Makino Technology was an absolute oddity in the US internet market.
It was a company that did not take the initiative to do business in the US. Not only did its products naturally become popular in the US market, but the company even affected the stock prices of two companies listed on Nasdaq.
The first was Sina. After Li Mu acquired Hao123 and integrated it into YY123, he blocked Sina's links in YY123 and the entire YYY product system. He even blocked the word "Sina", which almost wiped out Sina's external traffic. This created a huge negative for Sina. From then on, Sina's stock price fell continuously. After YYY went offline, Sina's stock price fell even more. Now, it was basically one of the worst stocks on Nasdaq.
This time, Li Mu teamed up with # to create negative news for eBay, which had a market value of more than 16 billion US dollars. As a result, eBay's stock price fell by 5% at the opening.
For a company with a market value of more than 16 billion US dollars, 5% of its market value was worth more than 800 million US dollars. In terms of market value, this 800 million US dollars evaporated in an instant.
During Meg Whitman's tenure, eBay's stock price experienced many sharp fluctuations. Most of the sharp declines were due to the overall downturn in the industry. It was rarely like today, where eBay's stock price plummeted purely because of problems with its business.
In the stock market, # was a double-edged sword for eBay.
As early as when eBay acquired #, the market had already received the news in advance. In the eyes of the capital and shareholders, this news was definitely good news. The brokerage firms used this good news to add fuel to the fire. Although eBay had not officially acquired #, the market had already begun to digest this good news in advance.
Before the market opened today, eBay's stock price had actually already digested the good news in advance, and the overall stock price was overpriced.
This situation could be understood as spending in advance in life. For example, when Old Wang's company announced that they would give him three months' salary as the year-end bonus, this was equivalent to giving Old Wang a huge piece of good news. In October, Old Wang used his credit card in advance to overdraft his monthly salary to eat, drink, and have fun.
However, when it was almost the end of the year, and there was still a week before the year-end bonus, the higher-ups suddenly announced that the company's performance was not good this year, and there was a possibility of canceling the year-end bonus.
This time, the good news turned bad, and it was a huge blow to Lao Wang. If it was not for the year-end bonus, it would have been fine. At the very least, he would not have overspent. However, because of the good news, not only did he not pay back his credit card, but he also owed a lot of interest for a few months.
For eBay's investors, this was the same feeling as Old Wang. Good news suddenly turned into bad news, and the most direct feedback the market could do was to fall.
The 5% drop at the opening was just a prelude. After the 5% drop at the opening, eBay's share price continued to fall steadily. Although the decline was slow, it still caused a lot of panic among investors.
The only thing to be thankful for now was that Muye Technology and # had not announced to the public that they had signed an agreement. Otherwise, once the news that eBay had missed out on # was confirmed, the stock price would continue to fall.
If he waited until the end of the year and the company confirmed that it would not pay the year-end bonus, Old Wang's mood would instantly fall, and his loyalty to the company would be greatly reduced. Old Wang might resign from his job and leave the company after the New Year. Similarly, eBay's investors would be the same.
If he waited until the end of the year and the company couldn't give out the year-end bonus, then Old Wang's mood would instantly hit rock bottom. His loyalty to the company would also be greatly reduced. Old Wang might even quit his job and leave the company after the New Year. Similarly, eBay's investors would also feel the same way.
Now, eBay's stock price was falling, but the sell-off had not started yet. If Makino Technology and # succeeded, eBay's stock would definitely usher in another wave of sell-off. At that time, the stock price would fall again.
Although the pure bad news of the acquisition of # was not enough to shake eBay's foundation, it was enough to make eBay pay a huge price in market value. In the face of such a price, CEO Meg Whitman would be the first to suffer.
When Meg Whitman woke up, she received the news that eBay's stock price had fallen sharply. She could not sit still. At seven o 'clock Western time, she called all the key people and asked them to come to the company within half an hour for an emergency meeting.
At the same time, Meg Whitman also called Tom Anderson and asked him to meet with Peter Thiel that day. He must make clear progress, and if he did not bring back good news, he must bring back a resignation letter.
Meg Whitman had just gotten angry with Tom Anderson when she received a call from the chairman of the board of directors. As the most powerful big boss behind eBay, the first thing he said when the call was connected was, "Meg! What the hell is wrong with you? Do you know that the media in the entire eastern part of the United States is now reporting that Li Mu will be a strong opponent of eBay, and that eBay will be hit hard by Hua Xia's Makino Technology! Don't forget that Li Mu still has a Taobao website and an Alipay account. If we lose # and Li Mu brings out Taobao to compete with eBay in the future, we will be in a very passive position! "
Although Li Mu knew that it was extremely difficult to truly globalize Taobao website, the Americans were still very worried about this. In their opinion, Li Mu was a magician who constantly created miracles. No one knew what his next magic trick would be.
