Chapter 2090 No more dividends

Ning Yaxian went to fool Gu Zanli, and Zhou Buqi went to fool Lao Ma.

Even though Ning Yaxian’s level of deception is not as good as Boss Zhou’s, the people she deceives are less tolerant, and the effect is very good after a wave of communication. Gu Zanli accepted the "high-level" men and women in a daze. The concept of relationship.

Zhou Buqi is a little less interesting here. Boss Ma is a master of deception and is very vigilant. But Zhou Buqi came up with an incredible and bold idea that was completely different from his original idea. It was difficult to make a decision for a while.

Boss Ma said he would go back and think about it and discuss it with the team.

Zhou Buqi told him to hurry up and come up with a charter within this month. The best effect is to finalize the case within this month. If it is delayed until next year, it may be more complicated.

Boss Ma didn't listen to him.

Want to settle such a big matter in less than a month? Do you think Yahoo is revolving around you? It's just that your boss Zhou has a lot of money and spent 50 billion US dollars in one go to make an overall offer for Yahoo. Not to mention the capital on Yahoo's board of directors, even Yang Zhiyuan would agree.

Zhou Buqi was really excited.

However, at this time when the market is unstable and the IT industry is at a low point, where can we raise US$50 billion? Even the giant Microsoft had to find two private equity institutions to cooperate in order to raise US$5 billion together.

We have to think about it in the long term.

In Zhou Buqi's view, it's best not to fool SoftBank, Blackstone Group, and Bain Capital. These are all well-known giant private equity institutions in the world.

If multiple parties cooperate and are ruthless, maybe they can really eat Yahoo completely.

It still depends on Boss Ma’s attitude.

After all, as far as the Yahoo case is concerned, Zhou Buqi is an outsider, and he has to rely on Boss Ma's relationship to gain entry.

In the afternoon, Zhou Buqi asked Ning Yaxian to accompany Zhen Yu home to rest. He took Sun Wanran, Ning Lu, Gu Zanli and Yao Yao to Netflix together.

This time I came to meet Netflix CEO Reed Hastings, mainly to talk about Dark Horse Comics.

It was originally a suggestion made by Changyou CEO Don Mattrick, but Zhou Buqi thought it was feasible. However, on the pretext that Changyou was going to acquire a game studio in the near future, he gave the task of acquiring Dark Horse Comics to Ziweixing Global.

But Ziweixing Global also gave feedback.

After internal evaluation, Ziweixing Global's acquisition of Dark Horse Comics is very risky, and it is best not to participate.

There are two major comic book giants in the United States, namely DC Comics and Marvel Comics.

In the past few years, DC Comics has been the industry leader.

In recent years, with the strong rise of Marvel movies, the landscape of the comics industry has changed. Marvel has surpassed DC and become the largest comics manufacturer.

Especially the two "Iron Man" films starring Robert Downey Jr. are simply a surefire hit.

Originally, "Iron Man" was only a second-rate superhero in the field of comics. There was a huge sales gap with the three comic superhero giants "Batman", "Spider-Man" and "Superman".

Why does Hollywood always adapt the "Batman" series, "Spider-Man" series, and "Superman" series when adapting comic book superhero movies?

Just because these are the three most popular comic book characters, there is less risk in adapting them into movies.

But the two "Iron Man" movies starring Downey changed everything.

In the past, comics influenced movies, but now movies influence comics.

With the hot sales of the two "Iron Man" movies, "Iron Man", a second-rate superhero, has been promoted to the top, surpassing "Superman" and ranking third after "Batman" and "Spider-Man" !

At the same time, "Captain America", "Black Widow", "Hulk", "Hawkeye", "Thor" and other comic heroes from the "Avengers" series of movies, as well as the "X-Men" series restarted by 20th Century Fox, , all promoted the growth of their respective comic sales.

Now, Marvel comics are number one in the industry in the US market.

Annual sales are as high as US$320 million!

You know, in the past year, the total sales of comics in the United States was only 980 million US dollars.

Marvel Comics already has a high market share.

Dark Horse Comics' market share has also reached 10%, making it the third largest comics manufacturer in the United States, second only to Marvel and DC.

This is very troublesome.

If Ziweixing Global acquires Dark Horse Comics, "Marvel + Dark Horse", there is a risk of monopolizing the comics market. The combined market share of the two is nearly 50%, which will make many comic publishers and distributors lose the possibility of competition.

Therefore, it is not convenient for Ziweixing Global to come forward to acquire Dark Horse Comics.

Zhou Buqi was not embarrassed and immediately thought of Netflix.

The future is the world of comic book adaptation.

Netflix has already launched a self-produced drama model. When Marvel belongs to Ziweixing Universal and DC belongs to Warner, if Netflix wants to get a piece of the pie in the field of comic-adapted film and television dramas, the best choice is Dark Horse Comics.

By buying Dark Horse Comics, you can get more than 300 IPs, which can provide more sources of inspiration and creative ideas for Netflix's future self-produced dramas.

Of course, Changyou must also be given the green light to adapt the game.

