My Age of Investment

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the next day.

Xia Jingxing asked Zhang Chenguang to drive to an office building in downtown San Francisco. After searching for a long time, he finally found Ahri's American office in an old and remote office building.

Ma Yun came to the front desk to greet him personally, and while inviting Xia Jingxing inside, he said sorry: "Dai Lun, the office environment is simple, don't mind it!"

Xia Jingxing waved his hands, "It doesn't matter, it's about being diligent and thrifty, and displaying the traditional virtues of the Chinese nation."

Jack Ma didn't explain too much. After all, Ari doesn't have much business in the United States, and setting up a simple office is enough.

This kind of pragmatism, he believes, should be a plus in the eyes of wise investors.

It is indeed a bonus item, Xia Jingxing knows some of Ahri's past to some extent.

In 1999, Ahri received US$5 million in Series A financing; at the end of 2000, it received another US$25 million in Series B financing.

This was not a small sum of money at the time.

Therefore, Ma Yun, who is full of ambition, directly explores five markets in mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Europe, and the United States at the same time.

Taking the United States as an example, forty or fifty employees with an annual salary of 100,000 US dollars were recruited.

Then, in late 2000 and early 2001, the dot-com bubble started to burst.

Jack Ma was directly educated!

First, the B-round investors repented. After paying 10 million US dollars in financing, they stopped making money.

Then, Ali broke out in a financial crisis, with a total of 7 million US dollars in the account, and the monthly salary, office rent and other fixed expenses cost as high as 1.8 million US dollars.

At that time, Ari’s revenue was pitifully low, not to mention making a profit.

The company only had five months of cash flow left, which scared Ma Yun to the ground and started drastic layoffs.

First, the foreigners at the headquarters in Lin'an were laid off, because these people had the highest wages.

At that time, Ari thought that foreigners understood the Internet, so he hired dozens of foreigners with a monthly salary of at least seven to eight thousand dollars, while the Chinese employees in the same period,

The monthly salary is less than one or two thousand RMB, and the more is only three to five thousand RMB.

Ari asked foreign employees to halve their cash wages and triple their options.

But almost all the foreigners were gone, and no one accepted the salary adjustment plan.

Then, Ali began to attack the overseas branch again.

Under the fierce operation of Cai Congxin and Guan Mingsheng, Ari reduced the number of employees in the US branch from 40 to 50 people to only three people, and the three people included a receptionist who worked part-time.

Relying on his relentless drive to survive, Ari reduced his monthly fixed expenses of US$1.8 million to US$500,000.

Later, with the introduction of profit models such as Chengxintong, Ali also slowly survived, and the B2B business began to break even.

In February 2004, Ali raised another C round of financing, totaling 82 million US dollars, of which Softbank contributed 60 million US dollars, all of which were separately invested in Taobao.

Because the B2B business was already profitable at that time, Jack Ma spun off Taobao and raised funds separately.

It has been more than four years since the layoffs, and Ahri's US office has not yet returned to its heyday.

After Xia Jingxing followed Ma Yun into the office, he looked around and estimated that there were less than ten employees, and the office environment was extremely simple.

Once bitten, twice shy.

He guessed that Ahli's cash flow is still under exaggerated control, after all, Taobao is still burning money right now.

Ma Yun led Xia Jingxing into a conference room.

As soon as he walked in, Xia Jingxing saw a short old man in a suit with a Mediterranean hairstyle.

Xia Jingxing naturally knew this internet tycoon and venture capital tycoon!

Even after many years, Ali is still SoftBank's most successful investment.

It is even said that without Ahri's investment, Sun Zhengyi would be cold.

Sun Zhengyi smiled and stood up, held out his right hand, and greeted in English: "Dai Lun, hello, I have known you for a long time, nice to meet you!"

Xia Jingxing shook hands with the other party, and began to compliment each other commercially: "Mr. Sun, I have also admired you for a long time. Facebook needed financing back then, and I thought of you."

"Then why not send a financing plan to Softbank?"

Sun Zhengyi was a little serious, and immediately asked back.

Xia Jingxing had no choice but to put on a pretense, "Before there was time, Axel and Microsoft both took the initiative to come to the door."

Sun Zhengyi understood, it was his own fault for not taking the initiative to attack.

The reality is that after Facebook completed its A round of financing, it entered his sight.

But as Facebook's valuation continued to rise, he gradually lost interest because he was not making any money.

Especially when the valuation of tens of billions of dollars was exposed some time ago, he completely gave up.

Today we mainly talked about Ari, he didn't talk too much about Facebook with Xia Jingxing, and sat down after exchanging a few pleasantries.

The number of seats is very particular, Ma Yun sits at the top, Xia Jingxing and Sun Zhengyi sit on both sides of Ma Yun, forming a three-party situation.

Sun Zhengyi took the lead and said: "Daren, Jack has already told me everything about Vision Capital's investment in Ahri.

I just said it bluntly, I want to transfer the shares of Taobao to Yahoo. "

Xia Jingxing smiled. If Sun Zhengyi was really determined, he might not agree with him today.

Calling himself here, and claiming that he still wants to transfer the shares to Yahoo, all he wants is to make him a more satisfactory offer.

"We can give up the acquisition of Taobao's equity and only invest in Ali!"

How could Xia Jingxing let this old man make things up his mind, and directly came up with a counter-routine.

Xia Jingxing didn't play cards according to the routine, which really made Sun Zhengyi stunned for a moment. Is this retreat in order to advance?

"Daren, turning Taobao into a wholly-owned subsidiary of Ahri is Jack's core financing requirement."

Sun Zhengyi was a chicken thief and kicked the ball to Ma Yun.

Ma Yun also looked at Xia Jingxing with a puzzled expression, what do these mean? Isn't it all agreed?

Xia Jingxing kicked Jack Ma under the table, signaling the latter to stay calm.

After pondering for a moment, Xia Jingxing said: "It's not a problem, if you invest in Ari, Ari can continue to invest in Taobao with the financing.

At that time, Mr. Sun Zhengyi can inject capital into Taobao in equal proportion, or he can give up the capital injection and choose to have his equity diluted.

Anyway, Ahri’s B2B business is already profitable, and most of the financing can be injected into Taobao. "

Sun Zhengyi understood that he was unwilling to be manipulated by himself, and wanted to force himself to invest in Taobao, or to choose Taobao's shares to be diluted.

Ma Yun's eyes lit up, this is a good way!

Sun Zhengyi said there every day that Taobao was burning too much money and was under great financial pressure, and he wanted to sell Taobao's shares to eaby.

Tell you to put pressure on me, now you have met a ruthless person!

"Let's put this question on hold for now, let's talk about the capital injection into Ahri!"

Seeing that Sun Zhengyi couldn't handle Xia Jingxing on this issue, and Ma Yun didn't come out to help with the conversation, he changed a new topic.

Xia Jingxing nodded, "Okay, then let's talk about Ahri!"

"Ari's capital injection must involve Yahoo."