Therefore, the members of eBay's board of directors could not sit still. To them, hearing that # and Makino Technology were discussing controlling shares was equivalent to hearing that their son's fiancée was going to elope with someone else.
The only thing these board members could do was to pressure Meg Whitman. No matter what, they had to get # back.
Meg Whitman was distraught. She had never thought that she, who had been named one of the world's top ten CEOs and the strongest female CEO, would be messed up by a 20-year-old boy named Hua Xia.
No matter how strong a person was, they all had their weaknesses. Obviously, her weakness was in Li Mu's hands, but she could not threaten Li Mu on any level.
The real check and balance was when you pointed a gun at my heart. Even if I couldn't point a gun at your forehead, I would at least point a knife at your d * ck.
Meg Whitman obviously did not have this opportunity. The only thing she could do was probably to let Hua Xia go to eBay and find a way to increase the threat to Li Mu.
However, this idea had only popped up for less than ten seconds, and she quickly gave up on it.
Li Mu was the biggest local snake in Hua Xia's Internet industry. Taobao's current scale was more than ten times that of eBay and Hua Xia's government and people. It was simply Hua Xia's star company. Now, she and Li Mu were competing for #, and they did not have a direct conflict. If there was a direct conflict, how could eBay and eBay be a match for Taobao in Hua Xia?
When Meg Whitman thought of this, she became even more restless.
She rushed to the company and gathered the core team to continue the meeting. It had been more than an hour since the NASDAQ opened, and the share price had been falling from the opening price of 50.55 USD. The Americans were more sensitive to the highest digit than any other nation. Most of the Americans sold things at 199 USD or 19.99 USD. This was to lower the highest digit as much as possible and make it easier for the consumers to accept. 199.90 USD was more acceptable to the users than 200 USD. This was because when the users saw the highest digit of 1, they would instinctively classify it as 100 USD. If the price increased by 0.1 USD and became 200 USD, then the consumers would directly classify it as 200 USD.
This mentality was the opposite in the stock market. When the share price fell, every time it reached the highest digit, it would enter a critical point. The price of 50.01 USD was already in danger of falling to the highest digit of 5 USD. If the 50 USD level was lost and the share price entered the 40 USD level, it would affect the consumers greatly!
…
At this time, it was already past 10 pm in Beijing. Li Mu first had dinner with Elon Musk tonight, then he asked the driver to send him back to the hotel. Li Mu then returned to his home near Makino Technology.
After returning home, Li Mu did not rest. Instead, he turned on his laptop and followed the US stock market in real time. When he saw that eBay's share price fell by 5%, Li Mu could basically conclude that his plan to invest in # with eBay would definitely succeed.
There was no other reason than that eBay would not continue to let bad news affect the share price and investors' confidence. Therefore, what they needed most now was good news to offset the negative impact of this bad news. It was too difficult to find good news worth more than a billion USD at the last minute. The best way was to turn bad news into good news.
In other words, what eBay was most eager for was to have a bright future in the acquisition of #.
Not long after, Peter Thiel, who was in Silicon Valley, would meet with eBay's Vice President, Tom Anderson. At that time, Peter Thiel would throw out his solution at the right time. eBay would definitely not refuse. Not only would they not refuse, but they would also be grateful for Peter Thiel's help.
Right now, eBay had two bad news. First, it might miss out on #. Second, it would have a powerful and mysterious competitor, Makino Technology, or even Makino Technology + Taobao.
If eBay accepted his proposal and controlled #, then the bad news of # could be completely recovered.
Moreover, if eBay accepted his proposal, Makino Technology and Taobao would no longer be its competitors. Instead, they would become friends and partners in the same camp. This was another good news.
Both bad news turned into good news, and eBay's share price would definitely pull a beautiful V-shaped rebound.
Thinking of this, Li Mu suddenly felt that it would be a great loss if he did not take the opportunity to buy tens of millions of shares of eBay.
However, after thinking about it carefully, the stock market did not have such a big loophole to exploit.
In the US stock market, the tradable shares were all in the hands of brokers and investors. Moreover, the US stock market was different from China. Most investors took a long-term investment strategy. If he wanted to buy eBay's shares at this time, it would depend on how many tradable shares were available in the market. Once the National People's Congress bought in, it might cause more people to buy in. Maybe he could only buy a few hundred thousand shares.
If he could earn a few USD per share, it would be a profit margin of a few million USD. Moreover, he was in Hua Xia, so it was impossible for him to buy US stocks immediately. By the time he settled the procedures and foreign exchange, the market might have already passed.
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