On this trading day, Apple's stock price was still falling.
It opened at $5.47 and fell below the $5 mark within an hour. In the afternoon, a technology media officially reported that Jobs had resigned as Apple's CEO. Once the news was announced, it once again caused panic in the market. The stock price fell sharply in a short period of time, falling as low as $4.23.
In order to recover from the decline, Apple issued an emergency announcement. In the announcement, Tim Cook, who was in charge of sales management at Apple, was appointed to succeed Jobs as the new CEO of Apple. Tim Cook, 43, had worked for IBM and Compaq for many years, and had joined Apple for five years. He was a strong individual with strong qualities, and he knew everything about Apple. He would lead Apple out of the shadows.
Jobs recognized Tim Cook. When Tim Cook joined Apple five years ago, it was Jobs who invited him. Jobs had been training Tim Cook as his future successor. At this time, people familiar with Apple were not surprised that Apple sent Tim Cook to save the situation.
However, consumers did not expect much from Tim Cook. Apple's stock price only rose a little, and finally closed at $4.53.
It was another day of slaughter.
The stock price and market value shrank by 17% in one day, which sent chills down people's spines.
At the end of the trading day, Apple's market value was only $4 billion. Although all the negative news had been released, if Apple could not find a real way to reverse the decline in the business line, as investors continued to lose confidence, Apple's stock price would continue to fall for some time in the future.
This kind of decline was like a blunt knife cutting flesh. It was bound to be a long and endless pain and nightmare.
…
The first thing Louis Martin did after arriving at the hotel was immediately a conference call with the Sequoia headquarters. Sequoia was very concerned about Li Mu's every move at this time. In particular, they felt that Li Mu might have a plan to launch a multi-billion-dollar business acquisition, so they were even more eager to know what Li Mu was thinking.
Louis Martin reported the whole process of today's meeting with Li Mu to the Sequoia board of directors on the other end of the phone. Finally, he concluded, "Although I don't understand what value Apple has to Makino Technology, Li Mu's determination to buy Apple is really strong. Whenever he talks about privatizing Apple, I can feel his excitement."
One of the top executives of Sequoia, who was the most proficient in capital operations, said in surprise, "What does Li Mu see in Apple? Apple's real profitable product lines have been taken over by him. Now, Apple is a mess. If you take out all its business lines and compare them with Makino Technology, you will find that Makino Technology doesn't need Apple at all.
Apple's unique business lines are of no help to Makino Technology's existing industry. Their own profitability is very weak, and the cost of continuous research and development is very high. The overlapping parts of Apple and Makino Technology will definitely be a burden to Makino Technology in the future. Even if Apple were to buy Apple for 5 billion US dollars, at least a billion US dollars of the valuation will be counted in the two industries, iPod and iTunes. What's the point of Li Mu buying these two industries back? "
All the executives of Sequoia fell into silence.
No one could understand this question.
Why did Li Mu want to buy Apple?
With Li Mu's shrewdness, it was impossible for him not to see the trap in this. Buying Apple was to buy back a huge, unprofitable mess. If Li Mu bought Apple, it was impossible for him to keep iTunes and iPod. Otherwise, he would be fighting with himself. However, iTunes and iPod had nothing for him to digest. He could only buy them back and put them aside. This was a complete waste of money.
As for the other business lines of Apple, it was indeed meaningless.
When the chairman of Sequoia was puzzled, he suddenly asked, "Is it possible that Li Mu is buying Apple for some kind of strategic arrangement? Or is it to clear the way for the future of Makino Technology? We can't stop at our level to measure Li Mu. This guy usually has a very farsighted plan. Maybe buying Apple now is useless to him, but it will be very useful in the future. "
"That's not very likely." Louis Martin said, "I have carefully studied Apple's current business lines. Other than the iPod and iTunes, the rest is the Mac business. The iMac-G4's sales are not very good, and the Mac OS operating system's market share is pitifully low. Now that Microsoft is adding insult to injury, the Mac business will definitely be affected in the future. Even if Apple belongs to Li Mu, it will be very difficult for Li Mu to develop the Mac business."
After that, Louis Martin said, "Let me remind you, Li Mu has actually invested in a computer manufacturer called Shenzhou in Hua Xia. He also pushed the government to introduce a policy to benefit the people. This policy is intended to increase the number of netizens in Hua Xia and the number of terminals connected to the Internet. It is equivalent to Li Mu helping the consumers in Hua Xia to overdraft their home computer budget in advance. At this time, even if he gets the Mac OS, it will be very difficult for him to promote the Mac OS to the market in Hua Xia."
Li Mu's desire to buy Apple was extremely strong. Not to mention Sequoia, even if Apple knew about it, it would not be able to guess what Li Mu's intention was.
