Chapter 810 If Mr. Fang Doesn't Come Out, Who Will Compete with Him? (6k)

We negotiated a price and had a drink.

Both the host and the guest enjoyed themselves and made their own calculations.

Ma Huateng did not bargain hard, and Fang Zhuo did not say that he would stick to a certain price.

Penguin was open-minded and willing to accept various possibilities, while Liu Chiping, who had a background in Goldman Sachs, was the liaison on Penguin.

Fang Zhuo slept well that night, the core executives of Penguin talked until late, and the investors of Penguin also had some contact.

The next morning, everything was calm, and Penguin was still discussing the matter of coming to Beijing.

However, in the afternoon, when Ma Huateng led people to continue talking with Penguin, he unexpectedly found that Mr. Fang was not there.

"Mr. Fang went to meet with the leader to report on the development of Bingxin. Penguin is willing to communicate more with Penguin on cooperation." Wang Xing of Penguin was neither humble nor arrogant.

The senior executives of Penguin exchanged glances, and some of them were slightly dissatisfied. They all felt that although Wang Xing was the founder of Penguin, he obviously could not make the final decision on this matter.

IDG's Xiong Xiaoge smiled and said, "Mr. Fang said he was too valuable, so today he cut himself in the foot."

Zeng Liqing, who was in charge of Penguin Dating Network, sighed slightly, "The price of Friends Network is indeed too high."

Penguin President Liu Chiping suddenly asked, "Where is Mr. Xu? Didn't he come this afternoon?"

The number of people in the conference room was no less than yesterday, but Mr. Fang and Xu Kaiwei from Goldman Sachs, two heavyweights, were not present.

Xiong Xiaoge said tactfully, "Mr. Xu went to meet foreign guests this afternoon."

Liu Chiping smiled and said, "Foreign guests? Could it be Facebook?"

Xiong Xiaoge smiled but said nothing.

Liu Chiping had communicated with Xu Kaiwei on the phone in the morning, but he didn't hear him mention this matter, so his emotions were a bit complicated. Since Penguin has arrived in Beijing, in addition to strictly guarding the communications field, it is naturally willing to promote the development of its own dating network through acquisitions.

If Facebook is really allowed to enter the country through Friends Network, Dating Network will undoubtedly have another powerful competitor.

The atmosphere in the bright conference room was a bit dull.

Wang Xing and Zeng Liqing had a friendly exchange on the development of domestic acquaintance social networking.

However, both of them noticed that the people present were slightly absent-minded.

They were not annoyed, and they knew in their hearts that many key factors were off the field.

In the evening, the procedural negotiations between Pengyou.com and Jiaoyou.com came to an end, and everyone in the conference room breathed a sigh of relief.

There were still differences in the price. Penguin raised the price to 850 million on the basis of yesterday, and Penguin.com lowered the price to 1.75 billion. The two sides still maintained a large psychological gap.

Ma Huateng did not comment on the acquisition price, but after shaking hands with Wang Xing, he invited Xiong Xiaoge: "Mr. Xiong, let's have dinner together tonight."

He knew that Mr. Xiong and Mr. Fang had always had a close relationship, and Penguin and IDG also had a deep connection.

"I have no problem, but Mr. Fang may not be able to come." Xiong Xiaoge said the main thing first.

This was not something that Mr. Fang wanted to grasp, but it was a real temporary change. He had to have dinner with his leader in the evening, so he was not sure whether he could attend the welcoming party for the Facebook team.

Ma Huateng smiled and said, "I know Mr. Fang will definitely see our sincerity. It's okay if he can't come because of something. As long as he can feel our attitude of being willing to talk, that's fine."

He continued to talk about the news that had been confirmed by Liu Chiping in the middle of the meeting: "Anyway, selling to Facebook is selling. Can't we sell it just because we Penguin and Friends Network have competed in the past?"

Xiong Xiaoge nodded and said, "That's definitely not the case. Since Mr. Ma has said so openly, in fact, for Friends Network and Mr. Wang, the situation is now very clear. Selling to Penguin is selling, and of course selling to Facebook is also selling. Of course, it depends on who is more sincere and who can better operate the user group of Friends Network."

Ma Huateng nodded slightly, but in fact he didn't believe that Facebook could offer too high a price.

After a series of discussions last night and this morning, and with some data support, their current psychological expectation is 700 million to 1.1 billion, and they also think it is a relatively appropriate and even somewhat premium price.

