Chapter 2229 The courage to make decisions

When I came to the theater in the evening, it was different this time. Boss Zhou made a public appearance, and he had VIP tickets in the first row. Look at the people around him... Wow!

It’s really extraordinary!

I know many of them, including several big Hollywood actors, such as Tom Hanks, Morgan Friedman, and Cate Blanchett.

There are several investors and there are several entrepreneurs.

Regarding Zhou Buqi's appearance, everyone else also showed a bit of surprise and surprise. They stood up one after another and came over to shake my hand... Those who had known each other before smiled and exchanged greetings. Those who did not know each other introduced themselves first, and then handed out a A business card.

This is a big deal.

Many people in the second and third rows also noticed it and joined in. People who are ranked in this position are all rich or noble. The lowest is a local congressman. There are also executives of many large companies, such as the vice president of American Express, the vice president of Citibank, the vice president of Pepsi-Cola...

Of all people, the most important person should be Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes.

This person took the initiative to change seats, hoping to sit next to Zhou Buqi.

After sitting down, Jeff Bewkes said with a smile: "I heard that this is a wonderful traditional drama. Many friends around me recommended it to me today, saying that it should be adapted into a movie."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "The play is a good one, but it's unlikely to be adapted into a movie."

Of course Bix respected his point of view and sighed, "That's a shame."

Zhou Buqi really wanted to ask him something, "How is AOL?"

"ah?"

Jeff Bewkes was slightly startled.

Zhou Buqi said: "I have recently become very interested in the online advertising business. This market should not be dominated by Google alone."

"I'm afraid it's difficult."

Bix shook his head.

AOL was once an Internet giant in the United States, with a market value of nearly US$100 billion. At its peak, it merged with Time Warner and became the AOL Time Warner Group, with a market value of US$180 billion.

Then it was miserable.

This is the worst merger in history.

Warners was screwed.

By 2009, Time Warner couldn't bear it anymore and divested its AOL business, leaving only $3 billion in value.

Zhou Buqi turned to look at him, "What? No chance?"

Bix said: "The two companies have been separated, and I don't know much about the specific situation. But based on my past understanding of this company, it is difficult for AOL's business to develop better."

Zhou Buqi smiled, "That's not necessarily the case."

Bix glanced at him, a little surprised, "Mr. Zhou is interested in AOL?"

Zhou Buqi said frankly: "Yes."

Since the two companies have been split up, Jeff Bewkes will not care about AOL's interests and actively expresses his goodwill, "Mr. Zhou, the current internal situation of AOL is relatively complicated, and most of the business is in a Decline stage. When the two companies were divested in 2009, AOL still owned 80 websites of various types. However, after the divestiture, AOL lost Time Warner's capital dividends and had to rely on layoffs, restructuring, and selling off core assets to survive. ."

Zhou Buqi was very calm and said, "It's okay."

Bix said: "In order to cut operating costs, they shut down more than 30 websites at once last year. Even two years ago, they sold their core Internet asset ICQ."

"ICQ?"

Zhou Buqi was quite surprised.

This is the originator of instant messaging products, so famous!

Domestic QQ is modeled after this product.

Bix said with regret: "Mr. Zhou, I won't hide it in front of you. In fact, when Time Warner and AOL split up at the beginning, Time Warner retained part of AOL's shares and also occupied a board of directors. seats. It was because of the ICQ incident that I decided to quit AOL completely."

Zhou Buqi smiled and asked, "What's wrong?"

Bix said: "ICQ used to be the leader in instant messaging, much more powerful than MSN and Yahoo Messenger. Even today, there are still many loyal users using this product. In 2010, Helo on the mobile side had already taken off. We all see the possibility of instant messaging products on the mobile side, and we all recommend ICQ to transform to the mobile side and compete with Helo in this market."

Zhou Buqi nodded, "Well, this is a very courageous and strategic idea."

Bix said helplessly: "Yes, but they didn't agree at all. Helo was already popular at that time, and there were already opportunities for such products in the market. But AOL believed that ICQ could not be Helo's opponent... …They don’t have enough strength to compete with Ziweixing.”

Zhou Buqi couldn't help laughing.

Does this count as subduing the enemy without fighting?

Bix said: "AOL didn't dare to compete with Ziweixing's Helo, but some people did. For AOL's board of directors, this turned out to be an opportunity for them to sell ICQ at a high price."

When Zhou Buqi heard this, he was really shocked by the cool operation of the AOL group, "Then you really sold it?"

Bix said: "Yes, I really sold it. After all, this is a high-quality asset. Some people hope to rely on ICQ to compete with Helo on the mobile terminal."

Zhou Buqi asked: "How much did it cost?"

