Wall Street Legend

For others, fixed assets may be a better investment direction.

Gold no longer has anti-inflation properties, and its importance has plummeted. High-end properties in popular areas can resist some inflation, such as New York, London, Paris and other core areas. Housing prices have been rising with currency inflation, and the increase is as high as The yield on treasury bonds is similar and comparable to the stock dividends of established listed companies. The market is already quite mature.

But for Ye Dongqing, he has too many targets for investment. The main goal of trying to build the Cobra Building is purely to satisfy his personal interests, and the second is to use it as a company headquarters to meet office needs.

You can't just make money without spending money. Living like the oil tycoon Mr. Paul Getty has become a joke in the eyes of Americans. Ye Dongqing is living the way he likes and is committed to pursuing what he wants. After all, the Cobra Building is more like a gift he gave to himself to celebrate joining the tens of billions of dollars club, which he achieved at the age of twenty.

Napoleon used the Arc de Triomphe to praise his achievements. Rockefeller Center was closely tied to the Rockefeller family, and he also wanted to have a building of his own so that people would think of his achievements whenever they saw it in the future. For this year's land purchase The negotiation was determined to win. Looking across New York, there was no better land than it.

Mr. Mike Becker doesn’t know this. Even he thinks the total price is too high. In the end, he will probably have to cut the entire land into two or three pieces, and then sell it to others or build apartments by a company he manages. Today In his opinion, the possibility of success in this negotiation is not high. He thinks that Ye Dongqing, like other company bosses, is reluctant to spend so much money to build skyscrapers because the price is too high. It is better to buy the Chrysler Building or the Rockefeller Building directly. One of the buildings in the center is more affordable.

When I heard Ye Dongqing mention the financial management business, I subconsciously thought that this young Chinese tycoon wanted me to reinvest the money I earned from selling land into him. I was a little tempted, but due to risk considerations, I was decisively dismissed. Mr. Becker refused.

Like other older people in their early fifties, Mr. Becker also lacks the spirit of adventure and cannot keep up with the development speed of this era. He thinks that the Internet bubble crisis that occurred in 2000 is enough to explain everything - the Internet industry is not reliable.

This negative impression affected his judgment, so he told Ye Dongqing: I know you can give a very generous rate of return, but our Vornado Real Estate Company still has some debts that have not been paid off. The bank debts are not No matter what the pressing problem is, if you really decide to buy it, I will use the money to pay off the bank loan and use the remaining money for company development.

Tamsui Investment Group really no longer raises funds from outside, unless Ye Dongqing feels it is necessary. After listening to what the other party said, he thought about it for a moment and realized that there might be a misunderstanding. He shook his head and said with a smile: I did buy it. plan, the only thing that bothers me now is the price. I can give up to 1.8 billion US dollars in cash, which can be transferred into your company's account at any time after signing the transfer.

If it doesn't work, then forget it. I'm so straightforward in my business. Maybe I'll consider building the building near the New World Trade Center, or maybe in Midtown near the East River. You should know that this is a very generous offer. This is a full US$80 million higher than the US$7.72 billion that Blackstone Group gave you a few months ago. This is my sincerity.

...It is indeed higher than their quotation, but you may not know that the final quotation given to us by Blackstone Group was US$7.78 billion. Many companies valued our land. Since the shareholders decided not to sell it at that time, For them, an extra 20 million U.S. dollars probably won’t help, and the base price is only 2 billion U.S. dollars.”

I don’t know what Mr. Mike Becker was thinking, but the last sentence was said very simply, and he didn’t even mean to take the initiative to lower the price.

Those who say Americans don’t like counter-offers must have never really lived in the United States. They can counter-offer even when they go to ordinary shopping malls to buy things. When Ye Dongqing went to Boeing to buy an airplane, he reduced their price by a full 10 million U.S. dollars. The cost of decoration is similar to that of other businesses, which also requires constant competition and testing between both parties.

His desire to buy the land is quite strong. It depends on how much the shareholders of Vornado Real Estate Company want to sell the land. From what we know, they only paid 800 million in 1996. US Dollars acquired this land and kept it undeveloped. After the old buildings were demolished last year, there was talk of selling it to the outside world.

After earning one billion U.S. dollars in more than seven years, Ye Dongqing felt that the price was already very good. He took the initiative to mention: But Blackstone Group uses buildings and cash to trade with you, and I use all cash. Two buildings in downtown area It’s not easy to sell the building for cash. Maybe you should ask the other shareholders of your company before making a decision, sir.”

Okay, please wait for me for a moment. I'll go out and make a phone call first. I also want to promote this cooperation, but after all, it's not all my company. Maybe the price can be slightly lowered, but you have to know that 1.8 billion U.S. dollars are definitely not possible.”

Mr. Becker took a vaccination in advance, took the cell phone from the secretary and left the conference room...

Compared with other company leaders, Ye Dongqing's peace of mind is that there are currently no other shareholders, which avoids many disputes over decision-making and rights, and can safely let the company develop in the direction he wants. The ones that had problems some time ago were Apple, Tamsui Investment Group, and Facebook. He has had the final say since their establishment.

Many large companies were not crushed by their competitors in the end, but died in long-term internal strife between you and me. There are countless similar examples. He did not have the leisure to seize power from others, so he never thought about carving it up from the beginning. Giving too much power to others was something you wouldn't do before when you had no money, and now there is no reason to cultivate opponents with your own hands.

Take Vornado Real Estate Company, which is negotiating with him, as an example. Mr. Becker obviously cannot make the decision. There are so many shareholders behind him with different ideas. This will lead to confusion in decision-making. The decision supported by the majority of shareholders may not necessarily be the same. That's right.

Jerry Yang, the founder of Yahoo, regretted to Ye Dongqing more than once. He regretted not acquiring the Google crawler project created by the two juniors. At that time, the two of them only hoped to sell it for a mere US$1 million, while the former CEO of Yahoo directly I refused because I was too blind and arrogant. There was an opportunity for acquisition the year before last, but the negotiation fell apart again, and I just watched a strong competitor develop.

During the negotiation, Jerry Yang originally planned to offer US$4 billion, but unfortunately other shareholders did not agree. After several rounds of financing and dilution of shares in the listing, his voice was no longer high, and he felt marginalized...