Zhou Buqi plans to push Don Mattrick to obtain a board seat at Netflix to promote cooperation between the two parties.

The current trend of IP adaptation has not really started yet. Coupled with the booming development of film, television, games, music and other industries, the comic industry has become increasingly niche and cannot make much money.

Therefore, it doesn’t cost much to acquire Dark Horse Comics. According to estimates from Ziweixing Global, the transaction volume is about US$240 million to US$270 million.

When Zhou Buqi met Hastings, he didn't make a clear request. He just gave him suggestions and suggested that he buy it.

Give him three days to think about it.

If he disagrees, Zhou Buqi will ask Changyou to acquire the comic company.

Hastings did not hesitate at all and said with a smile: "Although I have never paid attention to Dark Horse Comics, I believe this must be the best decision."

He actually agreed on the spot.

In the evening, Zhou Buqi also came to the Oracle Arena to watch the game.

In fact, he doesn't want to watch basketball. The players are too tall and the gap between them and ordinary people is too big. The atmosphere of the stadium is not as shocking as the football stadium. Another point is that the current Warriors are too weak.

Fortunately, the newcomers are more promising.

Last year, Zhou Buqi personally stepped out of the draft and selected Paul George; this year he did not participate, and the Warriors selected Klay Thompson in the first round.

In the future, the Warriors' performance will get better and better, and it will not be easy to get a good lottery pick. At most, Green and Jokic were drafted in the second round. At least he could be of great help in drafting Jokic last week.

Joe Lacob and Zhou Buqi sat together, and the two bosses came to watch the game.

Naturally, the topic came to the San Francisco Giants.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "We've basically reached an agreement."

"Ah?" Joe Lacob was somewhat surprised, "So fast? It was decided in two days? Don't you need to think more about it?"

Zhou Buqi said casually: "No, the other party quoted us US$1 billion. I think this number is quite auspicious, so it's settled. There is no need to bargain for a small amount of money."

Joe Lacob's inner world is full of mixed feelings. Compared with the top rich people, there is really a huge gap.

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "1 billion US dollars to buy 65% ​​of the shares of the Giants is lower than I expected. I originally wanted to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers. The plan was to bid 2 billion US dollars and even find a loan." Yes. If it were the Giants, the loan would be a little less."

"this……"

Joe Lacob hesitated to speak.

Zhou Buqi glanced at him and asked strangely: "Is something wrong? Do you need my help?"

Joe Lacob sighed, "The economic environment this year is not very good. The income of many investment funds has not met expectations."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "I believe it will recover next year, especially the technology industry."

"But……"

"Um?"

"Alas!" Joe Lacob sighed heavily, "Zhou, if you have sufficient funds, I hope you can take over some of the shares..."

Seeing his hesitation, Zhou Buqi said amusedly, "What's going on? Just tell me."

Joe Lacob then explained why.

He was a venture capitalist before and became a partner of the well-known venture capital fund KPCB Kleiner Perkins Caufield \u0026 Byers, and obtained approximately 2.2% of KPCB’s shares.

In recent years, he has stopped investing much and mainly focuses on basketball. He loved playing basketball when he was a child, but he was too short to play professionally. Later he studied, took exams, and became an investor.

To say he is poor, he is not poor either;

It's hard to say he's rich. His net worth is only a few hundred million dollars.

When the Golden State Warriors were acquired, a total of US$450 million was spent, with each party paying half and each holding 50% of the shares. Zhou Buqi casually took out US$225 million in cash, but Joe Lacob was in a dilemma. He only took out US$125 million in cash and applied for another US$100 million loan.

Anyway, he owns 2.2% of the shares of KPCB Fund, and his annual dividends must be at least more than 10 million US dollars. He can just pay back the loan and interest slowly.

Unexpectedly, the capital market encountered some troubles this year.

So much so that KPCB has made a statement to all shareholders, saying that profits are limited and there will be no dividends this year. This puts a lot of pressure on Joe Lacob. He pays more than $6 million in interest every year.

When Zhou Buqi heard this, he felt very excited.

good news!

It is indeed good news!

Kleiner Perkins Caufield \u0026 Byers is a capital giant as famous as Blackstone Group and Bain Capital. Even Kleiner Perkins Caufield \u0026 Byers has stopped paying dividends this year, which shows that the big capital companies have not made much money this year.

It is only normal that Zhou Buqi’s Pluto Capital and Neptune Capital’s annualized returns do not meet the standard.

There is a more important point!

Those private equity institutions owned by Yahoo! will not have an easy time either!

If a large amount of income subsidies cannot be added to the books in a short period of time, the investment managers, partners, and shareholders of those capital institutions will probably not receive year-end dividends!

In the United States, consumption is ahead of schedule and everyone is in debt. Joe Lacob is a typical example. Many people rely on year-end dividends to relieve personal financial pressure.

Joe Lacob's current difficult situation completely confirms Zhou Buqi's judgment on the psychology of Yahoo's employers.

This is the right idea!

Boss Ma, you can be a little more courageous!