The Wind of China Entertainment 2005

Chapter 768 Choice
When the Internet bubble burst in the millennium, major domestic Internet companies were walking on thin ice.

However, there was a person who, during this period, became the richest man on the Hurun list and became famous in the world by virtue of his exclusive agency for the phenomenal hit game "Legend".

This person is Chen Tianqiao, who made a fortune from playing games.

However, Chen Tianqiao does not like games and has stated many times in public that "Legend" is a bad game, which disgusted countless players.

With the money he earned from games, Chen Tianqiao entered other fields, such as online literature. He acquired various literary websites and integrated them into Shanda Literature, thus occupying a leading position in the industry.

Popular TV series in the past few years, such as "The Legend of Zhen Huan" and "Startling by Each Step", are actually adapted from original works published on various websites under Shanda Literature.

But why should such a leading company in the industry be sold?

Xu Weifeng explained: "It's a coincidence that this happened. Mr. Lu, why don't you tell me in person?"

Lu Yuan turned his puzzled look to Lu Jing.

Lu Jing nodded and said, "Brother, last November, didn't you ask me to keep an eye out for male-oriented novels that are suitable for film and television adaptations?"

"Well, I did say that, and then."

"We did a market survey and selected a few novels, then sent someone to contact Shanda Literature to discuss the purchase of copyrights. The price of novel copyrights has increased dramatically in recent years, and we failed to reach an agreement once or twice."

"I also went there last month, and someone just happened to come out of the building and bumped into me. I think he thought I was a Shanda employee and didn't even apologize to me!"

Lu Jing sounded a little unhappy when he said this.

Lu Yuan glanced at her and said, "Why are you so unlucky? Find some time to go to the temple to exorcise the evil spirits. You've either been rear-ended or hit."

"Hurry up and get down to business. Don't waste time."

"Oh."

Lu Jing said: "I asked people from Shanda and found out that this person's name is Wu Wenhui, one of the founders of Qidian Literature. In 2002, he founded Qidian Chinese Network with five other founders, which was later acquired by Chen Tianqiao for $200 million."

"After Qidian was merged into Shanda Literature, its data continued to grow. With the support of Shanda's two capital injections, it established its position as the industry leader in one fell swoop. The website alone contributed 70% of Shanda Literature's profits. However, Wu Wenhui lost the election for Shanda Literature's CEO and was at odds with CEO Hou Xiaoqiang."

"Hou Xiaoqiang was parachuted in, he has no direct lineage, and he wanted to take control of the revenue of all the websites under Shanda Literature."

"As the founder of Qidian.com, Wu Wenhui was naturally unhappy. He was already unhappy about not being selected as CEO, and Shanda's IPO failed. So he asked Chen Tianqiao to redeem Qidian.com and wanted to break away from Shanda to develop independently. He offered $4-5 million."

"Chen Tianqiao refused, saying that he would not discuss the matter if the price was less than US$8 million. Wu Wenhui naturally could not afford it, so he broke off relations with the company. In 2012, he resigned from Shanda and joined Tencent, where he founded Chuangshi Chinese Network."

"Tencent?" Lu Yuan sat up straight when he heard these two words.

"Well, with Tencent's support, the conflict between Wu Wenhui's team and Shanda Literature was completely aroused. New hatreds were added to old grudges. Both sides were ruthless when they attacked, and some people were even detained because of this."

"Chen Tianqiao was hit hard by the Shanda Box incident and is said to have suffered from panic disorder. His dream of becoming an online Disney was shattered and he became disheartened. He decided to reduce the weight of Shanda and transform it into an investment holding company with Internet innovation as its core."

Lu Jing's mouth was dry as he spoke, so he picked up the teacup and took a sip of water.

"Lose weight." Lu Yuan frowned. "So Chen Tianqiao intends to sell Shanda Literature, and Wu Wenhui persuaded Tencent to invest in the acquisition?"

"Yeah, you tell the rest, Old Xu." Lu Jing drank the water and said.

Xu Weifeng smiled and took over the conversation: "According to the information we received, Wu Wenhui came to Shanda to discuss the acquisition in secret, but the price offered by Tencent was US$5 million, which did not meet Chen Tianqiao's expectations. The negotiations failed and are still going on."

Lu Yuan glanced at the two people in front of him and roughly guessed their intentions.

Xu Weifeng continued, "Chairman, I think it is necessary for the company to have its own IP supply side. Although we currently have the blueprint copyright as a moat, it is not enough. If we take over Shanda Group, it will be different. The company will have the largest IP production library in China. This moat is wider and safer."

"By then, Shanda will produce IP as the supply side, and several companies led by Yuanfang Media will adapt it and put it on the PPS platform in the form of long-form TV series or animations for self-production and self-sales. This is a complete film and television ecological chain, and it can form a virtuous cycle and empower both sides."

