Far away Airlines' first base was actually rebuilt from an abandoned military airport.
Everyone knew that there was a Wanli Airport in Minghu.
But in fact, because of the development over the years, it was no longer suitable to build an airport in Wanli. There was no confidentiality to speak of.
The military had thought about relocating a long time ago. They even selected a few backup bases in more remote areas.
Far away didn't take down Wanli this time. They hadn't decided whether to move there or not. Even if they moved, such an important military base wouldn't be sold in a short time.
Far away Airlines took down a backup base.
It wasn't accurate to say that it was abandoned. It was just that it had been used too few times over the years. Now that even the Wanli Airport was preparing to move, these backup bases were out of the question.
Far away solved the employment problem of a large number of retired soldiers every year. Plus, Lan Xingguo and the Jiangbei government had stepped in.
In the end, this backup airport was taken down by Far away Airlines.
This was a real suburb, unlike Wanli which was already undergoing development.
There were almost no buildings near the entire backup airport.
As soon as Li Dong got out of the car, Lan Xingguo greeted him with a smile. "You're finally here. I was worried that you wouldn't be here for the first flight. That would be a delay."
Li Dong looked at his watch and said, "The first flight is at 10: 18. There's still more than half an hour. Take me there. I've never been here before. Speaking of which, this place isn't far from Dongping, right? "
Lan Xingguo smiled. "It's not far. It's only an hour by car. Why don't we wait for the return flight and go back to have a look?"
"We'll see."
Li Dong asked as he walked, "Is the first flight route arranged according to what I said?"
"It's arranged according to what you said. From Minghu to Shenzhen. But there's a slight turn in the middle, passing through Lin 'an. Because of this, when I applied for the route from the Civil Aviation Administration, I was laughed at a lot. "
Lan Xingguo looked helpless. From Minghu to Shenzhen, this was the normal route arrangement.
But according to the direct flight route, it wouldn't pass through Lin 'an.
In the end, Li Dong insisted on this arrangement. Lan Xingguo spent a lot of effort to apply for the first flight route this time.
Fortunately, Lin 'an was also an important city. Far away, it made sense to choose this place as a node.
Lan Xingguo also had a good relationship with the Civil Aviation Administration, so it was approved in the end.
However, the Civil Aviation Administration had some understanding of Li Dong's personality.
From the way he named the plane, it was obvious that he wasn't a low-key person.
This time, he insisted on passing through Lin 'an. Perhaps he was holding it in for too long.
However, the flight route and flight standards were all arranged according to the standards. If Li Dong did not want to die, it was best not to mess around. If he was shot down in the end, he would really become Big Pao Li.
With this in mind, the Civil Aviation Administration didn't make things too difficult for them.
Li Dong's brain wasn't damaged. He wanted to die, but others didn't. No matter how outrageous he was, he couldn't go too far.
"What's the joke? It's just a normal route. Are we going to stop in the middle? "
"No, it's a direct line. It took about 160 minutes. "
Li Dong raised his eyebrows and said, "It's almost one o 'clock. Can we make it for lunch? Forget it. Call Ma Huateng and ask him to treat me. I'll come back after lunch. "
Lan Xingguo didn't answer. This was Li Dong's own business. He could eat with whoever he wanted.
However, Lan Xingguo still reminded him, "The plane returns at 2: 30 p.m. and arrives at Pingchuan around 5 p.m. It's best not to delay. Of course, you can come back by civil aviation."
"We'll talk about it later. By the way, when can my private plane arrive?"
"This will have to wait until the end of March at the earliest."
"…"
The two chatted as they walked. When they arrived at the tarmac, Li Dong glanced at it and asked, "There doesn't seem to be 25 planes, right?"
Lan Xingguo nodded and said, "Yes, there isn't. The scale of the backup airport here isn't big. It can't accommodate 25 planes. We've also rented some places to stop at Jinling and Pingchuan airports. These two places are also the provincial capitals of the Hua Dong region. They're not far from Minghu. They form a triangular air transport hub with Jinling, Pingchuan, and Minghu as the core. In this way, we can easily cover the entire Hua Dong region. As for the areas outside of Hua Dong, we are still unable to cover all of them. We can only continue to expand in the future. "
Li Dong raised his eyebrows and said, "The scale here is still too small. Can we expand? If we can't expand, then we can't operate this place as a core base. We can only operate it as an auxiliary airport. "
Lan Xingguo smiled and said, "It can be expanded. The key is … money."
Li Dong glanced at him. This old man had learned to be a general.
