New York 2006

Chapter 325 The Wave of the Times

2009 12 Month 20 Day.

Long Island, New York.

Luo Ji's villa and mansion.

A party is being held here today to celebrate the smooth progress of Holi's Series C financing.This party was very low-key, and only people related to various companies came.

Yang Jian held a glass of wine and said to Son Zhengyi next to him: "Look, the person talking to Logic is Chen Siqi. He is such a lucky guy. He easily became a billionaire without doing anything."

Masayoshi Son took a closer look and said, "He was the one who developed "Friends Buying and Selling"."

"Yes."

"That's not considered lucky. Those who can seize the wave of the times also have certain strength."

"Why isn't it lucky?"

Yang Jian curled his lips and said: "When we acquired his company, we paid for 5% of the shares. Now, these shares are worth 1.62 million yuan. As a result, he is doing well, enjoying the high salary given by the company and mastering He runs a sub-department but has not achieved any results.”

"Uh..." Son Zhengyi was a little embarrassed. He didn't want to be involved in the company's power struggle just after investing in Holi.

Yang Jian looked at Sun Zhengyi's reaction and knew that he had lost his composure just now. He took a sip of wine and said, "I drank a little too much. I lost my composure."

"fine."

……

Not far away, Luo Ji was talking to Chen Siqi.

The purpose of the conversation was of course related to the company's power struggle. CEO Yang Jian couldn't stand Chen Siqi.

On the one hand, this was because after acquiring Friendship Business, Luo Ji was dissatisfied with the inaction of the head office and knew how to rest on his laurels every day.

So out of anger, he used 5% of the shares originally promised to Yang Jian and several founders to set up the company's creative prize pool.

This caused the shares of Yang Jian and several other founders to be reduced virtually.

On the other hand, one of Luo Ji's conditions for acquiring Friendship Trading was to give Chen Siqi absolute autonomy.

All profits from his department in California can be used for self-development.He did not need to report to Yang Jian, Luo Ji was directly in charge.

The California department controlled by Chen Siqi is the only department in Holi that is not controlled by the head office.

If it goes well, that's okay.

However, in the past few years, Chen Siqi's department in California has only been relying on the capital of "Friends Buying and Selling" and has not developed a popular social game at all.

In that department in California, except for "Friends Buying and Selling", other games only make small profits.It is completely incomparable to the growth rate of the head office.

And the most important thing is that the game "Friend Buying and Selling" is gradually being replaced by "Pet Buying and Selling", and profits gradually began to decline in December this year.

Since Luo Ji delegated power, all the company's affairs have been handed over to CEO Yang Jian.

As a result, the conflict between Yang Jian and Chen Siqi deepened without Luo Ji's suppression.After this financing, Yang Jian hinted to Luo Ji that he wanted to deal with the department in California.

Therefore, today's conversation between Luo Ji and Chen Siqi took place.

Luo Ji said kindly: "Siqi, you are now a billionaire. Have you ever thought about retiring and enjoying life?"

Chen Siqi shook his head: "Not yet. I'm still young and don't want to live a life of retirement so early."

Luo Ji looked at him deeply, not knowing whether he didn't understand his hint or was just pretending to be stupid.

Luo Ji simply stopped pretending and showed his cards right away: "Siqi, now Yang Jian has a lot of opinions on you. He thinks that the California department led by you has not made any achievements in the past few years, so he wants to take back your rights. "

Only then did Chen Siqi react and looked at Luo Ji solemnly: "Logic, what's your attitude towards this?"

"For the sake of the harmony of the company, I suggest you retire. Yang Jian has a lot of opinions about you."

"Is it because the performance of the department I lead is not good?"

Luo Ji couldn't possibly tell him the real reason, so he took the initiative to take the blame on himself.So he nodded vaguely: "Yeah."

Only then did Chen Siqi realize that this was a banquet. He looked at Luo Ji in disbelief: "Logic, you promised me back then. You would let me continue to lead the department in California."

Luo Ji looked directly at him: "But you haven't made any achievements in two and a half years."

Chen Siqi immediately said: "Logic, I'm working hard. You have to believe me. If I could develop the hit game "Friends Buying and Selling", I can develop other hit games. I need time."

