Of course, the person who came to Lu Qiu to negotiate the copyright was just an ordinary middle-level employee of Netflix, who just hoped to be authorized to rent the DVD of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, but he never dreamed that Lu Qiu would not talk about copyright, but said to him: "The copyright of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is nothing, I hope you can go back and tell your president that I intend to buy Netflix for 50 million US dollars, and I hope to make an appointment to meet with him." ”

The Netflix employee left the mansion in Luqiu as if he were sleepwalking, returned to the company, and found President Hastings to report the matter.

Hastings didn't think it was a joke, and it was understandable that he was an investor in owning a mansion in Beverly Hills and a blockbuster film in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Hastings decided to meet with Lu Qiu, not because he wanted to sell the company, but because Lu Qiu was a film and television investor who was very valuable to him.

So, one day in May 2001, Lucind met up with Reed Hastings at his Beverly mansion.

"Mr. Hastings, I'm glad you wisely considered my offer and personally asked me to meet and negotiate, $50 million, I think the acquisition of Netflix should be a reasonable price. Lu Qiu is straight to the point, he has his ambition for Netflix.

"Oh no, Lu, you misunderstood, I just came to see you to make friends with you, and as for Netflix, I have no intention of selling it. Hastings refused.

"Do you think my offer is too low? I remember that Mr. Hastings approached Blockbuster himself and made an offer, and Blockbuster was dismissive of it, which must have happened last year. ”

"I have to admit that your source of information is very accurate, indeed, at one point I did want to sell Netflix, but it was a bad decision made under the desperate suppression of Blockbuster, and now that Netflix is about to go on the market, I don't think anyone would be stupid to sell the company at such a time. ”

Lu Qiu couldn't help frowning, but he neglected the time when Netflix was listed, well, it seems that it wasn't this year, he remembered an important thing, and he had a plan in his heart.

"I appreciate Mr. Hastings' self-confidence, but the NASDAQ continues to plummet, Silicon Valley is now full of software engineers looking for jobs with worthless stock options, and the mass bankruptcy of Internet companies will continue for at least a year or two, and as far as I know, 80 percent of Netflix's subscribers are young men with better computer skills, and I would like to know why Mr. Hastings can change the status quo of Netflix's loss since last year!"

"It seems that Lu you really have an in-depth investigation of Netflix, which makes me a little vigilant, but the loss is only temporary, with the rapid increase in DVD usage, we have not encountered any trouble in signing users this year, the user growth rate and DVD adoption rate have increased rapidly, I believe that the listing and fundraising are enough to give investors confidence." ”

Lu Qiu shook his head: "Hastings, you are changing the concept, I'm talking about losses, if I'm not mistaken, your losses in the first two quarters of this year are still very serious, this is the price to pay for the pursuit of user growth, and in order to solve this problem, you will have to make layoffs to make the financial statements look better." To be honest, I'm really sad for the employees who are going to be laid off, and in the current economic climate, how do you let them find their next job?"

Hastings was silent, Lu Qiu's words poked at his soft underbelly, indeed, Netflix is currently losing serious money, and the loss is expected to reach $40 million by the third quarter, and if you want to achieve the goal of going public and raising funds this year, laying off employees and cutting costs is indeed a choice that you have to make.

"In any case, it is impossible to buy Netflix for 50 million dollars, and so far the investment of venture capital alone has exceeded 100 million. Hastings visibly softened, but refused.

Lu Qiu smiled: "Then why don't I change my proposal, 50 million US dollars, in exchange for 50% of Netflix's shares, and Hastings, you are still the president, leading the development of the company, what are the conditions?"

Hastings was moved and thought for a moment and said, "I need to go back and talk to the investors, I don't know what they will choose." ”

"No problem, I'll wait for your reply. ”

Hastings departed, and the daughters were reunited with Luqiu on the American side.

Cai Yinong said: "Husband, you are going to lose again, isn't it a bit silly to buy half of the shares of a DVD rental company for 50 million US dollars." ”

Xu Qing's daughters all nodded.

Zhang Ziyi and Li Xiaoran also calculated very seriously, "My husband earned 70 million from Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and most of it was spent at once, and the rest was not enough to buy us a mansion!"

"That's it, eccentric husband. ”

It turns out that all the women are jealous of the mansion under Yang Gongru's name, and they are all obsessed with letting Lu Qiu buy two more sets, such as one in Manhattan, one in Miami, and so on, so that you can have a foothold in the whole of the United States.

Now that Lu Qiu is investing, the dreams of the women are immediately in vain.

Yuan Li said: "But it's not necessarily, maybe that Hastings will wisely refuse her husband?"

