Top of the Great Era

Chapter 2229 The courage of decision-making

When I came to the theater in the evening, it was different this time. Boss Zhou made his public appearance, and he had VIP tickets in the first row. Look at the people around him... Hey!

It's really unusual!
I know many of them, including several big Hollywood actors, such as Tom Hanks, Morgan Friedman, and Cate Blanchett.

There are several investors and several entrepreneurs.

For Zhou Buqi's appearance, other people also showed a bit of surprise and surprise expression, got up one after another, came to shake hands with me... Those who knew each other before laughed and greeted, and those who didn't know introduced themselves first, and then handed out a business card.

Now it's a big deal.

Many people in the second and third rows also paid attention, and they all joined together.The people who are ranked in this position are either rich or expensive, the lowest is a local member of parliament, and there are many executives of large companies, such as the vice president of American Express, the vice president of Citibank, the vice president of Pepsi...

Of all the people, the one with the highest weight should be Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes.

The man took the initiative to ask for a change of seat, hoping to sit next to Zhou Buqi.

After being seated, Jeff Bewkes smiled and said, "I heard that this is a wonderful traditional drama. Today, many friends around me recommended it to me, saying that it should be adapted into a movie."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "The play is a good play, it is impossible to adapt it into a movie."

Bewkes certainly respected his point of view and sighed, "That would be a pity."

Zhou Buqi really wanted to ask him something, "How is AOL?"

"what?"

Jeff Bewkes was slightly taken aback.

Zhou Buqi said: "I am very interested in the online advertising business recently. This market should not be dominated by Google alone."

"I'm afraid it will be difficult."

Bewkes shook his head.

AOL used to be an Internet giant in the United States, with a market value of nearly 1000 billion U.S. dollars. At its peak, it merged with Time Warner and became AOL Time Warner Group, with a market value of 1800 billion U.S. dollars.

Then it was miserable.

This is arguably the worst merger in history.

Warner was pitted miserably.

In 09, Time Warner couldn't take it anymore, so it spun off the AOL business, leaving only $30 billion in value.

Zhou Buqi turned to look at him, "What? No chance?"

Bewkes said: "The two companies have been split, and I don't know the details. But based on my past knowledge of this company, it is difficult for AOL's business to improve."

Zhou Buqi smiled, "Not necessarily."

Bewkes glanced at him, a little surprised, "Mr. Zhou is interested in AOL?"

Zhou Buqi said frankly: "Yes."

The two companies have been split, so Jeff Bewkes didn't care about the interests of AOL, and he took the initiative to show his favor, "Mr. Zhou, the current internal situation of AOL is more complicated, most of the business is in the The decline stage. When the two companies were separated in 09, AOL still had 80 websites of various types. But after the separation, AOL lost the capital dividend of Time Warner, and could only rely on layoffs, reorganization, and sale of core assets to survive. .”

Zhou Buqi was very calm, "It's okay."

Bix said: "In order to cut operating costs, they shut down more than 30 websites in one go last year. Even as early as two years ago, they sold ICQ, their core Internet asset."

"ICQ?"

Zhou Buqi was quite surprised.

This is the originator of instant messaging products, famous!
Domestic QQ is made by imitating this product.

Bewkes said with regret: "Mr. Zhou, I will not hide it in front of you. In fact, when Time Warner and AOL split at the beginning, Time Warner retained part of AOL shares and a board of directors. Seats. It was because of ICQ that I decided to quit AOL completely."

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

Bix said: "ICQ used to be the leader in instant messaging, much stronger than MSN and Yahoo Messenger. Even today, there are still many loyal users using this product. In 2010, Helo on the mobile terminal had already started. We have all seen the possibility of instant messaging products on the mobile side, and we all recommend that ICQ transform to the mobile side and compete with Helo in this market.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Well, this is a very courageous and strategic idea."

Bewkes said helplessly: "Yes, but they didn't agree at all. Helo was already popular at that time, and there were already opportunities for such products in the market. But AOL believed that ICQ could not be Helo's opponent... ...they don't have enough strength to compete with Ziwei Star."

Zhou Buqi couldn't help laughing.

Does this count as surrendering without a fight?
Bix said: "AOL dare not compete with Ziweixing's Helo, but some people dare. For AOL's board of directors, this turned out to be an opportunity for them to sell ICQ at a high price."

When Zhou Buqi heard this, he was really surprised by the coquettish operation of the AOL group, "And then it was really sold?"

Bix said: "Yes, it's really sold. After all, this is a high-quality asset. Some people hope to rely on ICQ to compete with Helo on the mobile side."

Zhou Buqi asked, "How much did you sell it for?"

