Chapter 378： Walmart has an idea

Seeing that it is the second half of 2011, this financing negotiation has dragged on for more than a month. In the face of Zoom, the construction of the logistics and warehousing system in the United States has become more and more comprehensive, and the transaction volume has quickly caught up. , they also have a sense of crisis.

Therefore, in a recent financing negotiation, they directly called out a high price, which is also the final bid they claimed, that is, the valuation of Groupon, which reached an incredible $25 billion!

Seeing this offer, William Chen can only sigh, Amazon is really rich, and for Groupon, he can call out a valuation of $25 billion without hesitation. Of course, it's not that they have to spend so much money to buy all of the company, because even if they wanted to, I'm afraid Andrew would not be willing, because according to the current predictions of many institutions, Groupon will be the next billion-dollar independent company. Corner companies, and their market cap will definitely exceed $30 billion after their IPO.

However, at this price, Amazon also has conditions, that is, after they raise funds, they hold no less than 40% of the shares of Groupon, and a large part of them must be from Zoom and Meta Investment Company, two early investments. buy shares directly from the party.

Amazon's Bezos is not stupid. The purpose of his request is to gain control of the company after entering Groupon, at least part of the control. By the way, Zoom and William Chen's Meta investment company are listed in Groupon. In order to weaken the influence of the company, so that they can make the next plan to integrate Groupon company to fight against Zoom.

Only in this way, for Groupon, although Amazon needs to pay up to 10 billion US dollars to get this 40% stake, in fact, the funds that Groupon can get are very few, most of which will be It was Amazon who bought shares from Zoom and Meta, which is equivalent to cashing out and leaving.

But even so, for Andrew, he is extremely supportive of Amazon's proposal, because it at least allows the largest shareholder of his shareholders to invest 60% from Zoom and Meta, the two related parties. 40% stake in Amazon.com.

And in his opinion, Amazon is a better partner for Groupon than Zoom.

William Chen returned to the United States this time to deal with Groupon's financing. In fact, the biggest problem facing him now is how to convince Rick Walton to agree to Amazon's financing terms.

Yes, William Chen is naturally willing to agree to Amazon's conditions and sell his Groupon shares to Amazon at the company's valuation of $25 billion, thereby cashing out.

Because he understands that the peak of Groupon's valuation should be the very short time after the company's IPO listing. Although the SEC does not have a lock-up period for original shareholders after the company's IPO listing, or a lock-up period for shares, but For the stock price performance after IPO listing, companies and early investors generally have special agreements to set a 90-180-month lock-up period for the original shares, during which they cannot sell their shares.

Therefore, if there is such an agreement at that time, including Zoom and Meta Investments, it will be difficult for them to sell their shares at the initial high point after the listing of Groupon. Since this is the case, this time Amazon will use this Entering Groupon with a high valuation and acquiring their shares is a very good opportunity to cash out.

Groupon is bound to be a pit, so since Amazon wants to jump in, why should William Chen stop it?

The problem with Groupon is that they are too optimistic, spread out too much in the group buying field, and do not predict the speed of recovery of the global economy.

As for the transformation, is it so easy? What if they have Amazon's help in the future? There was no such a retail e-commerce giant as Zoom in the previous life, and they still failed to transform in the direction of e-commerce, not to mention the obstruction of Zoom?

If you say that Zoom, which has been invested in for so long, can’t even beat Groupon, let alone challenge Amazon. It’s better to close the doors as soon as possible.

Therefore, after arriving in the United States, William Chen went to Los Angeles to meet with Rick Walton to discuss things about the Group company.

What William Chen didn't expect was that after meeting with Rick Walton, what they mainly talked about was not about Groupon's financing and listing, but about Zoom.

To be precise, it was Walmart Group that once again made a request to acquire Zoom.

The last time Walmart Group wanted to acquire Zoom was when Rick Walton got engaged. At that time, Rob Walton, the Walton family's talker at this time, also known as Rick's uncle, saw him. When William Chen mentioned that he hoped to acquire the then Zoom company at a valuation of $1.5 billion.

Of course, there is no doubt that this offer was rejected by William Chen. He told Rob Walton at the time that when he thinks that Zoom is worth more than $15 billion, it may still be negotiable. Base.

As a result, the Walmart Group has once again made a request to acquire Zoom, and this timing is quite interesting.

"Rick, you have to know that according to Amazon's quotation, even if only 40% of the shares of Groupon held by Zoom are counted, the value is as high as 10 billion US dollars. I don't know that this time Walmart Group will give Zoom a company. What kind of valuation?"

"I just received such a request, and I didn't really talk about it. You know, William, I said before that it is not appropriate for me to come forward with this kind of negotiation with the Wal-Mart Group, so I will hand it over to yours."

Rick shrugged and said to William Chen.

"I could go and see them, Rick, but you know, if it's a ten or two billion dollar valuation, I'm not wasting my time negotiating, knowing that these times are different, with Amazon The market value is moving towards 100 billion US dollars, and now as long as it is a project related to e-commerce, the valuation will not be too low.”

William Chen said without hesitation:

"Look at what Groupon has, but it is a group buying idea to help merchants clear their inventory during the economic crisis. Now his valuation has been shouted at 25 billion US dollars, and what about Zoom? You and I know the company's The potential is huge, and it's definitely more valuable than Groupon."

"You should say these words to the people in the Wal-Mart Group. Although I am also a member of the Walton family, William, the Walton family is not exactly the same as the Wal-Mart Group. In this matter, our interests are the same. "

Rick thought for a while and added:

"In fact, my original hope of combining it with Walmart Group has been shaken by the development of Zoom, because I found that even if Zoom grows alone it may not be able to beat Amazon. ."

It was also the vigorous development of Zoom during this period that gave Rick Walton such confidence.

By now, Zoom has completed the layout of the entire American region, especially the logistics and warehousing systems of various companies, which have spread all over the United States, covering 100% of the major cities and more than 80% of the population of the United States.

After all, the situation of each room is different from that of China. Their population density is smaller, and there are many remote areas where many people live. For Zoom, it is the best strategy to compare the cost and profitability of its coverage and give up.

Now the company has begun to cross the border of the United States and set up a layout in Canada, which is their next priority for the development of the market.

Canada has a very close relationship with the United States both economically and socially, and the personnel exchanges between the two countries are very convenient. This can be seen from the NBA. Canadian teams are directly members of the NBA.

Therefore, it is also very convenient for Zoom to enter the Canadian market after the completion of the construction of the system in the United States.

Like the United States, in Canada, Zoom does not pursue full coverage of the population, but prioritizes the construction of networks in large cities with denser populations.

After completing the coverage of North America, Zoom's next target is the European market. Originally, China, Japan and South Korea are very good e-commerce development markets, with stable economy and dense personnel.

However, due to various reasons, the development of overseas e-commerce in these markets is not smooth, so the best choice is to start from Europe