Chapter 638
Operation
Chapter 638 Operation (4k)
In response to the email from "suspected over-the-top" sources, Jia Yueting immediately expanded the discussion to gather diverse perspectives and assess the situation.
Similar to the reactions of Jia Yueting and Liu Hong, Yang Lijie, who served as CFO and vice chairman respectively, and Jia Yuemin also changed their expressions instantly after seeing the contents of the email. After calming down, they learned of Jia Yueting's thoughts and immediately became extremely worried.
Jia Yuemin, the vice chairman and Jia Yueting's older brother, tried his best to dissuade him: "We're trying to avoid him right now. If you go looking for him like this, won't that alert him? How can you be sure it's not really Guo Shanfeng? This is just your guess. It's too risky to provoke him based on this guess!"
Jia Yueting slowly said, "This is my guess, but there is also evidence."
Jia Yuemin looked at his younger brother: "What evidence?"
Several people turned their gazes toward them.
"I haven't been killed yet, that's the proof," Jia Yueting emphasized. "This current situation is the proof!"
Jia Yuemin: "???"
Jia Yueting analyzed, "Just look at Yu Xing's past habits and actions. If it really is him, he would have killed him directly if he really wanted to make a move. Why would he bother with this whole thing?"
Since they weren't killed, it proves the other side was fake.
Everyone's feelings suddenly became the same: this was too absurd, but... it seemed absurd yet reasonable!
“Once could be a coincidence, twice, three times, four times could be a coincidence, but crossing the mountain so many times, that’s the habit of Yu Xing’s gang,” Jia Yueting said calmly. “They are bold and seek what they perceive as certainty. When they want to take action, they just do it directly without any pretense.”
These are Jia Yueting's observations and reflections.
Liu Hong had been convinced by President Jia and agreed, saying, "Although I can't say it's 100%, I think the person who sent the email is probably 70-80% fake. The logic of this research report is generally correct, but some data is not accurate enough. If Yu Xing and his team had done it, the completion rate would have been much higher, and the research report would have been more perfect."
One approach stemmed from the style of a major short seller, while the other focused on the content of the research report.
“Alright.” Jia Yuemin felt a little more trusting and then said, “So what do we do now? Just fly to Hong Kong to find him and make him admit that Shanfeng didn’t do anything to us?”
Jia Yueting shook his head: "No rush. First, send out the fake research report, making it even more fake, to deceive people. Then, find someone to take down the Baixiaosheng Forum together."
He said that just thinking about the Baixiaosheng Forum made him grit his teeth; he was really pushed to his limit by those provocative comments last time, and he still harbors resentment.
Jia Yueting looked at Liu Hong.
Liu Hong nodded: "I'll get it done tonight."
Jia Yueting slowly said, "After I get it done, I'll find Sun Hongbin. He still has resources. Then I'll have him sound out Yu Xing's opinion, which will also be a verification of my judgment."
Although Sun Hongbin might not be able to get the truth from Yu Xing, he did everything he could before meeting him in person.
Jia Yueting believes that while he wanted to eliminate potential threats, he was also forced to do so passively.
This research report, which is suspected to be based on a mountain peak, has not been made public yet, but it may be released at any time. LeEco has just stabilized market sentiment through its cooperation with Sunac, and it may very well be directly caused to collapse by the report's influence on the market due to the mountain peak.
We must not sit idly by and wait for our doom; we must take the initiative.
Thinking of this, Jia Yueting sighed deeply, wondering how a monster like Yu Xing could exist...
In particular, the stock prices of more than a dozen listed companies in three sectors were affected by the news, which is an incredibly powerful influence!
That night, everyone in LeEco's core circle was assigned tasks: some contacted resources, others connected with victims. Everyone was very proactive, after all, they were all sucking blood from the company, and they couldn't just let it collapse like that.
Jia Yueting smoked for a long time, thinking about how to get things done.
When the 2.0 research report was ready, he stubbed out his cigarette, sent it to Sun Hongbin, and waited a while before calling him: "Mr. Sun, have you read it?"
"Brother Jia, what? What did you see?" Sun Hongbin's voice was tinged with drunkenness.
Hearing the somewhat noisy background noise on the other end, Jia Yueting said, "I sent you a short-selling report on LeEco by Guoshanfeng. Take a look."
Upon hearing this, Sun Hongbin instantly sobered up, and his voice rose: "You still say you didn't hide it from me!!"
“It’s not what you think,” Jia Yueting said calmly. “I’m not hiding it from you, someone else sent this to me. Take a look first.”
Sun Hongbin hung up the phone immediately.
