Top of the big era

The project "Ziweixing Global" mainly does three things.

First, acquisition.

Within this year, MGM, Universal Pictures, Marvel, and DreamWorks Animation will be purchased, and these Hollywood film companies will be appropriately reorganized and become subsidiaries of Ziweixing Universal.

Second, management.

It will take two or three years for Ziweixing Global to operate healthily following the traditional Hollywood model. For example, Marvel wants to establish the Marvel Universe; for example, MGM wants to re-strategize it and strive to revive it; for example, DreamWorks Animation wants to push Katzenberg to return to his position as a producer and follow the lead head-on. Pixar fights.

Even Universal Pictures, which is currently developing extremely well.

The era of 3D blockbusters has arrived.

Universal Pictures has a super big brand "Jurassic Park", which needs to be launched as soon as possible to catch up with the first wave of 3D movie viewing bonuses brought by the release of "Avatar".

Third, transformation.

In the transformation from an entertainment empire to a content kingdom, it will gradually abandon traditional channels such as DVDs, TV stations, and on-demand stations, and replace them with Internet streaming media, defining the strategic outline of "theater + streaming media".

In other words, within a few years, Ziweixing Global will be a non-Internet-based traditional group company, which will make the equity distribution relatively simple.

Traditional companies do not need to allocate shares to management. They just need to pay them profit dividends in accordance with Hollywood practice.

Therefore, the cooperation between Zhou Buqi and Son Zhengyi is relatively simple.

Give 10% of the management shares to Zhou Buqi personally, and the remaining 90% of the shares will be equally distributed between the two parties according to the proportion of capital contribution. Masayoshi Son has long said that SoftBank can invest US$15 billion to US$20 billion.

After initial consultations, no consensus was reached on the plan.

Sun Zhengyi feels that he needs to do something big, spend more money, and be bold! Even if it exceeds the US$20 billion in SoftBank's budget, there is no problem, SoftBank can continue to add more.

Zhou Buqi almost died of anger.

My heart says that you really can stand up and talk without pain in your back. SoftBank’s money is investors’ money, so of course you are not afraid of losses. All my money came from loans. If I lost money, I would have to tear down the east wall to pay for the west wall. It would be a lot of trouble!

With Zhou Buqi's current financial resources, a mere loan of several billion dollars would not be a problem for him.

But his main assets are long-term value investments. If he sells off assets early to pay off debts, the losses will be too serious from a long-term perspective.

No rush anyway.

Now it has just launched the first step to acquire MGM for $2.5 billion.

First, SoftBank will advance the capital.

The follow-up project has been initially completed, and it won't be too late for Zhou Buqi to invest more funds. To build Ziweixing Global, it is a large amount of money to acquire many film companies, and it is also a large amount of money to inject capital into the company as working capital, which are both very important.

The personal matters between Zhou Buqi and Sun Zhengyi can be easily resolved behind closed doors without any rush.

What Son wanted to say was another thing, "Did you just go to Netflix?"

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Yes."

Masayoshi Son then asked: "I heard that you are a major shareholder of Netflix? Do you hold more than 30% of the shares?"

Zhou Buqi smiled, "Yes."

"Then what did you think about it?" Son Zhengyi said bluntly, looking at him with a burning gaze, "Ziweixing Global's content kingdom plan is aimed at Netflix?"

There's no way to hide this.

Zhou Buqi is so optimistic about the future of streaming media, and Son is a senior figure in the Internet industry. He can easily judge Zhou Buqi's business plan from his industrial plan.

"Indeed, I am very optimistic about Netflix's future."

"But, I didn't invest in Netflix."

"Um?"

Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows and heard the dissatisfaction in the other party's words.

Sun Zhengyi said calmly: "We have communicated before that in the era of the Internet, the entertainment industry will transform from channel to content. Whoever owns the content can create the most powerful channel. Netflix is ​​just a channel platform. If Ziweixing Global succeeds, what kind of platform cannot support it? Why should we support Netflix?"

In the final analysis, Netflix and Ziweixing Global are two companies.

The two companies do not have a strategic partnership in terms of shares, but they have the same "big boss" behind them. This may lead to strategic cooperation due to personal relationships.

This is easy to be criticized and will harm the interests of small shareholders.

Forget it if you are a small shareholder, SoftBank is the most important investment institution of MSI Global, and it is the major shareholder. Are the interests of major shareholders harmed by small shareholders? This really doesn't make sense.

Zhou Buqi coughed lightly, "I think Netflix and Ziweixing Global can be open and transparent even if they cooperate."

Son Zhengyi shook his head and remained silent.

This is pure bullshit.

It is impossible for related transactions to be free from tricks.

Zhou Buqi knew that he was being ignored and suggested: "How about... why don't you try and see if you can buy some shares of Netflix? Now that Netflix is ​​being criticized by Wall Street, you should be able to buy a lot of shares, right? "

Son doesn’t think this is a good idea, “It’s boring to come and go less.”

