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The Spring Festival Gala is boring, but you still have to watch it.

This has been a tradition for many years.

We can't let the old man watch the Spring Festival Gala alone, that would be too boring. Grandpa is very satisfied with the scene of having children and grandchildren living under the same roof.

There was only one thing Zhou Buqi was not satisfied with. Grandpa's thoughts were too feudal!

Depend on!

very angry!

Ning Yaxian's daughter is called Ning Xinxin. She is less than 5 years old this year. She is a cute and transparent little girl who everyone likes. She is not Zhou Buqi's biological child, but like Niannian, she is treated as her own daughter and treated equally.

But the old man was different. She only hugged her biological great-granddaughter, and was very cold to the girl who was not related by blood.

Zhou Buqi was helpless. When watching the Spring Festival Gala, he could only sit between Ning Yaxian and Ning Yameng and apologize to them.

Ning Yaxian was very virtuous and said elegantly: "The old man is old and can understand."

Zhou Buqi sighed, "He is old and confused, and his mind is not clear. Don't be as knowledgeable as him. You see, my father, my mother, Nan Nan, and Aunt Xue all like Nian Nian very much."

Ning Yaxian smiled and patted him, "Don't talk nonsense."

Zhou Buqi put his arm around her shoulder with his left arm and Yameng's waist with his right arm. He gritted his teeth and said, "You two have to fight for your strength and give me a son. Once you have a great-grandson, this old man's attitude will be better."

"This kind of thing is not a choice."

"Anyway, before he closes his eyes, he must see his great-grandson."

"What are these words?" Ning Yameng was startled, "The old man is in good health."

Zhou Buqi said: "What's the matter? I almost died in the past two years. I have been recuperating in the capital for the past two years, and I have come back to life again."

Both sisters couldn't listen any more, so they both went to cover his mouth.

What a bastard!

How can anyone talk like this during the Chinese New Year?

Zhou Buqi laughed and said: "Tell me what's wrong, you two are quite superstitious. If this kind of thing can be said accurately, I will eat fast and chant Buddha's name every day, so as not to have the residual poison of this kind of feudal thinking."

Ning Yaxian said angrily: "Then you can't talk nonsense about your elders."

Ning Yameng whispered: "The weather in the capital is not very good. Recuperating in the capital... Well, is this appropriate?"

Zhou Buqi nodded, "You make sense."

Then, he went over and sat next to the old man.

"What's up?"

The old man watched the Spring Festival Gala intently, as if it were a ritual.

Zhou Buqi asked: "Grandpa, the weather in the capital is not very good. How is the nursing home?"

"not so good."

"Would you like to go to the south to recuperate? Sanya, Gulangyu, etc."

"Don't go!"

The old man refused.

Zhou Buqi could guess how many points he had, and said with a smile: "That's okay, you tell your old friends and see who is willing to go. As many people as you want, I will pay for all the expenses. In the winter, go to the south to recuperate, and in the summer Then go back to the north. Aren’t the senior cadres at the highest level all arranged this? It seems that the old guys around you are not high enough."

The old man didn't even look at him. He stared at the TV and was silent for a while. "I'll ask later."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "How about setting up an overseas tour group, Europe, the United States or Australia, it's all fine. Anyway, it's okay, just go out and have fun."

"Going abroad?"

The old man shook his head, this was not a good idea. The elderly staff at the nursing home are quite old, and it is risky to fly for a long time. More importantly, they are all retired officials, so it is inconvenient to go abroad.

At 8 o'clock in the evening, Wu Yu came back.

At 9 o'clock, Sun Wanran also came back happily.

The first thing he did was to ask Zhou Buqi for money.

It was said that my eldest uncle mortgaged his house to speculate in the stock market during the bull market, but now he is trapped and the bank wants to take away the house.

"How much does it cost?"

"He owed more than 700,000 yuan. I told my mother that I would lend her 400,000 yuan and let her find a solution with the remaining money."

"You just have to decide, um... you go and tell Shi Jinglin and ask her to get you money." To Zhou Buqi, this was all a trivial matter. He was not concerned about money. He said sincerely, "Wan Wan, Things that money can solve are not problems. However, you have to remember that money is a double-edged sword, which can harm others and yourself. You should spend money to solve problems for your family, which is what you should do, but you must grasp the scale. You Give money because you care about family ties, don't destroy family ties because of money issues and go to the completely opposite side."

