Then he saw Noriko Sakai following closely behind Song Yi and nodded, "Mrs. Gao Xiang, long time no see."

Noriko Sakai nodded and greeted, "Chairman Sun, you can just call me Noriko." Masayoshi Son noticed that Noriko Sakai was not wearing a wedding ring, and he understood that it seemed that the rumors of Noriko Sakai and Takase Yuichi's divorce were not groundless.

Yuichi Takasao was the second-generation president of the well-known ski equipment store "Kino" and was also considered a golden bachelor in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Noriko Sakai thought she had married into a wealthy family, had a son and was ready to quit the entertainment industry. But Gao Xiangyouyi, like one of the four young masters of Yanjing, was a fake wealthy family.

The Takasago family's ski equipment store was unable to make ends meet, so Noriko Sakai had to make a comeback and take on commercials, Japanese dramas and movies to support the family expenses.

Gao Xiangyouyi, who was unable to make ends meet, still maintained his playboy nature and did not forget to cheat. Noriko Sakai's best friend who had known each other for many years was also Gao Xiangyouyi's lover. Noriko Sakai was simply the Japanese version of Liu Tao, the good wife.

Song Yi was able to convince Noriko Sakai to be the head of AXA Tokyo Resort because she was completely disappointed with her husband, Yuichi Takase. Not only did she catch him cheating, she also found out that he was taking drugs. Noriko Sakai and Yuichi Takase are now separated. Noriko Sakai has started divorce negotiations with Yuichi Takase's lawyer and is fighting for custody of their son.

Masayoshi Son also envied Song Yi's good fortune. Noriko Sakai, wearing a kimono, stood gracefully in the middle of the wooden house, with a quiet beauty under the interlaced light in the room.

Song Yi and Masayoshi Son sat opposite each other at the coffee table. Noriko Sakai knelt beside the coffee table and made tea for them in an orderly manner.

She first heated the cups and pots for Son Masayoshi and Song Yi, poured the boiling water into the purple clay teapot, fairness cup, smelling cup and tea tasting cup in turn, and then slowly poured it out.

Then she took out the tea leaves wrapped in oil paper and poured them into the purple clay teapot, showing off some fancy techniques in the middle.

After putting the tea leaves in, Noriko Sakai poured boiling water into the pot, allowing the boiling water and tea leaves to have a brief contact, then quickly poured it out to filter out the tea leaves that were not fried well.

Then Noriko Sakai poured boiling water into the teapot again, and the spout of the teapot nodded three times in the process. This technique is the "Phoenix Three Nods" in the tea ceremony performance, greeting today's guest Masayoshi Son, giving people a pleasing and artistic beauty.

She used the tea lid to brush off the tea dust, then covered the teapot. After the aroma of the tea overflowed, Noriko Sakai used a wooden tea clip to group the scenting cups and tea tasting cups and placed them on the tea tray, so that she could add tea at any time.

Son Masayoshi squinted his eyes with enjoyment and asked, "Ms. Fazi, today's tea is different from what I've drunk before. What's the explanation?"

Noriko Sakai calmly answered Son's questions while dividing the teapot. She poured the tea into Son and Song Yi's scented cups, filling them 70% full to show her respect for Son.

"President Sun, the tea you drink today is the top-grade Xinyang Maojian. However, it is different from other Xinyang Maojian. This is lip tea, and it is also the tribute tea drunk by the ancient Chinese court." Noriko Sakai introduced.

"What is lip tea?" Masayoshi Son asked curiously.

Noriko Sakai glanced at Masayoshi Son shyly, and Song Yi came to the rescue at the right time, "The so-called lip tea refers to the process of picking and making tea."

"The tea farm will invite some young and beautiful tea pickers to help pick tea. When picking tea, they will put the delicate spring tea into their mouths, and then put it into the tea picking tools made of Xinyang willows, called Cha Liu Qing. They will put the tender buds on their chests and use the body temperature of the tea pickers to perform the initial baking. Because the process is extremely complicated, the output is extremely low, and it has always been drunk as tribute tea." Song Yi explained the story.

Son Masayoshi laughed, "No wonder the tea seems to have a girl's body fragrance, it is really wonderful. If it weren't for Chairman Song's invitation today, I'm afraid I wouldn't have the chance to taste such a good tea."

