Back To 1995

   Chapter 681 Cut Hu

I don’t know if the sudden news is true or not, but the news that came out suddenly, coupled with the fact that Goldman Sachs has supported ICQ before, and when Irene was interviewed, Xue Leshan threatened to be nothing to ICQ at all. It seems to be about to come out, that is, ICQ is going to acquire a big company!

Coincidental encounters often become the answer. Goldman Sachs "supports" ICQ, which is also interpreted as already knowing ICQ's plan, so it is pursuing ICQ, otherwise there is no reason at all, Wall Street is not a charity hall, how can it be? Doing that thankless thing...

  Although it is not yet known which company ICQ is going to acquire or merge, ICQ is going to issue an astonishing "huge" amount of bonds and stocks, but it has already been rumored.

These days, whether it is Wall Street institutions or ordinary leeks, what they are afraid of is not "snake swallowing elephants", but mediocrity. WorldCom Telecom issues so many new shares every year. Investors don't know that WorldCom is cutting leeks. But Worldcom acquires a lot of companies every year, which makes Worldcom's stock price soar, and the leeks also acknowledge it!

The news that ICQ is going to issue a huge amount of new shares not only did not cause the stock price to fall, but skyrocketed. In the blink of an eye, Wall Street institutions headed by Goldman Sachs gathered ICQ stocks, as well as America's famous 401K pension fund, Federal Teachers Pension Fund, The Fire Pension Fund, the Truck Driver Pension Fund, etc., all appeared in the ICQ stock seats.

   The traders of Wall Street institutions and these federal foundations are the top and most well-informed in the world. They have all started to gather ICQ stocks. For the leeks, this is almost a clear sign.

Then it can be seen with the naked eye that ICQ's stock price has been continuously rising wildly. When the market opened today, ICQ's stock price was only less than 130 US dollars, but now it is almost pulled to 170 US dollars, and the stock price has skyrocketed by 30% in a single day. Almost caught up with the performance on the day of listing.

  ICQ's market value has soared to nearly US$57 billion, surpassing Yahoo and becoming the No. 1 Internet technology stock.

Before Christmas, Yahoo's market value exceeded $50 billion as expected. Although there are Microsoft, SUN, AOL, Oracle, IBM and other mother-in-law on the head, these companies are not pure Internet companies, they can only be regarded as Concept stocks, not yet a leader, Yahoo is the "orthodox" of the Internet.

  But Yahoo seems to be a bit ill-fated. It was crushed by Netscape a few years ago. Now it has finally become the leader of the Internet, but ICQ has caught up!

   After the market closed, ICQ issued a number of announcements in succession, claiming to issue 70 million new shares worth more than $12 billion, and additionally issue $4 billion in debt, raising a total of $16 billion.

After half an hour, ICQ released the best news and officially launched the acquisition transaction with America Telecom. ICQ made an offer to America Telecom in the form of equity exchange and cash. After the merger, the new company will be dominated by ICQ, but Retain the America Telecom brand.

There are only a few words in the announcement, but everyone who sees it has a thought in their hearts, that is, ICQ is going to swallow the elephant, and the valuation of America Telecom can also fly up. Acquired America Telecom and immediately became a giant company!

Isn't it a mockery of ICQ's unprofitability and insider trading to split Xue Leshan, then ICQ will win the upstart in the telecom industry, regardless of the net profit of America Telecom. , mobile phone retail channels, the combined revenue last year was close to 7.8 billion US dollars, which is much more than that of Xue Leshan!

   Almost as soon as the announcement was released, major technology and financial media in America began to report wildly. A large number of media and reporters poured into the headquarters of ICQ and Inter-American Telecom, but none of Irene and Iger were seen.

   "The giant of a hundred billion dollars is about to be born!"

The headlines given by the media for this transaction are all 100 billion dollars. After all, ICQ plus America Telecom, the largest social empire on the Internet, plus the largest broadband operator in America, has directly become an enhanced version of AOL. The Internet and telecommunications, the two most popular industries in recent years, have been directly merged into one.

   As for whether the merger will fail, no one has such an idea. After all, the big sponsors of ICQ and America Telecom are all named Bruno Song!

  ICQ was able to propose this merger, obviously with the permission of Song Yang, otherwise how dare you play like this.

"If the merger is completed, ICQ and Telecom America will form a single company with annual revenue of $10.5 billion, more than 100 million Internet users worldwide, the largest broadband and mobile network operator in America, and a giant of America's top ten mobile phone retailers. Mac!