Netflix is ​​a listed company. 40% of the stock is in the hands of various investment institutions, 30% of the stock is in the hands of Zhou Buqi, 20% of the stock is in the hands of the management, and 10% of the stock is in the hands of small retail investors. in hand.

Where else can I buy stocks?

Even if he could buy some, it would only be on a small scale, not large enough to satisfy his appetite.

Zhou Buqi didn't believe it and stared at him, "I'm sure you must be secretly buying Netflix!"

Son Zhengyi waved his hand, "Even if you can buy it, it's only for a few points."

Zhou Buqi had been dealing with him for a long time and knew that he was an old fox. He seemed to have realized something, "Do you have any ideas?"

Son Zhengyi laughed.

Zhou Buqi said angrily: "What on earth is it?!"

Son Zhengyi asked: "What is your positioning of Ziweixing Global?"

"Content!"

"No, is this a traditional Hollywood company or an Internet company that makes movies?"

"Well……"

Zhou Buqi couldn't answer.

He has already left the show himself, and he will definitely not be a traditional film company.

Son Zhengyi said: "If you are doing the Internet, the result is doomed. The future development direction of Ziweixing Global must be streaming media! Ziweixing Global is going to launch its own streaming media platform! Content is king, whoever controls the content will He is the king! Netflix only has channels but no content, so why should it be tied to Netflix?"

"Depend on!"

Zhou Buqi wanted to curse.

Son Zhengyi smiled, "Am I right?"

Zhen Yu, who was standing next to him, helped explain, "Ziweixing is an Internet company. The reason why he did not lead Ziweixing to do streaming media business but invested in Netflix was because it was too difficult to do this. He thought that Netflix's team was very good. Cohesion, courage and planning.”

Sun Zhengyi disagreed, "Zhou, in my opinion, if Netflix can do it, you can do it even more. What's more, from a strategic perspective, Ziweixing Global has chosen a more direct and sharp development path. Without the support of content, Even if Netflix develops, it may collapse overnight.”

"Um."

Zhou Buqi nodded.

indeed so.

Netflix’s model is to develop channels first and content second. Just like building a house, you build the roof first and then the foundation, which caused Netflix to suffer several setbacks during its development.

Purple Star Universal is different. It builds the foundation first. If it successfully acquires Universal Pictures, MGM, DreamWorks and other companies, it will have a huge content library.

Build the foundation first and then slowly build up the building, which will make it more stable and safer.

Son Zhengyi smiled and said: "We have the same judgment. The streaming media model will gradually replace the traditional model in the future. Under the general trend, Hollywood must also change. Even if it is a few years late, they must keep up. I believe Many years from now, Hollywood content producers will gradually transition to streaming media."

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "What about Netflix? What do you think?"

This is the most important thing.

If MSI Global enters the market early to become a streaming media platform, it will be a competitor with Netflix. This is not in Zhou Buqi's interests. Isn't this the left hand fighting the right hand?

Son Zhengyi said: "I don't think there is a contradiction."

"Um?"

"The power of tradition is very powerful. I believe that even if streaming media has become the general trend, a large number of people still stick to the traditional model, renting discs, buying DVDs, or subscribing to cable TV. This is a super big market, and no one can monopoly."

"You mean coexistence?"

"Why not?" Sun Zhengyi had obviously planned everything long ago, and a set of data blurted out, "American families pay an average of 87 US dollars per month for their own TV channel packages, and in California, it is as high as 112 US dollars. Taken together, the annual expenditure on TV exceeds US$1,000. How much is Netflix’s subscription? It is only US$7.99 per month and US$100 per year. If streaming media is to completely replace TV, at least 10 Netflixs will be needed to absorb this amount. A large annual fee. Of course, the premise is that Netflix can survive the streaming media wave and gradually become stronger and become an industry giant."

Zhou Buqi felt that what he said made sense.

This is still a TV station!

Don’t forget, the emergence of streaming media will not only crowd out TV stations, but also eliminate the DVD rental and sales business, which is another huge savings in budget expenditure.

Although there is no statistics on this amount of money, it is not much less than subscribing to a TV channel. Even if the average household is $500 per year, that adds up to $1,500 in household expenses.

The one-year subscription fee for Netflix is ​​only US$100, which is far from being able to absorb such a large amount of household expenditure on entertainment content.

This means that many streaming media giant platforms are allowed to emerge in the US market.

Just like the four major television networks NBC, ABC, CBS, and FOX coexist, and many cable TV stations such as AMC, HBO, and Starz are advancing hand in hand.

However, Zhou Buqi still wanted to curse.

Depend on!

He figured it all out!

Why is it so difficult to take advantage of a business tycoon of this level?