Chapter 101 Shrewdness

The meeting was arranged in San Francisco, which is very close to Silicon Valley.

Su Yehao personally drove his limited-edition Mercedes sports car. The short one-hour drive quickly brought him to downtown San Francisco.

When Jiang Yu got out of the car, she supported her lower back with both hands, saying in a pained tone,

"In the future, even if I'm beaten to death, I don't want to ride in a sports car for more than half an hour. It's nothing compared to my 911. I suspect these designers didn't consider comfort at all when they built these cars."

"No need to suspect, they really didn't consider it. I heard that Germany has highways with no speed limits, and these cars are only suitable for driving on those roads. But if the speed is too fast, an accident means death or serious injury, which is almost like driving with your life on the line. I guess I won't have the chance to experience it, unless someone is willing to close the road for me. I might as well go to a professional racetrack to have some fun."

Su Yehao casually tossed the car keys to the bodyguard, buttoned his suit jacket, and walked towards the building where Goldman Sachs' San Francisco branch was located.

The building's address was 555 California Street, close to St. Mary's Square. A few blocks away was the bustling Union Square. Before coming, he had promised Jiang Yu that after discussing business, he would accompany her shopping.

In reality, shopping malls around the world are more or less the same. He really didn't understand what there was to shop for, and it was difficult to experience the joy of shopping anymore.

Shopping was boring, but acquiring high-quality stocks like Apple was quite exciting to him.

Even if this life was affected, and the butterfly effect influenced Apple's development, Apple's talent base, research and development management capabilities, and existing operating system were still there. As long as he became a shareholder and guided them appropriately, Su Yehao wasn't worried that his next investment would fail.

Jiang Yu took his arm and walked upstairs, whispering, "The seller is so mysterious. Could we be meeting a con artist? Why do they want to keep it a secret and not tell you their identity?"

"The actions of major shareholders involve too much and can easily cause violent fluctuations in the secondary market. Investment banks like Goldman Sachs can ensure that many unnecessary risks are reduced before the transaction is truly completed. If I don't want to reveal my identity, as the buyer, I will also be kept secret from the seller. It's nothing big. I guess the seller really wants to sell, and I'm indeed willing to buy, so they quickly arranged today's meeting. If the price is right, I won't delay."

Su Yehao felt that Apple's stock price could still fall a little further.

However, Goldman Sachs also said that the potential seller was one of Apple's top ten shareholders, which meant there was an opportunity to acquire a large number of shares in one go.

If the stock price were to fall a little further, the seller might change their mind and choose to keep the lower-risk, low-priced stock in their hands and wait for it to appreciate.

The acquisition of Netflix and PayPal was the same. If the market was basically determined to have reached the bottom, they might not be willing to sell at a low price. Being at the bottom meant there was a high probability of a market rebound. Each stock price drop equaled releasing risk. In the process of asset devaluation, it was easier to gain enough chips.

Acquiring enough shares in an established listed company was never an easy task. Therefore, there was no need to dwell too much on whether it had already fallen to the bottom. As long as the cost performance was good, and the development prospects were clear enough, one should decisively choose to take action, even if it was known that there was a high probability that it would continue to fall in the short term.

After listening, Jiang Yu reminded him, "There are other factors, right? Goldman Sachs, as an intermediary, certainly wants to ensure its own interests. If both the buyer and seller know each other's identities, they can bypass Goldman Sachs and complete the transaction. How would they earn a commission?"

Su Yehao didn't know whether to laugh or cry. He reached out and tapped her head, explaining, "Do you think the people at Goldman Sachs are fools? They already signed a contract with me, okay? These investment banks are smarter than anyone else. Their legal teams are full of cunning old foxes. How could they leave an opportunity for people to exploit?"

"That's true..."

They were led into the meeting room by a senior partner of Goldman Sachs, who was very polite.

When Su Yehao saw two Middle Eastern men with white cloths on their heads, he was stunned. He immediately thought of Saudi Kingdom Holding, a major Apple shareholder with ties to the white-robed tycoons.

Those who dig for oil are indeed rich, and if they also know how to finance and make money, they are even more powerful.

Nowadays, the chairman of Saudi Kingdom Holding has been doing well in business in recent years, relying on his wealth and investing in Citibank, Four Seasons Hotels, Motorola, Amazon, eBay, and so on.

Su Yehao's ranking on the Forbes list had risen, surpassing several descendants of the Walton family, the founders of Walmart, but he was still more than a billion dollars behind that prince of Kingdom Holding.

Before coming.

He had people investigate the news of Apple's top ten shareholders. Kingdom Holding holds 10.2% of Apple's shares, of which 5% was purchased in 1997 for more than 110 million US dollars. They increased their holdings in ninety-eight and ninety-nine respectively and are currently Apple's second largest shareholder.

It was listed as early as 1980. During this period, its performance was not good, and not many people were thinking about seizing its control, so that the equity was relatively dispersed more than twenty years later.

According to the current market value, Kingdom Holding can still make a small profit. Roughly calculated, it can still have a return of about 70%, which is not comparable to the high point last year. It is estimated that they are planning to sell these shares even if they have to cut their losses.

Apple is considered good. According to the information, this company misjudged the situation and began to bottom-fish and finance Amazon and online travel B2C companies such as priceline from May and June last year, and the decline was alarming.

The importance of making preparations in advance was highlighted. When Su Yehao saw the two white-robed tycoons, he immediately knew what was going on.

As Su Yehao guessed.

The senior partner of Goldman Sachs introduced at the moment:

"They are from Kingdom Holding. The company is located near Union Square, not far from here, specializing in high-tech corporate investment projects under the group. This Mr. Omar helped the company buy Netscape Browser's stock for more than 140 million US dollars in 1997. A year later, AOL acquired it, making a profit of more than 100 million US dollars. I was responsible for assisting them in completing the transaction at that time."

Only the people from Kingdom Holding were introduced, and there was no need to introduce Su Yehao's identity.

Even if he became the sixth richest man in the world, Su Yehao would subconsciously think that people in white robes are very rich.

The subconscious is deeply rooted and difficult to completely reverse.

After shaking hands and sitting down, Mr. Omar told him in fluent English: "I believe Jim has conveyed our request to you. With just a 5% premium, we can sell all of our Apple stock to you."

Su Yehao nodded and replied:

"I am a straightforward person and have sufficient cash."

"Before coming here today, I saw that Apple's stock price had fallen again by about 1.3% compared to yesterday. I don't know what the situation is at the moment. Apart from me, it is estimated that it will be difficult to find someone willing to buy it all. Why don't we just trade at yesterday's closing price? I will bear your losses today, which is equivalent to giving a certain premium."

"I can sign a contract with you at any time, and the funds are in my bank account..."

Before Omar came, he communicated with the board of directors.

The bottom line was actually calculated based on today's closing price. Discovering that they seemed to be able to make a slight profit, he spoke a few words in Arabic with his companion and asked what Apple's current stock price was.

Learning that the decline had expanded to 1.67%, he simply didn't hesitate and immediately agreed to trade at yesterday's closing price, asking Goldman Sachs to help draft the agreement.

With ready-made contract templates, from meeting to signing, there was only a short hour in between, and this transaction worth more than 400 million US dollars was quickly negotiated...