As we all know, Mr. Ma’s Bole is Boss Sun of the island country.

It is said that Boss Sun is a descendant of Sun Wu, the author of "The Art of War in my country", and whether it is true is up to be discussed. Even if it is true, it doesn't make much sense, because Boss Sun cannot recognize his ancestors.

No matter what Boss Sun’s reputation is, it’s not a bad idea. If you say so, someone’s investment vision is indeed awesome.

On February 20, 1999, on the fifth day of the Chinese New Year, at home in Hupan Garden Community, Hangzhou, Teacher Ma gathered 17 friends and talked for nearly 2 hours, just to say one thing:

We want to build a great company so that there is no difficult business in the world.

Jack Ma said passionately, but the people below were cold-faced.

Later, Alibaba executives Jiang, Peng and others recalled: "I can't understand what he said anyway, but seeing how passionate he spoke, I feel embarrassed to interrupt."

Someone laughed and said, "Your own business is not done well, why do others do business with you?"

Sure enough, the company was established for half a year and could not even pay the salary, and several employees even prepared their resignation letters.

Teacher Ma was as anxious as an ant on a hot pan. He hoped to get investment and solve the company's business problems.

For this reason, he searched all the big guys on the hills at that time again.

However, it is of no use.

Boss Liu, the founder of the American Conscience, said: "I can't understand the Internet, so you can find someone else."

Boss Lei, chairman of Kingsoft, who had already achieved some success at the time, said more bluntly: "He looks scathing and has a mouth full of words to run a train. Is this guy doing pyramid schemes before?"

"Scammers" and "pyramid schemes", so they sought financing 37 times, but Teacher Ma was rejected.

Teacher Ma returned to the company in a down-and-out manner, and he also drew big pie for his employees: "In order to do the right thing, we refuse investment from 37 companies, and everyone must persevere!"

Until the end of 1999, Teacher Ma, who was almost at the end of his life, met Boss Sun. As the new century was approaching, the meeting between the two changed the lives of countless people.

For Teacher Ma at that time, he almost gave up the company's business situation. He did not bring a business plan or wear a suit. He met Boss Sun with the abacus that he could learn how to do business.

Teacher Ma briefly talked about what his company wanted to do and the idea of ​​building a business empire. Although he had said this countless times, his inner passion still made him more and more excited.

In less than 6 minutes, Boss Sun interrupted him, and Teacher Ma thought he would be rejected again.

However, the famous super rich man on the other side said: "You are as crazy as Yang Zhiyuan, how much do you want?"

Teacher Ma was stunned at that time, and he replied to Boss Sun and said, "I don't want money."

That year, Boss Sun was 42 years old and worth tens of billions of dollars.

Teacher Ma is 35 years old and is only one step away from bankruptcy.

Since then, from 1999 to 2019, no matter what kind of disputes Mr. Ma was involved in or the company's growth was weak, Boss Sun was extremely optimistic about Mr. Ma.

Therefore, it is very difficult for Liu Xiahui to acquire Alibaba's shares from Boss Sun, Alibaba's largest shareholder. Even if he succeeds in the end, he will probably have to pay a huge price.

Therefore, Liu Xiahui can have a little contact, but he is not hopeful.

The only thing that made Liu Xiahui feel hopeful is Yahoo, the second largest shareholder of Alibaba. In 2005, Yahoo used US$1 billion and 100% of Yahoo China's equity to exchange for 40% of Alibaba's equity, becoming Alibaba's largest shareholder.

But by 2012, Yahoo's performance was very bleak, with a year of losses of up to hundreds of millions of dollars. In order to alleviate the company's losses, Yahoo's new CEO sold 20% of Alibaba's shares for US$7.6 billion.

This made Boss Sun the largest shareholder of Alibaba, while Yahoo became the second largest shareholder.

In the following years, Yahoo also made frequent moves. In the eight years after becoming an Alibaba shareholder, it sold a total of 30.6% of Alibaba's shares, and lost at least tens of billions of dollars, which is very sad.

There are three main reasons for this:

1. Yahoo's own business has problems and urgently needs funds.

2. Yahoo’s confidence in Alibaba is not as sufficient as Boss Sun.

3. Yahoo has disagreements with Teacher Ma due to the Alipay issue, and the cooperation between the two parties has irreparable rifts.

