I thought about the past two days and had a very pleasant stay. I had fun in the Crystal Park, played roller coasters, karts, and Ferris wheels, making up for all the regrets I had when I was a child. Then I took a vacation in the water village. Although the Brunei water village had not been planned by the government at this time, everything seemed primitive and backward and messy, stepping on the sea water and blowing the wind still made people feel relaxed.

Before returning to China, Chen Si suddenly received a call, said a few words and handed it to Song Weiyang directly: "Boss, Mr. Cai, the phone number of Alibaba and Mr. Cai is about the second round of financing."

"Hey, hello, Lao Cai!" Song Weiyang took the phone and said.

"Hello Boss Song," Cai Chongxin said straight to the point, "Mr. Ma has convinced SoftBank Masayoshi that the other party is willing to invest $30 million and demands to own 30% of the shares."

Song Weiyang smiled and said, "Masayoshi Son hasn't woken up, right?"

Cai Chongxin explained: "Alibaba's current situation is not very good. Foreign business has been shrinking across the board, and even Shenghai's headquarters in China has withdrawn. Wall Street's valuation of Alibaba is declining every month. Masayoshi Son is obviously very optimistic about Alibaba and bullies us at the bottom and cannot get financing from other investors, so he spoke out loud."

"I'm still shitting with the last one!" Song Weiyang said.

In order to raise funds this year, Son sold 80% of Kingston's shares. This transaction can be said to be a loss because Son acquired it for $1.45 billion, but now the selling price is only $450 million, and the book loss is directly lost by $1 billion, not to mention that Kingston has become more valuable in recent years.

There is only one explanation. Masayoshi Son was so poor that his capital chain was about to break, so he could only rely on selling the industry at a low price to get cash back.

But even in this situation of extreme shortage of money, Masayoshi Son is willing to invest $30 million in Alibaba, which shows how courageous and vision this person is.

Song Weiyang asked: "What do other shareholders say?"

Cai Chongxin smiled and said, "The other shareholders all opposed it. Given Alibaba's financial difficulties, they agreed to Son's capital injection. But they only agreed to Son's capital injection of 20 million US dollars, and they also recruited a new investment institution, several companies jointly invested 5 million US dollars. I called this time and wanted to ask Boss Song if he was willing to invest in more funds?"

Song Weiyang said: "Of course, I can invest another $8 million."

"Okay, I will immediately inform other shareholders of the situation, and then everyone will discuss a reasonable financing plan." Cai Chongxin said a few more words and hung up the phone.

Three weeks after returning to China, New Year's Day is almost coming, and Alibaba's second round of financing plan has finally been finalized.

Masayoshi Sun invested 20 million US dollars, Song Weiyang invested 8 million US dollars, and the other six major institutions jointly invested 5 million US dollars, Alibaba's shares became: Ma Xiaoyun's team (42.8%), Taurus Capital (14.8%), SoftBank (10.9%), Song Weiyang (9.1%), and the six major investment institutions totaled (22.4%).

Song Weiyang is still the largest individual shareholder, Taurus Capital is the largest corporate shareholder, and Masayoshi Son's holdings are far lower than that of another time and space.

However, this does not mean anything. If you want to maintain the shareholding rate, you have to continue to spend money. Otherwise, after Alibaba's third, fourth and fifth rounds of financing, the original shares will be diluted miserably.

...

After Song Weiyang returned to China, he received interview invitations from the media, because news about Shenzhou Technology suing the United States Bienwei and prosecuting many domestic companies for infringement have spread.

This kind of news was particularly novel in 2000, because more than 99% of companies did not even know how to make a move, so it was even more unlikely to go to the United States to sue.

Major newspapers have called this lawsuit the "first case of cross-border commercial litigation", and even alarmed the top official media. The People's X newspaper published an article by commentator: "As the progress of WTO negotiations continues to accelerate, it is inevitable that China will join WTO will join WTO... After China joins WTO, more and more companies will go international, and commercial disputes will inevitably arise. This requires understanding the laws of other countries and protecting their own legitimate rights and interests through legal means. The case of Shenzhou Technology Company suing the US Bienwei patent infringement can be said to have set a good example for domestic companies..."

"Chinese Entrepreneurs" published a document saying: "Chinese enterprises should pay attention to patent protection. At the beginning of reform and opening up, many patents in China were maliciously snatched away by overseas companies. At that time, there was a specialized institution. They collected invention patents everywhere in China and then took them abroad to apply for registration, which brought huge losses to Chinese scientific research institutions and companies... Now we are paying more and more attention to patents, which is a good development trend. The case of Shenzhou Technology's lawsuit against Bienwei is a microcosm of the regularization and internationalization of Chinese enterprises."

Anyway, this incident has caused a lot of controversy, and Shenzhou Technology has become famous because of this.

