Understand in one article: Besides Meituan’s acquisition of Light Years, what other details are there?

Author: Yuchen

**Source:**Sanyan Pro

Image source: Generated by Unbounded AI tool

Less than a week after Wang Huiwen was exposed to illness and was hospitalized, Wang Huiwen's former employer, Meituan, announced a wholly-owned acquisition of Light Years Away.

Meituan issued an announcement announcing that it entered into a transaction agreement on June 29 to acquire all the rights and interests of Light Years Beyond.

The announcement shows that for the acquisition of Light Years Beyond, the consideration paid by Meituan includes cash of about 233 million US dollars + debt commitment of about 367 million yuan (about 51 million US dollars) + cash of 1 yuan.

This article breaks down the details of the acquisition for you:

1. How to pay for Meituan?

It should be noted that light-years away are divided into foreign and domestic entities, so the acquisition also includes two parts.

1. Overseas payment must be made to Wang Xing Holdings, Sequoia Capital, and other investors

Look at the foreign part first.

The US$233 million in the consideration is the price paid to the overseas seller. Specifically including (1) zero consideration paid to AI Age; (2) US$5 million paid to Qimai; (3) US$28 million paid to Sequoia China; (4) US$200 million paid to other sellers.

Among them, AI Age is Wang Huiwen's holding company, and other parties are investors who are light years away from overseas, including Sequoia China, which we are familiar with, and Qimai, a company established overseas by Wang Xing.

In terms of equity ratio: Wang Huiwen’s AI Age accounted for 76.72%; Wang Xing’s Qimai accounted for 0.43%; Sequoia China accounted for 2.44%; other investors accounted for a total of 20.41%.

It can be seen that no consideration was paid to Wang Huiwen for the overseas acquisition of Zhongmeituan. According to the announcement, since Mr. Wang Huiwen is the founder of Light Years away, there is no relevant original acquisition cost.

The announcement also mentioned that the company has no profit or loss due to the fact that there is no business activity outside Light Years Abroad. The company's book is $283 million.

2. Domestically pay 1 yuan to Wang Huiwen and assume 367 million yuan in debt

Let's look at the domestic part.

In fact, most of the assets outside the light years are in the subject outside the light years, and the domestic subject (excluding first-class technology) has a book value of 348 million yuan (about 48 million U.S. dollars).

Light years away from the territory, Wang Huiwen is the only shareholder, that is, 100% holding.

There are two main considerations for Meituan’s acquisition of Light Years Beyond. (1) Paying 1 yuan to Wang Huiwen; (2) Assuming a debt of 367 million yuan (about 51 million U.S. dollars) away from the domestic light years.

The 367 million yuan is actually the total amount of principal repayment of convertible bonds.

2. Is there a premium?

Therefore, the total consideration for Meituan’s acquisition of domestic and foreign entities outside the light years: 1. Overseas 233 million US dollars; 2. Domestic debt commitment 367 million yuan + Wang Huiwen’s 1 yuan.

Therefore, the consideration paid by Meituan is domestic + overseas, totaling 285 million US dollars.

In general acquisition cases, acquisitions will be acquired at a high valuation premium, so is there a premium for this acquisition?

Meituan pointed out in the announcement that the total net cash position of Light Years Beyond Group (including Light Years Beyond and First-Class Technology) is approximately US$285 million. After the completion of the transfer agreement, Meituan will hold 100% of the equity of Light Years Beyond Group.

According to the announcement, the interests held by AI Age, Qimai, and Sequoia China outside Light Years Abroad refer to the shares outside Light Years Outside China that they each subscribed for in the previous round of financing in May 2023. The original acquisition costs of the overseas light-year interests held by the latter two parties were US$5 million and US$28 million respectively.

**The payment amount is the same as that of Meituan, which means that Meituan returned their respective investment funds. **

In general, there is basically no profit or loss because there is no actual business outside the light years. How much money is in the account from light years away, Meituan spent as much money to buy it, flat in and flat out, plus when Wang Huiwen released the AI hero list, the valuation was 200 million US dollars, so there is no premium .

3. Has Wang Huiwen lost money?

At the beginning, Wang Huiwen announced that he invested 50 million US dollars in the AI Hero List, accounting for 25% of the shares. But this acquisition also gave Wang Huiwen 1 yuan. Where did his $50 million go?

