Chapter 138: A familiar face
Silicon Valley's internet companies and venture capitalists formed a network of their own. Yet information spread at a rate worthy of the information explosion on the American internet. Third-party intelligence teams sent back reports on Su Can and Mark Zuckerberg's movements almost every day. Their movements were hardly a secret. During Su Can's time in the United States, almost every banquet they attended and invitation they received circulated among these colossal American venture capital firms and corporations.
News of their movements appeared in well-informed newspapers and magazines, also raising Facebook's profile. In fact, this had been nothing unusual in the past, either.
Next, among software company representatives, the wealthy elite, celebrities, and venture capitalists, the conversation had all but shifted from Major League Baseball games or yesterday's FedEx Cup golf tournament to which venture capital firm or prominent figure had invited Facebook's executives, and what price they had offered at the gathering. If, on any given day, the price was a few thousand dollars for a stake of twenty percent or less, it would often prompt a round of regret, because there was no doubt that all this attention had substantially raised Facebook's valuation, making it harder for them to get in themselves.
As for an acquisition overture from a conglomerate like Viacom, that would make some conspiracy-minded venture capitalists feel threatened. It indirectly affirmed and raised Facebook's price even further, making an already crowded circle more congested than ever.
But none of them had any intention of withdrawing. These were no flighty speculators. As financial elites, they possessed intelligence beyond the reach of ordinary people. They realized that in this battle to acquire or finance Facebook, a great many unqualified contenders would be eliminated without sufficient patience and the accuracy of a precision-guided weapon.