Major investment banks and financial investment companies in the United States were naturally interested in ICQ. Of course, some multinational companies in Europe and Asia also expressed their intention to participate in ICQ's Series B financing.
The board of directors, represented by CEO Visg, certainly welcomed this.
The main purpose of ICQ's financing was to attract powerful allies from the global market, so that ICQ could gain more support in countries outside North America.
You must know, those companies, although not as powerful as Microsoft and Goldman Sachs, hold significant influence in the economic, political, and other fields within their respective countries and regions. With their participation, ICQ's globalization strategy could naturally develop more rapidly.
Microsoft: "Support share expansion!"
Goldman Sachs: "We also support share expansion!"
News Corp: "But there is a problem: how many shares will be offered this time?"
Sequoia Capital: "No matter how the shares are diluted, we at Sequoia Capital will follow suit to ensure our shares are not diluted."
HP: "On the issue of the Series B financing, we have decided to make additional investments. We hope to have more equity in ICQ."
Amazon: "Don't bully me, the new director. Anyway, we've decided to follow suit."
There was no doubt that representatives of the six major shareholders, including Microsoft, all expressed the need to make additional investments to prevent dilution of their shares.
Dilute proportionally?
Haha!
Of course, the representatives of the six major shareholders would not agree.
So what was the problem?
They didn't want their shares diluted, so the only option was to dilute the shares of Zane and the ICQ founding team.
The six major shareholders were all powerful parties, while Visg and others were the weaker ones. Naturally, the six would take the lion's share of the shares raised in this financing. However, Visg and others, including Zane, would receive a large amount of cash.
After several meetings, it was finally decided that ICQ would offer 30% of its shares.
...
June 30th.
On this day, ICQ's Series B financing was officially completed.
The speed was simply staggering!
This was mainly due to ICQ's rapid development speed and its high popularity in the market. To obtain shares, investment representatives from all over the world were simply not hesitating to spend money. Major companies such as Dell, Nintendo, Citi, French First Bank, European Phillips Group, etc., joined in one after another. How could it not be a happy occasion?
In this round of financing, among ICQ's original shareholders, only Goldman Sachs and News Corporation saw their holdings increase slightly, while the shareholding ratios of other shareholders declined to varying degrees.
Microsoft, in the Series B financing project, was the most vociferous, but in reality, it gave up part of its shares without hesitation.
This increased the vigilance of the multi-party shareholder representatives.
Bezos said, "What is Microsoft doing?"
Zane frowned and said, "Maybe Microsoft is planning to exit. You know, Microsoft has a monopoly on computer system users worldwide. Once they launch their own instant messaging software, ICQ is likely to meet the same fate as Netscape."
"Right!" Bezos nodded solemnly. "Given Microsoft's usual predatory habits, they must have this idea. So, it's completely wrong to say that my buying a stake in ICQ this time was a mistake! Zane, you bastard, I regret it."
Zane said he would never give you a chance.
In the original timeline, shortly after the advent of ICQ, Microsoft noticed the potential in the instant messaging field. They wanted to enter the market immediately, but they were engaged in a browser war with Netscape and had no extra energy at all.
But!
The situation was different now!
Microsoft's IE browser, with its huge user base and aggressive forced installation tactics, suppressed Netscape's living space in one fell swoop. It was only a matter of time before Microsoft won this battle.
In other words, once Microsoft achieved a full victory and freed up its resources, they would inevitably enter the instant messaging market.
"In the original timeline, MSN instant messaging was born under these circumstances!"
"Microsoft's aggressive tactics, just ask if you're afraid!"
Of course, the ICQ with multiple allies was not as easy to bully as in the original timeline. As for who would ultimately win the war in the instant messaging field, Zane, the time traveler, could not predict.
But, it wasn't Zane's turn to worry about it!
12%!
This was Zane's current shareholding ratio in the ICQ company.
His shares had been diluted significantly, but the market value was still very valuable.
"If I wait until ICQ is listed, even if the shares are diluted again, my net worth will rise again because of the value of this portion of the shares!" Zane thought.
Especially given the current stage of investors pursuit of the Internet!
Therefore, Zane had great confidence.
In the late 1990s, global investors were blind when it came to Internet projects.
"Internet company myths" kept appearing, stimulating investors time and time again.
In 1996, Yahoo! was officially listed on the Nasdaq. In just a few years, its stock price increased by an incredible 64 times, and its total market capitalization reached an astonishing $45 billion;
Amazon, the online bookstore founded by Jeff Bezos, created another myth.
The company's stock was listed on the Nasdaq on May 15, 1997. In the following year and a half, the company basically did not make any profits, but by the end of 1998, its stock price had risen by 2300%. A few months later, it had risen by 4000%, and the total market capitalization reached $40 billion!
At this stage, even if you didn't have a company office address, even if you didn't invest a single penny, as long as you had a more detailed Internet high-concept plan, you would definitely be able to secure investment!
Of course, there was no shortage of money-making scams.
Generally speaking, as long as Internet companies performed reasonably well in the late 1990s, their market value skyrocketed.
"eToys is one of the most well-known representatives!"
eToys was established in 1997, and its main business was selling various toys through its own website.
During the Internet boom in 1999, the company's stock was listed on NASDAQ. Its total market capitalization reached $8 billion as soon as it opened, greatly surpassing the $6 billion market capitalization of the time-honored toy company Toys "R" Us, which shocked the entire industry.
However!
In fact, the latter's business performance was much higher than the former's!
In 1998, the former's sales were a mere $30 million, while the latter's were as high as $11.2 billion, almost 400 times that of the former. In terms of profitability, the former lost $28.6 million in 1998, while the latter was profitable, earning $376 million.
The fundamental difference between the two was so great!
The stock price was inverted!
This precisely showed how the rationality of investors in the Nasdaq market at this time had been lost.
"Go crazy!"
"The crazier it gets, the more I will make!"
"Whether it's the 12% of ICQ shares or the 2% of Yahoo shares I hold, there will be countless gains in this feast."
"Of course, before the arrival of the dot-com bubble, I must withdraw and exit."
Zane kept thinking about it.
Of course, thinking about it would pass. This wasn't an immediate concern. Zane's current main focus was to deal with the Asian financial crisis.
Opportunity!
An opportunity for Zane's wealth to skyrocket once again!
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