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Chapter 517 0505 [Signing a Beautiful Woman]

When Chen Guiliang received the Economic Person of the Year award, Chinese concept stocks in the United States had already entered their "darkest hour".

Baidu's stock price has fluctuated multiple times since its peak of $165.96 this year, falling to below $110 at one point, and is now around $116.

This is already considered the best performance.

Sina and Sohu's stock prices were halved!

Take Qihoo 360, founded by Zhou Hongwei, for example. Its stock price peaked at $36.21 this year, then plummeted to $13 a month ago, and has only recently recovered to $15.

ByteDance, founded by Chen Guiliang, saw its stock price break $100 at its peak this year, before plummeting and slowly recovering, currently hovering around $75.

Tudou.com's stock price fell to $2 and then stopped moving, even rebounding slightly.

The day after Chen Guiliang returned from receiving the award, he called the United States and said, "Let's get started."

At this time, ByteDance holds 10.8% of Tudou's shares and is a shareholder with a board seat, belonging to the Schedule 13G filing group. For every 1% increase in shareholding, disclosure is required within two days. For each 5% increase, disclosure is required within 10 days.

Therefore, it is impossible to secretly and quietly buy a large amount of stock.

Purchasing through other related accounts is also suspected of being illegal. Even having Game Science increase its holdings would be considered as acting in concert and triggering disclosure rules—there is room for manipulation, but it is extremely complex and risky.

Chen Guiliang chose the most drastic method: buying a large number of stocks during the two-day disclosure window!

This falls into a gray area and is not considered a violation, but it will certainly attract the attention of the SEC.

Normally, the SEC only conducts routine inquiries, asking what you're trying to achieve. Fines are only imposed when the impact is extremely serious.

The potato stock price, which was $2.08, was driven up to $2.41 within two days by Chen Guiliang's large-scale purchases. After the information about the increased holdings was disclosed at the opportune time, the price surged to $3.04 the following day.

Chen Guiliang continued to buy, and as more and more information about his increased holdings was disclosed, more and more Americans came to follow suit and buy.

Everyone knows what ByteDance is up to!
Over a period of approximately two weeks, ByteDance increased its stake in Tudou to 21.6%, and Tudou's stock price was also driven up to $6.38.

The other shareholders did nothing but quietly watch Chen Guiliang make his moves.

Chen Guiliang simply wants to control Tudou.com, while the other shareholders only want to cash out their profits.

Everyone got what they wanted, and Chen Guiliang even bought as much as possible, while the other shareholders all hoped the stock price would rise back up.

After two weeks, Chen Guiliang stopped buying, but the potato stock price continued to rise.

It only stabilized after rising to around $7.5.

Domestic financial media outlets are naturally paying attention to this matter, with headlines such as "ByteDance becomes the largest shareholder of Tudou".

……

After becoming the largest shareholder of Tudou.com, Chen Guiliang immediately convened a board meeting and proposed to dismiss Li Yongjin, who was sent by JAFCO Asia.

Li Yongjin was formerly the chief financial officer of Tudou, and now serves as vice president and chief strategy officer.

Chen Guiliang's reason for dismissal was simple: he was the one who built Tudou.com's financial system, and he failed to discover such a huge problem for several years, causing all of Tudou.com's shareholders to suffer heavy losses.

Moreover, in the six months since Li Yongjin was reassigned as vice president and chief strategy officer, he has actually led many of the operations at Tudou.com, but Tudou.com's performance has become increasingly poor!
A director from Temasek, the second-largest shareholder, questioned: "We all know now that Mr. Chen wants to control Tudou.com. If you send someone to manage the company, can you guarantee that Tudou.com's share price will be pushed above the issue price by the end of the one-year lock-up period? If you dare to sign a performance-based agreement, I will support all your proposals for the next few months!"

Chen Guiliang retorted, "Why should I sign a performance-based agreement? Tudou.com isn't just mine."

A director from JAFCO Asia said, "If you hadn't interfered, we would already be in talks with Youku about a merger. A merger between Youku and Tudou would inevitably boost the stock price, and could even cause both companies' stock prices to skyrocket. Since you've ruined this plan, you should find another way to remedy it."

Chen Guiliang, seemingly unfazed, said, "The situation is what it is now. The merger plan with Youku is impossible to pass. Either everyone continues to wrestle, or I will send someone to manage the company properly. My ultimate goal is to make the company successful, while your goal is simply to cash out and make a profit. These don't seem to conflict. You can only rely on me now. So, let's start voting now."

The directors remained silent, instead carefully considering how to vote.

As Chen Guiliang said, these venture capital firms are in it for arbitrage, and they don't care who manages Tudou.com. The most advantageous course of action right now is for Chen Guiliang to send someone to replace the incompetent executives.

They do dislike Chen Guiliang, but there's no need to mess with the US dollar.

While everyone was considering, Chen Guiliang continued, "ByteDance has a large talent pool. As long as you agree to replace the vice president of Tudou, I will send the vice president of ByteDance Weibo to take over! Putting aside everything else, just the announcement of this news will temporarily boost Tudou's stock price."

Upon hearing this, the director from Temasek made a decision and cast his vote in support very decisively.

The final voting results of the board of directors were: 6 votes in favor, 2 votes against, and 1 abstention.

