Top of the Great Era

Chapter 1478 No Minority Shareholders

Boss Ma's business is all floating in the sky, and he claims to have a big structure.But even so, he was terrified of Zhou Buqi's way of playing.

When he was about to leave the United States, he also warned him earnestly, saying: "I know you are talented, but you have to stop. The success of a man does not lie in being able to advance, but in retreating."

Zhou Buqi said: "The same thing is also a suggestion for you."

Boss Ma said: "Ziweixing Global's project...is a bit too biased."

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "It's not biased, you can wait for a few years to see, this is an important part of Ziwei's system. If it is really biased, I will invest at most, so I won't end up."

"Is it possible to buy so many film companies in one go?"

"can!"

Zhou Buqi This is really no bragging.

Two days after Boss Ma left, the good news came!
SoftBank Group, General Electric, Vivendi, NBC Universal, and Comcast have reached a preliminary agreement to split Universal Pictures from NBC Universal for $78.6 billion!
However, this is only a preliminary agreement.

Because there will be a lot of additional costs in the process of splitting, who will bear this cost and how much each party will bear needs further discussion.

So far, the most important step of Ziwei Star Global is about to be completed.

If there is no accident, before the end of the year, Ziwei Star Global Group can be formally established successfully!

In contrast, DreamWorks Animation is very easy.

The current market value of DreamWorks Animation is 19 billion US dollars. After the resolution of the board of directors, it is finalized to complete the acquisition of this studio at a price of 24 billion US dollars.

Shares jumped 25% on the day the news was announced.

The next step is to start the delisting work.

Katzenberg took the initiative to come to the door, "I hope to retain some shares of DreamWorks Animation."

Zhou Buqi frowned slightly, "I suggest not to do this, it will add a lot of additional operating expenses."

"Additional expenses?"

"Recently, I have evaluated traditional Hollywood companies, such as Time Warner. The biggest institutional weakness is that the headquarters group has unclear ownership of subsidiaries and sub-companies, which is a huge operational burden for the group company. .”

"what?"

Katzenberg clearly didn't understand.

He is a creative man, and he is really not very good at managing the company. He was not wronged at all for not being the president of Disney back then.

Zhou Buqi said: "That's right, I have been working hard to implement the middle office strategy. The so-called middle office is to pack all the general business into one large department, so as to reduce the operating expenses of repetitive departments. For example, the finance department, I It is believed that Ziwei Star Global Group only has one large financial department, and it is enough for one financial department to connect all subsidiaries and branches. But if the shares are not unified, there will be no integration.”

The advancement of the China-Taiwan plan is very complicated, but what is complicated is the overall planning process of many middleware for Internet front-end projects.But it is very easy to centralize finance, personnel, logistics and other departments.

That's what Silicon Valley giants do.

If every subsidiary has a finance department, and each finance department makes suggestions for its own subsidiaries, it will be a mess.Not to mention the need to raise a lot of financial staff, business connection and integration are also very complicated.

Belonging to No Difficulty makes Difficulty.

If there is a unified finance department to manage the finances of all business departments, subsidiaries, and branches, then the group's finances will be integrated and centralized.

Once the group headquarters has financial power, it can control all complicated departments, branches and subsidiaries through financial power.It also avoids the tricks of doing things independently, and it is financially transparent.

A negative example is Time Warner.

Time Warner has three major subsidiaries - Time Group, Warner Group and Turner Group, which correspond to magazines, movies and TV stations respectively.The relationship with each other is very cold.

HBO wants to get the premiere rights of Warner's new movie, and the two sides will have complicated negotiations.

The talks fell through, and Warner sent the film to rival HBO.

If the talks are successful, Warner and HBO will have to settle their own accounts. They will try their best to make the other party pay more taxes, negotiation fees and operating expenses, and keep the benefits in their own pockets.

Depend on!
They are all a family, and the relationship between the left hand and the right hand. As for doing this?
The left hand gains, and the right hand loses. On the whole, it is a balanced result.On the contrary, because of the calculation, a lot of manpower expenditure in the process of negotiation, operation and bargaining has been spent.

If it was a centralized treasury, it would be much simpler.

Obey the overall situation and shut up!

Design a set of algorithms, according to this algorithm to evaluate assets, as much as the evaluation is, no one is cheating, and no one should bargain.The ultimate benefit is reflected only through the changes in the numbers on the ledger, which will greatly save money.

Time Warner couldn't do that, mainly for two reasons.

First, algorithmic mechanisms are not popular in Hollywood, and there is no digital standard answer. All transaction processes are the most primitive way of bargaining between people.

It is much easier in Silicon Valley, just list all kinds of data, give out the analysis model, and then do math problems based on the algorithm and model.

Simple and direct, the most fair!
There are too many human factors in the bargaining process, and there is too much room for rent-seeking.Only cold algorithm numbers are the most objective.

The second point is why Zhou Buqi wanted to reject Katzenberg.

