"3,000, I think this is the best number of Blockbuster stores in the United States, and it is very unwise to blindly pursue market share, which will only make us waste our money and energy in commercial areas with low returns. By continuously optimizing the allocation of the planned 3,000 video cassette chains, I hope that BesTV will be able to achieve 50% of the local market share in the next three years. ”

The videotape industry in the United States has grown rapidly in recent years and is expected to surpass $10 billion in sales this year, twice the domestic box office.

If Blockbuster can achieve a market share of 50%, it will be an industry giant with an annual revenue of $5 billion and a profit scale of about $500 million, and the market value of a single product is enough to easily exceed $10 billion.

Inside the third office loft of Daenerys Studios.

Simon heard Nancy say this and said, "If your goal is really achieved, maybe I should buy out the remaining shares of Blockbuster right now." ”

"I've calculated," Nancy said, gesturing with her slender fingers on the table, "Blockbuster's recent market capitalization is around $3.2 billion, and as the war on the Gulf side continues, it may fall to less than $3 billion in the next period of time." In the case of a wholly owned acquisition, the offer could be between $4.5 billion and $5 billion, and the actual cash we would have to pay is about $3 billion. ”

Simon looked at Nancy's beautiful and delicate little hand, a smile appeared on the corner of his mouth, and said, "You know, I've been brewing a big acquisition plan recently. ”

Nancy felt Simon's gaze, glanced at him, and saw that the man didn't mean anything at all, so she didn't look away, so she had to pick up the coffee cup next to her mouth and take a sip, "The two things don't conflict, even if your own funds are insufficient, it's not easy to borrow billions of dollars from the bank?"

The debt crisis that erupted at the end of last year caused major banks in North America to tighten credit, making it much more difficult for many companies to obtain loans. However, high-quality borrowers like Simon have become the most popular lending targets of major banks.

Even if Simon wants to raise $10 billion now, it won't be too difficult.

"That's right," Simon said, "It's just that I'm still thinking about some other things outside of Global, which are also very expensive big plans, and the rate of return is higher than Blockbuster, so this matter can only be delayed." ”

Involving the acquisition of billions of dollars, Nancy didn't expect Simon to agree to it, but when she heard that Simon had other plans, she was curious: "What?"

Simon shook his head: "Can't tell you." ”

Nancy was dissatisfied: "Boss, do you think I am not trustworthy?"

"Of course it's worth it," Simon affirmed, "but trust is something that needs to be maintained, and most importantly, don't give someone a reason to break that trust if it's not necessary." ”

Nancy realized, "Okay, I won't ask. ”

"So, let's talk about overseas," Simon continued, "I find that Blockbuster's overseas expansion seems to be a bit sluggish, and the video cassette chain is different from the movie theater chain, and there are very few government regulations and trade barriers in overseas markets, so since you plan to go bigger, overseas expansion should also be a very important one." ”

Compared with Blockbuster's chain stores in the United States, which can exceed 2,000 this year, overseas, only the small-scale layout of the United States' neighboring countries and Europe's Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Spain has been completed at this time. Moreover, in addition to the pace of development in Canada and North America, the total number of chain stores in other markets is less than 200, and they are mainly concentrated in the core cities of London, Paris and Berlin.

"For the time being, those overseas chain stores are just to explore the market, and the preliminary market research and data analysis are very important. To accomplish this, as long as there is sufficient funds, the speed of overseas expansion will not be worse than that of North America. In addition, I recently plan to connect all of Blockbuster's chain stores in the Boston-Washington metropolitan area on the East Coast to the Internet, and to redesign Blockbuster's membership system. In short, there are many things to do, and the overseas market cannot divide much energy for the time being. ”

"If you know what you know," Simon nodded, and admonished, "Also, don't take everything on yourself, let go of Wayne Hueyzanga and James Frey." ”

Although it is a very important shareholding company under Daenerys Entertainment, because of the existence of Nancy Brill, Wayne Hueyzanga and others, Simon is very relieved about this company, except for some important financial and personnel changes, he basically does not ask about the specific operation of Blockbuster now.