Many ordinary people may not even use Xiaolingtong, let alone use the computer, and they don’t know what the U disk is. As soon as the news came out, everyone felt that Shenzhou Technology was particularly awesome, and U disk must be an invention with a very high technical content, so powerful that American companies will infringe on their rights. From this point of view, Shenzhou Technology is also a powerful company, because they have been sued to the United States.

National pride suddenly appeared. I used to hear that Chinese companies spent a lot of money to introduce foreign technology, and there was a day when foreign companies came to China to steal patents!

Let me put it this way, if you don’t know when the small patent infringement lawsuit is held, the brand popularity of Shenzhou Technology in China will rise sharply. The sales of U-market exported to China by Bienwei fell sharply, almost to the point where no one bought it, because everyone has a better choice, why buy an "infamous" product?

Since Shenzhou Technology's patent lawsuit was prepared for a long time, the complaint was handed over to the "U.S. Federal Court of Appeal" as quickly as possible (this court specifically accepts patent and international trade cases), and a lawyer submitted a notice of prosecution to Bienwei.

As the defendant, Bienwei must respond within 20 days, otherwise it will be equivalent to waive the right to defend himself.

Bienwei originally ignored it, but suddenly learned that Kingston had obtained the U disk patent license, and Chinese agents also reported that Bienwei's U disk was unsalable. These two news directly made Bienwei panic. The former means that the lawsuit may be lost, and the latter means that Bienwei may lose the Chinese market.

So, Bienwei hurriedly contacted the US attorney of Shenzhou Technology and requested Shenzhou Technology to withdraw the lawsuit, hoping to make an out-of-court settlement.

American companies like out-of-court settlements very much because commercial lawsuits are protracted and the trial procedures are long and expensive. It is possible that a lawsuit will last for ten years, and the law firms will become the biggest winner.

The two sides quickly started negotiations and reached a settlement clause: Bienwei compensated Shenzhou Technology for US$1 million in one lump sum, and in the future, they will pay the U disk patent fee to Shenzhou Technology at a ratio of 0.3%, and join the U disk patent alliance initiated by Shenzhou Technology.

The reason why the negotiations went so smoothly was mainly because Shenzhou Technology was easy to talk about. It was just a small amount to compensate 1 million US dollars without the idea of ​​bleeding Bienwei. The 0.3% patent usage fee was far lower than the 0.5% market price, which was completely acceptable to Bienwei. Otherwise, Bienwei would definitely choose to sue or conduct protracted out-of-court negotiations.

But Shenzhou Technology is not a bad person, it has its own considerations.

After reaching a settlement with Bienwei, Shenzhou Technology immediately used this settlement agreement and the patent authorization contract signed with Bienwei and Kingston to send lawyers letters to all infringing manufacturers around the world who can make a name for their brand.

In the past, I didn’t get a response when I sent a lawyer’s letter. Now, the top two U disk manufacturers in the United States have prepared books, and the patent usage fee is still very low. In an instant, more than a dozen manufacturers were willing to sit down and negotiate.

As of March 2001, Shenzhou Technology has granted 18 overseas manufacturers the right to use USB flash drives, and can make a lot of money every year just by collecting patent fees.

At the same time, Shenzhou Technology promoted victory, and major media also cheered and celebrated, reporting that the United States must not respond to the lawsuit, and took the initiative to seek out-of-court reconciliation, and Chinese companies won a big victory!

I feel good next time. There is no need for Shenzhou Technology to say anything else. The domestic U disk manufacturers who pretend to be dead have taken the initiative to pay the patent fees. The price is not very expensive anyway. A 500-yuan U disk can be paid 1.5 yuan for Shenzhou Technology. There is no need to make a big fuss about it. It will be dirty for nothing.

Of course, those who do this are big brands, and small manufacturers don’t care about that much. They can make a fortune, and they don’t know when they will go bankrupt, and they are not afraid of being sued by Shenzhou Technology.

What's more, because the popularity of the China U-Park has soared, it directly counterfeits the China brand, like a mouse, and cannot catch it. It can only rely on the public security organs to crack down on counterfeit and inferior products.

Shenzhou Technology is completely popular, and computer sales are increasing.

Xiaolingtong, repeater, U disk, and computer are the four pillar products of Shenzhou Technology, and each product is full of money. Some industry insiders estimate that Shenzhou Technology's total assets are likely to have exceeded 10 billion yuan, and some financial institutions value Shenzhou Technology for 20 billion yuan.

Unfortunately, these are all speculations, because Shenzhou Technology is not a listed company, and a large amount of information will not be published to the public at all.

Financial institutions in Hong Kong City come to visit several times a year, hoping to help Shenzhou Technology go public, but Song Weiyang has never intended to go public. Because the company is not short of money at all, Xiaolingtong is like a money printing machine, and its cash flow can no longer be described as health, and it is almost fattening!
Chapter completed!