Silicon Valley

It is really a wave of unrest and another wave. Just when the iPhone 1 became popular all over the world, there was a sudden news that Henry wanted to acquire the European media giant Bertelsmann Group, and he offered a sky-high price of 100 billion US dollars!

However, the acquisition of Bertelsmann is true, but the $100 billion is purely fabricated by the media, and it is impossible for Bertelsmann to be worth this price. Smith actually offered Bertelsmann a $30 billion purchase price! Although the Bertelsmann Group is one of the world's top 500 companies with a history of more than 170 years, the ranking of the top 500 companies is at the bottom of the crane, and its revenue has not exceeded 20 billion U.S. dollars. In recent years, due to Affected by the Internet, Bertelsmann Group's performance has gradually declined. If it does not make changes, it will fall out of the top 500 companies in a few years.

This time, Henry suddenly sent someone to ask for the acquisition of Bertelsmann, which made Bertelsmann feel that it was an opportunity. Henry Williams is a recognized hegemon in the Internet field, and it is also a key breakthrough for Bertelsmann to seek digital industry transformation. ! So the two sides hit it off, and Bertelsmann immediately terminated the cooperation with Sony and began negotiations with Smith, the representative sent by Henry. Among them, Sony Corporation seems very pitiful and sad. It spent a lot of thought to actively "pursue" Bertelsmann, but when the two parties "communicated" and were only short of the last base, they were suddenly "green". Are you sad, are you sad? !

Some time later, at 10 o'clock in the morning on November 1, 2003, Bertelsmann Group held a press conference at its headquarters to announce that Bertelsmann accepted the acquisition of Williams Royal Investment Company and was willing to sell 80% of the shares!

After the news came out, the global book and music markets were shocked and panicked!

Amazon was originally the largest retail bookstore on the Internet. Now that Henry Williams has acquired Bertelsmann, then Bertelsmann's largest mass book publishing group in the world, Random House, and Europe's largest publisher of periodicals and magazines, Gruner \u0026 Jarr, belong to Henry. Naturally, Amazon's competitiveness in the book industry will be further strengthened in the future.

As for the music market, the .mp3 website and Tiantian music software already accounted for about 55% of the market share of Internet music, but the advent of the iPhone made the market share of the iTunes store skyrocket, and the entire Internet music sales channel was almost Monopolized by Henry Williams alone. However, this kind of dominance is definitely not what other record companies want to see. Therefore, they actively support other music playback software to fight against it. There are many music copyright restrictions on .mp3 websites, every day music and iTunes! The same is true for BMG Records before the acquisition of Bertelsmann. As a result, many users complained that some of the songs found were restricted by copyright and could not be played, which is really annoying!

BMG record company is now acquired by Henry, so there are naturally a large number of songs that can be lifted. On the one hand, it solved the problem of the source of the songs; on the other hand, it caused a rift in the alliance of record companies. With BMG Records leading the way, many record companies followed suit. Of course, the other four major record companies must still insist on copyright restrictions on some songs. If they are all open, then the music software under Henry's name will really become the dominant one. If the sales channels are all controlled by one person, then the right to speak and bargain is not what other people say. The four major record companies are not so stupid!

As one of the top five record companies in the world, BMG Records is naturally powerful. It has signed many well-known singers and owns a large number of song copyrights! Therefore, when the news that a large number of songs will be released in iTunes, the sales volume of iPhone 1 smartphones increased in vain, and suddenly rose to 2 million units per day. Wantai!

So far, more than 35 million iPhone 1 smartphones have been sold, making it a miracle in business history! Since Henry delisted Apple, the outside world has no idea of ​​Apple's revenue and profits. An 8GB version of iPhone 1 is priced at US$599, with a net profit of US$300; ​​a 16GB version of iPhone1 is priced at US$699, with a net profit of US$345; Add it all up, and make a grand total of $11.5 billion. However, this is only the profit of mobile phone hardware...

