After Makino Technology officially submitted the overall plan for the privatization of Apple to Nasdaq, the entire market thought that there was no longer any suspense in this matter.
Nasdaq would not reject Makino Technology's plan because they were very clear that the institutions that held Apple shares had already admitted their losses and were eager to exit as soon as possible. After all, it was a loss-making transaction. Under the circumstances where they were unable to reverse the situation, they could only hope to recover their funds as soon as possible so that they could use it for other investments. If Apple shares were deeply locked in their hands, there would be other potential losses.
It was like investing ten million in a business and losing 1.7 million in three days. The best way was to quickly take out the remaining 8.3 million and find other projects to make up for the hole.
The worst was to invest ten million and lose 17 million in three days. Then, no one knew when they would be able to take out the remaining 8.3 million. This was the tragedy of being deeply locked in.
Those who played with capital were all shrewd people. They calculated this debt every day, and they were very clear about the consequences.
Therefore, after Nasdaq received the privatization plan, they symbolically held a meeting to discuss it for two days. On the third day of submitting the results, they officially replied to Makino Technology. Nasdaq approved Makino Technology's plan for the privatization of Apple, and Apple officially entered the privatization and delisting process!
This news did not cause any waves in the Western market because everyone had long seen this result would inevitably happen. However, in the faraway Hua Xia, this news made people who understood IT and the Internet all over the country excited.
The media carried out overwhelming reports on this. Even Yang Ma repeatedly mentioned this acquisition in different time slots and different programs. She even invited a large number of experts to analyze the explosive power of Makino Technology in the overseas capital market. The entire country had already regarded Makino Technology as the outstanding representative of Hua Xia Enterprises and the international name card of Hua Xia Enterprises.
At the same time, the news that Li Mu borrowed 2.5 billion USD from the central bank with equivalent RMB as collateral also spread. No one knew where this news came from, but when the media began to report on this matter, all the media's statements were surprisingly consistent. The country and the central bank had always been fully supportive of Hua Xia Enterprises going global. Makino Technology itself was also a socially responsible enterprise. In order to obtain the foreign exchange for the acquisition of Apple under the premise of complying with the foreign exchange control rules, they did not ask for any form of leverage from the bank. Instead, they settled the equivalent RMB first, and then used it as collateral to borrow the equivalent foreign exchange. It was simply honest and flexible.
With the media's publicity, the fact that Li Mu set up a huge private equity fund was directly covered up. Thus, it became a kind of honest and upright flexibility. This publicity could also avoid affecting the general tone of foreign exchange control because Li Mu did not exchange foreign exchange from the central bank. He used RMB as collateral to borrow foreign exchange.
The exchange of foreign exchange was unilateral. If a company wanted to exchange foreign exchange for overseas development, RMB was exchanged into USD and then invested overseas. This was a loss of foreign exchange.
The biggest difference between lending foreign exchange and exchanging foreign exchange was that the foreign exchange Li Mu took away would be returned. The 2.5 billion USD of foreign exchange temporarily flowed to the US capital market, but Li Mu promised to repay it, which meant that the 2.5 billion USD would be returned.
After such publicity, the acquisition of Apple by Makino Technology became even more legendary. For a time, various versions of the story emerged one after another in China, but in the final analysis, they all had the same main tone: they were proud of Makino Technology's first victory in the US capital market.
This was the first successful acquisition of a well-known Western high-tech company in the history of Hua Xia, and it was a full-fledged acquisition in the real sense! At the moment when Hua Xia had just joined the WTO, this matter was of great significance. It was not only a victory for Hua Xia's enterprises, but also a victory for Hua Xia's capital and Hua Xia's Internet industry.
Hua Xia's high-tech enterprises started late, and its industrial development was much later than the West. In the international trade, Hua Xia's status was still in the "three low" stage: low technology content, low profit margin, and low trade status. Therefore, Hua Xia's enterprises in the West had a great incentive for Hua Xia's entrepreneurs and employees.
In one or two years, Lenovo would acquire IBM's personal computer business. This acquisition was shaped as a model for national enterprises to expand overseas in Li Mu's previous life.
