Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1411 Everything is going well
Such a big case is very complicated to operate.

It would be nice to get it done this year.

When Xu Baihui heard that Boss Zhou had really realized what he had boasted about back then, she bought a plane ticket overnight excitedly, and ran to the United States, eager to help.

However, her identity was a bit off.

Jieyu Media is well-known in Hollywood, mainly relying on investment and cooperation with some Hollywood film companies.However, the business of platter investment is purely financial investment and does not involve the strategic level, so the level is still a bit low.

Only Zhou Buqi and Zhen Yu could come forward in person.

They are eligible to participate, not because Ziweixing has great influence in the United States or has so much wealth that the entertainment bigwigs are respectful.

No matter how much money you have, it's yours and has nothing to do with them.

The reason is Pluto Capital.

In the past 5 months, this private equity company has achieved a floating profit of more than 35%. In the current economic crisis period, the rate of return ranks among the top ten in the United States!

However, the others are all small capital, hundreds of millions of dollars, billions of dollars is almost enough, fast in and fast out, the operation is very simple.

Pluto Capital is actually a large fund with a scale of 100 billion US dollars.

That's enough to be astonishing.

Zhou Buqi has helped many prominent people in society make money, and this is the most important thing.With this relationship, many people are willing to help, including many congressmen.

In public and private, this is a good thing.

Not to mention the case of NBC Universal, whether it is sold to Comcast or Ziweixing Universal, it will not have a big impact on the social structure and the structure of the entertainment industry.

But MGM is different.

This company can't survive now.

In response to the crisis, the CEO has been urgently replaced, but it still doesn't work.No money is no money, and the huge debt of $37 billion has made the management breathless.

Seeing that MGM will die.

This is the most important.

No matter how poor MGM is, this is the number one giant in the golden age of Hollywood. It is a symbol of the times for the entertainment industry and Hollywood. Many elderly people hope to see MGM come back to life.

The consortium formed by SoftBank, Ziwei Star, Jieyu Media, and Fangfei Fund is willing to save MGM, which is of great significance.The MGM case is tied to the NBC Universal case.

Without Universal Pictures, it is impossible to acquire MGM.

First and foremost, these two things are the most important.

In contrast, Marvel is in no rush.

Previously, Marvel's board of directors heard that Disney was interested, and they were very excited. They felt that the era of Marvel's rise had finally arrived!

The main reason why Marvel has not been able to compare with DC in the past two decades is that Warner is behind DC, and there is no support from giants behind Marvel.

If you can hug Disney's thigh, you can really change your fate completely.

However, there are concerns in this case.

Marvel's comics are for adults, and they are full of coloring, violence, abuse, and bloody content, which is seriously inconsistent with Disney's values.

Marvel does not have a distribution company, so after Marvel produced "Iron Man", it asked a giant company to help distribute it.There were two negotiating partners at that time, one was Paramount and the other was Disney.

Because only these two film companies have a small number of film distributions and their business is not saturated, they can spare more energy to help third-party companies distribute.

In the end, I chose Paramount and gave up Disney because of the consideration of values ​​and corporate culture.

No matter how large-scale a movie is, Paramount can distribute it, but Disney can't.

This is also the reason why Disney's stock price fell for a week after the news that "Disney intends to acquire Marvel" spread.So much so that Disney had to respond publicly, saying that Disney had no plans to acquire Marvel for the time being, so it was considered to have stabilized the stock price.

But even if there are many obstacles, the two parties are still in love with each other.

Disney has taken a fancy to Marvel's IP content, which is a strategy.Marvel's board of directors is interested in Disney's powerful resources, distribution channels, strong brand, and most importantly... Disney has an amusement park!

Just imagine, if Marvel's superheroes have the opportunity to enter Disneyland and become an important attraction, what an honor it would be for the cartoonists?How meaningful would it be?
However, everything has changed now.

Someone on the board had a different opinion!

The new shareholder, Zhou Buqi, does not want to sell Marvel to Disney. He said that he intends to lead Softbank, Ziweixing, Jieyu Media and other companies to form a consortium to make an offer for Marvel!

If it is only such a consortium, Marvel's board of directors is not interested.

Far from Disney.

Even if the quotation is higher than Disney, it is not worth it.

