Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2090 No dividends
Ning Yaxian went to fool Gu Zanli, Zhou Buqi went to fool Lao Ma.

Although Ning Yaxian's level of deception is not as good as Boss Zhou's, but the people she deceives are relatively poor in tolerance, and the effect is very good after a wave of communication. Gu Zanli accepted "high-level" men and women in a daze concept of relationship.

Zhou Buqi's side was a little bit less interesting. Boss Ma was a master of flickering, and he was very vigilant.However, Zhou Buqi came up with an incredible and bold idea that was completely different from his original idea, and it was difficult to make a decision right away.

Boss Ma said that he would go back and think about it and discuss it with the team.

Zhou Buqi told him to hurry up and come up with a charter within this month.It is best to finalize the case within this month. If it is delayed until next year, it may be more complicated.

Boss Ma didn't listen to him.

Such a big matter, you want to settle it in less than a month?Do you think Yahoo revolves around you?It’s nothing more than your boss Zhou’s wealth and wealth, and he offered Yahoo an overall offer of 500 billion US dollars in one breath. At that time, let alone the capital on Yahoo’s board of directors, even Yang Zhiyuan will agree.

Zhou Buqi was really moved.

However, in this time period when the market is unstable and the IT industry is at a low ebb, where can we raise US$500 billion?Even the giant Microsoft had to find two private equity institutions to cooperate in order to raise $50 billion together.

We have to think about the long term.

In Zhou Buqi's view, it's best not to fool Softbank, Blackstone Group, and Bain Capital. These are the world's most famous giant private equity institutions.

If multiple parties cooperate and are ruthless, maybe they can really eat Yahoo completely.

It still depends on the attitude of the boss.

After all, as far as the Yahoo case is concerned, Zhou Buqi is an outsider, and he has to rely on Boss Ma's relationship to get in.

In the afternoon, Zhou Buqi asked Ning Yaxian to accompany Zhen Yu home to rest, while he took Sun Guanran, Ning Lu, Gu Zanli and Yao Yao to Netflix.

This time I came to see Reed Hastings, the CEO of Netflix, mainly to talk about Dark Horse Comics.

Changyou’s CEO Don Mattrick originally proposed a suggestion, but Zhou Buqi felt that it would work, but under the pretext that Changyou would acquire a game studio in the near future, he handed over the task of acquiring Dark Horse Comics to Ziweixing Global.

But Ziwei Star Global also gave feedback.

After internal evaluation, Ziweixing Global's acquisition of Dark Horse Comics is very risky, and it is best not to participate.

There are two major comic book giants in the United States, DC Comics and Marvel Comics.

In the past few years, DC Comics has always been the industry leader.

In recent years, with the strong rise of Marvel movies, the structure of the comics industry has changed. Marvel has surpassed DC and become the largest comic book manufacturer.

In particular, the two "Iron Man" starring Robert Downey Jr. are simply destined works.

Originally, "Iron Man" was only a second-rate superhero in the field of comics, and there was a world of difference in sales between "Batman", "Spiderman", and "Superman", the three superhero giants in comics.

Why does Hollywood always use the "Batman" series, "Spiderman" series, and "Superman" series when adapting comic book super-English movies?
It is because these are the three most popular comic characters, the risk of adapting them into movies is less.

But the two "Iron Man" starring Downey changed everything.

It used to be that comics influenced movies, but now movies influence comics.

With the hot sales of the two "Iron Man" movies, "Iron Man", a second-rate superhero, jumped to the top rank, surpassing "Superman", ranking third after "Batman" and "Spiderman" !

At the same time, "Captain America", "Black Widow", "Hulk", "Hawkeye", "Thor" and other comic heroes in the "Avengers" series of films, as well as the "X-Men" series restarted by [-]th Century Fox , have promoted the growth of their respective comic sales.

Now, Marvel's comics are already the number one in the industry in the US market.

Annual sales of up to 3.2 million US dollars!
You know, in the past year, the total sales of comics in the United States was only 9.8 million US dollars.

Marvel Comics' market share is already high.

The market share of Dark Horse Comics has also reached 10%, making it the third largest comic book manufacturer in the United States, second only to Marvel and DC.

This is very troublesome.

If Ziweixing Universal acquires Dark Horse Comics, "Marvel + Dark Horse", there is a risk of monopolizing the comics market.The combined market share of nearly 50% will make many comic publishers and distributors lose the possibility of competition.

Therefore, it is inconvenient for Ziweixing Global to come forward to buy Dark Horse Comics.

Zhou Buqi was not embarrassed, and immediately thought of Netflix.

The future is a manga-changing world.

Netflix has already started the self-produced drama mode. When Marvel belongs to Ziweixing Universal and DC belongs to Warner, if Netflix wants to get a share in the field of comics and movies, the best choice is Dark Horse Comics.

If you buy Dark Horse Comics, you can get more than 300 IPs, which can provide more sources of inspiration and creative ideas for Netflix's future self-made dramas.

Of course, Changyou also needs to be given the green light to adapt the game.

