Qunxing Capital spent $50 billion to acquire Activision Blizzard, which is the largest M&A in the history of global games so far, and most importantly, it is also a merger and acquisition by a company from a large eastern country.

From the first launch of the M&A invitation to the current negotiation of boots, a year has passed unconsciously.

This efficiency is actually not slow, you must know that this is not an ordinary corporate M&A, it is enough to bring a significant impact on the game industry, even if it drags on for two or three years, it may not be fruitful.

It can be said that in order to complete this merger, Fang Hong spent a lot of effort on the boss's nose.

How difficult it is to know that North America is currently in a state full of hostility to Qunxing Capital, which shows that the difficulty coefficient is so high that it is almost impossible to do in the eyes of outsiders.

It is basically impossible to do without some unconventional means under the table.

In the eyes of outsiders, the most valuable things in Activision Blizzard are probably those heavyweight game IPs, such as the "Call of Duty" series, the "Warcraft" series, the "Diablo" series and so on.

But Fang Hong values Activision Blizzard the most, and thinks that the most valuable thing is not these, but user data!

With more than 350 million monthly active users worldwide, the acquisition of Activision Blizzard at a sky-high price of $50 billion will make the value of user data worth $30 billion, and the rest add up to $20 billion.

In fact, the breakup between Blizzard and the Internet that happened in Fang Hong's previous life, the game version number has to be dragged in his hands, and what he really values is the data of Blizzard players in the Greater China market, that is, the data of tens of millions of player users, which is a super valuable thing.

Netsun has these data, not to mention anything else, and in the future, it can accurately push and convert players with consumption potential into other games under Netsun. With these data, you will know which player has the most krypton gold and which player is a pure white prostitute, and with a clear user portrait, you can realize data monetization at a lower cost.

Therefore, the value of data is difficult to estimate specifically, and it can also be consumed across borders, as long as there is his detailed data information, it can be more accurately inferred that he may like something other than the game.

With Activision Blizzard having 350 million monthly active users worldwide, it's not an exaggeration to say it's worth $30 billion.

But at this moment, Tian Jiayi was on the side of the memo, while Fang Hong continued to instruct unhurriedly: "Buying Activision Blizzard, the next step is to spin off and reorganize the company, and separate Activision and Blizzard respectively, respectively Activision Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment, which are not subordinate to each other and operate independently." ”

After Vivendi bought Blizzard, it forcibly merged with Activision to become Activision Blizzard, and now it is sold to Qunxing Capital to be separated.

Fang Hong continued: "In addition, Activision Entertainment's distribution department and channel department will be spun out, that is to say, after the completion of the reorganization, Activision Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment will become a pure third-party game developer. ”

"Activision's channels and distribution departments have been merged into the game business department under Qunxing Capital." Fang Hong said this, looked at the beautiful assistant and asked, "By the way, have you bought the trademark of the game box?" ”

Whether it is Blizzard Entertainment or Activision Entertainment, return to the original purpose of game development, like all other third-party game developers, only responsible for making games, responsible for doing a good job in the game, and after the product is developed, the platform will provide resources such as distribution, channels, and publicity.

Fang Hong's arrangement is to further refine the division of labor, specialization, and specialization, and make the game a good game, and operate the platform well if it is a platform.

Tian Jiayi immediately replied: "I have already bought it." ”

The game platform that Qunxing Capital wanted to build was named "Game Box", and when it went to register, it was found that it had already been taken down, so Qunxing Capital had to sacrifice the tried and tested "money ability", and offered the other party a price that he could not refuse, and finally bought the trademark.

Hearing this, Fang Hong nodded with satisfaction: "Very good, whether it is the games of Activision and Blizzard that have been acquired, or the games of those third-party game developers that are about to be purchased, all of them are listed on the game box platform, of course, including those independent developers that we have not acquired, you can also apply for release on the game box platform." ”

Players only need to register an account on the game box to play all the games listed on the platform, which is equivalent to cutting off the connection between players and third-party game developers.

It is foreseeable that in the future, the voice of third-party game developers will be greatly weakened, and the platform side will control users and channel distribution, and the voice will increase dramatically.

From this point of view, the spin-off of Activision Blizzard is also to weaken their right to speak.

After a while, Tian Jiayi said: "By the way, Jeff Kaplan, the developer of Overwatch, after learning that Star Capital was going to buy Activision Blizzard, he repeatedly stated that if Star Capital was successful, he hoped to return to Blizzard with the project. ”

Fang Hong also remembered this when he heard this, Jeff Kaplan was instigated by someone sent by Star Capital in private, and promised to invest 500 million US dollars in him to set up an independent studio, and finally Jeff Kaplan was moved, and left with a group of original Blizzard development teams, and set up a studio to develop "Overwatch".

An important factor in Jeff Kaplan's hope to return is the "Overwatch" project, many of the settings and ideas are derived from Blizzard's previous "Titan" project, if you don't return to Blizzard, you may be entangled in lawsuits and disputes later, but if you return to Blizzard, these potential troubles will disappear in place.

Fang Hong nodded to himself: "Activision Blizzard is already mine, then let him return, merge his Overwatch studio into Blizzard Entertainment, and still be in charge of the project." ”

After thinking for a moment, Fang Hong added: "In addition, Blizzard Entertainment will further make some major adjustments, remove the e-sports department of Blizzard Entertainment, and the annual BlizzCon Carnival can remain the same, but the WCS tournament held by Blizzard can be canceled and can be reduced to an exhibition match of the carnival." As for the overall packaging of e-sports, it is handed over to WCG to do, and the profits of e-sports are authorized by Blizzard to score points. ”

Fang Hong, who has memories of his previous life, is very clear that Blizzard, a company that makes games, is indeed very strong, and its creative ability is also very strong, and few peers can compare, for example, this "Overwatch" started with Wang Bang, Blizzard's game development and creation capabilities are the top in the world, and there are not many people who have objections to this.

But Blizzard is really indescribable in terms of e-sports event operations, holding a bunch of king-level e-sports projects in hand, the birth of e-sports still originated from Blizzard's "StarCraft", and then "StarCraft 2", and then "Hearthstone", and another king bomb "Overwatch" that is about to be born.

But with so many good cards in his hand, he was stunned to be beaten by Blizzard.

On the contrary, it is the "League of Legends" developed by Riot next door, Riot is getting better and better at e-sports, if it were not for Fang Hong's forcible intervention in WCG to let all e-sports people and professional players regard the WCG championship as the highest honor at the palace level, and give Riot two years to develop and operate, "League of Legends" can completely make its own S game prosperous.

On the other hand, Blizzard in Fang Hong's previous life was really a catastrophic death behavior again and again, and it was also thanks to the fact that Blizzard had accumulated a thick foundation because of the fact that Blizzard had accumulated enough foundation, but as long as Riot Company died once like Blizzard, it would be difficult to have a chance to turn the tables again, not to mention that it was directly gone.

……

(End of chapter)