China Entertainment 1997

Chapter 649: Investing in Manchester United and the Last English Album

Cao Xuan doesn't mind becoming a shareholder of Manchester United.

Even after Manchester United went through a period of shock and became an internet celebrity, its business development capabilities still ranked among the top five among major European clubs.

The follow-up market value is not low either. It will be nearly 5 billion US dollars in 2022. It has always been one of the most valuable clubs and is very popular. Glazer said he wanted to sell it, and soon the former richest man in the UK, the Saudi tycoon, major consortiums and others wanted to take over. Great, even Musk came over to enjoy the heat.

From this point of view, taking over a part of the shares at this time is definitely a stable business without losing money.

This is from the perspective of business investment and personal fan sentiment. Cao Xuan is very interested in becoming one of the owners of Manchester United.

Watching football becomes more immersive!

And another thing is that Manchester United, as a giant European club, has considerable influence in Asia and the world.

Cao Xuan becoming a shareholder is a good gimmick for Manchester United itself. On the other hand, his becoming a shareholder of Manchester United can also bring him a certain amount of attention.

Manchester United plans to explore the Asian and international markets through him, and Cao Xuan also hopes to consolidate his influence in Europe and the world through Manchester United. Even domestically, Cao Xuan's "joining" a giant is also a very exciting thing.

Therefore, considering all parties, the proposal of the Glazer family has more advantages than disadvantages for both parties.

However, Cao Xuan has a different view, that is, 2% is too little. Those who don’t know better think that his boss Cao has no money, so he still needs 10% no matter what.

Of course Glazer won't do it. 10% is not a small amount. Coupled with the shares of some other shareholders and the stock market, it can already threaten their control.

You must know that their initial stake in Manchester United was only 3.17%, and it exceeded 15% in half a year. They have already started to acquire the matter, and officially started after owning 19% of the shares. They used the snake to swallow the elephant, and finally won Manchester United bit by bit. .

They didn't know Cao Xuan's specific net worth, but they were from the capital circle and had a rough idea.

They still needed a loan at the beginning, and Cao Xuan could buy Manchester United on his own.

Glazer introduced Cao Xuan because he wanted to increase the stock price, spread his influence, and develop the international business market. He did not want to introduce the wolf into the sheepfold.

Therefore, Glazer rejected Cao Xuan's request, but also gave in and could sell 5% of the shares, but the price would not be less than 85 million pounds.

Glazer's point is clear.

The current market capitalization of Manchester United is 1.8 billion pounds, and 1% is 18 million. Although the stock and actual value may fluctuate somewhat, it will not be too much.

Previously, they were willing to sell 2% of their shares to Cao Xuan for 20 million pounds, which was considered a loss-making transaction, but this share did not pose a threat to them, and it could be converted into Cao Xuan's advertising fees.

Nowadays, 5% is a bit sensitive. Although the threat is not great, it still has a certain say in the Manchester United board of directors, and can even be regarded as the third shareholder of Manchester United.

Such shares have exceeded their advertising needs, so Glazer decided to sell them as normal shares.

85 million pounds is neither high nor low, it is considered a normal price range.

Cao Xuan was noncommittal about the price, but was curious as to why Glazer had to sell shares since it exceeded advertising needs.

Boss Cao also had connections in the international financial circle, so he sent someone to inquire and found out what was going on.

When the Glazer family bought Manchester United, they borrowed money to buy it, and they have been paying off the debt in the past few years.

They had to repay the money themselves, but most of them used Manchester United's money to plug the hole, so the Glazer family was called vampires by Manchester United fans.

Because they are equivalent to buying Manchester United with nothing, and then using Manchester United's money to pay off their debts. They did not spend much money to become the owner of Manchester United, and they also paid dividends from time to time.

Of course, Manchester United and the British government are not fools. They have created some clauses to counter the Glazers, so that they cannot go too far and prioritize ensuring the operation of Manchester United.

In this way, most of the long-term debts or small debts can be plugged by Manchester United, but there are still some debts that Glazer and the others have to figure out on their own.

