Chapter 92: SoftBank

The discussion at Tenda went on until dawn that day. They were not discussing it the whole time, either; many people had already begun trying to arrange financing. But in this world, the easiest thing was also the hardest thing: raising money.

At times, a flood of people would rush forward, eager to hand you their money. Yet when you truly needed it, finding capital became maddeningly difficult. And now that QQ had run into such a huge problem, getting money was even harder.

“In fact, I do have an idea. We might be able to get funding from him,” said the little boss Ma, who had been silent all along.

“From whom?” Everyone looked over curiously. Ma himself seemed a little hesitant at the name. After thinking for a moment, he still shook his head. “Forget it. Let’s not talk about that person.”

The others grew even more curious about his attitude and kept pressing him, until Ma could only say helplessly, “I’m not talking about anyone else. I mean Huang He!”

“Huang He? He’d love nothing more than to destroy us. How could he possibly invest in us?” everyone exclaimed.

“How could that be? Huang He tried to buy into QQ and failed, which is why he went on to found OO. He has always had his eye on QQ. And let alone the fact that our market share and user base are still several times larger than OO’s. If there were a chance to buy in and invest in us, Huang He would absolutely not refuse it,” Ma said with great confidence. And the truth was just that: if Ma took the initiative to ask, Boss Huang would surely rush over with money at once.

“How could he be that kind? Isn’t he afraid QQ will one day crush OO?” Li Dan still did not believe it.

“That is precisely why he would not make a small investment. He would surely come in with a massive sum, aiming for more than fifty-one percent of the shares, taking control of Tenda. After that, he could merge QQ and OO. Then there would be no need to worry about who defeats whom. He would be the ultimate winner,” Ma continued.

The room fell silent.

Yes. If that were the case, Huang He would indeed throw huge amounts of money at QQ. He would never let this opportunity slip.

And the plan would benefit them too. Each of them held some amount of Tenda stock. If Huang He spent heavily to acquire it, then the shares in their hands would turn into a very substantial pile of cash. After that, they could leave Tenda outright and never again have to endure Huang He’s arrogance. Wouldn’t that be wonderful?

Of course, as Lu Su once said, surrendering to Cao Cao might be fine for others, but for Sun Quan, or for little boss Ma, it was absolutely impossible.

With the enmity between Ma and Huang He, and with Huang He’s own abilities, if Huang He came in, Ma would surely be forced out. So after only the briefest flicker of temptation, Ma immediately rejected the idea. Unless he had no other choice, he would never commit such suicidal folly.

At this point, these people were being rather small-minded, judging a gentleman’s heart by a petty man’s measure. Was our Boss Huang really that kind of person?

Even if our Boss Huang bought one hundred percent of Tenda’s shares, he would absolutely not drive little boss Ma away. On the contrary, he would hand Ma every authority and let him continue steering Tenda just as he had in history. Boss Huang would be more than happy to sit back and do nothing. Wouldn’t that be splendid?

It was a pity that little boss Ma still lacked enough generosity, and so he could only miss the second chance that might have changed his life.

“Chairman, I actually heard some information. I don’t know whether it might be useful,” one person suddenly said.

“What is it?” Ma immediately looked over and found that the speaker was someone who usually rarely said much.

“It’s like this. SoftBank Capital of Japan—its chairman, Masayoshi Son—seems to be in Hangzhou right now, discussing investment with a company,” the man said. “SoftBank Capital’s assets are already over five billion dollars. If we could get SoftBank to invest in us, then everything would be solved.”

“SoftBank Capital? I think I’ve heard that name before,” Ma said thoughtfully. “But would Masayoshi Son be willing to invest in us?”

“I’m not sure about that. I only heard this much,” the man said with an awkward smile.

“Very possible,” Li Dan said. “Chairman, I know about SoftBank Capital. Its full name is Software Bank Group, and its chairman, Masayoshi Son, is a Korean born in Japan and raised in America. They say that when he invests, he usually does not care about a company’s exact performance or financial reports. He only looks at the industry’s prospects and the person in charge. They say that as long as he takes a liking to you, he will invest even if the results are terrible and the losses are huge.”

“So he just does things by instinct? And someone like that can still succeed?” Ma asked in surprise.

“Quite the opposite. He has many classic investment cases. The most famous one was when he invested in Yahoo and Cisco just after Yahoo was founded. And here in our own country, the most famous example is Shanda. He invested in Chen Qiao and has already made at least ten times his money back,” Li Dan said.

“I see,” Ma nodded, then said, “In that case, I’ll make a personal trip to Hangzhou. I must find a way to meet Mr. Masayoshi Son and secure his investment. I just don’t know whether he would be willing to see me.”

“If the chairman goes in sincerity, Mr. Son certainly will not refuse,” everyone laughed.

“Mm. By the way, you just said Masayoshi Son was going to Hangzhou to invest in another company. Which company is it? What’s its name?” Ma asked curiously.

“Oh, I think the company is called Alibaba. The boss has the same surname as you, Chairman. His name is Old Brother Ma!” the subordinate said.

“Old Brother Ma? That sounds very old. Is he already in his forties or fifties?” Ma asked with a smile.

“Mm, he does look pretty old.”

—

“Brother-in-law, did you come to Hangzhou specially to see me?” Cold Zhiruo asked delightedly after picking Huang He up from the airport.

“Of course!” Huang He nodded emphatically. “Zhiruo, you’ve worked hard lately. I heard you ran to ten cities in just one month, and you’ve tanned quite a bit. Since you’re here in Hangzhou, of course I had to come see you.”

“Thank you, brother-in-law!” Cold Zhiruo said happily.

“Oh, right. The office address for those Forty Thieves I asked you to find—did you find it?” Huang He asked casually.

“I asked a lot of people before I finally found it. But that company really does not look like a proper business at all. Their office address is crammed into a tiny studio apartment. The property manager even said that once, during a police sweep, they were beaten up because people thought they were running a pyramid scheme there. It took a lot of effort before the misunderstanding was finally explained!” Cold Zhiruo said, as though telling a joke.

[Note: Masayoshi Son invested in Alibaba in 2000; in this world, it was delayed until 2001, since this is a different world after all.]