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This is a very important thing.

After returning, Zhou Buqi called Zhen Yu and held a video conference with Xu Baihui and Shi Jingmei to talk about the matter.

The opinions are very unified.

Regardless of whether Disney's acquisition of Marvel is successful or not, Zhou Buqi should retain his 20% stake in Marvel and hold the right to speak.

Disney is an entertainment empire with a complex, rich and vast entertainment ecosystem. If Marvel is swallowed up by Disney, it will end up like DC, completely in the hands of the giant.

If outsiders want to participate, it may be impossible.

Retaining 20% ​​of the shares is not for dividends or long-term investment wealth growth, but to have the right to speak for the thousands of Marvel superheroes. It will promote cooperation with Marvel in many businesses in the future.

Of course, the best outcome would be to block the Disney-Marvel deal.

Disney is too powerful.

Just like the ESPN channel.

Disney only owns 80% of this sports TV station. However, ESPN has been completely controlled by Disney. The 20% of small shareholders have completely lost control and can only share the wealth dividends.

Zhou Buqi must prevent the existence of this risk.

It would be in his best interests if Marvel did not merge with Disney and remained an independent operation. The weaker Marvel is, the more complex its share structure is, and the easier it is to make profits randomly.

In the video conference, Xu Baihui said with a smile: "Boss Zhou, you still lack this little money. Since you value Marvel so much, wouldn't it be enough just to buy out the remaining 80% of the shares? How do you want to arrange it? How to arrange it."

"Okay, stop talking nonsense, it's weird. I'm offline. I won't disturb your sleep."

Zhou Buqi ended the video call.

If possible, buying Marvel is of course the best choice. In the next dozen years, the Marvel Universe will dominate Hollywood, and the investment can be earned back from the box office revenue of the movie alone.

But this is impossible.

Superheroes are the life-long efforts of cartoonists and their lifetime efforts to create them. Unless they are destitute and unable to make a living, it is difficult to sell them to a foreigner.

Well, Son can!

He is american.

Regardless of whether it works or not, you have to give it a try.

Now, there is still huge controversy within Disney. More directors and executives do not approve of the deal, believing that Marvel's superheroes will destroy Disney's brand and values.

So hurry up and work.

Once Robert Iger and Jobs joined forces to defeat the opposition one by one and proceed to promote this blockbuster acquisition, with Disney's strong financial resources and brand, it was almost impossible for Marvel's board of directors to stop it.

I thought that when I came to the United States, I was going to fight with Senior Sister Zhen Yu and try to win her over.

Unexpectedly, the storm broke out again.

Zhou Buqi couldn't sit idly by and had to work quickly. He immediately called Sun Zhengyi: "What do you think of the entertainment industry?"

"It's very good. It has great potential."

"There is a case recently. It is very important. It is a hundred times better than the MGM you are interested in."

"Yeah?"

Son seemed to be taking a nap, and his voice sounded a little tired. Hearing these words, he felt refreshed.

Zhou Buqi said: "I'm in Silicon Valley, where are you? This matter... is still in the confidentiality stage. Let's meet and talk about your acquisition of communications operator Spint."

Son was even more interested, "Oh? Are you also interested in Sprint?"

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "No, just the opposite."

"Um……"

"I think there should be more focus."

"That doesn't convince me."

"Let's meet and talk."

"I'll make arrangements to go to Silicon Valley in the next two days. I'm in Seattle."

Zhou Buqi is already very confident in handling Sun Zhengyi. He must draw a big pie. The bigger the pie, the more he likes it.

Moreover, in his previous life, he once wanted to focus on the entertainment industry, but after trying it again and again, he found that there was no opportunity to break in, so he regretfully quit.

This is the same as many large domestic companies.

When the domestic film industry was experiencing explosive growth, many large domestic companies initiated acquisitions of Hollywood film companies, including Wanda, Alibaba, LeTV and other companies.

However, after a huge premium, they didn't sell it at all. The most typical example is Wanda's acquisition of 49% of Paramount's shares. It was originally negotiated with Paramount's management. Paramount's market value at the time was only US$4 billion, but Wanda said it was willing to pay US$4 billion to buy it. 49% of the shares.

Management was happy and felt it was in Paramount's interests.

Presented to the board of directors of parent company Viacom, the volcano erupted. After some internal fighting within the Redstone family over family property, they rejected Wanda's acquisition and even fired Paramount's senior executives.

The pattern of the six Hollywood giants has been fixed, and the pattern of content being king in the entertainment industry has also been determined, so it is unlikely to change.

It's 2009, it's still early.

The impact of the Internet on Hollywood is not obvious. Streaming media has not yet killed everyone. The entertainment industry is still based on the concept that channel is king. That's why General Electric is willing to sell 51% of NBCUniversal's shares to Comcast, because Comcast has the most complete and powerful channels.

Now is the lowest point in the entertainment industry and the best time to enter.

In a few years, it won’t be possible to enter the market even if you want to.

