Super Tycoon

One day later, Zhang Yang flew to New York with his secretary Xiao Wang on a company plane.

On the plane, Zhang Yang drank black tea and looked at the documents in his hand, while the secretary Xiao Wang was also reading the documents.

This is the first time for Xiao Wang to discuss the acquisition of the company with the president. He will study hard and learn from his predecessor Sun Tengfei.

Of course, Xiao Wang is now the president's secretary, and his salary is not low. At his age, it is definitely rare to get this salary. Even in developed countries in Europe and America, he can be regarded as a high salary.

When reading the information, Xiao Wang was a little surprised that 3do, which had performed very well in the 32-bit machine war before, actually gave up the hardware business.

In other words, there is no second generation of 3do, and 3do game consoles will become history.

Although the company has licensed its gaming hardware technology to multiple electronics manufacturers, the combined sales will reach 20 million units. Compared with Sega's Saturn, it is of course much better, which didn't even reach 10 million units.

But compared to Zhi Duoxing g and Suni ps in the same period, they are much worse.

He remembered that he read a document, 3do company announced a plan called m2, which is to develop the second generation of 3do, which has 3D function and is also a 64-bit home game console.

At the beginning, the m2 plan was only to improve the graphics display capability, that is, to make the 32-bit 3do have 3D functions like PS.

Later, I found that doing so was too tasteless and I couldn’t make much money, so I decided to develop a second-generation machine. This plan was also proposed by Songxia, the main hardware manufacturer of 3do at that time.

It's a pity that Songxia's right to speak in 3do company is too low. After all, the CEO of 3do company is the former CEO of EA company, and also holds a lot of EA company stocks.

In other words, this CEO Hawkins actually represents the interests of EA, those software companies, the interests of the American shareholder camp, not their interests.

In a fit of rage, Songxia announced his withdrawal from 3do Company and sold the stock directly, which also caused the stock price of 3do Company to fall. From the peak of 47 US dollars, it fell to the current 17 US dollars, a drop of more than 15%.

Songxia's departure led to a rapid decline in 3do's hardware technology, Philips focused on cooperating with Nintendo on the n64, and 3do simply abolished the hardware department.

Lay off the original hardware technicians or simply package and sell it with its hardware subsidiaries. This matter started at the end of the previous year, reached its peak last year, and has been completely dealt with this year. starter

The company also officially changed its name to 3dos, and bought a game production company with more than 10 million US dollars from the sale of the hardware department. The company's representative work is called Might and Magic.

3dos company has now transformed into a company specializing in game development. They no longer only develop games on 3do models, but also authorize games to other companies, and also release PC versions, because the company's financial situation is not good. lack of money.

The more money they lack, the more they hope to sell more games to make money, so the company speeds up the release of games, but the quality of the games is insufficient.

They launched several generations of a game in a short period of time, causing each generation to fail to meet sales expectations. Even before some players understand the previous generation, a new generation appears. starter

This has caused a vicious circle again, that is, the more products are launched, the faster the word-of-mouth declines, and the worse the sales.

The worse the sales, the more financial problems the company will have, the more new games will be needed to stimulate the market and generate income, and the more the company will be urged to develop games faster.

However, they still have three series of games that perform well. One is Might and Magic, the other is Heroes, and the other is the self-developed Toy Soldiers.

It's a pity that Toy Soldier Wars is sold well in North America, but no one likes it in Europe and Asia. The style of painting is too strange.

Heroes of Might and Magic and Might and Magic are both produced by NWC, which was acquired by 3dos. The sales of these two series of games are not bad, but the release of Might and Magic is too fast. With the sixth generation performing well, the company It is too late to order them to launch the next generation immediately. It is impossible to make a new game masterpiece in just a few months.

At this time, Joe, the original founder of NWC, was unhappy. Whether it was Might and Magic or Heroes, he was the one who made the game structure, but he alone, how could he have so much energy to complete the next generation so quickly?

He sold the company and invested in the stock market, but he did not leave his job. He was still working for 3dos, but he felt more and more pressure.

So he found a peer, hoping to change jobs. Although the copyrights of Might and Magic and Heroes belong to the company, he is worth the high price of the other party.

The company he contacted was called Blizzard.

It was Allen of Blizzard who told Edson, and Edson told Zhang Yang, and Zhang Yang discovered the current situation of 3dos.

But after Xiao Wang read the information, he felt something was wrong: "President, do we really want to acquire 3dos?"

The company currently has a market value of 200 million US dollars, but it has a lot of debt, and its actual assets are not that much. With Zhiduoxing's funds, it is definitely no problem to buy it, but it is not worth it.

Before the company acquired Atari's game subsidiary, it took two years to settle those liabilities, dissolve the subsidiary, and retain valuable assets.

If we buy 3dos this time, I am afraid it will take three to five years to really make money, and there may be losses. He had the impression that the CEO was very shrewd and would not make such irrational investments, so why?

Zhang Yang looked at Xiao Wang: "What do you mean, 3dos is not worth our acquisition?"

"Yes, I don't think it's worth our acquisition. The shareholders of this company are all big companies, and they have the closest relationship with EA. The current game distribution mainly relies on EA's channels."

"The information also shows that the company's debt ratio is very high, and there are problems in the company's operations. At present, there are not a few hit games at all. The partners in the original game camp have also switched to other companies."

"When we acquire it, we will get a large amount of negative equity, which is not cost-effective. Although they also have some valuable assets, the burden is too large, and there is overlap with companies such as Blizzard."

"President, you must have a deeper purpose, right?"

Zhang Yang finally showed a smiling face, his cultivation of Xiao Wang was not in vain.

"That's right, the acquisition of 3dos company is completely a cover. I came this time mainly to meet two people. One is Joe, the founder of NWC, and the other is Larry Prost, the chairman of EA at this time."

"However, externally, we cannot let others know our purpose for the time being."

Cultivate the plank road in the open, and keep the warehouse in the dark!