Jia Yueting waited while smoking a cigarette. After about two cigarettes' worth of time, his phone rang.
"Who released this? Extortion?" Sun Hongbin's voice sounded completely sober. "Brother Jia, there's no LeEco in the news, and this report doesn't make sense. Who did this? Where did this report come from?"
"Of course, LeEco isn't in the news," Jia Yueting laughed. "This report is definitely not right either."
Sun Hongbin's voice was stern: "Where did you get this report?"
Jia Yueting replied, "It was my vice president who received the email."
"How was it handled? Did they ask for money?" Sun Hongbin asked. "Did they call the police?"
Before Jia Yueting could answer, he muttered to himself, "If this doesn't cause any impact, calling the police isn't a good idea. This thing..."
Seeing Sun Hongbin hesitate, Jia Yueting immediately said, "It's fine to release this. I believe the market has discerning eyes. It's all fake and won't harm LeEco."
He commented, "This is a poor imitation of a mountain peak."
Sun Hongbin agreed with this point. He had just broken out in a cold sweat and had someone review the research report. They found that the financial knowledge and logic in the report were contradictory, and the so-called evidence listed was also untenable.
Jia Yueting added, "This thing won't have any impact, but what I'm thinking now is, if someone publicly pulls this stunt and amplifies the negative news about LeEco in a half-true, half-false way, and if someone blindly follows the 'Guoshanfeng' short-selling theory, things could get complicated."
He frankly said, "I've pledged a lot of stocks, Mr. Sun, you know that too."
Sun Hongbin pondered for a moment and said, "Then what's the point? What's the purpose of doing this?"
Stirring up trouble and targeting LeEco is unlikely to bring any profit. LeEco is not a US stock or a Hong Kong stock; although it can be shorted, the amount is very small.
It's safe to say that LeEco's stock would never be a target for short-selling institutions.
When Sun Hongbin visited Mr. Yu in Hong Kong last time, he also felt that Mr. Yu's move against LeEco was illogical, as the other party had no profit to gain.
He wanted to act as a peacemaker. Since it was possible that a problem arose at some point, in some situation, or during a meeting, causing Mr. Yu to feel unhappy with LeEco, he wanted to speak openly and prevent Mr. Yu from suddenly using his influence to criticize LeEco.
As it turns out, Mr. Yu not only did not criticize LeEco, but he also clarified the sensationalist headlines of those Hong Kong media outlets.
So, he simply didn't have a positive outlook on LeEco's car manufacturing venture.
Sun Hongbin did not view this newly crowned king of short selling with prejudice, but believed that as long as someone is human, they should be allowed to have different opinions on things, which is perfectly normal.
Faced with Sun Hongbin's question, Jia Yueting sighed: "Yeah, what's the point, Mr. Sun? You don't play around with the internet much, so you might not know. People online love to watch the drama unfold. The last time I went to the Baixiaosheng Forum to curse, it was because I couldn't stand those people inexplicably trying to sow discord between me and Mr. Yu."
"I have no personal grudges against Mr. Yu. LeEco even bought a car from Silicon Carbon Group. I can understand that Mr. Yu may not be optimistic about my idea of building cars or its future, but those other people can't understand!"
He complained, "I'm so annoyed! And now there's a group of people who claim to be Yu's supporters, spouting nonsense about the 'Ten Rules for Short Selling' and the 'Related Party Transaction Investigation Method.' You see, 80% of what I get is this kind of output from them!"
Sun Hongbin believed Jia's explanation. Although he didn't work in the internet industry, he was somewhat familiar with the prevailing atmosphere.
He knew that the other party probably had something on their mind after making that call, so he asked, "So what do you think?"
"LeEco's stock price still needs to be raised. It depends on our performance this year, but we can't ignore the voice of public opinion." Jia Yueting said in a reasonable manner. "I was thinking that since you met with President Yu last time, I might as well go and meet him too, and talk things out. Short videos are very popular now, so I'll record a short video too, that way it'll be over and done with, and we won't have to guess anymore."
Sun Hongbin believes that this "one-size-fits-all" approach is an effective method.
When he visited last time, he didn't have anything specific to ask. Now that someone is clumsily imitating him, he has a pretext.
Sun Hongbin said, "Then let's wait for him to come back. I heard that Silicon Carbon Group is doing a roadshow. I estimate that it will be listed next month. Tsk, I didn't expect Silicon Carbon Group to be able to go public smoothly."
Jia Yueting was not interested in the listing of Silicon Carbon Group, but he could only remain patient as he listened to the conversation.
