King of Capital

【Li Gengxi: April 2000, 4, St. Dominic High School, USA.】

Xie Jingxing picked up the folder on the coffee table, shook off the cigarette ash on the surface, took out one of the photos, and turned over the back to check the personal information.

It is a half-length portrait. The facial features are not beautiful but the texture is refreshing. According to Zhang Zhao, this is called eye appeal. Being easily remembered by the audience is a more outstanding ability than beauty.

But combining the height, measurements and age, we can roughly outline the real image of a child who is still in high school.

Xie Jing Xing couldn't help but blurt out, "You're only sixteen this year, does that fit the role of a heroine?"

"This project is an adaptation of a novel IP, and the production direction intends to keep the tone of the original work as much as possible."

Zhang Zhao immediately proved his innocence. This is how it was written in the original book, not that he was just helping his friend out of ignorance.

Xie Jingxing continued to look through the folder without commenting. The title of the original novel was attached, "My Classmate is 200 Million Years Old". From the outline of the content, it can be seen that the subject matter and style are fine.

"Xu..."

"Jinglei."

"Xu Jinglei is a relative of this kid, right? She dropped out of high school and returned to China to venture into the entertainment industry. Her parents are really generous." Xie Jingxing put down the folder and joked with a smile.

Zhang Zhao secretly breathed a sigh of relief and woke up at the same time. Eating leek and egg pancakes together gave him the illusion that he could chat about family matters and talk about human relationships, but in fact, the person sitting in front of him was the company's boss.

The young marshal of the Feng clique would not remember the names of the dancers under Du Yuesheng, and the young marshal of the Xie clique would not remember either...

"In fact, the overall market performance is good, and everyone is willing to try to create diverse themes. Two years ago, Zhang Yimou boldly used young new actresses in his first film "Coming Home" after joining the company."

Zhang Zhao tried his best to make up for it: "Not only did it set a domestic box office record for art films, this newcomer was also nominated for the Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Rooster Awards."

"Overall, it can be said that it was a great success in both word-of-mouth and box office."

Driven by the instinct of self-preservation, the conversation quickly switched to a serious work report, and the whole process was in vain.

Xie Jingxing silently picked up the cup of water to rinse his mouth. Last year, he had seen the new actress that Zhang Zhao mentioned. She was so proud of her reputation as a "Mou Girl" that she disdained to sign with Kujiji Studio. Now the latter has become a shareholder of LeTV Pictures, and its artists have plenty of job opportunities, and all of them are developing well.

Unfortunately, it has nothing to do with the purpose of coming here today.

He followed the topic and said, "Director Zhang is very stable. The lower limit of the project is guaranteed, but if the results want to break the upper limit, you have to control it."

"The domestic film and television industry is not systematic and currently relies mainly on the director's personal ability. We try our best to build a good creative environment for the creative team."

Zhang Zhao accepted the compliment calmly and stated, "The post-production of The Great Wall has been completed as planned, and Director Zhang has started the early preparations for the next two years' project. Next year we will shoot a costume martial arts theme, and the year after will tentatively be a feature film adapted from the novel IP."

"You are full of energy and creativity in creating one film a year. What kind of support do you need from the company?"

Xie Jingxing adjusted his sitting posture and put down his crossed legs. He originally wanted to play a heart-to-heart game, but now that this is the case, he should stop pretending.

The combination of Zhang Zhao and Zhang Yimou can be regarded as a guaranteed cornerstone. As for a single project like "The Great Wall", it is harmless. Business losses are part of the company's operating costs, and the profit or loss is the total revenue minus the total cost.

When he took over LeTV, the film industry was the only profitable business. You should know that last year and the year before last there were two disappointing projects, "The Crossing".

Xiaoma Pentium was only one of the main investors, but Pei Fei was so angry that she wanted to kill director John Woo. LeTV Pictures was not only the main investor but also responsible for the distribution. It was really losing money. Even so, it has been profitable for two consecutive years, which shows that its business situation is commendable.

This rare and high-quality asset left by Jia Yueting deserves attention.

"We are now mainly focusing on financing in the second half of the year, financial separation with the parent company, and accounts receivable from Jia."

Zhang Zhao was mentally prepared and thought about these things every day. In the final analysis, it was all about money.

Last year, Jia Yueting siphoned cash flow from LeEco Pictures at a critical juncture, and the money he brought back to the parent company was barely worth it. However, some of the funds that were transferred to LeEco Sports and LeEco Mobile Phones have completely become debts that cannot be recovered.

Since LeTV had just completed its financial audit in March and Xie Jingxing deliberately suppressed the debt and did not resolve it, Zhang Zhao had no idea what was going on and could only wait.

Now that I have the opportunity to bring it up, I will naturally get rid of as much of this mess as possible so that I can start again with a light load.

Looking closer, although everyone has reached a consensus on lowering valuations for financing in the second half of the year, even if we put aside the interests at the shareholding level, solving financial problems by lowering valuations a little and raising more money will definitely be beneficial for the company to have more ample cash flow.

Looking into the long term, the bad debts of the film industry seeking an independent listing will have to be resolved sooner or later. Either LeTV will have to clean up the mess, or it will have to bear the consequences itself.

