Carl Icahn realized that the young people in front of him were not easy to deal with, and it was really not ordinary people to be able to create YouTube, get rid of it for 2.2 billion, and then create a website with tens of millions of users in less than a year. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Carl Icahn knows that there is no need to make too many detours to smart people: "I don't know what you want me to do?

Zhang Ran smiled and said, "Mr. Icahn is a cheerful person, then I'll be blunt, I want the shares of Blockbuster in your hand." You know that I have a film company that is currently building its own distribution network, but you also know that the big six film companies have a monopoly on film distribution channels, and it is difficult to cut meat from the big six, so you have to expand the distribution network. ”

Carl Icahn was slightly stunned when he heard that Zhang Ran wanted to buy the shares of Blockbuster in his hands. In fact, Carl Icahn first bought Blockbuster's stake when he heard that Blockbuster was interested in acquiring Hollywood Video, the third-largest DVD rental company in the United States. As long as the acquisition is successful, BesTV will be able to control 45% of the DVD store rental market in the United States, and the stock price will inevitably rise sharply. So, he immediately acquired a 15% stake in Blockbuster, the largest shareholder of the successful company, and pushed for it.

However, due to Blockbuster's relatively high market share, if it acquires Hollywood Video again, the market share will be close to 50%, and there is a monopoly risk. The FTC began investigating the acquisition, and the acquisition was delayed. While Blockbuster was being investigated, Hollywood Video was being acquired by another DVD rental company. Blockbuster's stock price plummeted, and Carl Icahn's stock was trapped.

In the past two years, the DVD rental business has been declining year by year, Netflix has risen strongly, and Blockbuster has struggled to operate, with its stock price falling from $10 when Carl Icahn acquired it to $6 now, and Standard & Poor's evaluation of Blockbuster is junk.

Carl Icahn is not willing to accept his money and has been pushing for Blockbuster reforms to try to revive the stock price, but it has never been successful, and he is pessimistic about the company's prospects. What's more, he recently set his sights on Motorola and tried to get into the board of directors of Motorola and profit by splitting Motorola. Now that someone has taken over BesTV, he is naturally happy to see it happen. Of course, the price offered by the other party must satisfy him.

Carl Icahn blinked and said: "Blockbuster has been promoting the grid connection plan recently, the number of users has surged, I am very optimistic about the future of Blockbuster, you can buy my shares, but you must give a reasonable offer." ”

Zhang Ran said in his heart, you are optimistic about a ghost, if you are really optimistic about the grid-connected plan, how can it be canceled later. He said lightly: "The idea of the grid-connected plan is good, but this plan does not limit the number of films that users can rent per month, as long as they pay 16 US dollars, users can watch it casually, which will inevitably lead to a big decline in the company's performance, causing the company to lose money, and BesTV itself has a debt of 1 billion, this plan will continue to be implemented, and BesTV will definitely go bankrupt in less than two years." In view of Blockbuster's current business situation, I will pay $120 million to acquire your shares!"

Carl Icahn spent 150 million to acquire Blockbuster's shares the year before last, and if he sells it for 120 million now, he will lose 30 million, and he directly refused: "This offer is too low, at least 200 million US dollars." ”

"Mr. Icahn, according to the current stock price, the shares in your hands are only worth 90 million!" Zhang Ran said lightly, "Actually, I also understand that if I acquire your shares at a price of less than 150 million, then your investment in Blockbuster is equivalent to failure." You are a proud person and can't tolerate failure, so let's buy it for 160 million and let you get out of it, what do you think?"

This price is absolutely acceptable, and he successfully relieved himself of his trap and let himself leave calmly, but as the wolf of Wall Street, Carl Icahn instinctively feels that things are not as simple as Zhang Ran said, and there should be a bigger plan. He stared into Zhang Ran's eyes, trying to read Zhang Ran's true purpose from them, but some of Zhang Ran's dark eyes were just calm and calm.

Carl Icahn pondered for a while, but couldn't guess Zhang Ran's intentions, and finally gave up: "I agree with your purchase price!"

Zhang Ran couldn't help but smile when he heard this: "Mr. Icahn, then next, we can draw up a contract." ”

Three hours later, Zhang Ran returned to the hotel, sat on the sand and slowly untied his tie, and then let out a long sigh of relief, his vest was already in a cold sweat.

Carl Icahn was right, Zhang Ran was really scared. However, he was not afraid of Carl Icahn as a person, but afraid that he would see his true intentions. If Carl Icahn associates himself with YouTube, with the pinnacle of the century, and then with streaming, then he will definitely not sell his shares, and may even continue to buy.

Fortunately, Carl Icahn didn't see it, and the deal was done!

No one knows how violently Karl Icahn's heart beats under Zhang Ran's calm smile when he said yes.

Now the matter has finally come to an end.

Zhang Ran picked up a bottle of Evian mineral water on the table, drank it in one gulp, leaned back on the sofa, closed his eyes and pondered.

Hollywood is often able to maximize profits through one mode of operation, and that mode of operation is the window period. The development of the American film industry to the present, it is no longer entirely counting on the box office to make money, because movies have a lot of long-term income, that is, window income.

Cinemas: 3-6 months, from the day the film starts to be shown, it can only be seen in cinemas.

Home Entertainment: After 6 months, rent and sell DVDs, Blu-ray DVDs.

Video on Demand: After 6 months, one paid VOD is available via the TV network.

