Top of the big era

Boss Ma has returned to China, and it is not convenient for Zhou Buqi to meet Sun Zhengyi, Yang Zhiyuan, or a major shareholder of Yahoo in private, as if he is plotting behind the scenes.

If it were a foreigner, Zhou Buqi might have weighed it up and gone for it.

Boss Ma, forget it.

They are all in the same circle and are old friends. We can't cheat him on such a big matter. He wants to take back 20% of the voting rights, which is related to Ali's future development and listing plan, and cannot afford to delay.

Zhou Buqi relaxed. His wife, children, and family were moving from Sydney to Silicon Valley. It might take a day or two to prepare. He simply took a few secretaries and went to the metropolis New York with Senior Sister Zhen Yu. .

Let Gu Zanli and Yao Yao see the world.

Senior Sister Zhen Yu went first, accompanied by Ning Yaxian, to meet with two private equity funds in New York, and wanted to borrow 1.5 billion US dollars from them to meet the recent acquisitions.

Zhou Buqi went to Netflix first. People from Ziweixing Global had already arrived. He coordinated and pushed Netflix to complete the acquisition of Dark Horse Comics.

Over the past few years, Dark Horse Comics has adapted many classic movies. Universal Pictures is Dark Horse Comics' largest partner. Having someone from Universal Pictures act as a consultant on this acquisition can reduce the complexity of the transaction.

If there is an opportunity in the future, we can further deepen the cooperation between Universal Pictures and Dark Horse Comics.

After settling this matter, he took off for New York.

On the plane, Sun Wanran and Ning Lu reported a major event that had just happened.

Social gaming company Zynga finally goes public!

There has been a lot of hype in the past period.

This IPO should be the last high-profile big case this year. Not only the entire game industry is paying attention, but the capital market is also watching closely.

This will almost be a bellwether event.

If Zynga goes public smoothly and its stock price continues to rise, it will not only show that Zynga's potential as a company has been recognized, but it can also affect the entire gaming industry.

For Zynga, the task is huge!

In order to successfully go public, Zynga made many concessions. The prospectus was changed again and again, the offering price was lowered three times, and even the 15% discount fee was given up, just so that the stock price could rise and get off to a good start!

Don't tell me, the effect is coming.

The opening price reached $11!

Compared to the issue price of $10, that’s an increase of 10%!

good news!

All parties are very excited, and a lot of big money seems to be undercurrent.

In the financial market, your sense of smell must be sensitive and your actions must be fast!

Many fund managers are ready. As long as Zynga's stock price continues to rise, they will buy a wide range of stocks of various game companies, because Zynga's stock price can completely reflect the current situation of the game industry.

However, Zynga only held on for less than an hour.

The situation changes suddenly.

Zynga's stock price began to fall, from US$11 to US$10.8, US$10.5, US$10.3...and then dropped to the issue price of US$10, but the downward trend still did not stop!

Break!

US$9.8, US$9.6, US$9.4...

Just as Zhou Buqi and his team were flying to New York at this time, the market soon took a lunch break, and Zynga had fallen below the issue price, falling as much as 6%.

When Zhou Buqi heard the news, he sighed, "What's supposed to come will come, and now the gaming industry will be cast a shadow again."

Sun Wanran and Ning Lu both sat opposite him, with a computer in front of each of them.

Hearing what the big boss said, Sun Wanran reacted immediately and checked first, "Well, yes, the stocks in the game industry are falling. Blizzard fell by 0.6%, Changyou fell by 0.8%, and EA plummeted by 4%... …Is this EA due to the acquisition of a friend’s studio?”

Zhou Buqi coughed, "Maybe."

Ning Lu was very surprised and asked: "Boss, why did Zynga's stock price fall for such an excellent company? What is the logic behind this? I see that many investment analysts have published articles saying that they do not recommend shorting Zynga. "

Zhou Buqi saw Gu Zanli and Yao Yao sitting on the other side, both pairs of eyes showing a bit of anticipation and timidity. He wanted to participate, but felt that he didn't understand anything and was afraid of delaying the business.

