America is in control

Chapter 344: Announcement of Acquisition and Audition for "Lord of the Rings"

Calculated based on the minimum PPV sales of 130 million copies, Liu will earn about US$2340 million in PPV share revenue from this boxing title unification fight.

In addition, we include ticket revenue, broadcast rights for the first and second phases, closed-circuit television broadcast rights, international broadcast rights, and sponsorship fees from sponsors.
The income from these subdivided projects added together will not be less than the PPV share.

Roughly speaking, Liu Jiang's estimated earnings from this boxing championship unification fight are at least 4500 million US dollars.

After getting this astonishing number, he felt happy.

After calming down a little, Liu Jiang turned his attention to other matters.

"Jonathan, how was the screening session for "Hollywood"?"

Liu Jiang suddenly remembered the independent film "Hollywood" that he purchased from the Atlanta Film Festival.

This film will be released in major theaters in North America in a few days.

Liu Jiang has been busy with boxing championship unification fights before, so he didn't pay much attention to the announcement of "Hollywood".

Now that the boxing champion's unification fight is over, he naturally wants to ask about the current status of the film.

"Boss, the results of the test film meeting were pretty good, and we basically achieved our expected goals."

"Including the three major cinema chain companies, we have secured a total of 100 cinemas, but these cinemas are not located in prosperous areas."

"Coupled with the 100 independent theaters that have long-term cooperation with New Caesars Distribution Company, "Hollywood" will be released in no less than 200 theaters in North America during the first weekend."

Jonathan on the other end of the phone reported to General Liu the current promotion situation of "Hollywood".

"Well done! Jonathan, I hope this movie can surprise us!"

Liu Jiang praised the other party and said that he was quite satisfied with the scale of the release of "Hollywood".

This movie is the first film released by the new Caesars Entertainment Company, and it is also the copyright that he bought against all odds.

If "Hollywood" can be an instant hit and achieve good box office results, then the old employees of New Caesars Distribution Company will also be able to return home a little bit.

In this way, the publicity and distribution work of "Death is Coming" will be much easier!

Even Liu will be able to establish great prestige in New Caesar Publishing Company.

"Don't worry! Boss, this movie "Hollywood" has the potential to be a hit!"

Jonathan echoed.

"By the way, Jonathan, don't forget to say hello to the printing factory and express company in advance."

"If 'Hollywood' does well at the box office, you must contact those theater companies as soon as possible."

"Increase the number of theaters and screens and deliver copies to those theaters in a timely manner."

After Liu Jiang thought for a moment, he gave Jonathan a few words of advice.

"Boss, I have already negotiated with the printing factory and the courier company. As long as the money is available, they can start work immediately."

Jonathan had already taken care of this matter in advance, he assured General Liu.

"What movies are released at the same time as "Hollywood"? Are there any movies of the same type? Will it affect the box office performance of "Hollywood"?"

"None of the movies that were released at the same time are very outstanding! There is a movie of the same type, but the audience overlap is not great, and it will basically not affect us."

"How is the cooperation between the creative team of "Hollywood"? They didn't make any mistakes during the promotion process, right?"

"Nel Mandit and others are quite cooperative. They are eager to accept more interviews from the media. In order to achieve the expected publicity effect (famousness), they have done a lot of work!"

After briefly asking about the announcement of "Hollywood", Liu Jiang ended the call with Jonathan.

With the preview meeting over and the release scale finalized, the pre-screening promotion and distribution work of "Hollywood" has entered the final sprint stage.

Two hundred copies were gradually delivered to the confirmed theaters, and news about the movie "Hollywood" began to appear in some newspapers, TV stations, and websites.

The promotional campaign is non-stop, and now we are just waiting for the day when the movie is released!

After wrapping up the release of "Hollywood," Liu will turn his attention to Yahoo.

"What The Fxxk? Jerry (Yang Zhiyuan's English name), are you messing around?"

"Why would Yahoo rather acquire Four11 and its Rocketmail service than consider Hotmail?"

"I think Hotmail's technology and services are obviously much better than Rocketmail."

After learning that Yahoo management had made the decision to acquire Four11 and its Rocketmail service, Liu Jiang was immediately furious.

