Top of the Great Era

On the second day, Zhou Buqi received a call from Boss Wang, saying that he thought about it all night, and then held an overnight meeting with domestic executives, and finally made a decision.

Get rid of all distracting thoughts and buy AMC theaters!

Zhou Buqi said "Congratulations". As for how the two parties will discuss specifically, he will not participate in it, nor can he be of much help.At this time, Don Mattrick also called and said that he could communicate with EA.

"I'm in Los Angeles."

"Then I rush over now?"

"Huh? Where are you?"

"I'm on the old company's side, so I happened to be on the way."

Don Mattrick really has a strong spirit of being a professional manager, he is very considerate of his boss, and wants to make a trip to report face to face.

The so-called old company was originally part of the game business department of Ziweixing International, and now it is a branch of Changyou, with the US headquarters already set up in New York.

For Zhou Buqi, this matter is actually quite important.

This is related to Changyou's thinking on mergers and acquisitions.

Although he admires the business development idea of ​​making money with harmony, no fights, and no troubles, it doesn't mean that he is willing to be bullied.If EA is really targeting him on purpose, there's not much to say.

Repaying resentment with virtue, why repay virtue?

In the matter of the friend's studio, EA did suffer a serious loss and vomited blood.However, Zhou Buqi has never deliberately targeted EA, which is a normal business operation.

Even in April last year, the valuation of Friends Studio could reach 4 billion US dollars.

Finally, in August, Ziweixing International was sold to EA at a price of less than 8 billion U.S. dollars, which was considered a big concession.

Zhou Buqi never forced EA to do anything.

All the results are actively pursued by EA.They even spent money on PR, went to the regulators to jump in the line, came ahead of time to approve the deal, and got it.

Everything is EA's active choice.

As for whether it is a loss or a gain, it is a normal thing in the business field.

However, Changyou has been negotiating with the British game studio Codemasters for more than two years, and the negotiation finally came to an end... At the last moment, EA appeared and offered an extremely high price.

They may have rushed to quote without even doing due diligence, which is completely inconsistent with the usual logic of M&A transactions.

Not for what?
Don Mattrick is somewhat embarrassed, because he was an executive of EA in the 90s, and he was a meritorious senior vice president.

The two parties met at Ziwei Star Global.

Zhou Buqi got up, with the demeanor of a corporal, took the coffee from Ning Lu from a distance, and handed it over to him, "How is it? I heard that EA is in chaos?"

Mattrick nodded, shook his head again, and sighed, "If it wasn't for the chaos, they wouldn't make such random decisions."

Zhou Buqi understood, "So, EA is deliberately targeting Changyou?"

Mattrick coughed his throat, "To be precise, it's for you."

Zhou Buqi said: "There is no difference."

Mattrick said: "EA wants to acquire Codemasters, in fact, there is a certain internal logic. In the past two years, EA has been laying out the social game market and spent a lot of money. Unexpectedly, the social game industry suddenly fell off a cliff. The ground fell. The conservative forces in the company were angry."

Zhou Buqi couldn't help but laugh.

For the vast majority of companies, there will be two distinct factions inside, one is conservative and the other is radical.Ziweixing also has them, He Yang is a conservative, and Guo Pengfei is a radical.

Both factions have advantages and disadvantages.

Conservatives can stabilize their position and protect the company's fundamentals; radicals are looking for more profit points to expand their territories and embrace the new era.

Some companies, because the strength of the conservatives are too strong, lead to old business, lack of innovation, gradually unable to keep up with the times, and then eliminated by the times;

For some companies, because the radicals are too strong, innovation means risks. Once a decision is made wrong, they will suffer huge losses, or the company will grow too fast and barbarously, which may lead to the collapse of the skyscraper.

For EA, the layout of the social game industry in the past few years has been dominated by radicals who want to keep up with the new era.

However, the situation is now very clear, this road is wrong.

A huge loss to EA.

Therefore, conflicts broke out in the board of directors. The radical CEO will step down, and the conservative CEO will step up to stabilize the company's operating market.

Codemasters is a traditional game company. EA's acquisition of Codemasters must have come from the decision of the conservatives. It is a strategy for the conservatives to save EA.

Mattrick said: "Conservatives have the upper hand. Since the new development route cannot be seen or found, it is better to strengthen the inherent territory and use EA's advantages in traditional end games to further strengthen Self. Respond to all changes with the same, when the direction of the market is clear and a new way out for the game industry is found, it will not be too late for EA to make a layout.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "It's also a way to stabilize the overall situation."

Just like people.

When you are angry, don't make any decisions, let yourself calm down first.No matter who they are, their IQ is zero when they are angry.After you calm down, you can make a comprehensive judgment.

The general situation of EA has collapsed, so we must not make blind decisions.If you enter the mobile game track in a hurry, what if you go in the wrong direction? This background of EA is really consumed.

Conservatives appear at this time to stabilize the situation.

Lead EA back to the perspective of traditional games.

Let's talk about the future way out later!
EA must first stabilize the situation, settle the mess created by the radicals in the past two years, and recover a wave of blood first to recuperate.When the way out for the future is clear, then follow the trend and go out to forge ahead.

Better to be slow than wrong.

However, this is not a reason for Zhou Buqi to let go of EA. "This is not the key issue. It doesn't matter whether the radicals are in power or the conservatives are in power. EA's offer this time has seriously damaged the interests of Changyou! Changyou’s hard work over the past two years has been in vain!”

"Of course, this cannot be ignored." Mattrick was also very dissatisfied with this. "Codemasters is a good company and a company I like. Don't forget, my famous work is the racing game."

"Oh?" Zhou Buqi suddenly remembered after hearing his reminder, "Yes, "Need for Speed"!"

Mattrick smiled: "Yes, after I joined EA, the first successful game I developed was "Need for Speed". Because of the success of this product, I was promoted and dominated "FIFA Football" series, allowing the game to be compared to PES."

Now Zhou Buqi understood the cause and effect, and said with a smile: "No wonder you took the fastest way to finalize the Codemasters case that you haven't discussed for two years after you became CEO. You are an expert in racing games, The Codemasters games are all racing games, and that's just the thing to give your ambitions a run for their money."

Mattrick nodded and said with a smile: "Yes, I mainly want to develop a mobile version of the racing game. This market is still relatively blank."

Zhou Buqi glanced at him, "What about EA? What do you think?"

Mattrick said firmly: "There is no doubt that EA is deliberately targeting us. One of the most criticized transactions by EA's radicals is the acquisition of Friends Studio. Conservatives are very annoyed by this. Launched against Codemasters Bidding for acquisition can not only strengthen EA's position in the traditional racing game industry, but also implement a counterattack. Therefore, they moved quickly and resolutely."

"Counterattack?" Zhou Buqi shook his head and said lightly, "You can't say that. I have never attacked EA before, so how can I talk about counterattack? There will be a counterattack when there is an attack. Now, EA is attacking EA. Changyou attacks, the counterattack should be Changyou!"