Top of the big era

On November 24th, the official signing.

Shake hands, smile, take pictures.

Zhou Buqi gave up the opportunity to show off to his own father, and his father was full of joy, and the little Glazer next to him was also smiling, reluctantly.

Since then, Manchester United has officially changed hands!

The transaction price is 1.26 billion pounds!

Dad also officially became the chairman of the board of the Manchester United club. Zhou Buqi and Zhu Jun served as directors, David Gill was the executive vice chairman, San Dezi was the vice chairman of the board, and two management executives.

The new Manchester United board of directors was constructed.

However, the internal executives are actually very clear that the real speaker is actually Jr. Zhou.

Zhou Buqi once again felt the influence of football in Europe. Almost all the heavyweight media in Europe gathered in Manchester to participate in the official press conference of Manchester United.

The opportunity to perform was given to Dad and Zhu Jun.

Zhou Buqi has gone to London.

The Manchester United deal is over.

Next, No. 4 Cowley Street can be bought, and the Liberal Democratic Party is already moving.

The transaction price has already been negotiated, 35 million pounds.

As a result, all the accounts in the family trust have been spent, and they even owe Pluto Capital 250 million U.S. dollars, and have to assume about 600 million U.S. dollars in debt for Manchester United.

Not much pressure though.

The $250 million owed to Pluto Capital is an early withdrawal of management fees and subscription fees, which will be settled by the end of next year. The debt of 600 million US dollars is also relatively easy, and the annual repayment of 50 million US dollars is almost 15 years in installments.

The operation of the two major private equity funds under his command can provide a steady stream of cash flow.

However, there is no money in the account.

There was no other way, Zhou Buqi could only continue seconding from left to right, and called Wall Street, "How is the operation?"

Chen Randao: "The stocks of Apple, Google, and Amazon have been rising these days. It seems that besides us, more institutions have entered the market, and the chip price is a bit high."

Zhou Buqi said: "It's already the 25th, how can there be any time to hesitate? Buy quickly, and buy after the rise. By next month, the rise of technology stocks will be even stronger, and it may return to the level of June .”

"Ah?" Chen Ran was surprised, "No way? I want to go back to the level of June... Apple is okay, Google and Amazon have to grow by 30%."

Zhou Buqi said: "I'm not sure about the specific increase, but it will definitely increase from next month. Our side must act quickly and seize this advance amount. By next month, the funds of the Middle East consortium will be 100%. They will return to Wall Street in large numbers, and other institutions will take action. It’s this time, so don’t hesitate!”

"No hesitation, I have been buying according to the plan." Chen Ran's tone was much lighter, "Neptune has completed its operation, and bought a total of 9.68 billion US dollars of stock assets, and now the total value has exceeded 10 billion US dollars."

"Where is this? The good days are yet to come! Hurry up and finish the operation of Neptune Capital!" Zhou Buqi paused, "I told you that Neptune Capital will reserve part of the funds for me."

Chen Ran said: "Well, remember, you want to buy an Airbus A330-200, which costs 150 million US dollars. Don't worry, the total holdings will not exceed 97%."

Zhou Buqi coughed lightly, "Transfer another 100 million US dollars to my family account. The price of Manchester United is too high, and there is no money in the account."

Chen Ran is more at ease, "The operation cycle of Neptune Capital is from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2018, which is very stable. If there is a secondment of funds in the future, directly connect with this side, and Pluto Capital should try to be as small as possible. Move, don't make it too complicated."

"Well, how many people do you have now?"

"25 people, okay?"

Zhou Buqi said: "The annual basic salary, benefits, bonuses and other labor expenses should be compressed within 20 million US dollars, and you can handle the rest."

Chen Ran was a little speechless, this big boss was sometimes extremely generous, and sometimes he was so picky.

The total capital of the two funds is 22 billion U.S. dollars, and the annual salary expenditure is only 20 million U.S. dollars, which is less than 1%. Not to mention private offerings, even public offerings cannot be done.

However, the big boss also has his reasons.

After the investment of these two funds is over, there is almost no action. It is true that there is no need to raise too many high-salary talents. Just raise a group of young girls who are eloquent and good at handling interpersonal relationships, and maintain the relationship with investors. They don't participate in specific investment work, so they don't need too many dividend rewards.

Here, Zhou Buqi talked to Chen Ran on the phone, and Wu Yu lay lazily on the counter of the small bar in the hotel suite, blinking and said, "Husband, when will your new plane arrive?"

"It still needs to be renovated, and it will be March next year at the earliest."

"Such a long time?"

"It's a big plane and it's not that easy to operate."

Zhou Buqi gave her a brief explanation.

The Airbus A330-200 is a medium-sized airliner with a cabin length of 45 meters and a cabin width of 5.28 meters. His current Gulfstream G550 has a cabin length of only 15 meters and a width of only 2.2 meters.

In other words, the interior space of an Airbus A330 is more than eight times that of a Gulfstream G550.

This is very comfortable.

At least 4-5 bedrooms can be planned inside, and the height of the cabin is also high, so it doesn’t matter if you jump around. The internal height of the Gulfstream G550 is only 1.88 meters, and Zhou Buqi dare not lift his feet for fear of bumping his head.

The range is also 2000 kilometers longer.

