Reborn in 1999: Starting as a black marketeer

"ICQ sold for over 300 million US dollars last year. Although our QQ user base can't compare to ICQ's yet, I believe it won't be long before we reach a similar user scale. Therefore, a valuation of three million US dollars is simply unacceptable. I think QQ is worth at least thirty million US dollars at this stage!" Mr. Ma said decisively.

He directly increased the company's valuation tenfold. In fact, Tencent is still a startup, just getting started. There isn't much data to refer to regarding the company's valuation at this stage. The key is to look at its potential and prospects.

Of course, the most important thing is to look at the confidence of the VC firms!

SoftBank's investment in Alibaba is something that happened just two months ago. At that time, Wang Feiyang had just invested 200,000 RMB in Tencent to acquire a 10% stake, while SoftBank directly invested 50 million USD in Alibaba!

It just goes to show that comparing yourself to others is the best way to make yourself miserable...

"NONONO, Pony, the valuation you proposed is unrealistic. You have only two million registered users, and the company has no profit prospects. From any perspective, it cannot support such a high valuation." The IDG representative shook his head repeatedly.

"Pony, since we're here, it proves we're interested in Tencent and plan to invest, but you can't ask for too much. How about this, PCCW can invest US$150 million for 20% of Tencent's shares," the PCCW representative said calmly.

"IDG offers the same price!" The IDG representative immediately echoed, clearly indicating that the two companies had already agreed beforehand to jointly invest.

The price they quoted was equivalent to $300 million for 40% of the shares, valuing Tencent at approximately $450 million.

Compared to the previously given valuation of three million, some concessions have been made.

Mr. Ma hesitated. If Wang Feiyang hadn't been constantly telling him how amazing Tencent's future would be and how bright its prospects were, he would have signed the agreement long ago. After all, this was a three million US dollar investment. Just a month ago, he couldn't even sell the company for two million RMB...

But times have changed. He's not someone who hasn't seen the world. He understands that since IDG and PCCW are willing to invest $300 million, it proves that Tencent is worth that price, or even more!

After a moment's hesitation, Mr. Ma said apologetically, "Please wait a moment, I'll go and talk to the other shareholders of the company."

With the final decision approaching, it's understandable that the company's shareholders need to communicate. Even IDG and PCCW had to call their headquarters from time to time to report during negotiations.

Mr. Ma got up and went next door, where the company's founders were waiting. He explained the terms offered by IDG and PCCW to everyone, and finally asked, "What do you all think of these terms?"

"They agreed to invest $300 million? That's a lot! With that money, our next step in the plan can proceed smoothly!"

"Although they offered a lot of money, they also demanded a high percentage of the shares. They wanted 40%, which is almost half of the total. That means everyone's shares will be discounted by 40%."

"I think it's alright. If we don't get this money, the company won't be able to pay salaries next month. Maybe we should just agree to it for now."

Although there are only five shareholders, their opinions are not aligned. They are all satisfied with the $300 million investment, but they still have some objections to the 40% shareholding.

After listening to everyone's opinions, Mr. Ma paused for a moment and said, "I'll call Feiyang and ask for his opinion."

Wang Feiyang is also a shareholder of the company, so it is only natural to ask for his opinion at this time, so everyone nodded in agreement.

Actually, Mr. Ma had already left a message for Wang Feiyang on QQ a couple of days ago and also noted down Wang Feiyang's new mobile phone number, telling him to keep an eye on the phone today for easy communication.

So Wang Feiyang got up early this morning, ate breakfast, and then stayed in his room alone with the door closed, waiting for a call from Boss Ma.

He knew that today was a very important day for Tencent, because in two months the world would enter an internet winter, and at that time, it would be much more difficult to raise funds!

In other words, this may be Tencent's only chance to raise funds in the next two years, because if it fails to do so, Tencent will not survive...

Of course, while this round of financing is important, we cannot make concessions without any bottom line.

…………

After receiving Mr. Ma's call and listening to his brief introduction, especially his emphasis on the firm stance of IDG and PCCW, suggesting they might not increase their investment amount further, Wang Feiyang hesitated for a moment before cautiously replying:

"Three million US dollars is enough to meet our company's funding needs for short-term development, so it doesn't matter much if the amount isn't increased further. But giving them 40% of the shares all at once is a bit too much, and it would harm the interests of us original shareholders."

Mr. Ma nodded and said, "This is where everyone's disagreement lies."

He is conflicted. On the one hand, he knows that this financing opportunity is rare. IDG and PCCW are the most sincere and interested VC firms he has contacted recently. He has even used some personal connections for this.

On the other hand, after being encouraged by Wang Feiyang many times, Ma also felt that Tencent might become a giant company in the future, and it was really painful to give away 40% of the shares now!

Upon hearing that several shareholders on the company's side also had disagreements, mainly concerning the share transfer, Wang Feiyang then mentioned the plan he had been considering for a long time.

"An investment of $300 million is indeed acceptable. Our QQ does not need large-scale Google promotion. It has already established a good reputation on the Internet, which will save us a lot of promotion and publicity costs."

However, the 40% share requirement is too high; we can discuss this further with them.

"How about this, without changing the overall framework of the negotiations, we propose a performance-based agreement to them..."

Wang Feiyang's plan was not complicated, and it did not change the overall financing framework proposed by IDG and PCCW. It was still based on a $300 million investment and a 40% share transfer. He knew that just because he was a reborn person, he could not "do whatever he wanted." International companies like IDG and PCCW naturally had their own judgment and bottom line, and they could not change their company decisions with just a few words from him.

However, within the investment framework proposed by the other party, it is still possible to gain some initiative for several shareholders, including myself.

Therefore, he suggested that Mr. Ma propose a betting agreement with the other party...