He shook hands with Xiong Xiaoge and said with a smile: "Okay, then Mr. Fang will not have a good time today. I will treat everyone to authentic seafood fish rice tonight."

Xiong Xiaoge agreed again.

When it was evening, the seafood fish rice that Penguin Ma treated us to was delicious, but Fang Zhuozhen did not show up. Instead, Xu Kaiwei of Goldman Sachs, who had not been seen in the afternoon, showed up.

During the dinner, Liu Chiping asked about Facebook again. Xu Kaiwei did not shy away and mentioned Facebook's senior vice president Pittman and important investor Thiel.

As a former Goldman Sachs employee, Liu Chiping paid more attention to Facebook, a company that would become a giant once it went public, in his spare time. He knew that Thiel was indeed the "important investor" claimed by Mr. Xu. He participated in the investment before Facebook changed its name, and was a member of the board of directors since the year before last. He also had a close relationship with Zuckerberg.

Led by Thiel and Pittman, Facebook's acquisition intention is probably not low.

Xiong Xiaoge mentioned Mr. Fang during the discussion: "Mr. Fang said that the most important thing for foreigners to do business in China is localization. If Penguin.com really succeeds in the negotiation, it must remind them of the mistakes made by companies like eBay and Amazon."

Everyone laughed. Penguin and Yiguo both benefited from the failure of foreign giants to localize.

After a delicious seafood and fish meal, the two sides chatted again, and it was a little late.

However, after Penguin.com waved goodbye, they immediately drove to where Mr. Fang was.

Facebook's team arrived. Fang Zhuo was unable to have a dinner reception because he was communicating with his leader about the domestic semiconductor industry, so he chose to have a midnight snack to communicate, which was just right for his foreign friends to adjust to the time difference.

It was eleven o'clock in the evening.

Xiong Xiaoge, Wang Fengyi, Xu Kaiwei, and Wang Xing arrived at the midnight snack restaurant.

Fang Zhuo had been chatting happily for a while, and when he saw his friends, he immediately said enthusiastically: "Come on, take a seat, we're waiting for you, try the chef's seafood fish rice."

A group of people who had just eaten seafood fish rice: "?"

Fang Zhuo smiled and introduced the two sides to each other. This was an exchange with foreign colleagues.

Because there was no substantial competition, the atmosphere of the midnight snack was very relaxed and pleasant.

Investor Thiel probably did his homework before coming, and said in Chinese "If you don't go to the Great Wall, you are not a hero", which made everyone laugh.

When the midnight snack was halfway through, Fang Zhuo was not vague, and directly talked about the purpose of inviting the other party, and then Wang Xing introduced the development of Friends.com in China.

Pittman and Thiel of Facebook listened very carefully, and occasionally asked a few targeted questions.

Wang Xing answered them one by one.

Pittman and Saul seemed quite satisfied with the answers.

Finally, Pittman gave an offer from Facebook - 95 million US dollars, which is about 750 million Chinese yuan.

This price is lower than Penguin's 850 million.

Of course, neither side will be the final transaction price, but Facebook's price made everyone in Friends Network disappointed.

Fang Zhuo did not discuss the informal offer at a midnight snack, but only looked forward to the prospects: "Whether it is acquisition or cooperation, there are many possibilities for mutual benefit between Facebook and Friends Network, which depends on the increasingly rapid development of China's Internet and the huge potential user base in China."

Pittman agreed with this.

It was almost one o'clock in the morning, and the Facebook team returned to the hotel to rest.

The people on Friends Network did not disperse, but served tea again.

"Mr. Fang?" Xiong Xiaoge handed over a cigarette.

"He quit a long time ago." Wang Fengyi yawned on the side, a little impressed by himself, still talking about business so late.

Fang Zhuo waved his hand and commented on the offer from Facebook: "Facebook is not even as good as Penguin. It turns out that unlisted companies are stingy."

Xu Kaiwei of Goldman Sachs laughed and said: "I feel that Facebook has little room for negotiation, at most 1 billion."

Wang Fengyi said: "With a price of 2 billion offered to Penguin, I always feel that 1 billion is too much of a loss."

Fang Zhuo complained: "You can blame me for raising your expectations?"

Several investors smiled and said nothing.

At this time, Wang Xing, the founder of Pengyou.com, said in a tangled manner: "If the prices of Facebook and Penguin are not high..."

