cigarette and Shangshou Ma smoked it.

Xu Xin coughed and said, "I have always admired Mr. Xiong and am willing to stand together with a superior horse."

Yu Xing poured tea and the lower horse drank it.

(End of this chapter)