Pay-TV: After 1 year, you can watch TV after paying the TV bill.

Public Television: After 2 years, it is basically free to watch, but the TV station has to pay the copyright fee to the film company. For example, if a movie channel broadcasts an American movie, it must pay the copyright fee to the relevant film company.

It can be seen from the Hollywood movie window period that the revenue of movies is mainly divided into three parts, box office revenue, DVD revenue, and TV revenue. Many people know that Hollywood has a monopoly, and it is difficult for outsiders to put their hands into it, even if Wall Street capital enters the Hollywood circle, it is regarded as a fool's pit. Where is the Hollywood monopoly? It's in distribution. The major television stations in the United States are firmly in the hands of the five major media groups, headed by the News Corporation, and these five major media groups are the bosses of the Hollywood Big Five. To put it simply, the promotion channels of the film and the revenue during the window period are firmly in the hands of the five major media groups, and this is where Hollywood is really strong.

Before Zhang Ran's rebirth, Wanda acquired AMC, and was also preparing to acquire European cinema chains, with the obvious purpose of becoming a worldwide cinema operator. When Wanda became the world's largest cinema operator, it took over the downstream cinema market. In this way, it is possible to have an equal dialogue with Hollywood, and may even rely on the theater chain to establish a global distribution network, laying the foundation for the future export of Wanda Film and Television to the world.

However, in Zhang Ran's view, if you can't get the last two pieces of the window in your hands, you still can't break the Hollywood monopoly, and you still have to be subject to the Big Six. It's just that U.S. law prohibits foreign companies from owning U.S. television networks, and Sony is the only company in the Big Six that doesn't have a television network. Zhang Ran, as a Chinese, naturally cannot own a television network, but without media and television networks, it is impossible to break the monopoly of Hollywood. This may seem like an unsolvable question, but in the age of the internet, anything is possible. Although Zhang Ran was unable to acquire a media group, it was possible to own a media similar to a television station, which was streaming media.

Before Zhang Ran's rebirth, with the rise of streaming media such as Netflix, the ratings of various cable TV stations in the United States were declining, and streaming media was seen as the terminator of cable TV stations. In Zhang Ran's view, in fact, each streaming media is equivalent to a cable TV station. It's just that cable TV is watched on a TV set, and streaming is watched on a computer. So, mastering a stream is equivalent to mastering a TV station, and mastering the largest stream is equivalent to mastering HBO.

Blockbuster, the world's largest DVD rental company, has now launched Blockbuster Online through a grid-connected program with nearly 3 million subscribers, making it easy to build streaming on Blockbuster. As long as streaming media is done, Zhang Ran, who masters Blockbuster, is equivalent to having both a DVD distribution channel and a TV station.

In this way, the two windows of DVD and TV of Summit Pictures' movies are in Zhang Ran's hands. If AMC is acquired again, then Zhang Ran's entire film industry chain will be completely opened, and distribution, production, screening and other channels will be involved.

At that time, it will be really possible for Chinese films to sail to sea!

Of course, this is just Zhang Ran's idea, and the road ahead is long, and you need to go step by step.

Two days later, Zhang Ran and Carl Icahn announced separately that the two parties had signed a subscription agreement, according to which Zhang Ran would acquire Carl Icahn's shares in Blockbuster, involving about $160 million.

As soon as the news came out, it immediately caused a heated discussion on Wall Street. In the eyes of Wall Street, DVD is a sunset industry, the rental business is declining year by year, and Blockbuster has closed more than 4,000 stores in less than three years. Various media and analysts are not optimistic about this transaction, and they have sung down, believing that Zhang Ran's shareholding is a stupid move.

The Wall Street Journal asserted: "With the DVD rental market in a continuous recession, the entire market is extremely competitive, Blockbuster is riddled with debt, and is facing the impact of emerging companies such as Netflix, Zhang Ran's stake in Blockbuster under such circumstances is a serious mistake and is likely to suffer an unprecedented failure!"

Sean, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, reminded: "Blockbuster has a foreign debt of 1 billion, and Zhang Ran must pay attention to the issue of cash reserves, otherwise the company is likely to face the risk of bankruptcy." ”

The American science and technology information website SAI published a commentary article saying: "Wall Street analysts are extremely pessimistic about the company's prospects due to Blockbuster's poor situation. The only good news, according to analyst Stephen, is that expectations have been significantly lowered, which has averted disappointment. As an Internet elite, Zhang Ran's ownership of BesTV will inevitably continue to promote the grid-connection plan, and promoting the grid-connection will consume a lot of money, which will inevitably aggravate BesTV's losses. ”

In the conference room of Netflix's headquarters in Los Gaidos, California, Chief Financial Officer McCarthy put down the newspaper in his hand and took a deep breath. He looked at the people who were talking about Zhang Ran's stake in Blockbuster, and pretended to be relaxed: "Gentlemen, Wall Street is singing about Zhang Ran's stake in BesTV, and they all think that this is a stupid act, and even think that Zhang Ran will suffer an unprecedented fiasco, so you don't have to be too nervous!"

After saying this, McCarthy noticed that the company's CEO, Hastings, had been frowning and silent, and asked, "Reed, what do you think?"

Hastings raised his head and said solemnly, "I know what Zhang Ran's purpose is. All eyes were on Hastings' face, waiting for his answer. Hastings' voice changed slightly: "He wants to use Blockbuster for video streaming!"

As soon as these words came out, the faces of everyone present changed.