"Yes, now iQiyi has Baidu Literature and Tencent has Chuangshi Chinese Network, but we are lacking in this aspect. If Shanda is taken over by Tencent again, what awaits us will be being controlled by others." Lu Jing put down the cup and agreed.

She further analyzed: "Compared to Tencent, we actually have more advantages. Although Chen Tianqiao said that he doesn't like games, many of Shanda Games' core members have been poached by Tencent, and Chen Tianqiao must be unhappy about it. If they are both selling, he obviously prefers to sell it to us."

"Brother, opportunities are rare and will never come back. If you miss this opportunity, you will miss this shop forever." Lu Jing tried to persuade him.

As early as when she bought the copyright of "Startling by Each Step" and competed with LeTV for the copyright of "The Legend of Zhen Huan", she had quietly set her sights on setting up a literary website.

After Blueprint acquired a stake in PPS, she even discussed with Xu Weifeng about building a new literary website based on the PPS platform.

But it didn't work because we couldn't find any good authors.

Afterwards, she thought about acquiring a company, but she couldn't find a suitable one. She was also worried that her cousin didn't have enough funds, so she never dared to mention it.

The situation is different this time, if we agree to Alibaba’s investment.

Then my cousin will get 3 million US dollars, which, combined with the cash he already has, will be more than enough to buy Shanda Literature.

Just now, when she and Xu Weifeng heard that Ma Yun was going to invest in PPS, they both thought of this at the same time. They had reached a consensus a long time ago that the literature network was the last piece of the puzzle in the PPS ecological chain.

After Lu Jing finished speaking, the box fell silent. Everyone stared at his cousin, waiting for him to make a decision.

Lu Yuan stared at the coffee table and tapped the armrest of the sofa slowly with his right index finger, making a tapping sound.

Obviously, Lu Jing and Xu Weifeng's underlying intention was to hope that he would accept Alibaba's investment in order to obtain sufficient funds to acquire Shanda Literature.

As for whether Alibaba will be able to take over the controlling stake through some means after acquiring the shares, he is not very worried about this.

Not to mention that PPS has not yet been listed, he holds 75% of the shares. After PPS was acquired by Blueprint in 12, it implemented the AB share system with several other shareholders.

Most Internet companies will come into contact with financing during their development.

Financing is planned and phased, with small equity shares released multiple times. Once the founding team's equity is likely to be less than 50%, it is a dangerous signal for control.

At this time, we will start designing AB shares.

For example, the founders of Tencent, Xiaomi, JD.com, and Google all hold shares far lower than those of shareholders, often accounting for less than 10% of the company's shares.

However, they have extremely high voice and always maintain their position as the decision-makers in the company because they use AB shares.

Among AB shares, Class A shares have only one vote or even no voting rights, while Class B shares have much higher voting rights than Class A shares.

JD.com’s Class B shares have 20 times the voting rights of Class A shares.

That’s why Liu Qiangdong dared to raise huge amounts of funds in the early stages and invite the wolf into the house.

As for the voting ratio of AB shares, it is set by the board of directors.

The same is true for PPS. Lu Yuan has a veto power in the company. If he gives his 20% shares to Alibaba, uses it to acquire Shanda Literature, and then transfers it to PPS, Alibaba's shareholding in the increased capital of PPS will be diluted to far less than 20%.

If it were Youku Tudou, it might be different.

It was originally a listed company. After several rounds of equity dilution, Gu Yongqiang and others did not hold many shares. In addition, the website was in urgent need of capital replenishment. After Alibaba acquired a stake in it, it was very likely that the person in charge of this video website would be replaced through capital increase and other means.

This is not the case with PPS. It was probably because of this situation that Ma Yun agreed to Alibaba's investment in purchasing 20% ​​of A shares and promised to give up voting rights.

Lu Yuan couldn't help but think of another way to acquire Shanda Literature, which was to invite Shanda Literature to invest in PPS.

But Chen Tianqiao would most likely not agree, because Shanda acquired Ku2009.com as early as .

Originally, he planned to acquire LeTV for RMB 3-4 million.

But Boss Jia insisted on a price of 6-8 million yuan. In this tug-of-war, both parties were unable to convince each other and finally the deal was not reached.

After Chen Tianqiao bought Ku6, he planned to develop it into an information platform, but he took the wrong direction and Ku6 fell behind.

Chen Tianqiao has a good eye for investment, but he is much inferior in management. Few people know that before WeChat and MiTalk, there was a software called Talkbox.

The one-touch voice function of WeChat and MiTalk is a replica of Talkbox, which was invented by the other party. Chen Tianqiao took advantage of the opportunity by investing in this company, but it failed to make any waves and its popularity is not even as high as that of MiTalk.