However, Boss Zhou also said that he has a bigger plan for the entertainment industry, and the acquisition of Marvel is only part of it.The core business is to acquire Universal Pictures and MGM, and create a new Hollywood giant Ziweixing Universal!
This is important and exciting.

First of all, Zhou Buqi is a shareholder of Marvel, a member of the board of directors, one of his own, and has priority.

Secondly, Universal Pictures also has a strong distribution system.

Third, the cultures of Universal and Marvel are more compatible, unlike Disney, which can only make some family-friendly entertainment films, and cannot dig deeper into the values ​​​​and social significance of Marvel comics.

The most important point is that Universal Pictures also has a supporting Universal Studios!
Disneyland is for children, relatively young.Universal Studios is relatively mature, and there are many places for adults to play.Marvel's superheroes are obviously more suitable for Universal Studios.

That's easy to say!
Just wait for Disney and the newly established Ziwei Star Universal to bid!

Under the same circumstances, it seems that Ziwei Star Global is better.

Throughout April, Zhou Buqi traveled between Los Angeles, New York and Philadelphia, taking various contacts and meeting various people.Sun Zhengyi has not been idle for a long time. He has even visited the White House and obtained verbal policy commitments.

Go for it!
White House support!

Now is the economic crisis, any investment that is conducive to economic development and employment stability must be supported, and some regulatory restrictions can even be relaxed.

On April 4, Zhou Buqi went to Silicon Valley and approved a resolution.

Ziweixing acquired GitHub, the most popular open source community at present, at a price of 6500 million US dollars, preparing for the development of cloud computing business in the future.It also approved the plan to spend 5000 million US dollars to establish Ziweixing's first cloud data center in the European continent in Hamburg.

On April 4, Zhou Buqi recorded a video to congratulate the university research and development team that won the first Ziwei Star Technology Award. The winning team is also an old acquaintance, and it is the team of Professor Tang who studies artificial intelligence at the University of Hong Kong.

On April 4, a piece of bad news came.

Ziweixing's application to acquire the London-based media company Perform at a cost of 750 million pounds was rejected after various communications and investigations.

Suspected of monopoly!

The Premier League's local broadcast rights have been in the hands of the BBC for many years.However, in addition to the broadcasting of BBC TV, many football video services are outsourced. The most important highlight editing and distribution business is performed by Perform.

This is related.

Ziwei Star is a weekly company, and so is Manchester United.If Ziwei Star acquires Perform, it may affect the fairness of the Premier League through Perform.

When it's time for video editing, don't you all edit the highlights of Manchester United?
Will it crush competitors?
The broadcast income of the Premier League is paid according to the number of broadcasts. The more broadcasts, the more income.Many fans don't have time to watch the complete game, and they learn about the game through video highlights.Then decide which game to watch next based on how exciting the highlights are.

At that time, Ziweixing only needs to cut the highlights of Arsenal and Chelsea to be ugly, and include all kinds of fouls and flops, but the highlights of Manchester United will be all tricks... At that time, it will be reflected in the ratings , Manchester United will have a great advantage, thus guiding TV stations to broadcast more Manchester United games.

When News Corp. was rejected when it wanted to acquire Manchester United, it was because of this consideration that it made the Glazer family cheaper.

Zhou Buqi didn't pay much attention to this.

A small setback will not affect Ziweixing Digital Media's big plan.Now, the "official website" plan that he personally produced and designed has developed smoothly.Under the leadership of David Dunn, 29 clubs in the UK have agreed to hand over their official websites to Ziweixing for operation next season.

It is estimated that from these 29 clubs, Ziweixing can earn more than 8500 million pounds next season!
The real operating cost will not exceed £1000 million.

The release of such a form can be said to have attracted a burst of exclamation from Ziwei Star's executives at all levels.

too exaggerated!

After sending it back to China, He Yang, Ji Zi'an, Guo Pengfei, Meng Houkun and others were also stunned. They all exclaimed that they are doing business with European clubs, which is almost the same as doing business with state-owned enterprises. It's a real bloodbath.

David Dunn also made a special call to Zhou Buqi, saying that he was invited to London.

Ziweixing helps to operate the official website, not to mention the low fees, and the clause of fault compensation, which has been welcomed by many Premier League teams.However, Chelsea has been slow to accept.

