[There are several references in this chapter, you can take a look at those who like Blizzard, and skip them if you don't like them...... Ask for a referral ticket! 】

"You may be seated! Hedlund! ”

"Thank you to the owner! What do you want to know? I know it all! "Sitting on the high-end chair opposite Song Chen, Steger? Hedlund is very positive.

Song Chen sat on the office chair and shook it twice, and asked, "I want to know a little bit about Blizzard, especially some things before and after the acquisition of Blizzard by the Weiwangdi Group!" ”

"Huh?" Hedlund was stunned for a moment, "You wish?" ”

Song Chen covered his mouth with his fingers and was silent for a moment before saying, "I'm going to buy Blizzard, how sure do you think I am?" ”

For Song Chen's ambition, it is not only felt by the top management of the Chenxing Group, basically as long as everyone who pays attention to Song Chen, they can feel this young man's ambition that can almost devour the world. It's like a landlord who was once discriminated against, and suddenly one day went to the city with a cart of banknotes to "buy, buy, buy", and he had to be ridiculed and treated slowly by the people in the city.

At least Hedlund, as a proud American national, used to be a little dismissive of Song Chen's investment and acquisition behavior everywhere, but now that he has become one of the directors of Chenxing Group, his concept must be completely changed!

Mediocrity becomes wisdom, short-sightedness becomes vision...... It's nothing more than a stand!

Therefore, Hedlund said without hesitation: "Although I left Blizzard North two years ago, I have always been deeply impressed by Blizzard's corporate culture and I am very concerned about the news of this company. I don't think it's difficult if you're going to buy this company, it's changed hands five times so far! My old colleague in Blizzard North told me that Vivendi Group, the parent company of Blizzard Entertainment, has incurred more than $20 billion in debt after years of expansion! ”

Song Chen had heard about the debt-indebted Vivendi Group of France, but the reason why he paid attention to this company. Or because of the "Love House and Wu" Blizzard Entertainment.

He bowed his head and gestured, "You go on!" ”

"To understand the history of Blizzard, we have to start in 1991!" Stig? Hedlund cleared his voice and spoke in a very gentle tone about the history of Blizzard Entertainment.

On February 8, 1991, SiliconSynapse, a professional game development company, was officially founded. One of the co-founders, Edheim started writing games as a student at the University of California, and his first two films, Cowboy West and Devil's Hell, received great acclaim.

SiliconSynapse was originally ported, with the Amiga versions of The Lord of the Rings and Wargame 2 ported, and then Edheim and his companion Mike? Together, Moore Haimi produced two classic super-mission games, Rock Racing and The Lost Vikings. Distributed by Interplay, Inc. These two games have won high praise from industry insiders and have become the cornerstone of their path to success.

In early 1994, Edheim renamed SiliconeSynapse "ChaosStudioss", followed by "Blizzard Entertainment" in April, and Blizzard Entertainment was born. In the same year, Blizzard was acquired by Davidson Associates, an educational software publishing company known for developing the "Blaster" series of children's learning software.

In November 1994, Blizzard released its first post-founding game, Warcraft, and Blizzard's glory began.

In 1995, Warcraft 2 was released.

February 1996. Blizzard acquired Condor Studios, renamed it Blizzard North, and on December 27 of the same year, Diablo was released.

1996 year. CUC International acquired Davidson Associates for $1.1 billion, becoming the new owner of Blizzard, and the former independent developer/publisher of Snow Le Mountain was acquired by CUC International that year.

In December 1997, CUC International merged with HFS. Cendant was formed, and Blizzard and Sherry became assets of Cendant. Cendant is a global leader in hospitality, car rental agency, large consumer mortgages, residential real estate brokerage and tax preparation services. Headquartered in New York, the company operates in more than 100 countries. More than 35,000 people are employed. In the U.S. educational software market, Cendant and TheLearning accounted for 60% of the market share at the time.