"US$4 million." Bewkes mocked a little more, "When AOL acquired ICQ more than ten years ago, the transaction volume was US$8 million. They sold the core assets at half price, and they were very proud, saying that they got the money The money can be used to develop the online advertising business.”

Zhou Buqi understood what was going on as soon as he heard it.

This is definitely the selfishness of professional managers!

What this group really cares about is not the company's interests, but their personal interests.It's in my personal interest to keep AOL alive, and in the long run.

In this way, they can receive high salaries every year.

If AOL wants to bet on ICQ and go to the mobile terminal to compete with Helo... This is a desperate gamble, and all of AOL's wealth must be bet on it.

It worked, and AOL's stock price soared...

But for these professional managers, their shareholdings are minimal and they only have a small amount of options.The stock price has soared, and the biggest beneficiaries are the major shareholders, who have little relationship with them.

If it fails...

That would be miserable.

AOL may go bankrupt because of this, and these professional managers will bear the notoriety of bankrupting a once [-]-billion-dollar Internet giant, and they will lose their high-paying jobs in power.

If you succeed, you will get very little benefit; if you fail, you will have nothing.

What's the point of such a gamble?
This fundamentally limits the decision-making courage of professional managers.

But the problem came again.

Who has no selfishness?

If professional managers have no selfishness, the boss should not have selfishness. Give them more shares and more option rewards. As long as the benefits are large enough, they are of course willing to fight for a bigger and more long-term goal.

It is really not easy to do this.

The vast majority of bosses can't wait to have the company's shares in their own hands.Little do they know that the tighter they hold the shares, the less valuable these shares will be.

Zhou Buqi understood this truth a long time ago.

As early as the early days of his business, he did this, but at this stage, he is a bit out of the cliché and like a layman...

Among other things, Changyou's two co-CEOs, Don Mattrick and Ren Yuxin, must increase their stock options.

It is best to guarantee a minimum of two thousandths of the shares each year.

After working for ten years, each person holds 2% of the shares.

That's generous enough.

After talking about AOL, Zhou Buqi still didn't seem to give up his desire to buy. He smiled and said, "I'm interested in AOL. If it's convenient, you can send me a letter."

"it is good."

Jeff Bewkes is hard to understand.

But this is normal.

If everyone could understand him, he wouldn't be the richest man in the world at a young age.

However, he took the initiative to come here this time, not to flatter the new richest man, but to have a cooperation between the two parties, which revolves around HBO and the drama version of "Lord of the Rings".

Bewkes was promoted from the position of CEO of HBO to become the CEO of Time Warner, which is his core base camp.

Zhou Buqi was a little strange, "Didn't MGM come up with a plan?"

"That plan..." Bix shook his head, "I read that plan, and it doesn't seem suitable. It would be best to refer to the cooperation plan of "Game of Thrones", and the two companies will cooperate."

The plan given by MGM is to share the risks of both parties.

For MGM, the risk is that the investment in the drama version of "The Lord of the Rings" is too large. Once the project fails, it will suffer serious losses; for HBO, the risk is that "The Lord of the Rings" is too attractive. If it succeeds, HBO will have to pay a sky-high broadcast fee if it wants to renew its contract in the future.

This creates the possibility of cooperation.

The two parties signed a contract in advance, agreeing on the first round of TV broadcast fees for the entire series of drama versions of "Lord of the Rings", which is a fixed number.

In this way, HBO doesn't have to worry about the show's popularity in the future. They will encounter "blackmail" and have to keep bidding to pay sky-high broadcast fees.

MGM can also get a fixed income to reduce investment risks, and don't have to worry about all investment losses if the project fails.

However, this is not the same as the cooperative mode of "Game of Thrones".

In that series of American dramas, Ziwei Star Universal got the streaming media copyright, and more importantly, participated in the investment and got 40% of the copyright, which is the right to speak.

The right to speak is power.

Power is much more important than interests.

It means that in the future, if HBO wants to develop sequels of "Game of Thrones" or other derivative dramas and movie versions, they cannot make a unilateral decision, and need to communicate with Ziweixing Global.

Zhou Buqi said without hesitation, "This is impossible! When "Game of Thrones" was produced, how much project risk was that? It is also a fantasy novel, can "A Song of Ice and Fire" compare with "Lord of the Rings"? Not to mention anything else, the value of the copyright alone is incomparable. The TV copyrights of "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" are both in the hands of MGM, which is a priceless treasure, and there is no possibility of any transfer of copyright."

Bix frowned slightly, "If that's the case, I'll be very embarrassed."

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "How come? In business, the most important thing is vision. AOL gave up ICQ, HBO can't give up the drama version of "Lord of the Rings", right? Doing business always requires a little courage in decision-making. It doesn't matter if you don't agree, you can also bid according to our last contract."

(End of this chapter)