Conquer America, Start with a Boxing Champion

After training ended in the afternoon, Link drove back to the Bay Villa.

Last time he and Ivaca discussed buying another large manor-style villa.

At present, the villa has been decided. The location is in the mid-level area of ​​Santa Monica, close to the mountains and the sea. The environment and public security are very good.

The villa was built in the early 1970s. It was originally one of the properties owned by the Paul Getty family, the world's richest man in the 1960s. It is not far from the Getty Art Center and is also a famous mansion in Los Angeles.

The total area is about 1.6 hectares, the living area is more than 6,800 square feet, and the price is US$48 million.

The villa is currently being renovated and is expected to be ready for moving into a new home next year.

When she got home, Ivaca was sitting on the sofa reading documents. She needed to rest because of her pregnancy. She usually didn't stay at the company for too long, so she took a lot of work home to do.

"Read less of the documents! Leave the work to Steven Bix and the others. Otherwise, you can come to me. You need more rest during pregnancy."

Link put down his training backpack and leaned over from behind the sofa to kiss her cheek.

"I just looked at the company's weekly report and didn't do anything troublesome. It's because you are too worried."

Ivaca said.

"What work does the company have this week?"

Link sat down next to him, picked up a green apple and took a bite.

"A lot. "The Hunger Games" has been filmed and is in post-production, and is expected to be released in the summer. "Doomed" has a box office of 380,000 US dollars in North America this week, with a total of 27.23 million US dollars, and an overseas box office of about 1.42 million US dollars, with a total of about 48 million. This The movie made almost 20 million in profit.

And "The Vow" has started casting. The production department thought you were also suitable for the male lead and asked if you were interested? "

Ivaca asked, putting down the folder.

"No, my salary is relatively high. If you ask me to act, it will increase the cost. Also, I am a famous playboy. If you ask me to play a very affectionate role, the audience will be entertained."

Link sat back on the sofa and crossed his legs.

Ivaca smiled slightly and did not persuade him to take this role.

Judging from Link's current identity and influence, this type of role does not add much to his fame, and it is a waste of time to play. But for Link, every second is valuable.

"One more thing. After we gave up the acquisition of Summit Entertainment, Ryan Kavanaugh was preparing to acquire Summit Entertainment. It is said that they are currently raising funds. The media's evaluation of this matter is that if the merger of Relativity Pictures and Summit Entertainment is successful, the market value It will have the opportunity to surpass Lionsgate and become the eighth largest in Hollywood. In the future, the independent film industry will be tied with Lionsgate, Relativity Summit and Weinstein Films.”

Ivaca said.

In Hollywood, the six major studios are Disney, Warner, Universal, Paramount, Fox, and Sony. Counting Sony's Columbia Pictures, these are the seven major studios.

After Lionsgate went public, its market value once exceeded 1 billion, and it was also known as the eighth largest company in Hollywood.

Now that Lionsgate Pictures has delisted, its market value has shrunk, its influence in the film industry has declined, and its eighth-largest position is also in jeopardy.

If Relativity, worth 200-300 million yuan, merges with Summit Entertainment, worth more than 400 million yuan, its market value will indeed be no worse than Lionsgate, and its production capabilities will also be enhanced. It will indeed bring Lionsgate Pictures’ status in the field of independent production. There were a lot of threats.

But Link is not worried. For a movie company, no matter how big or small, the most important thing is to be able to produce blockbuster movies every year and make money from the movies.

With more profits, we will have the funds to make more and better movies and continue to make big money. This is an industry chain. When movies cannot make money, no matter how big the company is, it will be at a disadvantage in the market competition.

Several movies invested by Lionsgate this year are good. As long as nothing unexpected happens, the company will make a lot of profits next year.

Relativity Pictures, on the other hand, is a younger film company than Lionsgate, with a market value of 200 million to 300 million, and produces about ten films a year, which is less than half of Lionsgate.

Although it has done well in recent years, the company's foundation is poor and it does not have the support of Lionsgate's strong film library. Every year it makes movies, it relies on Kavanaugh's bragging to attract investment, which leads to more and more creditors of Relativity Pictures.