"I understand. ”

Nancy said, remembering something, beckoned her assistant who was waiting nearby, explained a few words, turned to Simon and explained, "Speaking of Blockbuster's membership system, you can help see if there is anything that needs to be improved." There's also the Dune video game, which has already started internal testing, so I'll give you a copy. ”

Seeing that the little woman was about to blatantly squeeze the boss again, Simon said: "I'm hundreds of thousands a minute, don't bother me with this kind of thing, right?"

The layout of real-time strategy games is a very important classification from the era of stand-alone games in the nineties to the era of online games in the new century, and many years later, phenomenal popular online games such as "World of Warcraft" and "League of Legends" are inextricably linked with real-time strategy games.

Therefore, Simon has actually been following up on the production of "Dune", after all, it is related to many layouts in the future.

As for Blockbuster's membership system, he has no interest in discussing it.

There are so many people in Blockbuster, they can't be raised in vain.

Nancy didn't understand the hundreds of thousands of stalks a minute, and said: "Just let you see if there are any good ideas, of course, we still do the details ourselves." I've found that you always have a talent for coming up with new ideas that break through the limits of ordinary people's thinking, and it's a talent that makes you jealous. ”

"That's a compliment, isn't it? But why didn't I feel it myself?"

Nancy said: "The DC Cinematic Universe is just such a plan, do you know how amazing it is? As long as the two films next year can be successful, this plan may be added to the case study by Harvard Business School." ”

Simon smiled, "Well, it seems that I am really good." ”

Nancy gave Simon another blank look.

The assistant quickly delivered a folder and a copy of Dune's floppy disk.

Simon put aside the game floppy disk, flipped through the document, and Nancy said on the other side: "We plan to divide the membership into two tiers of junior membership and senior membership for the time being, mainly providing membership discounts, extending the return period of the videotape, reducing liquidated damages and other terms, and some monthly or annual subscription ideas." ”

Asking Nancy's assistant to bring him another bottle of water, Simon looked down and began to look through the membership plan in front of him.

Nancy didn't waste any time, flipped through another document casually, noticed that her assistant sent a bottle of mineral water, and casually found a topic, saying, "I've seen you only drink water several times, why don't you drink coffee?"

Simon didn't look up and said, "Jenny and I are planning to have a child, and it's not good to drink coffee." ”

Nancy wondered, "Does coffee affect children?"

"It's a serious impact, so you need to be aware of it later. ”

"I'm not going to get married. ”

"Not getting married doesn't mean you can't have children. ”

"It's a hassle to have a baby, and I'm going to adopt one if I need to. ”

"It's better to have a child on your own. ”

Nancy thought of something and said dissatisfied: "Machismo." ”

Simon was puzzled: "Is there a causal relationship between these two things?"

"Yes!"

"Well, I'm machismo. ”

Both of them quieted down, and after a while, Simon said: "I look very good at these plans, what is the specific effect, I think that Blockbuster can choose one or two state chain stores to try first, like the overseas pilot you just said, and if it is feasible, it will be promoted nationwide, and if it is not feasible, it will be canceled, and it will not affect the overall situation." In fact, the advantage of a large enough enterprise is here, the fault tolerance rate is very strong, not only the membership system, as long as there are any good ideas, you can choose some areas to try. ”

Nancy thought about it sideways, then picked up her memo and memorized it.

Simon smiled: "Don't be so solemn, don't you remember?"

"I thought about the first half of what you said, but I didn't think of the second half," Nancy said, quickly writing down a few words before looking up, "Anything else?"

"Regarding the value-added services for members," Simon said, "have you personally rented a videotape from a Passcard chain?"

Nancy said, "Of course, every week. ”

"Don't you feel troublesome?"

"Trouble?"

"Didn't you think you could deliver it to your door?"

Nancy thought for a moment and said: "The cost is too high, and the selection of film sources, remote booking, and logistics are all big problems." ”

"In the short term, you can use the phone to book, as for logistics, try to cooperate with the postal system, the federal postal system is very developed, and they should not mind having more extra money. Sign a package contract with the local postal system to contract for annual orders, and then Blockbuster will be able to get rid of the chain store shackles, and only need a few large warehousing and logistics centers in one city. ”

Nancy had an unconcealable expression of surprise on her little face, and said, "This is simply a kind of subversion, and if we really do it, our existing chain store system will collapse." ”

Simon shrugged and said, "I can think of it, and others should have similar thoughts." Blockbuster subverts itself or is subverted by others, which of the two outcomes do you choose?"

