Well, there's nothing I can do. Xu Maodong figured the WowoTuan project was completely dead, so he might as well sell it as soon as possible and move on to the next big thing.
But someone leaked the news, and the whole group-buying industry was saying that Wowo Group was a bad company.
Xu Maodong had been trying to sell Wowo Group for a long time, but no one had contacted him.
Now he was completely panicked. Could it be that he had invested a billion yuan in Wowo Group and couldn't get a single penny back?
So he started calling all the business owners he knew in the group-buying circle.
"Hey, Mr. Wang, didn't you want to invest in WowoTuan last time? Now that I'm planning to sell WowoTuan, you're the first person I thought of."
"Oh, it's Mr. Xu. I'm just out of money right now. I'm so sorry, next time, next time for sure."
After saying that, he hung up the phone, cursing under his breath. "Next time? Fine, I won't buy it then. Are you cursing me to go bankrupt next time too?"
He then called the next boss.
"Hey Mr. Zhang, I was wondering if you'd be interested in Wowo Group..."
"Beep beep beep..."
Before I could finish speaking, the phone was hung up.
Mr. Zhang on the other side even threw his phone away.
"Huh, I answered the phone without even checking the number. What a jerk! Quick, secretary, go buy me a new phone. This one's infected with the 'jinx' virus."
Xu Maodong: ...
I made several phone calls, but they either made excuses to refuse or hung up on me directly.
Xu Maodong slammed his fist on the table in anger and shouted, "Damn it! Back then, they were all begging me to invest in Wowo Group, but now they won't even take Wowo Group. What kind of people are they?"
Outside the office, a group of employees from Wowo Group were also sighing and complaining.
Have you found a new job yet?
"I can't find them. As soon as they hear I'm from WowoTuan, they reject me outright without even saying why."
"Yes, the company I interviewed with yesterday didn't even want me, even though they wanted someone less qualified than me, and they wouldn't hire me even if I offered a pay cut."
"Hey, I've heard that people in the industry are saying that we at Wowo Group are cursed with bad luck. They think that people who come from Wowo Group will get infected with this bad luck virus."
"That's nonsense, there's no such virus."
"There's no way around it, these business owners all believe in feng shui. Look at Mr. Xu, he even had a master come to the company to calculate the feng shui, and then he specially placed a flowing water feature in the office."
"I still have to pay my mortgage every month, it's really worrying me to death."
Xu Maodong, who was in his office, heard the faint sounds of conversation outside the door and sighed.
After thinking about it, there are only two companies left in the entire group-buying industry that would acquire Wowo.com.
One is Koubei.com, which Alibaba just established and needs to use to support Taobao's big data, so the possibility of acquisition is still very high. After all, acquiring Wowo.com would directly make Koubei.com the third largest group-buying platform in China.
The second company is Meituan. After Lin Chen invested in Meituan, the actual controller of Meituan has changed from Wang Xing to Lin Chen. With the backing of Huasuan.com, it is only a matter of time before Meituan becomes the number one in the industry. If it can acquire Wowo.com, it will save a lot of time.
As for Lashou.com, the current leader in the group-buying industry, it's clear to everyone that Lashou.com will eventually lose its number one position.
Koubei.com has Taobao's big data, and Meituan has Huasuan.com.
What does Lashou.com have? Only the large amount of investment that Wu Bo initially attracted.
But those capitalists aren't fools either. Even Xu Maodong could see this obvious situation, so how could those shrewd capitalists not see it?
So, Wu Bo is actually thinking about a way out, but he's not as anxious as Xu Maodong, and unlike Xu Maodong, he doesn't have the same reputation for bad luck.
Xu Maodong stood up, walked to the French windows, took out a pack of cigarettes, lit one, and smoked silently.
After finishing his cigarette, he thought of a third option and decided to take one last gamble.
He picked up the phone on the table and called over the former advertising director, who is now the CEO.
"Mr. Xu, you wanted to see me."
"You know the company's situation. It's in a very difficult state right now, but it's not at its worst yet. I still have 500 million yuan in cash on hand. I plan to spin off Wowo Takeout, take out another loan, and then revive Wowo Group."
"President Xu, I believe in you. You will definitely bring Wowo Group back to life. At least, it's starting from a much higher point than when Wowo Group was first established."
"This is all thanks to outstanding talents like you. But now there's a problem. I've already taken out a loan of 500 million, so I can't take out any more loans in my name. I'd like you to become the legal representative of Wowo Takeout and take out loans in your name. Do you have any objections?"
"Ah, this..."
"Don't worry, you're already the legal representative of Wowo Group, right? There's no problem at all. You're just also handling Wowo Delivery, it's no different. When Wowo Group goes public, you'll be the legal representative of the listed company, and your net worth will skyrocket."
The CEO thought it made sense. He was already the legal representative, so having another one wouldn't make a difference. He imagined becoming rich overnight after Wowo Group went public, buying luxury cars, mansions, and dating young models...
"Ahem, Mr. Xu, I'm fine."
"Okay, thank you for your contributions to the company. We'll give you more shares later."
"Thank you, Mr. Xu."
So, the next day, Xu Maodong took his legal team to handle matters related to the splitting of Wowo Takeaway and the transfer of its legal representative.
Back at the company, Xu Maodong took a deep breath, picked up his phone, and called Jack Ma.
"Hello, Mr. Ma, this is Xu Maodong."
"Mr. Xu, is there anything I can help you with?"
"Mr. Ma, it's like this, I'm tired of running WowoTuan and I'm thinking of selling it to try other businesses. I was wondering if Koubei.com would be interested in acquiring it?"
When Jack Ma heard this, he was actually quite tempted. If Koubei.com merged with Wowo.com, it could immediately capture a large share of the market and squeeze into the top three in the industry.
Just as he was about to agree, he suddenly realized that Wowo Group was a bad omen. What if the acquisition caused Koubei.com to suffer bad luck and even affected Alibaba Group? Wouldn't that be a loss?
It's better to believe something is true than to believe it isn't.
Koubei.com can be built up gradually; backed by Taobao's big data, it can slowly grow stronger. But Alibaba absolutely cannot have any problems, otherwise...
Suddenly, Jack Ma broke out in a cold sweat.
"Ahem, Mr. Xu, actually our company acquired Koubei.com a long time ago. We just suddenly thought of it recently, so we decided to bring it out to take a bite of the group-buying market. I didn't intend to make it big or strong, hahaha."
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