It is said that there are currently four to five hundred creditors of Relativity Pictures. There are too many creditors and the promised dividends cannot be paid in time. This is also one of the reasons for the thunder of Relativity Pictures.

If Relativity wants to acquire Summit Entertainment, which is larger than itself, it will need to raise more funds and attract more creditors, which will be a huge debt for Relativity Pictures.

This situation is similar to a poor man who is heavily in debt and borrows money to marry his wife.

Not to mention whether the shareholders behind Summit Entertainment agree or not, even if they agree, the cooperation between the two parties will not be so smooth.

It will take at least two to three years, or even longer, for the two companies to get through the running-in period and enter a period of stable development.

At that time, Lionsgate Pictures had probably already entered a period of rapid development, and there was no need to worry about the two companies joining forces.

In fact, Lionsgate's goals and opponents from beginning to end have been the six major film companies. In the field of independent production, including Weinstein Pictures, Summit Entertainment, Legendary Pictures, etc., they are not opponents that need to be worried for the time being.

"Don't worry about Summit Entertainment and Relativity. In the next five years, Lionsgate's focus will be on developing its existing film projects, making more money, and accumulating abundant capital. As long as there is enough money, our acquisition targets Not only a small film company like Summit Entertainment can reverse-purchase the big six and become a leader in the film industry."

Link said while chewing on the apple.

Ivaca raised the corners of her lips and looked at him with a doting look on her face, "Is our goal so big?"

"If you aim high, you will have the motivation to move forward, and you will not be easily complacent. We must learn from Mr. Tompu on this point. He is indeed a good role model."

Link said.

Ivaca smiled slightly, leaned over and kissed him.

He took the document and continued to read the company's weekly report to him.

Including the latest progress of various film projects under the production department, the progress of several films, the filming situation of TV series, the distribution department's report on the box office situation of released films, box office data decline and analysis.

There are also reports and analyzes from the International Department on overseas box office, as well as work reports from the Finance Department, Development Planning Department, Content Development Department and other departments.

"Wait! In the previous article, the Development and Planning Department proposed to acquire shares in Netflix? Is it the Netflix where Scott Stuber works next door?"

Link asked confused.

"Yes, this is the newly submitted plan by Vice President Michael Burns. In July, Netflix began to charge video website users. Each member needs to pay a monthly subscription fee of US$10. This move directly resulted in more than 1.2 million Fixed users are abandoning Netflix and moving to other free movie and video websites.

Netflix's stock also fell from a high of 54 yuan in July to 8 US dollars, and its market value also dropped from a high of 16.3 billion US dollars at the beginning of the year to about 3.2 billion US dollars.

Vice President Burns believes that charging for video content is the development trend of video websites in the future. Netflix is ​​currently taking the first step. Although it will be abandoned by a large number of customers in a short period of time, in the long run, this step is the right one.

In addition, Netflix Technology Company has a large number of film and television resources, which are richer in content than other video websites. This is Netflix’s advantage. For users who like to watch movies, they will not leave easily even if Netflix charges. Users who left before will continue to work elsewhere in the future. After the video website charges, it will return to Netflix.

Vice President Burns believes that the current stock price of Netflix is ​​far lower than the asset value, which is a good time for acquisition. If Lionsgate Pictures can acquire Netflix or part of its shares, it will be beneficial to the development of Lionsgate Pictures and can make up for it. Lionsgate’s shortcomings in distribution capabilities.

It’s just that Burns’ plan was bold and risky, and the company’s current situation did not support it, so this plan was not passed at the working meeting. "

Ivaca said.

Link was a little surprised after hearing this. He didn't expect that the company had such a visionary senior executive as Burns.

Burns is right to say that charging for video websites is a trend. If video websites want to be profitable, they cannot be free forever.

In a few years, free video websites will almost disappear, and paid websites will start to harvest leeks like crazy. Once you become a VIP user, you can watch all the videos on the website. Later, you need to become a super VIP or super super VIP to watch.