Nancy frowned, continued to think for a moment, and said: "This kind of service involves too many complex links, and it needs to be developed to a sufficient volume to form a scale effect, and it is impossible for a smaller video tape chain company to carry out such a business. We don't seem to have to do that ourselves. Blockbuster's chain store distribution has been carefully selected and continuously optimized to maximize the convenience of users, who often stop by the store on their way to work to pick up videotapes, without the need for remote mailing. By the way, you just said that in the short term, do you still have a long-term idea?"

Simon was not surprised to feel the denial in Nancy's tone.

It is not easy to implement a business model similar to Netflix in an era when reservations can only be made by phone for the time being, and even in the Internet era, Blockbuster will instinctively resist this business model in order to maintain its own chain store system.

"In the long run, if the Internet users develop to a sufficient scale, Blockbuster can establish its own online website, through which users can search for pre-ordered videotapes by themselves, just like the library e-book retrieval system, which can solve the problem of source selection and remote booking, and it is more secure and convenient. After watching the videotape, users only need to stuff the tape into a special Blockbuster package and mail it back without leaving the house. ”

"If I'm not mistaken, AOL should only reach 150,000 users this month, how many years do you think it will take to reach a sufficient number of users?"

"It took only a decade for American households to go from 2 percent to 70 percent of VCR ownership, and I believe it will only take a decade at most for the Internet to reach that level of popularity. ”

"It's a great idea to grow your business through the Internet, but even if your prediction comes true, you'll have to wait at least another five years. A 2% home video recorder penetration rate can not develop a Blockbuster. Nancy said, suddenly changed the conversation, stared at Simon without blinking, and asked, "Boss, I'm very curious, how did you get all these advanced ideas?"

It's not the first time Simon has encountered this kind of problem, Janet used to stare at her little eyes that is called lethality, so she said calmly: "This idea just now was told to me by a guy named Reed. ”

"Reed?"

"yes," Simon nodded, raising his chin to the empty seat next to Nancy across from him, and changed to a strange tone, "He's sitting next to you." ”

Nancy turned her head to look at the air beside her, and said in an unhappy tone, "Hey, Reed, can you sit across from me? ”

The little woman seriously cooperated with Simon to make cold jokes, and neither of them laughed, but Jennifer Raybould and Shirley Lansing, who happened to walk together, were confused, and even had a hairy feeling.

What's the situation?

Seeing Jennifer and Lansing, Nancy stuck out her tongue and explained after greeting the two girls, "It's just a joke." As he spoke, he got up, pointed to Simon's "Dune" game floppy disk, and said, "I'm going to get busy first, this, remember to send me an email after the trial." ”

After Nancy left, Jennifer said to Simon, who got up, "Lady Lansing has been waiting for you for a while, so I brought her here." ”

Simon looked at his watch.

Scheduled to meet with Shirley Lansing at half past two in the afternoon to discuss Daenerys' collaboration with MGM. The meeting on Marvel's side just ended a little early, and I didn't rush back to the administrative district, but I didn't expect to chat with Nancy, and before I knew it, it was already three o'clock.

After saying sorry and simply sitting down here, Simon asked Lansing, "Have you read the script of "Few Good People"?"

These days, Johnston Holdings in Australia has begun to take over the seventh television network under the Qintex Group, and the cooperation between Daenerys Entertainment and MGM has also been advancing.

In Simon's view, the most critical problem for MGM is not to be sold around like in the 80s, as long as it is given a stable development environment, and it is not difficult to recover in the context of Hollywood's global expansion in the 90s.

No matter how bad it is, after a few years of patient operation, the Australian side can resell this company at a very good price.

As for the two films planned to be collaborated, Simon was not satisfied with several projects proposed by MGM, and finally simply took out a newly bought copyright from Daenerys, "Few Good People".