Having spent two days in Yosemite National Park, the scenery was beautiful enough to purify the soul.

However, Su Yehao was too profit-driven. Yosemite alone couldn't cleanse him anymore; he only felt it was so-so.

After building positions for three days, the total profit peaked at over $22.2 million. However, with a slight fluctuation on Friday, most of it was wiped out. By the time the market closed, only a little over $4.4 million in profit remained.

The bank hadn't yet confirmed whether they would grant the loan, and whether he could earn enough capital in the short term was still unknown.

Thinking it over for the sake of stability, Su Yehao began to consider the possibility of a merger, using a combination of cash and equity to negotiate with the shareholders of iCQ.

However.

Because he couldn't come up with hundreds of millions of dollars, he might earn tens of billions of dollars less in the future. In Su Yehao's eyes, this seemed like a terrible loss, no matter how he looked at it.

If he had iCQ's seven million active users, the probability of success for the international version of tvt could increase from 50% to 80% or 90%. With Su Yehao's reasonable planning, tens of billions of dollars wouldn't just be a pipe dream, but could very likely become a reality.

Once iCQ's existing shareholders were brought in, it would be like letting them hitch a free ride. Su Yehao didn't want to distribute equity too early, as it would not only affect his subsequent financing plans, but also impact his own interests.

After all, aside from iCQ's existing users and reputation, they couldn't help him much in other areas. They had neither influence nor capital, clearly not the ideal partners.

Wall Street giants like Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, as well as tech companies like Microsoft and Yahoo, which controlled the wealth of traffic, were the target groups Su Yehao hoped to cooperate with.

Therefore.

The planned merger was only a preliminary idea, not even a Plan B. At best, it was a Plan D, similar to the Plan E of trying to raise funds.

Plan A, of course, was to find the funds himself.

Plan B was to use leveraged buyouts through financial institutions.

Plan C was to temporarily cash out his Yahoo stock, and after completing the acquisition, find a way to pledge a loan and continue investing.

Su Yehao had already listed these plans in a small notebook, with notes on their advantages and disadvantages. Rarely finding himself so short on cash, he continued to rack his brains, thinking about how to earn a quick buck in the short term.

He had been so calm before because he knew he could always rely on his parents at crucial moments. For example, when he acquired Yinhai Software, even though his old man looked down on it, Su Yehao could probably get his way by acting like a spoiled brat. If that didn't work, he could always ask his mother or grandfather for money.

However, this time was different.

Si Hai International's funds had already been used for the Pengcheng Si Hai International Cultural Tourism City and the financing of Medea Group, two large-scale projects.

Although the Earls Medical Group in Hong Kong, managed by his mother, had a high total value, its cash flow was relatively tight. At most, it could squeeze out four or five hundred million Hong Kong dollars; any more would require selling assets or taking out loans.

Relying only on himself, Su Yehao once again tasted the feeling of having ambitions that exceeded his own capabilities, which was quite worrying.

He flipped through many newspapers, but still couldn't find a reliable target for speculation.

Money, as expected, is always insufficient...

——————————

Adrian from McKinsey Consulting arrived at tvt headquarters on Saturday morning with his team for an inspection.

Su Yehao accompanied them in person, introducing the company with a clear understanding of its current state:

"My company is just starting out, and its scale is still very small. It only has a few hundred users in the Silicon Valley area and is in the testing phase. It can't compare with iCQ for the time being. Actually, iCQ was the first to propose acquiring my company for $5 million. If you've used our product, you'll find that it has a relatively mature new social model, surpassing iCQ in terms of features and technology."

Adrian was a small supervisor in the branch office. His performance was usually mediocre, so he valued Su Yehao's business.

After listening, he smiled and said, "To be honest, I've already downloaded your product. My colleagues registered after discovering it, and they occasionally use it to communicate during work hours. The experience is indeed quite good."

Su Yehao sat at the newly purchased conference table, tapped the surface with his finger, and said:

"I'm raising funds and have run into a little trouble, but I can solve it. Let's try to talk to them first. I don't know how the progress with AOL is going. The sooner it's resolved, the easier it will be."

"Oh? Are you short of funds? Our company currently has a financial credit service for clients that only charges a small handling fee. I can help you apply if needed."

After Adrian finished speaking, Su Yehao's heart stirred, and he quickly asked, "Leveraged buyouts, does your company offer this kind of service?"

"Of course. McKinsey has partnerships with many financial companies. A few years ago, I worked with a colleague to help a client acquire a large number of polystyrene manufacturers, then re-integrate them and sell them to a third party. In that transaction, the leveraged buyout amount reached $1 billion."

Su Yehao nodded without showing any emotion.

When it came to financial business, the United States had long been playing it in various ways. Just the methods of mergers and acquisitions could be divided into five or six types. There was a movie called *Barbarians at the Gate* a few years ago, which described hostile takeovers and "sublimated" the traditional way of doing business.

Previously, Su Yehao was relatively reluctant to borrow from financial institutions other than banks because not only were the interest rates high, but the repayment periods were also relatively short, which involved greater risks.

However, now he was really short of funds. After pondering for a few seconds, Su Yehao asked again:

"Then how much funding do you think your company can provide for this transaction? You know, I'm investing in Yahoo. In fact, I'm prepared to liquidate my Yahoo stock and switch to heavily long Yahoo options off-exchange. It's equivalent to continuing to be optimistic about Yahoo's appreciation prospects with a small amount of capital, and using the money to buy iCQ."

Of course, Adrian could understand.

It was roughly the difference between buying a house for investment with the full amount and paying a deposit to buy an uncompleted house with a loan.

For example, if he had originally put down a full payment of one million to buy a house, he could now sell the house to cash out one million, only taking out ten thousand as a deposit for a house with a target value of one million, continuing to enjoy the appreciation dividend while the remaining nine hundred thousand could be used for other purposes.

The disadvantage of doing so was that the risk was a bit high, so Su Yehao had only dared to dabble in it before, mainly "paying the full amount" to avoid drastic fluctuations.

Su Yehao had already had someone calculate that after liquidating his Yahoo stock and repaying part of his loan from Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank, he would still have more than $200 million left. If he could scrape together the rest from the bank, there would basically be no problem.

If the money problem wasn't solved, he wouldn't be able to negotiate the acquisition with iCQ freely.

At this moment, learning that McKinsey could provide leveraged buyout services, Su Yehao was quite tempted. As long as he wasn't scammed, he didn't care about the high interest rates, as he should be able to repay them in the short term anyway...