"400 million U.S. dollars." Bewkes said more mockingly, "When AOL acquired ICQ more than ten years ago, the transaction amount was 800 million U.S. dollars. They sold the core assets at half price, and they were still proud, saying that they had obtained this You can use the money to develop your online advertising business.”

Zhou Buqi understood what was going on as soon as he heard it.

This is definitely the selfishness of professional managers!

What this group of people really care about is not the company's interests, but their personal interests. As far as personal interests are concerned, let AOL survive and survive for a long time.

In this way, they can receive high salaries every year.

If AOL wants to bet on ICQ and compete with Helo on the mobile terminal... this is a desperate gamble, and all of AOL's wealth must be bet on it.

It worked, and AOL’s stock price soared…

But for these professional managers, their shareholdings are very small and they only own a small number of options. When the stock price rises sharply, the biggest beneficiaries are the major shareholders, and they have little to do with them.

If it fails...

That would be tragic.

AOL may go bankrupt as a result. These professional managers will have to bear the reputation of bankrupting a once hundreds-billion-dollar Internet giant, and they will lose their high-paying and powerful jobs as a result.

If you succeed, you will get very few benefits; if you fail, you will lose nothing.

What's the point of such a huge gamble?

This fundamentally limits the decision-making courage of professional managers.

But the problem came again.

Who has no selfish motives?

If professional managers are to have no selfish motives, the bosses must not be selfish and give them more shares and option rewards. As long as the benefits are large enough, they will of course be willing to fight for a larger and longer-term goal.

It's really not easy to do this.

The vast majority of bosses wish they could hold the company's shares in their own hands. As everyone knows, the more tightly you hold on to your shares, the less valuable these shares are.

Zhou Buqi has long understood this truth.

He was doing this in the early days of starting a business, but at this stage, he has fallen out of style and is just like ordinary people...

If nothing else, the options of Changyou's two co-CEOs, Tang Mattrick and Ren Yuxin, must be increased.

It is best to guarantee a minimum of two thousandths of the shares per year.

After working for ten years, each person will hold 2% of the shares.

That's generous enough.

After talking about AOL, Zhou Buqi still didn't seem to give up on his intention to buy it. He smiled and said, "I'm interested in AOL. If it's convenient, you can send me a message."

"good."

Jeff Bewkes is hard to understand.

But this is normal.

If anyone could understand him, he would not be the richest man in the world at such a young age.

However, this time he took the initiative to join in, not to flatter the new richest man, but because there was a cooperation between the two parties, centered around HBO and the drama version of "The Lord of the Rings".

Bewkes rose from the CEO position of HBO to become the CEO of Time Warner. This is his core base.

Zhou Buqi was a little surprised, "Didn't MGM come up with a plan?"

"That plan..." Bix shook his head, "I read that plan and it doesn't seem to be suitable. It would be best to refer to the cooperation plan of "Game of Thrones" and start cooperation between the two companies."

The plan proposed by MGM is for both parties to share risks.

For MGM, the risk is that the investment in the drama version of "The Lord of the Rings" is too great. Once the project fails, it will suffer serious losses; for HBO, the risk is that the appeal of "The Lord of the Rings" is too strong. Once the project fails, If it succeeds, HBO will have to pay sky-high broadcast fees if it wants to renew its contract in the future.

This creates the possibility of cooperation.

The two parties signed a contract in advance and agreed on the first round of TV broadcast fees for the entire series of "The Lord of the Rings", which is a fixed number.

In this way, HBO does not have to worry about the future popularity of the show. They will encounter "blackmail" and have to constantly bid to pay the sky-high rebroadcast fees.

MGM can also receive a fixed income to reduce investment risks. It does not have to worry about having to bear all investment losses if the project fails.

However, this is not the same as the cooperative mode of "Game of Thrones".

In that series of American TV series, Ziweixing Global obtained the streaming media rights. More importantly, it participated in the investment and obtained 40% of the copyright. This is the right to speak.

The right to speak is power.

Power is much more important than profit.

This means that if HBO wants to develop sequels or other spin-offs and movie versions of "Game of Thrones" in the future, they cannot make a unilateral decision and need to communicate with Ziweixing Global.

Zhou Buqi did not hesitate, "This is impossible! How much of a project risk was there when "Game of Thrones" was produced? It is also a fantasy novel. Can "A Song of Ice and Fire" be compared with "The Lord of the Rings"? If nothing else, there is no comparison in terms of copyright value alone. The TV rights of "Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" are both in the hands of MGM. These are priceless treasures and there is no possibility of any copyright transfer."

Bix frowned slightly, "If that's the case, I would be in a very difficult position."

Zhou Buqi said with a smile: "How could it be? In business, the most important thing is vision. AOL gave up ICQ, HBO can't give up the drama version of "The Lord of the Rings", right? In business, you always need a little courage in decision-making. . It doesn’t matter if you don’t agree, you can just bid based on our last contract.”