"Let's raise some money first to get through this year. When we get our investment back from Jueji and Great Wall at the beginning of next year, the company's financial situation will improve."

Zhang Zhao made a clear plan: "When the time comes, we can catch up with the subsequent investment and filming project plans, and the overall operation of the company will be back on track, and everything else will not be a problem."

"By the way, Director Zhang has his eye on a female lead candidate for the feature film he's going to be making next year. She's 16 years old and in high school. Mr. Zhong asked me a few days ago about signing this girl."

His face was deeply wrinkled, and the cigarette butt flickered between his fingertips. Through the smoke, he looked like a farmer squatting in the fields.

This year we have suffered from natural disasters and man-made disasters and have achieved nothing. We can only look forward to next year.

Xie Jingxing was speechless for a moment. The so-called hope was nothing more than to prove to him that LeTV Pictures had development potential and to request that its debt burden be reduced as much as possible.

As for the fact that Zhang Yimou and Zhong Lifang are willing to find children to film, it is a bit too cautious. It seems that not only Zhang Zhao's character has been smoothed down, but also his spirit has been dispersed.

"From now on, anyone who brags about my youth should be asked to report to you. The post-2000s generation is competing for job opportunities, and there will soon be no stories left for us to tell."

Xie Jingxing sighed softly with an air of old age, propping up his shoulders with his hands on the coffee table, unable to hide the slight frown on his brows.

"Think carefully, these people born in the 2000s may look like children at first glance, but two years later, there is no difference between 18 or 19 and 20-somethings. You are much closer to them than to me. If we stand together, we look like people of the same age."

Zhang Zhao adjusted the legs of his glasses and said calmly, "Of course, I don't feel old now. I have the confidence to tell the story of LeTV Pictures well."

"..."

This was the end of his words. Xie Jingxing tapped on the coffee table and asked bluntly, "What do you think of Cao Yong?"

Liang Jun, hardware terminal, Cao Yong, platform content, and Zhang Zhao, LeTV Pictures, were simultaneously promoted to concurrent directors and reported directly to him. Since then, they have taken turns to preside over the regular executive meetings.

As for the unresolved position of president, considering that it would be difficult to convince the public by hiring an outsider in a short period of time, internal selection and promotion becomes the main option.

After half a year, it can be basically determined that Liang Jun knows nothing about the film and television business, Cao Yong and Zhang Zhao know nothing about hardware terminals, and their performances are flawed and not enough to satisfy Xie Jingxing. So it is better to adopt an alternative plan, rotating to preside over the executive meeting. This set of pre-prepared framework is running well overall, and based on this, we can take a further step - rotating president.

When he came to Beijing this time, he went straight to LeTV's headquarters and stayed for several days. He did not hold any meetings or summon the three candidates individually. He first had private conversations with the lower-level middle and senior management, and personally inspected each business line.

From the perspective of long-term development strategy, hardware terminals are the company's core business, and Liang Jun should naturally become the first rotating president.

However, competition in the film and television industry is particularly fierce at present. There is still potential to be tapped in LeTV's platform and film industry. Otherwise, these two business segments will be scrapped if they fall behind. Youku, which is currently struggling, is a typical negative example.

Xie Jingxing inevitably fell into hesitation, but before he could make a decision, Zhang Zhao announced that he would voluntarily give up the competition.

Today's entire communication, from investment projects to new round financing plans, was completely on the side of LeTV Pictures, and it was clear that they were trying to pass on the financial mess to LeTV.com.

Following the precedent, Song Anli was initially dazzled by the position of president of a listed company that was within reach. Then she calmly thought that since Xiaoma Pentium had the opportunity to go public independently, there was no need to rush for quick success.

Zhang Zhao felt that Wang Changtian had broken his promise and forced the film business to go public, but he believed Jia Yueting's promise of a separate listing, so he left Guangguang and joined LeTV Pictures. His refusal to serve as rotating president is unexpected but reasonable.

Xie Jingxing could understand and didn't force it, but he had to say the ugly words up front.

Zhang Zhao glanced at the web drama project folder on the coffee table. He had a clear mind but didn't know where to start.

Cao Yong's production of "The Legend of Zhen Huan" became a huge hit, and LeTV acquired both him and his company. In a nutshell: he has a background in the traditional film and television industry and is old, with an obvious upper limit in his abilities and is incompatible with the temperament of an Internet company.

In the past six months, Mingming has been in charge of the platform's content operations and served as a director, but he is unable to control Shangna, who has just arrived.

Regardless of whether the latter is really capable or good at palace fighting, the fact that a web drama project was handed over to Zhang Zhao through connections is enough to show that Lao Cao is a good person who focuses on being in charge of the platform's self-made content studio center. Being a manager would waste his talent.

The same thing happened to another web drama invested by the platform. Shang Na was so stupid as to cause the unfortunate incident of having to replace the heroine Chen Duling.

It’s not that it can’t be changed, the key is that if you really want to change it, it should be handled by you, Lao Cao, in a low-key manner.