"It's relatively reliable to cooperate with Son Zhengyi, and there will be no resistance if he comes to Hollywood to buy things." Seeing Senior Sister Zhen Yu's frown, Zhou Buqi explained to her with a smile.

Zhen Yu said softly: "You always told us before that we can't place our hopes on others."

Zhou Buqi stood up, stretched, and said helplessly: "What are you relying on? Do you really think Sun Zhengyi can listen to me? He has a good idea. The most I can do is make some suggestions. They are eyeing Fox. Well-known giant companies like Universal, Paramount, and MGM don’t care about third-tier brands like Marvel at all.”

"What should we do?"

"We have to try, um... we have to find a way to block Disney's idea of ​​Marvel first."

“Then you have to start with Steve Jobs and Robert Iger.”

Zhen Yu was helpless.

One is a famous Silicon Valley business genius, and the other is the chairman of the board of directors of Disney. As outsiders, how can we change their minds?

Zhou Buqi said: "I believe there must be a quarrel within Disney now. Marvel's tone is completely inconsistent with Disney. More importantly, Marvel's hottest brand is "Spider-Man", and then "X-War" Police", both of which are not in the hands of Marvel."

Zhen Yu blinked, "Where's "Iron Man"?"

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "Iron Man was quite successful, but the subsequent "Hulk" suffered a loss, so it was smoothed over. Whether Marvel can develop on the road of movies like DC is still unknown. . I see things from the perspective of the Internet, so I can tell that Marvel’s future is very bright.”

Zhen Yu pursed her lips and said with a smile: "Then I would like to ask Boss Zhou, why from the perspective of the Internet, Marvel has a bright future?"

"Because the nature of the Internet is peer-to-peer."

"More details?"

"Internet services are actually about eliminating intermediaries. Just like e-commerce, you need to remove the multi-level dealers in the middle, which can reduce costs; just like communications, you can remove operators and eliminate SMS service fees."

Zhen Yu asked: "The same goes for movies? Do we want to eliminate middlemen?"

Zhou Buqi said: "From a longer-term perspective, this is certain. In today's movies, channels are king. What is channel king? Whoever owns the channels is the giant. Excellent Hollywood film companies are so Why are there only six giants? The fundamental reason is that these six giants own distribution companies, and they control the channels for film distribution."

Zhen Yu nodded and said softly, "MGM was the largest film studio in Hollywood back then. Now it has fallen into decline because MGM sold the distribution company twenty years ago."

"Yes, that's what it means. Companies like Lucasfilm and DreamWorks, including Pixar and Blue Sky Animation, all rely on the six giants because they don't control the channels."

"This is Marvel's destiny too."

"But the Internet is different." Zhou Buqi's words gave him hope again. "Channels are intermediaries, and the Internet removes intermediaries. In other words, the Internet is the only intermediary in industrial transformation. And the Internet is different from traditional middlemen. The difference is that the Internet has set standards since its birth, and all products must be treated fairly and fairly. We cannot be like movie companies, which only release their own movies and reject all disobedient movies."

Zhen Yu nodded lightly, "Yes, the Internet is changing all walks of life. Helo may change the communications industry, and of course it can also change the film industry."

Zhou Buqi said: "The Netflix model represents the future. Streaming media is the most important platform for watching film and television content in the future. Streaming media is about removing channels. It will change the concept of the entertainment industry, from channels to content." Transformation for the King.”

"Content is king..." Zhen Yu suddenly realized, "According to this idea, Marvel really can't be sold. Now Marvel only has content and no channels. Even if it wants to sell it, it won't be able to sell it at a high price. But we can wait for entertainment in the future The industry has become content-oriented, and Marvel has thousands of superheroes, which is a huge content library."

Whether the movie is shot well or not depends on the details and the "tactics".

The transformation from channel as king to content as king is “strategy”.

Strategy determines life and death, and tactics determine whether you win more or less.

Just like entertainment companies ten years from now, as long as the strategic direction is right and the focus shifts from channels to content, even if the films produced are bad movies and TV series, they can still make huge profits in the capital market.

Zhen Yu understood immediately.

No wonder Boss Zhou attaches so much importance to Marvel.

In the words of the Internet - if you stand on the wind, even a pig can fly.

If a movie wants to fly, it should be made into a "bird" so that it can spread its wings and soar. However, what should I do if the movie fails and it turns out to be "Pig"? It doesn't matter, as long as you find the right outlet, pigs can fly too.

In other words, even if Marvel's next movies fail, it will only be a tactical failure. If it doesn't work once, just a few times will be fine. This does not affect the strategy.

This means that if you sell Marvel now, you will definitely lose money!

Then, Zhen Yu thought of something again, and looked at Boss Zhou with complicated eyes, "Well... Boss Zhou, you have a deep understanding of the Internet and entertainment industry, so you can see the potential value of Marvel." . But what about Steve Jobs? He founded Pixar back then. Like you, he is proficient in both the Internet and the entertainment industry. Do you think he thinks the same way?"

"Well……"

Zhou Buqi's expression froze.