Chapter 198 Holdings and Opening of the General Assembly

Walden International was once the largest shareholder of Sina, holding nearly 20% of the shares.

Later, when it went public, a portion of the shares were diluted. I wanted to cash out part of the shares after the six-month protection period, but I didn't expect to encounter the Internet bubble.

It was not until 2003 that the global Internet industry began to fully recover and Sina's stock price rebounded across the board, with its market value exceeding that when it was first listed.

Therefore, Walden International has been cashing out Sina shares in the past few years. Up to now, the shares of Sina it holds are less than 4.2%, only %.

Liu Zhou definitely lost money in terms of value by exchanging 4.2% of NetEase shares for 4.2% of Sina shares.

But this 4.2% of shares plays a very important role to Liu Zhou.

After Liu Zhou took over 19.5% of Sina shares from Chen Tianqiao, he held a total of 30.1% of the shares.

Although it is the absolute majority shareholder of Sina, it cannot be said that it controls Sina.

Only when a company holds more than one-third of the shares of a listed company can it be considered as having a relative controlling stake in the company.

If the shareholding exceeds two-thirds, it is considered absolute control.

If you have absolute control over a listed company, then you are the absolute boss of the company and can make any decision you want.

There is no need to argue about this and that at shareholders' meetings or board meetings; these are just superficial tools for you.

If absolute control means you can do whatever you want, then relative control means you don't have to do anything you don't want to do.

This is the so-called veto power!

Of course, this veto power is only useful at the shareholders' meeting. At the board of directors meeting, the corresponding rules must still be followed.

Now that Liu Zhou has acquired 34.3% of Walden International's shares, he will hold % of Sina's shares, which is more than one-third.

This means he has a veto power at Sina's shareholders' meeting.

Therefore, as long as Liu Zhou can defeat Duan Yongji at this board meeting, he will have no chance of turning the tables through the shareholders' meeting.

However, in order to allow Chen Liwu to play a role in the annual Sina shareholders' meeting and board of directors held at the end of February, the two parties will not formally sign the acquisition agreement for the time being.

After these two meetings are over, the acquisition agreement will be formally signed regardless of the final outcome.

As for whether there will be any regrets, although a letter of intent has been signed, it is not very binding and it all depends on the character of each party.

But Liu Zhou is not placing all his hopes on Chen Liwu. He will also contact other small shareholders and prepare to acquire shares in the secondary market.

However, considering Chen Liwu's past investments and his reputation and status in his previous life, he should not go back on his word.

In the following half month, Liu Zhou was busy preparing for Sina's shareholders' meeting and board meeting at the end of the month.

At this time, Zhong Lifang also rushed back to the capital in a dusty state.

"Mr. Liu, the Amazon stock has been settled. Because of the rush, I lost several million dollars and only cashed out $420 million."

"It doesn't matter if it's just a few million dollars, as long as the money lands."

"The SEC's acquisition approval letter has also been approved, but it will take a few more days to get the approval letter for the acquisition of Walden International shares."

"It doesn't matter. Walden International's shares are not yet at the threshold for raising a placard, so the resistance will be much smaller. Besides, Lip-Wu Chen will also help. We just need to wait for good news."

"Boss Liu, are we ready? The shareholders' meeting will be held the day after tomorrow, and the board of directors meeting will be held the day after tomorrow."

"Don't worry, there won't be any accidents!"

This is not because Liu Zhou is arrogant or talkative, but because he must maintain absolute confidence in front of his subordinates.

When Zhong Lifang saw Liu Zhou's confident look, her worries faded a lot.

In order to take over Sina this time, Liu Zhou invested a huge amount of energy and funds, which was several times greater than Chen Tianqiao's original investment.

It’s just that Chen Tianqiao was more flamboyant at the time and made a big fuss about it.

Liu Zhou was more experienced and was secretly making preparations behind the scenes, hoping to kill Duan Yongji with one blow at the board meeting.

If I can't get rid of Duan Yongji at the board meeting, I will have to confront him head-on later.

The noise made by then will definitely be huge, at least not smaller than the one made by Chen Tianqiao back then.

It was a tough battle at that time. Duan Yongji was better than himself in terms of personal connections, capital operation and relationships with higher-ups.

Although he has an absolute advantage in shares, Liu Zhou doesn't dare to say that he will win for sure.

There are countless examples of controlling shareholders of listed companies losing control of their companies. It is difficult to say that the company is as stable as a rock if the controlling shareholders do not hold more than half of the shares.