At Yahoo's last shareholder meeting, small shareholders representing Wall Street capital formally made suggestions to management.

Abandon the internally incubated mailbox project and instead acquire an Internet start-up company that specializes in mailboxes and has relatively mature products.

There was no consensus within Moritz's four-member minor league regarding this suggestion.

General Liu and Moritz are more sympathetic to this suggestion, but Jerry Yang and David Filo are not.

The four people discussed and discussed, and in the end Liu Jiang and Moritz had the upper hand.

Jerry Yang and David Filo recognized the strategy of acquiring Internet startups, taking the lead in launching mature products, and then seizing the market.

General Liu also introduced Hotmail, a free email service he invested in, to the three allies.

Who knew that Yahoo's management would eventually decide to acquire a little-known company.

If this small company's email business is better than Hotmail, that's it. Liu Jiang won't talk nonsense.

Unfortunately, this small company's mailbox business is not very good, so that's a bit of a problem.

Liu will have to suspect that Yahoo's management has ulterior motives and that there is something fishy about this acquisition decision.

After all, no one would buy a top-quality product instead of buying a defective one!

"John, don't be angry! There is a reason why we made such a decision."

"Although Hotmail's technology and services are better than Rocketmail, Hotmail is a free email after all, and what we want to launch is a paid email."

"Have you ever thought about this? If we successfully acquire Hotmail and change its free model to a paid model, what will those users who are accustomed to the free model think?"

"Will they give up Hotmail because of this? You must know that the reason why we acquire Internet start-ups that do mailboxes is that in addition to valuing each other's products and technologies, users are also a very important point." "Besides, compared to Hotmail, Four11 Rocketmail service is much cheaper!"

Yang Zhiyuan patiently explained for General Liu.

"Paid mailbox? Are You kidding Me? Jerry, everyone uses the free mailbox well, why would you choose a paid mailbox?"

"A product like email is only suitable as a source of traffic. You can place a few ads at most to earn some advertising fees."

"It is definitely a dead end to open a paid mailbox now! It will not work! Even a layman like me knows this. Jerry, you are a big boss in the industry. You don't know this!"

General Liu was full of questions. He really couldn't understand why Yahoo wanted to build a paid email address.

"Uh! John, maybe you don't understand the overall strategy we are currently implementing. The paid email address is not an isolated point, but is tied to our full set of services."

Jerry Yang explained it all. To put it simply, it is to use Yahoo’s size advantage to engage in bundled sales, which is a waste of money.

After listening to the other party's explanation, Liu Jiang was speechless, TNNGTD! In other words, Yahoo had the first-mover advantage, and the snowball rolled too fast and too big.

Otherwise, with the bad attitude of this group of management, they would probably vote with their feet and abandon Yahoo in a matter of minutes.

"Jerry, I have reservations about the decision made by Yahoo management this time. I always believe that the foundation of an Internet company lies in innovation and service."

"It's okay to acquire Four11 and its Rocketmail service! But to create a paid email address? I personally am firmly opposed to it!"

"If Yahoo's stock price plummets due to the launch of paid mailboxes, I will hold the relevant managers accountable at the next board meeting!"

Yahoo would rather acquire Four11 and its Rocketmail service than choose Hotmail, which will make Liu sulky at best.

But Yahoo wanted to launch a paid mailbox and engage in binding sales, which was just a waste of money, and he couldn't bear it!
It’s not that there is no future for paid mailboxes, but it’s just that now is the time to compete for land. If you waste this critical window period and want to catch up in the future, it will take a lot of effort!
General Liu has a clear-cut stance and a very tough attitude. The email address is a vital part of the portal, and there must be no mistakes.

"Uh! John, let me tell you the truth! In fact, Yahoo's management has not made up its mind yet. There are a group of people supporting both the free email and the paid email."

"David Filo and I support free email, but some managers representing Wall Street capital support paid email."

"Mr. Moritz is very embarrassed to be caught in the middle. I can see that he actually supports free email in his heart."

"In order to reach a compromise with those managers who represent Wall Street capital, after repeated discussions, we finally decided to acquire Four11 and its Rocketmail service."