If I had money, would I still need you to tell me?
Why don't you think about how much you've overspent!
Li Dong couldn't be bothered to reply. He walked towards the resting area not far away.
After all, it was the inaugural flight ceremony. A few leaders from the Minghu local government had come. Even some government media had come.
For this inaugural flight, the Minghu government would definitely publicize it.
Minghu was also a well-known city. However, it had never had a civil airport before. Far away, this place was not considered a civil airport. It was a cargo airport.
But no matter what, the opening of a cargo airport would be a great help to Minghu!
It would become a cargo hub. Very soon, it would form a scale in the surrounding area. It was equivalent to developing an area for the local government for free.
Such a good thing, of course, the government would support it.
…
While Li Dong was accompanying the local leaders for an exchange.
At the same time.
Lin 'an.
Ma Yun couldn't help but look at the sky a few times outside the window.
Far away Airlines was making its first flight today. That guy said it would pass through Lin 'an. It would be good if he didn't cause any trouble for him.
After looking a few times, Cai Chongxin, who was talking to Ali's senior executive, Cai Congxing, couldn't help but ask, "Old Ma, what's wrong?"
Within the Ali Group, there weren't many people who could call Ma Yun Old Ma.
Of course, this didn't mean that there were people. Cai Chongxin was definitely one of them.
It wasn't disrespect. In fact, Cai Chongxin and Ma Yun had a very good relationship. It was so good that Ma Yun didn't let him call him chairman, even in the company.
Without Cai Chongxin, there would be no current Ma Yun and Ali.
Speaking of importance, in the early days of Ali, Cai Chongxin was even more important than Ma Yun.
It was Cai Chongxin's credit that Ali went from a grassroots team to a formal one.
Ali's several rounds of financing were all investments pulled in by Cai Chongxin's connections.
Although Yahoo was dragging Ali down now, without Yahoo's support of one billion US dollars, without Yahoo's support of Hua Xia's industry and talent, Ali wouldn't be where it was now.
And this financing of Hua Xia, which was considered a large sum in the history of the Internet industry, was completed by Cai Chongxin.
Because of this, within Ali, Ma Yun had a high degree of trust in Cai Chongxin.
At present, Cai Chongxin also served as the chief financial officer of Ali. Before that, he was also the chief operating officer of Ali.
At this moment, the arrival of Cai Chongxin, the chief financial officer, was naturally related to money.
Li Dong had Li Dong's troubles, and Ma Yun also had Ma Yun's troubles.
Both of them had one thing in common. They were afraid of meeting these financial officers. Troublesome!
Ma Yun stopped looking out of the window and turned around. "It's fine. Carry on."
"The privatization has entered the formal process. But regarding the issue of buying back Yahoo's shares, Yahoo's asking price is still high. Twelve billion US dollars is already the limit … "
"Twelve billion!"
Ma Yun gritted his teeth. "They really think highly of Ali!"
Yahoo currently owns 40% of Ali Group's shares and is the biggest shareholder.
Based on the other party's offer, Ali is worth more than 30 billion US dollars.
If this was at the beginning of 2008, Ma Yun felt it was not a lot and even underestimated Ali.
However, in the past year, due to the economic crisis, B2B business shrank, Taobao business shrank, Alipay business shrank.
Now, can Ali reach 30 billion US dollars?
It's not that Ma Yun is looking down on Ali and himself. But it's not worth it now.
In 2007, when Ali's B2B business was listed, just one B2B business was worth 26 billion US dollars.
At that time, Ali's market value was even higher than Baidu and Tencent's combined market value!
After all, that was only a part of Ali's business, not all of it.
Of course, Ali's B2B business is the biggest in Hua Xia and is quite famous in the world.
In 2007, Ali's B2B business occupied more than half of the market.
That means Ali's market value at that time is not less than 50 billion US dollars.
This was a very frightening thing!
50 billion US dollars is equivalent to three Tencent's market value at that time.
And that was in 2007!
But in 2008, Ali's B2B business, Ali Network, was listed, and its market value had dropped to about 8 billion US dollars.
Based on the ratio of Ali in the past, Ali's total market value is less than 20 billion US dollars, maybe even less.
Now, 40% of Yahoo's shares is priced at 12 billion US dollars. It's a huge premium.
Also, they will privatize Ali Network and spend close to 2.5 billion US dollars.
A total of 14.5 billion US dollars, close to 100 billion RMB. Where can Ali get so much money?!