It is also because of this situation that free video content such as short videos, Douyin Kuaishou, live broadcasts, short plays, etc. will become popular in the future.

If netizens can watch movies and TV series with higher quality content online for free, there will undoubtedly be many fewer people choosing to watch free content such as short videos.

Now in 2011, Netflix has taken the first step. After Netflix’s success, other video websites will definitely follow suit.

Link had also paid attention to the technology company Netflix in the past. When he invested in Twitter in 2009, he bought many technology stocks through Ms. Cathie Wood, including Netflix.

At that time, Netflix's market value was more than 10 billion. He wanted to buy more but didn't have that much money. He only bought less than 100,000 shares, worth more than 10 million.

Later, he did not completely give up his plan to invest in Netflix.

He remembered that Netflix had a market value of more than 300 billion US dollars at its peak and was the leader in the film and television website industry. It was a good opportunity to start when the market value was between 20 and 30 billion US dollars.

But I didn't expect that Netflix would encounter such a big ups and downs this year, with its market value falling to more than 3 billion.

He discussed it with Ivaca, and then called Michael Burns to express his interest in acquiring Netflix. Now he needed to see the plan, and also asked someone to send him information related to the acquisition of Netflix. .

Michael Burns is an impatient person, so he personally drove over to explain to him the benefits of acquiring Netflix, the acquisition steps, and the return on investment.

After listening to his explanation, Link agreed to his acquisition plan.

I just don’t agree with the 5% share proposed by Burns, it’s too little.

He proposed to obtain at least 10% of the shares so that Lionsgate would have more say on Netflix's board of directors, making it easier for the two companies to cooperate in the future.

"Boss, based on Netflix's current stock price, the purchase price for 10% of the shares is more than 350 million. The company does not have that much money."

Michael Burns said, scratching his scalp.

Michael Burns is 45 years old. He graduated from Harvard University with a major in political science. After graduation, he worked as a civil servant in the city hall of Little Rock, Utah for several years. Later, he found it boring and resigned and found a new career.

He joined the newly established Lionsgate Pictures in 1999 and worked for more than ten years from the middle to the top. He became the vice president of Lionsgate, responsible for the company's development planning and business strategy. He is also a veteran of Lionsgate.

His work ability is pretty good and he participated in the listing of Lionsgate Pictures. He also participated in the acquisitions of Triangle Entertainment, Artisan Entertainment, Trimark Company, Debmar-Mercury Company, TV Guide Network, and the acquisition of MGM Pictures in 2009. The publishing company is an acquisition maniac.

After Link took over Lionsgate, he also proposed several acquisition plans, but none of them were approved because of the company's current poor financial situation.

Link had heard of him before, but he looked ordinary and was not very noticeable among the executives, so he didn't pay much attention to him. Today was the first time he had a private chat with him.

"Mike, you don't need to worry about the funding issue. What you need to do is to get as many Netflix shares as possible with the least amount of money. Like you, I am also optimistic about the value of Netflix."

Link said.

Michael Burns thought for a moment and proposed a suggestion to reduce borrowing but get more Netflix shares.

Lionsgate has a video website CinemaNow, which is a streaming video website that originally belonged to Trimark Distribution Company.

After Lionsgate spent 60 million US dollars to acquire Trimark Distribution Company in 2006, this website became one of Lionsgate's assets, with the broadcasting rights of many film and television resources under Lionsgate, and more than 1.2 million registered members, most of whom are horror movie enthusiasts.

The current market value is 180 million US dollars, which can help the company generate tens of millions of US dollars in revenue every year.

Netflix has also made an acquisition offer to Lionsgate, but the two sides did not reach an agreement on the price.

Burns proposed to use CinemaNow website resources to exchange some Netflix shares. Although CinemaNow also makes profits every year, it is not very competitive in the video website industry.

Now using this website in exchange for the opportunity to enter the Netflix board of directors is also a good deal.

Link thought about it and thought it was not bad. In the future, after charging, video websites will also enter the stage of mutual mergers and acquisitions. The competition is fierce and the big fish eat the small fish.