The AppStore and iTunes also earn a lot of revenue. After sharing with third parties, Apple made a total of 2.5 billion US dollars.

In fact, this is only the income related to iPhone1 mobile phones. The hot sales of iPhone1 have also driven the sales of iPod, MacBook, iMac and other products. The total of all Apple products should have earned nearly 16 billion US dollars in October. The monthly net profit is so high, I am afraid no one will believe it! ! !

With the idea of ​​making a fortune silently, Henry decided to keep a low profile. If the users know that Apple has made so much money from them, they will definitely be upset.

"Your Majesty, have you ever thought about taking Apple public?"

Violet sighed in a shocking tone, "Apple can make so much money, the market value must be very high!!!"

"Yes!" Henry thought for a while and nodded, "Williams Empire does not have a stock exchange yet. When everything in the empire is on the right track, I will let people establish a 'Digo Exchange' in Digo, and then let Apple The company is listed on the Digo Exchange, and this is the first shot!!!”

"Well, with Apple's current profitability, it will definitely get off to a good start!"

"Yes, there is no doubt about it. No matter where it is listed, it will be sought after by countless people! But..." Henry paused, staring into the distance, and said lightly, "I want to make the Digo Exchange develop into a In the second Nasdaq, just one Apple company is far from enough. At that time, I plan to let many companies under my name be listed on the Digo Exchange one by one. With the support of these companies, the Digo Exchange will inevitably It can grow and become one of the largest stock markets in the world, and at the same time make the city of Diego one of the international financial centers!"

"In addition, after the company is listed, the stock price will inevitably rise. Most of the people who buy the stock should be citizens of the Williams Empire, and it can be regarded as a benefit to them!" Henry said.

"Your Majesty, this is hiding wealth from the people!"

"That's right!" Henry nodded and smiled.

While Henry was talking with Violet, the Pearson Education Group of the United Kingdom actively sent a request to the Bertelsmann Group, hoping to merge its Penguin Publishing Group and Random House!

The rise of the Internet has seriously impacted the paper book market. Both Random House and Penguin Publishing Group are going downhill. Now that Random House has found a buyer, and will use Henry's Internet resources to transform the digital industry, what will Pearson Education Group, which is also a world publishing giant, do in the future?

After the launch of the iPhone 1 smart phone, Pearson Education Group found that more and more people read e-books through iBooks. Once smart phones become popular in the future, the survival market for paper books will be greatly squeezed. Pearson Education Group found this point After that, I deeply felt the crisis coming! Ever since, Pearson Education Group finally came up with the idea of ​​merging Penguin Publishing Group with Random House to resolve this crisis!

Smith immediately called Henry and reported the situation.

"Your Majesty, Pearson Education Group proposed to us to merge Penguin Publishing Group and Random House, do you think...?" Smith asked.

Hearing this, Henry couldn't help being taken aback. He still remembered that the Penguin Publishing Group published "Harry Potter" for him back then!

"Forget about merging. The British Pearson Education Group seems to be the largest education and training group in the world. You just bought it for me!!!" After Henry finished speaking, he secretly smiled inwardly. Regarding the merger of Publishing Group and Random House, I never thought of buying you!

Pearson Education Group is much better than New Oriental. It is a leading education group in the world. It has a history of more than 150 years and is committed to providing high-quality educational content and educational information technology for educators and students of all ages. , testing and assessment, professional certification, and all education-related services. Pearson education has spread to more than 60 countries around the world, ranking first in the world in many fields such as higher education, primary and secondary education, English education, professional publishing, examination and evaluation, and online education, helping more than 100 million people around the world to receive education and training .

For the education cause of the Williams Empire, it seems imperative to acquire Pearson Education Group! The current scale of New Oriental is still small, and it cannot provide too many talents for the Williams Empire. Pearson Education Group is more mature, larger in scale and more effective.

