Chapter 403: All Ready for the East Wind (Two in One)

On August 27, the seventh day after Fang Zhuo arrived in Beijing from Shanghai, the ministry received an accurate notice that the Ice Core Project will be officially listed as a key project. At the same time, a number of supporting policies will be implemented at the signing ceremony five days later.

That is, on September 1, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will hold a semiconductor industry analysis symposium and a signing ceremony between the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and CSMC.

At that time, the leaders of the ministry and the two directors of the Electronics Department and the Industrial Policy Department will attend and accept interviews from relevant media.

This made Fang Zhuo very excited.

He received a phone call from the leader's secretary on the way to Sina headquarters. In a good mood, he also asked one more question: "Can Sina also interview? Can I post news on the website?"

The secretary was startled when he heard this, and said embarrassedly: "This..."

"It's okay, it's okay, I just ask out of habit, after all, I am also responsible for Sina." Fang Zhuo estimated that the occasion was indeed not appropriate, and hurriedly said in an understanding manner.

The secretary breathed a sigh of relief, and one less trouble.

Fang Zhuo thanked him again and ended the call.

Liang Mu, who continued to act as a secretary in the co-pilot seat, turned his head and asked, "Mr. Fang, is it settled?"

"There will be a meeting on the 1st of next month." Fang Zhuo shared his joy, "This thing is done."

Liang Mu was also very happy to hear this. Influenced by his boss's recent experience, his first reaction was to think of money: "With this, DCM's money will definitely come in!"

"Indeed, DCM is almost certain. IDG is not sure how much it will invest in the end, but social funds have already entered 30 million. Lao Xiong must at least match 1:1, which means 60 million at least." Fang Zhuo made a brief calculation, "Luzhou Guotou is certain. In this way, the progress of the first round of financing has exceeded half, and it depends on the attitude of Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs after this trip back."

"They have no reason not to move forward." Liang Mu said.

"With DCM and IDG, even if Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank do not come in, it will be easy for us to find other companies with the current framework." Fang Zhuo said leisurely, "It's not easy."

Liang Mu nodded deeply, it was indeed not easy.

From what he knew, Mr. Fang was very good at maneuvering. He first found three guests to invite DCM to the venue, and then let the guest IDG come in reluctantly. Finally, with these two generals as the foundation, they could offset the initiative of Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank to a certain extent.

This is not counting the work done before contacting investment institutions.

If it was not semiconductors, but Mr. Fang's Internet, why would it be so difficult.

Liang Mu thought about it and sighed even more: "Mr. Fang, it's really not easy to do semiconductors. This is only the first round of fundraising."

Fang Zhuo said optimistically: "It's easier to do things after getting the money. This is a good start. Everyone is very cooperative."

Everyone is very cooperative... Well, it really takes tricks to make everyone cooperate.

Liang Mu's emotion suddenly faded a little, and he asked Changhong again. According to Mr. Fang's consideration, this is related to the market competition after the production line is built: "Does Mr. Ni want to put it on hold for the time being?"

Originally, Liang Mu believed Mr. Fang's analysis of Ni Runfeng last time, but after returning, he thought about it silently and realized that the boss still had a more sharp means of public opinion. According to Mr. Fang's style, Ni Runfeng might not know that his weakness has been grasped by Mr. Fang, who has only met twice.

"Changhong's affairs should be slow, I am just a spectator." Fang Zhuo smiled, "Mr. Ni still has a card in his hand, let him play it, and see how the situation will evolve."

"Mr. Ni can't solve the APEX refund, so what effective means can he have?" Liang Mu discussed.

Fang Zhuo hesitated for a moment and said, "In fact, there is no need to underestimate Mr. Ni. The information about APEX's external threat was obtained because I have an industry in New York, so it was relatively convenient for me to know the situation. If it were someone in China, it would probably take some effort."

"The fact that Mr. Ni's daughter worked at APEX was concealed. Listed companies like Changhong have many financial whitewashing methods."

"In Changhong's annual reports last year and the year before, there were one-year accounts receivable that were not accrued. This is a way to turn a loss into a profit for the company. If Mr. Ni sees that things are not going well, he can still continue to explain Changhong's financial statements."

"His biggest problem is that if the power in his hands is quickly taken away, Changhong's financial situation may be revealed in another way. Losing 1 billion and losing 3 billion or 4 billion are completely different things."

