The acquisition of Apple was already 60% completed before the money arrived.
Li Mu used Mango-ME2 and YYtunes to uproot Apple's profits. Then, through the addition of Andy Rubin, everyone in Apple gave up resisting. Finally, Steve Jobs agreed to sign a non-compete agreement. After all, Apple was already a piece of meat on the chopping board, waiting for Li Mu to sharpen the knife.
Now that the money had arrived, it meant that the knife had been sharpened. The acquisition was already 80% completed. The last hurdle left was Nasdaq. After all, a part of this meat was still in the hands of Nasdaq's investors. The only problem left was to liquidate those Nasdaq investors.
If it was listed in Hong Kong, according to the Hong Kong privatization method, even if Li Mu held more than 66% of the shares, he might not be able to pass the privatization vote. Once the number of shareholders was not enough, the privatization would be difficult to succeed. However, there was no such "people-oriented" operating model in the US stock market. As long as Li Mu obtained the majority of the shares, he could directly pass the privatization process at the shareholders' meeting, and then forcibly liquidate those shareholders with tradable shares.
In contrast, Li Mu preferred the simple and crude operating model in the US.
In the meeting, Li Mu immediately formulated the strategic process of acquiring Apple and completing the privatization process. He said to Lin Ching-ah and Ding Jian, "CEO Lin is responsible for following up on Apple's shareholders' meeting and signing the contract as soon as possible. CEO Ding, you will cooperate with Louis. As long as the Apple shareholders sign the contract, they will immediately take the contract and money and apply for privatization to Nasdaq."
The two immediately nodded solemnly. Louis Martin from Sequoia said, "As long as the Apple shareholders sign the contract, the transfer of shares will be completed. We will immediately convene a shareholders' meeting to vote on the privatization issue. However, as long as the Apple shareholders sign the contract on time, the shareholders' meeting will only be a formality. We will directly inform Nasdaq of the results of the shareholders' meeting, and then transfer the funds for the privatization to Nasdaq's escrow account. After that, we can apply for the forced privatization. The shareholders with tradable shares will not have any room to refute. All the stock agencies will assist us in the subsequent share buyback."
"Very good!" Li Mu smiled and nodded. "Since our money has arrived, let's get the higher-ups of Apple to sign it as soon as possible."
After that, Li Mu said to Li Ziwei, "Ziwei, inform Cook now and ask him to inform all the board members of Apple to be prepared and sign the contract this afternoon. After signing, we will immediately pay 50% of the purchase price to them. As for the remaining 50%, I will pay it all within three months according to the agreement."
Li Ziwei nodded and asked Li Mu, "Li Zong, isn't it a little hasty to sign it in the afternoon?"
Li Mu said, "There's no time like the present. Anyway, all the details have been discussed, the framework agreement has been signed, the actual transfer agreement has been drafted, and our money has been transferred. What else is there to wait for? Let's do it this way. Tell them that if they sign the contract today, they will pay them an additional 20% in addition to the 50% stipulated in the contract! "
According to the contract template, 50% of the purchase price would be paid immediately after signing the contract, and the remaining 50% would be paid over three months. Li Mu could split the 50% evenly over three months and pay it bit by bit. He could also pay it all at once on the same day, or he could drag it all until the last day of the three months. In short, within the scope of the contract, he could do whatever he liked.
Therefore, Li Mu decided that as long as Apple signed the contract today, he would pay them 70% of the purchase price today. They had been eager to cash out recently, and getting 70% on the same day would definitely be very attractive to them.
Li Ziwei immediately said, "Then I will contact Cook now and ask him to communicate and reply as soon as possible."
…
Recently, everyone in Apple was in a special state of anxiety.
This anxiety stemmed from their distrust of Li Mu. They were looking forward to Li Mu acquiring Apple, but they were also worried that Li Mu would tear up the framework agreement at any time and let Apple fall into the abyss alone.
The reason why they were feeling this way was that Apple's share price had fallen a little in the past two days. Previously, when they communicated with Li Mu about the framework agreement, the share price was 4.15. Now, the share price had fallen to 3.74.
The reason why the share price was still falling slowly was that the mess left behind by the iPod business was constantly fermenting. It was like a box of spoiled fruit. At first, it was just spoiled, but then it started to rot, mold, change in taste, and stink.
A large number of iPod users who wanted to return their iPods had not been dealt with effectively. The distributors had not yet paid the advance payment to Apple, and they had not received Apple's funds to deal with the refund. At this time, they did not dare to accept the refund request from the users. Otherwise, the cost and risk would all be on them.
However, the users' demands had not been dealt with effectively. This caused the users' anger to continue to accumulate. They continued to protest against Apple and Apple's distributors online and offline, which had a serious negative impact on Apple.
In addition, the distributors had begun to fight with Apple. Some distributors even joined forces to sue Apple in court, which made the current scandal of Apple even worse.
At this time, the OEMs began to jump out to join in the fun. They announced that a considerable amount of Apple's payment had not been made yet, which put a huge financial pressure on the OEMs. This caused Apple to be in a terrible situation.