"Come here!"

Zhou Buqi waved to them, then picked up Yao Yao and put her on the inside. Gu Zanli sat on the outside and kissed each of them on the cheek.

This was the first time he kissed Yao Yao, and Yao Yao's face turned red jade immediately. Gu Zanli, on the other hand, became much more cheerful. She came over with a smile and gave Boss Zhou a gentle kiss.

Zhou Buqi reached out to call the stewardess and asked for a few glasses of juice. Then he responded to Ning Lu, "Why are you so good?"

Ning Lu said: "Zynga has 230 million users and more than 54 million daily active users. With so many users, isn't it excellent?"

Zhou Buqi nodded, "So, this is a gaming giant. Even if it breaks, it will still be a first-class gaming company. There is a well-known gaming company in the United States called Take-Two. You can check the current market value. How many?"

Sun Wanran was paying attention to the stock market and quickly found out, "1.84 billion U.S. dollars."

"Yes, it's only US$1.84 billion. What a huge gap."

Zhou Buqi was very emotional.

Recently, he also had dealings with Major League Baseball because he wanted to acquire the San Francisco Giants. The Baseball League has made a proposal, saying that it would be better if the Baseball 2k game was developed by Changyou?

Zhou Buqi didn't dare to take this issue.

After looking back and doing some research, I discovered something incredible.

Several major sports leagues in the United States cooperate with take-two to develop games, such as basketball's NBA 2K, as well as related games such as football 2K, baseball 2K, and ice hockey 2K, all of which are developed by take-two, a game studio. Issuance and operation.

The more you learn about this company, the better it will be.

It has quite a connection with Universal Pictures.

The main game of take-two is the racing game "Grand Theft Auto"... which is actually the inspiration for Universal Pictures' famous series of movies "Fast and Furious", but the producers made slight modifications when making the movie, and then No royalties have to be paid.

It can be seen from this that making traditional computer games is not recognized by the market.

Even industry giants like Take-Two, which owns dozens of well-known games, as well as shocking games such as "Red Dead Redemption", "Civilized City" and "BioShock", have a market value of only US$1.84 billion.

This is an American game company, which is pretty good.

Go to Europe, South Korea and Japan to buy game companies, the price can be cheaper, tens of millions of dollars can buy a bunch of excellent game intellectual property rights. Ren Yuxin has already taken action and is targeting the Japanese market. Well-known Japanese game companies such as Vannan, Square, Enix, KONAMI, Koei Tecmo, SEGA, and CAPCOM all have to inquire about the price.

When I arrived in New York, I met with a private equity boss to discuss a loan.

It's so easy.

The other party has only one requirement, which is to pay interest first, and would rather have a lower interest rate.

When Zhou Buqi heard this, he almost laughed.

Sure enough, it's Wall Street. These capitalists are all in the same boat, and they are all greedy for money!

Obviously, the two other institutions also wait until they get "profits" and then pad their accounts to ensure dividends at the end of the year. Getting the interest first is equivalent to transferring next year's profits to this year's books.

Of course Zhou Buqi agrees.

A total of US$1.57 billion was loaned from these two institutions.

Then, Zhou Buqi could only receive US$1.5 billion in cash, and the remaining US$70 million was paid to the other party first in the form of interest.

The loan cycle lasts for half a year and the interest rate is nearly 10%.

Among short-term revolving loans, it is already very low.

Many private equity funds make profits by providing such short-term revolving loans. If you get a loan from a bank, you need to have a mortgage. The process is complicated and the payment is too slow, making it difficult to deal with emergencies.

This kind of private equity capital institution can be bolder and more efficient in lending. It does not have to go through complicated procedures and can lend money as quickly as possible.

The next day, we went to the Ziweixing-Farley Building, which has been renovated, and the planning area of ​​Changyou Headquarters, where construction has been suspended due to winter.