In layman's terms, accruing bad debts means that someone outside owes you money, and you accrue it if you don't want it, and it is shown as a loss, but if this person returns the money to you one day, it will become current profit again.

When Ni Runfeng is in power, he can make Changhong not make provisions and continue to urge APEX to pay back the money. However, once he is no longer in office, the next person to take over may directly make provisions for the arrears, which will immediately become a large-scale bad debt.

Is it good for Changhong to make the account loss?

No.

But this can quickly consolidate the position of the newcomer and eliminate Ni Runfeng's influence in Changhong. After all, he is a person in power for nearly 20 years.

In 2000, Ni Runfeng stepped down briefly, but soon took charge of Changhong again. His connections and power in Sichuan Province are still quite strong.

Only by making the account loss astonishing can Ni Runfeng's social influence, corporate influence and administrative influence be completely crushed. Once this is done, Changhong's book loss may immediately become a real loss.

Liang Mu understood what the boss meant, and also understood the judgment behind it.

He suddenly had a feeling that Changhong's current predicament was like a whale in the sea being cut, and the smell of blood had attracted many predators to swim around, looking for an opportunity to bite.

And this group of predators had not yet realized that the other shark, who had long been accustomed to hunting, had quietly approached after collecting various information, silently watching the situation in this sea area.

Liang Mu took a breath, looked at the smiling boss, and said: "Mr. Ni's selfishness is indeed too heavy."

Fang Zhuo shrugged: "Anyway, his acquisition purpose has not been achieved. Wait, Mr. Ni will realize that the predicament he faces is much greater than he imagined."

Liang Mu's throat slid, nodded, and listened to the boss continue to talk about the department's policies with great interest.

In the eyes of the boss, Changhong's predicament is just an opportunity to try, but for Ni Runfeng, it may become a straw that he has to grasp.

Soon, the Audi car slowly stopped.

Before getting off the car, Fang Zhuo smiled and said, "When we get back to Shanghai, I'll ask the company to buy an Audi. I'm a little embarrassed to drive Xiao Yu's car every day."

"Mr. Fang doesn't drive Ferrari very often." Liang Mu put aside his thoughts and judgments about Changhong and returned to his current duties.

"It's a bit ostentatious, but it's okay to drive it to the track." Fang Zhuo said honestly, "I'm getting more and more used to riding in a car, and I have time to think. In fact, Ferrari is a good pastime in life, but I can't separate work and life now."

Liang Mu deeply agreed. Since he joined Yike, others have holidays, but he has never seen Mr. Fang take a break.

The driver went to park the car, and Fang Zhuo took Liang Mu to the Sina conference room in a relaxed mood.

Because the news from the department had to wait, Ni Runfeng remained reserved. He has been dealing with Sina's work these days.

Sina is under the control of President Wang Yan, and everything is doing well. The wireless business is steadily moving forward, and the news content remains strong, but there is also a business about email that is a bit hesitant recently.

While Fang Zhuo helped make the decision to "increase competition in the email market", he also dealt with a more important matter.

A long time ago, Fang Zhuo and Wang Yan said that they would use the rise in Sina's stock price to do some related things. One is to completely clean up the original directors and let them leave with the rising stock price. The second is to use the high stock price to raise funds through a private placement.

In Fang Zhuo's opinion, Sina's stock price has almost reached its recent high point, which is just right for raising funds. As for what the funds are used for... Anyway, just raise the money first.

At ten o'clock in the morning, Fang Zhuo presided over a long-awaited meeting of Sina's executives and decided on two things.

"The email market must compete, not just compete, but compete vigorously."

"We can't learn from 263 Mailbox in this regard. Their charging route is not feasible. They will only eat up more and more market share and then die. We must learn from NetEase."

"Also, reducing the space of email is a wrong decision. We will not look forward to this. The most important task now is to attract more users."

The development of email in China has fluctuated. The competition between free and paid services has become increasingly fierce in the past two years. The industry has been exploring its profit model.

In 2001, Sina and NetEase both charged part of the fee. Sina also reduced the free space of 50M to 5M, which really caused dissatisfaction among many users. However, the background at that time was that portal websites were doing their best to make the company profitable to stimulate stock prices. The current situation is no longer the same.

