Top of the big era

Miss Holmes was very happy when she got the money. She said that she would not disturb the business discussion between Boss Zhou and Grandpa Murdoch, and left with satisfaction.

Zhou Buqi doesn't talk about people behind their backs, but this time he and Murdoch are here to discuss cooperation. He always wants to show goodwill, so he looked very confused, "Mr. Murdoch, 100 million US dollars? Really?" "

Murdoch laughed, "Of course it's true."

"Isn't it a little hasty?"

"No."

Murdoch shook his head, looking solemn and confident.

It's hard to say anything else this week. After all, we can't expose Miss Holmes behind her back, and the two of them don't have any grudges.

Besides, it’s hard to say whether she is a real liar or not!

Just like Boss Ma, the old Ma from ten years ago, is he a liar?

Of course he is a liar. Externally, he is bluffing to find investment, which is no different from cheating money. Internally, he is even more bluffing. He obviously cannot get a penny of investment. He also told employees that there are a group of people rushing to give him money, and he even sees it. If not, he wants to find the best investors.

If he hadn't gotten lucky later and met Goldman Sachs first, and then SoftBank and Yahoo, he might have failed, and his reputation as a liar would have been confirmed for the rest of his life.

Because he succeeded, he was able to turn his image around in one fell swoop.

Another example is LeTV, a popular Internet company in China recently. Is Boss Jia a liar?

Judging from the results, of course he is a liar.

After ColeTV went public and developed, he became a big boss with a net worth of hundreds of billions. He had more wealth than he could spend in a few lifetimes. Why did he continue to cheat and then go bankrupt?

His original intention was not to cheat, but to make mistakes in business decisions. I developed too many businesses at the same time, ran out of money, and couldn't plug the holes by patchwork, so I fell into a debt crisis and turned into a liar.

This is really bad luck.

It was the wrong time for him to do LeTV.

If it had been 3-4 years later, the domestic private equity industry would have been booming, and hot money would have been swayed all over the world. If LeTV can have enough money, just like Meituan and Didi, and can continue to raise funds and invest, maybe LeTV will succeed and Boss Jia will become the second Boss Ma.

In American business rules, there is an indoctrination-like brainwashing argument: "If you persist, you will always succeed."

At first glance, it looks like poisonous chicken soup.

If Zhou Buqi in his previous life heard such words, he would definitely sneer at them. But he has experienced so much and seen so much in this life, and he recognizes this sentence more and more.

Persevere, and if you fail, try again. As long as there are investors who pay for this persistence, you will definitely succeed if you keep doing it.

If someone says at this time: "I want to land on the sun." As long as someone pays for it, and as long as the entrepreneur can persevere, he will definitely succeed!

However, this criterion of success is not necessarily the final landing on the sun. This goal will never be reached and is almost infinite. But in achieving this goal, you can go to 1, 2, 100, 1000...

Musk said he would lead people on earth to immigrate to Mars. How different is this from landing on the sun?

Ultimately it may not be possible.

But it doesn’t matter, as long as someone pays for his persistence, as long as someone is willing to spend money, in the process of achieving this ambitious goal, Musk has started rocket recycling, manned aviation, and Starlink. , he will land on the moon again... Maybe he will never be able to realize the fantasy of immigrating to Mars in his life, but he has achieved great success.

Is Musk a liar?

Yes and no.

He is a liar because he will never be able to immigrate to Mars in his lifetime. The complex environment of Mars cannot survive at all. It is better to transform the Sahara Desert;

He is not a liar, because he has succeeded, and it is not an ordinary success. Under the unreachable goal of "Mars Dream", his aerospace project is excitingly changing the world.

Is this Holmes a liar?

Even if there is foresight, it is difficult to draw a conclusion without Zhou Buqi.

If her company is a pure shell with nothing inside, it is a pure financial fraud. This is of course a veritable scammer. However, if she is working very hard to do this, but the goal is too far away, the gap between her results and the expected goal is too large, and no one pays for her to persist and fails, then even if she is a liar, it is business logic. A recognized liar.

This is also the reason why Zhou Buqi is more interested in Holmes.

It’s not that she’s blond and beautiful, but because she has the entrepreneurial spirit and courage to fight and fight. Not to mention anything else, her family situation is so good, and she can endure her nausea and perform a honey trap on an 80-year-old grandfather, which is something ordinary people can't do.

Sure enough, Murdoch then told Zhou Buqi that the reason why he decided to invest $100 million was related to her family background.

He asked his secretary to find a piece of material.

"What's this?"

"List of members of the Board of Directors."

"Oh." Zhou Buqi looked at them a few times. They were all English names. He was not very familiar with them and asked, "Are they all experts?"