Shangna, who was unaware of the inside story, was left to mess around and get humiliated and bruised all over. The heroine she wanted to use, who was a big mouth, complained on Weibo that the casting competition for this drama was fierce and that some people had very high-level connections behind them.

Such a trivial matter has caused a great uproar in the city. This woman is being laughed at. Everyone in the company is also being laughed at. How can a second-tier female star and a crappy web drama find such high-level connections...

Zhang Zhao felt that it sounded like Mr. Xie was asking for his opinion on Lao Cao being the rotating president, but in reality he was reminding him to be mentally prepared for Liang Jun to serve as president for a long time.

You can choose to go public on your own now, but don't regret it in the future. You must cooperate well with this president who knows nothing about the film and television industry. If you fail to achieve the company's development goals set by him, you will have to make another explanation at that time.

"What's the matter? You have a good relationship with Lao Cao, but you are embarrassed to comment on him?"

Xie Jingxing casually picked up a folder on the coffee table and looked through it for a while. He didn't get a response, so he broke the silence half-jokingly.

"Not really. Lao Cao makes TV series and I make movies. We have both worked in the traditional film and television industry for half our lives."

Zhang Zhao organized his words and explained carefully: "To a large extent, I can agree with him. People like us can get satisfaction from creating good works rather than management."

"Including when Mr. Liang invited everyone to experience the new product at the regular meeting last month, the joy he showed at that time was exactly the same as the way we feel when we look at film and television works."

He mentioned Liang Jun in a few words, then stood up and went to his desk to get a smart speaker the size of a thermos cup. After trying it for more than half a month, he felt more and more powerless.

Zhang Zhao initially estimated how many good movies would be needed to match the sales of this little thing, but his conclusion was very pessimistic and hard to accept.

Not giving up, he went to consult someone from JD.com's e-commerce business, who told him that it seemed that your company sold more than 6 million TVs on Double Eleven last year. When asked about the sales ranking, were you asking about the specific field or the entire digital home appliance category?

Mobile phones include Apple, Huawei, Xiaomi, Meizu, and Samsung; white goods include Midea, Philips, Haier, Hisense, and Gree...

Zhang Zhao knew what to do and went home without asking any more questions. He silently pulled up the 2015 movie box office rankings. He couldn't sleep anyway, so he looked at it carefully for half the night. Finally, he saw four big words - retreat while you are ahead of yourself.

"No matter how good the content is, it is for the terminal service. I believe in your strategic decision and will cooperate with Mr. Liang unconditionally!"

He revealed his entire psychological journey, pierced the tacit understanding, and issued a military order without reservation.

Xie Jingxing couldn't help but raise his eyebrows. For the time being, it seemed that Liang Jun's appointment as president and abandoning the rotation plan was a foregone conclusion, but he would still personally serve as chairman and CEO.

Zhang Zhao retains his positions as Chief Content Officer and Director of LeTV.com, and only needs to focus on LeTV Pictures and cooperate with the platform to control the content. There is no need for him to surrender to Liang Jun and give up the right to speak.

"The terminal + content + platform symbiotic strategy remains unchanged in the long term, and content is also an important support point for the company."

Xie Jingxing spoke slowly and loudly: "Ten years ago, the number of 'PhS' users worldwide exceeded 100 million, and people called it an epoch-making electronic product. Now people are talking about mobile smart terminals being a revolution."

“Twenty years ago, The Shawshank Redemption was defeated by Forrest Gump in both reputation and box office, but now many people are willing to spend two hours watching the entire movie.”

He closed the folder containing the movie script in his hand, paused for a moment and asked, "Believe that what you do is valuable. Does this sound like chicken soup?"

“But if you add money to it, it’s not chicken soup anymore. As long as you’re heading in the right direction, you won’t be short of money.”

Xie Jingxing stuffed the folder into Zhang Zhao's hands and finally said, "Liu Haocun, this little girl that Director Zhang likes has a smart look and a nice name."

He stood up and walked to the door, calling Chen Xi and Huang Ziyan to come in for the meeting.

LeTV Pictures started its C round of financing as soon as possible, selling 50% of its shares at a valuation of 15 billion yuan to raise 7.5 million yuan. Its parent company LeTV and Grapefruit Capital jointly led the investment.

In addition, after sorting out the financial statements, the parent company LeTV.com repaid and cut the corresponding debts, which was equivalent to recovering nearly 20 billion yuan of debts in a package, leaving only LeTV Pictures' own operating liabilities for Zhang Zhao to bear.

Huang Ziyan looked at the figure standing by the window with his hands behind his back, then looked at her husband whose face was reddening. The grown man almost shed tears.

"Report your favor on the golden stage, support the Jade Dragon and die for you."

She thought to herself, it’s over, now everything is explained!

The quality of the Liang army needs to be deeply verified, and it is not clear how far the hardware terminal strategy can go, so Zhang Zhao is not as cheap as he thinks.

Of course, the girl chosen by Director Zhang is indeed smart and pure. The other one is also okay. The film and television industry is good and you have to work in the film and television industry.

Xie Jingxing didn't want him to die, he just wanted him to lead LeTV Pictures to survive and make money. (End of this chapter)