Chapter 148: A Smokeless War

gust First Victory Hotel, which was funded by the municipal government and only accommodated important guests without being open to the public. It had no star rating but was built with a level of soph...Volume 3: To the Distant Place, Chapter 148: A War Without Gunfire

Su Can ultimately left Shanghai International Studies University in a hurry. Before leaving, he still dared not look at Lin Luoran’s ambiguous smile. The girl stood by the school gate as usual.

Her gaze was like a lake, watching the group of people leave after drinking and chatting, their shoulders touching each other. Her lips were curved into a smile all along.

The car driven by the school leaders who had just given out awards on stage sat near the school gate. Looking through the window at her made them recall the pair of eyes that shone like jewels moments ago. There was an urge stirring within their hearts.

However, the high-ranking administrative car from Shanghai International Studies University, one of the top ten in terms of rank, didn’t stop before Lin Luoran as she watched her friends depart.

Rather, it sped past beside her blue skirt.

No one could tell whether it was due to her own prestigious background or because just a glance from those clear eyes made some old men in high positions but with complicated hearts dare not face her directly.

Later that night, it rained again. Among all the students at Shanghai International Studies University, none had clearer eyes than Lin Luoran’s, as if they could penetrate through the rain curtain.

In early January of 2003, during winter in Nanjing University, Su Can received a letter from California, USA in his dormitory. This paper letter, stamped with the postmark of Stanford University's Neuronal Dynamics Center in California, crossed the ocean to reach him.

The letter was thick; Su Can carefully opened it and pulled out the emails with some excitement. They were financing documents and related legal papers for KACBK in America. They were all preview versions. When he saw this urgent package, Su Can thought that perhaps at that moment, his specially hired legal department colleagues from KACBK in Palo Alto were packing up their belongings and preparing to go to Shanghai.

A few days later, the Legal Department's Wilde and Steven Chan from Facebook’s Application Department arrived at Pudong Airport in Shanghai accompanied by Dustin. They then went to check into Shangri-La Hotel with the assistance of the local team at Facebook China headquarters. At the same time, the news that executives such as Roland and Leon had come to Shanghai also aroused corresponding attention.

Against the backdrop of the dot-com bubble in the new century, doing venture capital (VC) work in China was quite challenging. The grand vision of the Internet suddenly collapsed, causing many entrepreneurs to roll up their bedding and return to work for large companies they had once left.

Those venture capitalists who invested heavily in these companies also suffered severe losses. The market could disappear overnight; a tech company that was full of ambition yesterday might be defeated the next day, with urgent calls everywhere they went. Many companies and teams eager to make their mark in the new era finally understood the power of internet entropy. It was like financial districts big and small experiencing various recessions after a financial crisis, or houses falling one by one under the onslaught of gales, torrential rains, mudslides.

The market they had worked so hard to build vanished, and the NASDAQ index plummeted as it wished. Many domestic venture capitalists were at a loss about where their future lay, with morale at an all-time low.

Therefore, opinions are divided regarding Accel Partners and Meritech Capital’s renewed investment in social networking. Some see great potential, while others remain pessimistic. After all, the cold winter of the new millennium left too many deep impressions.

Accel Partners is an American venture capital firm based in Silicon Valley; up until now, it remains relatively unknown on a global scale.

An excellent VC’s standing in the industry is determined by how well its investments perform. There have been instances where firms became globally renowned overnight due to investing in great companies—such as IAC Capital (Sequoia Capital) for their investment in Yahoo and Apple, or Sequoia Capital’s rival Su Cun for his investments in Amazon and Google. When Wang Erde, Steven Chen, and Dustin from the Hilton Hotel met with Luo Wenxin representing Accel Partners on Facebook, they observed him with a sense of intrigue.

Luo Wenxin is an American Chinese whose family settled in America during the '60s; he holds dual doctorates from Yale University and Princeton. Accel Partners sent him to China largely because of his name and title as one of Facebook’s co-presidents, Su Cun. Compared to Leon representing Meritech Capital who has a long history of cooperation with them in various tech fields, Luo Wenxin appears cautious and reserved.

