America's No. 1 financial conglomerate

Chapter 338 On the Eve of the IPO

Four days after the release of YueDong Games' first-quarter financial report, while the entire industry was still immersed in heated discussions about the financial statement and various analytical voices were emerging, YueDong Games issued another announcement, declaring that the construction of YueDong Games' new headquarters in San Jose had been completed and that the company planned to officially begin the relocation on May 1.

As soon as the news broke, major media outlets rushed to report it.

"America's Number One Game Company"—almost all media outlets used this impactful headline to highlight the significance of the event, as if they wanted the whole world to immediately know about this important milestone for Leap Games.

With the completion of the new headquarters, news has spread that YueDong Games will once again be recruiting employees on a large scale.

Regardless of whether industry peers are willing to admit this somewhat harsh fact, Leap Games has surpassed the former industry giant EA in all key dimensions such as scale, revenue, profit, and number of employees, firmly taking the throne of the largest game company in the United States and also joining the ranks of the world's second largest game company.

As for the world's number one position, even the usually arrogant American media dare not have any hope at this moment.

Although YueDong Games is developing rapidly, it still has a long way to go before it can become the world's number one.

Thanks to its deep partnership with the Nintendo eGame platform, Nintendo's stock price has seen a significant increase, with its market capitalization officially surpassing the $30 billion mark. This demonstrates its strong and unique position in the gaming industry, leaving its competitors far behind.

EA, ranked second, came in second with a market capitalization of $70 billion.

In fact, EA's first-quarter financial report performance far exceeded external expectations, with all data being quite impressive.

However, compared to the phenomenal financial data of Leap Games, EA's performance seems somewhat lackluster, like starlight dimmed under the sun's rays.

In addition, the gaming craze sparked by Leap Games swept the entire industry, greatly boosting the prosperity of the entire gaming market. EA's stock price also took advantage of this momentum and soared, almost doubling in just one year with an increase of 83.7%.

However, even though EA's growth rate is very impressive now, in terms of influence in the industry, it is worlds apart from Leap Games, and they are not even in the same league.

Because of its successful expansion beyond its core market, Jump Games has drawn the attention of the entire American public to the gaming industry, which was often overlooked and received little attention in the past, making more people aware of the enormous potential and value of the gaming industry.

From an unknown player in the industry two years ago to the now recognized number one game company in the United States, its market value has achieved an astonishing growth of tens of thousands of times.

Such a rapid pace of wealth creation is enough to excite anyone who knows about it, and at the same time, it makes people admire Ernst's unique vision and outstanding foresight once again.

"These media outlets are truly amazing!" Ernst casually tossed aside the newspaper in his hand that contained reports about Leap Games, a look of helplessness and amusement on his face. He couldn't help but admire the media's ability to dig up information.

Across the table, Charlize Theron, who usually maintained a cool and aloof demeanor, couldn't hide her curiosity. Abandoning her usual composure, she eagerly asked Ernst, "So, you really did acquire this Dynamic Games company for $160 million?"

These media outlets even managed to find Belston, the founder of the dynamic game company.

Many details of Ernst's acquisition of YueDong Games were also uncovered and made public by the media.

However, the reports, such as Belston's heartbroken statement that he would never have sold the cash cow that was Leap Games if it weren't for the crisis in other industries, did not attract much attention.

Everyone's attention was drawn to the two sets of strikingly contrasting figures: an acquisition price of $160 million, and in less than two years, the company's market value was likely to exceed $160 billion, achieving a financial growth of ten thousand times!

Such an astonishing growth rate would shock anyone who saw it.

"What does it matter how much money I spent to acquire it back then? It was just a casual project I did on a whim. Even if its market value exceeds one hundred billion dollars now, I don't care at all." Ernst spoke calmly, as if he were talking about a trivial matter.

Looking at Ernst's calm and composed expression, Charlize Theron thought to herself that he was just putting on airs.

According to the financial report disclosed by YueDong Games, Ernst personally holds more than 16% of the initial investment of $160 million.

Based on media estimates that YueDong Games will have a market capitalization of around $18 billion after its IPO, the value of his shares would be approximately $3 billion.

Three billion dollars! This is an astronomical figure for Charlize Theron. She felt that even if she worked her whole life, she could never earn that much money.

But Ernst described this enormous fortune as if it were just a few hundred dollars of pocket money, speaking of it lightly and without any ripples.

However, one question lingered in Charlize Theron's mind: Did Ernst really only hold such a small share? Just as the media suspected, she also expressed disbelief.