In addition to the company's operating costs, it may also include the cost of acquiring first-class technology, and the debt of 367 million yuan outside the domestic light year. The debt amount is greater than the 348 million yuan in the domestic account, because Wang Huiwen is 100% controlling, and the debt is in Giving him a dollar is symbolic.

4. Why does Meituan want to acquire light-years away?

According to the announcement, Light Years Beyond is a leading AGI innovator in China, founded by Mr. Wang Huiwen, the co-founder of Meituan. It is committed to promoting the realization and comprehensive popularization of AGI in China. Light Years Away's current management and technical teams have a high level of experience developing deep learning frameworks.

With the acquisition of leading AGI technology and talent, the Company has the opportunity to strengthen its competitiveness in the fast-growing artificial intelligence industry and better fulfill our mission of "helping everyone eat better and live better".

Major factories are developing large-scale models. Meituan, as a high-frequency platform for eating, drinking, playing and life services, has no reason to miss this wave, and it still gets talents for free.

Five, Pharaoh quit, what is left after light years?

Some media recently visited a company outside Wudaokou Light Years, and the employees are working normally. After Lao Wang withdrew, talents, products, and technology were naturally left.

At present, the team size is about 70 people, and the talents who have joined publicly include: Liu Jiang, vice president of Beijing Zhiyuan Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, and Ma Zhankai, known as the father of Sogou Input Method. Ma Zhankai has always been a product consultant of Meituan. This time, Curve has become a full-time employee of Meituan.

The next step is to look at the products that are light years away after joining Meituan.

To be honest, Meituan’s takeover at this time is considered very righteous.

Meituan's acquisition of light years away is equivalent to returning all the investors' money, and then Wang Huiwen's equity is transferred to Meituan for free, and the team that it partnered with has become Meituan's single-handed choice. Wang Huiwen's entrepreneurial spirit is worth learning, and I hope he recovers soon.

Attachment: Timeline of Major Events Beyond Light Years

On February 13 this year, Wang Huiwen, who has been retired for more than two years, returned to the public eye with a piece of "AI Hero List", announcing the establishment of Beijing Guangnianwai Technology Co., Ltd., with a personal investment of 50 million US dollars, accounting for 25% of the shares and 75% of the shares. % of the shares are used to invite top R&D talents.

On the afternoon of March 8, Wang Xing posted on Moments that he would personally participate in the A round of financing and serve as a director.

Liu Jiang, deputy director of Beijing Zhiyuan Artificial Intelligence Research Institute, posted in a circle of friends that he has decided to join Wang Huiwen's Light Years Beyond team.

In March, Ma Zhankai, who is known as the father of Sogou input method, announced on social platforms a few days ago that he joined Light Years Beyond to join the great journey of AGI general artificial intelligence.

On March 27, Wang Huiwen's team initially reached a merger and acquisition intention with the AI architecture start-up company "First-Class Technology". And completed the industrial and commercial change in mid-April, Light Years Beyond became the largest shareholder of First-Class Technology, and the legal person was also changed to Wang Huiwen.

It is rumored that the final transaction amount of this merger and acquisition is less than 1 billion US dollars.

On June 5, it was reported that Meituan co-founder Wang Huiwen’s AI start-up company Light Years Away has recently completed a new round of financing of US$230 million, with a pre-investment valuation of US$1 billion. This round of financing was led by Source Code Capital with an investment of US$80 million, Tencent invested US$50 million, Wuyuan Capital invested US$40 million, and Kuaishou founder Su Hua personally invested US$40 million.

In response to this rumor, Wang Huiwen publicly responded in the circle of friends, saying: the financing amount and valuation are not accurate. In June, Wang Huiwen encountered a personal health problem and has left work for medical treatment after diagnosis. People familiar with the matter further revealed that Wang Huiwen had some health problems in mid-May and suspected symptoms of depression.

Meituan also announced on the evening of June 25 that Wang Huiwen applied to resign as a non-executive director and authorized representative of Meituan due to "personal health reasons".

On June 26, it was reported that the A-round financing of Light Years Beyond had been completed for one month, and the actual amount of financing received was much higher than the US$230 million previously reported by external sources. It is indeed a rumor that the financing was not smooth.