"Huh? I didn't expect Masayoshi Son to be such an interesting person."
Aoki Haruhi mentioned this while having dinner with Nao Tsuda that evening.
Nao Tsuda seemed very excited.
If Nao Tsuda's previous investment in game was because game's business somewhat aligned with some of DUN's 'Blue' concepts, then her understanding of computer software wasn't as extensive.
This was mainly because the entertainment potential of computers hadn't been fully developed yet; it was only in recent years that PC game and Blue Media had slowly emerged.
So, before this, Nao Tsuda only knew of Masayoshi Son's existence but wasn't aware of his underlying audacity.
"And he used both soft and hard tactics, even threatening you directly to your face – it's really too amusing." Nao Tsuda couldn't help but laugh. "He really wants to acquire Pokémon. I can see Masayoshi Son's determination."
"Indeed."
Aoki Haruhi said it was his first Time encountering such a shameless and direct 'investor'.
It made him feel overwhelmed.
In fact, in his previous life, Masayoshi Son 'forcibly' invested in Yahoo in the same manner—
It was also 1995, after SoftBank completed its initial capital accumulation through its IPO, it had quite a bit of money in hand.
Masayoshi Son was like a gambler; whether he had a hundred dollars or a hundred million, he would go all-in the next second.
At that Time, SoftBank wanted to get into the internet, so it set its sights on Yahoo.
In '95, Yahoo was still a small company with only 15 people, and its portal website hadn't been fully established; it was just a prototype.
Then Masayoshi Son directly slammed a hundred million US dollars onto the face of Yahoo's founder, Jerry Yang.
That's right, this person, like Nvidia's boss, Old Huang, is Chinese, born in Taiwan. For founding Yahoo, he was later hailed as the "First Person of the Internet Century" and a representative entrepreneur.
His strong Chinese sentiment inspired generations of future internet pioneers in China.
Having a hundred million dollars thrown in his face was truly unheard of for Jerry Yang; he was instantly stunned.
Masayoshi Son didn't stand on ceremony, immediately demanding 30% of Yahoo's shares.
Jerry Yang was utterly bewildered, thinking, "Is our small company of 15 people really worth such a grand gesture from you? If he had offered 2 million for a 5% stake, Jerry Yang might have agreed then and there."
One hundred million.
And in US dollars.
He felt something was definitely off.
Either he or Masayoshi Son had to be crazy or foolish.
He had seen formidable investors, but never one as crazy as Masayoshi Son.
So Jerry Yang hesitated at the Time.
But before he could hesitate for more than a few days, Masayoshi Son, seeing that soft tactics wouldn't work, went straight for the hard approach.
Masayoshi Son directly told Jerry Yang, "If Yahoo doesn't accept our investment, then I'll invest in your competitors. What about Excite, Lycos... you'd better think carefully."
Upon hearing this, Jerry Yang was forced to agree, as if he had been forcibly pushed onto a carriage, wanting to cry but having no tears.
You see, this forced investment—if you don't accept, I'll invest in your competitor—became Masayoshi Son's customary tactic for future investments.
And it was especially effective, always working without fail.
Aoki Haruhi himself concluded that Time might have exaggerated Masayoshi Son's 'precise vision'; sometimes it might just be a capital game, and many future'superstars' are created by money.
If Masayoshi Son had not chosen Yahoo back then, but instead chosen Yahoo's competitors, then history might have been entirely different.
SoftBank's forced investment in Yahoo hasn't happened yet.
Because Masayoshi Son took a detour and came to him instead.
Should he be called insightful, or just rich and foolish?
Why do you have to be so stubborn with me?
...Under the soft, romantic glow of the restaurant lights, Nao Tsuda slowly cut her steak.
After finishing a piece and wiping the corner of her mouth, she smiled and said, "I think Masayoshi Son's idea is quite good."
"Huh?"
Aoki Haruhi rolled his eyes. "This is good? I always feel like I've been forced, and it's a particularly unpleasant feeling."
He could now deeply understand Jerry Yang's feelings back then.
The key is that Masayoshi Son is truly something; our Pokémon's foundation is thicker than your SoftBank's, and for him to still try to force it is truly thuggish.