I waited until the afternoon to meet Changyou CEO Don Mattrick, who had rushed back from Europe.

In the evening, the two attended a charity reception together on Long Island. Zhou Buqi personally donated US$1.2 million, while Mattrick donated US$100,000... The host of the reception was a Wall Street investor. My brother is the head of the merger and acquisition review agency and was also present.

Got some very good news.

Changyou's acquisition of the game division of MSI International for more than US$8 billion is about to be approved, and the results will be available before Christmas at the latest.

When attending the cocktail party, Zhou Buqi brought Ning Lu, the best English speaker, and her school girl Gu Zanli.

Now I can see the world.

But when leaving, Gu Zanli asked in a low voice with some distress: "Boss, did you really donate?"

Zhou Buqi said amusedly: "What are you doing? You can't make a fraudulent donation, right?"

Gu Zanli blinked a few times and whispered, "Can you reimburse me? You are donating money to Changyou's business. You can't pay for it from your own pocket."

It was winter outside. Ning Lu and Gu Zanli were wearing skirts inside and coats outside, so it was still a little cold.

Zhou Buqi doesn't care about the etiquette of upper class society. He pays the money with one hand and delivers the goods with the other hand. After the transaction is completed, he withdraws.

He hugged them both and hurriedly rushed into the car, which had already turned on the air conditioning.

After getting in the car, Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "In theory, official donations can be reimbursed by the company, just find any name. But it's not necessary. Changyou now has fewer people and more things to do, so we don't create complexity for them." ."

At this time, someone knocked on the car window.

It's Don Mattrick.

Zhou Buqi lowered the window and sat in the car to talk to him, "Is something wrong?"

Mattrick said: "Zynga's situation is not very optimistic, and the expected stock price given by major investment banks is also around $10. The trough of the gaming industry will come soon."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Isn't that good? The opportunity has come."

Mattrick said: "I asked the human resources department to launch a recruitment plan, and it is estimated that 800 people will be recruited within three months..."

"Can!"

Zhou Buqi didn't want to hear more of his ramblings, so he immediately agreed.

"One more thing," Mattrick said quickly, knowing that it would be inconvenient for the boss to have women in his car, "An investor has contacted me and said that he is optimistic about Changyou's prospects and wants to invest in the primary market. invest."

The secondary market refers to the stock market, where stocks are purchased.

However, the stock market is too volatile and the transaction size is relatively small. When buying or selling long, in order not to cause turbulence in the stock market, we usually start in the primary market.

Changyou's primary market shares are basically in the hands of Ziweixing and Sohu.

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "Ziweixing has no shortage of funds for the time being, and there is a large amount of debt financing, so it will not sell shares. Go ask Charles and see if Sohu needs to sell part of the shares to get the money back. ."

As the company's CEO, Don Mattrick is very self-aware, unlike Yahoo's Yang Zhiyuan.

Yang Zhiyuan is an entrepreneur and thinks about the company.

He wants to do things that are good for the company.

This is not quite right.

According to normal corporate logic, the CEO serves the board of directors and all shareholders. A CEO should not think about the company, but about the shareholders. The biggest responsibility of a CEO is not to manage the company, but to make money for shareholders.

The shareholders are the bosses of the company, and the CEO should do whatever the shareholders want to do. This is what Yahoo's board of directors criticizes most about Yang Zhiyuan. He puts his personal ideals and feelings above the interests of shareholders.

Mattrick is obviously different.

Very considerate of shareholders.

Zynga's IPO break will inevitably cause the gaming industry to fall into an even muddy quagmire. In other words, Changyou’s share price will also decrease.

This is an inevitable trend.

If investors are found at this time and take over some stocks from the two major shareholders, Ziweixing or Sohu, the two major shareholders can be protected from some losses from the future decline in Changyou's stock price.

At this time, Mattrick took the initiative to attract external investors for shareholders to take over the deal. It can be said that he has a lot of face and his job responsibilities are in place.