Sun Wanran nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, "I know, I will be cautious."

"How much money do you make every month now?"

"It all adds up to more than 60,000 yuan. You gave it to me all."

"Is it enough money?"

"That's enough!" Sun Wanran blinked a few times, "I can't spend all my money, I've saved it all. The Longines watch I bought you last time was the money I saved. By the way, I have to call you back. Otherwise I wouldn’t be in a hurry to come back.”

"what phone?"

"Masayoshi Son's."

…

Watch the Spring Festival Gala and make dumplings.

Many women are from the south and are not used to it. Especially Miss Shi Jinglin, she was a little helpless. It was her first time coming to Zhou's house to celebrate the New Year. It was impossible for her to end up making dumplings.

Zhou Buqi didn't want her to be too embarrassed, so he took her upstairs to the study.

Masayoshi Son is in the United States, so now is the right time to call him back.

"Is it about EMI?"

"It's relevant."

"Tell me."

Son Zhengyi said excitedly: "I have conducted detailed research, and I think the entertainment industry will have a blowout development in the next few years."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "You finally figured it out! I have also made many inquiries from EMI Records. It is indeed a very good opportunity to buy it now."

"I'm not talking about EMI."

"Um?"

"Comcast is buying NBCUniversal."

"Well, I know, I am a member of the M\u0026A Advisory Committee." Zhou Buqi was a little helpless, "The largest shareholder of NBCUniversal is General Electric, holding 80% of the shares, and then Vivendi holds 20%. This merger , Vivendi will completely withdraw from NBCUniversal, which will earn at least US$5 billion. Therefore, Vivendi is not short of money, and they are preparing to sell NBCUniversal. This means that it is impossible for us to acquire Universal Music."

"I'm not talking about Universal Music, or even the music industry," Son said.

"Ah?" Zhou Buqi was startled, "What is that? You don't want to participate in NBC Universal's case, do you?"

Son Zhengyi said: "As far as I know, Comcast is unable to acquire all the shares of NBCUniversal. The most it can do is acquire 51% and obtain a controlling stake."

Zhou Buqi said with a headache: "You can't participate in that, there is no controlling interest..."

If this reason is not valid, stop immediately.

Zhou Buqi is interested in investing in the entertainment industry, not because he thinks the entertainment industry has good growth potential. No matter how good the growth potential is, can it still be better than Apple? Is it a good idea to buy Apple stocks if you have money?

Investing in the entertainment industry is to gain control!

It is for the power derived from it.

This is similar to the logic of investing in football.

However, what SoftBank Investment pursues is the growth of wealth. They are financial investments and do not care about control at all. This reason makes it impossible to convince the other party.

Zhou Buqi then said: "If it is Universal Pictures, then I will definitely support it. But NBCUniversal's main asset is the NBC television network. Television stations are a sunset industry, and this thing has no long-term investment value. If NBCUniversal can be split , this is of course the best, but you know this is impossible. There is no investment prospect in this case."

Son Zhengyi smiled and said, "I will not invest in TV stations. There is a natural conflict between TV stations and the Internet."

Zhou Buqi breathed a sigh of relief, "Thank God, you're not confused."

Son Zhengyi said: "How about MGM?"

"ah?"

"The current situation of MGM is similar to that of EMI. In 2005, Sony took the lead in forming a consortium and launched a leveraged buyout of MGM. Now it can no longer pay the debt and is about to go bankrupt."

"I know this matter is too complicated to handle."

Zhou Buqi can be regarded as half of the Hollywood circle. He knows some inside information. This is a capital game exclusively for Hollywood to entrap Wall Street.

By the way, is there any way to complete the acquisition of a US$5 billion company for US$100 million?

There are many ways.

If it's in China, you can find out the original sin of the company's founder's family. If you say you have it, you must have it, and then they will be arrested and sentenced, and the company will be confiscated. After confiscation, the company will undergo asset appraisal. A well-decorated high-end apartment is assessed at 70 yuan per square meter, while a house is only worth 7,000 yuan. Through a "public" auction, it would be possible to receive $5 billion in assets for $100 million.

The United States plays a capital game, mainly the notorious leveraged buyout.

With a principal of US$100 million, you can take the lead in organizing a consortium, and then find some capital institutions to cooperate to jointly raise US$1 billion to establish a holding company. Then use this US$1 billion as principal, use future corporate assets as collateral, and borrow US$4 billion from capital institutions, raising a total of US$5 billion to complete the acquisition.

