Chapter 1202 Helps Open the Hollywood Market
On the plane, Musk and Zhou Buqi kept complaining about the profit-seeking of the capital side, and they hated it.
Zhou Buqi expressed his understanding, he is in this line of work, so he is clear.
There are irreconcilable contradictions between the capital side and the technology industry.
In the technology industry, unless it is simple work such as agency, comprador, and assembly, this is easy; but any research and development and long-term planning are taboos for the management.
The reason behind it is that the capitalists are too poor.
The big capital on Wall Street are all private equity funds. It is a large fund organized by a group of top financiers absorbing wealth from all over the world. The main source of income for these financiers who operate private equity funds is profit dividends. The difference is 5% or 10%. 20%, 25%.
Many still have a guaranteed bottom line, usually an 8% annualized profit bottom line.
Only when the annualized return exceeds 8%, the capital side can get a 20% profit dividend.
In order to ensure that dividends can be obtained every year, it is necessary to require the enterprises invested by the capital to maintain growth year by year. The manager of a private equity fund is very rich, so he may not care too much about it, but his management team of dozens or hundreds of people all rely on dividends to maintain a good life. Without dividends, the quality of life will decline.
Here comes a contradiction.
Unlike other industries, the technology industry is explosive. It may be that the performance has been sluggish for many years, and suddenly a certain project is successfully developed, and it explodes immediately, and the performance increases several times.
This is seriously contrary to the investment logic and money-making methods of private equity funds.
Therefore, the world's top funds are very cautious when investing in the technology industry. Whether it is Buffett in the United States or Lin Yuan in China, they do not play this.
Occasionally, there are a few bigwigs who are willing to participate in the investment in the technology industry, but they are also constantly putting pressure on the management, demanding to be converted into profits, and demanding short-term performance growth.
Silicon Valley has a love-hate relationship with Wall Street capital.
If you don’t have capital, you can’t do it, so you have to pursue it; if you have capital, you will be constrained, you will be constantly pressured, and it is very uncomfortable.
This kind of internal contradiction is precisely the key point that Zhou Buqi can take advantage of.
Right now is the financial crisis, and the Wall Street elites are equally destitute and short of money. What they hope most is to get profit dividends from the funds they manage.
It doesn't matter at all whether Netflix's stock price will skyrocket in the future.
Netflix has soared into the sky, and the benefits to private equity funds are even greater.
Human nature is selfish.
When doing something, it must first be good for yourself. Selling the shares of Netflix, the management team of the private equity fund can get profit and dividends, which is the most important thing.
As for the interests of investors... they don't understand anyway, so it doesn't matter.
The lower the bottom, the more greedy.
Capitalists cannot be greedy. On the contrary, the consolidation of the capitalists' position and the maximization of their interests depend on the sharing of interests. The more you share, the more you grab. The greed shown by the capitalists is the greed from the bottom, taking advantage of the weakness of human nature. For example, the panic buying of hunger marketing, the monopoly of subsidized consumption, and the viral expansion of "cut a knife".
The fund traders on Wall Street are also social elites with an annual income of millions of dollars. In Zhou Buqi's eyes, they are the real bottom, and they can easily use this kind of humanity to control them.
With Goldman Sachs leading the operation, the right owner was quickly found.
At 9:30 in the morning, Zhou Buqi met his first client—Capital Research Fund, which is the largest institutional shareholder of Netflix, holding 5.33 million shares with a total value of 70 million US dollars.
The other party refused without even thinking about it, even if the premium reached 160 million U.S. dollars.
After some communication, it turns out that Netflix’s stock is mainly concentrated in one of its emerging industry funds, which has lost as much as 16.5% this year.
Totally hopeless.
Unless Zhou Buqi is willing to pay $1.9 billion for the $70 million stock, they won't be able to hit their 8% annual return target.
The business fell through.
I went to the second Black Rock Group again, and the good news came.
Black Rock Group holds 4.03 million shares, or 6.5%. This stock is in one of its mixed funds, and the current annual return is 5.2%!
From the predetermined goal of 8%, there is not much difference!
Hurry to find someone, hurry to calculate!
After hearing that there was a buyer, the CEO of the Black Rock Group hurried back from other places to solve the matter in person.
This is so important!
The employees at the bottom are very concerned about the 8% growth target, which is related to their year-end bonus. Top executives care about longer-term plans.
The better the performance of the fund, the more investors will subscribe.
