Yidian Information is facing internal conflicts and strategic differences. Yidian Information is clearing the way for listing.

Article | Wei Hang

Where there are people, there are rivers and lakes.

As ​​a place where infighting often occurs, the company is nothing more than a struggle for interests and power. No, another infighting incident occurred today.

In the middle of the night on January 21, Li Ya, the CEO of Yidian.com, received an email notification that he was dismissed from his position. He must have been filled with surprise and anger, but he stood up the next day. Fight back.

At the end of 2018, the grassroots When employees were worried about being optimized, Li Ya was optimized by Yidian Information. Li Ya felt the taste of unemployment. This internal fight showed us the contradictions within Yidian Information.

01

For this adjustment, Yidian News responded that it was \”out of the company\’s development needs.\” The successor is Ren Xuyang, co-founder of Yidian. Ren Xuyang has faded out and returned again, and concurrently serves as CEO of Yidian.

Back on February 10, 2015, Yidian Information completed a $30 million Series B financing. Phoenix New Media became the largest shareholder of Yidian Information. Ren Xuyang has since A bit of information fades out.

At the same time, as a veteran employee of Ifeng.com, Li Ya served as CEO of Yidian Information and President of Ifeng.com in 2015. September 8, 2017, Li YaciHe left his administrative position at Phoenix.com and devoted himself wholeheartedly to the strategic development of Yidian\’s information business.

It can be seen that with the entry of the Phoenix series, Li Ya has reached the peak of her career.

But now, CEO Li Ya and shareholder Phoenix New Media have different opinions on the company\’s development direction. Li Ya hopes that the company will dismantle the VIE and develop independently to seek domestic listing. Liu Shuang, CEO of Phoenix New Media, does not want to lose control of some information.

So Li Ya became a victim, and Li Ya\’s Baidu Encyclopedia also changed, with the word \”original\” added overnight.

Li Ya argued for this, saying that the company is currently \”at a critical moment, especially the recent round of large shareholder transfers of old shares + new share issuance Amount of financing, extremely complex and even major disagreements occurred

\” I was somewhat mentally prepared for the intensification of conflicts, but I didn\’t expect it to be so \”ridiculous. Abrupt and reckless,\” he said in an internal email.

Li Ya pointed out in the email that the resolution of personnel appointment and dismissal requires the shareholders\’ meeting and the board of directors to meet the legal attendance and voting ratio required by the company\’s articles of association, and should fully support each director and shareholder. , based on an accurate understanding of the background and key information of the proposal, make a statement in accordance with the internal compliance procedures required by each shareholder, and only after seeing the formally signed board resolutions and shareholders\’ meeting resolutions, the personnel appointment and dismissal notice will take effect. \”

The (January 21) all-member notification email was so impatient, which not only shows the guilty conscience of the mover, but also reveals the concern for corporate governance and company reputation. Extreme indifference,\” Li Ya said.

Subsequently, Yidian News refuted, saying that Li Ya\’s statement did not represent the official, the information released was not accurate, and the company\’s CEO replacement was reasonable and legal.

Regarding the CEO removal farce, some analysts said that Yidian Information may intend to list on the domestic A-share market, dismantle the VIE (agreement control) structure, and Phoenix.com will completely withdraw , yesterday\’s farce of dismissal may be related to the rumors of ifeng.com\’s withdrawal.

02

Looking back at the history of the Internet world, we can see that there is a long history of internal fighting. Fighting against heaven and earth is endless fun.

\”Without Wang Zhidong, there would be no Sina.\” This statement was resounding and no one could refute it. Logically speaking, as a founder, you either work in the company or retire honorably.

Wang Zhidong’s ending made many people sigh, because he was “fired” by the board of directors and removed as director and CEO without knowing it. of position.

In 2000, Wang Zhidong led Sina.com to go public in the United States. Sina, which has achieved such great success, has a complex equity and management structure.

Although Wang Zhidong has been trying to change, it has not had much effect. Then coupled with the bursting of the Internet bubble, Sina\’s stock fell all the way to about $1. Due to different philosophies and the plummeting stock price, in June 2001, Wang Zhidong was relieved of all his positions at Sina and was kicked out.

In the 1990s, when mobile phones were not popular and phone bills were sky-high, many people in China\’s cities and rural areas used \”Little Smart Phones\”, and Those who have used PHS should all know UTStarcom.

On March 3, 2000, UTStarcom was successfully listed on NASDAQ in the United States. The stock price once soared to US$73, an increase of 278%. The company’s market value It instantly expanded to more than 7 billion US dollars.

Later, as the overall development of UTStarcom encountered many constraints, its internal mechanism also highlighted numerous loopholes. Wu Ying proposed to distinguish China. dismantle independenceStand up and break away from UTStarcom.

Since Wu Ying has been in China for a long time, he has few opportunities to communicate with other directors and shareholders in the board of directors. Therefore, although Wu Ying has made great contributions to UT, in Lost the battle with capital and was marginalized in the boardroom. On June 1, 2007, UTStarcom announced that its executive vice president and China CEO Wu Ying would resign.

In the following years, with the advent of the 3G era, PHS was eliminated, and UTStarcom gradually faded out of the sight of communications professionals.

Abroad, in the 1980s, Jobs, as a totalitarian, was driven out of the company by a vote of the board of directors because he failed to seize power. Later, he sold his shares in 11% of Apple\’s shares. Although Jobs later led Apple to its peak, it was quite frustrated at that period.

03

In 2018, the growth rate of news and information APP users has dropped to about 4%, and the pace of user growth has tended to be slow. Although there are still many news and information apps, only a handful of them have successfully achieved stable profits.

A bit of information as the headline, The second-tier leader after Tencent, seeing Qutoutiao listed on the market, I can’t help but feel a little jealous.

Toutiao has also begun to inquire from major investment institutions and prepare for financing, with a valuation range of US$40-60 billion (approximately 250 billion-380 billion people)RMB).

Several investment institutions said that Toutiao’s new round of financing valuation may exceed 50 billion US dollars, and they hope to reach 100 billion before listing. In the future, Toutiao’s listing will also be an inevitable result.

With the capital winter in the past two years, Yidian Information’s infighting this time is more like a purge of dissidents before going public.

(End)

*This article represents only the author Personal opinion