In April 1998, Cendant was found guilty of accounting irregularities, causing investor confidence to plummet, the stock price plummeting, and the company's image was greatly damaged. Fortunately, the turmoil at the parent company did not affect Blizzard's development plans, and the development of StarCraft was completed and officially released that month; The following year, Blizzard found another buyer who looked like a flowery one.

In 1999, Cendant was acquired by Havas Interactive, which was owned by the French Vivendi Group, and after a series of capital restructurings, it was renamed Vivendi Universal Games, and Blizzard Entertainment, Snow Mountain Entertainment and other game companies were owned by this company.

On June 29, 2000, "Diablo 2" was released. Heidelund subsequently resigned.

……

"Compared with the previous three mergers and acquisitions and restructurings, this time Blizzard Entertainment's luck seems to have run out!" Perhaps when he left Blizzard North, Stigheidelund was resentful and dissatisfied, so the tone of his tone when he mentioned it was somewhat gloating.

"In order to tide over the difficulties, Vivendi Group hopes to reverse the passive situation by changing the commander on the one hand, and on the other hand, it has to sell the company's assets, in addition to the pay TV station 'CANAL+', which has been losing money in France, and Vivendi Universal Games, which has Blizzard Entertainment, Snow Mountain Entertainment, and Global Interactive, is also on the list!"

What players commonly refer to as "Blizzard Entertainment" actually includes two development teams, Blizzard North and Blizzard HQ, both of which are based in California.

The former is located in San Mateo, a 30-minute drive south of San Francisco, north of Blizzard's headquarters, hence the name Blizzard North; The latter is located in the city of Irvine, between Los Angeles and San Diego, and is sometimes habitually referred to as the "Blizzard South".

There are two development teams across Blizzard. One is the Blizzard North team, which mainly develops the Diablo series; One is Blizzard's headquarters, which is responsible for the development of real-time strategy games such as the Warcraft and StarCraft franchises, which are strict and open-minded, and the members of the different groups often exchange ideas with each other.

Like Blizzard's headquarters, Blizzard North has remained unfazed despite a series of ownership changes and corporate changes. As mentioned earlier, Blizzard North was formerly known as an indie game developer called Vulture, Steger? Heidelund started working for this company. Later, with the acquisition, he became a high-level executive of Blizzard.

Blizzard North has always maintained an independent position in development, and Blizzard headquarters handles quality inspection, marketing, public relations, technical and customer service support, Battle.net construction and other matters for it, and does not interfere too much in the development of Blizzard North.

Take Diablo 2 as an example, its design and production were completely completed by Blizzard North, Blizzard headquarters mainly proposed modifications, helped it with quality testing, Blizzard also has a special animation production team, composed of more than a dozen artists and sound engineers, Blizzard headquarters to Blizzard North to provide animation support.

However, Blizzard's tacit understanding with Blizzard's headquarters was not met by Kenneth, CEO of Vivendi Universal Games? Krona recognized. Krone has always believed that Blizzard North has a special status, free from the control of Blizzard Entertainment, and the relatively independent status of Blizzard North and the increase in management costs of inconvenient contact guidance, these are all Kenneth? The reason why Krone has an opinion about Blizzard North.

But the big hit of "Diablo 2" finally made Kenneth? The krona hesitated. There was a concern that the merger of Blizzard North into Blizzard headquarters would incur other unnecessary integration costs.

But the disagreement within Vivendi Universal Games ultimately led to negative results, and Steger? Hedlund was eliminated as one of the first losers, and a series of developments began to break Blizzard's well-known corporate culture and low attrition rate.