"Boss Liu, Boss Zhang from Jiahe has been urging us to finalize this year's investment plan. When can you go over there?"

"I don't care about this for now. I don't have the energy to take care of Jiahe's affairs right now. I'll deal with Sina's affairs first."

"Okay, I'll go talk to him later."

"I'll talk to him later. Apart from big productions, let him decide on the investment in some small and medium-sized movies and TV series.

I invited him to be the general manager, not the president's secretary. I won't have so much energy to manage Jiahe in the future. I need Zhang Zhao and others to do more work."

"I understand, Mr. Liu."

Doing more means having more power.

It seems that after nearly a year of observation, the abilities of Zhang Zhao and others have been recognized by General Manager Liu, and he is ready to delegate power to them.

"Boss Zhong, I'll need you to work hard these two days to prepare all the materials needed for the meeting. Whether we can succeed will depend on the next two days."

"Okay Mr. Liu."

……

Monday, February 27th.

It was still a little cold in the capital that day, but the sun was shining brightly.

The square in front of Zhongguancun Ideal International Building was already full of reporters.

Today is the day when Sina, the mainland Internet giant and the number one portal, holds its shareholders' meeting of the new year. Together with the subsequent board meeting, we can see Sina's changes and plans for the new year.

For today's major Internet companies, they have always received much attention from the financial community and the media.

It’s because the wealth myth created by the Internet is so attractive.

The rise of the Internet industry has created a group of emerging wealthy people, and even two of the richest people in mainland China appeared in succession, namely Ding Lei in 2003 and Chen Tianqiao in 2004.

It can be said that the current Internet industry has attracted a large number of young people who want to achieve class transition through their own skills and abilities.

Therefore, any slight disturbance in the industry will attract huge attention.

What’s more, it is the most important annual meeting of major Internet companies, and even some of their decisions will affect some patterns in the industry.

As time slowly approached nine o'clock in the morning, several luxury cars stopped at the entrance of Ideal International Building from time to time.

Because Sina's shareholders are relatively scattered, most of the people who attend the shareholders' meeting are not very famous.

But there are always a few more well-known ones, such as Duan Yongji, chairman of the Soitong Group, and Chen Liwu, chairman of Walden International, who are all big names in the circle.

So when they got out of the car, the flash lights kept going off.

The two men should be accustomed to such scenes. They waved politely to the reporters and then walked into the building.

However, although these two are big shots, in terms of fame, they are not as famous as the one they have always been looking forward to.

Just as they were waiting for the man, they suddenly saw more than one black Mercedes Benz coming in from outside.

One, two, three... a total of seven cars, the same color and model.

When the media reporters waiting outside saw this scene, they all pointed their cameras at the convoy, wondering which big shot had arrived.

Could it be that Chen Tianqiao, the president of Shanda and the richest man in mainland China, has arrived?
Although Shanda failed to acquire Sina last year, they still hold a lot of Sina shares.

There is absolutely no problem for Chen Tianqiao to come and attend Sina's shareholders' meeting.

But isn’t he worried about losing face?
But then they realized they were wrong.

As Liu Zhou got out of the first car, the doors of the cars behind were pushed open one after another and everyone got out.

Liu Zhou straightened his suit and took two steps forward.

Then, Zhong Lifang, who was dressed in a professional suit and was beautiful, walked up to him.

Domestic and foreign lawyers invited by Liu Zhou also came to his side.

A large group of people in suits and ties surrounded Liu Zhou and walked forward, while pushing away the reporters who were surrounding him.

The reporters at the door swarmed over Liu Zhou the moment they saw him. If the bodyguards hadn't stopped them, he would have been drowned out by the microphones.

As a famous director and writer in mainland China, Liu Zhou has always been very popular.

It was not until later that it was revealed that Liu Zhou was actually a shareholder of the three major portals, which instantly made his popularity explode.

Not only did Liu Zhou's name become famous in the mainland Internet industry, but the financial industry was also very interested in his investments.

Although Liu Zhou did not make any moves in the following years, at the end of last year, Liu Zhou once again acquired the Hong Kong-listed company Golden Harvest Entertainment, which once again attracted attention.

It can be said that Liu Zhou is now not only a public figure in the literary and art circles, but also a young business upstart in the mainland.

However, Liu Zhou rarely appears in front of the media and has not even accepted interviews from financial media.

