Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1410 Ziwei Star Global

Zhou Buqi chatted with Sun Zhengyi for two hours.

A strategic consensus has basically been reached.

This wave of investment in the entertainment industry is to invest in content. It doesn’t matter even if you don’t make money for many years in a row. First, hold the content in your own hands!
This kind of investment logic is impossible for ordinary investment institutions. After making a big deal, the result is not good. Isn’t this nonsense?
The profit-seeking nature of the capital market is often reflected in short-sightedness, and the failure to see a longer-term future.

But investment in the tech sector is different.

This is a money-burning industry.

It is often the case that one investment does not see a profit for more than ten years, and after the profit is made, it suddenly soars into the sky.Therefore, the vast majority of investment funds reject technology companies, let alone venture capital in the early stage, and they are even unwilling to touch stocks in the secondary market.

This time Zhou Buqi and Sun Zhengyi cooperated to invest in the entertainment industry, but in fact they invested in the future technology industry.

The two have the same understanding that the Internet streaming media in the future will definitely be able to replace TV stations.People of insight are already taking action, such as Netflix, Apple, and Amazon.But this direction is not favored by the capital market, and the market value of Netflix is ​​only 20 billion US dollars now.

In the future, there will definitely be several streaming media giants.

who is it?

Masayoshi Son doesn't know.

But one thing is clear, no matter how fierce the competition in this industry is in the future, no matter who the streaming media platform will survive in the future, it needs content to support it.

The content of "video and audio" is the foundation of all streaming media platforms.

So it's easy to strategize.

Maintaining the status quo.

Once you get the content, you will definitely be able to occupy a place in the future streaming media market.

This is the reason Sun Zhengyi thought and researched for a long time, and finally decided to enter the market.

This line of thinking is correct.

In the field of streaming media, Amazon and Apple entered the market very early, but they lack enough high-quality content.Disney entered the market more than ten years late, but because the content library is rich enough, the number of users on the Disney+ platform reached 1.3 million shortly after its launch, surpassing Amazon's 1.1 million, and becoming the world's largest after Netflix's 2 million. second.

For Zhou Buqi, his layout is more stable.

Left-handed Netflix, right-handed content, very safe!
Now Netflix has a market value of only 20 billion US dollars, which is clinking poorly.To make a high-quality American drama or movie basically requires an investment of more than 5000 million US dollars, which is really unaffordable.

It can be different in the future, as long as the time comes, Netflix will take off.At that time, spending money to buy content will not be a problem at all. Ten years later, Netflix's annual investment in the content field will exceed 200 billion US dollars.

For Netflix, money is not an issue, the key is content.I'm afraid that if you encounter Disney and Warner, you don't sell it for money. They want to build their own streaming media platform.

Zhou Buqi is going to solve this problem now.

Regarding Sun Zhengyi's statement that he can bear not making money for many years, Zhou Buqi snorted coldly: "It is impossible not to make money in the business I do! My investment in the entertainment industry is not only a strategic investment, but also a business investment. Not only watching The future also depends on the present!"

Sun Zhengyi laughed and said, "So confident?"

Zhou Buqi said indifferently: "You can rest assured that if the entertainment industry does not make money, I will personally end up as the CEO and revitalize this industry!"

Masayoshi Son just laughed, "Okay, that's it! I'll act immediately later, Softbank will make a more competitive offer, ahead of Disney, and win Marvel!"

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Congratulations, you made a right decision."

He only has 20% of Marvel's shares. If Marvel's board of directors approves the sale to Disney, he can't stop it at all, unless someone makes a higher offer than Disney.

Sun Zhengyi said in a big tone, "There is also MGM."

Zhou Buqi frowned slightly, "Decided?"

Sun Zhengyi sighed, "After I heard that Softbank intends to enter the entertainment industry, many friends have contacted me, such as Providence Capital, such as Sony. One is the major shareholder and the other is the actual controlling party. MGM is heavily in debt and going bankrupt It’s very troublesome for all parties.”

Zhou Buqi nodded.

Through the case of Manchester United, he can understand leveraged buyouts very well.

Just like MGM, once it goes bankrupt, the reorganization plan must require all shareholders to leave, and then the creditors will become shareholders and the owners of the company.

However, creditors don't want the company either, which is very troublesome.

It's easy to lose face.

There are several major capitals on the shareholder side, and several major capitals on the creditor side. The two parties have cooperated too many times over the years, and no one wants to break up.

Just like EMI, after the bankruptcy, the original shareholder Taifeng Capital withdrew, and the creditor Citibank became a shareholder, and a lawsuit was filed; another example is AC Milan, a mysterious rich man in China bought AC Milan in a leveraged buyout, and later did not The debtor was expelled, and the creditor Elliott Fund became the big boss of AC Milan, and the two sides also started a lawsuit.

Among other things, MGM is controlled by Sony, and Sun Zhengyi doesn't want to offend too much.

The best way is not to go bankrupt.

