At the beginning of the year, it originated from the light years away from Meituan, and in the middle of the year, it finally came to Meituan

On the afternoon of the 29th, Meituan issued an announcement to officially acquire all the shares of Light Years Away at a total price of about 2.065 billion yuan. The announcement shows that the acquisition is divided into several parts, including about 233 million US dollars in cash, or about 1.688 billion yuan, about 367 million yuan in debt beyond light years, and a symbolic 1 yuan in cash. Meituan’s explanation in the acquisition announcement is that “obtaining leading AGI technology and talents through the acquisition has the opportunity to strengthen its competitiveness in the fast-growing artificial intelligence industry.” Afterwards, Meituan also stated that after the completion of the acquisition, It will also continue to support the exploration and research of the team from Light Years Away in the field of large models.

When it was established a few months ago, Light Years Beyond was one of the large-scale start-up companies that received a lot of attention in the domestic market and high expectations from the outside world. But at the end of last week, the founder Wang Huiwen was hospitalized due to illness, and thus withdrew from the daily management light years away. This not only came as a surprise, but also cast a shadow over the prospects light-years away. **And this acquisition, whether it is for Wang Huiwen personally or for light years away, may be the best solution at present. At this time, it is less than a week before Wang Huiwen is admitted to the hospital. **For Meituan, after bringing a gradually growing and mature large-scale model talent team under its command, it may become a force that cannot be ignored in the wave of large-scale models in China.

1. Wang Huiwen withdraws, Meituan enters

Regarding Wang Huiwen's recent illness, there are many speculations from the outside world. There is a saying that linking his illness with the current business situation light-years away is due to depression due to poor development in light-years away. Especially about half a month ago, Baichuan Intelligent's baichuan-7B made its debut, and its performance was quite impressive. Wang Xiaochuan entered the large-scale model track originally later than the second Wang, but the product was unveiled first. In the face of competitors who come first and come from behind, who would believe that Wang Huiwen is not stressed or worried?

Except for the "hero post" that Wang Huiwen decided to enter the game, there is very little information that has been known to the outside world from light years away. **In yesterday's acquisition, Meituan's announcement disclosed the ownership structure light years away. ** Among them, AI Age, a company under the name of Wang Huiwen, holds 76.72% of the shares. Qimai, an investment holding company wholly owned by Wang Xing, holds 0.43% of the shares; Sequoia China holds 2.44% of the shares, and other investors hold a total of 20.41% of the shares. The announcement did not specify the specific identities of other investors. However, on the 5th of this month, the total price of A-round financing outside of Light Years was 230 million US dollars, of which Source Code Capital led the investment of 80 million US dollars, Wuyuan Capital invested 40 million US dollars, and Tencent invested 50 million US dollars. Su Hua invested 40 million US dollars in his personal capacity, but Wang Huiwen denied these amounts afterwards.

The acquisition agreement mainly includes two parts. First of all, there is an overseas share purchase agreement. Meituan's cash acquisition is mainly used to pay investors who are light years away. **Specifically includes zero consideration to AI Age, US$5 million to Qimai, US$28 million to Sequoia China, and approximately US$200 million to other investors. **The second is the domestic equity transfer agreement. Wang Huiwen sold all the equity without any lien. ** In addition, there is another asset that is light years away, which is its acquisition of the equity of First-class Technology (OneFlow) in April this year.

This is why Meituan needs to pay Wang Huiwen a symbolic RMB 1, as well as assume debts that are light years away, totaling about 367 million RMB. After the acquisition, Meituan owns 100% of the rights and interests of Light Years Away, and Wang Huiwen no longer retains any rights.

2. From being needed to needing each other

Since Light Years Beyond started, Wang Xing has publicly expressed his support for Wang Huiwen in his circle of friends, and took the lead in investing in his own name. Looking back now, it is reasonable for Meituan to become the actual controller light years away. ** On the one hand, Meituan’s support from light years away will greatly promote its subsequent financing, research and development, and even landing applications; on the other hand, Meituan itself is also very interested in the field of large models. There are practical needs for layout. **Before the big model wave, Wang Xing was already very interested. Just when BAT and other big companies entered the game one after another, Meituan was naturally unwilling to be left behind, and actively expanded its algorithm team. For Meituan, this acquisition has also greatly supplemented its strength.

Since its inception a few months ago, the financing from Light Years Away can be described as a green light all the way, quite smoothly. In the recent A-round financing with a total price of 230 million US dollars mentioned above, most of the shareholders are old friends of the two kings, such as Sequoia China, Capital Today and Tencent, which are all important shareholders of Meituan; another example is Source Code Fund, Wang Xing is One of the earliest contributors to the source code. According to another theory, this round of 230 million US dollars is just a conservative statement, and the actual financing amount is higher.

Whether it was the two Wangs who worked hard together and fought their way out of the "Thousand Regiments War", or Wang Xing expressed support for the first time after Wang Huiwen started his business, the two Wangs have grown from classmates to colleagues. **Meituan and Light Years Away, both public and private, are the moments when we need each other. **

3. Moving beyond light years

On the afternoon of the 25th, after the media revealed that Wang Huiwen was hospitalized, Lai Binqiang, the former human resources director of Meituan, said on social networks that he was accompanying Wang Huiwen in the hospital, and that Wang Huiwen needs to rest and recover, but everything will be fine. Lai Binqiang is the first human resources director of Meituan, one of the veterans of Meituan, and also a middle school classmate of Wang Xing, and has a close personal relationship with Wang Xing. In the evening of the same day, Meituan also issued an announcement on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange stating that Wang Huiwen applied to resign as a director of Meituan due to "personal health reasons". Wang Huiwen had previously been transferred from an executive director of Meituan to a non-executive director.

Since its establishment, Light Years Beyond has basically completed the team building within a few months, attracting many top experts and like-minded people in the field of AI to join, such as Liu Jiang, the second employee, who worked as Zhiyuan before joining Light Years Beyond The vice president of the research institute; and Ma Zhankai, who is known as the "father of Sogou input method", the current team size is about 70 people. ** After being acquired by Meituan, there is a high probability that more talents and financial support will be welcomed in the large-scale model entrepreneurship with a high threshold, and Meituan has also entered a new track. **

Meituan has stated that the acquisition of leading AGI technology and talents through the acquisition will strengthen its competitiveness in the rapidly developing AI industry and better fulfill its mission of "helping everyone eat better and live better". . Meituan's acquisition of Light Years Beyond is also in line with its own development strategy. Wang Xing has said before that Meituan has established an internal team to conduct research and development on large-scale models and specific applications, and has a positive attitude towards external technical cooperation opportunities and investment opportunities. . Meituan has inherent scene advantages in making large-scale models, but lacks high-quality data sets and engineering implementation capabilities for large-scale model products. **Therefore, in the "100-model battle" between Meituan and BAT and other major manufacturers, it is still unclear who will win the battle, and the good show is about to begin. **

From the prototype of the entrepreneurial idea in February to the gradual arrival of talents and funds, everything has been proceeding step by step in the past few months. Although I don't know how long it will take for Wang Huiwen to take the helm again, it is inevitable that people will be embarrassed. In addition, there are also many rumors about this transaction. Some people say that Wang Huiwen took the initiative to give up the talents because of lack of self-knowledge. **Regardless of the real situation, based on the current situation of Wang Huiwen and Guangnian, being acquired by Meituan may be the best acceptable solution. **