"In my opinion, the biggest problem with Makino Technology's acquisition of Apple is not Apple itself, but the acquisition offer that Makino Technology can give to Apple."
Louis Martin said to Li Mu, "No matter how low Apple's market value is, it will reach its bottom after 3 billion USD. After all, Apple still has its own operating system and computer mainframe business, and this wave of bad news is too strong, so Apple's stock price will have a certain degree of overshooting. When the bad news is almost digested, there will definitely be a suitable rebound. Let's take 3.5 billion USD as an example. If Makino Technology wants to acquire Apple successfully, it must offer at least 5 billion USD. After a few rounds of negotiation, the actual price should be around 5.5-6 billion USD."
"5.5-6 billion USD?" Li Mu smiled and didn't comment on Louis Martin's words.
In fact, in his mind, even 7 billion USD to buy Apple was not expensive. If 5.5-6 billion USD could be bought, then it was really cheap.
However, just looking at the figure of 5.5-6 billion USD, although it was cheap, it was still a huge amount of money for Makino Technology. With Makino Technology's current capital volume, it was far from easy to swallow such a camel as suppressing its stock price.
Louis Martin asked Li Mu, "Li Zong, assuming that Apple accepts the private acquisition with a valuation of 6 billion USD, how is Makino Technology going to pay for this huge amount of money? Makino Technology only raised 3.3 billion USD in the last round of financing. If I remember correctly, 300 million USD was used to cash out the shareholders, and the actual working capital was only 3 billion USD. Also, Makino Technology has invested in a large number of data processing centers around the world, so this money should be almost spent by now, right? "
Li Mu nodded and said, "Makino Technology definitely can't get 6 billion USD in cash, but it can choose other solutions."
Louis Martin asked, "Do you want to use part of the cash and part of Makino Technology's shares to acquire Apple?"
Li Mu smiled and asked, "Am I crazy? I'll use Makino Technology's shares to acquire Apple? Let Apple's shareholders change from holding shares in Apple to holding shares in Makino Technology? Isn't this a blessing in disguise for them? "
Louis Martin nodded and asked in surprise, "Then how are you going to raise the funds?"
Li Mu said, "We can first negotiate with Apple, discuss an intended price, and then communicate with Apple's shareholders. We can pay a part of the cash first, and the rest will be paid after Makino Technology goes public. We can also pay them a considerable amount of interest. Do you think this is feasible?"
Louis Martin said, "Personally, I don't think Apple's shareholders will agree. They are all masters of capital. If they are no longer optimistic about a project, they will choose to cash out as soon as possible, and then use the money to make other investments. These people don't care about the interest rate the most. On the contrary, they are people who like to give other people interest rates and invest with other people's money."
Speaking up to this point, Louis Martin looked at Li Mu and said expectantly, "Li Zong, actually, the best way is for Makino Technology to carry out another round of financing and use the money to acquire Apple. Roughly speaking, Makino Technology's current valuation can reach more than 70 billion USD. If we carry out another round of financing and dilute the shares by 10%, we will have the funds to acquire Apple, and the remaining money can be used for other arrangements."
Li Mu smiled and said, "Before the IPO, I don't plan to carry out another round of financing."
Makino Technology's current user base, product strength, team strength, and support were all very strong. The gap between it and its competitors was also very wide. Moreover, YY's value-added service income was very impressive. Paradise Town, Plants vs Zombies Online, and YY's gaming lobby were also very profitable. There was also the Shadow Ranger ticketing system, so the overall profits were very impressive. Moreover, none of the business lines needed to burn money. At this time, Li Mu didn't need a large amount of funds to fight for the market, so diluting the shares would not be worth it.
However, for Louis Martin and Sequoia, they were also very optimistic about the future of Makino Technology. Therefore, they hoped to obtain more shares of Makino Technology before Makino Technology went public. Makino Technology's market value was rising at an unimaginable speed. The sooner they obtained the shares of Makino Technology, the sooner they could lock in huge profits.
Although Li Mu didn't plan to carry out financing, if he wanted to acquire Apple, money was indeed the biggest problem. Li Mu didn't have that much cash. The most valuable thing he had was the shares of Makino Technology. However, it wasn't worth it to exchange shares of Apple for shares of Apple at this time.
But then again, this was the best window to acquire Apple. Whether it was Apple's stock price or the confidence of Apple's managers, they would all hit rock bottom in the near future. If he could acquire Apple before it hit rock bottom, he would be able to get rid of any future problems. If he waited until it hit rock bottom to acquire Apple, the cost would be much higher.
