Alan Abelson, who is now in his seventies, is a bellwether for the U.S. stock market and is very trusted by investors.
During the 1987 stock market crash, Alan Abelson published an article in Barron's in advance, foreshadowing the subsequent bear market.
Nowadays, Alan Abelson suddenly targets Deep Space Company's acquisition of BenQ Dentsu, which also makes people who had great trust in Deep Space murmur in their hearts. After all, Alan Abelson's authority is still very strong.
Yes, his vision is very accurate and he rarely makes mistakes.
However, external doubts do not have much impact on Deep Space. After all, they are not listed and do not need financing.
Just when the outside world was buzzing about Deep Space's acquisition of BenQ Dentsu, Yu Dong, who was writing a new book "Heartbeat" in the office, received a cross-border phone call from Jimmy.
After learning that the caller was Jimmy, Yu Dong couldn't help but look at his watch. It was now around three o'clock in the afternoon, which meant that it was late midnight at Jimmy's place.
"It's already three or four o'clock in the morning over there, why are you still not asleep?" Yu Dong said unexpectedly.
Jimmy said with a smile, "Whatever you want to sleep on, this period is a critical moment."
"Critical moment?" Yu Dong said with a little doubt in his tone, "Are you talking about the box office of "Infernal Affairs"? I didn't know you were so concerned about this movie."
Despite this speculation, Yu Dong himself thought it was unlikely.
"Infernal Affairs" is an inconspicuous one among the many film and television projects of Deep Space Company. The box office of this movie is so high that Jimmy can't stay awake for this movie.
"Of course not. The reason why I didn't sleep was because I was looking at pets' information." Jimmy said.
"pets? Are you talking about the pet supplies retail store that is about to close?"
"Yes, that's it, but it will take at least half a year to close it down. The money they have now is enough to last for a while."
In fact, PETS just raised more than 80 million US dollars through IPO in February, so it is impossible for them to go bankrupt immediately. The money will be enough for them to survive for a while.
If it weren't for Amazon, no one would even pay attention to them, and they wouldn't be able to bring about these things.
In addition to its IPO in February, the company has previously received four rounds of investment, which provided them with a total of US$110 million in funding.
But just half a month later, Pets is considering diversifying its business, and even thinking of making money by registering a patent for the sock puppet product.
Sock Puppet is the mascot of Pets Company, a talking dog. This mascot is very cute and its popularity in the United States is extraordinary. Some time ago, it even appeared in the prime advertising time of the Super Bowl and was also printed on
Balloons in the Thanksgiving Day Parade.
It's just that no matter how cute the mascot is, it can't save Pets Company. Since its listing in February, their stock performance has been very poor. After such a long time, the price has not exceeded the initial issue price of US$11.
"What do you hope to gain from such a company that is about to go bankrupt?" Yu Dong asked very puzzledly.
Jimmy replied, "I hope that when the pets are liquidated, we can directly take them down and let him become an experimental field for us."
"Experimental field?" Yu Dong became more and more confused as he listened.
"Well, in the experimental field, there are big problems with the current business model of pets. I don't agree with it. If I can win the pet, I hope to change the business model."
Yu Dong pondered: "If you don't agree with pets' business model, you don't necessarily have to win pets. As far as I know, their company burns money too fast and has spent tens of millions on marketing and promotion. They
We don’t have many warehouses, and even the competitors we just acquired haven’t been integrated yet. Is it possible that you are interested in their dog food channels?”
Jimmy denied, "Of course not. In my opinion, it is very difficult for this website to make a profit from pet food. First of all, the shipping cost of pet food is not low, and those canned cats and dog cans are not cheap. Secondly, the profit point of the product itself is
It's very low. I also did some research and found that the profit margin of cat and dog food is only between 2% and 4%. Not to mention pets can't raise money, even if they can raise a sum of money now
, I am afraid that it will not be possible to achieve profitability within three or four years. Even if it is profitable, the profit point is not impressive. The most important thing is that the irreplaceability of this website is too low. Compared with comprehensive e-commerce, they do not have much
Advantages. Sooner or later, comprehensive e-commerce websites like Amazon will have many third-party stores for pet supplies, and by then pets will be even less competitive.”
"That's true." Yu Dong nodded, acknowledging Jimmy's last words.
Vertical e-commerce companies like Pets are at a huge disadvantage compared to comprehensive e-commerce companies like Amazon.
Under normal circumstances, if consumers choose to shop online, the first thing they think of is Amazon, a comprehensive e-commerce company that has everything. Instead of going to one website to buy dog ​​food, one website to buy sporting goods, and another website to buy electronic products.
Going to one website is too much trouble for consumers, who prefer to solve all their shopping needs on one website.
Some people may say that Amazon also made its fortune from selling books back then. Why can't pets copy Amazon's success and make a fortune from pet supplies?
But in fact, there is a very big difference between pet supplies and books. First of all, the shipping cost alone is incomparable.
Moreover, Amazon has cooperated with Ingram from the beginning to obtain the best book channels. It can be said that you can buy any book you want on the Amazon website.
But pets is different. They cannot cover all types of pet supplies, and there is no comprehensive wholesaler in the pet supplies field that you can rely on like Ingram.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! There is another key point that cannot be ignored, that is, when Amazon was founded, there were no decent e-commerce websites, so they had many opportunities.
When pets appear at this point in time, not to mention other websites, Amazon alone is enough for them to choke - even if Amazon is their investor.
Since its creation, pets has relied on a lot of marketing on the one hand, and on the other hand it has won the market with ultra-low prices, and the website sells only a small number of pet toys.
But when Jimmy said this, Yu Dong became even more confused, "Since you are so unfavorable to this company, why do you want to win over them? Isn't this contradictory?"