With this thought in mind, Lu Yuan looked at the two people in front of him, and in their expectant gazes, he asked, "What's the price from Chen Tianqiao?"

"About $7 million!"

Lu Yuan no longer hesitated and nodded: "Okay, we will hold a shareholders' meeting tomorrow."

Xu Weifeng and Lu Jing exchanged glances and smiled. The last piece of the PPS puzzle was in place, and from now on, the sky was high and the birds flew freely!
The next day, Lu Yuan held a shareholders' meeting in Shanghai.

Discussions were held with representatives from SMG, vivo, and OPPO regarding Alibaba's investment, which were unanimously approved.

The process was very smooth.

When vivo and OPPO agreed to invest in PPS, it was originally to promote their own mobile phone businesses.

After sponsoring "Running Man" and "Where Are We Going, Dad?" respectively last year, the two brands made huge profits and their mobile phone sales soared.

SMG has always been a little upset, feeling that it holds too small a stake and has no say.

At the end of last year, the legendary veteran Li Ruigang was transferred back, suggesting that the other party would expand SMG's shares in PPS.

Unfortunately, Li Ruigang didn't want to take care of it at all. After cleaning up the mess of SMG in recent years, he planned to leave the system and start his own business.

In fact, he couldn't do anything about it. Not to mention Blueprint's 75% stake, Vivo and Oppo's attitude of following Lu Yuan's lead at the shareholders' meeting made him do nothing but stare.

After the shareholders' meeting, Lu Yuan and Liu Shishi returned to Beijing.

Lu Jing represented Blueprint and contacted Alibaba with the legal department, while Xu Weifeng secretly contacted Chen Tianqiao.

All plans were proceeding smoothly in secret.

It was already noon when Lu Yuan and Liu Shishi returned to the capital.

As soon as he landed, he didn't even have time to drink a sip of water before he went to Communication University, where there was a face-to-face promotional event for "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" on campus.

On the way to Communication University, Lu Yuan was reading the reports online.

Yesterday, the news that he and Liu Shishi had confirmed their marriage certificate was still at the top of the trending searches, and there was also a lot of discussion about the results of the ceremony.

Especially the news that PPS spent nearly 5000 million in subsidies.

Some rational netizens believe that the results of the PPS awards this time have a bit of a self-contained flavor, and all the major awards were won by "My Love from the Star".

But he was soon ridiculed by other netizens, who called these people sour.

They strongly support PPS and believe that this award ceremony is entirely based on performance. The entire network knows how popular the dramas that aired on PPS last year were and how exaggerated the data was.

What's wrong with PPS awarding prizes based on data?

Should they deliberately avoid shows like "My Love from the Star" just because they are broadcast on their own platforms?

If you have the ability, you can also make a drama with higher data than "My Love from the Star" and more creative ideas than "Soul Ferry".

The endless debate among netizens in the two camps has raised the popularity of #PPS sky-high subsidies# to a new level, like a beacon, attracting major film and television companies.

Media school.

When Lu Yuan rushed to the auditorium, Zhou Xinchi was arguing with Ma Yun on the stage.

There were three soft white leather chairs on the stage. Ma Yun was sitting on the one on the left, and there were two on the right. One was for Zhou Xinchi and one was left for him.

The audience was packed with college students.

Zhou Xinchi said with a smile: "I once wanted to ask Mr. Ma Yun to play the role of Sun Wukong. Of course, if he likes to play other roles, that's fine. I will try my best to find a way to cooperate with any actress he likes."

Ma Yun also gave face, saying that she particularly liked Zhou Xinchi's movies and praised them highly: "There are two things that Chinese people must watch, one is Zhou Xinchi's movies, and the other is Jin Yong's novels. Everything else is just a passing cloud."

Lu Yuan watched the two of them playing back and forth and couldn't help but sigh, they really knew how to have fun.

Ma Yun is a marketing expert and is now appearing frequently at major events to build momentum for the company's listing.

Zhou Xinchi was also different from the image he remembered of someone who patiently directed extras on the set.

In the past, movies starring Lu Yuan were jointly promoted by Yuanfang Media and Guangguang Media, with one responsible for online and the other for offline, and the two sides complemented each other.

This time the promotion of "Journey to the West: Conquering the Demons" is different. Zhou Xinchi's team participated in the online promotion.

In addition to normal promotional methods, they also hyped the term "I owe Stephen Chow a movie ticket", played the emotional card, and linked it to "A Chinese Odyssey" to stimulate the audience's desire to watch the movie.

He was stunned by her skillfulness.

"Hey, Boss Lu is here." Zhou Xinchi saw him and waved, "I'm waiting for you."

A programmed smile appeared on Lu Yuan's face. What right did he have to criticize others? Isn't it the same now?

"Coming."

(End of this chapter)