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Author: The Doorman is Not Bright
Operations: One Hundred Little Stones With Bitmain’s official statement, this game of thrones between the two founders of the mining machine giant has temporarily come to an end. The statement is as follows: Mr. Jihan Wu, founder of Bitmain, chairman of the board of directors of Bitmain Group, legal representative and executive director of Beijing Bitmain Technology Co., Ltd., has decided to remove Zhan Ketuan from all his positions in Bitmain, effective immediately. We believe that under the leadership of Mr. Jihan Wu, Bitmain will return to its original aspirations, focus on its core business, develop horizontally in an orderly manner, and become a world-class technology company. "Zhan Ketuan is relieved of all his duties at Bitmain, effective immediately. " Decisive and ruthless in killing. Who would have thought that more than 8 months ago, Wu Jihan was still recognized by the outside world as a down-and-out "loser".
On October 27, the day before the Shenzhen Security Expo, Bitmain released its third-generation intelligent server SA5 in Shenzhen. This AI server is equipped with the BM1684 AI chip that was just released in September, and is mainly aimed at the field of video and image intelligent analysis. Bitmain Chairman Zhan Ketuan also came to the scene and said at the press conference that the market size of video structuring will be 10,000 times that of today in the next 3-5 years, and a 100-fold drop in the price of single-channel video structuring is a reasonable level. At the event, Zhan Ketuan also accepted media interviews and talked confidently about Bitmain's future strategic planning in the field of artificial intelligence. However, what he never expected was that thousands of miles away in Beijing, another founder of Bitmain, Jihan Wu, was planning a "war." The battle for power officially began on October 28. On October 28, according to information from the National Industrial and Commercial Registration System, Beijing Bitmain Technology Co., Ltd. underwent industrial and commercial changes. The legal representative was changed from Micree Zhan to Jihan Wu. In addition, Jihan Wu also took over the position of executive director from Micree Zhan.
At 11:00 am on October 29, Wu Jihan sent an email to all employees of Bitmain, announcing the decision to remove Zhan Ketuan from all his positions in Bitmain, effective immediately. No Bitmain employee is allowed to follow Zhan Ketuan's instructions or attend meetings convened by Zhan Ketuan. If there is any violation, the company will consider terminating the labor contract depending on the severity of the circumstances; if the company's economic interests are damaged, the company will pursue civil or criminal liability in accordance with the law. According to the Daily Planet, following the email "removing all duties of Zhan Ketuan", Wu Jihan immediately sent a second email to employees, which was to remove the current HR director, reappoint the original HR director, and hold an employee meeting. It is reported that the HR director who was removed from his position took office at the end of 2018 and was appointed by Zhan Ketuan, and the person who was reappointed as the HR director was a veteran employee who had previously followed Wu Jihan to start a business. In addition, Bitmain employees revealed to DeepChain Finance that there were also personnel adjustments in the heads of Bitmain’s two mining pools, AntPool and BTC.COM. The successive personnel changes seem to indicate that Wu Jihan’s “revenge” was successful and he regained control of Bitmain. At 13:15 in the afternoon , Bitmain held a general staff meeting, and Wu Jihan reiterated the decision. According to Blockchain News, Wu Jihan was quite emotional at the staff meeting, and he told employees, "I must come back to save this company. " In addition, Zhan Ketuan has been banned from entering Bitmain’s corporate offices. Wu Jihan's close "comrade-in-arms", Yang Haipo, founder of the mining pool ViaBTC, posted on Weibo that Wu Jihan was the earliest evangelist of China's blockchain, the translator of the Chinese version of the Bitcoin white paper, and the founder of Bitmain, the world's largest blockchain company. It was under his leadership that Bitmain became prosperous, but due to some historical reasons, as has happened many times in history, he was almost driven out of the company he founded, and Bitmain also fell from grace. At the most critical moment, he used iron-fisted means to regain control of Bitmain. I hope he can lead the company to glory again, just like Steve Jobs. Regarding this matter, Shenlian Finance called Zhan Ketuan, but as soon as he explained the reason, Zhan Ketuan hung up. When he called again, no one answered the phone. " Grudges Beneath the Surface " Wu Jihan, who has always been famous, has been regarded by the outside world as the head of Bitmain. However, in fact, in terms of equity, Zhan Ketuan is the real boss. At the end of 2017, co-CEO Zhan Ketuan, who rarely spoke publicly, began to step out from behind the scenes and spoke on behalf of Bitmain many times. From the Artificial Intelligence Conference to an exclusive interview with Business Week, he announced Bitmain's revenue in a high-profile