Noriko Sakai handed the cups to Masayoshi Son and Song Yi in turn with both hands. Son took the cup with three fingers, smelled the tea again, then sipped it slowly in three sips, and then gently put the cup down.

Son knocked on the tea table to thank Song Yi for his hospitality and Noriko Sakai for her exquisite tea ceremony performance. Noriko Sakai obviously put a lot of effort into entertaining this distinguished guest, Son.

"Song Yi, you specially asked me to come here to meet you. Is there something important you want to discuss with me?" After drinking his tea, Masayoshi Son started chatting about business with Song Yi.

Song Yi said, "Sun Sang, I heard that Yahoo is planning to shrink its Asian business and sell Yahoo China and Yahoo Korea to local companies in order to recover funds and reduce losses. Is this true?"

Son gave Song Yi a meaningful look and said, "You are well-informed. How come you are also interested in Yahoo Korea?"

Song Yi was a little surprised. "Besides me, which other Korean companies are interested?"

"SK Telecom and LG GNS are both interested in acquiring Yahoo Korea. They have secretly contacted Yahoo's management team this year. However, they feel that Yahoo's offer is too high, so they have temporarily suspended the acquisition process," said Masayoshi Son.

"Yahoo is no longer able to compete with Google in the North American market. In 2004, Google's revenue exceeded Yahoo's, and now the gap between the two is getting bigger and bigger. In two years at most, Google's size will be equal to two Yahoos. In the Internet industry, every generation has its own talented people, and each has been the leader for hundreds of years. The rise of Google and the decline of Yahoo are unstoppable."

"Except for its North American business, Yahoo's global business has been relatively successful in Japan and Taiwan, but it has run into setbacks in the Chinese mainland and Korean markets."

"Yahoo China cannot compete with Baidu in search engine business, nor can it compete with Sina, NetEase and Sohu in portal website business. Yahoo's management is also arrogant and unfamiliar with the Chinese mainland market. They always attribute the backwardness in market competition to regulatory reasons. Therefore, the decline of Yahoo China is inevitable."

"I am a director of Yahoo after all. I feel embarrassed when you are so ruthless." Masayoshi Son knocked on the table and said to Song Yi.

"I have always believed that the fundamental reason for Yahoo Japan's success is not Yahoo itself, but the choice of SoftBank as a partner."

"Each country has different Internet regulatory policies, so we must adopt flexible and changeable operational strategies to compete with local Internet giants. It is no longer feasible to have one trick to win everything."

"In 2003, Yahoo was attracted by 3721's traffic, license and good financial data, and spent $120 million to buy 3721. 3721 founder Zhou Hongyi became the president of Yahoo China."

"In fact, Zhou Hongyi did a good job in Yahoo China, and successively launched a number of Internet businesses such as 'Yisou.com' and 1G free mailbox. Unfortunately, the Yahoo board of directors made unrealistic performance requirements for Zhou Hongyi and refused to provide financial support. It is a typical case of wanting the horse to run but not eat grass. Zhou Hongyi, who is familiar with the Chinese market, naturally wanted to retire." Song Yi said.

Noriko Sakai noticed that Masayoshi Son's cup was empty and kindly refilled it with hot tea.

Son Masayoshi sipped his tea and put the cup aside. "Although Chairman Song has lived in Seoul for many years, he knows the Chinese mainland Internet market very well."

"Penguin, Alibaba, NetEase, Baidu, these Internet companies all have your investment behind them. It seems that you are more optimistic about these four Internet companies' ability to survive in the highly competitive Chinese mainland market in the long run?" Masayoshi Son asked unexpectedly.

Song Yi sighed that Masayoshi Son was an old fox, and it turned out that he had been paying attention to Song Yi's investment direction.

“Although New Asia Network and SA Soft are operated separately, New Asia Network in mainland China is nominally a subsidiary of SA Soft.”

"Xinya Network's online game business revenue has maintained steady growth. The number of registered users of Xiaonei.com has exceeded 100 million, with more than 15 million daily active users and more than 30 million monthly active users."

"For Xinya Network, Penguin, Alibaba, Baidu and NetEase are all Internet companies worth learning from. And Mr. Sun was optimistic about Alibaba so early on, so I have no reason not to invest in Alibaba." Song Yi secretly praised Masayoshi Son again.