In the past, Glazer was fine, but due to the economic crisis, their assets have shrunk significantly. If they want to incur debt, the only way is to liquidate Manchester United's shares.

That's why they tried to find ways to bring Cao Xuan into the game, just to create momentum, raise the stock price, and then take action at a relatively high point.

However, because Cao Xuan wanted more shares, Glazer and the others realized that Boss Cao was also very rich. If they could reach an agreement, they could directly solve most of their debts.

Although it may not sell as much as after raising the stock price, but then again, it is not easy to find a suitable buyer in a short period of time for a single-digit share transaction.

And if everything is put on the stock market, no one knows what the consequences will be. If the stock price is turbulent, it may cause the overall market value of Manchester United to decline. It is a small loss but a big loss.

Even if the stock market is fine, if all the stocks are taken away by a careerist and then comes to fight among themselves, it will be very bad for the Glazer family.

They have known Cao Xuan for so many years, and because of Cao Xuan's reputation in business, they still trust Boss Cao's character. At least they don't have to worry about being tricked.

Therefore, for the Glazer family, trading with Cao Xuan became a relatively good idea.

Not only has most of the debt funds been resolved, it can also increase the stock price. At that time, you only need to take out a few shares and put them into the stock market, and you can cash out without affecting the stock price, make up for the remaining debt, and achieve perfection at a relatively small cost. Survive the crisis.

What's more important is safety. Although Cao Xuan is not necessarily a good person, compared to other buyers, he knows everything.

It can be said that he is worthy of being a businessman who can take down Manchester United with nothing, and his calculations are perfect.

Even Cao Xuan must be praised for his shrewdness.

He wasn't angry because he was being plotted by Glazer. Anyone doing business didn't count. As long as it didn't affect his own interests, he didn't care about other people's plans.

However, in business, if you don't get angry, you won't be angry, but Cao Xuan will not be soft when it comes to fighting for his own interests. He will lower the price when he should, and he should not miss out on the benefits and rights he deserves.

He found his financial team and talked with the Glazer family for almost a week before finally reaching an agreement.

72 million pounds was used to acquire 5% of Manchester United's shares. At the same time, Manchester United's board of directors gave a directorship to Cao Xuan. The two parties will also launch a series of promotional and commercial cooperation in the future.

In order to ensure safety, Glazer asked Cao Xuan to inform them about Manchester United's share transactions to prevent attracting wolves into the house.

Cao Xuan also added that if Glazer sells Manchester United shares, Cao Xuan has the right of first refusal. He is still very optimistic about the value of Manchester United. If the conditions are right, he does not recommend holding some shares for a long time.

After reaching the preliminary agreement, Glazer immediately excitedly went to the media to build momentum.

The alliance between international superstars and the world's richest families also caused an uproar at home and abroad.

Frankly speaking, 72 million pounds is not a small amount. According to the average exchange rate in 2012, it was 1:9.99, which is equivalent to 720 million yuan.

At this price, you can directly buy a Chinese Super League football club in China, you can also buy a mid- and lower-tier team in the five major leagues in Europe, and you can even barely take control of a mid-tier club.

With so much money, only 5% of Manchester United's shares were acquired, which seemed like a loss.

But then again, Manchester United is not an ordinary football club after all, but a world-renowned top club. As of 2012, it was still the most competitive team in Europe and even reached the Champions League final last year.

The value of this top-class club is indeed not comparable to that of ordinary clubs.

And in principle, Manchester United has shareholder dividends every year. However, due to the development of the club and the regulations of the Football Association, the proportion of annual dividends is limited, but it is not a minority.

Not to mention the increase in Manchester United's market value. Cao Xuan has a golden finger and knows that he will make money in the future.

Based on their professional judgment, his financial team also believed that this was a good deal. They even thought it was more than Cao Xuan had estimated. Some people proposed to directly take over Manchester United and let Jiaoyang Venture Capital enter the sports field.

If it's football, the stake is too small to be the master of the game, but if it's business investment, investing in Manchester United is guaranteed to make a profit, so there's no need to worry.

