Back To 1995

  Chapter 948 Take what you need

  Marvel and DC Comics are now the two major comic book giants in America, and Hasbro is one of the world's four major toy giants, owning many brands such as "Transformers".

The current Marvel, of course, does not have any concept of the Marvel Universe, and it is not as valuable as after the "Iron Man" explosion in the later generations. After the superhero movies went out a few years ago, Marvel's life is even more difficult. Played Bankrupt once.

Marvel is not a sweet pastry for future generations, but a mess. Although it claims to have 6,000 superhero characters, the most famous and popular characters such as Spider-Man and Fantastic Four have long been sold by Marvel. Sold.

  The deadly rival DC Comics also thought about acquiring Marvel, but in the end they still thought that Marvel would be overwhelmed, so they lost the idea of ​​acquisition.

The current Marvel was bought by Isaac, the boss of the company who used to produce peripheral products for Marvel, and began to help Marvel recover slowly, but that’s all. Don’t worry about bankruptcy, but it’s not much better. Go, if you want to buy back the characters that Marvel threw out, there is no way to start.

   But no matter how unbearable it is, it is the two major comic book giants in America, with thousands of superhero characters in their hands. For Western Films, what is lacking is those things.

  Now Marvel is in a downturn, but if you want to buy those things, at least it is about one billion dollars. It's not that Marvel is worth that much money, but because you owe a debt that you have to pay back.

  Compared to Marvel, Hasbro, another company, is worth much more. After all, it is recognized all over the world that the most profitable business is always the industry that women and children need.

The pie in the sky was too big, and Ted Sarando was a little dizzy when he smashed it. He won Universal Pictures, had Hollywood’s publicity channels, amusement parks, and won Marvel and Hasbro. From movies to Amusement parks, then comics and toys, Western Films and its own special effects studio, transformed in an instant, and reached the point of keeping pace with Disney!

Even compared to Disney, it may have a more complete set of Hollywood film industry chain, coupled with ICQ's two major TV stations ICNC and NBC, Western Films and ICQ teamed up, and can almost overwhelm other established giants in Hollywood .

   "With the acquisition of Universal Pictures, Marvel, and Hasbro, the debt pressure of Western Films may be huge!"

   At this time, Ted Sarando was a little worried. In theory, Song Yang made a good card for Western Films, but the card was so good that Ted Sarando was a little worried about gains and losses.

  These large-scale mergers and acquisitions of Western Films are based on the bet that the era of special effects will come, and the bet that the special effects of movies with qualitative changes can bring the former superhero movies back to life.

   But betting on this thing, you know the name. If you win the bet, you will turn around. If you lose the bet, you will lose everything.

For example, Marvel used to not just wait for death, but lived by selling character copyrights. Although the previous boss of Marvel regarded Marvel as a cash cow, he also led Marvel to toss cards, toys and various peripheral products. But it is conceivable that the comics can't be sold, how can those peripheral products be sold, and in the end, it's a piece of chicken feathers, and it's back to the old business.

Ted Sarando knows that Song Yang will definitely not pay so much money for Western Films, and use it to buy Universal Pictures, Marvel, etc., at most a part of the dollars, and the rest of the dollars , It is estimated that it will be solved by issuing bonds and borrowing from banks.

  At that time, Western Films may be in debt, and if they are not careful, they will be doomed. This makes Ted Sarando feel like Alexander.

Song Yang glanced at Ted Sarando, ate the last cold meal, and pointed in the direction of Ron Meyer, "If you can't do it for Ted, I miss him, and there are many careers in Hollywood Manager, I am very happy to complete all this for you!"

Song Yang has already collected all the cards for Ted Sarando. How many film companies in Hollywood, DreamWorks, Lionsgate and other film companies dream of obtaining publicity and distribution channels. If they take the opportunity to acquire Universal Pictures, In front of them, I am afraid that I will never want to miss it.

As for being in debt, it depends on how Ted Sarando plays this deck of cards. The cards in the hands of different people can not play different effects. Others have become a mess.

   It is true that Song Yang favored Ted Sarando. Since the establishment of Western Films, he has been selected as the president of Western Films, who is unknown, and Ted Sarando has done well.