manner. According to Zhan Ketuan, Bitmain is an artificial intelligence company. Before Zhan Ketuan's high-profile appearance, Wu Jihan had always represented Bitmain, while Zhan Ketuan rarely showed up. According to an insider, Zhan Ketuan was a technical person and was not good at dealing with the outside world. Therefore, the division of labor between the two was that Wu Jihan was responsible for the mining machine market, while Zhan Ketuan was responsible for technical research and development breakthroughs. Zhan Ketuan's stepping to the front did not attract excessive attention from the outside world at the time, but looking back on it afterwards, it is something worth pondering. In April 2018, news came out that Jihan Wu and Micree Zhan were separating, and the era of dual CEOs of Bitmain was coming to an end. When Deepchain Finance asked Micree Zhan to confirm the news, Micree Zhan denied it and said that he was hearing the news for the first time. In November 2018, Bitmain underwent industrial and commercial changes. Four people, including Wu Jihan, withdrew from the board of directors. Wu Jihan's status was changed from "director" to "supervisor" of the company, and Zhan Ketuan was changed from "chairman" to "executive director". However, this change did not attract much attention. When the cryptocurrency market entered a cold winter and Bitmain carried out drastic layoffs, "negative news" about the two bosses came out again. On December 28, Planet Daily reported that a person close to Bitmain said that Zhan Ketuan and Wu Jihan will resign as CEO of Bitmain at the same time. The new successor is named Wang, who has been in Bitmain for some time and is currently in the transition period. On January 25, 2019, at the Bitmain annual meeting in Beijing Yanqi Lake, Zhan Ketuan cried with his face covered, while Wu Jihan supported him with concern. Although the two seemed to support each other, they were actually estranged. Because in February, media reported that Bitmain co-founder Wu Jihan had faded out of the company's management and might leave Bitmain to set up his own new company. The reason for his departure was that he had major disagreements with another co-founder, Zhan Ketuan, and it was difficult to make a unified decision, so Wu Jihan finally decided to start a new company. However, in response to the news, Bitmain responded with the four words “pure rumor”. If what was said before was just unconfirmed speculation, then an internal letter from Bitmain in March 2019 made it clear that rumors are often not groundless. The internal letter mentioned that the board of directors appointed Wang Haichao as the company's CEO, Zhan Ketuan continued to serve as the company's chairman, and Wu Jihan continued to serve as the company's director. The two founders did not forget their original intentions, worked together, and made joint efforts to jointly grasp the company's strategic direction. The situation of co-CEOs as previously rumored by the outside world has been broken, and the statement of "jointly grasping the strategic direction of the company" is seen by the outside world as proof that the two have not reached a "consensus". Regarding the dispute between the two bosses, an internal employee of Bitmain previously told Deepchain Finance that Wu Jihan wanted to create a barrier by obtaining a public chain with high consensus, while Zhan Ketuan placed his hopes on AI chips. When there is money, everyone can try separately to see who is right. When there is no money, one or both of them are destined to make concessions. In the view of Zhu Yu, who resigned from Bitmain and later founded the CoinIn mining pool, Wu Jihan is an excellent person, but also very stubborn. After the public outcry over Wu Jihan's aggressive internal letter, Bitmain officially told Deepchain Finance: The founder of Bitmain, chairman of the board of directors of Bitmain Group, legal representative and executive director of Beijing Bitmain Technology Co., Ltd., Mr. Jihan Wu, has decided to remove Zhan Ketuan from all his positions in Bitmain, effective immediately. We believe that under the leadership of Mr. Jihan Wu, Bitmain will return to its original aspirations, focus on its core business, develop horizontally in an orderly manner, and become a world-class technology company. In this official answer, eight words stand out: "Return to the original intention and focus on the core business." What is Bitmain's original intention? What is its main business? Maybe Wu Jihan and Zhan Ketuan each have their own opinions. " The Undetected Mystery of Equity " According to the descriptions in the verifiable past reports, it was Wu Jihan who wanted to establish Bitmain and then recruit Zhan Ketuan to join. After spending a short time learning about Bitcoin, Zhan Ketuan decided to join. In most people's impressions, Wu Jihan is equivalent to Bitmain. However, after Deepchain Finance investigated the equity change information of Bitmain, it found that the story seemed to be another version. The national industrial and commercial information website shows that Beijing Bitmain Technology Co., Ltd. was established in October 2013. Bitmain's 2013 annual report shows that when Bitmain was founded, there were five natural person shareholders, among whom Jihan Wu held 59.2% of the shares; the