This was similar to the mentality of domestic retail investors. When the stock price fell continuously, they wanted to sell their shares but couldn't. At this time, they wanted to sell their shares even in their dreams. However, once the limit fell, many people were reluctant to sell their shares. This was because they felt that since the limit fell had been opened, it indicated that the stock price was not far from a rebound. They might as well make up for some of their losses before selling their shares. They even hoped that the stock price could rise to a new height again.
After thinking about it, Li Mu still felt that it was the safest to acquire Apple in the near future. Therefore, he said to Louis Martin, "Louis, I will immediately set up a division specifically responsible for acquiring Apple. I will personally be in charge of this division, and you will be the senior consultant of this division. In the next two days, please help me sort out the specific plan of Makino Technology to acquire Apple. Also, start investigating the lowest price that Apple might accept. After the WHO lifts the warning of Hua Xia's epidemic, I will personally go to the United States to settle this matter."
Louis Martin nodded and said, "Since I am here, I will naturally do my best to help you and Makino Technology achieve their goals. But then again, why did you wait for the WHO to lift the warning of the epidemic before going to the United States?"
Li Mu said, "I have to fulfill my responsibilities and obligations as a public figure. I stayed in Yanjing throughout the epidemic, hoping to set an example and increase everyone's confidence in fighting against SARS. I don't want to affect some people because I left the epidemic area midway."
"I understand," Louis Martin said. Louis Martin said, "If that's the case, let's start preparing for the next few days. We're not in a hurry. After all, Apple will need some time to deal with this mess."
…
As of today, the SARS epidemic in Yanjing and the whole country had been very effectively controlled. According to the first-hand information that Makino Technology had, there had been no new patients in Yanjing in the past few days, and patients in Xiaotangshan Hospital had also recovered one after another.
At this pace, the impact of SARS would be completely over in less than a month. At that time, the people of the country would be able to completely breathe a sigh of relief.
However, Li Mu speculated that the WHO would not be so strict. They would not wait until all the patients were discharged before announcing that the threat had been lifted. Based on the actual situation of the current epidemic control in the country, it would not be a problem even if they announced that the threat had been lifted now.
Once the WHO announced that the crisis of Hua Xia's epidemic had been lifted, Li Mu's mission in SARS would be considered completed. At that time, the first thing that Li Mu had to do was to fly to the United States as soon as possible and deal with all the recent backlog of matters in one go.
The most important issue was the acquisition of Apple, in addition to the other business development of Makino Technology in the United States.
Mark Zuckerberg's Facebook was already online. In order not to interfere with his own thinking, and in order not to let Makino Technology restrict the development space of Facebook, Li Mu adopted a free-wheeling operation model for this project. He let Mark Zuckerberg mess around on his own. However, even so, Li Mu still had to understand the situation and see if there was any deviation from the young man's previous life. If there was, he would quickly help him change it. If not, he would continue to let Mark Zuckerberg run forward on his own.
There was also Elon Musk. He had been waiting to further communicate with Li Mu about the electric car and commercial launch vehicle projects. These two projects needed a long time and funds to be slowly developed. Before getting a final answer from Li Mu, Elon Musk did not dare to act rashly.
Li Mu planned to spend a month in the United States to settle all these matters. Then, he would have in-depth communication with the people of Sequoia Capital about the listing of Makino Technology in the United States. Now that the company was developing smoothly, it was time to plan for an IPO.
For a company like Makino Technology, an IPO was an opportunity to create a miracle.
The capital market was relatively calm. How much was Makino Technology worth? The valuation given by the capital was also relatively conservative. Although according to Louis Martin, Sequoia Capital was willing to give Makino Technology a valuation of more than 70 billion US dollars, Li Mu did not agree with this valuation.
The market value of America Online was nearly 200 billion US dollars at its peak, and Makino Technology only used YY. The number of users, influence, coverage, which data did not surpass America Online? Not to mention the huge power when the entire ecosystem was integrated into one. Such an Internet giant only had a valuation of 70 billion US dollars. That was nonsense.
However, Li Mu was also very clear in his heart that with the operation of the capital market, a valuation of 70 billion US dollars was not a scam. At most, it would be 80 billion US dollars. This was because they also had to reserve profit margins for themselves. Even they were waiting for the shares in their hands to skyrocket after the listing. Therefore, it was impossible to use the market value after the listing to value Makino Technology.
For the circulation market, investors had great confidence in a healthy company that could tell a good story. This would often bring a higher P/E ratio to the company, and the final result was that the stock price and market value of the company would soar even more.
Based on the current situation of the entire Internet industry, if he successfully acquired Apple, Li Mu was confident that after the IPO of Makino Technology, the market value would quickly exceed 150 billion US dollars. Even after Mango-ME2 and YYtunes matured, and after Makino Technology successfully digested Apple, the market value would hit the 200 billion US dollars mark.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