  ICQ can push the market of America Telecom to the world, and America Telecom can make up for ICQ's most important cash flow, but so far, America Telecom President Iger has not expressed any opinion on the rumors. "

In a conference room, the TV news was turned off. AOL President Case tried to calm down his mood. The sudden news made Case, who had just swallowed Netscape in his stomach and became the leader of the Internet martial arts alliance for a few days, completely depressed. .

  AOL acquired Netscape for more than 4 billion dollars. A few days ago, ICQ suddenly swallowed the elephant and directly robbed all the popularity of AOL.

   In addition, America Telecom is still AOL's most direct opponent. ICQ has AOL in the bag, which makes Case feel nervous. Broadband will replace dial-up Internet access sooner or later. Case is well aware of this, but he needs time!

   "Gentlemen, I think we should speed up!"

  Case calmed down and said with a smile to a group of executives headed by Time Warner President Jerry Levin.

  Today is the day AOL met with directors and executives from both sides of Time Warner. The two sides had been in contact several times, and finally, under the impetus of Case and Jerry Levine, began to talk about the "merger" of the two companies.

   But, who knows, before it even started, it was hit in the head. ICQ's acquisition of Telecom America made Time Warner worry about whether the merger with AOL would turn into a **** deal.

Jerry Levine habitually pulls his tie, and it turns out that in order to adapt to the "trend", he did not wear a suit and tie, but deliberately changed the open shirt that is popular in the Internet circle to express his determination to lead Time Warner The media empire of this traditional industry has entered the Internet industry.

  Jerry Levin has seen the decline of traditional media. Yahoo's Internet company, which was only a few years old, has more than ten times the circulation of Time Warner's newspapers.

Now the Internet is still difficult to overturn a media empire like Time Warner, but in the face of the decline of Internet companies, Jerry Levine has seen it in his eyes. He spent billions of dollars to make Time Warner transform the Internet, but the effect Pingping, the style of traditional media makes it difficult for Time Warner to make waves in the Internet industry.

   That's how I met AOL today. If I can't play it myself, Jerry Levine is ready to form an alliance with the Internet giants who can play, and let Time Warner enter the Internet. AOL just needs media content, and the two sides basically hit it off.

However, the news of ICQ's acquisition of America Telecom also made Jerry Levine doubt whether AOL could withstand the onslaught of ICQ and America Telecom. You must know that Time Warner's most important thing is AOL's 35 million dial-up. Internet users.

Case looked calm and said calmly, "No, how many users can America Telecom have if it has broadband users, one million, two million, and even if it has three million users, it will be no better than AOL's three million users. Fifteen million users!"

Thirty-five million to two million, Case has an advantage in my look, "President Levin, I know what Time Warner is worried about, and I can guarantee that AOL will not give up the broadband market, in fact, AOL has planned to This year, AOL will not be replaced by America Telecom by laying its own broadband line.”

Jerry Levine is also clear that the account is not really calculated. Don't look at the broadband users of America Telecom, which are not more than half of AOL's, but they earn much more than AOL's. One AOL user monthly subscription fee of 21 dollars Telecom is 45 dollars, plus the cost of mobile Internet access, the profit of an American Telecom user is several times higher than the profit of a user of AOL!

Jerry Levin is still a little hesitant, but in front of him, apart from AOL, he really doesn't have many choices. Yahoo has no telecom business, and it overlaps too much with Time Warner's business. ICQ is also an option, but Jerry Levine has heard some rumors, ICQ is very close to NBC Group, Time Warner will not come over and ask for boredom, it seems that the choice is AOL!

  Case saw Jerry Levin's expression and added another hint, "AOL can give up the acquisition and complete the merger by means of a merger, and AOL can exchange 1 share for 1.5 shares of Time Warner to complete the transaction!"

As soon as these words came out, Time Warner was obviously a little moved, which means that Time Warner is more valuable than AOL. After the transaction is completed, it seems that AOL acquired Time Warner, but the new company has the right to speak. It was Time Warner, and in order to get the deal done, Keyes gave in after all.

  The merger of America Telecom by ICQ affects not only AOL and Time Warner, but also the telecommunications industry, which is about to break the dog's brain, and is even more stimulated by this news.

   Just spent more than 10 billion US dollars last year to buy WorldCom, which is MFS Telecom, and once again announced a large number of new shares. It is rumored that Bernard Arnott is eyeing MCI Telecom, another giant in the telecommunications industry.

   This year, America is obviously more lively than last year, and the stock prices of major technology giants have skyrocketed.

A big acquisition in the past could have been discussed for a few years, but this year, the news of AOL's acquisition of Netscape was discussed for a few days, and then it broke out that ICQ was swallowing the elephant, American Telecom, WorldCom, and others. All kinds of big news, the entire American technology industry, is simply a mess.

   (end of this chapter)