Reach an agreement directly with the shareholder and the creditor. The shareholder accepts the loss, and the creditor also accepts part of the loss, and reaches an agreement with the acquirer.The three parties cooperated to change the fate of MGM together.

Sun Zhengyi asked with a smile: "Have you studied the MGM case?"

Zhou Buqi shook his head, "I didn't pay much attention."

Zhen Yu knew something, and said softly: "MGM is in chaos now, its cash flow is collapsing, and it can no longer make new movies. It can only make money by selling DVDs and TV broadcasts in its content library, but it can't pay the annual 2.5 million yuan. interest on dollars."

Zhou Buqi twitched the corner of his mouth, "How much debt do you have now?"

"A billion dollars."

"What a pit!"

Under the capital game, the Hollywood film company was really ruined.

Uh... It seems that they can't be criticized. After all, Zhou Buqi and Sun Zhengyi are now cooperating to strip Universal Studios, the soul of Universal Pictures, which is headquartered in Los Angeles...

Sun Zhengyi waved his hand, "That's not the point."

"What's the point?"

"When Sony set up a consortium to buy out MGM with leverage, one of the owners was Comcast."

"what?"

Zhou Buqi was surprised.

Masayoshi Son shrugged, "Comcast holds 20%, the same as Sony. So you see, NBC Universal and MGM are actually one thing."

"Uh……"

Zhou Buqi was speechless.

We really met.

If they want to win MGM, they can't do it through forced bankruptcy and then bankruptcy and reorganization. This is too offensive, especially the shareholders and Comcast.

Comcast is still buying NBCUniversal and working with them to spin off Universal.

"Haha, good thing!"

After a little thought, Zhou Buqi was very happy.

Sun Zhengyi glanced at him, "What do you say?"

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "MGM has the largest content library in Hollywood, and Comcast, as a shareholder, has no intention of making a move at all. It can be seen that they really don't pay enough attention to content. They don't care about MGM. Wouldn't care too much about Universal Pictures."

Sun Zhengyi nodded, "I hope so."

The current Universal Pictures has a much stronger development momentum than MGM.

Next, we talked about some specific details, and the general strategic plan has been finalized.

It took more than 2 hours before and after.

This efficiency is what people in the Internet circle can do.

Sun Zhengyi said in a big tone that he would spend at least 150 billion U.S. dollars to enter the market.If it is not enough, it can be added to 200 billion US dollars.

This made Zhou Buqi's face darken.

Depend on!
The combination of Universal Pictures, MGM, and Marvel does not necessarily need to spend as much as 150 billion U.S. dollars.

Sun Zhengyi went on to say: "Look, if there are any other excellent content, you can eat them together. I think Dreamworks is very good. At that time, a Ziwei Star Global Group will be established to build a company stronger than Warner Movie giant."

"Ziwei Star Global?"

Zhou Buqi's eyes lit up.

Ah!
Great advice!
With the help of Hollywood's signboard, the Ziweixing brand was promoted.Just like Time Warner's "Time", Sony Columbia's "Sony", and Vivendi Universal's "Vivendi", this is a huge brand effect.

This will be of great help to Ziweixing's overseas business promotion, and it has earned a wave of free publicity by borrowing the huge popularity of Hollywood!

The investment of 150 billion U.S. dollars, Zhou Buqi will definitely not be able to get it out, at most some loans, 30 billion or 50 billion U.S. dollars will be good, mainly relying on Softbank.

The name of the new company is not Softbank Global, but Ziwei Star Global, which shows that Masayoshi Son is quite reliable.

Then, there is the specific implementation plan.

There are three main mission targets: NBC Universal, MGM and Marvel.

The controlling party of MGM is Sony, and Sun Zhengyi took the initiative to apply to resolve this case.Zhou Buqi reciprocated Li, saying that he could handle Marvel's affairs well.

NBCUniversal is the most complicated and the largest, and there is still a split, involving General Electric, Vivendi, NBC Universal management, Comcast and other forces.

This matter requires Zhou Buqi and Sun Zhengyi to work together.Both Sony and Comcast are shareholders of MGM, and behind this, someone from Sony can be found as a consultant.

……

Act quickly.

On April 4, the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, The New Yorker, Yahoo News, Google News, CNN, CBS and many other media have exposed important news-Disney intends to acquire Marvel!

The market reacted immediately, with Disney's stock price plummeting 4.6% on the day.

On April 4, Comcast notified the boards of General Electric and NBCUniversal that it was temporarily canceling the acquisition talks scheduled for April 3.

The takeover has taken a new twist.

At the same time, General Electric, Vivendi, and NBC Universal also received emails from Softbank expressing interest in the case.

The news that Softbank will invest in the entertainment industry, which has been rumored in the capital market for a long time, has finally been confirmed!

Uh……

It was not Softbank either. The email introduced a consortium composed of four organizations, namely Softbank Group, Ziweixing Group, Jieyu Media and Fangfei Fund.

(End of this chapter)