Top of the big era

Son Zhengyi knew very well the meaning of Zhou Buqi's words, and he just wanted to persuade himself not to think about acquiring Sprint.

Use the saved time, energy and money to focus on developing the entertainment industry.

This is a big market with great prospects.

But he obviously couldn't be fooled so easily.

He wants to be a communications operator and wants to acquire Sprint. Such an operation is in line with his consistent investment philosophy over the past two decades, which is the "time travel theory."

If the mainland's Internet market lags behind the United States by five years, in a sense, it means that space is fixed and time travels. Standing on mainland China, it feels like traveling back to the Internet environment of the United States five years ago.

This way, investing becomes easy.

Just look at the most developed tracks in the United States five years ago, and then find the right direction to invest. The road to success in the United States will be repeated in a different way on the mainland.

He wants to acquire Sprint because the external environment Sprint is currently in is very similar to the Japanese operator Vodafone four years ago. In Japan, SoftBank acquired Vodafone, then quickly adjusted its strategy and deepened cooperation with the Internet. It quickly reversed the situation and relied on the opportunity to exclusively sell iPhones to jump up and prosper.

Under the theory of time travel, acquiring Sprint now is equivalent to repeating SoftBank's successful journey with Vodafone. How safe is it?

This kind of big business worth tens of billions of dollars cannot be easily started. If you really want to get into it, you must have a strong theoretical foundation.

Masayoshi Son feels that from a theoretical level, it is more practical to win the Sprint case.

Zhou Buqi had been dealing with him for so many years and was already very familiar with him. When he saw him silent, he basically guessed what he was thinking and said calmly: "I know your investment philosophy, and you have had a very brilliant investment experience. I also admit that investing according to the time travel method is effective and can often lead to unexpected success. However, there is a fatal problem."

"Yeah?"

Son Zhengyi looked up at him.

Zhou Buqi said: "Times have changed! If you are in the same era, your investment philosophy is feasible. In the same era, it is just a question of who is first and who is last. Latecomers will always have to follow the path of the first movers. Once again. But in the new era, we need to take a new path and complete the replacement of the old with the new. Just like the iPhone, Jobs did not follow the old path of Motorola and Nokia in the past ten years, but opened up a new track."

Son Zhengyi nodded and said "Yeah".

Zhou Buqi concluded: "With the dislocation of the times, the development directions of the old and new environments will also be misaligned, and time travel will be meaningless."

"It's a different time now?"

"We will be greeted by the era of smartphones and the mobile Internet! Vodafone's successful experience occurred in the PC Internet era. If you want to copy this model in the mobile Internet era, this will inevitably be a strategic misalignment under the mismatch of the times. ."

"yes."

Son Zhengyi was quite emotional.

Zhou Buqi said: "Ziweixing is pushing Apple and Google to update their operating systems and launch message notification functions. This means that the deep integration of smartphones and mobile Internet will further promote the development of OTT."

Son Zhengyi said: "The Communications Industry Association is thinking of ways."

"Finding a solution? What solution can they come up with?" Zhou Buqi was a little amused, "Relying on the new RCS model? This thing is nonsense."

Lu Qi coughed slightly and added: "After the launch of the RCS plan, it was quickly welcomed by communication operators around the world. But it is mainly oriented to wireless Internet, oriented to feature phones and multimedia mobile phones. Previous users Chatting through MSN on mobile phones, or products such as Yahoo Messenger, Google Talk, and mobile QQ will affect the revenue of text messages. But our president Zhou is right, times have changed, and the mobile Internet era is here."

Zhou Buqi said eloquently: "In the era of wireless Internet, mobile phone applications will only affect the revenue of operators' SMS services. But in the era of mobile Internet, OTT applications for smartphones will completely replace SMS services!"

Son struggled a little, "The RCS protocol will be further updated and upgraded."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said: "Of course, operators will not give up and will work hard to maintain their own territory, but they can only follow the Internet wave and eat dust. They can only set up defenses everywhere and run exhausted. In the final analysis, the industry leader Performance is determined by talent density. The Internet industry has the highest talent density, which must represent the most advanced productivity."

Masayoshi Son was in a very difficult position, "For the Sprint case, we have cleared the relationship between four members of Congress."

Lu Qi made a joke: "You might as well stop the loss in time."

Zhou Buqi delivered another fatal blow, "In fact, the mobile Internet's OTT for communication operators is not just SMS business?"

"Um?"

"Now that the 4G standard has been set, big cities such as Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, and Seattle have also begun to build 4G base stations. Lao Sun, the era of online video calls is coming."

"hiss!"

Son Zhengyi took a breath of cold air and shuddered suddenly.

In the past, Internet calls could only be made through computers.

Firstly, the mobile phone network speed is too slow, and secondly, the communication carrier has strict restrictions on mobile phones.

In the past, the functions of feature phones and multimedia mobile phone systems were too weak, and they were deeply tied to operator services. The operator said that if the mobile phone cannot make Internet calls, the mobile phone cannot use this function.

However, smartphones are different.

Mobile operating systems are no different from PC operating systems and are extremely powerful. Operators simply cannot limit the technical and functional expansion of mobile phone operating systems.