Cao Xuan was very satisfied with this result. It not only fulfilled his wish to be a boss, but he didn't have to become the target of public criticism like Abu.

He understands the benefits of being a shareholder very well. He can make a lot of money, and when something goes wrong, the boss and the person in charge will take the blame and be scolded. He can also use the rights and interests of shareholders to hold him accountable.

It's just a pity that the British cannot hear the word "stars" and feel full of awe...

In response to external public opinion, Cao Xuan responded on Weibo and Twitter. On the one hand, he emphasized that it was just a commercial investment and was not an external investment to buy Manchester United. In addition, he also made some remarks, hoping that Manchester United would get better and better and contribute to the club. Such power.

Although Cao Xuan's response was relatively official and restrained, many people were still very excited, especially the domestic fans, who were absolutely blown away.

[Awesome, I believe Cao Xuan is a die-hard Red Devil]

[Manchester United shareholders, this is better than Evergrande]

[I like Manchester United: I dream of making a pilgrimage to Old Trafford]

[Cao Xuan likes Manchester United: buy it and become the owner]

[To be precise, they are shareholders. They have no decision-making power, but they are also very good. They seem to have joined the board of directors.]

【Crying with envy】

[Why not buy Real Madrid? Real Madrid has Cristiano Ronaldo. Aren’t they two good friends? 】

[To popularize science, Real Madrid is a membership system, so you can’t buy it]

[720 million yuan, it’s great to have money]

[If I want money, I will buy Arsenal and poach people for 200 million pounds a year, especially captains of other teams]

[It’s not just money and hobbies. After asking insiders, there should be some business cooperation. In other words, others can’t buy it even if they want to buy it]

[Boss Cao, buy another Chinese Super League, I want to see you and Boss Xu throwing money at each other]

[I also like it, buy more stars to come to China, Shenhua can bring Drogba, Cao Xuan can bring Torres]

[Cao Xuan is smart. He doesn’t want to go to the Chinese Super League and go to the Chinese Super League. Zhao Benshan is crying because he loves football. Investing in Europe is the right choice]

[Liverpool fans and Cao Cao fans are very sad]

[Haha, I am also a fan of his, but I just became a fan of Manchester City who won the championship]

[Well, they are both daylily flowers, but I like Chelsea better]

[Show me off, I’m lucky enough to have played football with him]

[Really or not, does Cao Xuan play often? How can I make an appointment? How are his football skills? 】

[Well, I only played one game, and I don’t know how I made the appointment. The captain seemed to know them. Cao Xuan’s skills were just okay. He scored a penalty kick in that game, but what impressed me was that he was particularly generous. The team's cigarettes, water, dinners, etc. are all-inclusive, the quality is not low, and it costs tens of thousands]

[Understood, good at facing cashiers alone]

[No wonder there was a penalty, no wonder he kicked it, obediently, it’s all human nature]

【……】

The external turmoil did not affect Cao Xuan, and the subsequent shareholding contract was settled. On August 25, he went to Old Trafford at Manchester United's home court in the second round of the new Premier League season.

Before kick-off, he made an appearance alongside the Glazer family, Ferguson, United captain Vidic and management.

This appearance not only announced Cao Xuan's official investment in Manchester United, but also that he will serve as Manchester United's chief promotion ambassador.

Normal share changes, especially for small shareholders, do not actually need to be done like this, but the key is that Glazer and Manchester United need to build momentum, so they organized a unique welcome ceremony, which is not for shareholders, but for the chief promotion ambassador.

The fans of Manchester United were also very respectful to the "new boss" and sang his popular song "Wake" to express their welcome.

Cao Xuan raised his hands to applaud, and then followed the Glazer family to the box at the upper end of the stadium to watch the game.

In fact, from a viewing perspective, the tickets in the first few rows are more immersive, and the atmosphere is also better.

However, Cao Xuan's status did not allow it. If he were sitting in the crowd, he would not say that he would be harassed all the time, but he would not be able to watch it at all. Besides, he was not comfortable with other people taking pictures and recording videos with their mobile phones, so he simply watched in the box. ball.

