Extraordinary Genius

Chapter 1145 – Direct funding

Jeff Bezos looked at Feng Yu. Feng Yu was still smiling when he announced, but Feng Yu’s face changed after reading the financial report.

There are no problems with the report, and Feng Yu had sent his men to oversee the Finance Department. No one dares to meddle with the financial report.

Jeff Bezos saw Feng Yu staring at the profit figure and realized Feng Yu must be unhappy with the profit.

“Manager Feng, please look over here. In the first half of the year, we are still making losses, and we only started making profits in the second half of the year. Our profits for the last quarter had reached over 3 million USD!”

Feng Yu looked at the report carefully. Amazon had suffered losses earlier this year. They managed to recover the losses in the second half of the year. The profits for the second half of the year is almost 5 million USD, and Feng Yu is quite pleased with this result.

After all, eCommerce is still very new, and the internet bubble had burst this year, making many people bankrupt. Jeff Bezos had done well to achieve this result in an economic crisis.

Because of the internet bubble, many internet companies had shut down. Over 100 companies in North America had shut down, and more than half of these companies were listed companies.

The number of internet companies shutting down is still growing.

The companies in other sectors, whose share prices had plunged because of the internet bubble, started recovering. But the tech-related and internet companies are still not doing well.

In Feng Yu’s previous life, the internet companies started recovering in the second half of next year. Still, because of that tragic incident, their share prices plunged again.

It is only after 2004 that tech companies started to make a comeback.

Feng Yu nodded. “Good. The company is doing well. You had done a good job to grow Amazon to this extend with so little funds.”

Amazon is not listed and had not received much funding like the Amazon in Feng Yu’s previous life. The amount of fund Amazon has now is much lesser than Feng Yu’s previous life, but it does have more start-up funds initially, which is their advantage.

“Manager Feng, are we really not going to be listed next year? Suppose we are really not going to be listed. In that case, we will not be able to set up our logistic bases in South America and Europe.”

Amazon had taken loans to set up their logistics base in Canada.

Feng Yu thought for a while. Amazon is a US company. If they got listed and then delist, it will affect its brand reputation.

Amazon is different from Sina and the rest of the internet companies. Those are Chinese websites, and their users are mainly Chinese. After they got delisted from Nasdaq, they can be listed in Hong Kong.

But if Amazon got delisted from Nasdaq, it will be hard for them to get listed again. In terms of financial development, Hong Kong, Tokyo, and London are not as developed as New York.

Amazon needs to be listed sooner or later, as internet companies require more funds than brick and mortar companies.

Feng Yu can afford to invest, but that will dilute other shareholders’ shares, and Feng Yu had promised Jeff Bezos that he will let him own a certain percentage of the company’s shares. Unless the company requires funding, Jeff Bezos’s shares will never be diluted. Doing this will be Feng Yu’s loss.

Although Feng Yu can break his promise, he does not want to do that. A good reputation can help him make more money, and it will be costly to build up his reputation once it is tarnished.

Furthermore, Jeff Bezos is the best person to run Amazon, and Feng Yu doesn’t want to lose him. It’s hard to find someone as capable as him, and with him around, he can help Feng Yu make more money.

“Let me consider this.”

At night, Feng Yu called Fu Rongqi to seek his advice.

“Nephew Feng, you should not have made this promise to him in the first place. Since you are the major shareholder of the company, you should have the final say. He should either invest proportionally or let his shares be diluted.” Fu Rongqi sighed. “You should hold on to the authority over the company and not give it up.”

“But I will have to make the decisions over the company’s matters. It’s too tiring.”

Fu Rongqi: “……”

You don’t want to be tired and still want to make money?!

But Feng Yu had really given up all his power over his companies, letting others to manage them and make money for him.

“If that’s the case, you can only raise funds by yourself.” Amazon had taken a loan, and the banks will not lend Amazon a large amount this time. But Feng Yu wants Amazon to occupy most of the American and European markets.

Amazon must enter these markets now, as there are more eCommerce companies now. If other companies took over these markets, it would be harder to gain market share.

Of course, there is another solution, which is to buy out those companies.

In Feng Yu’s previous life, Amazon had used this strategy for its expansion. For example, Amazon had acquired a Chinese online shopping website, Joyo.com, and renamed it to Joyo Amazon.

The money used for this acquisition comes from funding.

Listed companies always use other people’s money for expansion. Once the company manages to increase its scale to form a monopoly, high profits will be guaranteed.

“But the company might not raise many funds if it gets listed now.” It is much harder for internet companies to get listed now. Even if a company can get listed, it will not raise many funds. A few companies tried to get listed but failed as no investors are interested in their shares. Two of them went bankrupt within a month after their failed attempt to get listed.

This is the problem with Nasdaq’s regulatory system. How can they approve a company that went bankrupt within a month after failing to get listed to be listed in the first place?

“Funding does not mean the company must be listed.” Fu Rongqi laughed.

Funding without getting listed!? Is Fu Rongqi referring to direct funding?

“Uncle Fu, are you saying that you are interested in buying Amazon’s shares?” It is currently still in the midst of the internet bubble financial crisis, and very few people will dare to invest in internet companies.

“What’s wrong?” Fu Rongqi asked.

The markets are not doing well, and the Gold, Oil, and Forex markets are quiet. There is nothing worth investing in for Fu Rongqi.

Fu Rongqi has spare cash and doesn’t know where to put his money. He can tell Feng Yu has high hopes for Amazon, and he might as well invest his money in this company.

Fu Rongqi trusts Feng Yu to give him a reasonable price and will not take advantage of him. Furthermore, this will tighten their bond.

Fu Rongqi wants to maintain his relationship with Feng Yu. Feng Yu is Asia’s top Billionaire, and his net worth had surpassed Superman Li and is catching up with Bill Gates. Fu Rongqi does not feel secure to depend on Fu Guangzheng and Fu Guangwei. He decides to let his son have some ties with Feng Yu to increase Feng Yu and the Fu Family’s relationship.

“Uncle Fu, how much are you going to invest?” Feng Yu asked.

“Any amount within 1 billion USD.”

“Alright. I will give you a reasonable price.”

Translator’s notes:

Amazon China