Son was very pleased to hear this. "It took me more than 20 years to develop SoftBank to its current size, but you have achieved what took me 20 years in just four years. In this sense, you are more remarkable than me."

When Noriko Sakai heard that Masayoshi Son and Song Yi were secretly praising each other, she refilled Song Yi's tea.

"President Sun and President Song are both outstanding people and great business geniuses, so heroes appreciate heroes." Noriko Sakai interjected at the right time.

Son Masayoshi laughed, "Ms. Fazi, what you said is right. But if you ask Miss Fazi to choose between me and Chairman Song to spend the night with you, Miss Fazi will definitely choose a young talent like Chairman Song without hesitation."

Noriko Sakai smiled and did not refute what Masayoshi Son said.

Masayoshi Son looked at the smiling Noriko Sakai and felt it was a pity, but as the richest man in Japan, he was always surrounded by beauties, and it was impossible for him to take away Song Yi's love.

"In 2003, Yahoo was preparing to acquire a search engine company in order to consolidate its market share in China. At the time, there were two acquisition targets: Baidu, which offered $150 million, and 3721, which offered $120 million."

"At that time, Yahoo's board of directors was wavering between Baidu and 3721, but Baidu later gave up the idea of ​​selling. Yahoo later acquired 3721."

"In fact, I suggested to the Yahoo board of directors that they acquire Baidu, but unfortunately Yang Zhiyuan did not accept my suggestion."

"After some investigation, I found out that Baidu received a total of US$20 million in financing from investment institutions led by Blue Ocean Capital in 2003."

"They bought 5 million convertible preferred shares of Baidu's Series C at $4 per share. Baidu is no longer short of money, so it will naturally not sell the company to Yahoo. Can I understand that it was your move that made Yahoo's plan to acquire Baidu bankrupt?" Masayoshi Son asked Song Yi.

"Baidu is preparing to go public in the United States, and Yahoo China President Zhou Hongyi is preparing to resign."

"If the Yahoo board of directors knew that you deliberately obstructed their acquisition of Baidu in the past two years, do you think Yang Zhiyuan would still agree to SA soft buying Yahoo Korea?" Masayoshi Son asked Song Yi.

Song Yi laughed immediately. "I have already said that Yahoo Japan's success is more due to SoftBank as a partner."

"I was more optimistic about Baidu at the beginning, so I joined other investment institutions to invest in Baidu. Now this result also confirms my judgment."

"From an investment perspective, SA Soft is of course a better partner. Only by handing Yahoo Korea over to SA Soft can Yahoo Korea's business be revived. As an investor, aren't we investing in projects the same as investing in people?"

"SK Telecom and LG GNS seem to be good partners, but the leaders of these two companies lack sufficient Internet thinking. No matter from which level, SA Soft's acquisition of Yahoo Korea is the best choice," Song Yi replied.

Son thought for a while and said, "I admit that you are right, but the decision on whether to acquire Yahoo Korea is not in my hands. After all, I am only a director of Yahoo, not the chairman of Yahoo. If you want to acquire Yahoo Korea, it is not impossible. It depends on whether you are willing to make concessions."

Song Yi understood immediately, "You want Yahoo to sell Yahoo Korea in exchange for SA Soft's shares? Brother Zhengyi, you know, I'm not short of money."

The first time Son Masayoshi was addressed as "Brother Zhengyi" by Song Yi, he found it very interesting. "You know what, Brother Zhengyi sounds much better than Mr. Sun."

"Song Yi, I know you are not short of money, but SA Soft's current financing is not just for money, but for the resources behind the funding party."

"If you plan to list SA Soft on the Korea Stock Exchange or the Tokyo Stock Exchange, it doesn't matter whether you accept Yahoo's investment or not."

"Everyone knows that according to SA Soft's current business scale, revenue and net profit, listing it on the US stock market is the best choice. Because the US stock market will give high valuations to high-tech companies like SA Soft, and the price-to-earnings ratio of Nasdaq is as high as 30 to 40 times."

"SA Soft's net profit in the last 12 months has reached $400 million. All of the company's business segments, except for the asset-heavy project Sohan.com, the social networking site InSchool and online games are all profitable."

