Chapter 2094 Yahoo’s strategic value

Zhou Buqi met with several investors of the San Francisco Giants again and had a pleasant conversation. This was considered the last formal meeting between the two parties before reaching an agreement.

Purchased 65% of the Giants for $1 billion.

Quick and efficient, the transaction went very smoothly.

Next, there are three more steps, and the deal is completed.

First, we need to wait for the results of due diligence by financial institutions and legal institutions to see if there are any hidden bad debts, illegal or criminal activities on the Giants, etc.

There is no big problem in this regard.

Second, it needs local approval in San Francisco. After all, the San Francisco Giants are not an ordinary company and have local cultural characteristics.

Be cautious about the intrusion of foreign capital.

The problem in this area is not big, it is just a formality.

Third, it must be approved by the National Baseball League and ensure that the introduction of new shareholders will not undermine the healthy development of the baseball league and will not affect the interests of other baseball teams.

This is no problem.

It can even be said that the baseball league has a very open attitude towards Zhou Buqi's investment.

The baseball league is a very powerful business league.

Take the San Francisco Giants for example, this time the deal was valued at US$1.5 billion with Zhou Buqi. But in fact, the valuation of the Giants club is only US$1.2 billion.

The other $300 million is the assets of Major League Baseball.

The Baseball League has 30 teams and is a sports business organization organized by 30 baseball teams. All the assets of this organization are shared equally by the 30 teams.

In other words, the current asset valuation of Major League Baseball is US$9 billion. If divided equally among each team, it would be US$300 million.

The San Francisco Giants' assets are valued at $1.2 billion, plus their share of $300 million in baseball league assets, for a total price of $1.5 billion.

Under this model, the baseball league is no longer just an organization that operates baseball games, but a company that diversifies and promotes the development of baseball games. It owns TV stations, streaming media companies, data analysis companies, baseball magazines, baseball websites, and baseball games. Game studios and more.

This also shows how rich the people in power in European football are.

We have football as the world's largest sports IP, but major institutions, leagues, and organizations lack the brains to turn football IP into profits, and they are all trying to suck blood from the team.

The most typical one is UEFA.

Not only does it not create any wealth itself, it is still trying to find ways to gain profits from its teams. When you encounter risks, the risks are borne by the team; when you make money, UEFA gets the right to distribute the cake, eat your fill first, and then distribute the rest to other teams.

The Premier League is better, but not much better. It cannot create wealth on its own.

Of course, this is a good thing for Zhou Buqi.

His football-based Ziweixing Digital Media is based on the rigid status quo of European football and supplements the industrial structure at the digital level of football.

In the field of football, what "European Football + Ziweixing Digital Media" is doing is equivalent to what Major League Baseball is doing in the field of baseball. Even less, because Ziweixing Digital Media currently does not have a live streaming business for football.

As early as seven or eight years ago, the baseball league launched a digital project and attracted investors to provide money, which is the famous sports live broadcast platform BAMTech. This is the world's first live sports event platform. Baseball didn't spend a penny on the project, and the sports broadcasting company is now valued at more than $1.5 billion.

Spread evenly among the 30 baseball teams, it is equivalent to the baseball league creating a wealth of US$50 million for each team.

Ziweixing Digital Media has several senior executives who were recruited from the baseball league, such as Bill Mertens, the current assistant to the chairman and vice president of Ziweixing Digital Media.

Baseball is a niche project, so the board of directors of Major League Baseball has been committed to promoting baseball events, and a very important direction is digital operation. This is very similar to the business of Ziweixing Digital Media. Ziweixing Digital Media is engaged in the digital operation of football.

The two parties can carry out multi-faceted cooperation in areas such as digital ideas, technology and promotion.

Under this general trend, if Boss Zhou can join the circle of Major League Baseball, he will certainly be warmly welcomed by the industry's big figures.

So there is no obstacle to winning the San Francisco Giants.

Just pay with one hand and deliver the goods with the other hand.

It is expected to be completed this month.

very smooth.

However, Yahoo's case did not go smoothly. Because he wasn't directly involved, he still didn't know much about many things.