Coupled with the promotion of 4G network, the speed of mobile phone network has been greatly improved, and smartphones can complete epoch-making progress. You can use your mobile phone to make Internet calls, and it is a video Internet call.

This is so sharp.

It is definitely a fatal blow to communication operators!

The main ways for operators to make money are phone services and SMS services, but they have been beaten to pieces by the Internet and consumers' OTT overhead!

It would be okay if it was a semi-closed market.

For example, mainland China.

Communication operators are all state-owned enterprises, and they serve as both referees and athletes. If the competition cannot be compared, the rules can be modified or the rules can be changed.

Domestic regulations have been introduced to prohibit the use of Internet calls such as Skype or FaceTime on mobile phones, thus preserving the interests of communication operators.

(Video calls on WeChat are not Internet calls and have many restrictions. Callkit is not allowed. However, there are ways to circumvent this restriction. You just need to pretend to be a foreigner. Buy an American version of the phone, use a foreign phone number, and then do not download it. WeChat, instead download WeChat, and when you make a video call, it is an Internet call. The signal is more stable and the picture clarity is better, allowing you to feel the true technical strength of WeChat.)

However, developed countries in Europe and the United States cannot do this, and Sprint cannot.

They cannot enjoy such policy protection.

It will inevitably suffer a heavy hammer from the Internet giants.

Masayoshi Son is an Internet guru. He immediately realized that the arrival of the mobile Internet would have a greater technological impact on all walks of life. He couldn't help but sigh, "Yes! The traditional communication era is over!"

Zhou Buqi said: "The concept of paying for phone calls is outdated, and the world will inevitably change."

This time, Son was silent for a long time.

Zhou Buqi was not in a hurry and exchanged some ideas with Lu Qi about the message notification function with a smile.

Son Zhengyi suddenly said, "How is this news notification working?"

Lu Ji said: "The Android side has already agreed that the system will be updated next month, and the Apple side is still in operation."

Zhou Buqi sent out an invitation, "I will meet with Steve Jobs tomorrow, will you come with me?"

"Okay." Masayoshi Son accepted the proposal. He wanted to talk to Jobs about his views on the communications industry. "By the way, you came to me not to talk about the entertainment industry!"

Zhou Buqi snorted in his heart.

What I said just now is just making a fuss about the entertainment industry! If you don't give up the idea of ​​acquiring Sprint, how can you devote all your attention to the entertainment industry?

"Well, there are mainly two things. The first thing is that the boards of directors of Comcast and NBCUniversal are going to conduct the first round of acquisition negotiations. On the 5th of next month, I will participate as an acquisition consultant."

"oh."

Son Zhengyi frowned slightly.

Zhou Buqi said: "The second thing, this is the most important, I got the latest news that Disney intends to acquire Marvel."

"Marvel?" Son was stunned for a moment, "Isn't that a comic company?"

Zhou Buqi didn't expect that he didn't know anything, so he was angry and funny, "'Spider-Man', 'X-Men' and 'Iron Man', these are all global best-selling movies adapted from Marvel comics."

Son was a little surprised, "What does this have to do with you? Could it be that the case you are talking about that is a hundred times more important than the acquisition of MGM is Marvel?"

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "I am a shareholder of Marvel, I hold 20% of the shares."

"Oh?" Sun Zhengyi raised his eyebrows and his eyes became hot, but then he thought of something and looked suspicious, "There is a lot of moisture in your words. I remember... I remember that "Spider-Man" is not a movie made by Sony. ?"

Zhou Buqi coughed lightly and said, "Yes, the copyright of Spider-Man was sold to Sony by Marvel. However, Marvel has thousands of superheroes. The loss of one Spider-Man will not have much impact."

Masayoshi Son narrowed his eyes slightly, "You mean... you don't want Disney to complete its acquisition of Marvel?"

Zhou Buqi said: "The Internet's OTT will also have an impact on the traditional film industry. The era in which the six Hollywood giants borrowed their channel advantages to monopolize the market will change under the influence of the Internet. The role of channels will decline, and the role of content will Rising. Marvel is the kingdom of content. If we really want to join forces to make a big splash in the entertainment industry, Marvel is a very important and indispensable component."

"But you didn't say that Disney is interested in Marvel."

"Find a way to cause trouble and ruin this deal."

"You only have 20% of the shares."

"I don't have enough voice, so I can borrow the influence of the capital market." Zhou Buqi smiled, "The tones, concepts, and values ​​of Marvel and Disney are not consistent. This is why Disney wants to operate this case secretly. Disney There is a lot of internal resistance, and the capital market is not optimistic about it. Now it is mainly driven by Disney Chairman Iger and major shareholder Steve Jobs."

Son Zhengyi asked: "What do you want to do?"

Zhou Buqi said: "I guess someone must have accidentally leaked the news to the media, causing this secret case to be made public and putting pressure on Disney's stock price."

Ning Lu looked dazed and was stunned.

It turns out that the big boss is so disrespectful of business ethics, he is really evil!

Son's expression was calm and he nodded with deep understanding, "Well, I also think that such an accident will definitely happen. It is most difficult to keep secrets in such a big merger and acquisition case."