Founded in 2005 and listed on the Nasdaq in 2011. In 2015, it announced the start of preparations for privatization. In the ten years or so, Qihoo 360 experienced rapid growth and went public. In retrospect, Zhou Hongyi himself felt a bit "toss". This is a risky move, but it is not like the outside world has guessed that returning to privatization is to "arbitrage."
Let us first briefly review the 360 ​​privatization process.
In June 2015, Qihoo 360 announced that it had received an initial non-binding privatization offer initiated by the company’s chairman Zhou Hongyi and others;
In December 2015, 360 and the Buyers Union finally reached a privatization agreement;
In January 2016, China Merchants Bank, as the lead bank, together with other joint-stock commercial banks, provided a total of US$3.4 billion (about 22 billion yuan) in debt financing for the 360 ​​privatization transaction.
In March 2016, Qihoo 360 held an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders to vote on the privatization agreement, which was approved by the shareholders;
In April 2016, Qihoo 360 privatization project was approved by the National Development and Reform Commission;
In June 2016, Qihoo 360 announced that it had received a notification letter from the buyer’s coalition regarding the latest progress in privatization. It is expected that the privatization transaction will be completed by mid-August 2016;
On July 29, 2016, the delisting was officially completed.
From a time point of view, the completion of privatization is half month earlier than expected. However, Zhou Hongyi said frankly that they experienced difficulties and risks that the outside world could not imagine in the process. They feared that they would have an impact on the process. Before the delisting was completely completed, they would not bite their teeth and would not reveal any information to the outside world. He also said to himself that he has now become China's largest "negative".
In order to alleviate and avoid the pressure and unnecessary trouble brought about by the follow-up of privatization fundraising funds, Zhou Hongyi stated that there are three criteria when choosing a source of funds:
Must have cooperated with 360 and knew everything well.
Investors who are helpful for the follow-up development of 360 are mainly insurance companies, large state-owned enterprises, and professional investment funds;
Investors who refuse to “make quick money†and explicitly agree that investors’ direct or indirect funds are not allowed to come from any public offerings or wealth management products.
According to relevant information, investors raised by Qihoo 360 include CITIC Guoan, BRICS Road Capital, Sequoia Capital China, Taikang Life Insurance, Ping An Insurance, Sunshine Insurance, New China Capital, Huatai Ruilian and Huasheng Capital, and bank loans.
As for the reasons for returning to privatization, Zhou Hongyi also admitted that, in addition to policy guidance, it is mainly to solve the problem of 360's identity in the development of the security industry. We must first solidify our foundation at home and then consider globalization.
Although after listing, it is a Chinese-controlled company, but from a formal legal point of view, it is actually a foreign company, and most of the shareholders are from overseas investment institutions. When participating in domestic security construction, the government will feel very insecure and will certainly not get relevant qualifications.
This has nothing to do with the political system. It is the same internationally. No matter how good it is, foreigners can never believe you and will not give you control at the basic level of the core network. After the development of a network security-related enterprise to a certain scale, it is inevitable that it is closely linked with national interests.
Zhou Hongyi said that in the acquisition of Opera Mobile, a Norwegian mobile browser company, at the beginning of 360 years, although there was not much to do with security, because Opera had purchased an advertising company in the United States, it encountered many difficulties when requesting the approval of the United States. , resulting in the final abandonment of the acquisition.
After the delisting is completed, Qihoo 360 currently performs the splitting of the VIE structure, and the split ends. Qihoo 360 will become a wholly-owned private enterprise. However, Zhou Hongyi stated that the splitting and restructuring of the company's business has already started as early as two years ago, and is also an important task at this stage.
After the gradual expansion of the company's scale, it is more contradictory to want to maintain growth and to maintain innovation. The change of a large ship into a fleet to separate and explore some innovative or innovative businesses will not only reduce the bondage, but also the transformation of the role of leaders will stimulate the development of the business. And encourage the separation of business out of the implementation of the stock incentive system.
At present, the main business of split and reorganization is:
360 Core Security Services
Internet finance business
Internet medical services
Intelligent hardware security services Â
Among them, the core technology research and development in the core security business will remain in the group, and the propaganda and promotion business re-establishes a sub-group, which is responsible for Qi Xiangdong. Zhou Hongyi introduced that for the spin-off business, it will conduct a meeting review during the session, provide some directional guidance, and let the team drive itself in terms of revenue targets.
As for the hot 360 concept stocks that were recently fired, Zhou Hongyi responded that there was no relationship with 360. As for the end of this year, Qihoo 360 is expected to pass A-share approval at the end of December 2016 and complete the equity delivery transaction in March 2017. Guessing backdoor listing is also a rumor. 360 is also a victim of rumors, because of such rumors, the relevant departments often call to ask the situation. And said with a smile, many people send text messages to the recommendation shell every day, and their implementation has no consideration in this regard.