"Han Xin sent troops, the more the better", Henry was not stingy about investing in education.

"Smith, what is the approximate market value of Pearson Education Group?" Henry asked.

"Pearson Group is one of the world's famous publishing and media giants, including the world's largest educational publishing group (PearsonEducation), Penguin Publishing Group Penguin Group, the famous Financial Times Group and the famous Economist Group, in 65 countries around the world. There are more than 30,000 employees in the country and region. Pearson is world-renowned for having the most abundant intellectual property rights and high-quality publications. The annual sales are more than 7 billion US dollars, so we give a valuation of 15 billion US dollars .”

Smith added, "Your Majesty, the "Financial Times" ranked first in the November 2003 ranking of the world's most influential media, and even the "Wall Street Journal" was not behind!"

Henry nodded, Wall Street has the "Wall Street Journal", and if Digo has the "Financial Times", it will play a very important role in the development of Digo Exchange in the future!

"Then the full acquisition of Pearson Education Group at a premium of US$2 billion!!!" Henry said lightly, but his tone was full of domineering.

"Yes!"

...

...

Pearson Education Group was very depressed. It planned to merge its Penguin Publishing House with Random House, but unexpectedly, it attracted the attention of Henry Williams and sent someone to buy him!

Pearson held an emergency board meeting.

At the meeting, a director said: "The Internet is a major trend. If Pearson Group wants to maintain strong development, it must transform the group's core educational publishing business to digital transformation and invest heavily in emerging markets! Obviously, Henry William We have both! With the help of Henry Williams, the digital transformation of Pearson Education will be very easy, and the Williams empire and the education industry in Africa are lagging behind, which is our emerging market!!!”

"You're right. If it's a cooperation, we are very willing, but Henry Williams wants to buy us out!" Another director said with a frown.

As soon as the words were finished, the audience suddenly fell silent.

"However, the price offered by the other party is still fair, so it's fine if you want to sell it!"

"Let's not talk about selling. After all, Pearson Group is a British group with a history of more than 150 years. How can it be sold so easily?!"

"That depends on who it is sold to! Although Henry Williams is the king of the Williams Empire, he is also British and is the pride of our British people. If Pearson Group sells him, it may become a historical figure. The first company to enter the world's top 500 companies in the education industry, and benefit more people through education! Therefore, if everyone really cares about education rather than money, I think Pearson should be sold to Henry Williams!!!" A 40-50-year-old man wearing glasses suddenly stood up and said loudly to everyone.

When everyone heard the words, they couldn't help discussing in a low voice.

Half an hour later, a 70-year-old man sitting at the top suddenly said: "Crofts is right, we do education, not for money, but for education! The purpose of Pearson Group is' Helping everyone realize their best potential', so I can help more people, I am willing to sell Pearson Group!!! What's more, the other party bought Pearson Group at a premium and did not treat us badly. On the contrary, Pearson Group Facing the problem of declining performance..."

The old man is the chairman of Pearson Group, Lance Heslett, who holds 15% of the shares and is the largest shareholder of the group. Moreover, his prestige in the group is very high. As soon as he spoke, many people fell silent and couldn't help rethinking and changing their decisions.

"Let's vote, everyone, the party with the most shares will decide the fate of the group!" Lance Heslet said in a deep voice.

"According to what Mr. Huslett said, vote!" Crofts stroked his glasses and said loudly, "I support, sell Pearson Group!"

"I'm against selling Pearson..."

"..."

At this moment, Smith was sitting on the sofa in the reception room of the headquarters of Pearson Group, resting on the sand, with a cigarette in his mouth, puffing out the clouds, with a calm expression. A few minutes later, the door of the reception room was pushed open, and Lance Huslett walked in first, "Mr. Smith, after we voted, we are willing to sell Pearson Group to His Majesty King Henry Williams..." Lance Heslet showed a smile, and said to Smith in a confident manner.

(to be continued ~^~)