America's Road to Fame

Chapter 61 Can I talk about it alone?

After talking with the dean of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences and meeting his future mentor, after the two sides had a preliminary understanding, William Chen left here.

All the other admission procedures were handed over to Erica, and now he has more important things to do, which is to go to Netflix to meet Reed Hastings.

After leaving NYU, William Chan went directly to the office of Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

Netflix's headquarters is in Los Gatos, California. William Chen took the bodyguards directly to the airport, while Nelson's team had already arrived there ahead of schedule, waiting to meet William Chen.

Before coming here, William Chen had read the information on Reed Hastings compiled by Nelson. Through his past, William Chen had a general understanding of the other party's character.

Reed Hastings is called "The Beast", which can also be seen. He has a straightforward and rebellious personality, has a strong opinion, dares to take risks and is easy to be persistent.

In fact, from William Chen's experience during this period of time, he also deeply felt the different styles of investing in the United States and Huaguo in his previous life.

The managers of enterprises in Huaguo pay more attention to being a human being. When choosing a partner, they will first consider whether you can be a human being, so you can see many business leaders, and everyone’s evaluation of them is mostly loyalty. , Will be a man.

In the United States, those geniuses are more admired, and they are more tolerant of their personalities.To put it simply, they value benefits more. As long as you can bring benefits to them, even if your character is easy to offend people, it will not have much impact on cooperation.

Therefore, in the United States, people with great personalities like Zuckerberg and Musk are more likely to succeed.

Therefore, William Chen is also constantly adjusting his investment methods. Often if you are cautious and make decisions before you act, it will be easier for the other party to feel that you are a threat and suspect that your investment purpose is to swallow them; On the contrary, it is easier to gain the trust of the other party.

Therefore, when Chen William met Reed Hastings, he directly told him the purpose of his visit.

"Mr. Astins, I am very optimistic about the development of online video, and I recognize Netflix's development strategy and your leadership of Netflix. I hope that by investing in Netflix, I can get returns and corresponding influence. That's why I'm here today."

"I understand that Netflix has a plan to produce its own content. I am very supportive of this. It is definitely a good move. If I can invest in Netflix, I need a board of directors with corresponding seats to ensure my support The right to know about flying operations.”

"I really appreciate Mr. Astins' business strategy for Netflix, so in order to show my support for you, I can promise the shares I hold. At the strategic and business levels, as long as it is the proposal you put forward, I will only Will vote yes or abstain, never vote no, it can be written in the contract. I hope this can be the beginning of our mutual trust."

William Chen's statement made Reed Hastings very satisfied. Such a statement won his trust and convinced him that William Chen is indeed the management right of Netflix and has no other ambitions.

The introduction of William Chen's investment will also help him control the power of the company.Therefore, Reed Hastings immediately turned to support William Chen's investment and shareholding.

After this meeting, the previously interrupted investment negotiations between Nielsen and Netflix continued immediately.

Since the method of investment and shareholding has been discussed before, there is a result acceptable to both parties.So an agreement was reached very quickly.

After Alicia confirmed the contract, William Chen and Netflix signed and confirmed, and the contract was concluded.

According to the contract, Meta Investment Company will purchase 2 million additional shares from Netflix with a capital of US$541.5 million, accounting for 8% of the total share capital after the additional issuance.

After the contract was signed, Reed Hastings came over to shake hands with Chen William and said to him: "William, in order to celebrate the success of our cooperation, I will hold a reception at home tonight, I hope you can come , I will introduce some friends to you.

William Chen couldn't wish for this invitation, so he naturally agreed.William Chen is still very satisfied with the completion of the stake in Netflix this time and the initial trust in the management headed by Reed Hastings.

8% of the shares are not many, but with this contact, there will be no great resistance when William Chen increases his shares in the future.

Some people may say that William Chen can buy Netflix shares in the stock market without giving up part of the voting rights to get Reed Hastings to agree to his shareholding.

Yes, if Chen William just wants to buy a small part of the stock, it is okay to do so.But his expectation is to hold more than 20% of Netflix's shares, so that he can have a relatively large influence in the company. In that case, it is necessary to communicate with the management and obtain the other party's consent.