Seeing Ma Yun getting angry, Cai Chongxin said softly, "Yang Zhiyuan thinks that Ali is worth this price. In fact, I also think that Ali is worth this price.
30 billion US dollars is not a high price.
Of course, from our current perspective, the more they underestimate Ali, the better it is.
Currently, the funds we can use are less than 2 billion US dollars.
We still lack a lot of funds.
But we have another proposal that Yahoo agreed to.
Before the IPO, we can buy back half of the shares and buy back the remaining 50% after the IPO.
This way, including the privatization, we only need to spend 8.5 billion US dollars … "
"8.5 billion US dollars …"
Ma Yun was speechless. 8.5 billion US dollars!
One year ago, he believed that Ali can afford this amount!
One year later, he really can't afford it!
Of course, since he had chosen to privatize and buy back the shares, he can't use this amount of funds.
Before this, he had already negotiated with some institutions.
China Development Bank is willing to give them a 1 billion US dollars loan, and some other Chinese banks in Hua Xia also agreed to the loan. The total amount is also close to 1 billion US dollars.
Some foreign financial institutions also agreed to lend 1 billion US dollars.
3 billion US dollars. With the remaining 2 billion US dollars in the company, 5 billion US dollars is Ma Yun's trump card.
The amount he can use now is more than Li Dong.
But even so, there's still a gap.
This cash buyback plan will not let you repay it slowly over a few years.
Ma Yun sighed and said, "12 billion US dollars is too high. Continue negotiating.
Tell Yahoo! If they don't return the shares, we will die together!
Currently, the B2B business was in a slump, and Taobao and Tmall were being suppressed by Fang Yuan.
It's the same for Alipay!
Our decision makers are having internal strife, and if this carries on, we will die sooner or later!
Of course, I don't mind if they don't want to sell their shares.
But the partnership system must be approved!
I must get the right to make decisions.
If Yahoo is willing to give up their veto rights and appoint the second member of the board, I can continue to tolerate them.
As long as Ali pulls himself together, Far away will not be a fatal poison to us.
We can fend off external enemies, but internal strife will be the root of the company's collapse.
Yahoo doesn't understand the Chinese market at all, and they are just dragging us down by pointing fingers now.
It's not a problem to buy back half of their shares, but it will not reach 6 billion US dollars. Back then, with the 1 billion US dollars and Hua Xia's assets in Yahoo, they will get more than 10 times returns in a few years.
I can accept it when the company is listed in 2007.
I also hope to bring more returns to our investors. Even 100 times is not a problem!
But now, 8.5 billion US dollars is sucking our blood dry. How are we going to compete in the Chinese market? "
Cai Chongxin replied softly. "We can still discuss the price. As for the funds, your virtual currency fund is our biggest bargaining chip."
Ma Yun sighed. "In the end, we still need to rely on him to solve our problems.
One step backward, and many steps backward.
Now, we are the ones chasing after Far away, and this is not normal.
This year is our tenth anniversary. Far away is only our fifth anniversary, and we have only been in the internet industry for three years.
This guy is giving us more and more pressure.
Our plans cannot be implemented, and Yahoo is using their veto rights to reject my decisions. I can't tolerate this!
No matter what, we must get the decision-making rights back!
No matter what! "
Ma Yun's tone was serious. He cannot tolerate Yahoo's actions anymore.
Why didn't he mention Softbank?
Softbank had always been on his side. Ma Yun doesn't care who earns money or how much they earn. As long as these organizations listen to him, he will help them earn money.
Yahoo has only been established for a few years, and their returns are not low.
Even if they are at a low point now, the returns are not low.
But even so, they are still rejecting him. Ma Yun can't control his anger.
Especially when he saw Far away getting faster and faster, he is determined to get rid of Yahoo. Even if they don't leave now, they must leave before the next IPO!
Cai Chongxin rarely saw Ma Yun get angry. This time, it seemed that he was also irritated.
Hearing his tone, Cai Chongxin nodded and said, "Then I'll continue to talk with the other party. This matter has to be taken slowly. If it doesn't work, we can choose to raise funds again after we are delisted. China Development Bank, CITIC Capital, Boyu Capital, and other state-owned companies are also interested in us. Before Far away existed, I didn't suggest bringing in state-owned companies. But now, Far Away is suppressing us in China. I think bringing in state-owned companies will do more good than harm … "
Cai Chongxin analyzed for a while, and Ma Yun also discussed.
When they reached the most important part, they heard a shout from outside.
Ma Yun and Cai Chongxin frowned. Are there no rules?
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