The investors' smiles faded a little, and they all heard what Wang Xing meant, but now that the talks have started, do you still want to continue to compete with Penguin? The premise of this incident is that Pengyou.com can no longer keep up with the traffic strategy of Dating.com.

"It's not that Pengyou.com can't continue to raise funds." Fang Zhuo said so.

Wang Xing held his breath, knowing that there was more to come, and also knowing that what he said was probably the last discussion with Mr. Fang about Friends.com.

"I am not afraid of burning money to compete, and Mr. Xiong and his team are not afraid either. The problem is that Friends.com's competitors are not afraid either, and the competition between Friends.com and Penguin is increasingly being dragged into its field of expertise." Fang Zhuo said seriously, "In the past six months, we have burned money, launched Farm, launched Parking Space Grabbing, and tried our best to build community culture."

"But Penguin can keep up with everything except the community culture atmosphere, which is very unsolvable."

"Let's talk about this community culture again. It is actually a very good feature of the website. However, Mr. Wang, the jump from campus + workplace to national social networking should have impacted the community culture and reduced the user growth rate."

"How to solve this problem? I still don't see an effective method."

"On the contrary, the popularity of games such as Farm is a disguised cover-up of the problem."

"As a campus + workplace social product, the user stickiness of Friends.com is normal, but if it is a national social product, its user stickiness is precious, but this stickiness will inevitably decrease with the change of national attributes."

"It is difficult for Penguin to experience this change, because they introduced the traffic pool too early in order to compete with us, and their pseudo-real-name system did not encounter this problem at all."

"We are not able to slowly deal with the changes and challenges encountered by Friends.com, so it is better to take advantage of the precious community culture and sell it at a high price."

In the final analysis, it is a thrilling leap from campus + workplace to the national stage. Friends.com has now jumped into the air, which is a state of "you can't judge my jump failure". On the contrary, it looks like a perfect start and a good jumping posture, and it seems that there is hope to reach the other side.

Wang Xing met Mr. Fang's gaze and could not answer.

Friends.com gave up the attempt of commercial profit and has been in the stage of burning money and burning user scale. It is really too much pressure from Penguin's dating network.

However, burning money is not a panacea. Let's put aside the intentions of several investment institutions. As Mr. Fang said, the real-name system of Friends.com has gradually encountered challenges, and there is a sense of powerlessness.

It still looks lively, with people stealing vegetables, grabbing parking spaces, and sharing life, but the user portrait analysis and group activity analysis behind the scenes have a bad trend.

From campus to workplace to the public, can it work?

There is still a chance of success.

But will the powerful competitors give you time to get through?

Wang Xing is under a lot of pressure.

He was silent for a while, and sighed faintly: "I wish I could give money to users to let them register."

Xiong Xiaoge smacked his lips for two seconds: "Coupons, that's how Yiguo plays it."

Yiguo can play it this way, and the cost of the discount can be shared with suppliers, but what can the coupons of Friends Network be used for?

Wang Xing's courageous struggle fell silent again.

Fang Zhuo continued to think.

For a while, everyone was silent.

When someone started smoking the second cigarette, Xiong Xiaoge took a sip of tea, moistened his throat, and coughed.

Fang Zhuo looked at Lao Xiong, wanting to hear any good ideas.

Xiong Xiaoge put the teacup on the table and said seriously: "Mr. Fang, why don't you lead everyone to make another rush!"

Fang Zhuo was stunned, huh?

Xu Kaiwei also said: "FB and Penguin offer such a low price. Since Mr. Wang doesn't want to sell, let's just do what Mr. Fang wants. We are strong and powerful. Let's go to Penguin's communication field to see how powerful it is."

Fang Zhuo: "..."

Wang Fengyi was refreshed and put out his cigarette.

Fang Zhuo looked at the head of Shenxin Kechuang and said with a smile: "Come on, let's hear what the shareholders of Penguin think?"

Wang Fengyi's heart was full of ambition. He wanted to sell Penguin shares first and then build PC communications!

But he suddenly changed his mind and thought that this was what Lao Xiong and the others thought.

Wang Fengyi took a breath, relit a cigarette, and said steadily: "Mr. Fang, do you think we can go for it?"

Xiong Xiaoge glanced at him and continued to look at Mr. Fang.

This matter is high-risk, high-return, and high-investment. If it were someone else, he would not think about it, but if it was Mr. Fang... Mr. Xu just said it well, strong and powerful!

"The profit is overwhelming, no, it's overwhelming." Fang Zhuo was amused, his mouth twitched, and he laughed and scolded, "Okay, you guys deserve to be calculated!"