But now, the cards have become better, and of course the pressure is greater. It depends on whether Ted Sarando can play well. In the next two years, if Ted Sarando can sit firmly, the If the western film industry has been dealt with well, his position will naturally not be at any risk.

   On the contrary, if a good hand is played badly, then Song Yang can only cry and kill Ma Su, and replace him with a strong professional manager to take charge of the western film industry again!

   Song Yang said it was calm, but Ted Sarando was a little terrified when he heard it. He knew that Song Yang was definitely not joking with him.

   "I understand, I will deal with the merge as soon as possible!"

Ted Sarando said with a dignified expression that he knew that the opportunity was right in front of him. This might be the best chance he had in his life. The risk was a little higher, but as long as he survived the chaos after the merger, he would be able to Maybe he will become another powerful figure like Disney Eisner. Of course, he may not be able to cover the sky in the western film industry like Eisner, but he is definitely a powerful figure in Hollywood and even in America.

   "Split IMDB from Western Films, and hand it over to ICQ!"

   After Song Yang took a sip of his drink, after pondering for a moment, he still spoke to Ted Sarando.

Since IMDB was acquired, it has been managed by Western Films. Song Yang hopes that IMDB will not only be a movie database, but also start early to let Western Films hoard the copyright library and stuff it into IMDB as a film library, making IMDB a Film and television platforms like Netflix and iQiyi.

   But in the past few years, IMDB's performance can only be regarded as "average". Of course, it does not mean that IMDB is not doing well enough.

  Now IMDB is already the most authoritative rating website in the movie industry. Internet users who like movies all over the world will go to IMDB to find movies more or less, check movie ratings, post-watching reviews, movie highlights, interviews with stars and actors, and so on.

Even many Hollywood film companies and crews will warm up on IMDB in advance before the movie is released, and distribute some celebrity signature benefits, movie posters, peripheral products, etc. to attract users in advance. This is enough to prove the influence of IMDB in Hollywood today. force.

  Now IMDB is still cooperating with several major theater chain giants in America to launch an online movie ticketing system.

   It’s not that the management of IMDB is not doing well enough. On the contrary, with the current network speed and the concept of the Internet, it is not easy to play this far, but it is still far from Song Yang’s requirements.

Song Yang heard that Netflix is ​​also making various moves. After its listing, it is now also undergoing transformation. It is preparing to switch from a website that delivers discs to an Internet video platform. It is in contact with pay TV stations such as HBO and Showtime, and wants to buy it. These copyrights were moved to the Netflix platform to play.

Song Yang didn’t want to do such a thing as waking up early and catching up with an evening episode, so he split IMDB and got it to ICQ, which knows how to play the Internet, so it can be matched with ICQ, and ICQ provides IMDB website Traffic, and later contribute revenue to ICQ.

   It can’t be said that Song Yang’s actions are not authentic. He split Universal Pictures to Western Films and brought back an online video company IMDB.

If IMDB can reach the height of Netflix in the future, with a market value of 100 to 200 billion U.S. dollars, will those leeks who are now scolding Song Yang for doing unscrupulous things have to line up to apologize to Song Yang, the premise is that they can pinch Looking at the stock of ICQ by that time, IMDB did not pull the hips enough to be killed by Netflix...

But even in the worst case, if they can’t beat Netflix, it is estimated that IMDB can survive. Western Films, Universal Pictures, ICNC TV, and NBC TV provide IMDB with an exclusive Internet film library. It is estimated that they can eat their money for ten years eight years.

Ted Sarando readily agreed. Compared with Universal Pictures, IMDB is not very eye-catching now, and he didn't spend so much time on it. He has a sports car and a bicycle, so he is not tired. Hurry up, as for whether he will regret it in the future, who knows what will happen ten years later, whether he will retire or not at that time may not be sure!

   After talking with Ted Sarando, Song Yang talked with Hobro, the president of the newly established Symbian System Company, for a while.

  The Symbian system did not spin off the Alcatel mobile phone, but it was officially independent and became a new company with its own brand, office building, personnel and so on.

  Hoblo was also promoted to be the first president of the Symbian system company. The Symbian system is now a favorite. It is said that out of every ten mobile phones shipped in the world, nine of them are equipped with the Symbian system.