"If SA Soft chooses to list on NASDAQ, the company's market value will exceed 10 billion US dollars in a minute, which is almost 1/10 of Google's."

"If SA Soft acquires Yahoo Korea, it will completely make up for the shortcomings of search engines and portal websites, and become an Internet giant spanning social networking sites + e-commerce + online games + search engines + portal websites. This will undoubtedly give investors more room for imagination."

"If Yahoo sells all of Yahoo Korea's businesses and assets to SA Soft, and SA Soft is willing to use SA Soft's shares to complete the transaction, then I will be able to convince Yang Zhiyuan to agree to this transaction plan," said Masayoshi Son.

Song Yi carefully considered the pros and cons. He contacted an accounting firm to assess the value of Yahoo Korea. The valuation of the entire Yahoo Korea company was approximately US$100 million.

If possible, he would prefer to acquire Yahoo Korea in a cash transaction, but this is obviously not easy.

In a few months, Alibaba will acquire all of Yahoo China's assets, receive a $1 billion investment from Yahoo, and enjoy exclusive rights to use Yahoo's brand and technology in the mainland Chinese market. Yahoo will receive 40% of Alibaba's dividend rights and 35% of its voting rights.

In this transaction, Yahoo sold all of its China assets for $700 million, and gave Alibaba $1 billion in cash. Alibaba used $700 million to acquire Yahoo China's assets. Yahoo was completely freed from its position in the China market. It must be said that Yang Zhiyuan did a good deal. You should know that Yahoo later sold Alibaba shares one after another, and recovered a total of $85 billion in funds.

"Brother Zhengyi, how much SA Soft shares do you think Yahoo Korea is worth?" Song Yi continued to ask.

"Ten percent of SA Soft shares?" Masayoshi Son asked tentatively.

"You are really asking for too much. Investment institutions now generally value SA Soft between $3 billion and $5 billion. If you put Yahoo Korea on the Korean capital market and ask for a price, if there is a company willing to bid $200 million, I lose."

"South Korea has a total population of only 50 million, and the upper limit of the number of Internet users is only about 30 million, which is completely different from mainland China. If Yang Zhiyuan still has this attitude of cherishing his own things, then there is nothing to talk about, and Brother Zhengyi, you don't have to continue to lobby for the Yahoo board of directors." Song Yi said.

This year, Yahoo's market value reached its peak, about $100 billion, but this high market value cannot be maintained. This is because Yahoo's high profits this year were achieved by selling Google shares. Therefore, Yahoo's board of directors is eager to liquidate the assets of Yahoo China and Yahoo Korea to find new growth points for the company to maintain Yahoo's stock price.

If Yahoo sells Yahoo Korea to South Korean Internet giant SA Soft in exchange for a portion of SA Soft shares, it will be a win-win for both Yahoo and SA Soft.

Seeing that Song Yi was very determined, Son Zhengyi knew that there was no way out, so he explained, "The opinion of the Yahoo board of directors is at least 5%, and Yahoo needs to retain a board seat in SA Soft."

Song Yi replied, "From my personal perspective, I think this deal is not equal. I value Yahoo Korea at $100 million, while 5% of SA Soft is worth at least $250 million."

"I know that Yahoo is planning to sell Yahoo China to Alibaba and is planning to complete a huge financing for Alibaba, preparing to replace SoftBank as Alibaba's largest shareholder."

"I now have a chain transaction plan, which needs the consent of Yahoo, Softbank and Alibaba. Of course, I will be the one to communicate with Alibaba. After all, Mr. Ma and I are old friends. We have participated in the West Lake Sword Contest twice."

"SA Soft is using $100 million in cash to acquire all of Yahoo Korea's assets. As a supplement to the transaction, if Yahoo completes its investment in Alibaba, I am willing to exchange 5% of SA Soft's equity for the 10% equity that Yahoo acquires from Alibaba," said Song Yi.

Masayoshi Son lamented that Song Yi was really unwilling to take any loss. Now Yahoo and Softbank's valuation of Alibaba is around US$2 billion to US$2.5 billion.

Persuaded by Masayoshi Son, Yahoo is ready to invest $1 billion in exchange for 40% of Alibaba's shares. 10% of Alibaba's shares is worth about $250 million.