In Li Mu's view, the current Apple was a uranium mine whose atomic energy had not been discovered. People only saw the value of the land, but could not see the wealth hidden under it. Therefore, the valuation of the land was also based on the price of the land. However, once the atomic energy was discovered one day, the price of the land would soar through the sky.
The "atomic energy" that Li Mu was looking forward to was the mobile Internet and the smartphone. The mobile Internet was the trend, and the smartphone was the key to Apple's transformation.
Until Li Mu's rebirth, no company in Hua Xia had the ability to develop a truly useful operating system, whether it was a computer or a smartphone. However, Apple had the technical foundation. It even had a ready-made Mac OS system, which was the mother of the IOS. It was just that it was still a virgin today.
Li Mu firmly believed that as long as he got Apple before the arrival of the mobile Internet era, the Mac OS system would naturally be in his pocket. All that was left was to raise the overall salary of Apple's engineers and let them develop the IOS system based on the Mac OS system.
At that time, perhaps Makino Technology's acquisition of Apple would become the most successful acquisition in the history of human enterprises.
Think about it. An investment of a few billion USD could support a market value of hundreds of billions of USD in the future. This was definitely an operation that no one had ever done before.
The chairman of Sequoia could not understand Li Mu's thoughts. He smacked his lips and said, "Let's not think about why Li Mu wants to acquire Apple for now. I am more concerned about how Li Mu is going to acquire Apple. He does not have that much cash at his disposal, and the funding gap is huge. Does he have any plans to refinance?"
"No." Louis Martin poured a bucket of cold water on the chairman and said, "Li Mu has already made it clear that he is not going to raise funds before the IPO. Raising funds at this time is equivalent to bearing a huge disguised loss."
The chairman of Sequoia smiled and said, "It doesn't matter if he doesn't raise funds. The key is that he can't just buy Apple, right?"
After that, he added, "It is basically impossible for Li Mu to get a few billion USD in cash now. Makino Technology is not listed, and most of the valuation is virtual assets. The proportion of net assets is too low, and it is not enough to support a loan of a few billion USD. Moreover, the company is not listed, and there is no way to pledge the shares. Who will give him so much money? The surplus funds of Taobao are at most a few hundred million USD. Moreover, Hua Xia has foreign exchange control. How can he convert this money to USD and then bring it to the US market? If Li Mu wants to raise tens of billions of RMB in China and then convert them to USD, it is almost a daydream! If Li Mu wants to buy Apple without raising funds, money is not the fundamental problem. Foreign exchange is the biggest key! "
Louis Martin said, "I am also puzzled about this. Li Mu now wants me to help his team prepare for the acquisition first, and then go to negotiate with Apple. He did not tell me how he will pay after the negotiation is successful."
The chairman of Sequoia said, "How about this, you will not be helping for nothing. After you meet with Li Mu tomorrow, give him a cooperation proposal. Sequoia is willing to lend 3.6 billion USD to Makino Technology without interest. This money can be returned after Makino Technology's successful IPO. If Li Mu does not want to IPO in the short term, the time limit can be extended to three years. But the condition is that Makino Technology must dilute its shares to us at 80 billion USD. This way, he only needs to sacrifice 3% of its shares to get 6 billion USD in cash to buy Apple."
In the eyes of the chairman of Sequoia, the reason why Li Mu was not willing to raise another round of capital was because he did not want to dilute his shares. If Li Mu wanted to raise 6 billion USD now, the shareholders of Makino Technology would have to dilute their shares by at least 7 to 8%. If Li Mu wanted to dilute his shares at this time, no one would agree. But everything can be discussed. Since Li Mu thinks that 7 to 8% is too much, then I will ask for less. You can dilute 3% of your shares to me, and I will give you 2.4 billion USD. Then I will lend you 3.6 billion USD for you to use slowly.
Sequoia had a lot of hot money in its hands, and it had been looking for various investment projects. Most of this money was from private equity funds. As long as Sequoia promised a rate of return, it could use this money to do venture capital investments around the world. For a top veteran capital like Sequoia, because of its strong capital operation ability, it could have as much money as it wanted. Today, it said that it was going to lend 3.6 billion USD to Li Mu, and at night, countless people came to its door with 36 billion USD.
Sequoia also had to pay an interest rate for 3.6 billion USD, but the main reason why it was willing to lend it to Makino Technology without interest was that it could use 2.4 billion USD to buy 3% of Makino Technology's shares. 3% of Makino Technology's shares, even if it was diluted after the IPO, would be worth at least 4 to 5 billion USD. If it was held for a long time, the potential benefits would be even greater, far greater than the interest that Makino Technology had to pay for a few years' worth of 3.6 billion USD.
Louis Martin naturally understood the chairman's intention. Since he could not bite off a big piece of meat, then he would give some other benefits. That should be fine, right?
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