Nao Tsuda covered her mouth, laughing, almost choking on Aoki Haruhi's words.
After calming down slightly, Nao Tsuda finally said, "An investment is an investment, but it shouldn't be an investment in Pokémon."
"Hmm? Then what should he invest in?"
Aoki Haruhi put down his knife and fork, looking at Nao Tsuda in confusion.
Why do I not understand this?
"Doesn't he want your forum and Pokémon's future internet industry?" Nao Tsuda said, "You can separate them, establish a subsidiary, and call it net-Pokémon, or Pokémon Network Technology Co., Ltd. or something similar.
It would be dedicated solely to the internet sector.
Then, through this subsidiary, you can raise capital, sell a portion of its shares to SoftBank, and collaborate with them, while the parent company of Pokémon retains the majority stake. Wouldn't that work?"
"Oh?"
Is there such a way to play?
Sure enough, these two foxes' thought processes were aligned.
"Can this really work?" Aoki Haruhi seemed a bit shocked. "The main thing is, will Masayoshi Son accept it? Isn't this clearly treating him like an idiot?"
"Aoki-san, do you know how South Korea's Samsung controls such a massive conglomerate?"
Nao Tsuda didn't answer his question directly but instead posed another seemingly unrelated question.
Aoki Haruhi shook his head, indicating he wasn't very clear.
"Look, let's use a more vivid example."
Nao Tsuda used her fork to cut a large piece of steak from the plate and set it aside.
"Suppose this is a large company worth 10 billion US dollars, named Internet Steak."
"Then, if you want to become its major shareholder, how much money do you think you'd need?"
Aoki Haruhi thought carefully for a moment. "If it's just a simple major shareholder, then it depends on your stake. Obtaining 51% makes you an absolute major shareholder. If you want absolute voting rights, you need to control over 66%.
So, based on the minimum for a major shareholder, I'd have to spend 5.1 billion, right?"
Nao Tsuda smiled, then cut the steak in half.
"You see, suppose this 'Internet Steak' has a major shareholder above it called 'game Steak', and this game Steak holds 51% of the shares, but game Steak itself is only valued at 5 billion."
"And then..."
Nao Tsuda cut another half of a half of the steak.
"Above game Steak is a 'Blue Steak', which holds 51% of game Steak's shares, but Blue Steak is only worth 2.5 billion."
"And above Blue Steak is a 'Pokémon Steak', valued at 1 billion."
"At this point, you only need to put out 510 million to control 'Pokémon Steak', and through 'Pokémon Steak', control 'Blue Steak', which in turn controls the 'game Steak' below it... Ultimately, with 510 million, you can control the 10 billion 'Internet Steak'."
Nao Tsuda watched the dumbfounded Aoki Haruhi, then used her fork to pick up the last small piece of 'Pokémon Steak' and fed it into her mouth.
After chewing slowly for a moment, Nao Tsuda smiled and said, "So do you understand? How Samsung can control so many vast and complex companies through just one or two small core companies?"
Aoki Haruhi nodded as if suddenly enlightened. "Wow, I understand."
In his previous life, Aoki Haruhi had always thought that holding companies was a profound subject, but after listening to Nao Tsuda's explanation, the doubts in his mind vanished.
And suddenly, he felt a surge of confidence.
"Subsidiaries are a science; if used well, they are excellent tools."
"Don't be afraid to open subsidiaries; sometimes, splitting businesses can actually be more beneficial for a company's operation and development." Nao Tsuda said, "For example, if a company has two businesses, one is planting potatoes and the other is processing potatoes. These two businesses seem related, but after being split, they might both develop better individually.
The potato planting company can use more money to research potato genetic modification, fertilizers, and cultivation methods.
The potato processing company can specialize in industrial automation to process potatoes into different products."
"Just like the current Pokémon, it has game and a forum. In the future, the forum can be taken out to establish a dedicated internet subsidiary, and this company can then specialize in internet-related products. game can also be taken out to form a dedicated game company.
It's actually good for both."
"In the future," Nao Tsuda said, "if you don't want to list 'Pokémon Steak', you can absolutely list 'Internet Steak' first. This also aligns with shareholders' interests, and I believe Masayoshi Son would be very happy to see it happen."