Mr. Abu wants to meet Boss Zhou.

Zhou Buqi accepted it and said that he would arrange it when he had time next month.

On May 5st, the best news came.

After nearly a month of communication, negotiation, negotiation, and discussion, Comcast finally agreed!
Comcast agreed to cooperate with a consortium led by Sun Zhengyi and Zhou Buqi to jointly launch an acquisition of NBC Universal.The outcome of the acquisition could lead to the split of NBCUniversal.

Such a split is not without precedent.

In previous years, CBS and Paramount were one company, part of Viacom.Later, the Redstone family felt that the market value was seriously underestimated, so they split the two companies, and CBS and Paramount became two companies.

With learning objects, it is easy to operate.

Sun Zhengyi suggested that an executive from Viacom could be hired to lead this matter.After the acquisition is successful, this person can be the president of Ziweixing Entertainment.

Zhou Buqi did not accept this suggestion, he was more willing to poach people from Disney, and Disney is the Whampoa Military Academy in the media world.

On May 5, MGM officially announced that the company had encountered a huge financial crisis.In order to solve this situation and protect the rights and interests of shareholders and creditors, the board of directors will find a variety of ways to solve the dilemma, including selling MGM and merging with other companies.

The general direction has been determined!

Everything is going well.

Xu Baihui was a little gloomy, and went to see him that night, "Boss Zhou, I'm back home."

"What's the matter?" Zhou Buqi was a little surprised, "MGM's board of directors has agreed to sell, and we can negotiate the price next."

Xu Baihui curled her lips and said, "I can't participate."

Zhou Buqi smiled and comforted her, "It's okay to show your face, um... to meet the executives of MGM. When Ziwei Star Global is established in the future, you must be the chairman of the board!"

Xu Baihui snorted softly: "I'm with you, who dares to give me face? I can't help you, why don't you go back! I also have important things to do!"

Zhou Buqi asked: "What's the matter?"

Xu Baihui said arrogantly: "I can't handle the American market, and I can't handle the Asian market?"

"What's the matter?"

"Ai Hui also encountered cash flow difficulties, and they are going to sell stocks."

"Sell stocks?" Zhou Buqi was surprised, "Isn't Aihui an independent company? If we sell stocks, won't international giants get the chance?"

"It's not selling Ai Hui's stock!"

"That is?"

"Ai Hui owns 16.9% of the shares of South Korea's S/M Entertainment, and it is said that they intend to sell them all at once. Many people panicked, wondering if S/M and Ai Hui are at loggerheads. But as far as I know , they are still strategic partners. Even if Ai Hui sells his shares, he will still be the general agent of S/M artists in Japan."

"Oh……"

Zhou Buqi blinked.

Xu Baihui glanced at him, "S/M Entertainment, don't you know? Just the one you always said, the owner of the long-legged group Girls' Generation, and that Song Qianqian."

"Where are you going?" Zhou Buqi snorted, "Well, this idea is very good. Such a large amount of stock must not be sold in the secondary market. I will tell Hyundai to help you get it." Come down!"

Xu Baihui pursed her lips and smiled, "What I'm waiting for is your words! I have cooperation with S/M Entertainment, and I also have cooperation with Ai Hui. With modern promotion, there will be no problem!"

"What about the money?"

"I don't have much money, it's just a small company. The value of the stock in Ai Hui's hand is 60 billion won, about... 500 million US dollars, Jieyu Media can easily eat it! "The Voice of America" ​​You didn't Do you want to see it? Its ratings have exploded, ranking second in the variety shows of the same period! Copyright orders have already taken off!"

"Okay, as long as you know what's in your mind." Zhou Buqi nodded, "Jieyu Media and Ziwei Star Global can only be two companies and cannot be merged. Jieyu Media wants to occupy the Asian market."

If Ziwei Star Global is established, it will definitely be an international entertainment giant based in Hollywood.Jieyu Media couldn't afford Ziweixing Global, and Ziweixing Global couldn't take over Jieyu Media because of policy restrictions.

You can only play separately.

It's good to play separately, although it doesn't involve the TV business, this is the media industry after all, which is more sensitive.The merger is not good for both parties. It is better to operate separately and play their own games, just like Ziwei Star wants to split into an international version and a domestic version.

(End of this chapter)