"In 1999, 98% of Vivendi Universal Games' revenue came from PC games. Krone wants to restructure its products. gradually reduce the proportion of PC games and increase the number of video games and online games; The second is more collaboration between games and novels, films, and music, which is partly related to the rise of the mass market. On the other hand, it is also because Vivendi Global Group has abundant resources such as Universal Movies and Universal Records. ”

Speaking of this, Hedlund said with a wry smile: "These two development directions are naturally not good news for Blizzard, which has always focused on PC games and original games, which means that the company will face a transformation in terms of business, otherwise its resources and status will be affected!" And because of this, Enrique? Skaif, Marcos? Skaif and David? The three Blizzard North directors of Breivik have very big opinions, and they are vehemently opposed to Kenneth? Krona's transformation strategy, this behavior eventually led to the centrifugal departure of Blizzard North from the parent company! ”

It turns out that this is the truth that Blizzard's northern four later left en masse, and "Diablo 3" was difficult to give birth to and was not released until 2012! Song Chen couldn't help but think silently.

He thought for a moment and said, "Kenneth? There is nothing wrong with Krona's transformation strategy, and it is almost exactly the same as what Chenxing Culture Group is currently doing! ”

Steig, who was still a little gloating? Hedlund couldn't help but be silent: he knew that Song Chen would agree with Krone's strategy, because after Chenxing Culture acquired Marvel Entertainment and DC Comics, the route it took was indeed a rapid response version of Kron's strategy.

Song Chen said slowly: "The Chinese have a history of 3,000 years in the study of strategy and tactics, and we also have our own experience and experience in specific implementation!" And on that matter, what if I'm Kenneth? Krona, Blizzard Entertainment and Blizzard Headquarters even if they merge, they must maintain the relative independence of the two teams in status, and the tone of resource sharing is unified, which is the first! Second, whether it's a video game or an online game, the ratio of these two new pieces is correct, but it doesn't dilute the cohesion of the studio too much, which is actually very important! I guess Kenneth? The reason why Krone disagrees with Blizzard North is that the financial situation of the headquarters has deteriorated, and the director has lost the space that he could have made the transition! If this part of the transition is made with the old with the new, it should not be subject to such fierce opposition! ”

Speaking of this, Song Chen sighed and said with a smile: "But in this way, my chance seems to have come!" It's just that I'm surprised, although Chenxing Culture Group is not the world's top game company, but it has been famous for a long time! The French Vivendi Group is going to sell its game assets, why didn't it notify us? ”

Stig? Hedrlund replied: "Although they are planning to sell Vivendi Universal Games, whether they will finally decide to sell it will have to wait and see if the financial situation of the game business unit will improve this year!" As far as I know, Vivendi Group only sent a signal from informal channels that Vivendi Universal Games is an asset, and whether it really wants to sell it or not, first, as I just said, is still a fluke; The second is to wait for the buyer to come to the door by himself! ”

Song Chen nodded in understanding, and said with a smile: "It seems that the Vivendi Group is very short of money!" ”

"Exactly!" Hedron smiled, "Actually, everyone knows that the debt of Vivendi Group is too high, and I am afraid that it is not a simple sale of CANAL+, and the game business department can end the turnaround!" ”

Song Chen smiled, but he didn't think so, because in his impression, Vivendi Group did not sell the game business unit, and Blizzard Entertainment's "World of Warcraft" and "Call of Duty" series of games provided the reason for super high profits! In the face of such a cash cow, Vivendi Group may have to sell it at a sky-high price if it really wants to!

At present, the advantages for Song Chen are: first, Vivendi Group should be serious about selling the game business unit at present; Second, the quotation of Vivendi Group is too high, so that international manufacturers such as EA and Ubisoft dare not take orders; Third, and most importantly, except for Song Chen, I am afraid that no one in this world will understand where the true value of Blizzard Entertainment lies - even if the "Diablo" series and the "Warcraft" series are successful, they cannot compare to the super high returns brought by "World of Warcraft" sweeping the world!

Therefore, if there is really any seller who is willing to pay a high price, it may only be Song Chen and his Chenxing Culture Group, but in this way, his cash is not enough.

Will it buy Pixar first, or will it be Vivendi Universal Games first? (To be continued......)