In the shareholder report of YueDong Games, there were shell companies for which no specific information could be found. She always felt that Ernst must have secretly established and controlled some of them.

Speculation about Ernst's shareholding in YueDong Games is generally between 30% and 35%, but no one knows the exact percentage. It remains an unsolved mystery, sparking much speculation.

Ernst remained unconcerned about the various speculations and discussions from the outside world, letting everyone guess as they pleased. After all, speculation is just speculation; without solid evidence, it cannot be included in official wealth statistics.

Forbes magazine has contacted him, informing him that even if he were willing to pay more money, Forbes could no longer help him conceal his true wealth in this year's rich list, as it would seriously damage the fairness and authority of the Forbes rich list.

However, just as Ernst thought, speculation cannot be statistically analyzed, so Bill Gates will still be the richest man this year, the shining sun.

Standing in front of all the wealthy, attracting the firepower of those who resent the rich, he himself can remain relatively low-key and uninvolved.

"Do you think I should buy some stock in the game company?" Charlize Theron hesitated for a moment before finally revealing her true thoughts.

Ernst glanced at her, understood, and a smile appeared on his face. He thought to himself: This is the question you really want to ask!

The media's extensive reporting on the wealth myth created by YueDong Games, is its real purpose really to glorify this miracle?

Not at all!

What they really wanted to express was a deeper message to the public: the gaming industry has been severely underestimated, and now is the perfect time to enter the market. For all you newbies out there, hurry up and jump in to make some money!

Look at the solid data published in the newspapers: in the first quarter of this year, sales of game hardware increased by 37% year-on-year and 16.8% quarter-on-quarter.

Portable gaming devices performed even better, with a year-on-year increase of 50% and a month-on-month growth rate of 19.8%.

Such growth figures are extremely rare in traditional industry development.

Sony's game consoles sold 680 million units in the first quarter alone, and at this sales pace, the estimated sales volume for this year will exceed 2500 million units.

Although Nintendo's consoles are slightly inferior to Sony's, they still sold nearly five million units in the first quarter, a performance that should not be underestimated.

In the computer industry, the market's sales forecast for PCs had already increased significantly due to price reductions and promotional activities launched by major PC manufacturers.

As expected, the financial reports released by major PC manufacturers in the first quarter showed that actual sales exceeded previous expectations.

Dell, in particular, shipped over 2.3 million PCs in the first quarter, exceeding the 185 million units previously predicted by institutions by a full 450,000 units. At this rate, its annual shipments are likely to surpass 10 million units.

All professional organizations have raised their forecasts for global PC shipments this year, from the previous estimate of 88 million units to around 100 million units.

Wall Street financial analysts seized on this to hype it up, claiming that the increase in sales was largely driven by PC games, with more and more gamers switching from other gaming platforms to PC games, thus boosting the PC market.

In the area of ​​game software, there has also been a string of good news.

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time attracted a lot of attention from players at a recent game expo, with long queues forming to try it out, creating a very popular scene.

According to industry forecasts, the game is expected to ship more than two million copies this year.

Nintendo purchased the rights from MGM and released "GoldenEye 007," which became a dark horse, hailed as the king of FPS games on home consoles for its excellent gameplay experience, and became a popular game sought after by many players.

EA's Madden NFL also performed well, with pre-installed sales reaching 50 copies, fully demonstrating the game's popularity and EA's dominant position in the sports game field.

Even more exciting is that in the second half of this year, YueDong Games will enter the sports game field and launch the highly anticipated masterpiece "NBA 1998".

This game garnered significant attention during its development phase. Initially, due to a minor detail regarding the movement of clothing, Leap Games spent a staggering $1800 million to develop a dedicated game engine. This event made headlines across various news outlets, fueling high expectations for the game's quality.

In addition, Valve, the game studio whose 60% stake was acquired by Leap Games, is also receiving good news. Half-Life, the first major title that has been highly anticipated by players, is expected to be officially released before the end of this year.

One piece of good news after another flooded into the gaming industry, pushing the industry's popularity to new heights. This also attracted a group of retail investors who were eager to get a piece of the pie in the stock market, making them eager to take advantage of this trend and invest.

"Of course you can buy it, but I suggest you buy shares in YueDong Games. If you can successfully buy shares after YueDong Games goes public, you can go all in."

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"Regardless of short-term stock price fluctuations, from a long-term perspective, buying shares of YueDong Games will definitely outpace inflation. If you are entering the stock market for long-term investment purposes, buying some YueDong Games shares and holding them would be a good choice."

"But if you just want to speculate in the short term and hope to make a quick profit from the price difference, then now is not a good time, the risk is too great."

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