Top of the big era

The rights to adapt the TV series of the two novels "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" are in the hands of MGM, so if Ziweixing Universal wants to adapt it into a TV series, it theoretically does not need to seek permission from anyone or any institution.

However, the protection of intellectual property rights in the United States is too strict, so we must be cautious in this regard.

Take the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, whose copyright is owned by Warner Bros.

The actor's image, prop design, scene design, line design, etc. in the movie are all copyrighted. If similar images and designs appear elsewhere, it is an infringement. Even if ZiMSI Global's products are all original, if they are even the slightest bit similar, they may get sued.

This kind of thing happens too much in Hollywood.

Almost every time an original Hollywood commercial blockbuster is released, someone will fail. For example, the 3D blockbuster "Avatar", which has just been released and shocked the world, was criticized by a small 18th-tier Hollywood producer, saying that he once spent 200,000 US dollars to make a movie, which is similar to the "Avatar" The story ideas are very similar.

James Cameron This is plagiarism!

In order not to affect the film's release and public reputation, Fox had no choice but to admit it and pay a protection fee to settle the matter.

If MSI Global wants to nip problems in the bud, it would be best to deal with Warner in advance and obtain their authorization.

Both HBO and Warner are subsidiaries of Time Warner, and Jeffrey Beckers, the current chairman and CEO of Time Warner, was the chairman and CEO of HBO a few years ago. He was promoted because he led HBO to complete its strategic transformation and its strategy of producing high-quality dramas was a great success.

With this relationship, things will be easier to handle.

The negotiation went smoothly. At 11 o'clock in the morning, the two parties initialed an agreement and finalized the final plan around Ziweixing Global's cooperation in investing in "Game of Thrones".

Zhou Buqi got on the plane in the afternoon and flew to Silicon Valley to reunite with his family.

It's New Year's Day soon.

It’s not fun to spend Christmas, but it’s still necessary to spend New Year’s Day together.

Soon, the time came to 2010.

On January 8, Ziweixing Global and HBO signed a formal investment agreement. In the American TV series "Game of Thrones", Ziweixing Global's investment share is 40%, and it will obtain all streaming media rights and a 25% share of DVD disc sales profits.

At the same time, Warner also responded to the letter, expressing its willingness to license the copyright of the actor characters, image design, prop design, and background design of the "Lord of the Rings" film trilogy to Ziweixing Universal for a price of US$30 million.

The price is really too expensive.

Send someone over to talk.

After three rounds of negotiations, the price was finally reduced to US$12 million.

Zhou Buqi is not involved in these matters. He mainly focuses on Silicon Valley and focuses on the investment field, mainly in two aspects.

On the one hand, there is the cloud computing business. Kurian is now relatively familiar with Ziwei Cloud. In addition, he has gained the leadership of the global business. He was very motivated for a while, and then began to play his inherent routine - mergers and acquisitions.

This guy is a super expert on mergers and acquisitions.

When he was at Oracle, he acquired an average of 7.6 companies every year, all of which were small and medium-sized companies or startups that were not too expensive.

This is a very crude concept and is a typical "Ellison management style".

If you find a good project, buy it!

If it is done well, it will be merged with its own products and used for its own purposes, forming the Matthew effect of the strong getting stronger; if it is not done well, it will be closed down directly, which can be regarded as killing potential competitors in the cradle.

Another advantage is that start-up companies are generally filled with outstanding talents. Buying a start-up company is equivalent to buying these talents.

Kurian has already started to get started. He will spend US$8.4 million to buy a commercial social media analysis company, which will mainly do data analysis and data processing, and will be integrated into Ziweiyun's system.

The application report was written in a full 7 pages. Zhou Buqi was dizzy after reading it and refused without any reason.

This kind of professional business handling has become farther and farther away from him.

He is still better at making some simple business investments.

This time, what he wants to participate in is one of the most popular investment projects in Silicon Valley at the moment-LinkedIn!

Why is it the most popular?

Because LinkedIn has publicly stated its position, saying that this is Series E financing, the last round of financing before going public. Moreover, in order to attract more investment institutions to actively participate, LinkedIn took the initiative to propose a bet.

The board of directors promised that LinkedIn would complete its IPO before 2012. If it fails to go public on time, investors in this round will be compensated to a certain extent.

In short, all major institutions are actively entering the market.

vigorous.

LinkedIn is a business social platform. Its main focus is on workplace recruitment. It is currently the most popular recruitment website in the world. It is said that the current valuation has been speculated to US$1.5 billion.

LinkedIn stated that they are willing to dilute their shares by 3% to 4% at most.

