Horrible! Actually playing this kind of game!

Chapter 468 372. Buy, buy, buy

…

1998 was a year of great changes.

It can even be described as erratic.

The first is the financial crisis that occurred in Southeast Asia last year, which triggered a major earthquake.

Last year, on July 2, 1997, the Asian financial crisis swept through Thailand.

Soon, the storm spread to Malaysia, Singapore, Neon and Bangzi countries, China and other places.

The currencies of countries such as Thailand, Indonesia, and other countries have depreciated sharply, which has also caused sharp declines in most major stock markets in Asia;

It has impacted foreign trade companies in various Asian countries, resulting in the collapse of many large Asian companies, unemployment of workers, and socioeconomic depression.

It broke the rapid economic development in Asia.

The economies of some of Asia's major economic powers have begun to slump, and the political situation in some countries has also begun to be chaotic.

Thailand, Indonesia and Indonesia are the countries most affected by the financial crisis.

Singapore, Malaysia, the Philippines and Xiangjiang, China were also affected, while mainland China and Taiwan, China were barely affected.

This major crisis event is called the Asian financial crisis.

The Japanese yen also began to depreciate from 96 yen per U.S. dollar last year, falling all the way. By the end of January this year, it had fallen below the 110-point mark.

If this momentum continues, it will soon exceed 120 points.

…

Troubled people will only get trapped in crises, but wise people have already seen opportunities in crises.

Especially for time travelers like Qing Zhiyuan, all crises that occur on this timeline will contain valuable business opportunities and can even change the future.

Qing Zhiyuan doesn’t have much memory of the Asian financial crisis because he was still a little kid back then. The only things that he remembers are:

The first thing is that many big short sellers in history have taken advantage of the situation. Especially after seeing the Asian financial crisis spread to Xiangjiang, China, countless international buyers have stepped aside and want to harvest the financial market of Xiangjiang, China.

To this end, Xiangjiang has introduced a series of policies, and the invisible hand is also providing support to Xiangjiang, starting a battle to defend the Xiangjiang stock market.

Many local residents even sold off their collections of gold jewelry and other items just to protect Xiangjiang.

In the end, the power of the great powers and the concerted efforts of the people repelled these foreign wolves. Many international speculators not only failed to eat meat in this battle of Xiangjiang, but also lost many teeth.

However, even if the tooth is broken, it can only be swallowed, so after that, the international speculators left the market sadly, and China Xiangjiang won a complete victory.

Qing Zhiyuan is quite impressed. The second thing is that after the devaluation of the yen, it seems that it has never recovered and has never regained 100 points. It will almost be stabilized at around 130 in the future.

Therefore, the top priority now is to spend the money on hand quickly while the depreciation of the yen is not that serious.

Fortunately, pokeni and Yuehe are actually not very pure local Neon companies. They are companies with subsidiaries and other assets in the Oumi region. Foreign income actually accounts for a high proportion of pokeni's income, even more than that of Neon local companies. The income is even higher.

These are all due to the globalization and internationalization route of P Club's games.

Therefore, compared to some companies that rely heavily on the local market and have relatively small foreign exchange reserves, pokeni is relatively less nervous.

Moreover, in addition to currency depreciation, the main impact of the Asian financial crisis is on the real industry. On the contrary, gaming companies like pokeni are the least affected.

However, even in the least affected industry, Qing Zhiyuan still has a sense of crisis. Pokeni still has money on hand. Taking advantage of the time when the depreciation of money is not so serious, it is the best way to convert the money into assets with potential. important.

In other words, in the first half of this year, Qing Zhiyuan’s main task for the company is-

Buy buy buy!

…

Apart from the Asian financial crisis, which is the most eye-catching event, if you look back to the Neon game industry, you will actually find that this year has been a year of great changes.

First of all, Rentendo’s annual revenue last year, 1997, was as high as US$4.3 billion, equivalent to more than 480 billion yen in revenue, ranking second in the neon game industry.