Zhou Buqi intends to promote Don Mattrick to obtain a board seat in Netflix to promote the cooperation between the two parties.

The current trend of IP adaptation has not really started yet, coupled with the vigorous development of film, television, games, music and other industries, the comics industry has become more and more niche, and there is no money to be made.

Therefore, the acquisition of Dark Horse Comics will not cost a lot of money. According to Ziwei Star Global's estimate, the transaction volume is about 2.4 million to 2.7 million US dollars.

When Zhou Buqi met Hastings, he didn't make a clear request, but just gave him advice and suggested that he buy it.

Give him three days to think about it.

If he disagrees, then Zhou Buqi will ask Changyou to buy the comic company.

Hastings didn't hesitate at all, and said with a smile: "Although I have never paid attention to Dark Horse Comics, I believe this must be the best decision."

He agreed on the spot.

In the evening, Zhou Buqi also came to the Oracle Arena to watch the game.

In fact, he didn't want to watch basketball. The players were too tall, and the gap with ordinary people was too big, and the atmosphere of the stadium was not as shocking as that of a football field.Another point is that the current Warriors are too weak.

Fortunately, newcomers are more promising.

Last year, Zhou Buqi went off in person in the draft and selected Paul George; this year he did not participate, and the Warriors selected Klay Thompson in the first round.

In the future, the performance of the Warriors will get better and better, and it will not be easy to get a good sign.At most, Green and Jokic were picked up from the second round. At least in the matter of drafting Jokic last week, it would be a big help.

Joe Lacob sat with Zhou Buqi, and the two bosses came to watch the game.

Naturally, it comes to the San Francisco Giants.

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "Basically an agreement has been reached."

"Huh?" Joe Lacob was somewhat surprised, "So fast? It was decided in two days? Don't you need to think about it?"

Zhou Buqi said casually: "No need, the other party quoted 10 billion US dollars. I think this figure is auspicious, so let's make it like this. There is no need to bargain for a small amount of money."

Joe Lacob's inner world is full of mixed flavors. Compared with other top rich people, the gap is really too big.

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "10 billion US dollars, to buy 65% ​​of the shares of the Giants, is lower than I expected. I originally wanted to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers, the plan was to bid 20 billion US dollars, and even find a loan Already. If it were the Giants, the loan would be less."

"This one……"

Joe Lacob hesitated to speak.

Zhou Buqi glanced at him and asked strangely: "Is there something wrong? Do you need my help?"

Joe Lacob sighed, "This year's economic environment is not good, and the income of many investment funds has not met expectations."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "I believe it will recover next year, especially the technology industry."

"But……"

"Ok?"

"Alas!" Joe Lacob sighed heavily, "Zhou, if you have sufficient funds, I hope you can take over some of the shares..."

Seeing him hesitating, Zhou Buqi laughed and said, "What's the matter? Just say it."

Joe Lacob explains why.

He was a venture capitalist before and became a partner of the well-known venture capital fund KPCB KPCB Huaying, and got about 2.2% of KPCB's shares.

In recent years, he has not done much investment, and his main energy is on basketball.He loved playing basketball very much when he was a child, but he was too short to play professionally. Later, he studied, took an exam, and became an investor.

To say that he is poor, he is not poor;

If you want to talk about the rich, that's not to mention, the net worth is only a few hundred million dollars.

When the Golden State Warriors were acquired, a total of 4.5 million U.S. dollars was spent, and the two parties each contributed half, each accounting for 50% of the shares.Zhou Buqi took out 2.25 million US dollars in cash casually, and Joe Lacob was very embarrassed. He only took out 1.25 million US dollars in cash and applied for a loan of 1 million US dollars.

Anyway, he owns 2.2% of the shares of KPCB Fund, and the annual dividends must be at least more than 1000 million US dollars, just repay the loan and interest slowly.

Unexpectedly, the capital market encountered some troubles this year.

So much so that KPCB has made a statement to all shareholders, saying that profits are limited and there will be no dividends this year.This puts a lot of pressure on Joe Lacob, who pays more than $600 million a year in interest alone.

When Zhou Buqi heard it, his heart was very excited.

good news!
It really is good news!
KPCB Kleiner Perkins is a capital giant with the same reputation as Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. Even KPCB has stopped this year's dividends, which shows that this year's big capital has not made much money.

It is quite normal for Zhou Buqi's Pluto Capital and Neptune Capital's annualized income to fail to meet the standard.

And more importantly!
Those private equity institutions owned by Yahoo! will not have an easier time either!

If a large amount of income subsidies cannot be included in the books in a short period of time, the investment managers, partners, and shareholders of those capital institutions may not get the year-end dividends!

In the United States, consumption is advanced and everyone is in debt. Joe Lacob is a typical example.Many people have to rely on year-end dividends to relieve their personal financial pressure.

Joe Lacob's current difficult situation fully confirms Zhou Buqi's judgment on the psychology of Yahoo's management.

This is the right way of thinking!

Boss Ma, you can be more courageous!
(End of this chapter)