Even if the competition is fierce, with Zhou Buqi's current connections and status, he can easily get a larger share of the investment. He is an old acquaintance with Reid Hoffman, the founder and chairman of LinkedIn. They are all early investors in Facebook and have known each other for a long time.

Later, Musk encountered a career crisis, and Reed Hoffman also sent a special email to Zhou Buqi, saying that he hoped he would investigate and invest if he was interested.

Because when he was at PayPal, Musk was the CEO and Reid Hoffman was the senior vice president, and they were both major members of the "PayPal mafia."

On this day, Zhou Buqi attended LinkedIn's investment intention meeting, with as many as a dozen attendees. The content of the meeting is that LinkedIn's board of directors will further disclose some data for reference by investors.

Zhou Buqi also got the materials and didn't even bother to look at them.

In comparison, others are much more serious.

Reed Hoffman seemed to notice his boredom, so he invited him to his office and asked with a smile: "Zhou, why don't you read the materials? These are some very important company data that cannot be seen outside. ."

Zhou Buqi said calmly: "My investment philosophy focuses on ideals and pursuits, not data and profits."

Hoffman particularly felt the same way, "Zhou, we are of the same mind."

"Yeah?"

Zhou Buqi was a little funny. He said in his heart that I just said it casually. Do you still take it seriously?

Hoffman said: "When I first graduated from college, I wanted to be a professor or a public intellectual in school to explore some social philosophical propositions."

"Oh? Then why did you start a company?"

"Maybe it's vanity."

"vanity?"

"Yes, vanity." Hoffman nodded. He was a fat man, as if he was obese. "I found that as a professor or scholar, my research results could only have an impact in a very small circle. I think This kind of life value is too small, I want to have a broader social impact. Then I came out to work, and the first company was Apple."

Zhou Buqi didn't know whether what he said was true or not, but he had never been afraid of such a big topic. He said: "My ambition since I was a child is to be a doctor, to treat diseases and save people. But as I grow older, I find that The lives that doctors can save are too limited. From a social perspective, the average life span has little impact on the level of medical science. The most important thing is economic strength. Creating more social value is what is most beneficial to ordinary people. life and health.”

"So you chose to start a business?"

"right."

"Very respectable."

"Each other."

Zhou Buqi laughed haha.

Hoffman said: "By the way, Zhou, I asked you to come over because a friend wants to see you."

"Who?"

"Joe Lacob, he was an early venture capitalist at LinkedIn. He was just at the meeting, sitting in the last row on the right."

"Did not notice."

Zhou Buqi is relatively bland.

Sitting in the last row, I could see that my capabilities were mediocre and that I was most likely not qualified to participate in this Series E round of financing, so I just came here to accompany him. Moreover, he had never heard of the name Joe Lacob, and he didn't look like a big shot at first glance.

Hoffman tentatively suggested, "How about I ask him to come over and talk to you?"

Zhou Buqi was not interested, "What's the matter?"

Hoffman said: "It seems to be about sports."

"Sports?" Zhou Buqi became a little more interested. He thought he wanted to invest in Ziweixing Digital Media. "Okay, let him come over."

Hoffman sent the secretary out, and within three minutes, a guy with a similar build and appearance to Son came to the office.

Out of politeness, Zhou Buqi stood up to shake hands with him and said with a smile, "Hello, I'm Zhou Buqi. You can call me 'Butch', or just 'Zhou'."

Zhou Buqi has an English name, which is the homophony of "Buqi" ("Butchi").

The other party was even more polite, shook hands with him warmly, and poured out compliments in droves.

Zhou Buqi waved and motioned for him to sit down, "Reed said, do you want to talk to me about sports?"

Joe Laco preached: "Yes, I am a sports fan, and my favorite English football team is Manchester United. Manchester United's performance this season is great, thanks to your superb management art."

Zhou Buqi sighed, "Not even close. I want to use Silicon Valley's technological model to build Manchester United and use technology to make football more professional. However, the reform of European football... this is not easy."

Joe Laco preached: "Yes, I have also heard that European football has always been very repulsive towards technology. For those of us in Silicon Valley, we see them still using old-fashioned technology in the 21st century. The way we are falling behind is really anxious.”

Zhou Buqi nodded, not sure what this man wanted to do.

Joe Lacob hesitated and asked: "Mr. Zhou, besides English football, do you also like other sports?"

"I like it, a lot."

"Where's the basketball?"

"Uh..." Zhou Buqi looked at him strangely, "NBA? I used to watch Rockets games when I was in high school."

Joe Laco said: "Now, the San Francisco basketball team is preparing to be sold. I intend to take it over and carry out a comprehensive transformation of this bottom basketball team according to the technological process of Silicon Valley. However, my personal funds may not be enough. , I hope to find a partner who can buy this team with me."