The banquet lasted for a long time.
It wasn't until it was almost 11 o 'clock that the crowd gradually dispersed.
Li Dong and Hsu Shengzhe bade farewell. Before they could get into the car, Tan Yong appeared out of nowhere and whispered to Li Dong, "General Manager Li, I have something to tell you."
Li Dong nodded and said calmly, "There's no rush. We'll talk when we get home."
"Okay."
Tan Yong didn't say anything else and turned to get into the car.
When Shen Qian saw this, she didn't ask them what they were talking about. She held the two children's hands and got into the car.
When the car arrived at the Provincial Party Committee's compound, Shen Qian carried the sleeping Little Shitou and said, "I'll take the children back first. Come back early."
"Okay, sleep early. Don't wait for me."
Li Dong replied and watched them enter the courtyard.
After Shen Qian left, Tan Yong immediately said, "Old Zhou's people sent news that Liu Xinyi gave birth in the hospital today. It's probably because of her mood and the rush, so she gave birth prematurely."
"Didn't I tell you to withdraw your people?"
"I was just about to withdraw, but I had to at least know where they went, so I delayed it a little."
Tan Yong immediately said, "That's not the point. General Manager Li, what's interesting is that Old Zhou has disappeared!"
"Disappeared?" Li Dong asked suspiciously, "What do you mean?"
Tan Yong immediately said, "Liu Xinyi had just given birth, so Old Zhou went back to the hotel.
But not long after, Old Zhou came out. The people who followed him thought that he was going to the hospital.
In the end, we didn't expect that he would turn left and right and shake off our people in no time at all.
As you know, he's also an expert. It's too easy for him to get rid of spies. In addition, his wife and children are around, so no one paid much attention to him at first.
But in the end, there was no one at the hospital. He didn't go back to the hotel either.
He just suddenly disappeared! "
"Disappeared?" Li Dong rubbed his chin and pondered for a moment. "Far away, why would he disappear for no reason? Did you scare him here? "
Tan Yong said helplessly, "How could that be? You already said not to find trouble with him. I just got people to watch where he goes in case he refuses to leave. His sudden disappearance was also out of my expectations. "
Li Dong thought for a moment and finally waved his hand and said, "If he disappears, then so be it. Don't worry about him. I can't figure out what this guy is thinking. But as the saying goes, the bridge is the bridge, and the road is the road. He has the freedom to go wherever he wants. "
Tan Yong said in a low voice, "Do you think he went to make contact with the people behind him? Previously, I thought that he didn't know, but now that he suddenly disappeared, I started to have some doubts. Maybe he knew. Why don't we increase our manpower and continue to track them? "
"Why bother with that? Aren't you too free? There are a lot of things to do in the security company. It's better for you to put more effort into this. Also, Old Zheng had left and Hong Bing had taken over. Arrange for me to meet with the brothers from the internal security team tomorrow. "
Hearing this, Tan Yong could only nod and said, "Then I'll arrange it immediately. General Manager Li, are you really not going to care about Old Zhou's matter?"
Li Dong glared at him and said angrily, "Why do you have to keep an eye on him? I can't be bothered with this guy's matter now. If you're worried about your brother, you can get someone to look into it yourself. You don't have to report everything to me."
"No, I don't even see him as a brother anymore. Why would I be worried about him? I'm mainly worried about Sister-in-law and Guoguo. He suddenly ran away, and it's going to be difficult for them. Forget it, I'll handle this myself. I won't bother you anymore. "
Li Dong thought for a moment and said softly, "Take care of them if you can. I'll take care of them privately. Abandoning his wife and child and running away. This bastard is really capable. "
Shaking his head, Li Dong did not say anything else. He opened the door and got out of the car.
…
In January 2009, in Li Dong's memory, nothing major happened except for the Spring Festival.
However, on the last day of January, as if everyone had discussed it, several companies announced some news to the public.
January 31st, the sixth day of the first lunar month.
While the people were still immersed in the Spring Festival holiday, in the morning, Suning announced to the public that it had acquired 27.36% of Laox Corporation's shares, becoming its largest shareholder.
Laox was not well-known in the country. Almost no one knew about it.
Ordinary people did not pay much attention to this news.
However, for Li Dong, who had just acquired Gome, this news was still worth paying attention to.
Laox was a famous appliance store in Japan. Although it only had six stores, it was the fourth largest appliance chain in Japan.
Its founding date could be traced back to 80 years ago.
Suning becoming its largest shareholder also meant that Suning had officially started its overseas expansion.
For the time being, Li Dong had not set foot in the island nation. Although this news came a little quickly, Li Dong could not ignore it.
However, Suning seemed to be afraid that Li Dong was not surprised enough and threw out a few more news.