The first place is naturally the well-deserved Sony.

Sony's total global revenue is US$11.2 billion, of which revenue from games exceeds US$5 billion, making it the bulk of the company's revenue.

And the third one is a rising star in the gaming industry——

pokeni.

Although pokeni is not a listed company and does not have to disclose its financial reports, according to calculations and statistics from some professional companies, P's total revenue last year was about 2.8 to 3 billion U.S. dollars. It can be said to be the fastest growing game company. ,none of them.

From a purely numerical perspective, pokeni seems to be far behind Rentendo and Sony.

However, if you analyze their numerical composition, you will find a terrible fact——

In terms of game sales alone, pokeni is now firmly in the top spot in Neon and even the world.

In addition to game sales, a large part of Rentiantian's revenue structure comes from platform royalties, which is a 30% commission system. In other words, even if Rentiantian does not need to develop new games, it just relies on Various games released on SFC, FC and N64 console platforms can earn a considerable amount of revenue.

The same goes for Sony's $5 billion in revenue.

From the launch of PS in 1994 to now, global sales have exceeded 100 million copies. The revenue from the game console alone has reached a terrifying tens of billions of dollars. With the games sold on it, there are at least a few in a year. Yiben, if it doesn’t become the number one game company in terms of revenue, it would be unreasonable.

In addition, the two companies have other industries, so the combined income can be much higher than pokeni's income. This is very normal.

However, in terms of game sales alone, the total number of games sold by Rentendao last year was 25 million units, of which the Mario series accounted for a large proportion, followed by Dragon Quest, Zelda and Kirby...

What was the total number of pokeni games sold last year?

More than 49 million copies, almost double that of Rentian.

Among them, the Pokémon series alone has provided sales of more than 30 million copies. The other games combined are not as good as one Pokémon.

In fact, since 1996, pokeni has surpassed Rentendo in terms of game sales.

However, since P has never been listed and has not disclosed its income, the outside world's perception of this is not so clear and agile.

But this matter is an open secret in the industry.

Everyone knows that Pokeni's games are selling very well, and I'm afraid it has already surpassed Rentendo. However, I really don't know how much it is. I can only make an estimate based on market performance.

However, even the rough estimate is beyond the understanding of many people.

"What?! Pokeni sold nearly 50 million copies of the game last year?! Is it so scary?"

“This is just a market projection, and no one actually knows the specific figures.

But when you think about it, it seems quite reasonable.

Just for Pokémon Sun and Pokémon Moon, these two games have almost sold over 10 million copies each since their release, right?

Coupled with the later release of Pokémon Light/Dark...

Also The Witcher 2 and Borderlands.

Even though the sales of these games in Neon are not very high, especially Border has never been sold in Neon, they cannot resist the enthusiasm of Western players.

Coupled with other games developed by pokeni in the past, the sales volume contributed by it seems to be a bit low if it is only 50 million copies.

I feel that according to pokeni's own financial statistics, the number should be higher than what we see. "

"It's so scary. When did P Company become so scary? Why is this company so new in my impression?"

"Judging from the time of its establishment, pokeni is indeed a child. However, its growth rate is fast enough, and it has suddenly transformed into a behemoth."

"The main thing is that pokeni's games are so good, especially since it has a big IP like Pokémon that attracts money, it's hard not to make money."

"Ah, it's so abominable, so enviable, isn't it?"

…

Game sales revenue is part of Pokeni's other revenue components. The sale of peripheral products accounts for the majority, and peripheral revenue is not even less than game revenue.

Coupled with the previous contract signed by pokeni and Sony to jointly develop PS, P Club can actually enjoy a certain share of PS royalties, but the share ratio is relatively small.

After adding these revenues, according to the total financial report of P last year obtained by Qing Zhiyuan, they had a total revenue of close to 3.1 billion US dollars, which is still a lot less than Rentian Tiantang's 4.3 billion US dollars.

However, it is like a person who knows whether drinking water is cold or warm.