It will be difficult for CinemaNow to survive in the fierce competition with its size, and Lionsgate is a company that makes video content, not a video website.

Taking advantage of the current stage, it is still relatively valuable and exchanging for shares of Netflix, the industry leader, is indeed worth considering.

Link agreed with Burns' proposal and asked him to come up with a plan. He and Evaka will promote the passage of this plan at a working meeting next week.

"Okay, boss!"

Michael Burns didn't say much nonsense and got up and left.

When Link sent him out of the villa, he happened to see Scott Stuber and his wife walking their dogs on the road in front of the door. The two of them were walking a large group of dogs, which was very lively.

Link greeted him and asked Stuber about Netflix.

Stuber is the director of Netflix's film department and a small shareholder, holding about 2.3% of Netflix shares.

When he heard him ask about Netflix, Stuber said with a gloomy face that it was not optimistic.

After Netflix announced the charging, it was blocked by several big shorts in the stock market, causing the stock price to plummet. However, Stuber believed that Netflix's current difficulties were only temporary. As long as people like to watch movies, Netflix will not go bankrupt.

He also asked him not to listen to the rumors in the newspaper that Netflix was about to go bankrupt. Those were false news released by shorts to deceive shareholders to sell Netflix shares and suppress Netflix's stock price.

Link nodded in agreement and proposed a plan to invest in Netflix and ask for his opinion.

"What? You want to invest in Netflix? Are you going to buy more shares?"

After hearing his words, Scott Stuber's face suddenly changed.

"Yes, is there a problem?"

Link said doubtfully. Now Netflix's stock price has plummeted. As a billionaire, he is willing to invest in it, which can be regarded as helping Netflix, but Stuber doesn't seem to think so.

"Link, why do you want to invest in Netflix? Think about it again, this may not be a good idea."

Stuber frowned and said.

It's no wonder he is worried, just because Link's current reputation in the investment circle is very bad, and it is getting worse.

The reason is that he exchanged 16.5% of Twitter shares for 5.3% of Nvidia and part of Lionsgate shares in March and April.

Now Twitter's market value exceeds 10 billion US dollars, and 16% of Twitter shares are worth more than 1.6 billion.

After Link bought Nvidia shares, its stock price suffered a series of setbacks, from the original 14.8 billion to around 8.5 billion. 5.3% of Nvidia shares are worth less than 500 million. Lionsgate's market value plummeted after delisting, and that part of the shares shrunk even more, worth only 300 to 400 million.

The Wall Street Journal estimates that if Link had not sold Twitter shares in March and April, his current net worth would have exceeded 4 billion US dollars.

Just because he made a wrong decision, he lost nearly 1 billion. As Twitter's stock price continues to rise, Link's loss on this investment will be even greater, perhaps as high as tens of billions or hundreds of billions.

Because of this, Link went from being an investment genius last year to a 'Lin with no vision' and a 'Lin who only knows how to box'.

It is rumored that companies and shares favored by Link will go from bad to worse like Nvidia. Tesla is doing well now, but the good times will not last long.

Now that Link suddenly said he wanted to invest in Netflix, Stuber was a little panicked. Netflix was already in a bad situation, with its market value shrinking by 70%. If Link was optimistic about it, it would be even worse.

But he couldn't refuse.

Netflix was in a bad situation, and shareholders and stockholders were selling their shares. There were a large number of Netflix stocks waiting to be traded in the stock market.

Link was the capital side, and they couldn't refuse to invest. In addition, Link also proposed to replace it with the CinemaNow video website. This plan would be of great benefit to raising Netflix's stock price, and the board of directors would not refuse it.

"Haha, Link, although I don't quite agree with your investment vision, I think you made a very correct decision when it comes to investing in Netflix. On behalf of Netflix, I welcome you to invest."

Stubble forced a smile.

It’s not welcome. According to Link’s plan, there is a great chance of becoming Netflix’s major shareholder after investing in Netflix.

If he wants to continue as the head of the film department, he still needs Link's support.