"Are you talking about two and a half years?" Luo Ji looked at him and said bluntly: "If you don't want to retire, that's fine. In the future, the department you lead can develop some creative planning at the head office."

Chen Siqi said painfully: "Logic, you promised me back then."

Luo Ji looked at his pitiful appearance and finally relented.This time is different from Marvel's major layoffs. As long as it doesn't involve the survival of the company, he is still willing to keep his promise.

"Siqi, I promised you, but I can't give you unlimited time, do you know?"

"I know."

Luo Ji thought for a moment and said, "Let's do this. I'll give you one more year at most. If you continue to be unable to achieve results, you will either retire on your own or accept the leadership of the head office. Can you accept this?"

"Ok."

…………

As the leader of many companies, Luo Ji is already very familiar with resolving conflicts among the company's top management.

Luo Ji told Yang Jian his decision and then put this small problem behind him.I found Thomas Tull, the CEO of Legendary Pictures not far away, and had a chat.

"Hi Tull."

"Hello, Logic."

Tour looked at Luo Ji in shock: "To be honest, I really didn't expect you to be able to run Holi Company to this extent. This is a valuation of 40 billion US dollars! In just three years, you have grown from Built it all out of nothing.”

Luo Ji waved his hand: "I just hit the trend of the times."

Tur shook his head: "Don't be modest. Even if you bump into it once in a social game, you can bump into it in a smartphone game the second time. I don't believe this is just a coincidence."

Luo Ji smiled heartily: "Hahahaha, you saw it."

"After all, you are so smart."

Tuer then looked at Luo Ji seriously: "Speaking of how many shares you currently hold in Holi Game Company, your company does not seem to disclose specific shareholding data to the media."

"About 46%." Luo Ji returned.

Tur is his close partner and can be trusted.

When Holi was originally designed, Luo Ji held 70% of the shares, and the founding team held 30%.

Holi has now experienced 15% of Series A financing, 5% of acquisition of friends and transactions, 10% of Series B financing, and 10% of Series C financing this time.

Luo Ji's original 70% is now only 46%.In fact, Holi still has 3% of the creative prize pool and about 5% of the founding team’s option rewards in his hands.

With a little bit of trickery, he could actually get these shares into his own hands.But Luo Ji didn't intend to do this. He still cared more about his business reputation.

And for the benefit of hundreds of millions of dollars, it is not worthwhile to fall out with the founding team.If he really wants more shares of the company, he can wait until the company is listed and use his own money to increase his holdings.

Money was the last thing Luo Ji lacked.

Tur nodded: "The Internet industry is like this. Some founders may only have about 20% left after the C round of financing. You are already considered very good."

"Uh-huh."

Tour said in confusion: "Logic, why don't you announce your shareholding ratio to the media?"

Luo Ji said calmly: "Everyone will know it when it goes public. There is no rush now."

Tuer looked shocked: "Holi is not going to start D round of financing, is it going to go public directly?"

"Yes."

Luo Ji explained: "Generally Internet companies go public after they start D or E rounds of financing, just because they are not yet profitable. But my Holi is different. It may become profitable in April or May next year."

"When do you plan to go public?"

"The end of next year or the beginning of the next year."

"Can you let me know when it goes public?" Tour said with a smile, "I will subscribe for some shares then."

"No problem." Luo Ji then got down to the topic: "Let me ask you something."

"You say it."

Luo Ji asked: "Speaking of which, why didn't DreamWorks become the eighth largest company in Hollywood? Spielberg, Katzenberg, and David Geffen were also Jews. Even if the Seven Major Oppositions were against them, their strength should be the same. Not strong. I read some reports in the media and said they should have been able to do it at that time."

Tuer said: "Your judgment is correct. It was indeed possible for them to do it at that time. However, you ignored one problem. That is that the three founders were not aligned!"

"What exactly is the situation?"

Tur began to recount the past: "When DreamWorks was first formed, Spielberg made money from live-action movies, Katzenberg made money from animated movies, and David Geffen made money from music. But as time went by, David Geffen's music didn't improve, and the three of them began to drift apart. Everyone felt that they had given more, but received less. Everyone's psychology was unbalanced, and the three of them gradually went their separate ways."