second largest shareholder was Ge Yuesheng, who held 28% of the shares. LinkedIn information shows that Ge Yuesheng only graduated from Hangzhou Dianzi University in 2013. When Bitmain was founded, Wu Jihan was not one of its founding shareholders. In 2013, Bitmain's total assets amounted to 556,500 yuan, with a loss of 42,000 yuan that year. It was not until November 2014, one year after Bitmain was founded, that Wu Jihan became a shareholder of Bitmain. In November 2014, Bitmain increased its registered capital and introduced new shareholders. Wu Jihan joined the list of shareholders with a shareholding ratio of 0.79%. Zhan Ketuan holds a shareholding ratio of 58.73% and enjoys absolute control. However, industrial and commercial data show that Wu Jihan was not on the board of directors at that time. In June 2015, Bitmain once again increased its capital and expanded its shares. After this round of equity changes, Wu Jihan's shareholding ratio increased significantly to 22.9%, but it was still far lower than Zhan Ketuan's 61% shareholding ratio. Judging from the shareholding ratio, Zhan Ketuan has always been the actual controller of Bitmain, while Wu Jihan has always been pushed to the forefront by Bitmain. After this capital increase and share expansion, Wu Jihan was newly added as a director of Bitmain in July 2015. Zhan Ketuan is the chairman and manager of the company. In November 2016, Bitmain changed its shareholders to a single overseas company, Bitmain Technologies Limited. The era when Wu Jihan was the sole spokesperson for Bitmain ended with Zhan Ketuan stepping to the forefront as the founder and co-CEO, leaving the market with a lot of imagination. At that time, an insider said that any company that established two co-CEOs would inevitably make people feel that there were problems within the company.
" Equity dispute: Why did Wu Jihan fight back? " Why did Wu Jihan fight back? According to the prospectus previously published, Jihan Wu is the largest shareholder of Bitmain, holding approximately 3.989 billion B shares, accounting for 36%, far exceeding the second largest shareholder Jihan Wu's 20.25% stake. The combined shareholdings of the two companies account for 56.25% of the issued share capital before listing. Whether calculated by shareholding ratio or voting rights, it seems that Zhan Ketuan has absolute control over Bitmain. Except for Zhan Ketuan and Wu Jihan, the other founders only have Class A shares, and the equity distribution is as follows: Zhao Zhaofeng holds 6.26%, Ge Yuesheng holds 4.18%, Hu Yishuo holds 4.18%, and Song Wenbao holds 0.72%. In addition, according to the disclosure in the prospectus, Bitmain has raised a total of 3 financings, with a 9.92% equity share. Due to the "same share, different rights" equity structure, both Zhan Ketuan and Wu Jihan can exercise ten votes per share. How did Wu Jihan overthrow Zhan Ketuan, the largest shareholder? Lawyer Cui from Dacheng Law Firm said that changing the legal representative does not necessarily require the consent of the original legal representative. According to the relevant provisions of the Company Law, a limited liability company or a joint-stock company needs to have a shareholders' meeting or a board of directors hold a meeting to make a resolution to change the legal representative. If the original legal representative is unable or unwilling to perform his or her duties, resulting in the shareholders' meeting, general meeting of shareholders or board of directors being unable to be held in accordance with legal procedures, more than half of the directors may elect a director or the shareholder who has contributed the most capital or holds the largest voting rights or his or her appointed representative may convene and preside over the meeting to make a resolution in accordance with the law. If the original legal representative, Zhan Ketuan, was kicked out without his knowledge, it means that Wu Jihan obtained the support of several other founders and investors, secretly convened a shareholders' meeting or board of directors, formed a resolution to change the legal representative, and registered the change with the industrial and commercial department. Secondly, Lawyer Cui believes that it is also possible that the founder of Bitmain and investors had previously signed a listing bet agreement, but Bitmain’s Hong Kong IPO failed, which led to the investors receiving equity compensation, thereby having more say and helping Wu Jihan to successfully take over. Regarding the dispute over the direction between Zhan Ketuan and Wu Jihan, investors and other founders seemed to have made their own choice by voting with their equity. Before the power struggle in Bitmain was exposed, Canaan Creative's prospectus for listing in the United States disclosed that both companies, also giants in mining machines, attracted the attention of the cryptocurrency market on the same day. The only difference was that one continued to advance after repeated setbacks in its IPO, while the other regained its former glory and regrouped through fierce power struggles. Where will Bitmain go after Wu Jihan takes over? This article is original by Deepchain (ID: deepchainvip) and is reproduced with permission from Wabi.net.
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