Wang Fengyi understood and sighed, "Boss Xiong, I've said it before, you can't be obsessed with profit when it comes to investment."

Xiong Xiaoge ignored Wang Fenggou and complained, "You said what's in your heart, right? It's you, Boss Fang, who is the best at calculating us!"

He finally reiterated his meaning: "Penguin's traffic is indeed strong. Let's not talk about defeating it, just get a piece of it and make a software with acquaintance social + communication attributes. The future is also very good."

"What about my mobile phone? Give up halfway?" Fang Zhuo said with a smile, "Old Xiong, human energy is limited. I will thank God if I can make a good mobile phone this time."

Xiong Xiaoge wrote "The Importance of Yike Mobile Phone" on Zhihu a while ago. Thinking about it carefully, it's true. If the mobile phone is not good, the prospects of Yike Company will be very bad. It is indeed difficult to ask Boss Fang to give up his project and turn to risky competition.

Since Mr. Fang is unwilling to lead his brothers to charge, forget it, forget it.

Xiong Xiaoge thought about Penguin's domineering traffic strategy, and finally felt a little regretful, sighing: "Penguin Supreme, traffic slayer."

Xu Kaiwei naturally took over: "I command the world, and no one dares to disobey."

Wang Fengyi knew this, and also sighed: "If Mr. Fang doesn't come out, who will compete with him?"

After the three people finished speaking, they looked at Wang Xing again.

Wang Xing was stunned, after all, he was not very good at this set, just nodded vigorously: "Yeah!"

"Go away, go away, all of you, you will accompany Facebook tomorrow, I will continue to find the leader to allocate funds for semiconductors." Fang Zhuo said unhappily, "If the price cannot be negotiated, it cannot be negotiated. If it cannot be done before the Spring Festival, we will continue to do it after the Spring Festival. Fight while talking, talk while fighting."

He also said to Xu Kaiwei, the key figure this time: "Mr. Xu, blow the wind again. If it can't be negotiated this time, let Penguin prepare to see us launch the communication software in April."

April!

For a moment, several people were all shocked, not quite sure how to expect the negotiation to go.

…

The next day, February 15, there were only three days left before the Spring Festival.

In the morning, Penguin Network talked with Penguin Network, and in the afternoon, it talked with Facebook. All three parties were very patient.

However, Facebook slightly raised the price. Considering the huge market in China, it was willing to acquire Penguin Network at a price equivalent to 1 billion Chinese yuan.

Wang Xing, Xiong Xiaoge and others still did not give in.

In the evening, Fang Zhuo, who hurried over, talked to Facebook in the conference room and only raised the price to 140 million US dollars, which was about 1.1 billion Chinese yuan.

Then, no matter how he talked about market value and development prospects, Pittman and Saul of Facebook were unwilling to raise the price. This was the highest price they could offer after contacting Zuckerberg.

"Hey, Mr. Fang, if you still have ideas about the price, you can talk to Zuckerberg directly when you arrive in the United States." Thiel actually wanted to raise the price, but this upper limit was what the United States meant.

Fang Zhuo was definitely not satisfied with 1.1 billion.

But he was not too disappointed. Instead, he introduced everyone in the conference room one by one to the Facebook team, saying, "Pittman, Thiel, as you can see, there are both great corporate teams and excellent investment teams here. If Facebook needs financing in the future, you can also consider us. As for this acquisition, I will go to the United States after the Spring Festival."

Thiel was stunned and laughed. Facebook no longer needs financing.

Fang Zhuo also laughed. He didn't know what Facebook's current financial situation was, but HSBC had already collapsed, and the future market was not good. Maybe?

The substantive contact between Friend.com and Facebook has ended. It is not that the latter is not sincere, but when there are major differences between the two sides, multiple rounds of negotiations are the norm.

Just before the Spring Festival, Pittman, Thiel and others gladly accepted Mr. Fang's arrangement to let them go to the Great Wall to be heroes.

On the other hand, although Liu Chiping and Xu Kaiwei have been communicating with Penguin, they have not completely accepted Goldman Sachs's words.

However, including Ma Huateng, they did not leave Beijing.

Fang Zhuo was not sure whether Penguin was competing in patience. It was very close to the Spring Festival. He and Wang Xing, Xiong Xiaoge and others were prepared that there would be no progress before the New Year.

On February 16, Fang Zhuo, who had not seen Penguin for several days, attended the meeting between Friend.com and Penguin again.

