Reborn: Billionaire in College

Chapter 207: Investing in Riot Games
Bu Housheng has a very similar experience to Tencent's Liu Chih-Ping. They both worked on Wall Street, engaged in investment banking operations, and are about 40 years old.

Frankly speaking, Bu Housheng was also very interested in this job. It was very attractive to be able to return to China to take charge of the investment department of a large company.

Renren currently has too much cash, and putting it in the bank to earn interest would be the stupidest thing to do.

In Chen Pingjiang's opinion, these funds should be utilized to maximize profits.

The company has raised nearly 66 billion RMB in financing previously, and currently has a revenue of over 2 million RMB per month, so it really is too much money to spend.

What should be done is to invest in more companies, establish a broad business network, connect with multiple industries, and expand influence.

It is impossible for Renren to handle all projects by itself, otherwise it will end up killing the dragon, so investment or acquisition is a very good way.

On a direct flight from Shanghai to Los Angeles, Chen Pingjiang carefully read the Riot Games information sent by the team below.

Riot Games, which later became the famous Riot Games, was founded in 2006 and launched its first game "League of Legends" in 2009. Tencent invested in Riot in the second half of 2008.

This time, Chen Pingjiang went to the United States not only to cooperate with Facebook, but more importantly, to complete several investments.

Intercepting Hu Tengxu is the top priority!
After all, the game "League of Legends" is so awesome. As a former stubborn bronze player, Chen Pingjiang also played this game for a while.

It has been ranked first in the global PC game revenue rankings for many years in a row, earning over 10 billion US dollars. No matter how you look at it, it is a very cost-effective deal.

As early as 2016, the monthly active users exceeded 8 million, and the number of registered players worldwide reached 10 million. In terms of MAU and DAU, League of Legends is more than times higher than CS:GO, which ranks first in popularity.

Making money is secondary; the most important thing is the influence of "League of Legends".

In terms of the number of players, attention to game live broadcasts and event live broadcasts, "League of Legends" is the best in the world. Take the S11 World Finals as an example. During S11, the peak number of international viewers outside of China was close to 400 million. During S11, the total number of people watching live broadcasts on Kuaishou was nearly 4.78 million. These viewing figures are several times or even dozens of times higher than other popular e-sports events. The total global viewing time is as high as million hours, ranking first in the world.

After 11 hours of flight, the plane finally landed slowly at Los Angeles International Airport.

As we walked out of the airport, a convoy of several business sedans and SUVs was already waiting there.

Li Fu stepped forward and drove the driver off the car, saying that he would drive.

"Mr. Chen, I'm curious about why you chose this company. I talked to many friends in the industry and found that few people have heard of this company called Riot." Bu Housheng asked curiously, "The most important thing is that this company has not produced any outstanding works since its establishment in 2006, and I heard that they have encountered a big bottleneck recently."

Chen Pingjiang said softly, "Maybe I was once a loyal player of Dota 1. I think MOBA games will shine sooner or later. The fierce confrontation and the battle of wits and courage with other players are very interesting. Besides, the disadvantages you just mentioned are precisely advantages for us as investors. This is cheap enough."

To some extent, Bu Housheng was not wrong. Chen Pingjiang's investment methods were a little confusing to him. It seemed like pure gambling.

A company that has no products and even does not run well may be cheap, but the probability of losing money is also very high.

What is a MOBA game?
Currently, the popular games in the world are either MMORPG or first-person shooter games.

…………

In a small apartment in West Hollywood.

The early Riot Games was located here, and its two founders were Baker and Merrill.

Speaking of these two guys, they are awesome.

The two were classmates who studied finance and investment and each pursued their own careers after graduation: Baker at a large consulting firm and Merrill at Bank of America.

Not long after, the two started a business together.

This apartment in West Hollywood is not much better than a garage, and even with a dozen employees, there is still little furniture.

The first MOBA game they made was called Onslaught.

