Top of the big era

In July, Zhou Buqi came to Silicon Valley.

Good news comes one after another.

The first thing is that the land approval for the home stadium of the San Jose Earthquakes has finally been approved. The city of San Jose was unwilling to lose such an iconic team and made great concessions, expressing its willingness to invest US$120 million to sponsor the construction of the team's home stadium.

The money is a bit small, but fortunately it is better than nothing.

Fortunately, the location of the designated land is relatively good. It is not in the city center, but it is in a large economic zone that is a key development area in the city's new planning. Looking at individual cities alone, San Jose is the largest city in the entire Greater Bay Area after San Francisco and is the true heart of Silicon Valley.

It is not an exaggeration to say that the Warriors settled in San Francisco and the Earthquakes settled in San Jose.

Americans play football differently.

Zhou Buqi is considered a business radical in Europe, and is leading the commercial reform of European football step by step. Coming to the United States was an eye-opener.

The San Jose Council approved a funding of US$120 million. Not counting this, the council also spent a huge urban planning fee of US$420 million to improve surrounding transportation, urban construction, docks, water and electricity and other facilities.

The reason for such a large investment is that the city has a very ambitious and grand business plan for the new stadium of the Earthquakes!

This is not building a stadium, this is building a commercial center!

That's right, the land allocated was planned in the name of a commercial center. Of course, the center of the stadium is a green field, but the stadium is so big and there is so much usable space. There is no need to waste it and turn it all into a commercial project for rent!

Just like a department store, the new stadium will be cut up and planned, and then enough businesses will be introduced to start doing business here.

After fans come to the home stadium, they can go shopping, shop, eat, fall in love, go to bars, drink, play billiards...

Zhou Buqi was shocked when he saw this building plan.

This is thoroughly American thinking.

How can you have any faith in football?

Totally a tool!

It's business.

Make good use of the market effect of football and give full play to the local economy. A football game is like a big party. Winning or losing is not important. What is important is that the family can spend a pleasant weekend at the stadium.

It's a way of life.

Just like many families take their children to watch movies in the cinema during the weekend. This kind of movie is called a "family fun" movie in the industry. The purpose of making such movies is to bring joy to the whole family during family gatherings, and there are no unnecessary expressions at all.

Football and basketball can also be family fun.

The difference is that the venue for family fun has been changed from a movie theater to a stadium.

Santoku is a pure businessman and feels that playing football in the United States will make him more comfortable. He believes that such a sports plan is more in line with the market economy. "The construction fund of 120 million US dollars is definitely not enough. If you want to build a 4 A stadium with a capacity of 10,000 people must also have the carrying properties of a commercial center, and it will require an investment of at least US$400 million to US$500 million.”

"Such a big sum of money?"

Zhou Buqi frowned slightly, feeling a little embarrassed.

He will support such a design from the bottom of his heart.

Even though he is a loyal football fan, he never exalts football too much. Football is football, it is a tool that brings happiness to people. Happiness is the ultimate goal, rather than putting the cart before the horse and putting football in a higher position than happiness.

This set of plans planned by the San Jose City Hall can be said to have greatly reduced the value of football, using football as a tool.

But from a business perspective, this is right.

There is actually no difference between football, basketball, rugby, music, movies, and online novels. They are all tools that bring happiness to people, and they should not have higher value demands. They are just thousands of human inventions. Millions of ways to find happiness.

The purpose is to find happiness.

In the process of finding happiness, consumption is generated and the economy is driven.

He can actually understand this set of American thinking.

At least do as the Romans do.

In the UK, people accept the British way, but in the United States, they respect the American way.

But now there is a problem. If you want to carry out such a large commercial real estate project... the investment will be too large. If you just build a stadium, it actually doesn't cost much. For a stadium with 40,000 people, US$200 million is enough to build a continental-class stadium.

But for large commercial projects, this costs a lot of money.

Zhou Buqi is currently financially strapped.

San Dezi smiled and said, "You can go for financing."

Zhou Buqi was slightly startled, "Financing?"

Santoku said: "Yes, financing. The United States is a financial country, and all projects can be financed. If an artist wants to paint a painting and has no funds, he can raise funds; if a musician wants to write a song, if he lacks funds, Financing can also be done if you have money. It’s similar to Ziweixing’s financing. It can also be divided into equity financing and debt financing, depending on what the financier prefers.”

