Zeng Qing quickly gathered all shareholders of the Tengda team, except for Xiao Ma Ge, and met with all the investors in secret. After discussions and confirmations, several investors jointly contributed 160 million RMB to purchase their combined 12% stake.
The day after the transaction was completed, the Tengda team reportedly erupted, with fierce conflicts rumored to have broken out between them and Xiao Ma Ge inside the office. Ultimately, Xiao Ma Ge was said to have left Tengda in a state of despair.
A day later, even more astonishing news emerged: Xiao Ma Ge sold all of his 8% stake in Tengda to Zeng Qing. Zeng Qing accepted the offer wholeheartedly, acquiring Xiao Ma Ge's 8% shares. Since Zeng Qing already owned 6% of the shares, he reportedly borrowed some money to raise 100 million RMB and purchased Xiao Ma Ge's 8% stake.
As a result, the entire Tengda team underwent a massive transformation. Almost everyone in the Tengda team, excluding Zeng Qing, successfully cashed out at the peak valuation of Tengda, with each person earning tens of thousands and becoming a bona fide millionaire.
As for Xiao Ma Ge, he quickly disappeared with his 100 million RMB. No one knew where he went. Some said he was heartbroken and had completely lost interest in the industry, moving on to other fields.
Others speculated that he had established an investment company and transitioned into investments.
There were also rumors that he got lost in Macau, quickly lost all his 100 million, becoming destitute like a beggar.
Still others suggested that Xiao Ma Ge was unwilling to accept defeat and was actually enduring hardship, preparing for his next opportunity to rise again.
In any case, where Xiao Ma Ge went and what he did remained a secret for several years, unknown to anyone. However, Huang He knew very well that Xiao Ma Ge was not someone who would easily accept failure and was surely preparing for his comeback.
The only mystery was how he would launch his attack when the time came.
However, Huang He paid it no mind. Even if Xiao Ma Ge managed to make a comeback in the future, at most he would be like Pinduoduo. It would be impossible to contend with the rising Jiangnan Group.
Although Xiao Ma Ge had disappeared, Tengda still existed. Zeng Qing, despite not cashing out successfully, gained the recognition of all investors afterwards and became the CEO of Tengda.
The first thing Zeng Qing did upon becoming CEO of Tengda was to immediately contact Jiangnan Group, expressing his willingness to sell the QQ business, bundled as a package, to Jiangnan Group.
Only three days had passed since Xiao Ma Ge announced his resignation.
Huang Laoban naturally felt a great deal of melancholy. He had spent two full years plotting to deal with QQ, and now everything had finally succeeded, yet he didn't feel particularly happy.
After all, in China's online world, the absence of QQ was too unbearable.
However, despite his melancholy, Huang He was very interested in inheriting QQ's legacy. He personally invited Zeng Qing to visit Wenzhou, and the negotiations for the acquisition of the QQ business began.
Zeng Qing had ambitious expectations, starting by demanding 1 billion RMB for the core QQ business.
Huang He ignored him. Zeng Qing let out a dry laugh and explained, "Mr. Huang, this price was set by the investors. I am merely conveying it. If you find it unsuitable, we can discuss it further!"
"Just tell me your investors' bottom line," Huang He said, rolling his eyes. "As long as the price is right, I am willing to buy QQ."
"Five hundred million!" Zeng Qing stated crisply. "This is the investors' bottom line. Mr. Huang, at this price, the investors have already lost a lot, considering they originally spent 800 million to purchase 60% of QQ."
"I don't care if they lost money or not; I only know that this price is a huge loss for me!" Huang He said with a dry laugh. "Now that Xiao Ma Ge is gone, the last person in the Tengda team who posed a threat to me is also gone. From now on, as long as we develop normally, our Jiangnan Group doesn't need to do anything. At most, it will take some time to completely absorb all of QQ's users. This is just a matter of time for us."
"Why do you think I would still spend 500 million to buy QQ?" Huang He retorted.
"..." Zeng Qing fell silent. Although he desperately wanted to argue that QQ still had a 32% market share and a chance to fight back, Zeng Qing also understood that even Xiao Ma Ge had chosen to voluntarily withdraw, quickly cashing out and fleeing with 100 million RMB, which indicated that QQ was indeed beyond saving.
