By this year, 2006, with Apple's music store launching and iPods continuing to sell like hotcakes, the company's stock price had already risen considerably...
Back then, Wang Ye had bought all 160 million newly issued Apple shares at 5 US dollars per share. He held 16 percent of Apple's stock and was its largest shareholder!
Now, Apple's share price had risen to more than 160 US dollars!
From this investment alone, Wang Ye had made a staggering profit of more than 25 billion US dollars!
Of course, cashing out such a large holding would be extremely difficult. If Wang Ye really dumped all those Apple shares onto the market, Apple's stock price would come crashing down and lose a great deal of value.
After all, he was Apple's largest shareholder. If even the largest shareholder was cashing out and running, other investors would certainly feel the danger and rush to liquidate their own holdings.
But Wang Ye alone knew that this was only the beginning!
Once the iPhone and iPad were launched, Apple's market capitalization would continue soaring. At its peak, the company's market value could even surpass 3 trillion US dollars!
By then, the 16 percent stake in his hands would be worth nearly 500 billion US dollars...
And aside from the soaring stock price, in a few years, once Apple had more cash in its accounts than it could spend, it would begin paying massive dividends. In its most outrageous year, it would distribute dividends to shareholders four times!
It truly had money to burn.
So Wang Ye had never even considered cashing out those shares. At the very least, he would hold them for another decade or so, then gradually sell off a portion once Apple's market value neared its peak.
In any case, he had no