Top of the big era

This trip to Israel was very successful. After Ziweixing Global completed its reorganization last year, it is possible that it will really take off this year.

The year started with two good starts.

It has successively acquired PrimeSense and Lucasfilm.

However, the cost is not small.

At the beginning of the establishment of Ziweixing Global, all parties raised a total of US$25 billion. It previously acquired MGM, Summit Entertainment, Marvel, "Spider-Man" related copyrights, DreamWorks Animation and Universal Pictures, spending a total of US$16.43 billion.

Among them, US$14.88 billion was paid in the form of cash, US$1.05 billion was paid in the form of debt, and US$500 million was paid in the form of stocks.

This is not over yet. This series of acquisitions will also bear additional expenses, with consulting fees and taxes totaling US$1.14 billion. After the acquisition is successful, business restructuring will be required. At present, this work is not over yet, and the budget has reached $650 million.

After this series of operations, Ziweixing Global still has US$8.33 billion in liquidity on its books.

The acquisition of PrimeSense and Lucasfilm this time will further compress cash flow.

After returning to Los Angeles, Ziweixing Global's budget summary for this year has been produced.

The biggest expenses are mainly two: new film projects and headquarters buildings.

This year Ziweixing Universal will launch 42 new film projects, including 34 from Universal Pictures, 2 from Marvel, 2 from MGM, 1 from Summit Entertainment, and 3 from DreamWorks Animation.

The total investment budget reaches US$2.97 billion.

Fortunately, there are also many benefits.

After the reorganization, Ziweixing Universal will definitely surpass Warner and become the most shining movie kingdom in the Hollywood box office market. It is expected that the total revenue based on the film business this year will reach 12.56 billion U.S. dollars, and the operating profit will reach 1.08 billion U.S. dollars.

However, the film market has changed too much.

Especially Hollywood commercial blockbusters have a huge impact on performance. Once a certain film fails, it may lead to a sharp plunge in performance at the end of the year. Similarly, if a certain blockbuster is a global hit, it may produce very impressive results at the end of the year.

As far as this budget report is concerned, Zhou Buqi doesn't believe it.

The profit for the whole year was only US$1.08 billion?

This is too petty!

DreamWorks Animation is now at its peak. This year's three animated films are all hits. It just so happens that the first animated film "Despicable Me" by Universal Pictures' Searchlight Animation Studio will be released this year.

The profits generated by these cartoons alone are probably more than 1.08 billion US dollars.

Not to mention this year's 3D blockbuster "Iron Man 2", which Zhou Buqi has high hopes for.

Well, I just don’t know how much revenue from movies released this year will be accounted for in this year’s revenue ledger when making financial budgets.

This kind of accounting is too complicated, and there are several systems.

Especially the film industry.

Movies are the best projects for money laundering, tax avoidance, tax evasion, and profit transfer. Hollywood has formed a complete set of detailed, complete and mature gray industry chains.

Many famous Hollywood blockbusters came from investment from international black money, such as the famous "The Wolf of Wall Street".

It's similar all over the world.

Ziweixing Global is not short of money, so don't participate in black money activities, but it is still necessary to avoid taxes legally and appropriately. Zhou Buqi didn't understand the twists and turns, so his confidant An Sanov came to help him.

A profit of US$1.08 billion is indeed very small.

But there is no need to make more profits.

Zhou Buqi only holds 10% of the shares of Ziweixing Global. Counting the 16% held by the Zhou family's family fund, the total is only 26%.

Converting "profit" into book profits belonging to the company means that only 26% of the book profits belong to Boss Zhou. Now that he has control, he can transfer the company's profits to his own pocket in a reasonable and reasonable manner. This means he gets 100% of the profits.

An Sanoff was Zhou Buqi’s specially hired assistant to the chairman, and he acted very loyally, “It’s not easy to do in other industries, but this is the consensus of the film industry, and it’s the same all over the world. Film companies rely on the film market. To make money, those who control movie projects rely on movies to make money, regardless of whether the movie makes a profit or a loss in the market."

Zhou Buqi understood what she meant as soon as he heard this, and waved his hand, "Don't do this! My business philosophy is to be clean and aboveboard. It's my money, and no one can take it away. It's not my money, I don’t want it even if you give it to me.”

Ann Sarnoff didn't believe it and tentatively said: "Zhou, the whole of Hollywood is like this. Do you know why Spielberg took DreamWorks to Disney?"

"ah?"

Zhou Buqi was stunned for a moment.

Jeffrey Katzenberg, chief creative officer of MSI Universal and president of DreamWorks Animation, has said many times that Paramount has no money to invest in DreamWorks, which has led to financial difficulties in DreamWorks' new film projects. , had no choice but to turn to Disney and seek financial help from Disney.