Murdoch said: "There is a man named George Schultz. Have you found him?"

"Um."

"He's a former secretary of state, secretary of state under Reagan, who also invested in this project."

"Ahem..."

Zhou Buqi almost laughed.

This Lisa Holmes is really capable. She knew that the young professional venture capitalists in Silicon Valley couldn't handle it, so she was specifically targeting the old man.

Also, it is not easy for a grandfather with such a high social status to refuse a coquettish and lovely granddaughter-like girl with great dreams.

Murdoch continued: "There is another person, Henry Kissinger, who is also a former Secretary of State and is older than George."

"Kissinger..."

This week I have become very familiar with it.

Next, a few more names were mentioned, all of which were famous old men, such as Kovacevich, the former CEO of Wells Fargo.

Zhou Buqi frowned slightly, "Is this kind of board composition appropriate? Paying attention to big names and despising experts is not the board structure a technology company should have."

"Holmes is the expert."

Murdoch handed over another piece of information, introducing her family's family background.

This reads very smoothly.

This is really a big upper-class family. Holmes' great-grandfather runs a high-end hospital, and many people in the family are engaged in the medical industry.

As for experts, her family is full of experts.

Moreover, she also has a background in politics and business.

Her father worked hard in the business in his early years and served as the vice president of Enron. Later, he moved into politics. Her mother has also been in politics for many years. Because of this family background, she had the opportunity to meet many grandpa-level political figures...

"Huh?" Zhou Buqi noticed a little doubt, "An Ran? Which An Ran?"

Murdoch said: "Yes, that's the Enron you know."

"I go!"

Zhou Buqi didn't know what to say.

The largest fraud case that has ever occurred in the United States this century was that of Enron, which caused extremely negative social impact and caused the collapse of a giant company with more than 100 billion US dollars overnight.

This is a family inheritance!

"Enron's case has nothing to do with her father, you don't have to worry." Murdoch was a little stubborn and suggested: "This is a good project. You are all young people and you should communicate more."

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "I can."

Next, it’s time to talk about cooperation.

Murdoch was the first to attack, admitting News Corporation's current difficult situation, with great pressure on cash flow and a shortfall of at least US$1 billion. He also said that the growth of the TV business in Asia has stagnated and that he plans to sell some assets to make money.

Zhou Buqi blinked, feeling ridiculous.

Depend on!

This old man is really capable of causing trouble!

News Corporation's funding gap has reached US$1 billion. How can you still spend US$100 million to invest in Holmes? How can you be so kind to your own granddaughter?

However, such a big boss like Zhou Buqi came here in person, and it was impossible for him to do it just for the small business of Fox Searchlight's streaming media rights.

Zhou Buqi smiled and said, "I can provide you with three funds."

"oh?"

Murdoch seemed to be quite addicted to alcohol. He drank half a glass of wine and drank another half glass. As I age, I am really not afraid of death.

Zhou Buqi said: "The first deal is the streaming media rights of Fox Searchlight."

"I heard that the transaction value is not very high?"

"There's a second one."

"What is it?"

"Copyright to Star Wars."

"Um?"

Murdoch became serious now.

This is not an easy decision to make.

The first six Star Wars movies were all distributed by 20th Century Fox, and the distribution rights were in their hands. As a result, although Purple Star Universal has completed the acquisition of Lucasfilm, it is unable to make distribution-level decisions on the first six films.

It is said that when George Lucas founded Lucasfilm, he wanted to make "Star Wars". Although he found many friends in the industry to help and spent some money out of his own pocket, this money was simply not enough.

As an independent film company, he could only seek help from film giants.

The choice was Twentieth Century Fox.

In the 1970s, this kind of computer-generated special effects movies were still a novelty, and investment risks were high. Twentieth Century Fox was also careful not to spend too much money.

This gave George Lucas an opportunity. He said that he could make this movie for free without production fees, director fees, and personal dividends from the movie, but he wanted to retain the copyright of the "Star Wars" series.

You know, Hollywood giants are very domineering. When independent film companies cooperate with Hollywood giants, they must transfer the copyright to the giant companies. Just like "007", this was originally a British film. Because it cooperated with the Hollywood giant United Artists, the copyright fell into the hands of United Artists. After United Artists was acquired by MGM, "007" became MGM's trump card.

Twentieth Century Fox calculated that this arrangement could save them $5 million, so they agreed.

Because of this decision, George Lucas became the richest man in Hollywood and retained the "Star Wars" brand and series rights in Lucasfilm.

20th Century Fox only owns the distribution rights to these six movies, as well as the income rights from the investment.

Now, Zhou Buqi wants to take back these six movies!

It's like the six Lucasfilm kids who were wandering around, and now that their families are rich and have money, it's time to go home.