Because of this, Apple was particularly looking forward to Li Mu's acquisition. After all, the stock price was still falling. If Li Mu suddenly announced that he would give up, then their assets would shrink a lot.
If Li Mu followed the framework agreement, then Li Mu would have to purchase the iPods at the stock price of 4.15 USD. According to the agreement, the actual purchase price was 90% of 4.15 USD, which was 3.73 USD. However, if the current price of 3.74 USD was converted by 90%, then the actual purchase price would only be 3.36 USD. At that time, their assets would shrink by more than 60%. This was too tragic for Apple's shareholders.
Tim Cook was also very worried that Li Mu would not keep his promise, because he also held a considerable amount of Apple shares. Under normal circumstances, because of Apple's internal restrictions, it would take several years for these shares to be gradually sold out. However, if this continued, it would not take long for Apple's stock price to fall below its net asset value. At that time, he would have nothing left. However, according to the company's rules, if he left early, then the remaining shares would be bought back by the company at a very low price. Basically, he would have nothing left.
However, if Li Mu took over all of the Apple shares, he could sell them all at once. In any case, the price of 4.15 USD was much higher than the company's buyback price. In this way, he could cash out a fortune in advance.
In addition, Li Mu promised to give him 150% of his salary after joining Makino Technology. Not only would he earn a lot of money, but he would also join the world's top Internet company. Therefore, no matter how Tim Cook calculated, he felt that being acquired was the most suitable choice.
It was not Tim Cook's fault for not being loyal enough to Apple. After all, everyone was just trying to make a living. In front of an individual and a company, everyone had to consider the individual first, and then the group.
When resisting, he would carry the gun and fight the war. When losing the war, he would throw the gun away, bend his waist, and surrender. If he had the opportunity to become a leader, he would certainly not hesitate. This was the thinking logic of a normal person in a capitalist society.
There were many people in the company who had the same idea as Tim Cook. When Li Mu proposed the acquisition of Apple, he asked most of the middle and senior management of Apple to stay. Therefore, at that time, the company organized a large-scale meeting to inform these employees of the acquisition intention of Makino Technology and ask for their opinions. Surprisingly, almost all of the middle and senior management of Apple were willing to join Makino Technology after Apple was acquired.
For the current Apple employees, waiting for the company to be acquired, then incorporated into Makino Technology, and enjoying a higher salary was too attractive. They did not know how to refuse. It was just like the employees of BAIC who had the opportunity to work at Benz and receive 1.5 times the salary. No one could think of a reason to refuse.
At nine o 'clock in the morning, Tim Cook drove to the company. Apple's working hours were flexible from 9: 30 to 10: 00 in the morning, but Tim Cook had always been used to arriving early.
After arriving at the company, Tim Cook asked his secretary to prepare a cup of coffee for him. Taking advantage of the time before going to work, he flipped through today's latest newspaper prepared by his secretary.
Tim Cook was most concerned about the newspapers in two places. One was Silicon Valley, and the other was Wall Street. The former led the world's Internet, and the latter led the American money.
While flipping through the newspaper, Tim Cook saw a news article published in today's Wall Street Journal. The title of the news made him break out in a cold sweat: "According to reliable sources, Makino Technology is planning to acquire Apple and realize the privatization of Apple!"
After carefully reading the content of the news, Tim Cook found that the entire news article was from the perspective of "insiders". Although there was no source, the content was very detailed. It included that Makino Technology was preparing to buy the non-tradable shares of Apple's shareholders at 90% of the stock price, and then buy the tradable shares of Nasdaq's retail investors at 150% of the stock price.
This news article also commented on Makino Technology's approach. They speculated that Li Mu seemed to be taking advantage of the 150% premium to Nasdaq investors, but in fact, he was quite scheming. He hoped to use this opportunity to win the favor of Nasdaq investors and build a bridge for Makino Technology's listing on Nasdaq.
After reading this news, Tim Cook's face turned pale. He immediately turned on the TV in his office and began to watch the pre-market news on the financial channel.
There were still more than ten minutes before the opening of Nasdaq. Pre-market news at this time could easily affect the trend of today's stock price.
Sure enough, the economist in the pre-market news channel was interpreting the authenticity of the Wall Street Journal report. The economist supported this report and believed that most of the content of this report had sufficient judgment and should be very true. He also predicted that Apple's stock price would usher in the first big rebound in many days today.
Rebound …
Tim Cook was so angry that his lungs were about to explode! Today's stock price rebound was meaningless. No matter how much it rebounded, it was meaningless. Even if the stock price rebounded today, it was all because of the good news of Makino Technology's acquisition of Apple. The real shareholders of Apple had signed the framework agreement, so they could not enjoy such benefits at all. Even if the stock price soared to the level of eight yuan before it fell, it would be useless because Li Mu would only buy their shares at the price of 4.15 US dollars.
Moreover, none of them dared to bargain with Li Mu at this time. Because once Li Mu was angry and officially announced that he would not acquire Apple, Apple's stock price would suffer a retaliatory decline. At that time, no matter how much it rose, it would not be enough to make up for the decline. It might directly hit the price below three US dollars.
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