In Merrill's own words: "It was terrible. We had metal music. The minions at the time were like little undead soldiers. We did a lot of iterations and it was terrible."

Even they themselves felt that it was not very good. It is conceivable that when they took the game DEMO to the GDC conference and met with many publishers, the process was not smooth.

The Riot team wanted to make a multiplayer online game that would grow, change, and evolve. And they wanted to make it free, and make money through small, non-compulsory transactions in the game. In 2007, traditional game publishers had basically never heard of such a model, let alone thought it was feasible, so they were not interested in what Riot was pursuing.

After returning from the GDC conference, the two founders began to focus on looking for venture capital because they had no money.

But unfortunately, no one was optimistic about their work until Chen Pingjiang appeared.

Tencent only heard of Riot Games during the internal testing of League of Legends, but Chen Pingjiang brought this time forward by more than half a year.

Baker and Merrill are both typical white people and even look a bit alike.

The difference is that Baker has a crew cut while Merrill has a buzz cut.

"Hey, man, should we go to a slightly more upscale venue to welcome the mysterious Chinese investor? I always feel that our apartment is shabby and he will have a hold on our lifeblood." Baker looked at Merrill beside him hesitantly.

Merrill nodded helplessly. "You're quite right, but I think he will come to our studio for an on-site inspection eventually, so we might as well be honest. Now we can only pin our hopes on Chen. No one in the United States is optimistic about our game."

"That's not our fault. Those traditional publishers are still focusing on stand-alone games and hope to adopt the same charging model as 3A masterpieces, but we just want to make free games. If I have to sell my soul to those capitalists, I would rather go back to work." Baker was a little depressed when talking about this.

It has been a year and a half since they started their business in 2006. The two of them save as much as they can, but with more than a dozen employees a year the company still makes a lot of money.

All their savings were still not enough to pay the salaries, so the two had to borrow money from their family.

But if it still can’t get investment, “League of Legends” is likely to die, because even if it goes online it will not be able to support the server costs.

When Chen Pingjiang and his team arrived, they were stunned by the harsh conditions they saw.

The small apartment was packed with more than ten people, and the smell in the house was unbearable.

"Who of you is Baker? Who is Merrill?" Chen Pingjiang asked. Baker and Merrill looked at each other and saw the confusion in each other's eyes.

The main reason is that Chen Pingjiang is too young, although his clothes look very expensive.

"Hello, Chen, this is Merrill and I'm Baker," Baker, who was standing on the left, introduced.

Merrill spoke directly: "I'm curious how you heard about our studio from thousands of miles away?"

Chen Pingjiang smiled and said, "Even though we are two different countries, the upper investment circles are interconnected. It's no news that you are looking for investment everywhere. I also know that no one is optimistic about your project, otherwise you wouldn't be living here and working."

Baker and Merrill smiled awkwardly after their true colors were exposed.

Afterwards, the group found a Starbucks to have in-depth communication, mainly because the apartment was crowded and small.

Under the gaze of Baker and Merrill, Chen Pingjiang slowly took off his coat and said through Bu Housheng's translation: "Let's not beat around the bush. I am personally very interested in your "League of Legends" and I also know your current situation. Maybe we can talk about cooperation."

Unexpectedly, Baker smiled and said, "We are not planning to adopt the traditional game charging method, but to make it free. Did you know that?"

Chen Pingjiang nodded: "Of course, I also think the free model is suitable for League of Legends. We can sell some character skins in the game to generate revenue. As long as enough people play the game, we will benefit a lot in the end."

Merrill's eyes suddenly brightened, as if he had seen an angel. He did not expect that Chen Pingjiang's ideas were surprisingly consistent with theirs.

Chen Pingjiang continued, "Guys, since we have chosen the free model, we should focus on the global market, not just North America. Where does the world have the largest population right now? China! I have hundreds of millions of players on Renren and DNF in China. With my help, it will be easy to open up the Chinese market."

"And I have a complete and clear business model that can help League of Legends achieve global success."