Even though pokeni's income is quite high, after excluding the company's expenses, there isn't much left.

First, a tax is deducted, and then the remaining part is mainly used to fill the company's operating and product marketing expenses.

The main reason is that P Club’s expenses are indeed large enough.

Employees' salaries, bonuses, and dividends are part of the company's rent, water and electricity, plus the research and development expenses of each game itself, the cost of disc printing, the operating expenses of subsidiaries, and the publicity expenses when the game is released...

The usual advertising expenses, as well as pokeni’s external investment...

It adds up to about seven, seven or eight.

In particular, the subsidiary P-NET is not only unprofitable, but also continues to suffer losses, and the amount of losses is also exaggerated.

Portal websites, official websites of various games, forums, RTT servers, networks, technology research and development... these are all very expensive things.

And the larger the user base, the more money it will cost.

So when Qing Zhiyuan saw the financial report compiled by the company's financial department later this year, he also frowned.

Revenue and expenditure figures are exaggerated.

After careful calculation, Pokeni still has about US$2 billion in cash.

Most of them are foreign exchange reserves, and part of the Japanese yen is constantly depreciating, which means that the cash on hand of P will continue to shrink in the next few months.

Spending it is the top priority.

…

Just when Qing Zhiyuan felt a headache, he received a call from the other side of the Atlantic.

The call came from Walter Forbes, Cendant's president.

The first sentence I spoke was: "Mr. Qing, regarding your desire to acquire our company's CUC software last year, if you haven't changed your mind and intention to acquire it, I would like to make an appointment with you to discuss related matters."

Yes, CUC software is what Qing Zhiyuan wanted to buy in July last year.

To be precise, what he really wants is just a small Blizzard under this huge industry.

“Also, the price is negotiable.”

The other party added another sentence.

Eh? !

Qing Zhiyuan was stunned for a moment and rolled his eyes.

Good guy, why did he suddenly become so sincere about selling Cendant Software after only a few months?

When something goes wrong, there must be a monster. On the one hand, Qing Zhiyuan agreed with the other party on a specific time for negotiation, and on the other hand, he also began to send people to investigate the inside information of their sale of Cendant Software.

…

After some investigation, Qing Zhiyuan finally learned:

It turns out that in October last year, CUC and HFS "merged equally" and a new company Cendant was born.

In other words, Blizzard now has a new grandpa.

HFS initially served as a vehicle for private equity firms to acquire hotel franchises.

From the day it was born, it was bought for buying.

After buying in the hotel market, he expanded to real estate, and finally hit it off with CUC and "merged as equals."

After the merger, Cendant established its consumer software business unit Cendant Software.

It consists of Sierra, D\u0026A (including Blizzard), Knowledge Adventure and Gryphon Software.

At this time, a familiar old friend appeared. The US FTC believed that the merger worth US$8.7 billion would create a monopoly in the global timeshare exchange service market, and therefore required the divestiture of this part of the assets.

And just in January this year, CUC's finances were in a crisis.

One of the world's biggest financial scandals of the 1990s broke out.

CUC was exposed for numerous accounting irregularities, and in the three years before the merger, CUC fraudulently overstated revenue by more than $500 million.

This caused Cendant's stock price to plummet from $39 to $9, causing shareholders to lose approximately $14 billion.

Cendant/CUC was ultimately required to pay more than $2.85 billion in class action settlements to shareholders.

CUC executives were sued by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, and many top managers were sentenced to up to 12 years in prison and ordered to pay billions of dollars in compensation.

Cendant began selling off various business units after the disaster to reduce debt and repair losses caused by the accounting scandal.

…

Although Forbes denied any knowledge of any accounting irregularities and wrong practices, the investigative committee found that Forbes and Hilton were responsible for what happened at CUC.

First, as chairman and president, Forbes and Hilton have a responsibility to create an environment where employees at all levels know that falsifying financial statements will not be tolerated.