"In October last year at the Sausalito Marin County resort near San Francisco, we held an important meeting where all partners were present. All partners unanimously decided to invest in the internet sector, focusing on network construction and infrastructure markets. I consider this a very significant decision that determined my trip to China, and I believe it will be a pleasant collaboration."

When shaking hands with Su Cun at their meeting, Luo Wenxin’s grip was firm and powerful, giving off an impression of reliability. Of course, given his accomplishments in Accel Partners and the numerous high-tech companies he helped raise funds for, Luo Wenxin is undoubtedly a formidable figure within the company. His courteous demeanor skillfully conceals an underlying assertiveness.

The Silicon Valley region is home to many such figures as Luo Wenxin, who understands that during that summer, investors with reputations and capabilities on par with him attempted to meet with Zuckerberg and Su Cun through various channels and means.

They even employed unheard-of methods, like inviting the two onto a yacht worth millions for negotiations without any sense of place or time. They tried forcing items such as Hummers or mansion keys into Zuckerberg’s hands in an attempt to break the youthful ambitions of these two young men with blatant materialistic attacks. Some even attempted to bring all-American supermodels to seduce them into compliance.

In China, this would be accurately described as "the corrosion from capitalist sugar-coated bullets."

This is the power of capitalism, capable of shaking human greed and laziness throughout thousands of years of social history.

In their view, this kind of corruption is even difficult for seasoned politicians and officials to resist; those people are even reckless enough to indulge in materialism despite the risk of losing their heads.

But a mere twenty-something young man was completely unmoved by it all. His original intention was that laughable, tragic, absurd dream of wanting "to change the world."

A person who has truly experienced life's hardships will one day tell them that this world is never easy to change; what gets changed are always oneself.

In Su Can’s view, not selling KACBK for a few hundred million dollars was just him knowing that after doing so, history might paint him as shortsighted and profit-driven, picking up peanuts while losing watermelons. He would soon be overshadowed by someone like Hong Tao, where the victors are celebrated and the losers are condemned. No one knew that he didn’t sell his shares simply because he didn't want to become a scapegoat; it was as humiliating as wearing a green hat and could make a person’s eyes turn green out of resentment.

Su Can relied on his advantage of being reborn with foresight, navigating this hurdle that many others would find difficult to resist if they were in his shoes.

But what about Mark Not knowing the future of Mark Zuckerberg, why could he withstand such a huge material temptation Could it be simply because he came from a dentist's family near New York and had never struggled for survival or worried about making ends meet Yet this was never the most accurate reason.

Su Can realized for the first time that the Mark who habitually stayed in his office late into the night, with blue light flickering on his face from the computer screen, wasn't as simple as he had imagined; rather, it was even more complex and intricate. This showed him that a person's success has its own elements of both chance and inevitability.

Lu Wenxin looked at Su Can before him—a mild-mannered man who, like the Mark in Palo Alto headquarters, could navigate through all sorts of pressure tactics employed by Silicon Valley venture capitalists to get where he is today. The strength within this person's mind cannot be measured simply by their age and appearance. This thought made Lu Wenxin approach Su Can with utmost seriousness.

When discussing Chinese VC investments with Lu Wenxin, the latter laughed: "Starting from the 1990s, most of China’s high-tech companies and internet firms were primarily supported by venture capitalists. The first foreign VCs to enter China, such as IDG Capital and SoftBank, achieved remarkable success; however, as China develops, more international VCs have begun focusing on this market. Chinese counterparts like CDB Venture Capital and AsiaSoftbank are also quite strong; but compared internationally, they seem somewhat inferior."

"What they truly need to worry about is the top-tier American VC firm Sequoia Capital. Currently, Sequoia has noticed China’s potential and plans on setting up fund teams both inland and in Hong Kong, making bold moves whenever it acts. Similarly, another global No. 1 VC firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) is also actively seeking to establish a network of elites who can represent them in China."