A few years later, Geely's acquisition of Volvo cars also became the pride of the national industry, and it was still talked about many years later.
A few years later, Hua Xia's high-speed railway manufacturing company would make strategies among many of the world's leading high-speed railway companies and obtain the top technologies of many high-speed railway companies. Thus, Hua Xia's high-speed railway would advance triumphantly and become a beautiful business card of Hua Xia's industry. This made the people of Hua Xia proud.
Now, Makino Technology's acquisition of Apple had made the people of Hua Xia feel this pride in advance.
Li Mu believed that history would prove to the world that Makino Technology's acquisition of Apple was a crucial decision.
History would also prove to the world that Makino Technology's acquisition of Apple would become a miracle in the world's business history. Except for him, no one could imagine what kind of brilliance Apple, which had a market value of only a few billion US dollars, would shine!
…
Li Mu left all of the follow-up work of the privatization to his team. From this moment on, he completely stopped caring about the privatization.
Li Mu was like the first two stages of a launch vehicle, bursting out a huge propulsion force to send the payload into space. All that was left was for the team to follow the established trajectory. He had completed his mission, and he could now devote his energy to other projects.
Li Ziwei specifically talked to Li Mu about the recent affairs. First, she reported to Li Mu about her investigation of the global lithium mine and cobalt mine industry. This was what Li Mu thought of when he took Elon Musk to Harvard a few days ago. When he got off the plane, he told Li Ziwei.
Li Ziwei said, "In the name of many shell companies, I authorized a few companies to investigate the current situation and resource distribution of the lithium mine and cobalt mine industry. The preliminary results are as follows. First of all, the lithium mine is relatively rich. Hua Xia has a large lithium mine reserve, but the current situation of the lithium mine and the supporting mining industry is not very good. Insufficient profit margin and frequent ore price fluctuations are the main reasons affecting the profits of the lithium mine industry. Plus, the current global demand for lithium is stable, so the overall investment evaluation of the industry is low. Many companies have given suggestions not to invest in lithium mine in the near future."
"As for cobalt mine, its distribution is extremely uneven compared to lithium mine. First of all, our domestic reserves are very small. Secondly, more than half of the world's cobalt mine is distributed in Congo, Zambia, Cuba, and Australia. 60% of the world's cobalt mine production is in Congo. Currently, other countries with high reserves have higher costs and difficulties in mining cobalt. Congo's cobalt mine industry is relatively mature and has the highest cost-performance ratio. However, the consumption of cobalt is not high, and it is slowly increasing by 3-5% every year. Therefore, it is difficult to have a breakthrough in the price. Many companies have given suggestions not to invest in the cobalt mine industry. If you are interested in investing, the most cost-effective direction is Congo. However, considering that African countries are relatively unstable, this investment is relatively risky."
Li Ziwei looked at Li Mu's calm expression and could not help but remind him, "Li Zong, overall, many professional organizations do not recommend investing in the lithium mine and cobalt mine industry. There is not much room for imagination. Also, the mining industry involves a lot of energy, manpower, and resources. Therefore, overall, the prospects are not very good."
Li Mu smiled and said, "Some things are not for the sake of making money now, but for the sake of the upstream industry in the future."
Then, Li Mu asked her, "What do you think high-tech companies want to monopolize the most?"
Li Ziwei thought for a moment and smiled, "Maybe it's the processor? After all, that thing is very important in high-tech companies. "
Li Mu nodded, then shook his head and said, "It seems so. But in fact, what everyone wants to monopolize most is silicon raw material. It's a pity that the capacity of this stuff on Earth is too big. It's so big that it's easily available." "That's right.
Speaking up to this point, Li Mu asked her, "Think about it, what if silicon was a scarce element on Earth? What if silicon was not only a scarce element, but also an element that could not be replaced for decades? At that time, whoever has silicon would have the ability to influence the entire high-tech industry. Even if they could not control the entire industry, they could at least control the cost of the entire industry. "
Li Ziwei thought for a moment, then nodded and said, "I think I understand something …"
Li Mu smiled and said, "You don't need to understand too much, just know that this matter is very important to our future."
