Chapter 154： Musk's confidant

Musk's news is indeed well-informed. When William Chen completed the acquisition of Reddit and was about to return to New York, he received another call from him:

"William, you're in Silicon Valley now, aren't you? I think we need to meet."

Well, William Chen came to Musk's house with Ember Heard. Well, it happened that she was accompanying William Chen these two days. Since he went to Musk's house again, facing the two lovers, it was not good for William Chen to go by himself.

Musk and his girlfriend Dalula are not surprised that William Chen and Ember are together, and the important thing today is not that. After dinner, Dalulah and Ember chatted about Hollywood in the living room together, while Musk went to the study with William Chen and talked to him about the recent situation of Tesla.

But generally speaking, William Chen has been listening to Musk's complaints. He has not been very successful recently. Tesla's research and development has encountered difficulties, just as the subprime mortgage crisis hit, and now the stock market is in a mess, and most of the stock prices have halved. , Tesla originally expected to go public next year, but now this big background, really according to the plan, is not a wise thing, by then Tesla's valuation will completely fall short of Musk's estimate, even There is a high probability that he will break serve, and then the pressure on him will be even greater.

And Musk's other company, SpaceX, has been in trouble recently, failing three consecutive launches, which has called the company's technology into question.

Most importantly, Musk is out of money.

He has put the last $60 million into these two companies before, it can be said to be desperate, but the reality is often cruel, Musk did not wait for the dawn, but has fallen into the dark.

Therefore, after hearing that William Chen came to Silicon Valley, he immediately thought of his friend (fei) friend (yang) and couldn't wait to meet him. In particular, William Chen just spent 4 billion US dollars to acquire the shares of Ali from Yahoo, which is a complete waste in Musk's view. So much money should not be invested in the "grocery market", even if " Grocery Market” was put online. Instead, they should invest in causes that can change the course of human beings, such as new energy vehicles, such as aviation.

So at this moment, Musk has been describing the bright future of the two companies and the future of mankind to William Chen. We should not just be content with expanding in this planet, but should have a sense of crisis. Our goal is the sea of ​​stars... 2026 Years, he is confident to start sending humans to Mars blah blah blah...

Seeing these performances of Musk, William Chen understood that it was time to take action:

"Tesla is in a bad situation right now, and I also think that in the current situation, before the crisis has passed, it is not a good time for an IPO. You know, I invested in Netflix before, but their stock price has fallen. Two-thirds of the way, this investment has made many people laugh at me. Of course, those idiots don't know what value investing is, and I don't care what they say, but it's not a good thing for my other investments, I don't want to be treated as a fat sheep by others."

William Chen didn't notice that when he said this, Musk's expression was a little unnatural, uh, what fat sheep are not fat sheep, how can they think so, I'm different, William, we are friends, no Well…

"I invested in Tesla because I valued that it would lead to a revolution in energy, the future of the auto industry, but you know, Elon, I've invested too much, and I don't have the energy to pay too much attention to Tesla. I hope you can lead it to a new path, so I can add some additional investment, but I don't really know much about SpaceX, to be honest..."

Hearing this, Musk knew that there was a drama, and quickly said: "William you will like, and who doesn't like the big rocket, I can take you to see it another day, it's very spectacular."

Uh, classmate Musk, please don't be gay, I'm not interested in seeing that big rocket of yours, I'll leave this to Dalula.

But in the end, in Musk's view, William Chen was persuaded by himself and agreed to invest in SpaceX, which is really perfect.

In his opinion, Chen William said that there is too much investment and no energy to focus on Tesla and SpaceX? Isn't that what he wanted? You pay and I manage the company, that's great.

Since neither Tesla nor SpaceX is currently listed, the valuation is based on various valuation methods, plus the negotiation of two people, of course, it should not damage the interests of other investors too much.

It was finally determined that William Chen will invest $300 million in Tesla again, increasing his stake in Tesla to 35%; in addition, at a post-investment valuation of $600 million, he will invest $200 million to hold SpaceX 33% of the shares.

