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Mattrick said with a smile: "Games are a creative industry. In order to prevent the convergence of creativity, we should maintain the independence of many competing game studios. This is not only a long-term consideration, but also more in line with us." current developments.”

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Is it easier to acquire it?"

Mattrick said frankly: "That's right."

Although games like "Clash of Clans" have not yet released an official version, the beta version has achieved relatively good results, especially with excellent reputation.

This means that after the official version of the game is released, there is a high probability of success.

Changyou is expected to spend $10 million to acquire Supercell, the studio behind the game.

But once this game is successful, the future revenue will not be 10 million US dollars, it may be 100 million US dollars, it may be 1 billion US dollars. Maybe it will become popular all over the world and become one of the most popular mobile games, and its value may reach 10 billion US dollars.

However, there is a hidden factor here, and that is risk.

That's how successful it is.

If it fails, the entrepreneurial team will not even get the 10 million US dollars, and will lose all the initial investment. Then they will really have nothing.

Those who are barefoot are not afraid of those who wear shoes.

Be fearless.

But if someone comes to deliver shoes, who would still want to run around barefoot? Once you put on shoes, you start to worry about the risks.

This is the advantage of large companies acquiring startups.

Large companies can easily afford the risk of game failure, which amounts to a loss of $10 million in investment. The same cannot be said for start-up companies. They can't even bear the loss of hundreds of thousands of dollars invested in the early stage.

Therefore, for many start-up companies, being merged and acquired by a large company can be regarded as one of the three paths to success for a start-up company.

But there is another hidden danger here.

To the entrepreneurial team, the company they worked so hard to create is like their child. Even if they sell the company, they still hope to keep their children in their own hands.

There is a disagreement.

In the corporate mergers and acquisitions industry, acquisitions are often the easiest.

What is difficult is restructuring after mergers and acquisitions.

In the reorganization process, the most difficult level to overcome is “people”.

Take Supercell's entrepreneurial team for example. They are used to making their own decisions in Supercell. Once they are merged into Changyou, they will have to listen to Changyou's instructions.

This often leads to conceptual differences.

Many times, entrepreneurial teams will listen to the instructions but not the announcements.

As time goes by, conflicts will intensify.

For example, when Google acquired YouTube, it was praised by the world... But behind the merger and acquisition, it was bloody. Google wanted to incorporate YouTube into its own system, and then successively integrated almost all of YouTube's entrepreneurial team. Fired.

So does Yahoo.

After Ziweixing International acquired Yahoo, the first thing Zhou Buqi wanted to do was to fire several vice presidents who held the executive power of Yahoo.

Big companies have this worry.

Of course there are startup companies, and they don't want to be fired, and they don't want to see the children they have worked so hard to raise taken away by others.

This leads to large companies often encountering such obstacles when acquiring startups, and startups are unwilling to sell.

On the one hand, I feel that the company still has huge growth potential in the future, and if I sell it now, it will be a huge loss; on the other hand, I feel that after selling the company, I will easily suffer the tragic end of killing the donkey.

Especially the gaming industry.

Similar things have happened to EA too many times.

Now that Changyou wants to acquire Supercell, their team will have such worries, which will greatly increase the difficulty of the acquisition. If you want to reach an agreement, you have to go through arduous negotiations and use all kinds of coercion and inducement.

This is not an isolated case.

Changyou will continue to acquire more mobile game startups in the future.

It would be too troublesome if everyone adopted this process.

If a new merger and acquisition strategy can be adopted, the potential future profits of the other party can be preserved while reducing current operating risks; the decision-making and independent operating rights of the company can be preserved in the future, and the resource and technical advantages possessed by the other party's large company can be obtained.

This collaboration is like a duck to water.

It's a matter of course.

It's so much easier to operate.

Don Mattrick invited Boss Zhou and Boss Zhang over. What he wanted to say was this, and he wanted to completely change Changyou's next merger and acquisition thinking. "The main purposes of mergers and acquisitions are two. One. It is to complete the monopoly of the industry through acquisitions, thereby strengthening the influence of the industry... To put it bluntly, it is to gain power. Secondly, it is to find more profit growth points through acquisitions in order to obtain profits."

Zhou Buqi agreed, "Yes, one is power and the other is capital."

Mattrick said: "Changyou is already the game company with the highest market value in the world. After completing the acquisition of take-two, the company's foundation has been very solid. We already have huge influence and authority in the game industry. Sex, our industry has enough power.”