"Pony, you also know that Facebook's people are in Beijing. I won't hide it from you. The price there is not up to our psychological expectation, but it is higher than Penguin's."

"I will go to Silicon Valley after the New Year and continue to stay at Yike's R&D center. I have already made an appointment with Zuckerberg to talk about it then."

"Regarding the competition and cooperation between Dating.com and Friends.com, I believe there will be room for discussion in the future."

"Now, let's have a good New Year. I will fly back to Shanghai tomorrow afternoon."

Fang Zhuo made it clear that this was the last meeting between Friends.com and Penguin before the New Year, and he didn't want to waste time like this.

Ma Huateng was still not anxious. After a little discussion, he also ended the last meeting with a price of 1.2 billion.

Obviously, they couldn't reach an agreement.

Both sides shook hands politely, both very graceful.

That night, Liu Chiping called Xu Kaiwei, wanting to arrange another dinner for a casual chat.

However, Xu Kaiwei said very clearly and briefly: "No need, Mr. Fang has decided not to talk anymore. We will talk about it after the New Year."

Liu Chiping heard some other meanings from the other party's tone: "Mr. Xu, what do you mean by talking after the New Year? Didn't you say during the day that it's the New Year now and time is too tight, so we can talk after the New Year at work?"

Xu Kaiwei hesitated for a few seconds and revealed the news: "Mr. Fang has basically reached an agreement. Let's try the communication software of the social networking site first and see the effect before talking."

He added: "Even if the effect is not good, we can sell it to Facebook when we want to. The Chinese market is very attractive to them."

It's the New Year!

No more talk!

Let's start the communication after the New Year and see the effect!

If it's not good, there is still Facebook as an alternative!

What if... the effect is good?

Liu Chiping didn't dare to ensure the authenticity of the news, and continued to discuss with the Penguin Five Tigers.

What kind of new version will a social and communication software created by a real-name social product be?

Ma Huateng, Xu Chenye, Zeng Liqing, Zhang Zhidong, Chen Yidan and Liu Chiping, the six of them had a heated discussion, and it was really difficult to reach a consensus.

Vote.

Xu, Zeng and Liu agreed to the premium acquisition.

Zhang and Chen opposed.

"Pony, it's still you who decides." Xu Chenye said so.

If it's 3:3, then we'll see after the new year and talk about it after the new year.

If it's 4:2, then don't dream too much.

Ma Huateng pondered for a long time, and still couldn't guess whether Mr. Fang was interested in the communications field.

He repeatedly thought about this matter and this person, thinking about the other party's style and methods of doing things, and slowly said: "I will call Mr. Fang and make a final offer. If he sells, he will sell, otherwise I will fight."

Penguin is definitely a hegemon in the communications field.

If Mr. Fang wants to try, then come on.

Ma Huateng called Mr. Fang and asked directly: "Mr. Fang, will you sell Friends.com for 1.5 billion?"

"Ultimatum?" Fang Zhuo asked with a smile.

Ma Huateng asked back: "Isn't Mr. Fang giving us an ultimatum?"

"We can't talk anymore? I took the initiative to cut 200 million from the original 2 billion. Can't my name be worth a little more?" Fang Zhuo said.

Ma Huateng said simply: "Mr. Fang, let's just look at the project itself, not the people."

Fang Zhuo said slowly: "One price, 1.55 billion. If it doesn't work, forget it. We'll see you after the new year."

Ma Huateng felt blocked in his heart. He said it was the last offer, but he had already made 15. What's the difference between 0.5? Mr. Fang...

He was silent for five seconds, but still compromised: "Okay, since Mr. Fang said so, that's the number."

"No, Pony, I'm not saying that. It's the project of Friends Network that's talking. We only look at the project and not the people." Fang Zhuo was unwilling to talk like that. He repeated Ma Huateng's words and said, "Let's just talk about business, not friendship."

"1.55 billion." Ma Huateng finalized, "See you tomorrow."

Fang Zhuo ended the call. That was it. He was worthy of everyone.

Socializing with acquaintances is too difficult, and PC communication is too difficult.

Only look at the project and not the people, only talk about business and not friendship.

Sina, Alang, let's do some stranger socializing.

I made up for the last Saturday I stopped updating, and today I made up for yesterday.

Last month, I actually updated 10,000 words more than usual, and this month I plan to update 20,000 words more, so I don't owe any monthly tickets or extra updates.