Therefore, as long as Liu Xiahui is willing to bid and buy Alibaba shares from Yahoo, there will still be a certain success rate.

In addition to SoftBank and Yahoo, the first and second largest shareholders, there are really not many other shareholders such as China Investment Corporation, CITIC Capital, Guokai Finance, Boyu Capital and Alibaba’s founding team, etc.

There is no need to say much about state-owned capital such as China Investment Corporation and China Development Bank. The shareholder composition of CITIC Capital is too complicated, and even Tencent is one of them, which is also difficult to deal with.

As for Boyu Capital, its helmsman is a well-known female player in the domestic investment industry. It is also extremely difficult to take advantage of her.

As for Alibaba’s founding team, Liu Xiahui was too lazy to contact him.

After all, today is different from the past. Teacher Ma is no longer the one who was desperate and treated as a liar. He brought Alibaba step by step to this scale. The people in the founding team have long treated Teacher Ma like a god. At this time, let them sell Alibaba's shares, it would be better to talk to Boss Sun!

After a round trip, I found that starting with Yahoo was the only opportunity.

Thinking of this, Liu Xiahui, who was moved, contacted Yahoo's current leader Mayer to ask the other party to discuss Alibaba's stocks.

Mayer is a star executive in Silicon Valley and once worked at Google. Yahoo, who is already in decline, has high hopes for her, hoping that she can lead the company to turn the world around.

At this time, Mayer, who had been in power for two years, acquired many companies and invested heavily in the development of new products, and increased investment in search and media content. However, her achievements in increasing the company's market share and attracting advertising investment have always been unsatisfactory.

Investors complained about this, which made Mayer Alexander urgently need to make achievements to prove himself.

Now that Alibaba is about to go public, it is certain that the stock value will rise. As for how much it can rise, no one can predict it before the result comes out.

Although I don’t want to sell Alibaba’s stock at this time, it’s not impossible to negotiate if the price is right.

Therefore, Mayer went to the appointment very readily and flew directly to Hangzhou City to discuss with Liu Xiahui.

...

Liu Xiahui and Mayer met at a well-known French restaurant in Hangzhou.

Although I had read Mayer's information, Liu Xiahui was still amazed by her when we met.

I saw her wearing blonde hair, fair skin, and a tall figure of 1.73 meters. She should be big and small, with a very charming smile and a mature style. This is a rare beauty among executives.

Of course, in Mayer's eyes, Liu Xiahui, a man nine years younger than her, is also a very charming handsome guy. Not only is he handsome, but he has a more handsome net worth.

Mayer also read Liu Xiahui's information and knew that the man in front of him, who was just 30 years old, was already the semi-public richest man in China a few years ago. No one knows how much wealth he has.

If it weren't for knowing that Liu Xiahui has always been known for his loyalty, if Mayer hadn't been no longer young, she would have wanted to pursue the other party. Such an excellent man would be rare.

The two of them were speechless, but fortunately, Liu Xiahui brought the secretary and translator, so they would not be unable to communicate.

I won’t mention these polite words about meeting each other here.

After the routine commercial hype, Liu Xiahui got to the point and asked: "Ms. Mayer, you know the purpose of our meeting this time. I won't go straight to the point. I wonder how many shares of Yahoo still holds in Alibaba?"

Mayer said with a smile: "Mr. Liu is really quick-talking, I like it! Yahoo still holds 22.6% of Alibaba shares, and is the second largest shareholder after SoftBank!"

Liu Xiahui said bluntly: "Ms. Mayer, give a price!"

It was obviously the first time Mayer met a Chinese person who spoke so directly. He couldn't help but be stunned and said, "Mr. Liu, you should know that Alibaba is about to go public in New York, and the price is..."

Liu Xiahui waved his hand and interrupted, "Ms. Mayer, don't say anything more. You just offer the offer. If you have something to talk about, we will continue to talk. Otherwise, just make friends and enjoy this French meal together!"

Mayer was stunned again, then quickly adjusted his negotiation strategy, pondered for a moment, and offered a price: "If Mr. Liu, you want to acquire all the 22.6% Alibaba shares owned by our Yahoo, then you only need to pay 40 billion US dollars!"

