Chapter 1630: A Crazy Plan

Until she left Zhao Fusheng's home, Zheng Yao's mind was completely muddled.

She couldn't quite understand what Zhao Fusheng was really up to.

Was he really going to give up his shares in Twitter?

"What did you talk about with Zheng Yao?"

Fan Baobao followed Zhao Fusheng to see them off, then quietly asked him, "I noticed she seemed a bit dazed when she left."

"Nothing much. She's probably just a little confused."

Zhao Fusheng laughed heartily, waved his hand, and said to Fan Baobao.

Confused?

Hearing those words, even Fan Baobao felt a bit bewildered.

Zhao Fusheng shook his head and didn't explain further.

It was too complicated; even if he explained it to Fan Baobao, she probably wouldn't understand.

Returning to his room, Zhao Fusheng found the materials on Facebook, Twitter, and Alibaba, and began to read them.

After a long while, he looked up and let out a long breath.

He had to admit that Zheng Yao's inspiration had given him a new idea.

Finding a piece of paper, Zhao Fusheng wrote down the highest market capitalizations of these companies as he remembered them.

Facebook, with a peak market cap of $900 billion, of which he now owned 30%.

Alibaba, with a market cap of $300 billion, on par with Samsung, of which he now owned 25%.

Twitter, with a market cap of around $20 billion, of which he owned 60%.

Of course, that was many years later. For now, Facebook was valued at $5 billion, Alibaba at over $10 billion, and Twitter at $500 million.

Apart from himself, no one knew that Twitter's future development would not be as smooth as it seemed now.

"Since that's the case, maybe I can make a deal with Samsung."

Zhao Fusheng rubbed his chin and muttered softly.

To be honest, using his Facebook shares to trade with Samsung, letting Samsung step in as a white knight for Alibaba, was something he was very reluctant to do.

Now that he had Twitter as a backup, he was somewhat inclined to give up on Twitter.

There was no help for it; a company with a market cap of only $10 billion in ten years felt to Zhao Fusheng like a chicken rib—not worth abandoning, but not worth savoring either.

The so-called white knight refers to a situation in the financial market where a target company, with no other options to avoid a hostile takeover, can seek out a friendly company to launch a bidding war against the hostile acquirer. This strategy allows the target company to avoid a full-scale takeover and counter-takeover battle with the hostile acquirer, but ultimately, finding a white knight leads to the loss of the target company's independence.

After careful calculation, Zhao Fusheng finally made a decision.

"Looks like I really have to set a trap for them."

A smile curled at the corner of his mouth as he muttered to himself.

At this point, he knew clearly that for Future Investment to develop, he had to make trade-offs.

And Twitter became the target he chose to abandon.

It wasn't exactly abandonment, because Zhao Fusheng planned to use Twitter's shares to exchange for something more valuable.

Given Twitter's current valuation—a company worth $500 million after its second round of financing—its market cap at IPO would certainly have a chance to break $10 billion. That was a market value anyone could see.

As for its future development, only Zhao Fusheng himself knew.

What he needed to do was convince the Samsung Lee family to trade with him.

"Thirty percent of the shares isn't a loss either."

Zhao Fusheng smiled and said to himself.

That's right, he planned to sell Lee Kun-hee 30% of Twitter's shares, which, at the current valuation, would be worth nearly $200 million.

Of course, ten years later, the value of those shares would definitely exceed $3 billion.

Or, to be more precise, at least in many people's eyes right now, Twitter's market cap was destined to break $10 billion, and possibly even more.

After all, the company was only just conducting its second round of financing.

This is where the advantage of foresight lies—apart from Zhao Fusheng, no one knows the truth.

…

…

"Have you lost your mind?"

Upon learning of Zhao Fusheng's plan, Dong Chenxi stared at him in disbelief.

Early in the morning, Zhao Fusheng arrived at the Future Investment office and laid out the entire plan to Dong Chenxi.

After hearing him out, Dong Chenxi felt her head spin.

This guy was actually playing so big!

"I'm very relieved."

Zhao Fusheng looked at Dong Chenxi and said word by word, "You can now give Samsung a quote. We won't sell our Facebook shares. For Twitter, thirty percent of the shares—three billion US dollars! Cash plus shares is acceptable, but cash cannot be less than one billion. If they're unwilling, I'll find someone else to cooperate!"

Often, when a person is determined to do something, they easily find the simplest path. In Zhao Fusheng's view, he had always been too soft.

Put nicely, it's being thorough; put bluntly, it's being overly cautious.

So this time, Zhao Fusheng planned to go big!

"It's too risky!"

Dong Chenxi frowned and said to Zhao Fusheng, "How do you know Twitter's development won't be as good as Alibaba's? Alibaba has been developing for eight years, but Twitter has been around for less than two. I think Twitter has huge potential for future growth. We'd be throwing away a watermelon to pick up a sesame seed."

After all, she wasn't a time traveler, not someone like Zhao Fusheng who could see the future.

So in Dong Chenxi's mind, an internet company valued at five hundred million US dollars in just two years was undoubtedly a highly promising enterprise.

In fact, Dong Chenxi even felt that Twitter could become the next Facebook!

However, this time Zhao Fusheng had made up his mind and wouldn't change it because of a few words from Dong Chenxi.

In his mind, he was even prepared to completely give up his Twitter shares.

After all, compared to Twitter, Alibaba was undoubtedly more important.

There was no doubt about that!

"It's fine."

Zhao Fusheng said resolutely, "If he wants, I can give him all the Twitter shares!"

What?

Dong Chenxi's eyes went wide, staring at Zhao Fusheng in shock. At that moment, she even wanted to feel his forehead to see if he had gone mad, because how else could he make such a crazy decision?

"You... you're not joking, are you?"

Dong Chenxi looked at Zhao Fusheng and asked word by word, "Do you know what you're doing?"

Zhao Fusheng laughed: "Of course I know. I'm betting on whether my intuition is right or Lee Kun-hee's calculations are more precise, isn't that so?"

"No, I have to call Zheng Yao!"

Without another word, Dong Chenxi took out her phone and dialed Zheng Yao's number.

She urgently needed an ally to persuade Zhao Fusheng, because his plan was too crazy—it was like betting the company's future.

Although Zhao Fusheng was the company's major shareholder, the company had been built through everyone's hard work. She absolutely wouldn't allow him to make such a crazy move.

Zhao Fusheng didn't stop Dong Chenxi; he sat there calmly.

He knew very well that Dong Chenxi's approach was actually correct. If he were in her position, he would have made the same choice.

But the problem was that Dong Chenxi wasn't a reborn person; she didn't have that foresight.

Naturally, she didn't know that Twitter, which now seemed glorious with a bright future, would hit a bottleneck after developing to a certain stage.

To put it more bluntly, an internet company faces various bottlenecks both before and after going public.

If it can break through, it will soar like Facebook, Amazon, or even Yahoo.

But if it can't, it will end up like Twitter or the bike-sharing companies of later years—trapped in difficulties and forced to accept the bitter fruit of failure.

For Zhao Fusheng, Twitter's market value would ultimately be only a little over ten billion US dollars. Even if he gave up the sixty percent stake now, he would lose at most six billion.

But if he gave up Alibaba's shares, Zhao Fusheng might lose six hundred billion!

This choice wasn't actually difficult.