"After Internet Steak is listed, you can also split off game Steak and list it separately. All of these are fine."
"So I think for an investor like Masayoshi Son, he must already be familiar with this kind of holding model. Perhaps he doesn't even want the rest of your industry segments, and just wants Pokémon's internet business."
Aoki Haruhi didn't speak, but quietly ate his steak.
He was simultaneously digesting the food in his mouth and Nao Tsuda's words.
Many things he couldn't figure out in his previous life suddenly became clear.
A fox is a fox.
He was truly lucky to have met a reliable partner and girlfriend like Nao Tsuda in this life... The next morning, Aoki Haruhi himself sought out Masayoshi Son.
The other party seemed a bit surprised, as if he had been preparing to force his way in, but now the bow had come to him, a strange illusion.
Masayoshi Son invited Aoki Haruhi into the conference room, where the young 30-something Pokémon president explained his idea.
"We want to separate the internet business and establish a subsidiary, tentatively named P-NET," Aoki Haruhi said.
Hiss... Masayoshi Son gasped.
Is this person treating me like an idiot?
There's a difference between investing in a parent company and investing in a subsidiary, isn't there?
"Doing this is to make the business core more specialized and more conducive to P-NET's future development," Aoki Haruhi said. "Although our company currently only involves the forum part of the internet, many other industries can be developed around the internet in the future."
Having made up his mind, Aoki Haruhi had no intention of hiding anything.
With the forum established, there was a foundation for internet technology.
Setting it up as a separate new subsidiary, this internet module could grow very large in the future.
But it would not deviate from its original intention.
Because in Aoki Haruhi's blueprint, future internet products could all serve game, and game could also serve these internet products.
For example, the current forum.
With a slight expansion, it could become "Zhihu."
Adding image functions and future video functions could turn it into Bilibili... The same goes for portal websites.
Currently, Pokémon has a unique advantage: the forum players have become P-NET's first internet natives, and also Aoki Haruhi's base.
The scale of these people is actually not small, at least over 100,000.
Once it can expand, this 100,000-strong army will become a very powerful force.
Aoki Haruhi spoke eloquently.
He described the glorious, mature, and colorful internet world he had experienced.
Network information is the largest segment, from which search engines, portal websites, forums, various consulting websites are born... Then there's network entertainment, which can be divided into streaming media, literature, comics, videos, and game.
When game is substantial enough, it will be singled out to become a major module of online game.
These are all based on what can be analyzed and seen now.
Other aspects include online shopping, virtual currency, virtual property, online banking, online loans, etc., which Aoki Haruhi dared not mention and did not want to share with Masayoshi Son.
However, merely presenting the tip of the iceberg was enough to be profoundly shocking.
Listening to Aoki Haruhi's description, Masayoshi Son felt a magnificent scroll continuously unfolding before his eyes.
After listening to Aoki Haruhi's analysis, Masayoshi Son was moved by this young man.
He didn't know why, but he felt that Aoki Haruhi had a kind of magic, as if his eyes could see the future.
Masayoshi Son himself had a Time machine theory, which roughly meant that "the development speed and technological level of various countries in the world are different," and one could first learn and understand emerging industrial models and operations in developed countries, and then replicate them in countries that do not yet possess these enterprises and technologies.
It was like riding a Time machine.
And now, Aoki Haruhi seemed to have truly come back in a Time machine.
His description was simply too real.
Masayoshi Son even began to imagine the future Aoki Haruhi spoke of.
"Good."
Masayoshi Son nodded, "P-NET, once you establish it, SoftBank will directly invest 100 million US dollars, and you'll give me 40% of the equity."
"30%." Aoki Haruhi didn't hesitate at all.
"35%."
"25%."
Masayoshi Son tilted his head, looking at Aoki Haruhi in surprise.
Good heavens, you're bargaining lower and lower.
P-NET doesn't even have a shadow yet.
"Deal!"
If he kept shouting, wouldn't Aoki Haruhi drop it to 5%?
Masayoshi Son extended his hand, and the two shook hands, both showing joyful smiles.
"President Sun, don't worry, you'll definitely profit."
When others draw a big picture for shareholders, it's fake.
But for me, Aoki Haruhi, a future transmigrator, the big picture I draw is a real, edible pie!
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