"Spielberg began to produce movies with his own film company, Katzenberg directly let DreamWorks Animation go public alone, and David Geffen became obsessed with finance and had no time to make money in music. The three most popular The talented founders had no intention of running the company and were all considering their own interests. Coupled with the suppression by the Big Seven, DreamWorks gradually declined."

"Okay." Luo Ji nodded.

Tour asked curiously: "Why do you ask this?"

Luo Ji said vaguely, "I just had doubts after reading a report about DreamWorks."

…………

After three hours.

at the party.

"Hey! Fiona. Stop!"

After Luo Ji grabbed him and saw him, he asked his aunt who ran away immediately: "What's wrong with you? Why do you seem to be avoiding me on purpose these past few hours?"

Fiona immediately shook her head: "I didn't, I just suddenly remembered that I wanted to talk to Sami about some details of Karl's wedding."

Luo Ji didn't believe it: "Are you hiding something from me?"

"No." Fiona pushed Luo Ji: "Go and enjoy your highlight moment, remember to have fun."

Luo Ji felt that something was wrong with Fiona, but she had already pushed him away.

At this time, Jeff Busker and David Guetta, who had already made an appointment to chat in detail, came over.Luo Ji didn't think any more and went to the study room with the two of them.

"Basque, Kuta. I suddenly had an idea recently. I want to run my two record companies well."

Basque said doubtfully: "Aren't you just running your music company well now? We have signed many singers during this period and are preparing to train them seriously."

David Guetta also said: "Yeah."

"That's not what I meant." Luo Ji then expressed his true thoughts: "In the future, I will not pay dividends to the profits of the two music companies, but will stay with the music company."

Basque said in surprise: "That's hundreds of millions of dollars in profits every year. How can it be possible to spend so much money on training singers?"

David Guetta also nodded in agreement: "That's right."

Luo Ji made a digression: "As long as humans are controlled by genes, music will be an indispensable thing for humans."

"This is common sense." Basque was a little confused.

"So, music is a good business."

Basque said in confusion: "What do you mean by these words?"

Luo Ji expressed what he had been thinking about for a long time: "Due to the agreement with Universal Music, our company's digital albums were all released by our company."

"At the same time, both of our companies have their own music publishing departments. So, I hope you two can work together."

"Separate the music publishing departments, publicity departments, and distribution departments of the two companies. Establish a comprehensive company that can represent songwriting copyrights and digital distribution capabilities."

"In this way, we can help independent musicians represent their songwriting copyrights and release their digital singles in the future. After all, there are only a few famous singers in the world, but there are many independent musicians."

“By establishing this digital distribution company, not only can we make a profit, but we can also help countless independent musicians.”

Basque thought for a while and said: "I have no objection to this, but these don't cost much. It can be done for up to 1000 million U.S. dollars. If you want to build a website and then promote it on the Internet, you can do it for 2000 million U.S. dollars." "

"You are right."

Luo Ji continued: "The most important thing about music is the copyright of lyrics and music, and the copyright of music. Next, you will acquire well-known copyrights of lyrics, music, and music around the world, especially in several major language areas, that do not belong to the three major record companies."

David Guetta still didn't understand what Luo Ji really meant: "You mean English, Chinese, Spanish, French, right?"

Jeff Busker understood what Luo Ji wanted to express, and he said in surprise: "Do you want to be the fifth largest music company in the world?"

Luo Ji nodded seriously: "This can be regarded as a long-term goal."

Basque said solemnly: "This is a bit difficult, the other four major music companies will not allow another large music company to appear."

Luo Ji shook his head: "It's not as serious as you think. There are so many independent music labels and there are so many independent distribution companies. The control of the four major music companies is not that strong. And..."

"And what?"

"Physical records are declining step by step, and digital distribution is the future."

Luo Ji looked at the two of them seriously: "The Internet era has given us such a good opportunity. The tide of the times is surging. If we don't seize it, we will be very sorry for this era."

(End of this chapter)