From this perspective, Link’s investment in Netflix is ​​not bad.

"Thanks!"

Link didn't understand the reason for the other person's change of expression, and didn't delve into it. He chatted for a few words, and was about to go home and talk to Ivaca. But as soon as he raised his feet, he felt a feeling of stepping on dog shit under his feet.

Woof woof woof!

There was a cheerful barking of dogs in the distance.

——

After confirming the investment in Netflix, Lionsgate Pictures immediately negotiated with Netflix, led by Ivaca, and Michael Burns led the team to personally implement it. After several rounds of negotiations, the two parties finally reached an agreement.

Lionsgate Pictures invested CinemaNow and US$160 million in shares, acquiring 11.37% of Netflix's shares, becoming the third-ranked shareholder on Netflix's board of directors, second only to Pioneer Investment Management Group with 18.58% and BlackRock Investment with approximately 16.84%.

In order to further enhance Lionsgate Pictures’ voice in Netflix, he successively bought approximately 5.14% of Netflix shares through Golden Shell Investment.

Two consecutive transactions also caused Lionsgate Pictures' debt to increase to 340 million US dollars, and Link's personal debt increased again from 170 million to 320 million.

Since both Netflix and Lionsgate are large companies, the news of their cooperation has become a hot news in Hollywood and investment circles in October.

After the relevant news was reported, Wall Street expressed its disapproval of the cooperation between the two parties.

I believe that shortly after Link took over Lionsgate, he then took a stake in Netflix Technology, which had serious debt problems. This was undoubtedly a very bold move. If Netflix's stock price continues to fall, Lionsgate will face the risk of bankruptcy, and Link will also pass. A career of boxing to pay off debts.

The Los Angeles Times advised Link to focus on boxing and music career, and "don't dance at dances that you are not good at, as you may fall down easily."

Link didn't panic about this.

Netflix Technology Company is the leader in the streaming media service industry. Its market value exceeded US$100 billion in 2018 and became the number one in the industry. In 2020, due to the XG problem, its market value exceeded US$300 billion, surpassing Disney to become the world's highest market value film and television entertainment company.

After becoming Netflix's major shareholder, he can influence and even control the company through the board of directors, and work together for further cooperation between the two companies.

Netflix is ​​the world's largest online video rental service provider, with tens of millions of members around the world. Its weakness is its insufficient production capacity for film and television content. It needs to pay large copyright fees to other film and television production companies every year, resulting in reduced profits.

Lionsgate is the eighth largest film and television content producer in Hollywood. The cooperation between the two parties is a strong alliance. This cooperation can also further increase Lionsgate's voice in the film and television industry and Link's power in Hollywood.

But when talking about the issue of repaying debt, Ivaca reminded him not to forget that Link Music still has tens of millions in loans.

At the beginning of the year, Link Music spent US$150 million to acquire 16.8% of Spotify music streaming company, becoming the company's second largest corporate shareholder.

At that time, the loan was US$100 million. After two repayments, about US$30 million in debt was left.

Link didn't care after hearing this. Adding in the debt of 30 million, he and his company's debt was less than 700 million US dollars.

Currently, Golden Shell Investment owns 6.2% of Nvidia, 16.8% of Tesla, 5.14% of Netflix shares, and a small amount of shares of Amazon and other companies. Lionsgate Pictures owns 11.3% of Netflix shares, and Link Music Company owns 1ify shares. Worth more than three billion.

In the next five years, it will increase at least ten times, and in the next ten years, it will increase at least one hundred times, with a value of 400 to 500 billion.

It is worthwhile to bear the pressure and take on debt of 700 million now.

But he also understood what Eva meant. He invested too much this year and frequently borrowed debt to buy stocks. Eva was worried that there would be risks in developing too fast.

Link also felt that after experiencing the benefits of loans, he became addicted to borrowing money.

In order not to worry Eva, he also said that he would not risk making other investments before paying off the 700 million foreign debt.

Seeing that he listened to the advice, Ivaca felt relieved and let him rest on her lap to massage his head.