You can see the panoramic view of the stadium directly through the window in the box, and it is specially equipped with TV broadcast. If you can't see clearly at the scene, you can watch TV.

In addition, the private room has drinks, wine, food, sofas for resting, and even waiter service. Regardless of the atmosphere and viewing angle, it is absolutely comfortable and luxurious.

The price is also very impressive. The boxes are divided into several levels according to location and service. Cao Xuan's box is the best one, costing about 65,000 pounds per season, or 650,000 RMB.

Of course, as the club's shareholder + promotion ambassador, Cao Xuan enjoys the right to use this exclusive box for free.

Cao Xuan is not short of this amount of money, and he can afford it ten times more, but spending money and the club taking the initiative to give it for free are two different things.

"Glazer is quite good at being a good person."

Zhang Chong muttered something in a low voice, and Cao Xuan smiled: "Of course Glazer knows how to behave, but who will score the points?"

As far as he knows, even members of the Manchester United first team have to spend their wallets every year if they want a box. This seems to have been criticized by the players' families.

When it comes to business operations, the Glazer family can hardly be said to be generous, even to the point of being stingy.

The reason why they are so generous to Cao Xuan is not because Cao Xuan is a shareholder, but because Cao Xuan is a super rich man who is richer than them. He may be begging Boss Cao one day in the future. The shrewd Jews know what money should be used. it took.

Really, the more he interacts with the Glazer family, the more Mr. Cao understands what a standard American Jewish capital family is like.

In this game against Fulham, Manchester United won 3:2. Newly joined General Fan scored the first goal. After the game, Cao Xuan even asked for a signed jersey.

Declining the gracious invitation from the Glazer family, Cao Xuan returned to China after taking the promised promotional photos and videos for Manchester United.

At this time, the box office of "Avengers" has basically reached its end.

The mainland has been postponed and has officially started filming. The final box office was 1.18 billion, ranking second only to "Avatar" in the mainland box office list.

Domestically, the perception of this movie is quite complicated. On the one hand, this is indeed a true Hollywood movie, and it adds another big mountain to the box office list. In addition, this big mountain has Cao Xuan joining the cast, which makes many people proud.

Everyone is worried, proud, and quite confused!

However, there is still some discussion in the industry. It has been two years since "Let the Bullets Fly" and there has never been a Chinese-language movie with more than 1 billion in the country.

The closest movie "Now You See Me" has 800 million+. Strictly speaking, it can be considered a Sino-US co-production. It is not a purely Chinese-language movie. Other Chinese-language movies with high box office basically hover around 600-700 million, which is still far away from 1 billion. Small gap.

Considering the overall situation of the industry, everyone still hopes to produce a few more hit movies to tap the market potential and enhance the confidence of practitioners.

There is no doubt that this important task is placed on Cao Xuan. Only he, the box office overlord, will be considered to be able to create another miracle.

However, Boss Cao is more Buddhist and currently has two movies to be released.

One film, "Rescue 3," has a limited upper limit, and the other, "Hunting," is a literary film.

Lao Mouzi is now working on a new movie "Return". The post-production progress is slow. In addition, the movie will be selected for three major film festivals next year or the year after that, so the release date is yet to be determined.

At the moment, Cao Xuan has no new movie plans. In the next two to three years, his work will focus more on the music industry. The outside world has placed expectations on him, and he may be disappointed.

Putting aside the success in the mainland, the box office in other places was also quite impressive. In the end, the global box office totaled 1.8 billion+ US dollars, ranking third in global film history, second only to "Avatar" and "Titanic".

Even Cao Xuan couldn't help but sigh, Cameron is such a pervert that he can't even cheat him.

Or maybe this guy is also cheating...

Marvel's influence in the United States and internationally has exploded, and creators such as Cao Xuan have become international superstars.

Although Cao Xuan was already a superstar before that, the popularity of "Avengers" made him reach a higher level. In addition to being a singer, his other label became Hawkeye.

