After making an appointment with Chen Wan, Li Mu just hung up her phone, and the phone rang again soon.

The one who called this time was Elon Musk.

Li Mu hurriedly answered the phone and asked him immediately: "Elon, have you met with Ford's people?"

"See you," Elon Musk said: "I talked to them until late today, and it's already late in Michigan."

Li Mu hurriedly asked: "What's the situation?"

Elon Musk said: "Ford still has sincerity, and he also knows you well and knows your style of doing things, so they can accept installment payments. As for the quotes they gave, the three brands combined, a total of 7 billion US dollars."

“7 billion dollars?”

Li Mu actually didn’t know how much Tata bought Jaguar Land Rover, and how much Gilli bought Volvo, so he asked him: “What do your team think about this offer?”

"Inflated." Elon Musk said: "At present, Jaguar Land Rover has consolidated financial reports, and it is currently in a loss state, so we think its actual price should be around US$3.3 billion, and as for Volvo, it will not exceed US$3 billion at most."

Li Mu nodded, thought for a moment, and said, "So, what you think is a reasonable price should be around 6.3 billion US dollars."

"Yes," Elon Musk said: "This is the highest price we think, and given the economic downturn, we believe there is still a lot of room for this price to fall."

Li Mu smacked his lips and thought to himself that although he didn't remember how much Jili spent, it was definitely impossible to reach $3 billion, and at most $2 billion was amazing.

In this way, Ford's offer to himself was at least one billion US dollars higher than the transaction price sold to Gilli.

It's so fucking dark!

However, Li Mu thought about it again that Jili's acquisition of Volvo was a matter after the financial crisis in 2008. The financial crisis in 2008 was a hurdle, and physical manufacturing companies around the world were greatly impacted.

The financial crisis has not yet arrived, and it is acceptable to have higher prices than after the financial crisis.

However, this also reminded Li Mu that 2008 is a good opportunity to buy the world economy at the bottom. If Muye Technology can make good industrial layout in 2004-08 and gather a lot of cash in hand, it will almost double the **uff by 2008.

Li Mu asked Elon Musk: "If we want to fight quickly, how much does it cost to win all three brands?"

"This..." Elon Musk thought for a while and said, "I think if we want to finalize the acquisition within a few months, the actual investment should not be less than $4.8 billion. If we can have more time windows to fight a tug-of-war with them, I think it may be possible to trade for $4.5 billion next year."

When Li Mu heard this, he hurriedly said, "Forget it next year, we can only exchange money for time, not time for money. So, we will negotiate at $4.8 billion, and the ideal transaction price will be around $5 billion and fluctuate by 100 million."

Elon Musk said: "This... I'll talk to them tomorrow."

As he said that, Elon Musk said again: "Mr. Li, if the acquisition payment can be paid within one year, the transaction price can be lowered a little further. Ford currently has a great demand for revitalizing funds."

Li Mu smiled and said, "You can talk to them first, openly talk, installment or payment within one year. Anyway, Google has started roadshows, and it won't take long to get the iPo. When Google ipo, our cash will be much more relaxed."

Makino Technology's current revenue scale is very high, but the investment scale is also very large. If you really take out billions from the company's cash reserves to acquire the automobile industry, the cash reserves will be squeezed out immediately. Moreover, the acquisition of these three brands is just the beginning, and a large amount of money will be invested to reintegrate. If the acquisition is completed by US$5 billion, at least US$300 million will be required to do the reintegration work.

So for Li Mu, the safest way is to pay in installments, get the three brands first, and start reorganization first.

Ford didn't just need billions of dollars in cash to invest in a new business in one go. Just give them a cash flow that can stabilize about three years, which is enough for them. For this reason, they can pay an extra part of their premium as an interest return on installment payments.

If you are not in a hurry, you can buy it until the end of this year. After Google IPO is successful, Makino Technology will conduct a roadshow. It is expected to succeed in the second half of the year, and at least tens of billions of dollars will be available in the stock market. In that case, it will be no problem to acquire the three brands of Ford.

However, Li Mu was unwilling to wait any longer, time was more precious than money.

Elon Musk also said: "Ford also said that if our financial pressure is relatively high, we can talk to them first on Volvo or Jaguar Land Rover. If one is collected first, the financial pressure will be reduced by half. Another one can be discussed in the second half of the year or next year."

Li Mu said: "It's no trouble, just talk to them directly. If they can give a lower price and be more refreshing, it's not impossible for us to pay it out in one go."