In addition to acquiring Laox, Suning paid 35 million HKD to acquire the Laser brand, network, and business in Xiangjiang.
In addition, it spent 180 million HKD to acquire its related business assets and interests, including inventory, fixed assets, intellectual property, etc.
Li Dong didn't have much to do with Japan, but he did have something to do with Hong Kong.
In Xiangjiang, Gome had stores. Although the business was average, in Xiangjiang, Gome's market share exceeded Suning's by a large margin.
Although Suning had a subsidiary in Xiangjiang, its business had not been able to expand. Not to mention Xiangjiang's local brands, Gome's home appliance brand still surpassed Suning's.
But now, after Suning acquired Laser, it surpassed Gome's market share in Xiangjiang in one fell swoop.
These were considered the foreign markets. In the domestic market, Suning also made a lot of moves.
The announcement announced that Suning would add more than 300 new stores in the whole year of 2009, mainly to expand the rural and county markets.
In addition, Suning continued to expand the scale of its own logistics, increased its investment in Suning Shopping, launched its own payment system, Yi Fu Bao, and abandoned the previous Wan Tao payment business.
Because of the cooperation with Far away, Suning Shopping, which was previously known as Suning Mall, had always used Wan Tao payment.
Now, Suning chose to launch its own payment system and directly cut off Wan Tao payment. This choice officially announced the complete end of the cooperation between the two companies.
Expanding the scale of its own logistics, increasing its online investment, and launching its own payment system.
All of this announced that Suning was ready to go to war at any time!
After Far away acquired Gome, Suning finally could not bear it and felt a strong sense of crisis.
On the same day, there was a brief personnel change in the Suning announcement.
The former chairman of Dazhong Electronics, Mr. Zhang Dazhong, officially took the position of president of Suning Electronics. The founder of Dazhong and the founder of Suning joined hands to take charge of Suning.
And they only had one opponent at the moment.
The acquired Gome Far away!
Li Dong's threat made Zhang Jindong feel a strong sense of crisis. After the acquisition of Dazhong, Suning had been weakening Zhang Dazhong's influence on Dazhong Electronics.
However, this was before.
If there were no external threats, Zhang Jindong could take his time and slowly absorb Dazhong Electronics.
But now, time waits for no man. Although Li Dong had not made any moves at the moment, once Gome was digested Far away, it would be a big threat.
Taking advantage of the fact that Far away had not made any big moves, Zhang Jindong chose to compromise and chose to cooperate with Zhang Dazhong to bring Dazhong Electronics under his command as soon as possible.
These were just the actions of Suning.
On the same day, Beijing's Wumart announced the acquisition of all the stores in Jinmen. Its hypermarkets in Jinmen increased from 12 to 17, surpassing Huarun Resources and only second to Far away.
At the same time, Wumart acquired all the shares of the remaining shareholders of Meilian Electronics at the cost of 800 million RMB, completely taking Meilian Electronics under its command and becoming a wholly owned subsidiary.
On the same day, Huarun Resources announced the acquisition of 11 stores of Aijia Supermarket, 4 stores of Century Lianhua in the Northeast, and 100 stores of Shenzhen Citizen.
As a retail giant, Bailian was not to be outdone. It officially announced the restructuring and replacement of several new stores in Yonghui and Agribusiness.
In addition, Bailian shrank its national frontline and exchanged some stores with Huarun Resources.
The sale of Century Lianhua in the Northeast was just the beginning.
Bailian also began to sell some stores in the Northern market, or more accurately, exchange some of Huarun Resources' stores in the Southern market.
The retail industry, which had been quiet for a few days, suddenly exploded within a day.
Those who wanted to replace, those who wanted to expand, and those who wanted to consolidate their territories.
At this time, there were also some changes in the e-commerce market.
Bailian officially reached an agreement with Ali. Bailian's online shopping mall entered Tmall, striving to connect the online and offline systems, and complete the O2O strategic expansion.
Wal-Mart, which had already reached an agreement with Jingdong, announced a 10 million USD financing for Jingdong's No.1 store, striving to open up the online market.
…
Within a day, the other retail companies, which had been quiet for a period of time, began to take action.
Obviously, this was not something that could be done overnight.
When Li Dong acquired Gome, these people did not stay idle. Instead, they were constantly making moves.
The reason why they all took action at this time was not so much a coincidence, but rather, it was to intimidate Li Dong.
If he wanted to be the uncrowned king of the domestic retail industry, then he had to ask for their opinions.
It was fine to be the king, it was fine to be the number one, but it was absolutely impossible to be the king of the retail industry.
Several large retail groups, including those in the e-commerce industry, announced the same news at the same time, which also had a hidden meaning.
Obviously, everyone had reached a tacit understanding.
