The Rebirth of the Male God Starts From Playing Games

Chapter 189: 187. What? Bomi wants to buy Blizzard? !

Chapter 189 187. What? Bomi wants to buy Blizzard? !

Tuesday, February 11, 2003.

When Cao Yang arrived at the company, he received good news from the little secretary.

"Boss, we have already responded to our bid for Vivendi. Vivendi President Jean-Rene Furto said that we hope we can go to Paris to discuss specific matters."

"Huh? Really?" Cao Yang was a little overjoyed.

Just in January this year, Vivendi’s president Jean-Rene Furto announced to the outside world that he would sell his game division.

Vivendi is a company, not many people may have heard of it, but its subsidiaries are all very famous.

This giant with a history of more than one hundred years is very legendary.

Vivendi Global Group is the world's largest environmental service group, listed on the Paris stock market, and is the world leader in water, waste treatment, transportation and energy.

Simply put, Vivendi and Disney, Time Warner and other entertainment giants are among the world's eight giant media multinational groups, and their business scope includes music, TV, film, publishing, telecommunications, Internet, and games. In addition to games, its Universal Music is the world's largest record company, with more than 25% of the global music market share. In terms of movies, it is Universal Pictures, which once controlled one of the eight major Hollywood studios.

Before Cao Yang sought a music license, Yang Junrong had cooperated with its subsidiary Universal Music.

So as the big owner of Alpha Music, Cao Yang is not particularly unfamiliar with Vivendi, also the big owner of Universal Music.

Children from at least two families have also worked together.

This company was initially engaged in water affairs, and later transformed into a giant media capital group, often engaged in mergers and acquisitions and re-sales.

Some game companies happened to be attracted by Vivendi and were ruined.

To talk about the most typical case, you have to talk about a company called Xueleshan.

This company sold the game Half-Life.

If there was no Xueleshan, there would be no later V agency. Back then, they did not lose Blizzard, and even slapped the existence of EA.

At that time, Vivendi quickly followed the company and proposed an acquisition. Xueleshan thought he had a thigh. Unexpectedly, this leg was not so easy to hug.

Less than a year after being acquired by Vivendi, Vivendi carried out drastic reforms to Xueleshan, forcibly dismembering a large factory, laying off a considerable part of Xueleshan's employees, and closing all the studios. NS.

It’s not an exaggeration to describe it as [Eat and Wipe].

Blizzard is the next to be brutally attacked.

Blizzard is a company with a long history. It has changed several owners back and forth, without knowing what the last name is.

In 1994, Blizzard (then called Chaos Studios) was acquired by Davidson and associated companies and renamed Blizzard Entertainment.

In 1995, Davidson (Blizzard's first parent company) and its associated company were acquired by Xueleshan and then sold to CUC International.

In 1997, CUC International (the second parent company) merged with HFS Group to form Shengteng Company.

In 1998, Shengteng was sold to the entertainment department of French Harves.

Then French Harves (the fourth parent company) was acquired by Vivendi.

Then logically, Blizzard became a member of Vivendi’s game division.

After , Blizzard’s long-term experience of being eaten up and wiped out began. After all IP was squeezed out, they were forced to embark on the process of self-foreclosure.

In 2016, Vivendi also ate Ubisoft’s mobile game company gameloft.

This company has developed many mobile games such as "Wild Speed", "Dungeon Hunter", "Splinter Cell 5: Conviction", "Spiderman"...etc.

After was eaten by Vivendi, the mobile game company fell completely, all internal management personnel were replaced, and the board of directors resigned collectively. In this way, the Ubisoft mobile game company was completely desolate.

Previous life netizens commented on Vivendi’s company:

【A company far more **** than Penguin.

Penguin caters to the player. If the player likes the buyout system, Penguin will cater to the buyout system. Unlike Vivendi, he sees you make money, makes a hostile takeover, and forcibly pulls your hair. Then lost. Activision Blizzard was murdered that year, but fortunately, it repurchased it and left it. 】

……

Rang is the president of the company who just took office last year.

At the beginning of this year, Jean-Rene Furto officially announced that it would sell the Vivendi Game Division.

So far, Vivendi Games has approximately 1,500 employees in 15 offices around the world.

The five major game development studios under the company are:

BlackLabelGames, BlizzardEntertainment (Blizzard), KnowledgeAdventure, NDAProductions and SierraEntertainment (Snow Leshan).

……

The reason why Vivendi chose to sell the game division is actually very simple-

Because these game companies lose money.

In 2002, Vivendi Global fell into a serious financial crisis and credit crisis after its frenzied expansion.

In order to get rid of the high debt of 31 billion U.S. dollars as soon as possible, the newly appointed president Jean-Rene Furto sold Canal+, which had been losing money, and then signaled the possibility of selling the entire game department including Blizzard.

In the huge organizational structure of Vivendi Universal, Blizzard’s game division, Vivendi Universal Games (Vivendi Universal Games), is just a dispensable piece.

According to last year’s financial report, Vivendi Global’s total turnover in the second half of 2002 was US$11.01 billion and a loss of US$723 million.