Ann Sarnoff shook her head, "DreamWorks' live-action film business has never made any money in the past ten years. Otherwise, Katzenberg wouldn't have the heart to spin off DreamWorks Animation."

"Never made any money?"

Zhou Buqi raised his eyebrows slightly.

This is surprising.

DreamWorks' live-action film business is directly led by Spielberg, a world-class director. Moreover, he has a wide range of connections in Hollywood. The directors and actors invited to make movies for DreamWorks are also big names in Hollywood.

Occasionally a movie or two flops, that's normal.

Is it really possible to lose money every year?

Ann Sarnoff said: "All the money earned by DreamWorks was sucked away by Spielberg in the form of production fee dividends, consulting fees, director fees, screenwriter fees, film review fees, etc."

"Too much!"

Zhou Buqi shook his head. He originally had a good impression of Spielberg, but now he was very disappointed. This guy is really a typical representative of the greedy nature of the Jews.

It's normal for Hollywood producers and big directors to suck blood from movies.

But we can’t suck up all the profits and leave the company with a mess of losses every year, right? No wonder Paramount passed on DreamWorks and Spielberg.

In the previous life, Disney decisively gave up its long-term cooperation with DreamWorks after several years of cooperation. DreamWorks, once the most popular film company in Hollywood, has been completely reduced to the point where it has no projects to take on.

Later, when he had no other choice, Spielberg gave up DreamWorks and began to cooperate with big companies as an individual director as he did in the 1980s. He produced "The Washington Post" with 20th Century Fox and "The Washington Post" with Warner Bros. After filming "Ready Player One", Dong Yi Bang Tou Xi Yi Bang Zi entered the end of his career as a director.

Therefore, absolute control of a company is a double-edged sword.

If the person who holds control is a broad-minded person with a decent style, then such an arrangement can prevent excessive penetration of capital into the company's business and allow him to develop the company completely in accordance with his own ideas.

A large number of companies in Silicon Valley operate in this way, in the form of AB shares. The founder holds Class A shares with 1 vote worth 10 votes, so he can always control the company in his own hands and not be influenced by short-sighted capital. We will adhere to the implementation of long-term strategic plans.

But in the hands of selfish people, it would be miserable.

This is also the clear requirement for equal shares and equal rights in the listing standards of most countries. This is to prevent those who have absolute control from having evil intentions and using legal means to transfer all the company's interests to their own pockets.

The most typical example is of course Alibaba splitting Alipay. The vast majority of Alibaba's equity is in the hands of foreign investors, but Lao Ma used his absolute control to complete the split, causing foreign investors to lose hundreds of billions.

In Hollywood, DreamWorks and Spielberg are the biggest negative representatives.

Although Zhou Buqi personally holds only 10% of the shares of Ziweixing Global, he has absolute control. As long as he is willing, he can legally and reasonably convert 10% of the shares into 100% of the shares.

But this kind of thing does great damage to one's personal image.

Unless he goes bankrupt in the future, he may play some "absolute control" tricks on Ziweixing International, Ziweixing Digital Media, and Ziweixing Global. Under normal circumstances, he would never do such a notorious thing, and would use his control on the right path.

An Sarnoff had only worked with Boss Zhou for a short period of time, so he couldn’t grasp his temperament. It was right to give him money anyway, so he continued: “I look at Forbes’ statistics and Hollywood movies. Among directors, the richest director is George Lucas, with a personal net worth of US$2.8 billion, mainly from the assets of Lucasfilm. The second-ranked director is Spielberg, with a personal wealth of US$1.7 billion. He is not an equity owner of DreamWorks. He only has control. He has relied on production fees, consulting fees, director fees, etc. to make profits from film projects in the past few years. DreamWorks is getting worse year by year. But he gets richer every year."

"Fortunately, I was cautious last year and did not accept Katzenberg's advocacy and buy DreamWorks in one fell swoop." Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "Don't mention this kind of thing in the future. It will be whatever it is. I don't It will take a penny off the company. MSI Global has just started now, and everyone should work together to make the cake bigger. It is far from time to divide the cake. Even if the cake is divided, it must be fair and just. This is My principles.”

"That's it..."

Ann Sarnoff looked at him deeply.

There was a hundred disbelief in my heart.

fair and just?

This is just an argument made to tease an inexperienced child. Looking at Boss Zhou like this, how can he have any innocence and pursuit of the supreme idealism?

Regarding this point, Zhou Buqi couldn't say more. He waved his hand and said, "Okay, it's settled. Let's go back and redo this budget table! Well... let's put the plan to build the headquarters building on hold for now. With a budget of $2 billion, I think the people in the administration department are crazy!”

Buying Lucasfilm costs a lot of money.

For the time being, we will cut off large non-business investment projects and stabilize the situation first.