If during the financial crisis, this fund can achieve the expected annual return and give a beautiful report card. It is conceivable that by next year, those retail investors who have money in their hands will invest their money in the Black Rock Group one after another.
This is why the capital side will strictly demand the performance growth of technology companies.
It's not that capitalists care about this. They are the smartest people. Of course, they know that technology companies need to look at the long-term and should not pay too much attention to short-term benefits.
It's the average investor who doesn't understand. Once the short-term performance report of private equity funds is poor, investors will withdraw their funds one after another. Because of the existence of bottom-level investors, capitalists in financial operations are very eager for short-term performance growth.
It took 10 minutes, and the accounts were clear!
This fund, which only holds Netflix shares, has a total size of US$8.2 billion. This year's income is US$426 million, with a yield of 5.2%. The 8% guarantee is $656 million in earnings.
This year, Netflix’s stock price has fallen by 28%, and it has lost 20 million US dollars.
In other words, as long as the fund can earn another "6.56-4.26-0.2=210 million" US dollars this year, it can achieve the expected goal.
For the 210 million US dollars, Zhou Buqi will bear part of it, and in the remaining two months of this year, it will be operated through other financial means... It is really possible to achieve the expected minimum guarantee goal.
However, Black Rock Group only has 4.03 million shares in total.
Because recently Chen Ran bought Netflix shares on a large scale in the stock market, raising the stock price from $11.3 to $12.8. So these 4.03 million shares are worth $50 million.
How much is the premium?
In fact, from Zhou Buqi’s point of view, even if the premium is three times higher and $200 million is forcibly paid, it is still worth it. Buying Netflix is not an equity investment, but a strategic investment.
However, Zhou Buqi did not express his position for a long time.
He got a Goldman Sachs advisory group.
Chen Ran, a financial expert from PricewaterhouseCoopers, followed, and Chen Ran even recruited her good friend from Wall Street, John Gade, who was helping the Saudi sovereign fund find a relationship.
After some communication, good news came again.
Two other small-scale private equity funds that have in-depth cooperation with Black Rock Group also own part of Netflix's stock. At the beginning, those two companies participated in the financing of Netflix with the Black Rock Group...
...
These days, Zhou Buqi is very busy!
On October 22, in New York, I met with seven private equity funds.
On October 23, in San Francisco, signed an investment agreement with Musk on Tesla, spending 200 million US dollars to get a 25% stake in Tesla.
Among them, Tesla only diluted 12.5% of its shares and raised US$50 million; the remaining 12.5% was bought by other investment institutions for US$50 million.
On October 24th, Zhou Buqi went to New York again to continue talking about Netflix’s equity acquisition. Ziwei Star’s CFO Nie Caijun also attended the meeting in person, and he may stay in charge for a long time.
In the afternoon, he looked at a luxury apartment full of music atmosphere near Central Park, and he wanted to buy it himself.
A single floor of 760 square meters.
It has an open design.
The overall white-gray tone is matched with custom-made dark sofas and carpets. Under the reflection of the red background wall, it gives people a space for free thinking. The high-altitude overlooking Manhattan, coupled with good lighting and transparency, creates a better visuals...
The only disadvantage is that the open design will waste the area of the house, just focus on spaciousness, brightness, luxury, and grandeur, and the design of the room is too small.
With a usable area of 760 square meters, there are only 3 bedrooms and 4 bathrooms.
Zhou's family has a large population, and it's not enough to live in!
But it doesn't matter, Boss Zhou is very rich.
I bought the 21st and 22nd floors in one go, which are the two top floors.
The total price is 53 million US dollars.
On October 25th, Zhou Buqi flew to Los Angeles again. Accompanied by investment banks, law firms, and accounting firms, he finally completed the long contract with Marvel.
Spend 420 million U.S. dollars and won 20% of Marvel's shares!
This case is too complicated.
Lawyers, accountants, auditors and other related fees cost US$1.2 million, and Goldman Sachs even paid US$4.5 million in labor costs.
Fortunately, it finally took it down.
Xu Baihui was so happy that she flew here specially to attend the signing ceremony.
That night, Marvel organized a celebratory party at the Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills. This is the place where the Golden Globes are held, and many stars have come.
Among them are several actors from Marvel movies, Robert Downey Jr., Samuel Jackson, Scarlett Johansson, Gwyneth Paltrow...
