Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”How much equity is Zhang Yiming willing to give?”

Chen Yansen stood before the floor-to-ceiling window in his office, watching the sky gradually darken as he asked expressionlessly.

Gao Weilin had reminded him last time that after returning to Yanjing, Zhang Yiming had been frequently meeting with several investment firms. Chen Yansen had known what to expect since then.

Chen Yansen understood Zhang Yiming’s little scheme. He was just trying to bring in a few more venture capital firms to dilute the equity, allowing him to secure a large amount of startup capital while still maintaining a controlling stake.

In this respect, Zhang Yiming was far more slick and mature than Zhang Xuhao. He simply agreed to terms with all interested investors, rather than taking the first offer and using it to negotiate a better price with the second.

”Ten percent for two million. Including the other three firms, the total equity released in the seed round is 25%.”

Gao Weilin said with a smile.

In his opinion, the scale of Byte’s fundraising was pitifully small—it didn’t even measure up to Fast Taxi’s.

’Two million for 10% of Byte’s equity?’

Chen Yansen smiled faintly. As long as Senlian Capital continued with follow-on investments, this equity would be worth as much as 40 billion US Dollars in a little over a decade.

’But can Zhang Yiming, who’s now gone down the wrong path, still build a business empire valued at 400 billion US Dollars?’

Often, a single decision can change the course of a person’s entire life.

Even Chen Yansen wasn’t sure.

”Go ahead with the investment. As for whether we do any follow-on funding, we’ll decide when the time comes.”

Chen Yansen replied after a moment’s thought.

In reality, what he was thinking was, ’Instead of waiting for Zhang Yiming to create Toutiao, why don’t I just do it myself?’

To him, content distribution and recommendation algorithms weren’t exactly high-barrier programming technologies.

”Understood, Boss. I’ll take care of it,” Gao Linwei replied.

”Oh, right. I’m going to Yanjing tomorrow, so don’t head back to Xucheng just yet. The day after tomorrow, I’ve arranged a meeting with Liu Zhiping and Cheng Congwu at the Gaode Map headquarters.”

Chen Yansen added, giving Gao Weilin one last instruction before hanging up.

”Alright, I understand.” Gao Weilin nodded. Chen Yansen had mentioned this to him before.

The plan was to invest in or acquire Gaode Map, forming an O2O closed loop with Cloud Speed Express, Kuai Pao Delivery, and Fast Taxi to create a synergy of traffic, data, and capital.

This was a merger and acquisition deal involving billions in capital, so Gao Weilin had to be meticulous. At the thought, he quickly opened the documents he had prepared earlier, planning to review them again to prevent any slip-ups at the meeting in two days.

After finishing his call with Gao Linwei, Chen Yansen took the elevator to the first floor. Once in his car, he sent a text to Song Yuncheng and then started driving in the direction of Xuyuan.

”I’m going to Yanjing on a business trip tomorrow. Remember to bring the clothes I gave you.”

Song Yuncheng was sitting at her desk when she saw the text from Chen Yansen, and a blush couldn’t help but creep onto her cheeks.

”Mm.”

Song Yuncheng didn’t refuse, simply replying with a single word.

「Meanwhile.」

Zhou Hongyi and Lei Yijun’s war of words had moved from Weibo to text messages. Without the public eye and its constraints, their exchanges grew increasingly hostile.

”We’ve been friends for years. Are you really going to throw an old friend under the bus just to break into a new business?” Lei Yijun demanded.

”I already told you, the phone is manufactured by Haier. 360 is just acting as a sales channel; I never intended to compete with Xiaomi. But what about you hiring an army of paid trolls to smear me? How do you explain that?” Zhou Hongyi retorted.

”That was posted by users online. What does it have to do with me? And can you honestly say there’s nothing wrong with the Haier W910’s screen? A 4.5-inch screen with a 1600 mAh battery? Users have to charge it three times a day! If that’s not garbage, what is?” Lei Yijun was brutally blunt, always hitting where it hurt most.

Even though Zhou Hongyi knew Haier had screwed him over, he refused to back down. ”And Xiaomi isn’t garbage? Poor signal, constant crashing and rebooting, and it overheats like crazy! The only reason you sold two million units is because there are too many idiots in the world!”