For now, it was only Su Yehao's wishful thinking. Whether he could acquire iCQ was still an unknown.

　　While he was greeting the director of the First Industrial Bank's head office, Adrian from McKinsey Consulting contacted many friends to inquire about it.

　　At this moment.

　　Adrian walked up to Su Yehao, shrugged, and told him:

　　"Su, it's a good thing you didn't contact Goldman Sachs. I heard that the America Online team is in charge of this attempt to contact iCQ. They won't take your business and will only make them more vigilant. America Online isn't really optimistic about iCQ. They just want to spend some money to get rid of this potential competitor. It's a common trick used by large companies. If they can't suppress it, they'll choose to spend money to acquire it and then throw it into the warehouse like garbage."

　　Su Yehao didn't know much about iCQ chat company. He only knew that Pony Ma had once imitated it and came up with an "oiCQ," which was later renamed after being sued.

　　He also had no impression of iCQ's subsequent development. At least he couldn't see its name in the news. Obviously, it had fallen behind in the subsequent development process.

　　Combining the current situation where America Online is starting to contact iCQ in order to maintain its market leadership, Su Yehao guessed that this once-popular chat software might be thrown into the warehouse by America Online like garbage.

　　Behind this, there may also be the shadow of some telecom operators.

　　For example, in Hong Kong, there are occasional news reports saying that online chat is not safe, and hackers can easily view chat records, which appear in newspapers from time to time, affecting users who don't know the truth.

　　Su Yehao spent a little money some time ago to ask someone to help investigate, and finally followed the clues to find the shareholders of Hong Kong Telecom, who were also influential celebrities.

　　The reason for being targeted was simply because tAt had emerged, which to a certain extent affected the interests of telecom operators, as mobile phone text messages were very expensive.

　　Faced with such minor friction, Su Yehao didn't choose to publicize the conflict. Anyway, the other party could only use some small tricks, which had almost no impact on tAt, like an螳臂当车 (táng bì dāng chē; an ant trying to stop a chariot).

　　After listening to Adrian, Su Yehao stroked his chin and said:

　　"If it's to stifle competitors, perhaps iCQ would be more inclined to cooperate with us. I only value its users and technology, but I can also reposition it and keep it going. The key depends on what price America Online is willing to pay for it. iCQ's customer acquisition costs can't be reduced, so its value in the eyes of others shouldn't be high, and its growth potential is poor."

　　Doing business isn't charity.

　　Currently, iCQ is burning through thirty to forty US dollars to acquire an active user, advertising everywhere, and employing hundreds of people, but its profits are pitifully low.

　　Compared to Yahoo, such a company appears much weaker. Recently, Yahoo has reduced its customer acquisition cost to around two US dollars. Many customers are actively seeking them out, and it has almost become a must-have product for installation, with its popularity growing.

　　And iCQ is not only facing a continuous increase in losses, but also faces many competitors, such as the more interesting AoL chat room.

　　All of these limit investors' evaluation of iCQ, believing that it can only be maintained by burning money, which is equivalent to providing services to users for free. The plan to add advertisements to the chat window has been declared a failure with the loss of users, which has instead benefited iCQ's competitors.

　　Similar situations also apply to tAt and the newly launched tvt: burning a lot of money, unable to make a profit, and numerous competitors...

　　Su Yehao knows these things, but he doesn't think he will go down the wrong path like iCQ. tvt's advantage lies in using social functions to bind users, and personal spaces and dressing up functions can also create profit points.

　　Adrian nodded and said, "There will definitely be trouble. I want to thoroughly understand this company first, and in a few days, I will meet with the major shareholders of iCQ as an intermediary."

　　"Am I going too?" Su Yehao asked him.

　　Shaking his head, Adrian told him, "If you go, it will make the contact more formal, and I want to know what the management is thinking first. I'm just an intermediary, and it doesn't matter if I'm rejected. If you show up, it will seem like you're paying too much attention to this deal."

　　After listening, Su Yehao felt that it seemed to make sense, so he didn't say anything more.

　　A three- to four-hundred-million-dollar acquisition plan certainly couldn't be completed in a short period of time. Moreover, the bank hadn't given an accurate answer yet, so he would contact them first to understand the situation.

　　After leaving McKinsey Consulting, located on Fengsha Road, Su Yehao contacted John Zhou through his mobile phone, asking if he had connected with Yahoo founder Jerry Yang.

　　Learning that Mr. Yang was away again, talking about an acquisition with a company located in Canada, Su Yehao went home to rest first, preparing to go to the company for a walk in the afternoon...

　　——————————————

　　More than ten hours later, Tokyo.

　　The First Industrial Bank was strong, but this time, the loan project involved at least three hundred million US dollars, so the news was passed up layer by layer, and finally reached the ears of the president of the head office.

　　For this reason, the president specifically called in the director in charge of the Hong Kong branch, as well as the president of the First Industrial Bank Securities and others, to hold a meeting with the president of the Hong Kong branch.

　　The president asked about Su Yehao's situation, flipped through the materials and browsed for a while, and frowned slightly and asked:

　　"He is a big customer, and the amount of loans in our bank is very large. If we lend him another 350 million US dollars according to his wishes, he will owe us a total of 600 million US dollars. Is it a bit risky?"

　　The president of the Hong Kong branch could only stand and speak in front of the president, the director of the head office, and the presidents of the subsidiaries. He chimed in:

　　"Su Yehao has very good credit, and his assets far exceed his liabilities. Two businesses are also guaranteed in the name of his father's company, so the risk is relatively small. And the iCQ he is preparing to acquire is also a well-known high-tech company with 500,000 users in Japan. I have made statistics on user growth data and market share separately."

　　The president looked at the materials again, smiled happily, and then said:

　　"He only used our money to speculate in stocks before, and the risk was uncontrollable. Once the stock price plummeted, are you sure he can repay the loan in time? And this American company called iCQ is in an even worse situation. It lost a total of 60 million US dollars last year, and its revenue was only 8 million US dollars. Are we going to continue to lend him money after he acquires it?"

　　The director immediately flattered him, wanting to climb up another step and become a managing director, and echoed, "I also think the risk is too great, we should consider it again, so I came here specifically to ask for your opinion."

　　The president of the branch glanced at his immediate superior and wisely didn't say anything more, instead suggesting pulling in a few interested colleagues to jointly fund the loan.

　　This plan was once again rejected by the president.

　　Su Yehao was indeed valued by the people at the First Industrial Bank, but there was an upper limit to this kind of importance.

　　Soon, Su Yehao received a call from the president of the Hong Kong branch, saying that the approval of the project might be a bit troublesome and they were still trying to fight for it...