Every word Chen Pingjiang said was like a charming voice, constantly stirring Baker and Merrill's already restless hearts.

"Can you tell us?" Baker asked impatiently.

But Chen Pingjiang smiled and shook his head slowly: "Sorry, I can't reveal more information to you before we become partners. Unless we reach a preliminary cooperation intention."

"Dude, it's you. We don't even need to consider it. To be honest, I liked you the first time I saw you. You are different from those old guys in North America. You understand games." Merrill next to him also said, "We can sign a preliminary cooperation agreement. If you can give us a satisfactory answer, we can discuss the specific financing amount and share transfer later."

Chen Pingjiang gave Bu Housheng a look, and the latter understood and immediately took out a standard confidentiality contract and letter of intent from his briefcase.

After watching the two sign their names, Chen Pingjiang said, "You know that competitive games are entertaining and will attract a large number of viewers, which is no different from Warcraft. We can organize e-sports events around the world, similar to the NBA league. One division in North America, one division in China, one division in South Korea, and one division in Europe. We can bring the top three in each division together to hold a global finals. Guys, Warcraft, StarCraft, and CS are gradually declining. In the future, the only e-sports world will be League of Legends."

Baker and Merrill looked at each other with surprise on their faces. The scene that Chen Pingjiang described to them was completely achievable.

It’s just that they had encountered many difficulties before, even the distribution had problems, so naturally they didn’t dare to imagine such a grand scene.

"Chen, I admit that you have impressed me a little." Baker said excitedly.

Chen Pingjiang picked one up and continued, "If we hold e-sports events, there will be live audiences, and ticket sales are the biggest source of income. We can set up a league ourselves, produce high-quality e-sports live broadcasts every week, and then sell them to TV stations or other video sites like Youtube to increase income."

There is no doubt that the picture described by Chen Pingjiang was very beautiful, and it made his two younger brothers in front of him stunned.

Merrill also asked excitedly: "Such a prospect is exciting, but I would also like to ask, if I accept your investment, will you interfere with our operations?"

Chen Pingjiang shook his head firmly: "NO!"

"I have a very large business in China, and I don't have the energy to take care of you. I can promise you that I will never interfere with Riot's independent operations, and you will still be the number one or two bosses in the company. You don't need to be restricted by more investors, and I don't expect to get a return on investment in a short time. A long-term, reliable shareholder who shares your goals is much better than a group of investors with different goals, right?"

Having said this, it’s hard not to move the cooperation forward.

It is estimated that there is no other investor like Chen Pingjiang in the whole world.

Having money, allowing freedom, providing resource support and at the same time being able to provide a clear business model.

This almost meets all the fantasies of the two founders of Riot Games about investors.

"How much money are you going to give us and how much shares are you going to take?"

"League of Legends has not been proven by the market after all. I made this investment because I am particularly optimistic about you. Therefore, I hope to acquire 30% of the shares and invest $600 million."

"Man, 30% is way too much. That's at least $ million."

Chen Pingjiang smiled and shook his head: "Business is business, and the risks are huge. My company also has investors behind it, and I need to be responsible for them. I'll add 100 million, a total of 700 million."

"900 million, let's take a step back."

"800 million. This is the last offer. If you still refuse, I will ask my assistant to buy a return ticket immediately."

"make a deal!"

The two parties are just like buying vegetables in the market, they set the price and pay on the spot.

This situation is rarely seen in other similar investment cases.

The main reason is that Riot Studio is in urgent need of this money. If they miss Chen Pingjiang, there will be no one left. Even if they have it, they dare not gamble.

In particular, Chen Pingjiang meets a series of their requirements for investors.

Chen Pingjiang smiled and stretched out his right hand to shake hands with Baker and Merrill: "Happy cooperation!"

Not long after, the two parties signed the contract.

So far, Chen Pingjiang has finally succeeded in intercepting Tencent and taking the first big piece of meat.

(End of this chapter)