Red Star Capital Bureau reported on March 22 that after more than three years, the murder case of Youzu Networks (002174.sz) founder Lin Qi ushered in new progress.
According to the WeChat public account of Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court, at 10 a.m. on March 22, 2024, the Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court (hereinafter referred to as "Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court") publicly pronounced the defendant Xu Yao guilty of intentional homicide and throwing dangerous objects in accordance with the law. In the substance case, defendant Xu Yao was sentenced to death for intentional homicide and deprived of political rights for life; defendant Xu Yao was sentenced to six years in prison for throwing dangerous substances, and it was decided to execute the death penalty and deprived of political rights for life.
After Lynch's death, Youzu Networks has changed. The Lynch family has been eliminated, and the "mysterious man" Wan Zheng has taken over.
Xu Yao was sentenced to death in the first instance
He was previously the CEO of Trisolaran Universe
The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court found after trial: The defendant Xu Yao had a conflict with the victim Lin due to company management matters, and was premeditated to commit suicide on December 14, 2020. On the 15th, the victim Lin was poisoned in his food, causing Lin to die from poisoning. Xu Yao also had conflicts with the victims Zhao A and Zhao B due to work reasons. From September to December 2020, Xu Yao poisoned drinks and other items in their offices, causing Zhao A and Zhao B Four people including B were poisoned. On December 18, 2020, Xu Yao was captured by the public security organs.
It can be seen that Lynch was not the only victim in Xu Yao's intentional homicide case. Previously, according to media reports quoted by Southern Metropolis Daily, in addition to Lynch, one of the victims of Yoozoo Company in the case, one of Lynch's assistants and Zhao Jilong, the vice president of Beijing Trisolaris Universe Company, also suffered misfortunes, but the two were not killed. Zhao Jilong was found to be chronically poisoned and had excessive mercury in his body.
Zhao Jilong is now an executive of Trisolaris Universe (Shanghai) Cultural Development Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Trisolaris Universe Company"). The defendant Xu Yao was the CEO of Trisolaris Universe Company at the time of the incident.
Xu Yao’s background is very glamorous. Public information shows that Xu Yao was born in 1981 and graduated from the University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) Law School in 2008. He successively worked as a lawyer in the Hong Kong office of the American law firm Dewey & Loeb, and served as assistant to the president and general counsel of the Fosun Group. He started working at Youzu.com in May 2017. In January 2019, Xu Yao resigned as a director of Youzu Networks due to personal reasons and became the CEO of Trisolaris Universe.
looks back at the poisoning incident of Lynch. On December 23, 2020, a social platform broke the news that Lin Qi, chairman and general manager of Youzu Networks, was poisoned and hospitalized due to internal fighting in the company, which quickly triggered heated discussions on the Internet. That night, Youzu.com announced that Lynch was admitted to the hospital due to physical discomfort. After treatment, his physical condition is stable and continues to improve. Subsequently, the Shanghai police reported that Lin was suspected of being poisoned, and Lin's colleague Xu was suspected of committing a major crime.
Just two days later, on December 25, 2020, Youzu.com announced that Lynch had unfortunately passed away.
The Lynch family is out
Youzu.com no longer has the "surname Lin"
After Lynch's death, Youzu.com fell into a series of turmoil, and the Lynch family began to come to the forefront.
First, in January 2021, Youzu.com announced that Lynch’s shares would be inherited by his three minor children, and the actual controller of the company was changed to Xu Fenfen, the mother of the three children.
In the following months, his three children succeeded him as shareholders of Shanghai Bruco Technology Co., Ltd., Nanjing Qiku Network Technology Co., Ltd. and Shanghai Youzu Technology Group Co., Ltd.
However, less than half a year after the announcement that Lynch’s three children would inherit the shares, news came out that Xu Fenfen was planning an equity transfer. At that time, there was speculation in the market that the equity transfer might be related to Lynch’s debt.
