in2ebook Chapter 261 Capital Games
Chapter 261 Capital Games
July 3, 1998, 6:00 AM.
Ling Yun's biological clock was seven minutes earlier than his alarm clock. He opened his eyes in the darkness, stared at the blurry light and shadow on the ceiling for a few seconds, and then got up.
Today is a crucial day—Goldman Sachs at 9 AM, Morgan Stanley at 2 PM. Two of Wall Street's top investment banks, with vastly different styles and objectives, are both eyeing the Star Language pie.
At 7:20, he sat down at his desk and opened his laptop. His inbox was overflowing with unread emails. The top one was from Carly, timestamped at 4:13 AM.
Ling,
The attachment contains the latest background information on the Goldman Sachs team.
Richardson had dinner with Sequoia partners last night, and according to sources, they discussed the possibility of "joint investment to reduce risk." This could be a negotiating tactic, or it could actually lead to an alliance.
Goldman Sachs has internal disagreements regarding the valuation of Starry Language: the technology team believes 8.5 million is reasonable, but the risk control team believes that "the instant messaging market has not yet proven a sustainable profit model" and suggests lowering the price to below 6 million.
Additionally, Winston from Morgan Stanley emailed me at 6 AM this morning, inquiring whether any other institutions had submitted substantial offers. As you requested, I replied, "Several institutions are actively contacting us, and we will conduct a comprehensive evaluation after today's meeting."
Today's schedule:
9:00-11:00 Goldman Sachs (Company Meeting Room)
11:30-12:30 Lunch with Fiona, discussing legal terms.
13:30-15:30 Morgan Stanley (They requested to be at the Palo Alto Club, and a private meeting room has been booked)
16:00-17:00 Team debriefing meeting
19:00 PM Sequoia Capital Informal Café (Michael Moritz wants to "chat casually")
Note: Goldman Sachs' Richardson is known for his assertiveness and likes to apply pressure early in negotiations. Morgan Stanley's Winston is more tactful, but his terms are often designed with hidden traps.
I've already had administration prepare all the meeting materials, including financial models for three different valuation scenarios. The legal team is on standby all day today.
Carly
The attachment is a 27-page PDF, detailing the educational background, professional experience, investment cases, and even personal style analysis of each member of the Goldman Sachs negotiation team.
Lingyun quickly skimmed through the information, highlighting several key points: Richardson had served as a joint lead underwriter in Microsoft's IPO and had a personal relationship with Bill Gates; Goldman Sachs' technology team had missed out on early-stage investments in Yahoo and Amazon in the past three years, putting them under significant internal pressure; and one of the vice presidents involved in the negotiations was Chinese, who might be used to play the "family card."
At 7:50, he closed his laptop, put on his suit jacket, and went downstairs.
Carly was already waiting outside the door in the lobby. She was wearing a dark gray suit today, her hair was tied up tighter, and her makeup was exquisite but couldn't hide the fatigue in her eyes.
"Good morning." Ling Yun took the coffee she handed him—black coffee, without sugar or milk.
"Richardson's car has already left." Carly glanced at her watch. "They're coming from downtown San Francisco. If there's no traffic, they'll arrive at 8:40."
"Where's the meeting room?"
"Everything's ready. The projector has been tested three times, the whiteboard has a new pen, the coffee is from Blue Bottle Coffee, and the pastries are from that French bakery in Palo Alto." Carly pressed the car key, and the light flashed twice. "In addition, I've arranged for three assistants to be on standby in the conference room, ready to access data at any time. There's someone on duty in the server room; if real-time data is needed, it can be retrieved within five minutes."
The car drove onto the street.
"Any news from Abu Dhabi?" Ling Yun asked.
"Khalid's team sent over a draft term sheet last night." Carly picked up a tablet from the passenger seat and handed it to Lingyun in the back seat. "They accepted an 8.5 million pre-money valuation and are willing to lead a $5100 million investment, representing a 6% stake post-funding. But they added a few terms."
The screen displays several lines of text highlighted in red:
Additional Terms and Conditions:
1. Right to Information: The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority is entitled to receive a detailed monthly operating report and to hold a quarterly conference call with the CEO.
2. Co-investment right: In subsequent financing rounds, Abu Dhabi has the right to make additional investments in proportion to prevent equity dilution.
3. Co-sale right: If the founders sell their shares, Abu Dhabi has the right to participate in the sale proportionally.
4. Exclusive Middle East Cooperation Rights: Abu Dhabi has priority investment rights and strategic cooperation rights for Xingyu's business expansion in the Middle East and North Africa.
5. Board Observer Seats: Although not formal directors, they have the right to attend all board meetings.
"Information rights and co-investment rights are standard terms." Ling Yun quickly reviewed the list. "Co-sale rights are negotiable, but a threshold needs to be set—for example, only triggered when more than 10% of the shares are sold. The scope of the exclusive cooperation rights in the Middle East needs to be clearly defined so as not to affect our cooperation in other regions."
"What about the board observer seats?"
"You can have it." Ling Yun handed the tablet back. "But observers don't have voting rights, and they need to sign a confidentiality agreement."
"The legal team said there might be a problem with Article 5." Carly pulled up another document. "If other investors also request observer seats, the board meetings will turn into a marketplace. They suggested we set a limit—a maximum of two observer seats, and they can't be from the same country or region."
"That makes sense." Ling Yun looked out the window as the car crossed the boundary of Stanford University's campus. "Reply with that. At the same time, hint that the French National Investment Bank is also actively contacting us; we have many options."
"clear."
The car entered the company parking lot. Time: 8:15 AM.
Several programmers were already at their workstations in the office area, wearing headphones and staring at their screens. When they saw Lingyun and Carly enter, they looked up to acknowledge them, then looked down again to continue working.
The meeting room door was open. On the long conference table, eight folders were neatly arranged, each with a name tag, bottled water, sticky notes, and a pen in front of it. The projector was on, casting a blue beam of light onto a blank screen. The date and a summary of today's agenda were written on the whiteboard.
Carly checked everything and adjusted the angle of one of the folders. "Richardson usually sits with his back to the door, and Winston prefers the window seat, so I arranged the seating according to their preferences."
"You did a very meticulous job," Lingyun said.
"Goldman Sachs might arrive early to create a psychological advantage." Carly glanced at her watch. "Do you want to rest for a bit? I'll call you when they arrive."
"I'm going to the office to take care of some things."
In his private office, Ling Yun closed the door and didn't turn on the lights. Morning light filtered through the blinds, casting stripes of light and shadow on the floor. He sat down at his desk, turned on his computer, but didn't start working immediately.
Memories flooded back like a tide. Not memories of this life, but memories of the previous one.
In his previous life, what was he doing? He was probably working in a state-owned enterprise in Jinan, doing a mundane job, going to get off work and coming home every day, earning a meager salary that wouldn't make him starve but also wouldn't sustain him. Weekends were spent playing cards with colleagues, discussing workplace relationships, and complaining about rising prices while wages remained stagnant. He was also following Silicon Valley then, but separated by the ocean and information barriers, everything seemed distant and unreal. He probably saw the news about the ICQ acquisition in *Computerworld* magazine—a fleeting glance, nothing more.
And now, he sits here, waiting for the top investment banks on Wall Street to come to him for negotiations.
The butterfly's wings were flapping too violently.