Furthermore, QQ was no longer an asset for Tengda, but a burden, a burden that consumed millions of yuan every month for network fees and server maintenance.
"Then, Mr. Huang, what about the game operation plan we previously discussed?" Zeng Qing asked the question that was actually of most concern to him, and to all the investors.
The reason these investors were willing to spend another 160 million RMB to acquire QQ shares was for the future vision described by Zeng Qing: to primarily operate game businesses, then leverage the traffic from the QQ game center for free, and finally make huge profits through games.
"That is certainly not a problem, because I, Huang He, value promises the most!" Huang He immediately responded. "In fact, you've come at the perfect time. Our QQ game will be spun off from QQ tomorrow, becoming a separately operating subsidiary under Jiangnan Group, and will also undertake game listing and sales business!"
Huang He smiled and said, "The specific rules are as I previously revealed to you. Your games can be listed on the QQ game platform, and all QQ users and Facebook users can log into the QQ game platform directly. There will also be a large number of advertising recommendations and traffic diversion methods to attract users to play these games."
"These advertising and traffic diversion services are all free of charge; you do not need to pay any fees. However, in return, all revenue from game point card sales, value-added services, and so on, will be collected by our QQ game platform. Of course, as the operator, you will also have detailed income data and information."
"Afterwards, we will settle accounts once a month. The platform will deduct 30% of all revenue as platform operating fees, and the remaining 70% will be remitted to your account on the settlement date."
"What do you think? Isn't this a very profitable deal?" Huang He said with a smile.
"Mr. Huang, what you promised me before was not like this!" Zeng Qing's expression changed. "You promised me that you would not charge any intermediary fees, but now you want to charge us 30%?"
"That's because the conditions I requested then were also different!" Huang He smiled. "What I told you back then was that Tengda would voluntarily abandon the QQ business and be fully merged into the QQ business. But now you are telling me to sell the QQ business to you for 500 million RMB. Why should I still waive the intermediary platform operating fees?"
"If you want it waived, then you must sell all of your QQ business and all users to Jiangnan Group for 1 million RMB. This way, I can waive the platform operating fees for you for 10 years."
"However, to prevent your company from becoming an intermediary for intermediaries, allowing other game companies to list games through your company and enjoy waived operating service fees, a truly disgusting situation, your company will only be allowed to have one game with waived platform operating fees. As for which game it is, you can decide yourselves, and you can change it once every quarter."
"Mr. Huang... Aren't you going back on your word? What about your promise?" Zeng Qing was anxious.
"Every word I said has not violated my promise. If you don't believe me, I still have recordings of our conversation back then. You can listen and see if I explained everything clearly!" Huang He said.
"But you didn't say back then that you would only allow us one game to have waived operating fees!" Zeng Qing was anxious.
"Oh, and I also didn't say that you could have all your games waive operating fees!" Huang He said with a slight smile, then patted Zeng Qing on the shoulder. "Mr. Zeng, don't resent me now, because you will soon discover that even with only one game having waived operating fees, over 10 years, you will earn profits and income far exceeding 500 million RMB."
"Alright, the specific choice is up to you. You can continue to stick to the 500 million RMB offer, or sell QQ to me for 100 million RMB, or sell QQ to me for 1 million RMB while enjoying the benefit of waived operating service fees from our QQ game platform," Huang He said with a smile.
Afterwards, although Zeng Qing still tried to fight for it, Huang He did not budge. After they had dinner together, Huang He simply left, and no longer gave Zeng Qing opportunities to meet. Zeng Qing could only return to Shenzhen and discuss with all the investors.
He very frankly presented Huang He's several options to the investors, letting them make their own decisions. He refused to take the blame.
In response, the investors debated intensely.
Selling QQ for 100 million was simply out of the question; the price was too low, it was an insult.
Trading the QQ business for waived service fees for one game over the next 10 years sounded appealing, but this promising future was too vague, and the financial losses were very real.
Or, not selling it at all, continuing to operate QQ themselves, and waiting for a miracle to happen.
The investors debated for a long time about these choices and ultimately did not want to choose. Therefore, they decided not to sell QQ to Huang He and instead looked for other sellers.
Indeed, they found one.