Or rather, these people might have reached a deeper level of cooperation. Attacking and defending an alliance was not baseless speculation.
…
Far away from the building.
In the conference room.
Yuan Chengdao said softly. "Far away has been expanding for five years, and I'm afraid everyone is afraid of us."
Sun Tao said in a deep voice. "China Resources, Bailian, Suning, Ali, Jingdong, Wumart … These companies chose to announce the same day. It's impossible to say that it's a coincidence. So, there must be a tacit understanding between them, and it should be targeting our retail alliance. We had sent out some invitations to the heads of the major retail companies to participate in our annual meeting. I'm afraid this action had made them feel threatened, and that's why they chose to do it at this time. "
Chen Lang nodded. "Indeed. Although we are only inviting everyone to the annual meeting, we are also suspected of forcing them to abdicate.
At this time, to protect themselves and get rid of our control, there must be many companies that are unwilling to compromise.
Also, these companies' announcement at this time is also to strengthen their confidence, and it's not strange for them to start roping in these second and third-tier retail companies.
I'm afraid it's not appropriate for us to make any big moves now.
Gome has just entered, and Carrefour's resources have not been fully integrated yet. If we force them too much now, it will be easy for us to be surrounded by enemies.
So, I suggest that we stop the expansion in the south and choose to shrink the battlefront to consolidate our existing market. "
Yuan Chengdao nodded. "General Manager Li, I also suggest this. On one hand, we have too many enemies, and on the other hand, we have a problem with our funds.
Last year, we ran out of funds.
Although we have a loan of 15 billion later on, almost all of it was used on Gome.
Far away now, we can only barely maintain our current scale of operations.
Furthermore, we still have a lot of debts to repay this year, including the balance of the acquisition of Carrefour, Yong An, and the other companies. Most of them need to be paid off this year.
Also, we need a large investment in Far Square City, and we also need to pay the balance of the land we've been paying for.
Lastly, Gome. Director Huang, don't forget that aside from the previous 8 billion, we still have to pay 5 billion annually for the next two years.
A few days ago, Director Liu and I made a budget. Even if we don't do any expansion this year, we still have to operate step by step.
These debts, including the balance, and the company's basic expenses, will be as high as 30 billion! "
Li Dong frowned. "That much?"
Yuan Chengdao nodded. "That much. We have been overdrawing for the past few years. Now, it's time to pay the bills.
30 billion of funds will be due this year.
In terms of profits, our retail group is the most profitable. If we include Gome and online, we expect to make about 20 billion this year.
Logistics, PP, and other industries will not make much profit. At most, it will be enough to maintain our own operations, and it might not even be enough.
In terms of real estate, unless we sell some of the land, 30 billion will be a problem.
But when the 30 billion matures, our debts will be gone, and we can take out loans.
All in all, if we don't expand, we can break even this year.
But if we continue to expand, our biggest pressure will be on our funds. "
Li Dong frowned. "Are you exaggerating? Far away, with annual profits of tens of billions, the debt ratio is not too high, and I don't think the funds will be a problem. If we can't do it, we can borrow more! But the manpower is a problem, and there's also our internal problem. Can we still fight a tough battle? Far away's internal situation is a little complicated, and we're probably much weaker than before. Our overall strength has not increased explosively, and we're holding us back. Once we go head-to-head with the other companies, I'm worried that if we drag this out, we'll die. "
Yuan Chengdao and the rest nodded. That was the truth.
Far away had been expanding and acquiring other companies for the past five years.
The scale was big, but the internal problems were getting worse, and the conflicts were getting worse.
Usually, it was fine. Even if Li Dong started a war, he would end it quickly and not give his opponents any time to delay.
But if it was dragged out, it would be troublesome.
Some people on the Internet said that Li Dong was invincible in a blitz battle, but not in a war of attrition, and it was not a lie.
As long as they could drag it out Far away, they would break Li Dong's invincible momentum. With Far Away's foundation, the entire Faraway Group would be exhausted and become a trapped beast.
This was not a joke, but a fact.
Far Away's employees could have such momentum and cohesion now, all because of Li Dong.
And Li Dong's strength was in surprise attacks, lightning strikes, and not giving the opponent the chance to fight back.
If this didn't work, and the war of attrition continued, not only would the employees be tired, but Li Dong would also be tired, and it would be dangerous.
Many times, the success or failure of a company was not only based on funds, but also on people's hearts.
If the people's hearts were scattered, the spirit would be gone. Even if you had more money, it would only benefit others. Not to mention that Far Away did not have much liquidity now, and there were a lot of arrears.
As soon as Li Dong's voice fell, the conference room became quiet.
In the current situation, everyone felt that it was no longer suitable for expansion, but what Li Dong thought was still unknown. Everyone could only wait for him to make a decision.
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