"Although I don't like their model, they have done some right things after all. If nothing else, at least their website has a high reputation. In addition, their channels and warehouses are also in good shape.
.I estimated that if we start a website of the same type from scratch, it will take at least a year to reach their current conditions. In this case, it is better for us to spend some money to take them down now and save money.
This year, time is more important to us than money.”
Yu Dong pondered, "Since you have decided, I won't go against you and just take them down. However, we just acquired BenQ Dentsu, do we still have the money to take them down now? Can't we just win them down because of that?"
This company has affected the development of BenQ Dentsu."
Jimmy laughed, "So isn't this a call to you? The money you have has also been put to use."
Yu Dong was stunned for a moment, then laughed loudly and said, "It turns out you were targeting the money in my pocket. Last time you said you would keep the money in my pocket for other purposes. Could it be that you wanted to acquire this company?"
"Not really, it was my last-minute idea to win pets. After all, I didn't expect that pets, which was so high-spirited at the time, would close down in a blink of an eye. If I could have predicted this, I definitely wouldn't have let Amazon invest. That's a lot of money.
Tens of millions of real money, if the pets really arrive, all this money will be wasted."
Not only Jimmy didn't expect it, most people didn't expect this possibility, otherwise pets wouldn't have been able to raise so much money.
"How much does it cost?" Yu Dong asked.
Jimmy smiled and said: "You didn't ask me about the specific plan and just agreed to pay for it?"
Yu Dong said nonchalantly, "I believe in your vision. Besides, since you said you want an experimental field, it's okay to lose a little money. It's not like we can't afford to lose. I dare not say more than a few hundred million."
You can still afford to lose U.S. dollars."
Jimmy laughed strangely, "Hey, my god, you are inflated. But don't worry, even if you lose money, it won't be much. Pets has received a total of more than 200 million U.S. dollars in investment, but with their current
In this case, it doesn’t cost much to acquire them. Including the subsequent operations, we will need to pay between US$250 million and US$400 million. And this money does not need to be paid out immediately, as long as it is paid out gradually in the next three years.
That’s it. In my plan, the first three years are the preparation period, and profits are not considered.”
"In the next two or three years, we need to integrate channels and resources for pets and enrich their product types. It is impossible to make the business big by simply selling canned dogs and canned cats. We also need to take into account other aspects of pets.
Supplies, I spent some time classifying pet supplies into three major categories.”
"Food, utensils, medical care?" Yu Dong answered.
Jimmy snapped his fingers on the other end of the phone: "Bingo, in terms of food, pets have already captured a large market, but they are mainly focused on cat and dog food, which is low-profit and can even be said to be a loss. It lacks competitiveness, so after taking over the website
, I hope to be able to refine the types of food, such as kitten food, adult cat food, senior cat food, and hair ball removal cat food, hairy cat food, sensitive gastrointestinal cat food, etc. You also know, refinement
Products are tools for making money. As an e-commerce company, what we have to do is not to sell consumers what they need, but to sell them what consumers want."
"In addition to food, there are also pet supplies, such as water dispensers, feeding machines, climbing frames, nest mats... There are many things that ordinary consumers have never seen, but they will definitely want them after seeing them."
"As for medical care, veterinary resources are too scattered and marketization is very difficult, but we can make some attempts to develop pet medical care towards regional chain and standardization. At this point, online is as important as offline. We
We can cooperate with some chain veterinary stores.”
After hearing what Jimmy said so much, Yu Dong probably understood his train of thought.
In fact, what Jimmy wants to build is not just a vertical pet supplies e-commerce website, but a website similar to a pet community.
People who like pets can choose pets, buy pet supplies, learn how to cultivate pets, and even treat pets on this website.
And Jimmy is not only going to be a channel, he is also planning to invest in factories and take control of part of the production lines.
This is just Jimmy's preliminary plan. After the initial goal is achieved, Jimmy also hopes that this website can develop in the high-tech direction of intelligence and Internet of things.
Although Jimmy didn't say it, Yu Dong already understood what he meant by the experimental field. Probably Jimmy wanted to explore an intelligent high-tech development path through the track of pet products, because sooner or later, the Deep Space Company will reach this point.
This step.
Before this happens, it is certainly a good thing to spend money to acquire a company to help the deep space company step out of the way.
"Experiments are experiments, but you can't focus too much on it. BenQ Dentsu has just acquired it, and there are still many things to do for you." Yu Dong still reminded him that what he is most concerned about now is BenQ Dentsu.
, nothing else is important.
Jimmy smiled and said: "Don't worry about this. I have already found the general manager of the new company. I am only responsible for determining the company's general policy. Someone will take care of other things."
Yu Dong nodded, "That's good. You can handle this matter yourself. You can complete the procedures later and I'll have someone send you the money. It's getting late now, so you'd better go to bed early, Britney."
He is many years younger than you, and if you stay up late like this every day, the gap between you two will become wider and wider."
Yu Dong's words immediately hit Jimmy's lungs, "Okay, okay, I'll go to sleep right away."
…
Yu Dong looked at the phone with a busy tone in his hand and couldn't help but smile.
Jimmy seems to be quite serious about Britney, which is a bit surprising.
As for pets, Yu Dong didn't have any considerations at all. He agreed to pay. On the one hand, of course, he trusted Jimmy. He and Jimmy had been together for so many years, and they had a very deep understanding of each other. On the other hand, he also liked Jimmy.
Got the sock puppet, the mascot of the pets company.
Yu Dong believes that if this mascot is well developed, the profits it can bring are very considerable.
As long as they can develop this mascot well, they won't lose much even if they lose money.
Due to the vigorous marketing of the PETS company, this mascot is very well-known. With the foundation of IP operation, it can appear in the film management of the deep space series. If the opportunity is right, a movie can even be made for it.
.
Chapter completed!