There are several main reasons for the loss of tens of billions of revenue:

1, the cost is too high;

2, the cost is too high;

3. Taxes are too high.

Among them, the turnover of the game business department is only 275 million U.S. dollars, with a loss of 59.5 million U.S. dollars.

From the figures alone, game revenue only accounts for less than 2% of the company’s total revenue, while losses account for 4%. This performance is very disappointing to investors.

So it became a necessity to sell the game division.

……

Cao Yang was very happy when he heard that Vivendi was going to sell the game division.

This shows that Bomi’s opportunity is here.

Since last year’s 9/11 stock trading to make money, Bomi has been able to come up with funds about 400 million U.S. dollars.

After 9/11, Cao Yang originally made almost 1.5 billion U.S. dollars from the stock market. In the end, he only cashed out 300 million. All the rest was invested in the stock market. Now the U.S. stock market is picking up. A generous return, the portion of the investment in Apple alone has risen by nearly three times.

So Bomi almost still has nearly 3 billion US dollars in the US stock market.

Because Bomi is not listed, the outside world has always underestimated Bomi’s assets.

In fact, Bomi is rich now, very rich, at least in China, Bomi is definitely second to none.

But compared to the foreign giants, it seems to be nothing.

This time I wanted to take the opportunity to acquire the game department of Vivendi, mainly with a speculative mentality. Because of his previous life, Cao Yang was very impressed by this node.

If you don’t buy it now, the future Vivendi’s game division will rise to a sky-high price.

At that time, Activision Blizzard redeemed itself from its parent company Vivendi, which cost almost US$8.2 billion.

……

Cao Yang acquired Vivendi’s game division mainly for Blizzard.

Blizzard is divided into two parts: Northern Blizzard and Southern Blizzard.

The predecessor of Blizzard North was the Vulture Company, which was later acquired by Blizzard and then together by Vivendi.

After , it will be distinguished by the North and South Blizzard.

The representative work of Northern Blizzard is the "Diablo" series, and the representative work of Southern Blizzard is the "Warcraft" series.

Up to now, Blizzard’s most famous "Warcraft 3: The Frozen Throne" has not yet been released.

Not to mention the future "World of Warcraft", it will be a terrible gold sucker.

The global revenue brought by 2006 is more than 10 billion U.S. dollars each year.

So Cao Yang hopes to take Blizzard down.

Since Vivendi wanted to sell, Cao Yang followed the bidding. If the winning one is better, if not, he will look for another one.

I did not expect to receive a response from the Paris headquarters today.

……

The acquisition of Blizzard was something that Cao Yang couldn't even think of in his previous life. He didn't expect that today he would be lucky enough to be the next candidate for [Blizzard's parent company].

Cao Yang couldn't help but shook his head with emotion.

Life is really fickle.

The rebirth is really too bad. If he does not grasp the opportunities for the future, it is impossible for him to accumulate such a huge wealth in just two years, and it is impossible for him to have the opportunity to discuss this business.

In short, this is an opportunity and a good thing for Cao Yang.

It happens that Bomi lacks a grasper in the United States. If Vivendi’s game division can be successfully taken down, then using its subsidiaries as a base in the future, it can radiate the entire Western Europe.

"Shan Hai Jing" is even more worrying about the distribution channels.

……

Early the next morning, Cao Yang rushed to Paris with his little secretary, Professor Fang, a few young lawyers, and a newly-invited French translator.

Don’t look at Professor Fang’s age. His physical physique is really good, almost like a middle-aged person in his 40s or 50s.

is really admirable.

At first, Cao Yang wanted to change to a younger legal service, otherwise the 11-hour flight would be exhausted and fall apart.

However, Professor Fang is very persistent. She feels that as the head of Bomi’s legal department, she has not done a great job to help Bomi so far. How can she not be accompanied when negotiating the acquisition this time?

Teacher Fang looked very excited, and Cao Yang couldn't help it with her.

After getting off the plane, Professor Fang's legs and feet were swollen and his whole body was sore. He couldn't walk at all.

Cao Yang could only find a cart to push her.

"So why are you doing this? Wouldn't it be good to find a young lawyer to follow? Why come here to suffer?"

Professor Fang rolled his eyes and was so angry that he did not want to speak.

……

It was already past 11 o'clock in the evening when I arrived in Paris.

A few people went to the Four Seasons Hotel, which was booked a long time ago, and then stayed comfortably for one night.

At 12 o'clock in the evening, Professor Fang knocked on Cao Yang's door, and the young man was taken aback.

"Would you like to go to the Arc de Triomphe for a night tour?" Professor Fang raised his mouth, "Really I haven't been to Paris before, but I have lived in the United States for a while."

"What are you doing? You are a lot of age."

Cao Yang originally wanted to say that Teacher Fang had a hard time coming, otherwise she would indulge her for a day, but think about it carefully, at night, an old Chinese woman has inflexible legs and feet. It is pitiful if she has some problems in a foreign country.

So he still dissuaded her.

"It’s too late now, and I have to get up and negotiate with others tomorrow.

I haven’t reversed the jet lag yet.

