With the change of ownership complete, Ronan needs to rush to San Francisco as soon as possible to visit Netflix, and it is impossible to leave too much time for Mark Randolph, who can only activate the backup plan if he does not make a decision.

Of course, that would cause a lot of trouble.

Perhaps it was because of the effort and passion that was poured into Netflix that only three days later, Mark Randolph gave Ronan an exact reply, saying that he would continue to stay at Netflix as CEO.

In this way, Ronan is saved a lot of trouble, and it can also ensure a smooth transition for Netflix after the equity change.

Ronan was then accompanied by Mark Randolph to Netflix's headquarters in St. Andrew, San Francisco.

This is an office park off Highway 17 in Scotts Valley, which was converted from the office space of a branch of a bankrupt bank, and is not very large and has a relatively old décor.

The office also seems to reflect Netflix's current financial woes.

Upon entering the office area, the green carpet glittered, and Mark Randolph half-jokingly said to Ronan, "This is the color of the dollar bill that everybody craves." ”

Ronan nodded, but his eyes were drawn to the thick metal armored door on the wall opposite the office area.

Mark Randolph explains: "It used to be a bank vault, and then I converted it into a Netflix warehouse along with the office area next door. ”

Ronan said, "Let's go and have a look." ”

Under the watchful eye of countless people on Netflix, Ronan walked through the narrow office area, where dozens of rows of folding desks and cheap office chairs were placed, on which were placed the top-of-the-line computers of this era, and on top of several open computer monitors, there was expensive Oracle software running.

Walking through the office area, Ronan followed Mark Randolph into the storeroom.

In addition to the small office at the door, the huge warehouse is full of shelves full of DVDs.

Mark Randolph introduced Ronan to the person in charge of the warehouse area, and Ronan also chatted with him for a few words, and then asked Connie next to him to record the relevant personal information.

After touring the warehouse, Ronan returned to the office area, and Mark Randolph quickly called a meeting with all the people in the company.

In the face of all the employees of Netflix, Ronan didn't say much, mainly to calm the personnel so that the transition would be smooth.

Ownership changes will always have a variety of effects on the company, and it is necessary to stabilize personnel.

As long as Netflix does not have a large-scale resignation, it will not cause much of a problem.

After all the Netflix personnel were gathered in the office area, Ronan and Mark Randolph came to a high platform in front of the warehouse.

"To introduce myself, I'm Ronan Anderson. Ronan exclaimed: "The owner of the Hollywood Relativity Entertainment Group, a filmmaker. ”

His voice was loud enough: "Just last week, Relativity Entertainment completed the wholly-owned acquisition of Netflix, and many people may have heard some rumors, and I am here to state that there will be no change in Netflix's corporate structure and business policy, so I specifically invited Mr. Mark Randolph back as the CEO of Netflix after the change of shareholding." ”

Mark Randolph smiled and said, "Guys, we're all old friends, so I don't need to introduce myself, right?"

As soon as these words came out, there was a lot of laughter below, and the vigilance and suspicion in the eyes of many employees dissipated a lot.

With Mark Randolph as CEO, in addition to ensuring the continuity of Netflix, it can also effectively reassure people.

This is one of the reasons why Ronan sent out the invitation in person.

Ronan said at this time: "Netflix's plan and purpose will not change. Build a website with an attractive, convenient user interface and a smooth-running backend, as well as fast and complete delivery of DVDs to customers. ”

After these words, there was not much warm applause below.

Many employees of Netflix are relieved, they are not afraid of the company's equity change, strictly speaking, there is no difference between the essence of working for the previous boss and the current boss, what they are afraid of is that the new boss will start to toss after taking over, resulting in unstable jobs.

This job pays well, and if you change jobs rashly, if something happens, your mortgage, car loan, and credit card will collapse.

Ronan continued to stabilize people's hearts: "Starting on January 1, 2002, Relativity Entertainment has injected $100 million into Netflix over a year's period to improve the office environment, employee benefits, and promote the company's business development!"

After settling the company's personnel, Ronan immediately called a meeting of Netflix's management.

This time from Los Angeles, in addition to being accompanied by Mark Randolph and assisted by Connie, Mary and Garcia also came to St. Andrew with Ronan.

The management meeting is still based on stability, in a short period of time, Ronan will not let Netflix make many changes, Netflix's existing business and business direction is no problem, what really causes Netflix's current predicament, on the one hand, is the general environment, on the other hand, Netflix lacks the necessary funds for development.