"Because those Wall Street capitals hold a lot of shares in Four11"

Jerry Yang revealed the truth of the matter. It turned out that there was such a complicated origin behind this acquisition decision.

"Jerry, you can tell me directly about things like this! I'm a reasonable person, and I can still tell the difference between what's important and what's important!"

Liu Jiang forced down his unhappiness, complained to Yang Zhiyuan, and made his attitude clear at the same time.

He roughly understood the ins and outs of this incident. The three Moritzs made this acquisition decision without telling themselves. The purpose was probably to buy Wall Street capital to relax and get the other party to agree to launch free mailboxes.

Of course, it is also possible that Moritz and the others are worried that after Yahoo acquires Hotmail, they will become Yahoo's second largest shareholder (through stock exchange), thereby affecting Yahoo's internal power structure.

No matter what, I was severely tricked by Moritz and the other three!
"John, after all, you are an investor in Hotmail and hold a lot of shares in this company. Logically speaking, you should choose to avoid it! The reason why we hide this from you is because we don't want to make it difficult for you!"

Yang Zhiyuan found a high-sounding reason and explained it.

"Okay! As long as Yahoo doesn't launch any paid mailboxes, I can totally accept it!"

"As for whether Yahoo acquires Four11, acquires Hotmail, or incubates its own email project, I don't care!"

"I hope Hotmail will finally be listed on Nasdaq through rounds of financing."

Liu Jiang replied a few words without saltiness, and his attitude became cold.

After the two chatted for a while, they hung up the phone.

The right way is to share hardships and hardships, and share wealth and hardships!

A bloody example is before us. Due to the lack of synchronization of interests, the lack of a common language, Yahoo's small alliance composed of itself and Moritz has faintly developed cracks.

That’s it! That’s it! It seems that we really can't just sit back and worry about it. Taking the initiative to give advice to Moritz and the others is asking for trouble, making people jealous, and alienating the relationship between them.

For myself, maintaining the four-person alliance within Yahoo is the top priority!
Letting Yahoo develop as closely as possible along the trajectory of its previous life is the best move in its own interests.

Liu Jiang secretly made up his mind to control his mouth and stop giving any business advice to Moritz and the others.

As for the estrangement between him and Moritz, they naturally had to find a way to smooth it over.

After putting aside Yahoo for the time being, before Liu Jiang could breathe a sigh of relief, Peter Jackson came to the door.

"Director Peter, please sit down. What would you like to drink?"

Liu Jiang led Peter Jackson to the living room, invited him to sit down on the sofa, and asked politely.

"Just a cup of coffee, John, come and take a look at the movie scene drawings I drew."

"Of course, this is only part of it. If there is anything that needs to be modified, you can tell me directly."

"Because the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was shot back-to-back, it will take some time to complete all the movie storyboards."

As Peter Jackson spoke, he took out a stack of exquisite drawings from his briefcase and handed them to General Liu.

After asking the maid to make a cup of coffee for him, Liu took the manuscript with both hands and started reading.

"The drawings of your movie shots are pretty good. From a rough glance, there are no problems. I will leave this movie shot drawing with me for now. I still need to think carefully about some details."

"By the way, what's the situation now with the location selectors recruited by the crew? Have they secured a location for filming in New Zealand?"

"Also, how is your film shooting plan completed? When will the complete version be released?"

After reading it roughly, Liu Jiang gave a somewhat positive evaluation, and then asked about other matters that the crew had prepared in the early stage.

"The location selectors we have recruited have worked very hard, but the location shooting may not be available so quickly. I predict that the number of location shooting locations in New Zealand for the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy will exceed 150."

"The same goes for the movie shooting schedule. Because the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy was shot at the same time, some scenes may appear in all three movies, so sometimes we will spend a lot of time on a certain scene, and all of this It all needs to be planned in advance.”

"John, except for the preparatory work of the crew, which is a little tedious, I haven't encountered any big trouble! However, there is a problem with the actors. Should we recruit the main roles of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy through open auditions? Or?"

Peter Jackson briefly introduced the preliminary preparations, and then tentatively asked about selecting actors.

(End of this chapter)