In November 2021, Hongta Securities (601236.sh) announced that it had sued three of Lynch's children, requiring them to repay the principal and interest of Lynch's previous financing loan of 267 million yuan. Previously, Youzu Networks' 2020 annual report also revealed that Lynch occupied approximately 800 million yuan in funds. Due to Lynch's unfortunate death, as of April 2021, all the occupied funds have been returned by Xu Fenfen in the form of monetary funds.
Since then, rumors have continued that Youzu Networks will be acquired. The acquirers range from Kuaishou, Bilibili, Tencent, and then to Sina. Yoozoo's share price and market value have also been declining amid rumors.Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that in the year of Lin Qi’s death (2020), Youzu Networks suffered its first loss in nine years since its listing, with a net profit of -188 million yuan.
In December 2022, amid rumors of "taking over" by various major companies, Xu Fenfen transferred the 113 million shares of Youzu Networks he held to Shanghai Jiayou at a price of 1.020 billion yuan, and the latter became the owner of Youzu Networks. The largest shareholder. In March 2023, after the share transfer was completed, Xu Fenfen announced her resignation from all positions including the chairman of Youzu Networks due to personal reasons.
Things are different and people are different.
The "mysterious man" takes over.
After the withdrawal of the Lynch family, Shanghai Jiayu officially entered the market. Behind it is the "mysterious man" Wan Zheng.
Wan Zheng is the largest shareholder and actual controller of Shanghai Jiayou. On April 21, 2023, the board of directors of Youzu elected Wan Zheng as chairman. Wan Zheng is very low-key and mysterious, and rarely appears in public reports. There is also little introduction to him in the YOOZOO announcement, only mentioning that Wan Zheng was born in 1984 and graduated from Lasalle International School of Design, Donghua University.
In April 2023, Youzu CEO Chen Fang revealed more information about Wan Zheng in an open letter: "The new chairman, Mr. Wan Zheng, like most of us, has joined the game industry since graduation and has nearly twenty Years of entrepreneurship and investment experience."
After the entry of "big boss" Wan Zheng, Youzu.com has undergone top-to-bottom adjustments. In July 2023, a YOOZOO school recruiter broke the news to the Red Star Capital Bureau that YOOZOO was adjusting its organizational structure and would cut off all fresh school recruits "one size fits all." One school enrollment said that the company's HR informed him that all the school's enrollment contracts had been cancelled. When he left, there were only about 50 people left in the school's enrollment group of more than 200 people.
There have also been personnel changes in Yozuo's management. The original chairman Xu Fenfen resigned, and veterans Liu Wanqin and Sun Li were also "eliminated" from the board of directors. They were replaced by new boss Wan Zheng and two directors born in the 1990s, one of whom is former professional League of Legends player Misaya Ruo. wind.
Youzu’s business also has a new direction - AI technology. In May 2023, Youzu signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Yuncong Technology (688327.sh). The research direction is large language models in the vertical field of games, which is a hot spot pursued by the market.
Red Star Capital Bureau noticed that Shanghai Jiayou’s “acquisition” boosted Youzu’s stock price to a certain extent. From December 30, 2022 to May 5, 2023, Youzu’s stock price rose by 197%.
However, there is still room for efforts by Youzu and the new boss to reverse the decline in performance. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, Youzu's operating income was 4.7 billion yuan, 3.2 billion yuan, and 1.98 billion yuan respectively, with year-on-year changes of 46.%, -32%, and -38%. Revenue continued to decline; net profit was -188 million yuan, 168 million yuan, -635 million yuan.
Youzu Network predicts that in 2023, the net profit attributable to the parent company will be 80 million to 120 million yuan, and the non-net profit after deduction will be 50 million to 75 million yuan, both of which will turn losses into profits.
As of the noon closing of March 22, Youzu Networks was trading at 11.45 yuan per share, with a total market value of 10.487 billion yuan, which has fallen by more than 50% from the high in May 2023.
Red Star News reporter Qiang Yaxian
editor Yu Dongmei