To reiterate, they don't like Chen Guiliang, but they all love the US dollar!

Then, Chen Guiliang added, "I think Tudou.com's COO should also be replaced. She's a woman who grew up in Taiwan and studied in the United States. What does she know about the psychology of users in mainland China? If we make her the COO, does she even know what the current internet memes are?"

This COO's name is Wang Xiangyun. In another timeline, after Tudou and Youku merged, she was the first executive to be fired. She did a terrible job!
Tudou.com's senior management team has serious problems; more than half of them were forced in by venture capital firms.

Many times, Wang Wei simply couldn't make the decisions.

Wang Wei was already incompetent, and with such a group of senior executives, it's no wonder Tudou.com couldn't develop smoothly. The director from Temasek laughed in exasperation: "Mr. Chen, just tell us directly, which ones do you want to replace? We'll vote on them one by one."

Chen Guiliang said sternly, "There are too many senior executives who need to be replaced. They're all just mediocre people, a complete mess!"

Continue voting.

Tudou.com is still a long way from returning to its issue price; at this point, venture capital firms have already given up.

It's impossible to get them to sell their shares at a low price, but it's possible to replace the senior executives they sent. Now, we can only pin our hopes on Chen Guiliang.

Besides Chen Guiliang, who else has the energy and ability to run this website well?

……

Wang Wei flew to Beijing feeling relaxed and, lying on the sofa in Chen Guiliang's living room, exclaimed, "Awesome!"

Chen Guiliang asked with a smile, "Aren't you afraid that the senior executives I send over will sideline you?"

Wang Wei said, "Anyway, it won't be worse than before. At least the people you sent are definitely highly capable."

“I’ll take you around tomorrow,” Chen Guiliang said. “Byte Film and Television Publishing Co., Ltd. has merged with ByteMtime and officially changed its name to Byte Pictures. We’re signing the first batch of artists tomorrow.”

"Are you serious?" Wang Wei asked in surprise.

Chen Guiliang said, "Several of the CEOs I know have already entered the film and television industry. I certainly can't fall behind."

ByteDance's Mtime.com is an extension of its acquisition of Mtime.com, which includes services such as online ticketing and seat selection.

ByteDance Film & Television Publishing Company originated from Xiaonei.com and HaiNei.com, and owns the film and television rights to some of its novels.

The merger of the two subsidiaries will facilitate business operations and complementary development.

Chen Guiliang continued, "I had AcFun buy the online rights to 'Empresses in the Palace,' but AcFun has too few paid members to maximize the profits from this TV series. You should have Tudou pay for a three-year broadcasting rights deal."

This operation is called copyright distribution.

LeEco's main revenue currently comes from the distribution of film and television copyrights. This means LeEco buys a large number of film and television copyrights and then distributes them to other video websites.

"Great! This show is really popular right now!" Wang Wei exclaimed excitedly.

"Empresses in the Palace" was initially not favored by video websites, and then by television stations, until it finally aired half a month ago. But it became an instant hit!
AcFun, which also signed an exclusive online broadcasting rights deal, saw an increase in the number of paid members.

The following day, Chen Guiliang took Wang Wei to visit ByteDance Pictures, which had just been listed.

“Currently, the company hasn’t signed any directors or behind-the-scenes personnel. When we need to make a film, we have to hire people from outside,” Chen Guiliang said. “However, ByteDance Pictures has invested in Shangjing Studio. That’s the Shangjing who made ‘My Own Swordsman’.”

Wang Wei asked, "He can only direct sitcoms, right?"

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Don't you think sitcoms are very suitable for online broadcasting? In fact, with more viewers watching dramas online in the future, it won't matter whether a drama is broadcast on TV or not. It can make money just by streaming online. I've entrusted Shang Jinglai to direct ByteDance's first campus sitcom."

Wang Wei nodded and said, "Nowadays, film and television copyrights are getting more and more expensive, often costing hundreds of thousands of yuan per episode. It is indeed more cost-effective to invest in and produce our own content."

The two chatted as they entered the elevator.

As the elevator doors were halfway closing, a tall, beautiful woman rushed in, munching on a steamed bun: "Wait a minute, wait a minute!"

Chen Guiliang casually pressed the elevator open button.

"Thank you!" The beautiful woman rushed into the elevator, panting.

Wang Wei's eyes lit up: "This girl is great, she'd be perfect as a movie star."

Chen Guiliang said, "President Tao's sister wrote a very popular novel about the Silk Road during the Han Dynasty. The animated version has already started production, and the next step is to film a live-action drama. The investment is quite large, and I personally selected the female lead."

Upon hearing this, the beautiful woman turned her head sharply, chewing on her steamed bun, her eyes wide: "Chen...Chen...you're President Chen!"

Wang Wei examined her carefully: "She is indeed suitable for playing the female lead in the Western Regions. Is she from an ethnic minority?"

Chen Guiliang nodded: "Yes, her name is Dilraba."

Dilraba was still in a daze at this moment.

Chen Guiliang said, "This is Mr. Wang Wei, the owner of Tudou.com."

Dilraba instinctively bowed and greeted, "Hello, Mr. Wang!"

Chen Guiliang said speechlessly, "Swallow it. It feels awkward to keep it in your mouth."

Wang Wei thought to himself: What you said sounds even more awkward.

(End of this chapter)