"In this transaction plan, although Yahoo obtained 5% of SA Soft's shares as it wished, it feels like SA Soft is taking advantage from beginning to end. I'm afraid this kind of chain transaction plan will not impress the Yahoo board of directors." Masayoshi Son shook his head.

Although SA Soft's current corporate valuation is as high as US$5 billion, it remains a question whether 5% of SA Soft's shares are worth US$250 million.

Yahoo was prepared to spend $1 billion in real money to buy a stake in Alibaba. If SA Soft used 5% of its shares to exchange for Yahoo's 10% stake in Alibaba, Yahoo would not make any profit. Of course, SA Soft would be taking advantage of Yahoo. How could the Yahoo board of directors agree to Song Yi's deal? Song Yi added, "The disagreement between Yahoo and me now is how much SA Soft's 5% stake is worth. This is the key to completing the chain transaction, right?"

"I can add a supplementary agreement that after the transaction is completed, SA Soft will complete its listing in the United States within one year."

"One year after the listing, based on the average share price of SA Soft in the past 12 months, assuming that the market value of the SA Soft shares held by Yahoo is less than US$500 million, I will personally unconditionally repurchase the SA Soft shares held by Yahoo for US$500 million. Is that a problem?" said Song Yi.

When Masayoshi Son heard what Song Yi said, he felt relieved. If Song Yi was willing to buy back the SA Soft shares held by Yahoo, then there would naturally be no problem.

According to Masayoshi Son's estimation, if SA Soft successfully acquires Yahoo Korea, it will be listed in the United States as the first Korean Internet stock, and its market value after listing will not be less than US$20 billion.

Then the value of SA Soft shares held by Yahoo will not be less than 1 billion US dollars. Even if SA Soft's IPO stock price is undervalued, Yahoo still has Song Yi's 500 million US dollars in cash to back it up.

The advantage of doing this is that Song Yi used the equivalent of US$500 million two years later to buy 10% of Alibaba's shares from Yahoo in advance, which is still a good deal for Yahoo.

10% of Alibaba's shares are now worth $250 million, which is like Yahoo lending Song Yi $250 million this year, and Song Yi repaying Yahoo at least $500 million in two years. The return on investment in two years is 100%, which is already quite impressive.

"I already know your request. I will submit your transaction proposal to the Yahoo board of directors for discussion. If there is any result, I will inform you as soon as possible."

"Do you need me to help you communicate with Mr. Ma at Alibaba? Ever since SA Soft started its e-commerce website Sohan.com, Mr. Ma has been more wary of you. He is actually worried that you will copy the Sohan.com model to the mainland Chinese market," said Masayoshi Son.

"Souhan.com will never enter the Chinese mainland market. As for mainland Internet companies, I will mainly invest in them."

"If SA Soft becomes a shareholder of Alibaba, it will be a good thing for Mr. Ma. I can help them launch Taobao's business in the Korean market. Xiaonei.com and Xinya Game Hall can also help Taobao to attract traffic. SA Bank also needs to learn from Alipay's advanced experience in electronic payment. There is still more cooperation than competition between SA and Alibaba." Song Yi said.

As a shareholder of SA Soft (Japan) Co., Ltd., SoftBank and Masayoshi Son have been concerned about the listing of SA Soft. Now that Song Yi has finally given in and given a clear timetable, Masayoshi Son feels that his trip today was not in vain.

"If SA Soft completes its IPO, your personal assets will exceed the 10 billion US dollar mark, surpassing Samsung Chairman Chen Jianxi and officially becoming the richest man in South Korea. If this moment really comes, will you be excited? Your emotions are too stable, which is nothing like that of a young person of your age." Masayoshi Son asked a question curiously.

"After this series of transactions is completed, I will invite Mr. Ma and Mr. Sun to visit the AXA Tokyo Resort. The three of us can take a group photo, which will be a group photo of the richest people in China, Japan and South Korea." Song Yi said with a smile.

Sakai Noriko smiled, "I am honored to be able to entertain the richest men from both Japan and South Korea today."

I'm going to go cycling on the river bank this weekend. I'll update now. See you tomorrow. Thank you for your monthly tickets! 　　 　 (End of this chapter)