Netflix's supreme power structure will definitely be rebuilt, Mark Randolph will be promoted from chief operating officer to CEO, and will continue to be responsible for Netflix's day-to-day operations, Ronan himself will serve as Netflix's chairman, Mary and her team will temporarily oversee Netflix's financial affairs, and relativity entertainment will send someone to serve as Netflix's chief financial officer in the future.

At the same time, Ronan and Connie's assistant team will stay at St. Andrew's for a while to gain a deeper understanding of Netflix at this stage.

After a comprehensive inventory of Netflix's internal situation and all aspects of business, Ronan has a sufficient grasp of the company's situation, and Netflix is actually still in its infancy.

Chief among them is undoubtedly Netflix's online rental business.

Netflix's rental business, which requires DVDs to be sold and rented on an optional basis, is currently charged on an improved version of the brick-and-mortar videotape rental shop — $4 for rental plus $2 for shipping a single disc, plus $3 for each additional disc.

The renter may keep the footage for seven days and then return it in postage paid mail.

If a customer likes a certain film, they can buy it directly at a 30% price reduction from the retail price.

In addition, since 2001, Netflix has also launched a monthly package model for registered users.

This is also the mainstream business model of Netflix's later online leasing, but it is still in the promotion stage.

With the rapid development of the Internet in North America, as long as Netflix controls the cost, its main business is indeed promising.

In 1999, Netflix had only 500 DVD titles in stock, and most of them were old movies.

So far, that number has only risen to 1,200.

This is not as large as the number of any library of the six major Hollywood companies, and it also contains a large number of documentaries and overseas films.

The source of the film is one of the key factors that seriously restricts the further development of Netflix.

In addition, the impact of the general environment cannot be ignored.

In the first two years, DVD players were still too expensive, and there were too few DVD movies to adequately appeal to mainstream consumers.

There were also technical problems, as even large pressurizers struggled to provide standardized copies of all DVDs on the same player because there was no uniform standard for the format.

But the good news is that compared to the videotapes of the past, the development of the DVD industry can be described as the speed of light.

DVD players have grown in popularity far faster than VCRs – in March 1997, optical DVD players were officially launched in North America, and 400,000 units were sold in six months.

In comparison, it took more than 3 years for VCRs to reach 200,000 households.

At the same time, the price of DVD players fell rapidly, from $1,000 at the beginning of 1999 to $300 today.

The popularity of DVDs has provided the necessary conditions for the development of Netflix.

Others may be in the hazy stage, but Ronan knows very well that starting next year, DVDs will be completely out of that commercial paradox — consumers are reluctant to buy DVD players because DVDs are not universally available in stores, and retailers are reluctant to stock DVDs because consumers don't have DVD players.

Ronan had already come up with a strategy to promote Netflix and immediately consulted with Mark Randolph to promise consumers the opportunity to try out a library of more than 1,000 movies by placing a Netflix coupon in the box of the player by the DVD manufacturer.

This strategy was quickly approved by Netflix's management, and after the first funding of Relativity Entertainment was in place, Netflix quickly formulated relevant plans and prepared to promote its implementation.

Ronan also plans to use Relativity Entertainment's media network to promote Netflix on a large scale in the media starting in December.

In addition, on the films produced by Shahai Entertainment, various advertisements for Netflix will also appear.

All of these can effectively promote Netflix and bring more customers to Netflix.

Compared to Netflix, Relativity Entertainment is already a very big platform.

As Ronan prepares to leave San Francisco, he also discovers that Connie finds an unmailed letter while sorting through the office where Reed Hastings exited.

This handwritten letter from Reid Hastings to Mittress contains his actual thoughts on Netflix during this time: "I worked hard for Netflix for years to survive, and we found it to be a piece of shit—an unfortunate match for the bosses of this valley......

Reading between the lines, Ronan can also see that Hastings really thinks that Netflix has come to an end.

In their previous lives, Hastings and Netflix survived this most difficult stage and ushered in a turnaround in 2002.

But the advent of relativistic entertainment changed everything.

After spending more than a week in San Francisco, Ronan returned to Los Angeles, where Netflix is temporarily focusing on stability, and other actions other than publicity will be carried out after the company's smooth transition.

Back in Los Angeles, Ronan returned to the preparation of the film and found time to attend the North American premiere of The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings.