Chapter 558 - 292: The Tycoon’s Hobby! Targeted by the Tycoon
Early that morning, everyone was still reeling from the Soda’s takeover of the trending charts. All eyes were on the Soda, on Chen Jincheng, on Cai Xiaoyi, and on Tian Xiwei. But then, a short Tiao Yin video from Boss Lei suddenly landed at the top of the hot list—and it was about Chen Jincheng.
When Han Shangyou arrived at the company that morning, he wasn’t surprised to see Chen Jincheng dominating the hot list.
After all, he was Tiao Yin’s top star, and they had even pushed traffic to his Soda. It was only natural.
But the video Boss Lei suddenly posted left him dumbfounded.
Lei Xiaojun: "I had a conversation with Mr. Chen yesterday and truly benefited greatly. His business vision has my admiration. A night of reflection has also given me the motivation to go all out on a new venture. Also, I wish Mr. Chen’s Soda great success!"
Lei Xiaojun’s video truly made the online buzz around Chen Jincheng explode again. It was no surprise that it shot to the top of the hot list.
What kind of man was this titan?
His video was filled with undisguised praise for Chen Jincheng.
If it weren’t for the final line wishing Mr. Chen’s Soda great success, no one would have believed he was talking about Chen Jincheng.
After all, it sounded as if Boss Lei had received business guidance from Chen Jincheng.
Was Chen Jincheng really that incredible?
But Boss Lei had posted the video, so it definitely wasn’t just baseless talk. He even said he was going to go all out on something big.
And what was this "something big"?
Still, one had to admit that thanks to Boss Lei’s words, the credibility of Chen Jincheng’s "business vision" had leveled up yet again.
This was an endorsement from a titan.
This, in turn, led to people dragging Lin Hongxiao back into the spotlight for another round of public shaming.
After all, this was the same guy who had claimed Chen Jincheng’s 300 million investment was doomed to fail. Facts had now proven that to be complete nonsense. In contrast, Chen Jincheng’s accusation that Lin Hongxiao had no successful investments to his name and was nothing more than a charlatan now seemed incredibly credible.
When Han Shangyou saw the video, he knew Chen Jincheng’s importance had just skyrocketed.
For someone like Boss Lei to praise Chen Jincheng’s business acumen again and again, Kuaishou would definitely intensify their efforts to poach him.
He could also imagine that if Kuaishou succeeded in poaching Chen Jincheng, they would definitely use it as a PR stunt, claiming that Chen Jincheng had lost faith in Tiao Yin.
And just as Han Shangyou had guessed, when Chen Jincheng arrived at the company that morning, Sister Hong came to report, "Boss, Kuaishou contacted us again first thing this morning. Their desire to poach you is getting more and more desperate."
Upon hearing this, Chen Jincheng simply said, "Just stall them for now. The time isn’t right. This is only the beginning."
"Okay!" Sister Hong nodded, then added, "Also, Rice Phone just contacted us and sent over the settlement documents. After taxes, it’s about 320 million."
Chen Jincheng nodded and asked, "How much money does the company have in total right now?"
Sister Hong reported, "From the company’s recent commission cuts and settled sales commissions, we have a little over 30 million. Adding this new amount brings the total to a neat 350 million."
Chen Jincheng nodded. "Have the company keep 50 million. Transfer the remaining 300 million to the Soda Company. This transfer will be structured as a loan. Also, retroactively create a loan document for the previous 300 million investment."
’Since I’m planning to seek financing from Boss Lei for the Soda Company, I need to get these accounts in order.’
’I can’t get the short end of the stick.’
’When the financing comes through, part of the money will repay the loan to Second-Life Star, and another part will be issued as a new loan to Second-Life Star.’
Sister Hong nodded. She agreed with this approach. After all, the Soda Company and Second-Life Star were ultimately two separate companies, not a subsidiary of one another.
Even if it were a subsidiary, Second-Life Star couldn’t just keep pumping money into it indefinitely.
Second-Life Star needed to develop as well. Besides, her boss was prone to acting on whims—now he wanted to establish a film division.
Thinking of this, she asked, "Boss, the news that you’re creating a film division for that girl, Tian Xiwei, is all over the hot list today. You can’t go back on your word now, or it would be a huge blow to your reputation. So, what are your instructions?"
Chen Jincheng immediately replied, "Sister Hong, first, go investigate the situation with LeTV’s film division. If possible, I plan to acquire the film and television division of LeTV!"
"LeTV?" Sister Hong was stunned.
She was, of course, aware that LeTV’s boss had fled the country, that its assets had been auctioned off, and that the news had been all over the internet.
But even so, LeTV’s assets were certainly not cheap. ’The boss is about to make another huge move.’
Suddenly, she felt that the grand promise of a stock option bonus the boss had once made might actually come true.
This instantly filled her with motivation. After leaving the boss’s office, she immediately threw herself into gathering all relevant information on LeTV.
Chen Jincheng also took a look at the sales data from his Soda video. Although the data from this one video didn’t represent a full month’s profit, he could infer from it that the results would be better than he had projected.
In other words, achieving a monthly profit of several hundred million within the next year wouldn’t be a problem.
Based on that projection, with a valuation at 30 times the annual profit, the company could be valued at over a hundred billion.
But the market was unpredictable. It was uncertain whether Boss Lei would accept such a valuation.
’I’ll have to be mentally prepared for that.’
’Still, I have to at least try. After all, Boss Lei doesn’t think like other titans.’
With that thought, he dialed Boss Lei’s number.
「At Rice Group headquarters.」
A thick stack of documents lay on the desk in front of Lei Xiaojun. All of them were related to the automotive industry.
He had posted a Tiao Yin video saying he was going to go all out on something big, and he truly meant it.
However, getting into the car business was easier said than done. A tech-heavy project like this required time to investigate everything from the market and the selection of various technologies to the choice of a direction in the new energy sector.