Lu Qiu scratched her nose and said confidently: "No, Netflix lost 30 million in 99, lost 60 million last year, and if there are no layoffs this year, the loss will be high, and now it is a low tide of technology stocks, and those investors will make the right choice." ”

This is Luqiu's confidence, and it is difficult for investors to calm down with such a loss method.

The girls had never seen Lu Qiu miscalculate, thinking that things would definitely be negotiated as he wished, but soon, Hastings sent back the news, and he was helpless, and those investors refused.

Lu Qiu was surprised.

The girls were all happy, and Li Xiaoran also took the opportunity to ridicule Lu Qiu, "Husband, you're deflated now." ”

Zhang Ziyi also smiled, "Hastings is a good person, so he supports us to buy a house, and I have to thank others." ”

The women agreed, and they also used this to anger Luqiu.

Lu Qiu couldn't cry and laugh at the careful eyes of the women, and said: "Isn't it just to buy a house, investing in fixed assets itself can increase in value, let Johnson allocate hundreds of millions of dollars, you just look at it and buy it." ”

The women are speechless, the husband is the husband, dial hundreds of millions to watch and buy, those top rich people in the world are not so domineering!

To say that such a husband is really obsessive!

However, the women did not touch Liang Daming's funds, they themselves are all small and wealthy, it seems that Yuan Li and Cai Yinong have speculated with Lu Qiu in the Hang Seng Index, and they have long been worth a lot of money, since their husband said that investing in real estate can increase in value, they simply took out their own money and scraped together 20 million US dollars to buy a mansion and apartment in Miami and Manhattan, which is both self-occupation and investment.

Lu Qiu didn't forget to remind them, "07 The year before last, I found a high position and made a move, and the house is always new." ”

The women all nodded.

Yang Gongru said: "Is my husband still not giving up on that Netflix?"

Lu Qiu sneered: "Those people seem to be as insatiable as Ding Lei, and they still think that if they are successfully listed this year, not only will they not lose money, but they will also make a lot of money, but I will pierce their fantasies like they will pierce Ding Lei's dreams." ”

When the girls heard Ding Lei's name, they all thought of the current situation of NetEase and nodded one after another.

Indeed, my husband usually seems to be harmless to humans and animals, but if someone makes him unhappy, the end will be very miserable, and NetEase is a ready-made example.

After the collapse of the NASDAQ, NetEase's stock price plummeted, NetEase's business situation began to deteriorate, advertising revenue plummeted, costs increased, and in 2001, the emaciated Ding Lei finally moved the idea of selling NetEase.

It should be said that Lu Qiu is quite tolerant of Ding Lei, so as soon as he received the news of the sale, Lu Qiu asked Xu Xin to contact Ding Lei and offer $100 million to acquire NetEase.

However, Ding Lei refused without hesitation, not only because the price was low, but also because he was angry about Pangu's practice of selling short shares just after NetEase was listed, thinking that if Pangu did not add fuel to the fire, NetEase's stock price would not have fallen so fast.

Well, Ding Lei's mentality of not being able to pull out and complaining about the unattractive earth made Lu Qiu completely put away his pity, and he began to wait, waiting for the incident that made NetEase fall into the abyss for a while.

As a result, just a few days before Lu Qiu met with Hastings, NetEase's fake account scandal broke out, NetEase's revenue in the first quarter of 2001 was far below market expectations, and the company's contract terms with third-party advertising companies may not have been properly reported, and the originally planned financial report was postponed.

After such announcements, NetEase's share price fell to $1.8 per share, and at the same time, NetEase was intensively negotiating with Hong Kong Chinese Broadband for the overall sale, and Ding Lei wanted to sell NetEase for less than 90 million, which touched the interests of a group of company executives, especially the professional managers CEO Li Jinghui and COO Chen Suzhen who were originally invited by Ding Lei, who had subscribed for nearly 4% of NetEase's shares at $5 per share for two thousand years, and Ding Lei's sale plan seriously damaged their rights and interests.

So in the following time, the Kerry Center, where NetEase BJ headquarters is located, staged one farce after another, the relationship between Ding Lei and Li Jinghui deteriorated sharply, Li Jinghui wrote a letter to all employees of NetEase, exposing to the employees the fact that Ding Lei abused his power and hindered him everywhere, making him unable to work normally, and the letter was finally collected by Ding Lei.

Immediately afterwards, Lai Jinghui brought his hired personal bodyguard to work, and Ding Lei insisted that the security guard of the building expel Lai's bodyguard, and finally the lawyers of both sides rushed to mediate, and on the same day, Lai Jinghui and the bodyguard were driven out of the Kerry Centre with a heavy large suitcase.

A week later, NetEase announced that CEO Li Jinghui and COO Chen Suzhen both resigned, and Li Jinghui resigned from the board of directors of NetEase at the same time.