Last year, 263, a free mailbox with more than 20 million users, suddenly announced the full implementation of paid mailboxes. It took only two months to reduce the number of users to 590,000.

While NetEase continued to charge part of the fee, it also continued to provide free mailboxes with 25M space.

As of today, NetEase Mailbox has the highest market share, which is close to 40%, and has a huge user base.

Even so...

"Mr. Fang, Mailbox doesn't make money. NetEase has so many users, but it can't be reflected in the financial report." A vice president raised a small objection.

In recent years, Mailbox has not found an effective way to make money. The market competition is often subconscious-you make Mailbox, although I don't know what it is for, so I will do it too.

Such a subconscious style brings about a lack of subjective initiative. NetEase is the most proactive, while other companies are only interested in following.

Now, Fang Zhuo emphasizes improving the level of Mailbox business. Not to mention getting the first place, at least we have to be the second.

"It is impossible for every business to make money. It is still relatively easy to acquire users for Mailbox. NetEase started to provide 50M free space, so we will provide 100M. NetEase also charges for some, so we will be free for all." Fang Zhuo said, "We should treat Mailbox as a traffic entrance."

At present, there is not much concept of traffic entrance, because as long as you open a mouth, the traffic will come by itself.

Wang Yan asked: "Entrance, where does this entrance lead to? You can browse our website without logging in."

Fang Zhuo first talked about the market position: "NetEase's stock price has surpassed ours. Can you fight for it? If you can't beat them in stock price, you can find a field where you can beat them."

"Mr. Wang asked me where the traffic is directed. What if our future games are better than NetEase's? Wouldn't this email have a direction?"

There was a chuckle in the conference room. Mr. Fang's example was quite funny. NetEase's games were too successful. Only Shanda was equally good in China. At present, Sina did not have the genes for games.

"I emphasize again, aim for the second place, and it would be best if we can be the first place." Fang Zhuo expressed his attitude again and named the director in charge of the email business.

Then, he, the chairman, personally informed: "Today, we have to announce another decision. Our board of directors has passed the vote to issue 10% of additional shares and add 3 million shares. We will raise no more than 150 million US dollars to consolidate the wireless market, develop the email business and develop the game market."

There was a slight commotion in the conference room.

There is no problem with the private placement. It may have a small impact on the stock price. But combined with what Mr. Fang said before, this "used to consolidate the wireless market, develop the email business and develop the game market"...

The email business and traffic entrance just mentioned are serious!

Fang Zhuo observed the expressions of the executives and smiled: "Of course, if this money cannot be used up, I don't mind letting Sina invest in my semiconductors."

There was laughter in the conference room again.

Fang Zhuo took a sip of tea. Actually, this was really a last resort.

If the first round of financing was short of a little money, the additional issuance money would be invested once it was in hand. However, it would indeed affect Sina's stock price. If it was not necessary, it would be better to keep the money in Sina.

The private placement was decided by the board of directors, and the board of directors was in Fang Zhuo's hands, so the notice was really a notice.

After Fang Zhuo finished the notice, he talked a little about the new bonus plan and the booming blog China in the current market. After listening to everyone's opinions, he decided to set up a department with similar business.

This blog business department will not start for the time being, first design a framework and development plan, and then enter the market to compete with blog China when the market matures.

At the same time, this business will also be tied to email users as a traffic operation area.

Sina's email + portal comments + game business + blog business will be deeply linked. This is the design and planning from Chairman Fang Zhuo.

Now, the development of the three parts of email, game business and blog business is missing.

It can be said that the east wind is ready, and only the other things are missing.

Of course, blueprint drawing is a skill that senior management should have. Fang Zhuo has always been excellent in this regard. Putting business linkage and industry development together is a high-level view in the eyes of management.

According to Fang Zhuo, the additional money will be in hand soon, and there are plenty of bonuses. It depends on whether you have the ability to take it.

The atmosphere in Sina's conference room became more and more enthusiastic. Everyone wanted President Wang Yan to stand up and resign on the spot, so that Chairman Fang Zhuo could lead everyone to rush for money again.

The period when Chairman Fang Zhuo served as the president of Sina Hotline was the time when Sina's corporate culture was the most distinctive. Performance was assessed weekly, money was distributed in person, and talents dared to be employed.

This is also a scene that is now missed in Sina. Many old employees have to describe the short sweetness to newcomers in vivid detail.