“Mr. Huang, are you intending to use these servers to invest in Google?” Larry Page looked at Huang He with some caution.
Unlike others in America who didn't place much importance on equity, often leaving founders with only a few percentage points after creating a company, Larry Page was someone who highly valued his own shares.
Even now, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin still held 60% of Google's shares. For a company that had been operating for three years and valued itself at $5 billion, it was rare for the two founders to still possess such a large stake.
Take Jerry Yang, for example. After two rounds of financing, his stake in Yahoo was only 10%. After going public, it had dropped to a mere 6%.
Steve Jobs was in a similar situation; Jobs currently didn't even hold any shares in Apple.
Therefore, when Larry Page heard Huang He's words, he wasn't surprised but rather became somewhat wary.
“Mr. Page, you've misunderstood my intention!” Huang He chuckled. “I don't mean to exchange servers for shares. Instead, you can pay half the server costs now, and the remaining half can be paid a year later, giving you a year's buffer.”
“I see!” Larry Page nodded. This condition was acceptable to him.
“However, is a single batch of servers truly enough?” Huang He glanced at Larry Page and then continued, “Frankly speaking, Google still needs a significant amount of funding. Otherwise, it will be difficult for you to manage after leaving Yahoo.”
“As expected, Huang He is still eyeing my shares!” Larry Page sighed. But what Huang He said was true; without more funding, Google would struggle to sustain itself.
“Mr. Huang, if you insist on investing, I can agree, but it must be calculated at $50 million per 1% of shares, and I will only offer you a maximum of 20% of my shares for financing!” Larry Page stated.
In fact, before approaching Huang He, Larry Page had been desperately seeking funds. The only way to obtain funds was to sell his and Sergey Brin’s Google shares.
Indeed, several investors had expressed interest. However, Larry Page held firm, insisting on selling shares at a valuation of $5 billion, meaning $50 million per 1% of shares, as this was the price he had quoted to Yahoo.
But investors shook their heads, stating that Google was simply not worth that price.
More importantly, Larry Page sought this investment to leave Yahoo and develop independently. However, in the investors' view, leaving Yahoo was a death wish, and Google would collapse, making it even more unlikely for them to invest.
Therefore, Larry Page couldn't find any investment primarily because his asking price was too high.
“No, no, no!” Huang He shook his head. “Mr. Page, you misunderstand my meaning. While I greatly admire Google, our Jiangnan Group doesn't have that much capital to invest in Google. We still have a debt of one billion US dollars. However, I can introduce you to an investment company that has a large sum of funds available for investing in your company!”
“Oh!” Larry Page’s eyes lit up. Compared to an investment from someone like Huang He, Larry Page naturally preferred funds from a professional investment company. This meant that even if they acquired a significant stake, they wouldn't interfere with his company operations.
However, Larry Page had already approached many investment companies, but almost all of them found the $5 billion valuation to be too steep, so no investment company was willing to invest.
Would the company introduced by Huang He truly be willing to invest?
Larry Page was filled with doubt, but he still agreed to Huang He's request. That afternoon, at a high-end restaurant, Larry Page met with Little Swift.
“Mr. Little Swift, it’s you!” Larry Page looked at him with some surprise. “Didn’t you refuse to invest in our Google company?”
Larry Page had indeed approached Little Swift about two months ago, but at the time, Little Swift had refused him, and there had been no further contact.
So, when he saw Little Swift again, Larry Page couldn't help but ask with confusion.
“I apologize, Mr. Page. At the time, I rejected you mainly because I didn't understand this industry well. However, today I had a two-hour conversation with Mr. Huang, and he highly recommended your company, saying your company will become a leader in the internet industry. I won't regret investing in Google now.”
“So, I came!” Little Swift said with a smile.
“Do you trust Mr. Huang that much?” Larry Page asked in surprise.
Well, although the relationship between Western Mustang Company and Huang He was not as secretly hidden as American Priority, detailed investigation would generally reveal the connection between Western Mustang and Huang He.
However, Larry Page at this moment had never considered going to great lengths to investigate Western Mustang Company, so he naturally didn't know about the relationship between Western Mustang Company and Huang He. He simply thought Little Swift had come at Huang He's suggestion.
“Actually, investing in Apple back then was also at Mr. Huang's suggestion, so I trust his advice!” Little Swift smiled.
In fact, Little Swift's refusal of Larry Page at the time was in adherence to Huang He's action plan of only investing in Apple. Now that Huang He had proposed new requirements, he naturally followed them unswervingly.
