As the saying goes, if you are frustrated in love, there is always a place to make up for it.

Citibank's Wade was entrusted by Xiao Qi to acquire LinkedIn, a social networking site focusing on professional categories, but he exhausted all methods.

Citibank's various connections and resources, Wade's own connections and resources, and those of some friends... Anyway, he used everything he could use.

LinkedIn's largest shareholders include three people: PayPal's Reid Hoffman, an investment firm Socialnet and former YAHOO executive Jeff Werner.

At the beginning, Socialnet was the easiest to deal with. After paying a price of 120 million US dollars, 30 shares of Socialnet were given to Xiao Qi. This was compared to the 5 million they invested in 5 years.

In U.S. dollars, that’s a full 24 times the gain.

Hoffmann and Werner were not easy to talk to.

Hoffman, who holds 40% of LinkedIn's shares, gained a large amount of wealth when EBAY acquired PayPal in 2002, and then founded LinkedIn. He is not short of money now.

Werner, another from Yahoo, is also a person who values ​​career more than money. He has not considered selling the 30 shares he holds.

Fortunately, Citibank, known as the most pervasive bank and one of the most famous banks in the world, gathered countless resources and spent a whole month to finally get it through various negotiations and promises, as well as constant communication with Xiao Qi.

, finally gave the LinkedIn acquisition case a rough result.

I have to commend Citibank here. Although they competed with Xiao Qi in the oil bet, they still put in all their efforts when it came to other unrelated entrustments. They are worthy of being called "the world's largest bank".

"Professional Bank".

Hoffman and Werner finally agreed to sell their shares based on Xiao Qi's constant concessions.

Originally, Xiao Qi purchased the shares based on 20 times their operating income of US$10 million last year. For an unlisted company, 20 times the revenue, or a valuation of US$200 million, is already a very generous price.

However, because Xiao Qi was afraid of accidents, he finally raised it to a maximum of 40 times revenue, which was 400 million US dollars for a full acquisition.

Socialnet lost its battle at a price of 40 times revenue and sold 30 of its shares.

But for the remaining two people, Hoffmann and Werner, even if the revenue was increased to 40 times, or even 50 times or 60 times the revenue after emergency communication, they were not impressed.

After realizing that the two of them were not easy to deal with, Xiao Qi began to give in.

Through negotiations through various channels, Wade learned that the two of them really wanted to make LinkedIn a success and did not just want money.

Then Xiao Qi decided to invest no less than 100 million US dollars per year, and directly raised the upper limit to 300 million US dollars at the end. There is no time limit, and it can take any number of years.

In this way, Werner is very satisfied. The annual investment of 300 million US dollars is enough for him to plan carefully and develop LinkedIn even more powerfully.

Hoffman, the largest shareholder, doesn't like listed companies very much because of PayPal's previous acquisition, and he doesn't like the 10 shares they were given after the listing.

Then Xiao Qi simply gave him a promise. If the company's management had not requested an IPO, then he would never let LinkedIn go public for an IPO. LinkedIn would exist as a purely private company.

And Xiao Qi promised that as long as the two of them want to continue working together, their status at LinkedIn will not be changed.

Hoffman was satisfied with this, and finally, together with Werner, sold most of his shares at a valuation of 600 million US dollars, leaving only a symbolic 5.

The reason is actually that LinkedIn is just one of thousands of social networking sites. It is far less eye-catching than the big ones like MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, etc. What is slightly more distinctive is that they have established it for professional groups.

It’s just a concept of various circles of people.

No matter how confident Hoffman and Werner were in LinkedIn's development, they would never have imagined that in six years' time, their company would have a market value of more than 25 billion U.S. dollars and become a giant that cannot be ignored in the social network industry.

Without knowing the future, it was certainly impossible for the two of them to refuse such a sincere acquisition from Xiao Qi.

So, plus the handling fee, the commission to Citibank, and the thank you fee to Wade, Xiao Qi obtained 90% of LinkedIn's shares at a high price of 560 million U.S. dollars. And in the first time, Xiao Qi

Qi invested US$300 million in capital through Citibank.

After the transfer of shares was completed, Xiao Qi also made a guarantee to Hoffman and Werner, that is, within five years, all the funds Xiao Qi invested would not dilute their shares.

In other words, Xiao Qi's capital injection into the entire company reached at least 1.5 billion, plus the 560 million he purchased the shares, the actual value of LinkedIn should be at least 2 billion US dollars, and 5's shares are worth 100 million US dollars. Two

5 people's shares tripled in value out of thin air.

A very critical point is that Xiao Qi said it after the transaction was completed, rather than before the negotiation as a condition of the transaction. This made Hoffman and Werner feel very good, and they felt that Xiao Qi was indeed Xiao Qi.

, as expected, he has a courage that others cannot have.

The two of them felt more at ease and focused on doing a good job in LinkedIn and making it a dazzling presence in the social network.

By the way, Xiao Qi gave Citibank a total of US$58 million in commissions for this transaction, and Wade also received a personal reward of US$2 million.

The two million U.S. dollars are all made of U.S. bearer treasury bonds, with a face value of 5,000 U.S. dollars, which can be put in a large envelope. There is no need to calculate taxes, and there is no need to worry about the tax bureau. When needed, it can be directly circulated in the global market.
Chapter completed!