Otherwise, we will wait until after this talk, if we have free time, we will go there again. "

Under Cao Yang’s persuasion, Professor Fang gave up his plan to travel to Paris at night.

……

Early the next morning, Cao Yang and his party arrived at the Vivendi Building on time according to the agreed time.

Get on the elevator and waited for a while in the reception room before entering a meeting room of the company.

The French asked Cao Yang and the others to sit down, and then the two parties discussed their intention to acquire.

Fuertu flipped through the bidding document given by Bomi and said, “We have already read your company’s bidding document. The content seems to be very detailed, but there are some specific things that I want to discuss again.”

After he finished speaking, the translator did the translation dutifully.

"Hmm." Cao Yang nodded, waiting for his speech.

"I think the purchase price that your company is going to provide to Vivendi's game division is US$400 million." Furtu frowned. "This is very different from our expectations. We are not sure if the other party has enough. The willingness to acquire, so I would like to discuss this again today."

After listening to Miss Translator’s translation, Cao Yang calmly said, “We have given a valuation of 400 million US dollars for complete reasons. We have previously found a third-party organization to conduct a review of your company’s game industry. Comprehensive investigation.

In the second half of 2002 alone, the loss of the game division reached an astonishing US$59.5 million, with a loss rate of 4%.

Although the global sales volume looks good, the cost is actually very high..."

Cao Yang took the report in his hand, like a few treasures, reported all the games developed by all subsidiaries of Vivendi last year and the revenue of each game, and gave the reasons for his valuation.

"We have given a valuation of 400 million U.S. dollars, which is already a fairly reasonable price."

Among Vivendi’s companies, the most profitable one is Blizzard, and Blizzard is the famous skipping king. Although every game looks good, it can sell very high globally. However, one calculation will reveal that it may take them three years to sharpen a sword, or five years to sharpen a sword. Such profits are evenly spread over time, which is actually a loss.

That is, Blizzard can make high-quality products to block your mouth. Otherwise, Vivendi should have dealt with Blizzard long ago according to this method of grinding a sword for a few years and having a very low rate of return.

"Um……"

Fuertu frowned and thought about it, but did not immediately answer Cao Yang.

After a while, he said, "But has Bomi ever thought about such a problem? The valuation of the game division cannot only look at the past. You have to see that our games can produce in the future. the value of."

Fuertu flips through the notes in his hand, “Our company has a total of 340 games, of which 52% are original products, 30% are licensed products, and 14% are third-party products.

In the global game market, Vivendi Games ranks sixth, occupying about 5% of the market share.

From the perspective of scale, the value of the game division is far more than 400 million. At the same time, I hope your company can see a little more——

We have a large number of original copyrights, which can generate great economic benefits in the future.

So I think the valuation of 400 million is very unreasonable. "

This Nima...

The Frenchman in front of me may not understand games, but obviously he understands movies very well, and at the same time knows the value of copyright.

Cao Yang frowned, "Then what price do you think should be reported?"

Fuertu thought about it and said, "At least 2 billion US dollars."

In fact, there is no need to think about it at all, because they have already calculated this number internally.

Slot!

2000000000!

You really dare to speak loudly.

2 billion US dollars. What can’t I buy? I’ll buy the broken game company under yours?

Blizzard is actually not that godly, Cao Yang values their IP.

Since World of Warcraft, Blizzard has started to go downhill.

It is the IP of Warcraft that is valuable.

Other seriously, Cao Yang is not so rare.

"Mr. Let," Cao Yang suffocated and shook his head, "This price must be unrealistically high, and I believe you know this too.

You cannot count the value of exclusive intellectual property rights.

In other words, you overestimated the value of these property rights.

Because the value of these intellectual property rights in the future is still unknown, it may be worth a lot of money, or it may be worthless.

From the current market reaction, I only know that the profitability of your company’s game business department is questionable.

In the case of Blizzard, the output time is long and the output is small. Although it has a certain reputation, it is generally at a loss.

So, we analyze the results wisely, and it is impossible to give as much as 2 billion US dollars. "

20 billion, why don’t you grab it?

Bomi is not without this strength, the big deal is to sell all the stocks on the US stocks, and now Bomi holds at least US$3 billion worth of stocks on the US stocks.

But Cao Yang didn't think it was worth it.

……

The negotiation lasted all morning, and both parties were very persistent.

Cao Yang felt it was not worth it. Vivendi was also a group of old and stubborn people, so they didn't let it go.

So the negotiation is deadlocked.

At 12 o'clock, Fuertu rubbed his aching eyebrows and stood up, “Go to dinner first, Mr. Cao, we welcome you, and look forward to inviting you to dinner together.”

So a group of people went to eat first.

After dinner, continue in the afternoon.

is another long 5-hour tug of war.

Vivendi was a little relieved here, and promised to sell it to Bomi for US$1.8 billion.

Cao Yang has an urge to lift the table.

……

What's special, why this negotiation is not the same as before?

It didn’t feel so difficult before.

Is the French so hard to talk about?

Professor Fang next to tapped **** Bangbang’s leg. Although he did not speak, his expression also revealed great pain.

Cao Yang raised his eyebrows, so I said I wouldn’t let you come.

……