"With their extensive reach and formidable information teams, these two top VCs around the world would make ordinary tier-one or tier-two venture capitalists pale in comparison.

It’s highly likely that any future high-tech internet companies in China will bear their distinctive marks and have a background related to them."

After the legal department and two major VC firms explained the related contractual terms to Su Cen, during everyone's lunch break to replenish energy and strength, Luo Wenxin said to Su Cen, "So actually, you can consider transferring some shares of Faceplate Chinese to us." The partners from Axel Company are very interested in your Faceplate Chinese. They will definitely offer a fair price."

"We don't need money temporarily," Su Cen replied without turning his head.

""Then I am quite puzzled as to why you are so interested in our Axel Company You know each of our partners very well, and you are also very concerned about our profit-making methods and work style, as well as past investment cases. Isn't this a form of assessment" Luo Wenxin was at a loss for an explanation upon discovering Su Cen's unusual attention and interest towards his company.

"I am simply interested," Su Cen smiled when he raised his head.

At last, Luo Wenxin glanced at Su Cen one more time and shook his head. "It is really puzzling." Su Cen's interest in Axel Company was merely to see what capital and background this currently obscure company had that made it immediately famous after investing in Facebook, surpassing Sequoia Capital and KPCB, which were previously ranked as the global top two, to become the world’s number one risk investment firm. He wanted to know their capabilities and底蘊.

From then on, following Axel Company's and Merytech Capital representative's visit to China, the combined venture capital group comprising of Greylock, Axel, Thiel, and Merytech Capital concluded its funding play by officially reaching an agreement with Facebook for a $63 million investment in exchange for 12.8% equity.

In the agreement signed at Hilton Shanghai on January 11th, the number of Facebk stocks that Su Cen owned was increased to 1,283,456 shares, with his equity stake reduced from approximately 42% to about 37.9%, losing a total of 4.5 percentage points in dilution.

The Washington Post Group's shareholding dropped from the original 5% to 4%, holding roughly 135,457 shares; while Mark Zuckerberg’s equity ratio in America decreased from 53% to 48.1%, a reduction of 4.9%. In this round of financing, Facebook was valued at six billion dollars.

Su Cen remembered that there was an esteemed business master who once said that the real economy is like "external martial arts," while financial economics is akin to "internal skills." The two have been interwoven since their inception and are both interconnected and independent. To run a large-scale business, one must enter the capital market to hone internal skills. A truly great company is well-versed in both.

This round of financing brought a substantial amount of cash that would allow the company to explore more profit-making methods freely, to expand its territory boldly, and for Su Cen to have the bold financial advantage needed to acquire World of Warcraft shares or start implementing his grand ideas.

For example, could he reward Wang Ming in Dunhuang Chengdu with a Porsche or Mercedes-Benz Could Lin Guangdong's Borro Media experience rapid expansion fueled by abundant funds Should he consider acquiring several properties in the Hangzhou area that are highly praised among financial elites, such as Waterfront Mansion residences In January, when the Shanghai Yushan International Conference Center was newly established and drew considerable attention from high-ranking officials at the national level, it seemed within consideration to integrate 54 unique villa units into Shimaoyu's Yushan Estate in the green mountains. Or, perhaps this was the beginning of expanding a broader overseas territory for the Big Pineapple Holdings ship. When signing on the dotted line of the agreement, Su Cen also thought about breaking through the blockade and encirclement imposed by Jian Hua and the Southeast High System.

This event would later be referred to as "The Third Round of Financing War" in Facebook's history.

Ordinary university life became colorful and full of surprises amidst these unforeseen incidents and breakthroughs.h Su Can.Wang Lu sat dazedly on the ground, staring at this dramatic scene without crying anymore. She actually felt a slight satisfaction seeing Shuan Junhao getting beaten up.Su Can stood away from...