As November arrived, Shanhai Capital, Cisco, and Cerent had several overt and covert clashes.
Fortunately, Cerent was just a small company at the time.
Even though Cerent454 had broad market prospects, it hadn't yet opened up the market, so its bargaining chips were limited.
Cisco merely wanted to make a convenient strategic move and didn't have many long-term strategic plans.
"If one day Cisco or another company wants to acquire Cerent, Shanhai Capital will not object as long as the price is slightly higher than the market price," Ji Jiasheng promised the Cisco representative in charge of the Cerent equity investment.
Ultimately, Cisco invested 15 million and acquired 10% of Cerent's shares, while Shanhai Capital invested 12 million and acquired 8% of Cerent's shares.
"It's your turn to join Cerent's board of directors!" said Ji Jiasheng.
"But I don't know much about network equipment," He Zhengcheng replied.
"You don't need to know much; just make sure our interests aren't severely harmed," Ji Jiasheng said.
"How do I do that?" He Zhengcheng asked.
"We will hire people to join Cerent to supervise various financial matters.
In short, we will have our people in the company.
While they may not be in critical departments, they must have supervisory power and a fiduciary duty to us," Ji Jiasheng explained.
"Oh!" He Zhengcheng seemed to understand but also not quite; the recent turbulent period had been exhausting.
"So far, we have invested in three companies: two in Silicon Valley for 52 million, and one in Daxia Country for 20 million.
The total investment amount is 72 million US dollars, and an additional 20 million US dollar investment in Zhonghua Net has been essentially confirmed.
This means we have invested 92 million US dollars in just over two months, which is a bit fast.
We need to slow down now..." Ji Jiasheng said to He Zhengcheng.
"Slow down? No need.
I still want to invest all the money this year and then rest for a year, doing nothing," He Zhengcheng said.
"Cough, cough, cough! That won't work.
Our luck can't last forever, and investors won't let us act recklessly," Ji Jiasheng said.
"This!" He Zhengcheng wanted to say that it wasn't luck, but he stopped before speaking.
His arrival in this era was a kind of luck in itself.
Being able to do venture capital in Silicon Valley this year was also a kind of luck.
"Didn't you say we still have a 30 million US dollar free quota?" He Zhengcheng asked.
"Now it's only 18 million US dollars," Ji Jiasheng corrected.
"18 million US dollars, that's a lot!" He Zhengcheng thought, recalling his current holdings of 40,000 Yahoo shares and 10 eBay shares.
The stock prices of these two companies were above 150 US dollars and 80 US dollars, respectively, and were still rising.
Even after deducting 2 million US dollars in financing and loans, his net worth exceeded 10 million US dollars.
"Still a lot? One project will soon deplete it," Ji Jiasheng said.
"By the way, what projects do they all have?" He Zhengcheng asked.
"Zhonghua Net, a collaboration between Lv Lang and Yu Dehui, and Xu Xin is preparing to invest in a company called NetEase in Daxia Country," Ji Jiasheng said.
Chao Yang is in charge of the company's finances, and each project counts as a small share for him.
"The Zhonghua Net project has good potential; its name alone gives it great fundraising potential.
NetEase company, I seem to have heard of it somewhere," He Zhengcheng said.
"How could you have heard of it?
This company has Daxia's most mature email system and the largest number of email users," Ji Jiasheng said.
"Oh, they aren't a portal website?" He Zhengcheng asked.
"They might be transitioning!" Ji Jiasheng said, as portal websites were very popular in Silicon Valley at the moment.
"No thoughts of transitioning to e-commerce?" He Zhengcheng asked, as eBay's stock price had surged again, with its market value now reaching 4.8 billion US dollars.
"There are too few internet users in Daxia Country..." Ji Jiasheng said.
The internet's future in Daxia Country is bright, but if you look at the data, you'll know how... According to statistics, as of December 31, 1998, Daxia had 747,000 internet-connected computers and 2.1 million internet users.
"Lv Lang discovered another excellent project in Daxia, but unfortunately, we might miss the opportunity!" Ji Jiasheng said with regret.
"What project is so regrettable?" He Zhengcheng asked.
"A company called UTStarcom.
They make Telecom equipment.
They bought a low-power China Mobile phone system from Japan, using micro-cell technology to achieve wireless coverage through micro-cell base stations.
This allows user terminals to connect to the local phone network wirelessly, making traditional fixed-line phones no longer fixed in one location but usable freely within the wireless network coverage, similar to China Mobile phones, but with weaker signals and restrictions from the Telecom industry.
However, their products are inexpensive, and their promotion in Daxia Country is going smoothly, with good market prospects," Ji Jiasheng said.
Isn't that the PHS (Personal Handy-phone System)?
He used it when he was in college; the monthly rental and call fees were very cheap, and the signal was actually quite good.
Whose company was PHS?
Damn, I have no impression at all; it must be an unknown entity.
"Why, if it has a future, why not invest?" He Zhengcheng asked curiously.
"It's not that we're not investing, but SoftBank has heavily invested in this company, having invested 250 million rmb as early as 1995, holding 30% of the shares," Ji Jiasheng said.
"You mean you're worried SoftBank will hog it all?" He Zhengcheng asked.
"SoftBank is a major shareholder of UTStarcom; without their consent, we can't participate," Ji Jiasheng said.
"So?" He Zhengcheng asked.
"If we could contact SoftBank's Sun Zhenyi..." Ji Jiasheng trailed off.
Why did he not quite understand?
What exactly did he mean?
"Then how do we contact Sun Zhenyi? He's a big shot," He Zhengcheng said.
"Yahoo's Yang Zhiyuan should be very familiar with him," Ji Jiasheng said.
"Is it necessary? Couldn't we just contact UTStarcom directly?
And they might not even be willing to raise funds," He Zhengcheng said.
"You're right, let's try it first!" Ji Jiasheng said.
He Zhengcheng wasn't enthusiastic about UTStarcom, simply because he had too little experience.
It was one of the pioneers of Daxia Country's technology industry and also one of the most regrettable enterprises.
They ventured into the Telecom industry, seized the opportunity of the PHS business, and reaped generous returns.
It should be said that they were one of the most incredible technology companies of that era.
This was not a complacent company; after going public, they made many technology and patent acquisitions, even obtaining Qualcomm's CDMA patent license and completing the layout of the entire CDMA industry chain.
They invested heavily in WCDMA research and development, building a chip design team of several thousand people.
Almost everything Huawei is doing now, UTStarcom had already done, including developing IPTV, passive optical networks, and so on.
It's not that Daxia Country didn't have people doing technology research and development, but after doing it, they might not be able to persevere.
Perhaps the research direction was wrong, and continuing would lead to a dead end; or perhaps the direction was right, but they had to go through despair again and again before seeing the light.
"Has your friend's company been established yet?" Ji Jiasheng changed the subject.
"Well, they didn't think much of my plan..." He Zhengcheng said somewhat awkwardly and embarrassedly.
Being disliked was truly too embarrassing.
"Hahahaha..." Ji Jiasheng laughed.
"And they adopted a startup plan I casually mentioned, which has big problems and dim prospects!" He Zhengcheng said with a gloomy expression.
"..." Ji Jiasheng was dumbfounded.