In the evening, Zhou Buqi calculated the time and made a call to the country to find Boss Ma. He said angrily: "If you run away, I will go straight to you! Then, don't blame me for cheating you." you!"

"Don't! Don't!" Boss Ma was really afraid that this guy was up to something behind his back. "I have something urgent. I'm going to the United States tomorrow to look for trouble. Don't move around."

Zhou Buqi didn't believe it, "What's the emergency? Is it more important than buying back Alibaba's shares? I think you are timid and were scared away by my plan?"

Boss Ma smiled and said: "No problem, I really have to go back to China. The domestic group buying market is a mess, and many companies have taken away their money and ran away, which has a very bad impact. If there are opinions from above, I will come back and tell them Let’s talk about what group buying is and what kind of policy planning should be carried out.”

Zhou Buqi said: "I heard that Yahoo is engaged in an agency dispute."

"Um."

Boss Ma is relatively calm.

"Huh?" Zhou Buqi was a little surprised, "You didn't respond?"

Boss Ma smiled and said: "What I want is to get back Alibaba's shares. Who will be the next CEO of Yahoo has little to do with it. It is the Yahoo board of directors who can decide whether Alibaba can get the shares, not the new CEO." ."

Yahoo's proxy battle is mainly between the major shareholder hedge fund Thirdpoint and founder Yang Zhiyuan.

The battle is for the right to appoint the next CEO.

This is particularly critical.

The people appointed by the employer must consider the interests of the employer and focus on short-term interests; the people appointed by Yang Zhiyuan must consider the long-term development of the company and care about long-term value.

Zhou Buqi said angrily: "Why don't you consider my last proposal?"

"What proposal? Take over Yahoo?" Boss Ma was puzzled. "Yahoo has become so bad, you still want to take over? Are you so brave? Are you not afraid of being beaten?"

Zhou Buqi said: "At least you can take back 40% of the shares held by Yahoo."

"I can't afford it." Boss Ma said simply, "As long as we can get back 20% of the voting rights, that's enough. I haven't considered anything else. This is the safest and easiest way to implement it."

Yahoo is in embarrassment right now, with a market capitalization of $20 billion.

However, Yahoo’s 40% stake in Alibaba is now valued at US$15 billion. He holds 35% of Yahoo Japan's shares, which is worth US$9 billion based on Yahoo Japan's current market capitalization of US$26 billion.

These two stocks alone add up to $24 billion.

But the market value of the entire Yahoo is 20 billion US dollars.

This also means that in the eyes of the capital market, Yahoo itself has negative equity, with a market value of -4 billion U.S. dollars, which will ruin the Alibaba and Yahoo Japan stocks it holds, combined with the two stocks of 24 billion U.S. dollars. , giving a market value of US$20 billion.

Zhou Buqi said: "Yahoo is in a lot of crises right now, and it's a rare opportunity!"

Boss Ma smiled and said: "There are so many opportunities to make money, and you still want to seize them? Just get all the benefits you can get, and that's it? I can reveal some news to you, what is Ali's repurchase?" With 20% of the shares, Alibaba can only raise funds to repurchase 5% of the shares at most. If you eat the remaining 15%, it’s not enough to make money? You still have to eat 40%?”

Zhou Buqi told the truth, "Making money is one thing, but what I focus more on now is strategic value."

"What strategic value?"

"Do you know where Ziweixing's base camp is in overseas markets?"

"Huh?" Boss Ma raised his eyebrows, and finally understood what this guy meant, and blurted out: "Japan!"

Zhou Buqi said: "To be precise, it is Japan, South Korea, Southeast Asia, and the Asian market. Of course, Japan is the most important one. The economy is large enough, and it is easy for people to make money if they are stupid. But for the Japanese market, Yahoo Japan It is the center of the Internet field.”

If Ziweixing can get the 35% of Yahoo Japan shares it holds from Yahoo, then Ziweixing will be the second largest shareholder of Yahoo Japan.

In this way, Ziweixing’s Japanese business has become deeply entrenched.