Temporary gains and losses are certainly important.

　　But for Su Yehao, it wasn't the most crucial thing.

　　As long as he held on long enough, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, he was confident he could earn enough profit.

　　Therefore, arriving at the PayPal headquarters today, Su Yehao practically had the words "I want to acquire you" written all over his face. Without the slightest pretense, he placed the check flat on the conference table, waiting for everyone to respond.

　　According to the information provided by McKinsey Consulting,

　　PayPal hadn't gone public yet, but they had expressed the intention to do so. However, they still lacked some necessary conditions for listing, such as meeting revenue targets and shareholder number requirements, none of which were particularly difficult.

　　So, in Su Yehao's view, now was the best time to acquire them; hesitation could easily lead to unexpected events.

　　Including Elon Musk, a group of people from PayPal looked at each other in dismay.

　　A middle-aged white woman from a venture capital firm tentatively asked, "Su, you want to acquire this company? Then... how much are you willing to pay for it?"

　　Su Yehao immediately replied, "Three hundred million dollars. That's a very fair price."

　　After hearing this, the people at PayPal basically agreed that it was indeed a reasonable price.

　　Last year, before the bubble burst, the company had only officially launched for three or four months. They had raised tens of millions of dollars by selling concepts, but the money was gone before the end of the year, with monthly expenses exceeding ten million dollars.

　　Out of desperation, the company adopted a strategy of charging transaction fees, which allowed them to secure another round of funding and struggle on until now.

　　The entire market was in a state of panic, and no one knew which companies would ultimately survive. Some companies that had been performing well went bankrupt overnight, and the online payment industry was quite competitive.

　　Elon Musk was still young, in his prime, and taking chances. He replied, "No one knows what the market will be like in the future. It could get worse, but it could also get better."

　　"Yes, that's certainly possible, but I don't think the market will truly recover for at least the next three years. If you choose to sell the company to me, you can use the money to buy a mansion, travel, do anything you want, without having to bear the risk of failure."

　　Su Yehao smiled and added:

　　"Microsoft's MSN Messenger is competing with my Yanwenzi (emoticons), which made me realize that I can't put all my eggs in the instant messaging market. If I have your business as well, it might help the company's performance. You know, investors need to understand our potential. That's why I'm here today."

　　John Zhou helped by saying:

　　"That's right. In fact, the board of directors has some disagreements on whether to acquire PayPal. Your company has been performing well recently, but you still have many competitors. There are several promising payment tool startups in Silicon Valley alone; they just need a little bit of luck."

　　The implication was clear: if they weren't satisfied with the cooperation with PayPal, Yanwenzi Group might invest in other competitors.

　　This would undoubtedly be a huge blow to PayPal.

　　Su Yehao controlled Yanwenzi Group and Google, with a total of 80 million users worldwide, and he had sufficient funds. No matter which of PayPal's competitors he supported, it would lead to a sharp decline in PayPal's position in the industry.

　　Before this, no industry giants had ventured into this field, only some venture capital firms had paid attention.

　　As the entire market cooled, the attractiveness of startups plummeted. PayPal's Series B funding in March was mainly supported by several shareholders who participated in the Series A funding, raising a total of $50 million.

　　In just over a month, they now had only a little over $30 million left in their account, which was expected to last until September at most. If they failed to secure new funding, they would have to sell to a competitor or liquidate their assets.

　　Elon Musk's partner, David Flint, then asked with interest:

　　"Su, I've heard about you for a long time. I know you're a very clever person with a good head on your shoulders. We understand the acquisition plan, so what about a financing plan? What's the maximum amount of funding you're willing to provide?"

　　"...Two hundred million dollars. I need to own 75% of the shares. Yanwenzi Group lacks core business, and holding too few shares is meaningless to me."

　　Su Yehao spread his hands and finished by saying:

　　"This financing plan is also very beneficial to you. I'm confident that I can increase PayPal's active users by ten million within a year. Two hundred million dollars is enough to support PayPal's IPO. Although your shareholding will be reduced, it's very likely to become more valuable."

　　Among the people present, Su Yehao undoubtedly held the initiative. The principle that "money talks" was vividly demonstrated in Silicon Valley these days.

　　The market wasn't lacking projects; it was lacking funds.

　　In the past few years, capital had poured into Silicon Valley like crazy. Some people could get tens of millions of dollars with just a proposal.

　　Now, even if they encountered a good company, investors suspected that they would become the sucker, losing money rapidly after investing real cash, and ending up with nothing.

　　PayPal's situation was already considered pretty good, but the company was burning money like crazy during its expansion, making life difficult.

　　The right to speak wasn't in the hands of the several founders, including Elon Musk. With the completion of the Series B funding, it had become dominated by venture capital firms.

　　Venture capital firms found it difficult to develop an emotional connection to the company itself; their focus was solely on whether they could profit.

　　Based on the funds they had invested to date, trading PayPal at a price of $300 million would result in a profit of approximately 200%. Investing $10 million would turn into $30 million, and as Su Yehao said, they wouldn't have to bear any potential risks.

　　Having experienced the bubble last year, many venture capital firms had realized that valuation wasn't money, and stock price wasn't money; only what was in their own pockets was money.

　　Whether selling the entire company or financing $200 million at once, in their eyes, it was a fairly good plan, basically solving the long-term problem that had been bothering them once and for all – the fear that PayPal would fail.

　　After both sides continued to discuss some details, Su Yehao left with John Zhou and went straight to Netflix.

　　Still simple and direct, he offered an overall acquisition price of $80 million for this company with over 3 million customers, and he would assume Netflix's debt.

　　Last year, Netflix lost a total of over $58 million. They had originally planned to exchange performance for financing, but they didn't expect the financing market to collapse and not recover until now.

　　With no money to use, customer growth slowed down significantly, and the company was on the verge of bankruptcy.

　　This company was founded in 1997, and had been around for less than five years, and also faced intense competition from its peers. The founder had recently been peddling the company everywhere, hoping someone would be willing to take over.

　　Su Yehao's arrival was like a match made in heaven...