And William Chen will have the corresponding number of directors of the two companies according to the share of shares held, but he has reached an agreement with Musk, and will still follow the previous agreement. Regarding his own business proposal, William Chen will have the voting rights of the shares in his hands. , will give up the right of objection, only retain the affirmative and abstained.

After the two people reach an agreement, the follow-up investment process will be handed over to the subordinates. Musk is very happy and sincerely regards William Chen as his confidant, uh, no parentheses for the time being.

With his $500 million investment, the two companies can continue to support for a long time. He also temporarily gave up the idea of ​​​​making an IPO for Tesla in the near future, and is ready to wait until the crisis has passed and the stock market has recovered before starting the IPO. .

After William Chen and Amber Heard returned to his home in Silicon Valley, when he finished processing the day's mail and returned to his bedroom, he saw that Amber was already waiting for him.

"You are so special, Ember."

Seeing the other party's clothes, Chen William's eyes lit up and exclaimed in admiration.

"I think, you may have mistaken the person, Mr. Iron Man, this shouldn't be, I'm your assistant-Little Pepper."

Ember... Uh, it's Little Pepper, and said to William Chen with a serious look.

At this time, she was wearing a fitted professional suit, and the tight parts highlighted her attractive figure.

Under the short skirt are slender black silk legs. Aimebo stepped on slender high heels and walked in front of William Chen, watching his throat move slightly, raised his head and said:

"After a day's work, you should rest early, Mr. Iron Man..."

"Yes, my little pepper, I think the energy cannon needs some maintenance."

"Leave this to me..."

…

The next day, Iron Man, er, William Chen, came to an office building in Silicon Valley, where he met Rick Walton.

That's right, this is where Zoom's current APP development team is located.

"We have acquired the Groupon project, spent $40 million, to be precise, became their controlling party, Zoom now holds 80% of Groupon's shares, and the rest is left to the founding of this team. people."

Here, Rick Walton and William Chen communicate about the development progress of Zoom.

"Yes, it's a good deal, and we're going to get a lot out of Groupon."

William Chen said with a smile.

"I think so too. Now I have formed a team to develop the ZoomAPP. At the same time, there is also a team that is recruiting partners. Compared with other companies, we will give more favorable conditions."

"After all, we didn't aim for profit at the beginning, but many partners will not only join one, but in the end they will still choose the one with the highest traffic and the most turnover. This is also the goal we need to achieve."

"So I hope to promote it in California in the early stage. After all, it is relatively close to Silicon Valley. Only in Silicon Valley can we find so many Internet talents." Rick explained to William Chen: "And in the early stage, we need to be based on the actual situation. Constantly making adjustments to the process also makes it easier to get Zoom on track as quickly as possible.”

"Well, I agree with you too, so let's do it this way."

This does not make much difference to Chen William. Anyway, in California, it is also his territory. The Drey family has been operating here for a long time. In Rick Walton's office, William Chen looked at the busy employees outside and said:

"Now this time is very favorable for us, isn't it? In the economic crisis, not only have more unemployed engineers in Silicon Valley to choose from, but the cost of building a warehouse system has also dropped a lot, even the delivery staff, because of With the rise in unemployment, UU reading is easier to recruit."

"Indeed, William, I will negotiate with the California government next, and strive to get the best conditions and concessions. We can provide more investment and employment, which is their dream."

"What about funding? Do you need to continue to increase capital?"

"I think it is necessary, but in the early stage, an additional capital increase of 100 million US dollars is enough for the time being. You know, this kind of asset-heavy project is still very expensive."

"But it's not difficult for us, and that's how we have enough barriers for latecomers. I brought in $100 million, of which $50 million is to repay your last loan."

At the time of the initial capital injection, because Chen William was short of funds, Rick Walton temporarily provided half of his funds for him. Therefore, this time, Chen William directly injected 100 million US dollars. That's it.

"That's enough. In addition, William, congratulations, your short investment this time was very successful, and I didn't expect your private equity fund to give me such a generous return."

"You deserve it, don't you? Because of your vision, after all, not everyone can see that I am a genius."

Well, Rick Walton hesitated, forget it, you're happy.

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