Liu Xiahui smiled and said, "Ms. Mayer, two years ago, Yahoo sold 20% of its shares in Alibaba for US$7.6 billion. Although Alibaba has been developing in the past two years and is about to go public, the price should not be so outrageous, right?"

Mayer smiled and said, "Mr. Liu, you have to know that two years ago were two years ago, and now now, Alibaba's valuation is close to trillion yuan. If calculated based on this valuation, the price of the stocks we hold in Yahoo will reach more than 210 billion yuan.

Now that Alibaba is about to go public, according to this situation, it will definitely rise, so the premium of RMB 30 billion is actually not much. In the long run, we will still lose money!"

Liu Xiahui said: "Value is something like valuation that needs to be recognized by the stock market and can be cashed at any time before it counts. Otherwise, it would be meaningless to give you a valuation of 10 trillion yuan."

Speaking of this, Liu Xiahui spread his hands and smiled, and then continued, "Let's do this, the food is in the moment, there is no need for us to test the price of the price. Let's say a number. If you think it's OK, then you'll make a deal. If you think it's not possible, then let's change the topic. Ms. Mayer, what do you think?"

Mayer has been an executive for many years and recently negotiated with others every now and then, but he has never met someone like Liu Xiahui. The business of this tens of billions of dollars has made him feel like buying cabbage.

However, it feels pretty good, there is no need to work hard. Just be as good as the price is good, if not, it will be bad. This work efficiency can save you a lot of time.

Thinking of this, Mayer smiled slightly and said, "Okay, then I will follow the local customs and do what Mr. Liu said!"

Liu Xiahui nodded with a smile, and then said, "30 billion US dollars, I mean you Yahoo can get it. At the same time, you Yahoo will cooperate with me to avoid taxes. This is also a win-win situation. I wonder if Ms. Mayer is satisfied with this price?"

Mayer stretched out his hand without hesitation and said, "Disclaimer, Mr. Liu!"

Seeing this, Liu Xiahui couldn't help but laugh, stretched out his hand to hold it with her, and said, "Happy cooperation!"

“Happy cooperation!”

No wonder Mayer didn't hesitate at all. The price he bought by Liu Xiahui was really conscientious, even more cost-effective than the 40 billion US dollars she had previously bought.

All this is just because of the existence of capital income tax!

For stock transactions like this, they have to pay 30% capital income tax. If you have $10 billion, you have to pay $3 billion in tax, and if you have $40 billion, you have to pay $12 billion in tax. At the previous price, Yahoo can only get $28 billion after tax.

Now, as long as you cooperate with the other party, you can get 30 billion US dollars, which is naturally a good thing for Yahoo.

Similarly, Liu Xiahui is not losing money. The stock god has already set an example of how to avoid taxes, namely, divest cash.

In March this year, Berkshire Hathaway and Graham Holdings reached an agreement to enable the stock god to successfully sell shares in the former Washington Post company, while avoiding capital income tax.

Under the agreement, Graham merged cash and a Miami TV company — the same amount as Berkshire Hathaway’s investors — to form a new subsidiary. Graham then transferred shares of the new company to Berkshire Hathaway, which transferred Graham shares back to the media company.

Economically, it seems that Berkshire Hathaway sold Graham shares to get cash and a TV station. But because the transaction was designed as an equity replacement, rather than a direct sale, it was also tax-free.

If Yahoo also cooperates with Liu Xiahui to use this method, she can exchange Alibaba's shares for shares in the new company and then obtain most of the cash of the new company.

In this way, Liu Xiahui can legally transfer the cash to Yahoo, and also legally acquire shares in Alibaba, which is truly the best of both worlds.

After the two parties reach an oral acquisition agreement, they will enjoy the food to their fullest.

Although this acquisition still faces a difficult situation, that is, Yahoo once signed an agreement with Teacher Ma, and at the same price, Teacher Ma has the right to repurchase shares first.

But neither Liu Xiahui nor Yahoo were worried that Teacher Ma would disrupt the acquisition.

On the one hand, Teacher Ma almost didn't have the strength to spend $30 billion to buy back stocks at this time.

On the other hand, the relationship between Yahoo and Teacher Ma was already a bit stiff. Yahoo was willing to appear early, so she would just appear. Teacher Ma wouldn't mind.

Therefore, if nothing unexpected happens, this business should be successful!
Chapter completed!