The blind box business is booming. Wu Yu can't stay abroad for too long. It's time to go back to China, so he wants to go back by a big plane.

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "Don't think about it. This plane will be used in the future, and it will mainly fly abroad. It should be a small plane in China. Don't be too conspicuous."

"What about Ning Yameng?"

"Uh... don't go back for now, let her go back when she becomes pregnant."

"Baoshan and Aunt Xue are going back too."

"Well, okay."

...

The next day, Aunt Xue, Baoshan and Wu Yu returned to China by special plane.

Ning Yaxian and Ning Yameng were left beside Zhou Buqi, as well as two British bodyguards with big noses. First go to Ziweixing's London branch to pay attention to the progress of the business. Then, together with the branch president, I went to a website company called Goal for an on-site inspection.

goal, as the name suggests, this is a football website.

It is run by the British, and it is the largest football information website in the world today. It has a wealth of football-related news for fans, not only European football, but even low-level leagues in South America and Asia. Race results report.

However, this is still a small site.

Fans would rather go to Yahoo to watch sports news, and rarely come here to watch news, mainly because the reputation and publicity are not enough. Many people have never heard of this website.

However, the site is doing well.

Copyright protection in Europe and the United States is very strict, so football news cannot be reproduced at will. It can only be posted on its own website after obtaining the consent of the source of the news.

Most of the time there is a fee.

There are several similar football websites, all of which are basically in the UK.

This is determined by the environment.

Europe is an Internet desert, and language is the biggest obstacle. The football environment in Germany, Spain, Italy, and Portugal is also very good, but the language is limited and it is impossible to get out.

English is much better, the global language.

Another point is that the United States is the birthplace of the Internet, and all Internet talents have gone to the United States. If you want to start a business, go to Silicon Valley! The UK and Silicon Valley are both English, so the attributes of the back garden are stronger. Many people choose to settle in the UK because they cannot reach the strength of Silicon Valley.

For example, Farfetch, a luxury e-commerce company previously invested in and strategically partnered with Ziweixing, is a Portuguese entrepreneurial team and has to travel to London to establish a website.

The UK is the country with the most developed Internet in Europe.

Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and other European countries have many football media. The goal station obtains authorization from them, and then translates it into English and publishes it.

This is a platform for gathering football news content. Unlike many football media, professional reporters go to various clubs to investigate. Such a platform attribute is more in line with the logic of the Internet and is an asset-light operation.

There are three core founders of the website, Michael Simpson in charge of product and content, Jonathan Gember in charge of business and marketing, and Scott Roslauk in charge of technology.

Equity distribution is 4:3:3.

Zhou Buqi felt unreasonable.

What technical content can a football news website have? Why can CTO Scott Rossrock take so much equity? Even CEO Michael Simpson is not that important, all products and content rely on copyright.

In an environment where copyright protection is strong, the most important thing is commercial operation and market operation, and COO Jonathan Gember has to find copyright from outside.

With the copyright, you can publish the news on your own platform.

After inquiring, I found that it was really level. More than 95% of the football news on the website were reproduced for free. Only column commentary articles written by some professional journalists and media people need to be reprinted for a fee.

"Haven't you received financing?"

After hearing what Jonathan said, Zhou Buqi was a little surprised.

This website has been in operation for more than four years, has not received financing, has to support a team of more than 30 people, and has to run the market all over Europe and even spend money to buy news copyrights... How did it survive?

The other party explained that it was based on web games.

The CTO led the team to develop a football web game, which can earn more than 100,000 pounds per month. Coupled with the fact that several founders kept pouring money into their pockets, they barely survived.

Zhou Buqi nodded, no wonder the CTO can get so many shares.

Jonathan also sighed, and said helplessly: "The website has come up with a new column to provide users with video highlights of games. But this requires copyright. The highlights of Premier League games have been outsourced by the BBC to a media company called Perform. I went to talk about it during this period, hoping to get the right to broadcast the highlights of the game, and their asking price is 4 million pounds per quarter, 10 million pounds per year."

"hehe!"

Zhou Buqi sneered inwardly.

This incident further illustrates the corruption and incompetence of the gang in power in football. The Premier League is still the most enlightened and the best. They are all so stupid. One can imagine how fucked UEFA, La Liga, and Serie A are.

The core income of football matches is broadcasting rights, how can they be easily packaged and sold?

In order to maximize the benefits, the copyright must be divided and divided again. Just like Hollywood, the more fragmented the copyright is, the more objects can be selected when the copyright is distributed downstream, and the competition will be more intense. Under competitive bidding, the copyright owner will gain more.

A football website needs 10 million pounds per year to obtain the rights to broadcast highlights of Premier League matches. What a high-quality asset this is. It's a pity that the Premier League signed a buyout contract, and all copyright operation income has nothing to do with the Premier League.

Generally speaking, only when the weaker party sells the content product is afraid that it will not be sold, will it be forced to sign a full copyright buyout contract. The result was good, the Premier League happily asked to sign a full copyright buyout.

Well, this operation is simple and trouble-free, and there is no complicated process of subsequent copyright distribution. If the business operation is too complicated, the masters who master football may not be able to play well. Once they are tricked by the dealer, it will be miserable. I'd rather earn less than be safe. Anyway, the money you earn is not your own, the position under your butt is the most important thing.