After completing the acquisition, the company will be saddled with a huge debt of $4 billion.

The main controller only invested US$100 million and held 10% of the shares, and took control of a US$5 billion company. The next step is to adjust the business, split, sell, reorganize, start a wave of sales, repay a wave of money first, and then seize the main business to make money.

Sony Pictures is a Hollywood giant, and it is even more ruthless.

In the case of MGM, on the surface Sony invested US$5 billion to acquire MGM. Now MGM is on the verge of bankruptcy, and Sony Pictures is losing money.

In fact, Sony Pictures is playing the trick of organizing a consortium to acquire leverage. They don't care about MGM's financial growth at all. What they pursue is to gain control of MGM.

Once you have control, you are the maker of the rules and the referee. It is too easy to make money.

"007" is MGM's core asset. We will shoot a "007" first, with MGM as the producer and Sony Pictures as the distributor. Then, a miracle happened.

Sony Pictures' investment in MGM was recouped by just releasing one "007" film.

All subsequent operations are profits.

It doesn't matter how much debt MGM has or whether it will go bankrupt. Anyway, MGM's movies are distributed by Sony Pictures, which is a sure-profit deal.

Therefore, the two companies, MGM and EMI, look the same, but they are actually completely different.

MGM is a production company. It is only responsible for producing movies. It does not have a distribution company. It has to be distributed by a third party and has no own channels. EMI Records, on the other hand, has a complete music production company and distribution company, and its lifeblood is in its own hands.

Masayoshi Son had just started research on the entertainment industry, and he didn’t quite understand it yet.

Zhou Buqi explained the twists and turns to him, "On the Internet, content is king, but the entertainment industry is a traditional industry. In traditional industries, channels are king. Whether it is movies or music, only by mastering the distribution rights can we have autonomy. Right. MGM has been castrated. Of course, even if it is castrated, it still has great investment value. MGM's "007", "Tom and Jerry" and "Lord of the Rings" are all the highest quality copyrights, which are similar to those of Internet streaming media. The combination does not require a distribution company. But in comparison, EMI's business is more complete."

"Okay, we'll discuss it later."

Masayoshi Son is a man who does great things.

He recently spent more than 20 billion US dollars to acquire a US telecommunications giant. From his point of view, since he wants to invest in the entertainment industry, a mere EMI record cannot satisfy his appetite. Now that you have done it, you have to do something big and do a business with a lofty "vision".

Unfortunately, Hollywood has been in business for hundreds of years and is more complicated than imagined.

Neither NBCUniversal nor MGM are good investments.

After the phone call ended, Shi Jinglin was very puzzled, "Isn't Son Zhengyi Japanese?"

Zhou Buqi said: "To be precise, they are Japanese-Americans."

"Why do you have to cooperate with him?"

"There is a foundation of trust. He believes in me and I believe in him. What's more important is that he does things quickly and moves quickly. If he wants to cooperate with other capitalists, just wait! A small business with billions of dollars Don’t even think about business without two or three years of careful research and two or three years of negotiation!”

"Um……"

Shi Jinglin hesitated to speak.

Zhou Buqi smiled and put his arm around her shoulders, "If you have any doubts, just ask and I will give you some advice!"

Shi Jinglin blinked a few times, "Today is New Year's Eve."

"Um."

"Which house do you live in?"

"We agreed to go with Ning Lu."

"She...she's not...she's a yellow flower girl, right?"

"Yes." Zhou Buqi sighed, "I can't help it, you are all too superstitious and feudal, so I can only go with the flow. There is a new atmosphere in the new year. If you lose your virginity on New Year's Eve, you will have good luck in the new year. "

Shi Jinglin twitched the corner of her mouth, "It sounds familiar to me! It seems like someone told me, and you believe this the most."

"Really? Did you hear it correctly?"

"I am coming too!"

Shi Jinglin was eager to give it a try.

"Huh?" Zhou Buqi frowned, "Isn't it bad?"

Shi Jinglin said plausibly: "I also have unresolved troubles. I can't even interfere with Yuanwei Group's mineral water business. I'll go too, I want good luck too."

"It's bloody and you don't mind."

"I don't mind it, it's exciting."

"Depend on!"

"Is that okay?"

"up to you!"