After a while, he said, "Mr. Sun, let's not wait for him to come back. While he's doing his roadshow and in Hong Kong, I'll fly over there to show my sincerity. Maybe we can cooperate and rely on each other in the new energy field in the future. His carbon silicon is quite good."
Sun Hongbin considered for a moment and felt that the saying "cooperation and reliance" made sense. He hadn't been able to have a meal last time, but if he flew over again, what knot couldn't be untied?
He agreed, "Okay, I'll go back to Hong Kong next week when I have time."
Jia Yueting calculated the time and said, "Then let's do it next week. I'll send you the specific time later."
The two made an agreement to fly to Hong Kong to meet with the big short seller.
The following Friday, the 2.0 version of the research report was not released, but the Baixiaosheng Forum saw a surge in comments from the morning on the stock prices of different listed companies, some even providing so-called on-site research.
These comments, whether posted by Baixiaosheng users themselves or screenshots reposted from Weibo or Zhihu, quickly sank to the bottom or were deleted, but the forum was indeed polluted for a time.
Some experienced users noticed this and were quite puzzled: "@Admin, is this a paid online attack today?"
On Saturday, similar opinions regarding LeEco's stock price first appeared on Weibo, then were transferred to the Baixiaosheng Forum, and then a 2.0 research report appeared under the relevant discussion thread.
This report, written by LeEco's vice president Liu Hong, deliberately contained many problems and was quickly identified and ridiculed by people on the Baixiaosheng Forum. While LeEco certainly has its issues, this survey is wrong.
Since it's the weekend and the stock market is closed, this situation will not affect LeEco's stock price.
However, from Friday to Saturday, a series of posts and forums targeting listed companies appeared. This situation was compiled and reported to relevant departments. Subsequently, people like Ying Jianren of Tie Niu and Yang Kai of Huishan communicated with the China Securities Regulatory Commission and other departments, discussing the damage that the Baixiaosheng Forum was causing to the financial order.
The situations of Huishan and Tieniu are still under investigation, but their problems are their own responsibility. Whether the problems of Baixiaosheng Forum also exist also needs to be considered.
The Baixiaosheng Forum has maintained an anonymity mechanism for many years, and there are occasional revelations. However, it is both big and small. It has established communication channels with major companies and, after the exposure of Guoshanfeng, it established feedback channels with the China Securities Regulatory Commission and other departments. It is quite nimble in its actions.
However, the influence of the "King of Short Sellers" is so strong, and this, combined with the mechanism of the Baixiaosheng Forum, certainly makes people wonder.
At 8 p.m. on Sunday, an announcement appeared on the Baixiaosheng Forum, declaring a week-long technical upgrade, in the same tone as when it was upgraded many years ago.
Many users have therefore moved to Weibo, with some speculating: "Weren't we talking about LeEco's report before? Maybe LeEco hired someone to do it."
Jia Yueting had been paying close attention to the progress of the "Confront the King of Short Sellers" campaign. Upon seeing such comments, he was furious. "Damn it! Why? No process, just the answer?"
Even if I hired someone to do it, shouldn't you at least find some evidence before making such guesses?
He felt that the users of the Baixiaosheng Forum were becoming as eccentric as Yu Xing.
However, the fact that Baixiaosheng Forum is going to undergo a technical upgrade did relieve Jia Yueting. The 2.0 version of the research report had errors and omissions, but he was afraid that the 1.0 version would be released. Moreover, it is difficult to do public relations for Baixiaosheng Forum, unlike platforms such as Weibo, which are more convenient for exerting pressure.
Bai Xiaosheng is like a space that is prone to explosion, but other spaces can have smooth air circulation.
Jia Yueting believes that the market blindly follows authority. Now, as long as Yu Xing, the authority who shorted LeEco, clarifies that he did not short LeEco, even if the article does contain a lot of correct content, without the influence of the "peak," it will not cause an avalanche.
Just like Steinhofer, was it a problem that only existed when Yu Xing was discussing it?
No, earlier, analysts from JPMorgan Chase published a 56-page critical report, and German media raised questions when it went public in Frankfurt, but none of that prevented the company from achieving a market capitalization of over 100 billion euros.
The fundamentals are there, and the problems are there, but not every criticism is effective, and not every short-selling attempt is successful.
Even without Guo Shanfeng, who now wields immense influence, Jia Yueting is not afraid of criticism from the public; he still has many stories to tell.
On February 2, Jia Yueting and his team arrived in Lin'an and visited Alibaba's founder, Ma Chuan, to receive his evaluation.
"LeEco is good; it has big ambitions for its ecosystem."
(End of this chapter)