In fact, employee interviews, memos and work plans indicate that many senior accounting and finance personnel were involved in accounting irregularities.

Although the employees in the business department saw that there were problems with these behaviors, they adopted a tacit attitude. This shows that CUC lacks a good environment to ensure the compliance of financial statements.

Second, even though they were unaware of the violations, senior management failed to conduct appropriate on-site controls and became aware of the violations.

Third, Forbes and Sheldon, as the company’s top managers, have the responsibility to understand the source and true level of CUC’s profits.

Even if they were unaware of the violation, the amount of CUC's inflated profits found in the restatement of the statements showed that they did not fully understand the source and level of the company's profits.

In other words, although Walter Forbes was not sentenced to prison, he had to bear important responsibilities.

In order to pay off debt and make enough money to pay shareholders, Cendant is now forced to sell off some parts of the company.

No wonder……

Qing Zhiyuan was also shocked after hearing the news.

Didn't this incident happen too suddenly?

Americans still know how to play, and they are really brave.

…

but……

Qing Zhiyuan did not go to meet with Walter Forbes first, but made private appointments with several founders of Blizzard.

Through Lao Mai, Qing Zhiyuan once again confirmed the authenticity of the news.

These guys were obviously a little panicked.

It's also interesting to say that since the first time the company was sold to D\u0026A, Blizzard's fate is no longer in its own hands, but has been packaged and sold as an accessory.

If it is acquired by another company this time, then the new company will be Blizzard's grandfather's grandfather.

The feeling that their fate was never in their own hands made several people quite uncomfortable.

"Rather than being sold to unfamiliar buyers who are not familiar with it at all, we would rather join the pokeni community." Mike told Qing Zhiyuan.

At least Qing Zhiyuan is someone who understands games, and after they acquired Vulture Company before, they did not interfere too much. They not only provided money, technology and channels, but also helped the game subsidiary get on track.

Such a parent company is actually very rare.

It is precisely because of this that Mike and the others hope that Qing Zhiyuan can make some efforts.

"Please, please pokeni buy Blizzard."

…

After being fully prepared, the negotiation between Qing Zhiyuan and Cendant became much smoother.

On the one hand, the company's financial crisis caused a huge crisis, and there was no way to fill the books, so Cendant's board of directors was eager to sell related assets.

On the other hand, Qing Zhiyuan has communicated with Blizzard and others before, and they have reached a certain intention of cooperation.

More importantly, Qing Zhiyuan has strong purchasing sincerity, and pokeni can indeed afford to pay.

Compared with the Blizzard of the previous life, the current Blizzard lacks Diablo, which means it lacks a large chunk of revenue. The only thing it can offer right now is Warcraft, and StarCraft didn't do much last year. earned money.

In addition, the development cycle of Blizzard people is slow,

For the company, they may not be good assets, they may even be negative assets, dragging down the company.

Therefore, Cendant's board of directors basically didn't think too much and directly asked Qing Zhiyuan to buy Blizzard for US$100 million.

…

…

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There is another chapter tonight

Regarding CUC, what is written in this chapter are all real events that happened in history. It was only after the financial scandal was exposed that Cendant sold the relevant departments at a low price.

In real history, after the CUC scandal, Cendant Software was sold to French publisher Havas in mid-1998 for US$800 million, with an additional US$200 million available depending on its performance.

Cendant Software was subsequently renamed Havas Interactive.

Blizzard was packaged and sold to pay off debts during this crisis.

In other words, Havas spent $1 billion to buy Cendant Software, which includes Blizzard, Sierra, and a host of game manufacturing and publishing companies.

Further on...

In 1998, Havas, which had a background in news agency, was acquired by Vivendi.

In 2001, Havas Interactive changed its name to Vivendi Global Interactive Publishing.

After Vivendi got Havas, it carried out crazy layoffs. Many employees at Sierra and Blizzard were laid off during this period.

In 2003, Vivendi reorganized it into Vivendi Games and became a direct department of the group.