Then, Li Mu said, "Since the lithium ore reserves are huge, then we won't focus on the mines anymore. We'll sort out the industrial and mining companies that produce a lot of lithium. We'll set up an external fund to invest in lithium mining companies. We'll try to get a controlling stake in every company. If we can't get a controlling stake in a short period of time, we'll have to invest first."
Li Ziwei said, "Okay, Li Zong, I'll remember it."
Li Mu then said, "Looking at the distribution of the cobalt mines, it's very suitable to focus on the source. How about this, go and find out about the few cobalt mining companies that produce the most ores in the world. Find out about the actual mining rights of these companies and the duration of their rights. We'll use the same method as we did with the lithium mines, directly become a controlling stake or acquire them."
From Li Mu's point of view, the lithium ore reserves were huge and evenly distributed, so it was very difficult to monopolize the source. Therefore, there was no need to focus on the mines anymore. They could directly invest in or acquire the power lithium production companies. As long as they controlled a certain amount of the power lithium market, they could at least guarantee that their cost of using lithium would be much lower than other battery companies or new energy companies.
As for the cobalt reserves and distribution, it was too easy to make a big deal out of it. First, they could control more than 60% of the world's cobalt production. Then, in the next few years, they could use the strategy of more production, less sales, and more reserves to store a certain amount of cobalt ore every year. Once the new energy era arrived, they would have a lot of initiative.
Sometimes, the initiative was not used to slaughter others, it was used to defend oneself. If Li Mu used Tesla to rapidly promote new energy vehicles around the world, what if the Japanese and Korean lithium battery companies went against them? What if they raised the battery prices and secretly cooperated with their domestic electric vehicle manufacturers to steal the market? What if they cooperated with downstream companies and went against them?
If they had their own battery production capacity, sufficient supply of lithium ore, and sufficient cobalt reserves, then no one would dare to go against them. If LG, Samsung, and Panasonic dared to go against them on the battery issue, they could immediately announce that they were going to upgrade the cobalt mines and temporarily shut down production. The cobalt mine production capacity would decrease by more than 60%, and the cost of batteries would immediately skyrocket. At that time, they would still have so many years of cobalt reserves, and they could ensure that their battery production costs would not be affected. This would instantly create a huge gap with their competitors, and they would not be able to catch up.
Also, the cobalt mine industry had not received enough attention. If they managed it well, they would be able to obtain more resources in the entire industry chain.
Li Ziwei wouldn't understand Li Mu's long-term strategic reserve of digging deep and accumulating grain. But her biggest advantage was that no matter what Li Mu wanted to do, she would do her best to carry it out.
After she remembered Li Mu's requirements for lithium and cobalt, she said to Li Mu, "Li Zong, Google's Larry Page has been contacting me for the past few days. He wants to meet you to discuss Makino Technology's investment in Google. You've been asking me to suppress this matter for the past few days, and he's obviously a bit anxious."
Li Mu nodded and smiled. "The Apple matter is almost done. How about this, make an appointment with Larry Page. Tell him to meet me at Makino Technology at three o 'clock tomorrow afternoon."
"Okay." Li Ziwei said, "Then I'll call him back later to confirm the time."
Larry Page was really anxious recently. After seeing Makino Technology's series of actions against Apple, Larry Page realized how scary Li Mu was.
Li Mu's scary thing was not only that his company had a strong ability to push forward, but more importantly, Li Mu was like an experienced hunter. He knew the weaknesses of wolves, elephants, and rhinos. He knew how to quickly hunt them, from finding their weaknesses to shooting them down with one shot, and then slowly swallowing them.
The apple was once such a powerful prey. But now, Li Mu found its weakness, beat it half to death, and then swallowed it into his stomach.
Also, Li Mu swallowed Apple without any financing, which was even scarier.
If Li Mu decided to become a search engine, he would definitely treat Google the same way he treated Apple. He would find Google's weakness, cripple or kill Google, swallow Google, or let Google's corpse rot in the forest.
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