America's Road to Fame

Chapter 155 Musk's confidant
Musk’s news is indeed very 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, aren't you? I think we need to meet."

Well, William Chen came to Musk's house with Amber Heard.Well, it just so happens that she has been with William Chen these two days. Since she went to Musk's house again, facing the two of them, it is not good for William Chen to always go by himself.

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

But generally speaking, Chen William has been listening to Musk complaining that he has not been going well recently. Tesla’s R&D has encountered difficulties. Just when the subprime mortgage crisis hit, the stock market is now in a mess, and most stock prices have been cut in half. Originally, Tesla expected to go public next year with an IPO, but the current background, it is not a wise thing to do it according to the plan. By then, Tesla’s valuation will not meet Musk’s estimate at all, and even There is a high probability that he will break serve, and in that case his pressure will be even greater.

And Musk’s other company, SpaceX, has been in trouble recently. It failed three consecutive launches, which made the company’s technology questionable.

Most importantly, Musk is out of money.

He has invested the last 6000 million US dollars in these two companies before, which can be said to be desperate, but the reality is often cruel. Musk did not wait for the dawn, but has already fallen into darkness.

So 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, Chen William just spent 40 billion US dollars to acquire the shares of Alibaba in the hands of Yahoo. This is a complete waste in Musk's view. So much money should not be invested in the "grocery market". Grocery Market” on the Internet.Instead, we should invest in businesses that can change the course of mankind, such as new energy vehicles, such as aviation.

So at this moment, Musk has been describing to William Chen the bright future of the two companies, as well as the prospects of mankind. We should not only be satisfied with expanding on this planet, but should have a sense of crisis. Our goal is the stars and the sea... In 2026, he is confident to start sending humans to Mars...

Seeing these performances of Musk, William Chen understood that it was time to make a move:

"Tesla is indeed in a bad situation now. I also think that under 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. I made a lot of people laugh at me for this investment. Of course, those idiots don't know what value investing is, and I don't care what they say, but it's not good for my other investments. I don't want to be regarded as a fat sheep by others."

William Chen didn't notice that when he said this, Musk's expression was a little unnatural, er, what kind of fat sheep is not a fat sheep, how could they think so, I am different, William, we are friends, no Well……

"I invested in Tesla because I valued that it would lead the energy revolution and be the future of the auto industry, but you know, Elon, I invested too much, and I didn'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 investment, but for SpaceX, to be honest, I really don’t know much about it..."

Hearing this, Musk knew there was something going on, and quickly said: "You will like William, who doesn't like big rockets, I can take you to see it another day, it is very spectacular."

Uh, Musk, please don’t be gay, I’m not interested in seeing your big rocket, I’ll leave it to Talulah to talk about it.

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, William Chen said that he invested too much and didn't have the energy to pay attention to Tesla and SpaceX?Isn't that what he wanted?It's great that you pay and I run the company.

Since Tesla and SpaceX are not currently listed, the valuation is based on various valuation methods, plus the negotiation of two people, of course, it cannot damage the interests of other investors too much.

It is finally determined that William Chen will invest another US$3 million in Tesla, increasing his stake in Tesla to 35%; in addition, at a post-investment valuation of US$6 million, he will invest US$2 million to hold SpaceX. 33% stake.

William Chen will own the corresponding directorships of the two companies according to the share of the shares he holds, but he has reached an agreement with Musk, and will still follow the previous agreement. For his own business proposal, the voting rights of the shares in William Chen's hands , will give up the right to oppose, and only retain the support and abstention.

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

With his investment of 5 million US dollars, the two companies can continue to support for a long time, and he has temporarily given up on the idea of ​​an IPO for Tesla in the near future, and plans to wait until the crisis passes and the stock market recovers before launching the IPO .

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

"Your body is really special, Ember."

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

"I think, you may have misidentified the person, Mr. Iron Man, it shouldn't be, I am your assistant—Little Pepper."

Ember... Uh, it's Pepper, he said to William Chen with a serious face.

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

Under the short skirt, there are slender black silk legs. Stepping on slender high-heeled shoes, Ember walked up to Chen William, watched his throat move slightly, raised his head and said:
"After a day of 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 and met Rick Walton here.

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

"We have acquired the Groupon project and spent 4000 million US dollars. To be precise, we have become their controlling party. Zoom now holds 80% of Groupon's shares, and the rest is reserved for the founders of this team. people."

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

"Yeah, it's a good deal, and we're going to have a lot of money with Groupon."

William Chen said with a smile.

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

"After all, we didn't aim to make 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 base on the actual situation. Constantly adjusting the process, it is also convenient to bring Zoom on the right track as soon as possible.”

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

For William Chen, this is not much different. Anyway, in California, it can be regarded as his territory, and the Delray 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 timing is very beneficial to us, isn't it? Under the economic crisis, not only are there more unemployed engineers in Silicon Valley who can choose, but also the cost of our warehousing system has dropped a lot. Even the delivery staff, because of The higher the unemployment rate, the easier it is to hire."

"Indeed, William, I will negotiate with the California government next time to try to get the best conditions, as well as preferential treatment. We can provide more investment and employment, which is what they dream of."

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

"I think it is necessary, but in the early stage, an additional US$1 million in capital is enough for the time being. You know, this kind of asset-heavy project is still very expensive."

"But it is not difficult for us, and in this way we can have enough barriers to latecomers. I brought 1 million US dollars, 5000 million of which is to return your last loan."

At the time of the initial capital injection, because William Chen was short of funds, Rick Walton temporarily provided half of his funds for him. Therefore, this time, William Chen directly injected 1 million US dollars. That's it.

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

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

Uh, Rick Walton hesitated to speak, forget it, as long as you are happy.

(End of this chapter)