Media reporters all know that Liu Zhou became a director of Sina last year, so he will definitely attend Sina's shareholders' meeting and board of directors meeting this time.

Therefore, many media outlets were wondering if they could stop Liu Zhou at the door and interview him.

But I didn't expect that Liu Zhou would make such a big fuss this time, and there would even be a foreigner accompanying him.

It's obvious that he's not here just to attend the meeting!
Everyone suddenly realized that something big might happen at Sina's shareholders' meeting or board of directors.

When they wanted to interview Liu Zhou, they were stopped and could only shout out the questions they wanted to ask.

Liu Zhou ignored the reporters outside and walked straight to the Sina conference room.

Liu Zhou asked everyone else to stay in the reception room, while he and Zhong Lifang went to the conference room.

There were already quite a few people inside, and the center of attention was undoubtedly Duan Yongji, who was sitting in the middle like the moon surrounded by stars.

When everyone saw Liu Zhou coming, they all greeted him warmly.

Although Liu Zhou is young, his status here is not low.

Even Duan Yongji stood up and greeted Liu Zhou to show his respect.

Liu Zhou saw Chen Liwu also chatting with two shareholders, and at this time Chen Liwu also looked over.

The two men looked at each other and then quickly separated. Chen Liwu continued chatting while Liu Zhou stayed with Duan Yongji.

He had met Duan Yongji before, so he didn't feel very strange now.

"Mr. Duan, I saw you guys were chatting happily just now. What topic was so funny?"

Before Duan Yongji could speak, someone beside him immediately said:

"Just now we were discussing why Chen Tianqiao didn't come to attend the shareholders' meeting. Is he too embarrassed to come? Hahaha!"

"Is this funny?" Liu Zhou looked at him calmly and said.

The smile on this person's face froze, and he laughed dryly:
"Isn't it funny?"

"Hahaha, it's really funny that Chen Tianqiao doesn't dare to come."

"Uh...haha..."

"Why are you smiling so reluctantly? Don't you think it's funny?"

Seeing that Liu Zhou had no other intentions and was indeed laughing heartily, this person immediately started laughing too.

"Hahaha……"

"Ha ha……"

Others around also started laughing.

Seeing this, Duan Yongji's expression, which had originally returned to calm, slightly raised the corners of his mouth again.

At this time, Duan Yongji said:

"Boss Liu, I heard you brought quite a few people here today?"

When they heard Duan Yongji speak, the others immediately stopped smiling.

“Yes, Mr. Duan, you know that although I am a shareholder of several Internet companies, I have never participated in shareholders’ meetings or board meetings, so I don’t know what to prepare.

So I brought more people with me so that if anything is needed, we won’t be in a rush.”

"Mr. Liu, you're overthinking it. These two meetings are not that complicated." Someone said with a smile.

"Really? I didn't know that!"

"Ha ha ha ha."

Several people around couldn't help but laugh.

Liu Zhou ignored the laughter and said to Duan Yongji:
"Isn't this because I have no experience? Now that I know, I won't make such a fuss in the future."

Duan Yongji's intuition told him that Liu Zhou was definitely not as ignorant as he appeared.

If he was really so stupid, how could he have achieved such a big career?

But he couldn't guess the deeper meaning of Liu Zhou's move. Could it be that he still wanted to challenge his authority at Sina?
As soon as this thought popped up in Duan Yongji's mind, he quickly dispelled it.

Apart from having a few more points of shares, Liu Zhou has no foundation in Sina. How could he possibly challenge himself?
What's more, Liu Zhou has been a shareholder of Sina for several years and has never cared about or asked about any matters concerning Sina.

This is also one of the reasons why he agreed to add Liu Zhou to the board of directors.

This was to win over Liu Zhou to resist Chen Tianqiao's attack, and also because he had no ambition.

Over the past year, Liu Zhou has indeed remained the same as always. He has not even attended a single board meeting, and always lets his subordinates represent him.

Since Liu Zhou cannot threaten his control over Sina, it doesn't matter what he wants to do by bringing so many people here.

So he just brushed this matter aside and said with a smile:

"I am also a little curious, so I couldn't help but ask a question."

"I understand. I believe that anyone who sees such a big fuss will feel curious or even worried." Liu Zhou said with a smile.

"Mr. Liu, please take a seat. The meeting is about to begin."

"Ok."

After saying that, Liu Zhou sat down next to Chen Liwu.

(End of this chapter)