Although the Saipan system does not charge an installation authorization fee, it was originally to promote the Saipan system, but the advertisements pushed to mobile phone users on the system, Saipan charges money, relying on advertising fees, Saipan earned a few hours last year The beauty of the target.

  In the future, the mobile phone market will become bigger and bigger, and Saipan’s advertising fees will become more and more convenient. In addition, Saipan also has two brands, the Saipan App Store and the Saipan Music Store.

  The Symbian app store does not have a large revenue at present, mainly because there are still too few mobile phone applications, and the Symbian system does not take much commission.

But the Saipan Music Store is making a lot of money. Just one year after its launch, it has robbed a large chunk of the record industry. The Saipan Music Store earns mainly from music sales commissions and advertising fees. Hot ringtone.

  One song, Saipan music store sells a dollar, 30% of the cut, and the rest after the cost is basically distributed to several major record giants and various singers

This is also the reason why various record companies continue to cooperate with Saipan Music Store knowing that the Saipan Music Store is sucking their blood. The giants have teamed up to beat Scour and other Internet music platforms to death, but they still can't stop the torrent of digital music, and the sales of physical records are plummeting. Cooperation with Saipan Music Store can earn some money!

Hobrow's face was full of smug expressions. Even he himself never thought that one day, he would be able to ride on the head of the Hollywood record giant. People, when they saw Hobrow, they were all smiles, for fear that he would do something in the background and cheat their beautiful knives...

Song Yang didn't talk too much about Universal Music with Hobrow, "Universal Music is under the umbrella of the Saipan Music Store, which is mainly the copyright library of Universal Music. The Saipan system and the Saipan Music Store cannot interfere too much with Universal Music. , Universal Music is still operating independently!"

It has always been Song Yang's creed to entrust professional things to professional people. The record industry has its own operating system. They have scouts all over America, sponsoring large and small choirs in America, Various singing competitions, music festivals, music events, etc., a gifted musical genius, was signed away by the record group since he was a child.

  Then they have been systematically training their singing skills. There are specialized musicians to help them polish their voices. Professional composers and lyricists make songs for them. Finally, they package their debut albums, hold concerts, and then cut leeks. There is a complete process.

   It's not that there are no recording talents left behind, on the contrary, there are many, but the system of the record group can cultivate singers as much as possible, mass-produce them, and continuously promote them.

  As for overthrowing this system and creating a new one, even if it can be done, it will probably take several years or even ten years, and it may end up with nothing.

Hobro nodded. He knew his own level. He was an engineer, but he was only a layman in the record industry. Although the website of the Saipan Music Store was built by him, the platform involved The music content was audited by Hollywood professionals, and those Internet personnel were not allowed to mess around.

  Universal Music is under the Saipan Music Store, and Hobro will not intervene too much, but it will pull Universal Music more towards Internet gameplay, and will no longer stick to traditional records.

   "Song, on the Symbian system side, is it really necessary to develop a brand new mobile phone operating system, a smartphone system?!"

  The thing that interests and excites Hobrow the most is the matter of smartphones. Even though Ertian has already mentioned it to him, Hobrow is still a little excited.

After leaving Song Yang's villa that day, Ertian formed a new R&D team of up to 2,000 people, code-named "Project X", and recruited the best hardware engineers from Alcatel and software engineers from the Symbian system. There are also a large number of top engineers from American Telecom, and they have also mobilized a group of technical experts from Bell Labs, preparing to create a smartphone that meets Song Yang's requirements from scratch.

As Hobro knows, in the early stage, in order to get all those involved in the project to sign a non-disclosure agreement, Ertian spent more than nearly 100 million dollars, and the salaries of these engineers who entered the team have generally increased More than double, Ertian can be said to be a stud!

For Hobrow, it is also Alexander. He will lead the engineers of the Symbian system and start building a new mobile phone operating system from scratch. However, this also makes Hobrow somewhat excited. A brand-new system is enough to make him famous in the history of Silicon Valley, and he will definitely be on the list when discussing who is the best engineer in Silicon Valley in the future!

   Sorry, I have something to deal with today, so I can only update it, sorry

  (end of this chapter)