How does Ctrip complete two key acquisitions with a small enterprise?

As we all know, Disney and Pixar are a pair of very well-matched business partners: Pixar has added enough horsepower to Disney, a machine powered by content and IP; On the other hand, Lasseter and Catmoore brought Pixar's good working methods and creative production methods to Disney, which in turn helped Disney regain its vitality and establish its leading position in the industry.

Coincidentally, Ctrip, a well-known domestic travel website, has also made two crucial acquisitions in its development history, one for the modern express company led by Wang Shengli, and the other for Wu Hai who came back from a business trip. These two acquisitions directly helped Ctrip lock in huge financing in the cold winter of the industry, and the introduced talents once made Ctrip's business grow nearly 100 times. Unlike Pixar's $7.4 billion acquisition, Ctrip's two key acquisitions occurred in the early days of the company's establishment.

So today we will talk about how Ctrip's two corporate acquisitions were carried out, what impact it brought to Ctrip, and how Ctrip, which was still in a weak period at that time, completed these two acquisitions.

Acquisition of Hyundai Express

Nakano's early article once said that Ctrip had a small transformation in the early days, from tourism portal to hotel room reservation. However, in the face of an old industry like hotels, it is not easy to grow rapidly, so Ctrip's team came up with the idea of acquiring other companies in the same industry.

Modern express companies headed by Wang Shengli have entered their target range. Modern Express is the first hotel reservation center in China, backed by Blue Sky Industry with air force background, with strong strength. Wang Shengli, the leader, is also excellent. Under his leadership, Hyundai Express grew at a rocket speed of 100%-200% per month in the first few months, and quickly became the largest hotel distributor in China, with 20,000-30,000 rooms booked a month at the peak. At that time, Ctrip only had about 900 nights a month and only completed a round of financing of 500,000 US dollars. The second round of financing has not arrived yet, and the cash flow is tight and it is losing money.

Coincidentally, at that time, Modern Express was facing the fate of being sold, just as the country was reorganizing its army and engaging in industry. Peer Internet companies are highly valued in the capital market. At that time, the valuation of Ctrip's second round of financing negotiations had reached 60 million US dollars, although it was still losing money. Therefore, the wishful thinking of Miracle and Shen Nanpeng is that they can acquire Modern Express with only a small amount of cash and part of Ctrip shares. The right time, the right place and the right people are in place, but Ctrip is still facing fierce competition, such as Hutchison Whampoa in Li Ka-shing, Huaxia Travel Network of Changjiang Industry at that time, and Shanghai Brilliance Tourism backed by Brilliance Group. Ctrip is far from the best acquirer.

With what as a stepping stone? At that time, Ctrip only had its own sincerity. Liang Jianzhang and Miracle frequently flew to Beijing to chat with Wang Shengli, repeatedly stressing that when they came to Ctrip, they could do things together and realize their dreams. Wang Shengli is also eager to continue what he didn't realize in Modern Express. Wang Shengli later said that during his contact with the four founders, he felt that they were knowledgeable, educated, far-sighted and enterprising, which was different from other companies he contacted. In the end, the team's appreciation contributed to this key acquisition. So, on June 5438+00, 2000, Ctrip bought Modern Express with millions of yuan in cash and Ctrip shares as a whole. Directly finalized Ctrip's third round of financing.

The most direct result of this acquisition is that the number of Ctrip users has doubled in a short time. After Wang Shengli came to Ctrip, he also made great contributions to the development of the northern market. The more important significance of this acquisition is that Carlyle Group, the main investor at that time, proposed that the prerequisite for investing in Ctrip is the successful acquisition of Hyundai Express. So, one month after the acquisition, in June 2000, 1 1, the financing of120,000 USD from Carlyle Group and other joint investors arrived in time. Ctrip was thus able to survive and obtain astronomical funds to avoid becoming one of the cannon fodder after the bursting of the Internet bubble.

Warrior Wu Hai

Another acquisition of Ctrip is quite different. It acquired Wu Hai, senior vice president of Ctrip responsible for sales, marketing and business development.

He started a business trip and later became the founder of Wuhai, the first orange hotel in China.

The word "acquire-hire" is popular in Silicon Valley, which is a combination of "acquire Acquisition" and "hire Employment", meaning that Internet companies focus on the acquisition of talents. This acquisition is exactly the case.

Wu Hai graduated from the Central University of Finance and Economics, and started a business on 1999, focusing on booking business. When Ctrip booked 900 nights a month, Wu Hai's business trip had reached 30,000. However, due to the lack of stronger financing ability, Business Travel was sold to an American fund, and Wu Hai himself only kept a small part of the shares. Later, due to the unhappiness of some partners, Wu Hai decided to leave.

After discovering Wu Hai's intention to leave, Miracle communicated with him many times, hoping that he could come to work in Ctrip. Because what Wu Hai has is Ctrip's lack of experience in large-scale booking. In the end, Miracle gave Wu Hai great authorization and accepted all the management of his business trip.

After Wu Hai took office, the first thing he did was to copy Ctrip's business trip-set up a call center, a sales team, a hotel negotiation team and so on. It only took a short time, and Ctrip's booking volume increased by dozens of times.

In addition, Wu Hai and his team also brought a very successful promotion method of Ctrip in the early days. That is to issue the blue Ctrip card for free at the airport. This is a method inspired by door-to-door sales in Wu Hai's early days. This simple method enabled him to convert 30% of his customers. After coming to Ctrip, Wu Hai promoted the Ctrip card with a salary of 10,000 yuan per card, which made many people think that he was crazy. But what Wu Hai wants is "there must be a brave man under the reward." He said: "If they want to get this 10,000 yuan, they have to work overtime day and night, and they have to go to Wangfujing in Beijing and the Bund in Shanghai to find customers after work and weekends. Even if they are beaten by security guards in the office building and bombed by the police at the airport, they will still rush forward. This is the effect I want. "

In June 2000, that is, three months after Wu Hai joined Ctrip, the number of nights booked by Ctrip per month increased from less than 1 0,000 to 20,000. A few months later, Ctrip has become the largest hotel distributor in China. By the end of 200 1, Wu Hai left Ctrip for personal reasons, and the booking volume of Ctrip in1August increased from several hundred per month to 65,438+million. Wu Hai's strategy can be said to be very effective, and this talent acquisition has also laid the most solid foundation for Ctrip's success.

These two acquisitions have laid a good foundation for Ctrip. However, at this time, the Internet bubble burst and the whole industry faced a cold winter. How Ctrip breaks the ice in the cold winter, please continue to pay attention to our headline number, and the smart life will explain it for you in detail.