You must know that on the one hand, the proportion of stocks circulating in the stock market is not high, and continuous acquisitions will drive up the price.Moreover, according to the regulations of the United States, if you buy more than 5% of the stocks of related companies in the secondary market, you must raise a placard to announce your purpose.

Once this happens, the management of the relevant company will definitely be full of vigilance against you. If you don't want you to continue the acquisition, there are many ways to make you come back.Especially for a strong manager like Reed Hastings, he will not tolerate someone uncontrollably increasing their holdings of Netflix stock.

This kind of thing has not happened before. Carl Icahn, the famous "barbarian outside the door" in the United States, known as "Wolf King" and "Vulture", once encountered a failure at Netflix.

At that time, he suddenly announced that he held 10% of Netflix's stock, which caused Reed Hastings to be furious. After all, after Carl Icahn acquired the company, he didn't know that he would split it up and sell it for profit. How many times have you done it, the reputation is really not very good.

Therefore, the management headed by Reed Hastings immediately announced that when individual institutions hold more than 10% of the shares and institutions hold more than 20% of the shares, the "poison pill" plan will be launched. Shareholders issued additional shares at a low price.

Seeing that the other party's attitude was so firm, Carl Icahn had no choice but to give up the action of continuing to increase his holdings of Netflix stocks, and finally had to withdraw and emptied all the stocks.Despite the fact that he still made a lot of money, his plan to control Netflix fell through.

Learning from the past, William Chen did not have the idea of ​​seizing control of the company and changing the management, so there was no need to conflict with Reed Hastings at all.After all, he will invest in more companies in the future. It is impossible to manage all companies by himself, and hand them over to the most suitable people to make money for himself and increase his influence. This is his main purpose. .

And this time, he started to cooperate with Reed Hastings. After the two have more trust, as long as the other party understands that William Chen will support him in managing the company, he will be more willing to support William Chen to get more benefits. Netflix stock.Since cooperation can have more benefits, why bother to fight and kill?

……

"Ms. Alicia, you don't seem to be doing very well, do you need to find a place for you to rest?" When leaving the Netflix headquarters, William Chen glanced at Alicia who was walking beside him, and said.

"I'm fine, William, thank you for your concern."

Alicia came from New York after William Chen persuaded Reed Hastings to negotiate an investment contract.Chen Weilian saw that her state was still a little different than before, giving people a sense of fatigue, so he asked this question.

"That's good, you still have to pay more attention to your body." Hearing her answer, William Chen nodded and said, "If you don't feel well, you can take a rest in your room during the evening reception. You may have something to do in the next two days busy."

Now that he has come to Silicon Valley and completed his investment in Netflix, William Chen is also planning to go directly to Tesla to meet with Musk, and if all goes well, an agreement may be reached soon.

"William, can I speak to you alone?"

When the group arrived at the hotel, Alicia walked up to William Chen and said to him suddenly.

Upon hearing this, William Chen glanced at her and said, "Go to my room and talk."

The two went up to the presidential suite together, Chen William took Alicia to the study, he walked to the window, opened the curtains, turned to Alicia and said: "Ms. Alicia, what can you say. "

Alicia was wearing a burgundy low-cut dress, and her career line was very prominent at this time.She brushed her hair and said to William Chen, "William, I hope to get your legal and tax business."

William Chen looked at her, walked to the sofa and sat down, and said strangely: "Isn't my current business just entrusted to your firm?"

"I mean, I hope it can be handed over to me, not that firm. Because, I am ready to leave that law firm."

"Alicia, are you going to change jobs, or..."

"I want to open a law firm by myself, so I beg you, William, to entrust me with your business here." Alicia sat next to Chen William, looked at him sideways, and said.

"Do you know why I gave you the business in the first place? Alicia." William Chen was silent for a while, then asked suddenly.

"Because of Pete?" Alicia's face changed slightly, and she asked tentatively.Seeing William Chen nodded, she took a deep breath: "Many people say that, but William, after working together for so long, you should have an understanding of my ability."

"ability?"

William Chen turned his head and glanced at Alicia, and found that due to the height difference between the two, he could see some special scenery from this angle, but he didn't have the heart to pay attention to these at this time, William Chen looked at Alicia's eyes, said:

"But compared to ability, I care more about trust, Alicia. I don't want the confidential data of my companies to be leaked out one day."

(End of this chapter)