Zhou Buqi understood now, "You mean to treat the Earthquakes' home stadium as a real estate project and raise funds? Dilute the equity and start financing?"

San Dezi said with a smile: "Yes, equity financing is the best solution. Those big projects in Manhattan are all done by more than a dozen partnerships, and the investments are all completed by financing in the market. And we are here It is a commercial real estate, so we can attract investment first. If the investment goes well, maybe... maybe we will have earned US$1 billion before the stadium is even built."

This is completely treating real estate projects as financial products.

No matter how this home project develops in the future, let’s draw a big picture first!

Draw out the pie and attract others to invest.

Then as a "painter", you can pocket your future income in advance. As for what the future will develop into, God knows! If it develops well, everyone is happy, but if it develops poorly...investment is risky, so you must be cautious when entering the market. If you lose money in your own investment, you can't blame others!

Zhou Buqi had seen the big scene.

He feels that he is radical enough in the field of European football. Compared with the sports model in the United States, there is really a big gap.

The United States is really having too much fun here.

So much so that Zhou Buqi was a little unsure, "Do you think it's okay?"

San Dezi was full of confidence, "I think it will work!"

Zhou Buqi does not dare to make rash decisions.

San Dezi suggested: "We are not professionals. We can find a professional company engaged in similar real estate projects to operate this project. There is always a bottom line that we can stick to, and we will not lose money no matter what."

Zhou Buqi asked: "What's the bottom line?"

San Dezi curled his lips and said very irresponsibly: "We only sell the Earthquakes brand and give a name to invest in the home field. As for money, we won't pay a penny. If you are short of money, go to the city government for approval. , find financing in the market, in short we don’t pay a penny! If the project is completed, we get the greatest benefit. If the project is not completed, we will not lose anything. It is nothing more than the failure of the government’s planning and creating a big unfinished project. project."

This guy is an investment manager from Wall Street.

Cruel and ruthless.

Show no mercy!

…

They were also doing transactions, and the two transactions operated by Lu Qi seemed very smooth.

He is handling two transactions that are of great concern to Boss Zhou.

There are already results.

The first one is Justin.tv’s gaming channel.

The game channel is the core and most important asset of the website Justin.tv. It was targeted by Ziweixing and sold for a total price of US$320 million.

On July 1 this year, Justin.tv's gaming channel was officially split into a video website specializing in gaming called "Twitch", which was operated independently as a 100% owned subsidiary of Ziweixing International.

The price of US$320 million is not low.

Cash acquisition is no longer possible.

The current available cash flow on Ziweixing International's account is only US$1.26 billion, and it can no longer make big moves. The transaction was completed with US$50 million in cash and US$270 million in Ziweixing International shares.

Another deal is with the gaming company Valve.

Valve is a well-known company, and its most famous game is of course "Counter-Strike". In order to promote the global online battle of "Counter-Strike", Valve launched its own game battle platform Steam.

It is this game platform Steam that Zhou Buqi is eyeing.

Ziweixing is planning to divest its gaming business.

On the one hand, it started selling the friend studio to EA, and on the other hand, it started selling the remaining core parts to Changyou.

In the gaming field, Ziweixing is no longer an athlete. It just needs to build a good platform and play the role of a referee. From the previous game video Twitch to this time the game battle platform Steam, this is the same idea.

The most popular game on Steam right now is of course the popular battle game "DOTA2", which is a game for Changyou.

Valve simply has no room for negotiation.

The existence of "DOTA2" is related to the life and death of Steam.

There are many similar battle platforms. Blizzard’s Battle.net has a great influence. Microsoft also has its own Xbox platform and has also entered the field of PC games.

Valve is just a small company and has no ability to compete with the giants.

Hugging Ziweixing's thigh is a chance to survive.

Therefore, this transaction did not encounter much resistance. The transaction amount was only US$160 million. This time it was a purely cash transaction.

After completing these two transactions, Ziweixing International has taken the first step in its transformation in the gaming field.

The second step is the friend's studio.

It's already July, the second half of the year.

Just as Zhou Buqi expected, two days after he arrived in Silicon Valley, Don Mattrick took the initiative to find him and actively reported the situation, "The negotiations between my friend's studio and EA have basically reached a consensus! "

"Oh? How much?"

"USD 1.87 billion, waiting for you to finalize."

"When?"

"It doesn't matter, you decide."

"good!"