In the history of China's Internet, the chairman and CEO of a company have fallen out to such an extent that they even almost use force against each other, which is indeed enough to become a laughing stock for a while.

And in this process, Lu Qiu just watched calmly, waiting to give Ding Lei a fatal opportunity.

Until a month after Netflix rejected Luqiu, on June 15, 2001, Hong Kong Chinese Broadband, which had reached an acquisition consensus with NetEase, abandoned the merger and acquisition of NetEase, and Ding Lei's dream of selling was shattered.

At this time, Lu Qiu made a decisive move and flew to Hong Kong to meet Ding Lei in person.

"For $80 million, Pangu acquired NetEase as a whole, and the contract can be finalized and signed today. "This is the condition of the landhill.

Ding Lei was exhausted, experienced high-level struggles and resignations, the shattering of mergers and acquisitions, and the turmoil of fake accounts, his enthusiasm for NetEase has been exhausted, and only the dissatisfaction with Pangu is still supporting him to make the last struggle.

"85 million, this is the bid of Chinese Broadband, it can't be lower!"

"No, maybe 20 million US dollars is more appropriate, I am sure that there is a problem with NetEase's accounts, and it is inevitable that it will be investigated by NASDAQ, and then the company's stock will be forced to suspend trading, and there will be a protracted lawsuit with the United States, in fact, you have already foreseen this situation, otherwise you would not have sold NetEase at such a low price when the company still has nearly 70 million US dollars in cash. Therefore, 80 million is the price of conscience I gave you, if you agreed at the beginning, it would be 100 million, and now I am saving you, you have no choice. ”

Lu Qiu is ruthless, he won't tell Ding Lei that if he persists, then NetEase will become a giant with a market value of tens of billions of dollars in the future, this is just a secret that he knows alone, it is Ding Lei's greed that makes him lose the opportunity to regain his strength.

Finally, Ding Lei succumbed under Lu Qiu's cold eyes, "I agree, 80 million dollars, NetEase is yours." With that, he felt weak and sat down in his chair.

Many people questioned that NetEase was sold cheaply, believing that with NetEase's cash flow and position in the three major portals, the purchase price of $80 million was too low, and Pangu, as the main investor of NetEase's AB round, cleared out after NetEase went public, and now bought NetEase as a whole at a low price.

Such doubts have been very turbulent for a period of time, and Pangu Investment has not given a convincing explanation, only issuing an announcement explaining that the purchase price of 80 million is the price given at a 20% premium to NetEase's current stock price, which is very reasonable.

This explanation was of course useless, and then until the end of August, when the new NetEase revised its financial statements for the first half of the year, raising the net loss from $17.3 million to $20.4 million, and four days later, Nasdaq announced that NetEase shares were suspended from trading on the grounds that the financial statements were doubtful.

When the news came out, the dissatisfaction with Pangu's purchase of NetEase gradually dissipated, and the people who ate melons gloated, it turned out that the $80 million was not taken advantage of, but bought a thunder to go home!

At the same time as buying NetEase and stepping on the suspension mine, Netflix finally gave in, of course, as with NetEase, Lu Qiu did not use any means in this process, and the reason why Netflix gave in was caused by external factors, that is, the 911 incident that shocked the world in 2001.

After the incident, the U.S. financial market was full of mourning, the already cold winter of Internet technology companies were in a wave of bankruptcies, Netflix's shareholders pinned their hopes on the listing of the year came to naught, and the future listing schedule became unknown, in this case, Luqiu's $50 million became the straw they desperately wanted to grasp, at least this could save most of their losses.

So in mid-September 2001, Lu Qiu signed an agreement with the shareholders of Netflix to buy a total of 50 percent of the shares for 50 million US dollars, becoming the largest shareholder of Netflix.

In this case, the U.S. branch of Pangu Investment Company was established, and Lu Qiu's original intention was to rely on the memories of his previous life to dig up some cattle who would dominate the American venture capital industry in the future, but the real operation has repeatedly hit a wall, for example, his favorite female venture capitalist Heidi Royson is already a partner and founder of SoftBank, and no matter how much it costs, it can't be dug up, and others are no different.

In the end, he was really forced to make no moves, Lu Qiu ruthlessly found a completely unknown venture capital practitioner Harrison Cafu, and let him take charge of the US branch, Harrison's ability is definitely insufficient, but it is better to be honest and obedient, this is what Lu Qiu values the most, as for the ability is not important, which companies to invest in Lu Qiu is clear in his mind, Harrison only needs to do it.

After arranging the affairs of the United States, Lu Qiu was finally ready to return to China, but when he was leaving, he encountered an incredible thing, which made Lu Qiu sigh that the treacherous fate is never something that human beings can imagine.