“I see!” Larry Page gave Huang He a grateful look, then said, “Then, Mr. Huang must have told you everything about our situation. What are your thoughts?”
“Of course, I have no objections!” Little Swift smiled faintly. “Since Mr. Huang approves of this price, we will proceed at $50 million per 1% share. Our Western Mustang Company can invest 20% of Google’s shares!”
“Whew!” Hearing this, Larry Page breathed a long sigh of relief. With this, all the company's problems were solved, and he could finally rest assured. Heaven knew how Larry Page had spent the past two weeks, living in nightmares and anxiety every moment.
“However, I do have a small condition!” Little Swift suddenly said.
“What condition?” Larry Page’s heart tightened again. Wouldn’t this guy propose an excessive condition?
“It’s very simple. First, since Google will have my $1 billion in funding, it’s no longer appropriate to delay payment. These servers should be paid for in full!” Little Swift stated.
“That’s natural!” Larry Page nodded vigorously. He now had $1 billion in funds, so paying in full was a trivial matter.
“Also, I believe that purchasing such a small amount of servers is insufficient for Google’s development. Therefore, I personally feel that Google can purchase $300 million worth of servers in one go!” Little Swift said.
“$300 million!” Larry Page was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly said, “That doesn’t seem appropriate. We currently need at most $100 million worth of servers, and Jiangnan Group’s servers are so cheap that they’ll be sufficient for us for several years. We really don’t need to procure so many servers!”
“I know! I won’t let you suffer a loss!” Little Swift smiled and then patted Larry Page on the shoulder. “How about this, I’ll purchase these 20% shares for $1.2 billion. That gives you the extra $200 million, doesn’t it?”
“……” Larry Page was completely dumbfounded again. There was such a way to do things?
However, this young man was smart. Seeing the smiles on both Huang He and Little Swift’s faces, Larry Page instantly understood their plan.
To put it bluntly, these two intended to collude and embezzle the funds controlled by Western Mustang Company from investors.
Currently, Western Mustang Company held a massive $8 billion in funds, but in reality, most of these funds belonged to investors.
Oh, wait. With Apple stock soaring to $22 per share, this $8 billion in funds had doubled to a staggering $16 billion.
However, this $16 billion in funds still belonged to investors. Western Mustang Company could at most earn a few hundred million dollars in transaction fees.
It’s worth noting that the total actual investment capital was only around $2 billion. Through less than a year of operation, Little Swift had turned this $2 billion into $16 billion, achieving a legendary feat in the industry.
As the actual investor, would Little Swift be very happy?
No, Little Swift was likely extremely frustrated. Because he had turned $2 billion into $16 billion, yet the company could only earn a few hundred million dollars in transaction fees.
What was even more fatal was that this was money earned by the company, not by Little Swift. Even if Little Swift could receive dividends according to the profit-sharing agreement, his earnings would likely be only tens of millions of dollars.
Tens of millions of dollars would undoubtedly be a huge sum for an ordinary person, but for someone like Little Swift, who controlled $16 billion in funds, it was increasingly unbearable.
Therefore, Little Swift would inevitably seek ways to extract money. The best, most discreet, and almost undetectable method was the current approach.
Little Swift would purchase Google shares at a price higher than the agreed-upon $50 million per 1% share, but this extra amount would all be used to purchase servers. This extra money would effectively be transferred to Huang He.
And given the relationship between Huang He and Little Swift, most of the extra money from this order would likely fall into Little Swift's personal account through various discreet means. This would allow Little Swift to complete a cycle of wealth transfer, earning at least a hundred million dollars in dividends from this additional transaction, while Huang He would also earn an intermediary fee.
At the same time, since it was a legal share purchase, and for unlisted companies like Google, there was no specific market price to reference. It all depended on the negotiation between the parties. Therefore, no one could point fingers at the price of $60 million per 1% share.
As for the server procurement, there would be even fewer issues, as it was based on the publicly available prices of Jiangnan Group. The market prices would be the same, so there would naturally be no ulterior motives involved.
Moreover, even if this plan were discovered in the future, there would be no problem.
Firstly, there was no evidence of this plan, making it impossible to sanction them legally.
As for the public and the company's owners, they wouldn't care even if they found out.
After all, they had made a profit of 14 billion. What was wrong with Little Swift taking two hundred million from it? Could they really use this as an excuse to drive him away?
Would they drive away a financial genius who could earn them $14 billion a year?
No one was foolish, so everyone would pretend not to know about this matter. This was a perfect plan with no repercussions.