Zhang Chaoyang was very cautious, "That's enough. The more power we have, the bigger the monopoly stick might be."

Mattrick glanced at Boss Zhou and found that he had no objection, so he smiled and said: "So we no longer need to gain power through mergers and acquisitions, we only need to obtain capital to develop more revenue growth points. . Just look for more profits and create higher stock prices.”

Zhou Buqi understood what he meant, nodded and said: "Well, so for the next acquisition of game studios that are in the process of starting a business, we can pay more attention to equity returns, but we can give up the voting rights to the entrepreneurial team."

Mattrick was very happy, "Yes, that's what it means!"

Zhou Buqi said: "I think it's okay!"

Mattrick couldn't hide his excitement, "You agree?"

Zhou Buqi said: "Giving the company's voting rights to the entrepreneurial team can give the entrepreneurial team no worries and no need to worry about the risk of killing the donkey in the future. At the same time, it can also ensure the independence of the company, without the need to merge into The hidden dangers of creative homogenization in Changyou."

In fact, there is no need for Mattrick to say this at all.

As an Internet entrepreneur from China, he really understands the truth behind this.

Penguin’s success stories are right there!

With a famous teacher in front of you, who wouldn’t be able to see it?

In the early days, Penguin was obsessed with e-commerce business and established its own e-commerce department several times, hoping to make breakthroughs in the e-commerce field.

But after trying it all, basically it didn’t even make a splash.

A very important reason is convergence.

The convergence of QQ and e-commerce seems unreliable at first glance.

Later, Penguin discovered the problem and changed its strategic thinking. It stopped doing it itself and began to support others and invest.

And when investing, you only want financial gains and give up the corresponding rights.

For example, JD.com, such as Pinduoduo.

In the process of growth, it relied on Penguin's strong financial and channel resources. In the process of Penguin investing in such e-commerce companies, Penguin took the initiative to give up its voting rights and gave up the corresponding power to the entrepreneurial team.

This not only allows the transaction to proceed smoothly, but also ensures that the entrepreneurial team has control over the company.

Then everyone benefits.

This model has become more and more popular and has become Penguin's core means of dominating the domestic Internet industry. In contrast, Alibaba's methods are a bit rougher. It buys 100% of any company it likes, requiring both capital power and capital gains.

In the end, you get the power but lose the benefits.

Many excellent companies acquired by Alibaba lost their vitality after the merger, became worse and worse, and many even closed down.

Entrepreneurs often have one characteristic, which is sufficient self-confidence.

Blindly confident.

This kind of confidence can even surpass many common-sense economic principles and very accurately calculated statistics.

Because this is how many entrepreneurial decisions are made.

All that mess is useless!

That is a management decision, not an entrepreneurial decision!

Entrepreneurs' decisions are often arbitrary. It's just what I want to do... There is no need for any basis or reference. If I think this is the way to go, then just do it!

It was as if God was guiding him secretly and achieved great success.

This leads to many entrepreneurs who like to hold power firmly in their own hands and are unwilling to decentralize power. They feel that only they are right...especially in their own territory, where what they say does not count and what others say does not count. That’s what you say.

That's Don Mattrick's concern.

This is really too much to worry about.

Lao Zhang didn't care, all his expectations in Changyou were interests, and he had already given up all his power to Zhou Buqi. Zhou Buqi didn't care even more. A few years ago, he promoted Zhang Yiming as the president of Ziweixing and appointed Lu Qi as the president of Ziweixing International. The easier it is for him, the better.

Moreover, the complexity of acquiring Yahoo also made him realize the difficulties of business restructuring after mergers and acquisitions.

Zhou Buqi said slowly: "Creativity is something at the bottom of human nature. If you want to stimulate creativity, you must satisfy all the desires of human nature. Power is the most important thing. Everyone hopes to maintain independence and be able to make their own decisions. . Changyou’s future M\u0026A philosophy needs to be adjusted, as you said, transfer power and reap benefits.”

Mattrick took a deep breath.

You're done!

With this matter finalized, Changyou's development path will be smooth sailing from now on.

Zhou Buqi asked: "What about the ratio of voting rights to equity? Is there a plan?"

Mattrick said: "I have already talked with Supercell, and they also hope to avoid entrepreneurial risks by selling. But they also hope to maintain a certain amount of future earnings and control of the company."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "Normal."

Mattrick said: "Their entrepreneurial team hopes to retain 15%-20% of the equity and have 50% of the voting rights."