Stronger by Paying Salaries and I Have 1 Billion Employees

”Come with me. Let’s hear what Pony thinks first,” Liu Zhiping said, leading the way out.

Lin Chenfeng followed behind him.

Five minutes later, the two of them walked into Ma Wenteng’s office.

”A merger with Meituan? It would certainly raise QQ Group Buy’s profile, but who would run the business? Wang Xin?” Ma Wenteng asked, his brow furrowed as he looked at Liu Zhiping.

The current head of QQ Group Buy was Luoxi, and the team had over a thousand members, including the remnants of the defeated Gaopeng Network and F Team.

This was because QQ Group Buy had absorbed both Gaopeng Network and F Team the previous year.

To put it bluntly, it was a league of losers from the Group Buy Wars.

Backed by Penguin, it couldn’t quite die, but it couldn’t thrive either. It was just limping along, half-dead.

Ma Wenteng had originally wanted to foist QQ Group Buy on Liu Qiangdong, but after securing financing from the OTPP and Saudi Kingdom Capital, Handsome Dong had immediately gone back on his word and torn up their letter of intent.

”Wang Xin isn’t one of our own,” Liu Zhiping replied coolly.

The implication was clear: they could take Meituan, but Wang Xin had to go.

”And you think Wang Xin would agree to that?” Ma Wenteng laughed.

He knew perfectly well that Wang Xin just wanted to leverage Penguin’s mobile traffic resources.

He could dress it up with pretty words, but it couldn’t hide the fact that he was just looking for a sugar daddy.

”Let Chenfeng give it a shot. It’s no loss for the group either way,” Liu Zhiping said nonchalantly.

If Wang Xin didn’t agree, then there was no reason for Penguin to merge with Meituan.

Meituan’s valuation was only around 500 million US dollars, while Kuai Pao was valued at 5.8 billion US dollars. Penguin’s 10.1% stake in Kuai Pao alone was worth nearly 600 million.

For Ma Wenteng and Liu Zhiping, the main strategic value in merging Meituan into QQ Group Buy was simply to inflate its valuation. That would give them more bargaining chips when they eventually tried to sell it off.

That afternoon, when Wang Xin received Lin Chenfeng’s reply, his heart sank into despair.

’Ma Wenteng wasn’t giving him a chance!’

He could easily tell from the tone of Lin Chenfeng’s voice that Penguin had no intention of seriously committing to the Group Buy industry.

’He wanted to use Penguin as a springboard, but Penguin wanted to use him as a stepping stone. They weren’t even willing to spend a single cent.’

’As for his dream of taking charge of QQ Group Buy? Not a chance in hell!’

Facing reality, Wang Xin gave a bitter smile. He had no choice but to brace himself and continue the fight against Kuai Pao, Lashou, and Dianping.

「At the same time.」

Tens of thousands of Kuai Pao Riders across the country slowly began to hear the news that the company had completed its Series B financing.

The first batch of over five thousand deliverymen who had joined Kuai Pao each held between 2,000 and 3,000 stock options.

Riders who had become permanent employees in Q3 and Q4 of the previous year only had about 500 shares each.

Calculated at the current price of 5.8 US dollars per share, the top performers among the first batch of Kuai Pao Riders—some of whom held as many as 6,000 shares—were looking at a profit of over 200,000 Hua Yuan from their options alone.

In just one short year, their value had grown by over a hundred thousand!

The turnover rate for riders at Meituan and Qian Du Delivery began to skyrocket.