Time Warner has a lot of subsidiaries and branches, but most of them do not hold 100% of the shares. This is an insurmountable legal obstacle.

The law requires the protection of the interests of minority shareholders.

For example, in Warner, the major shareholder is Time Warner Group. If the interests of certain minority shareholders want to be guaranteed, they can only have an independent department to argue for it, instead of obeying the demands of the major shareholder of Time Warner Group.

If DreamWorks Animation reserved some shares for Jeffrey Katzenberg, he would be a minority shareholder, and it would be troublesome.In order to ensure the interests of his small shareholder, DreamWorks Animation cannot be centralized in Taiwan, and the sparrow needs to be small and complete, and all businesses must have independent departments.

This will cause a huge burden on management, and will bargain for some trivial matters, which will seriously damage the interests of the headquarters group.

Zhou Buqi told Katzenberg this truth, "I will not back down on this matter. During this time, I also discovered that the management structure of Hollywood companies is redundant and complicated. I watched MGM's The financial statements are really shocking. It is not because of the huge losses, but all kinds of unnecessary expenses. All subsidiaries of Ziwei Star Global must hold 100% of the shares and must obey the unified dispatch of the group headquarters. This A precedent cannot be set."

Katzenberg hesitated, but stopped talking.

Zhou Buqi smiled and asked, "What's the problem?"

Katzenberg said: "I heard...I heard that Ziweixing International has also invested in many companies, and many of its companies have minority shareholders. I read the news in the "San Francisco Evening News" that it was acquired by Ziweixing. acquired 80% of Evernote’s shares, and reserved 20% for the entrepreneurial team.”

Zhou Buqi almost died of anger!
Depend on!
People have self-knowledge, why don't you understand?

Entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley are all dragons and phoenixes among the people, and they all have great ability to resist risks and "gold rush".They want to make money, not wages and bonuses at all.

What they earn is the appreciation of the shares!
That is to say, as minority shareholders, they don't care whether the interests of their minority shareholders are damaged at all, what they care about is the "data" growth of the company.

This "data" is not necessarily financial data.

Financial statements matter little to tech startups.

Even if the subsidiary is financially sucked by the parent company, there will be huge losses.But the parent company has brought enough new users to the subsidiary and created more possibilities, which is enough.

This is a special way for technology companies to blow bubbles.

But Hollywood companies can't do it. All interests need to be reflected through financial interests, which is very fucking.

Ziweixing International can infringe on Evernote's business at will, grab Evernote's finances at will, as long as it can bring more users to Evernote, the minority shareholders will be satisfied.

The mere financial loss is far less than the huge appreciation of shares in the capital market.

DreamWorks Animation does not have such an advantage, and the minority shareholders must fight hard in business to ensure their own finances.This is determined by the nature of the industry.

Zhou Buqi could only say vaguely: "Silicon Valley is Silicon Valley, and Hollywood is Hollywood. Different industries have different properties. In Hollywood, the principle of Ziwei Star Global is 100% holding."

"Hmm." Katzenberg was very disappointed.DreamWorks Animation was founded by him, and he was really reluctant to let go of everything like this. He continued to fight, "I only keep 5%, can't I?"

Zhou Buqi sighed, "Jeff, it's not a question of 10% or 5%, it's a matter of principle. This is a manifestation of the superiority of Ziweixing's global system, and it must not be destroyed."

"Ah."

"I know what your worries are, and you don't have to worry. I can promise you that you will retain the decision-making power for DreamWorks Animation. Not only that, but you will also be the chief creative officer of Ziwei Star Global, all major project ideas, You can all get involved."

"Ah."

Katzenberg was silent and unhappy.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "However, I can make an exception and give you a favorable condition. You cannot hold the shares of DreamWorks Animation, but you can hold the shares of Ziwei Star Global. You are allowed to convert the shares of DreamWorks Animation into intangible Assets, participate in the total investment of Ziwei Star Global, a big project."

"Really?"

Katzenberg's eyes lit up, and he was pleasantly surprised.

The market value of the shares he holds in DreamWorks Animation is about 5 million U.S. dollars. If the total investment of Ziwei Star Global is 200 billion U.S. dollars, he can almost hold 2.5% of the shares of Ziwei Star Global.

This is a bargain!
Because the acquisition and reorganization of a company is a capital operation, the value of assets will increase during this process.The project that originally invested 200 billion U.S. dollars in mergers and acquisitions may become 300 billion U.S. dollars after the restructuring is completed.

And he bought the shares at the price before the reorganization, which is equivalent to the original shares, so there is huge room for appreciation.

Zhou Buqi was happy to see him, and said with a smile: "Since this is the case, then it's settled! For DreamWorks Animation, you must hurry up! Also, you will be a shareholder of Ziweixing Global in the future, and you will also join the board of directors .Now it's your job to buy back the rights to distribute past and future DreamWorks animations."

(End of this chapter)