There is also an Iranian-born actress, Nazanin Boniadi. She is a character in "Iron Man".
Especially the delicate red lips, which make people's heart beat.
Far more attractive than Scarlett Johansson.
Black Widow's short legs are too deadly.
However, this American girl is very confident, and her low-cut evening dress sets off her proud bust so eye-catching. It makes people linger at a glance.
Well, this is the deadly weapon.
"Zhou, can I go on a date with you?" Scarlett's blue eyes seemed to be electrified. Same sex repels, opposite sex attracts.
Zhou Buqi was chatting with the CEO of Marvel Studios, Kevin Fitch, unexpectedly, this hot blonde bastard would not be very polite to participate.
Kevin Feige laughed.
Zhou Buqi was stunned, "A date?"
Scarlett's voice was very magnetic, "I have a good sister's birthday tomorrow night, can I have the honor to invite you to go with me?"
"Sorry, I'm leaving for New York early tomorrow morning."
Zhou Buqi spread his hands.
Scarlett looked regretful, "Is it really not possible?"
Zhou Buqi smiled, "I'm sorry."
"Then..." Scarlett blinked a few times, and asked tentatively, "Mr. Zhou, do you have a house in Los Angeles?"
"No, live in a hotel."
"My family has a bottle of red wine that has been preserved for 20 years. It was left to me by my grandfather. It's over for a while, would you like to go and taste it together?"
"To your house? Tasting red wine?"
Zhou Buqi was slightly taken aback.
Because they are not talking alone now, there are also Kevin Fitch and the three vice presidents of Marvel Studios present. Such an invitation was issued under the watchful eyes of everyone?
Scarlett was more uninhibited than she imagined, and she glanced at him charmingly, "It's okay to taste something else."
Zhou Buqi, such a reserved oriental man, couldn't accept this, coughed lightly, "Miss Johnson, I'm your fan, but I really don't have time, I have to do some work at night."
Whether it's a fan or a movie fan, English is all fans, and the other party can't understand it.
Scarlett was very unwilling, "Really? Do you have to work at night?"
Zhou Buqi said seriously: "Yes, I'm from the East. It's dark in Los Angeles, and it's daytime in the East. I still have to attend a few meetings."
"Oh, okay."
Scarlett sighed softly, there was a bit of resentment between her brows.
Zhou Buqi's heart is as hard as iron.
Just don't agree.
hum!
Hollywood goblins, don't they just want to suck my Yang Yuan, how can there be so many cheap things? When talking about business, you have to be sincere, do you understand?
After a while, several new guests came, all of them were Hollywood actors...
In these days, money is a master.
Marvel is doing great!
Although "Hulk" failed miserably, the film and television copyright of "Iron Man" has just been sold. The first round in the North American market was 60 million US dollars, and the second round of the three TV stations was 20 million US dollars, a total of 120 million US dollars!
In addition, Marvel has just reached a platter investment agreement with Jieyu Media, with a total value of 500 million U.S. dollars; it has also received 420 million U.S. dollars in equity financing... The current Marvel is even richer than many big companies.
You can't miss it if you are next to a rich and wealthy owner from Asia.
Zhou Buqi is not interested in these movies.
Movies can only make a little money, and he is more concerned about benefiting his hometown.
"By the way, I remember that Captain America is a veteran of World War II, right?"
"Yes, you also read comics?"
"I've seen some." Zhou Buqi smiled, "Kevin, if you want to make a global commercial blockbuster, the most important thing you can't ignore is the mainland market. In the next few years, the mainland film market will flourish. You have to pay attention in advance, Arrange early."
Kevin Fitch was very modest, "What good advice does Mr. Zhou have?"
Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "During World War II, the United States sent the Flying Tigers to help us fight the war. This is a landmark event with great historical value. If possible, when designing the script, Captain America can go to the mainland , shooting a short story over there. It just so happened that I did a film and television base project here, and I can undertake this shooting task.”
This is strategy.
The script of the movie should be designed according to Marvel's marketing strategy.
Kevin Fitch nodded, thinking that this suggestion could be considered. But in his opinion, there are still important things to do right now, so he leaned over and whispered: "Zhou, I have a suggestion for you, while you are young, try to sleep with more girls. Well, it will help you open up the Hollywood market .”
"Depend on!"
Zhou Buqi almost died of anger.
Forget about Silicon Valley, the boss needs to go on the field to conquer it himself. It's just Hollywood, and you want to play in person?
