Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”Me? Cold feet? Half a year ago, it was Boss Chen who said Cloud Speed couldn’t handle the losses and would only last a few months at most. And what happened? I’ve been gritting my teeth and fighting Liao Wei, but they just get more and more energetic the longer we fight! They just built another intelligent warehouse in Yongcheng this month. What can I do but get cold feet?”

Lai Haisheng shot to his feet and questioned Nie Tengyu pointedly.

”Alright, that’s enough. No need for the veiled insults,” Chen Dejun said coldly, his face grim as he looked at Lai Haisheng.

”Hmph!” Lai Haisheng suppressed his anger, flopped back into his seat with a THUD, and picked up his glass to drink in sullen silence.

The four of them stared at each other, at a complete loss. To put it bluntly, when it came to capital reserves, even the ”Three Passes and One Reach” combined were no match for Cloud Speed.

There was only one way out now: find a way to raise funds.

...

...

”Financing? Zhaoshang, Huake, and Huaxin?”

On the first workday of May, Chen Yansen had just arrived at his office when Gao Weilin knocked and came in.

Gao Weilin nodded with a smile. ”That’s right. Chairman Zheng of the Postal Association made the introduction.”

’Zheng Shengyu?’

Chen Yansen didn’t believe for a second that the man was being so kind.

’It’s most likely because Cloud Speed has been expanding like crazy all over the country recently, spending money like water. Its monthly losses have soared from one or two hundred million to two or three hundred million.’

’Is Zheng Shengyu afraid that Cloud Speed’s capital chain will break, affecting the social security and employment of more than sixty thousand people?’

’Still, if I can build a relationship with Zhaoshang and Huaxin, it would be much easier in the future to buy secondhand planes from Air China and convert them into cargo aircraft, or to apply for an air transport operating license and route permits.’

”It is about time for Cloud Speed to seek financing. You’ll be in charge of coordinating with them.”

Chen Yansen thought for a moment before instructing Gao Weilin.

”Boss, what’s your bottom line?” Gao Weilin pressed.

”15% at most. As for the valuation, the higher the better, of course. Don’t even bother talking if it’s less than 10 billion US dollars,” Chen Yansen replied.

”Okay, I understand.” Gao Weilin nodded, set down a financial report, and turned to leave.

After the office door closed again, Chen Yansen extended a hand, and the Orange Mobile Phone on his desk slowly flew into his palm.

After his Spirit value broke through 44.95, not only had the detection diameter of his Divine Sense expanded to over fourteen meters, but the weight he could ’lift’ had also more than tripled.

”May 1st. Penguin invests 200 million to acquire a 13.5% stake in Yixun Network, increasing its shareholding to 80%. The remaining shares will be held by Yixun Network’s management...”

Chen Yansen shook his head. ’It seems Little Ma has really given up on the idea of running his own e-commerce business and has shifted the group’s strategy for the e-commerce sector to investment.’

’Unfortunately, Yixun Network was simply not capable of fulfilling Ma Wenteng’s e-commerce dream. The 700 million in total that Penguin would invest was destined to go down the drain.’

Chen Yansen remembered very clearly that two years from now, Ma Wenteng would trade Yixun Network, QQ Online Shopping, and Paipai Network, plus 220 million US dollars, for a 15% stake in Jingdong from Handsome Dong on the eve of its IPO.

Liu Qiangdong, for the sake of the top-tier traffic funnels from WeChat and Mobile QQ, had no choice but to tearfully take over the mess.

In reality, he didn’t lose out. After gaining access to Penguin’s traffic, Jingdong’s valuation was able to break 20 billion US dollars on the day of its IPO.

Otherwise, based on Jingdong’s market share and business performance at the time, it would have been very difficult to secure an issue price of 19 US dollars per share.

’Now that Penguin has already given its traffic funnels to Pinbei, it’s hard to say if it will still invest in Jingdong when the time comes.’

Just then, a call came in from Zhou Hongyi.