Film appointments, program invitations, interviews and endorsements came to Cao Xuan like snowflakes, but 99% of them were declined by Cao Xuan.

After being free, Cao Xuan returned to Qin City to spend the last few days of leisurely vacation. As Zeng Li and Cao Li started school, he also returned to the capital to start the production of the last English album.

Cao Xuan had previously planned to retire from the music scene before 2015, and now he has basically begun to make arrangements.

After this album is completed, Cao Xuan will prepare his last album, which is expected to be released in 2014. After that, Cao Xuan plans to hold another farewell concert around the world before officially bidding farewell to the music scene.

With two albums and a global concert that may be even more popular than in 2007, Cao Xuan's work in the next few years will be quite intense.

I don’t say that the movie has been completely put down, but I estimate that there may only be one or two. Coupled with the Marvel film contract, the actual shooting is estimated to be only about one.

Fortunately, he still had some inventory on hand, otherwise Cao Xuan would have been afraid that he would not be able to produce new works for a long time.

The first song of the new album has been mentioned before, "See You Again" by Duanmei, a global hit song and the title song of the new album.

As for the other 9 songs, they are all top-quality songs. If you pick any one at any time, it will be very hit. Let me introduce 4 songs first.

The second song is "That Girl".

The Chinese translation should be "That Girl", and a more naughty translation would be "That Ni'er" or "That Niu'er".

The song released by British male singer Olly Morse in 2016 once topped the British charts. It was also very popular in China and even became the most popular English song at a certain period.

This song can be considered a pop rock song, with a bright melody and beautiful vocals. It sounds like an irrepressible sadness. The lyrics are about regretting and painful love songs after a breakup. It is also Cao Xuan's specialty and is essential for every album.

The third song "Unstoppable".

The Chinese translation is called "Unstoppable". It is a rock song with a very passionate rhythm. It was released in 2016 and served as the NBA theme song for one season.

The lyrics of this song are very passionate and inspiring, and the singing is also very explosive. Cao Xuan wanted to copy it during the Olympics, but later he kept it.

It is worth mentioning that the experience of this song is very interesting. Singer Sia Fuller, also known as Sia, wrote this song. It was originally intended to be sung for Adele, but it turned out that she was not interested and gave it to Fruit. Sister, I was also rejected.

I had no choice but to sing it by myself, but it became a hit as soon as I sang it.

Although the results on the list are not particularly eye-catching, it is extremely popular in the field of streaming media and even has high popularity around the world. It can be regarded as a mistake.

It is worth mentioning that both Shia and the aforementioned Duanmei are very talented singers. Each of them has several masterpieces, but they are more or less homogeneous, so there is no big selection. Choose the best.

The fourth song "Dusk Till Dawn"

The Chinese translation is called "From Dusk and Dawn". It is a very healing song. The melody is warm and gentle, giving people a sense of peace and calm.

Released in 2017, it has reached the top ten in music charts in more than 20 countries, reaching the top in six countries. It is not well-known in China, but has many loyal fans.

The fifth song "promise" or "Past Lives".

This song is considered a niche song compared to the ones above, but it is actually quite popular and contains a lot of edited BGM.

Known as a healing song, your ears can get pregnant when you hear it. The melody is fresh and beautiful, and the singer sings it softly, making people feel like bathing in the sunshine in the morning.

Although Cao Xuan only wants to be the big one in the end, in fact, when he chooses songs, although he will consider the factors of popularity, he will occasionally be more willful.

Therefore, there will be a few relatively unpopular songs in the new album, but they are of extremely high quality.

For Cao Xuan, who is about to bid farewell to the music scene, although he wants to have a glorious ending, being able to receive some heartfelt praise and have his works be passed down for a long time is a temptation that he cannot refuse.

Therefore, in this album, although Cao Xuan inevitably added some fire songs, he will also add some songs that he personally likes and have excellent quality.

Of course, it is also because he has picked out too many songs that he likes and are popular and of high quality. There are not many songs that are still comprehensive, so he can only settle for the second best...

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