For Li Mu, it doesn't matter even if he can't get so much cash out. He can directly discuss the pledge of shares with the bank or the investor, pledge Muye Technology's shares at a valuation of 200 billion US dollars by five points, and then exchange it for 10 billion US dollars in cash. After the iPo, he will redeem the shares, which is nothing more than paying some loan interest.

Li Mu thought that as long as he could take down these three brands as soon as possible, he would immediately reorganize the entire management team, merge the three brands together, merge the financial merging together, and merge the core leadership team together and make further adjustments, and then immediately start launching a new model.

You can first take out one or two models with excellent appearance in later generations. While launching new models and rapidly increasing sales, you can invest and build factories in China, and then step by step take at least half of the production lines of these three brands to China.

At the same time, a brand new sales network must be built immediately. Not only should the previous seller network be reintegrated and optimized, but the sales network must also be further improved and improved, and the online sales network must be built.

Online sales of cars are a very difficult thing for traditional car companies, but for people like Li Mu who are from the Internet, they are very familiar with it.

Traditional car sales basically rely on 4S stores and secondary dealers. Among them, 4S stores occupy a large area and have large investments, and it is difficult to exist in the city center. The same is true for secondary dealers, basically in suburban areas.

However, online sales can diversify many links.

For example, you only need to rent an exhibition hall in the city center and put the car model there. Consumers can go to the exhibition hall in the city center if they want to see the car. If you want to test drive, you can make an appointment online or in the exhibition hall.

Then, in a slightly remote place, such as renting a relatively small venue within five to ten kilometers of the city center as a test drive reception center. This kind of test drive center only needs about 200 square meters of practical area, which is enough, and almost all of it is used as user reception. After the customer comes, he can directly register for the test drive, and it doesn’t take long to wait;

As for after-sales and warehouses, a after-sales maintenance center can be set up in more remote suburbs, such as 20 kilometers away from the city center or even more.

In other words, it is much more reasonable to completely break up the functions of traditional 4S stores, put display in the city center, put test drives in slightly remote areas, and put after-sales service in more remote areas, which is much more reasonable than consumers who have to go to remote suburbs whether they look at cars, test drives, or buy cars, or maintain and repair them.

As for sales issues, they are all placed online. Even if consumers decide to purchase in the exhibition hall or in the test drive center, they will ask them to place orders in the online mall. If consumers don’t know, on-site sales can help them place orders in the online mall.

There are many benefits of placing orders online, such as being able to better operate directly, with unified and transparent prices, and coordinating orders across the network can more reasonably arrange vehicle source production and distribution.

Once the consumer places an order, if there is a car in stock, the warehouse will directly transport the car to the exhibition hall in the city center to deliver it to the consumer;

If there is no car found, the system will directly give him an estimated delivery deadline. After the car is shipped from the merchant, it will be transported to the exhibition hall and delivered to the consumer.

This makes it much more convenient for consumers. If he doesn’t need to test drive, he can even complete the entire process of looking at the car, buying and picking up the car in the city center, and there is no need to go to the suburbs frequently;

If consumers need to test drive, they only need to go to the test drive center a few kilometers away from the city center, and there is no need to go to the after-sales service.

In fact, in traditional car sales methods, consumers have to go to remote suburbs to watch cars, test drives, order cars, pick up cars, and after-sales maintenance. However, from the actual process, consumers look at cars, order cars, and then the merchant delivers a normal car to consumers until the first maintenance is required, after-sales service will be really needed.

Ordinary cars are maintained once every 5,000 kilometers to 10,000 kilometers. For most ordinary family cars, they often need to be maintained once every six months or even a year.

If Li Mu uses the new model, then he really needs to go to a remote after-sales service from looking at the car to test drive, buying a car, picking up a car, and until the car reaches 5,000 or 10,000 kilometers. This can greatly reduce the burden on consumers, time costs and physical strength costs.

Moreover, a company that can open an exhibition hall in the city center will have a huge improvement in its brand image, which is much more stylish than the 4S stores in the suburbs of auto parts cities and the automobile trading market.

Tesla has done a very good job in this regard. Most of the time, they only have two main models, one model s and the other model x. They usually sit on the first floor of a large shopping mall in the bustling city center. They can easily set up two exhibition cars, and then accompany two sales to open the door to do business. This is much more convenient, labor-saving and money-saving than traditional 4S stores, and the publicity effect is greater, which is beyond the reach of traditional car companies.
Chapter completed!