Chapter 327 Split Blizzard
December 24, afternoon.
Los Angeles, Sherman Oaks.
The sky is clear and cloudless, and the body temperature is 57.2.
On this day of family celebration, there are Christmas trees with more symbolic meaning than practical significance at the door of every household. No one deliberately pursues the snowflakes sprinkled on it, because the best decoration is not the gifts hanging on the top of the tree, piled in the shade of the tree The next gift box!
In this way, Roland stepped on a 'stilt' to hang gifts, just like the driver carrying a wrench when going out, which makes sense!
"Roland, can't you hang low?"
While he was hanging it, Elizabeth leaned against the door frame with her arms around her arms, and said with a speechless expression: "Do you need to hang all the presents on the tree? Anyway, they will be dismantled tomorrow, wouldn't it be easier to put them under the tree? "
"Sense of ritual! Do you understand the sense of ritual?" Roland dragged out his tone, emphasizing it.
"Hi!"
The little guy rolled his eyes and said, "Aren't you very casual before? When did you start pursuing this kind of thing?"
"People have to grow up!" Roland twisted and jumped off the stool after hanging up the gift.
Retired to the courtyard, looked at the Christmas tree, and saw that all the gifts were evenly distributed, and no one was bald, so he clapped his hands in satisfaction, "Okay, all of them are hung up, and you can take them apart when you wake up tomorrow morning!"
Such words made Auntie Liang turn her head away.
Glanced at the Christmas tree, the average distribution of obsessive-compulsive disorder made her shudder, and complained: "Men in love are terrible."
"What?" Roland, who was walking towards the house, happened to hear her muttering, and raised his eyebrows immediately.
But before he could ask any questions, the frightened little guy shrank back into the room like a rabbit.
Then he ran away in a hurry.
The sound of thumping footsteps made Roland laugh dumbly.
Shaking his head, followed in, "This guy!"
...
In fact, after Fox showed his attitude, the publicity reports of "Spider-Man 2" from various media gradually decreased.
Front page headlines are no longer given, TV programs are no longer produced, except for the daily fixed-point broadcast, there is basically no other exposure.
And this is actually the normal state of life for Christmas movies.
Every Christmas movie can only gain the attention of the public before Christmas. If it is made into a graph, it will start to fluctuate during the promotion, and climb to the peak when it is released. When Christmas Eve comes, the long sound of beep- It will explode.
Then the whole film can be taken to the crematorium to be cremated.
Of course, if the cremation is slower, maybe after the festival, the sound of dripping corpses can be heard again.
But at that time, it was already the world of Olympic films.
There is no way to prevent people from celebrating the festival, it is tantamount to killing their parents.
In the East, if the movie is moved to New Year's Eve, it is just boycotted, but here, the labor union will organize a strike!
Not to mention, according to the law, people enjoy a one-and-a-half-day public holiday starting at noon on the 24th and ending at 24:00 on the 25th. When the church participates in the assembly, or participates in the celebration activities held by major societies, it is thankful that the Christmas movie has not been completely forgotten.
Such a situation also made Roland feel relaxed.
It's rare to be quiet, are you upset?
...
"Roland, are you finished hanging up the presents? That's right, come here and help me."
As soon as he entered the room, Roland was called again. He turned his head and saw that the guy, David who called him, was chasing sheep.
With a beard, he has the appearance of a swallow, and his beard is full of fierceness. His eyes are staring, and he seems to be able to kill.
But it's a pity that what he is holding in his hand at this moment is not a zhangba snake spear, but a long kitchen knife. In this way, his momentum is a little weaker, and if he takes a closer look, the sad look on his face will be even more serious. It is to let his tall image directly pull his hips.
"What are you doing?" Roland asked suspiciously, "Isn't eating turkey a Christmas reservation?"
"Our family has never been extravagant and wasteful. If you make so much, you will definitely not be able to eat it all."
"Oops! Didn't they get up and shout this morning, wanting to eat lamb chops?"
When David heard it, he sighed, "If it's just Ashley and Mary, that's fine, but Lizzie is also making noise, so I had to send a sheep, and Ganetti wrapped the turkey in tin foil. Put it in the refrigerator and bake it tomorrow."
"Ah~" Roland suddenly realized, "Then you do it~"
"Hi!" David was annoyed, "If I know how to do it, then I still call you?"
"Oh, okay~ give me the knife~"
Roasting lamb chops is actually not difficult.
Because David had already told his subordinates about the use of the ingredients when he asked for the sheep, the merchant had already done simple processing.
Roland does not need to do such things as head and leg dismemberment. How to ensure the integrity of the ribs and lumbar spine is the biggest technical problem in the whole work. After the lamb chops are cut out, it has long been Ready seasoning is ready to use.
Soak the best Iranian saffron in warm water, take a bowl and pour some butter, cumin powder, and barbecue sauce into it.
Then mix everything up again! combine! exist! one! rise!
Immediately afterwards, rub some salt and black pepper on the lamb chops, and then spread the adjusted ingredients evenly on the face as you did with your idol's face, pour them into a food bag together, drain the air, and soak in cold water Marinate for three hours.
The clean and agile movements made David feel a little bit emotional, "When did you learn this?"
"People always have to grow up!"
After finishing all this, Roland wiped his hands, "Okay, it can be taken out and baked at about 4:30."
Such behavior made David pat him on the shoulder, "A man in love is really scary."
"What?" Confused, Roland turned his head strangely and said, "David, what do you mean?"
"It's nothing interesting, I feel sorry for others." David shook his head with a smile, put Roland in his arms, and pushed him out of the kitchen, "You grow so fast that no one else can catch up with you! Mike didn't wait for last year You, Mike, didn't wait for you this year!"
...
Until Roland was pushed into the study by David and saw the mountain of Blizzard reports.
It was only then that he realized that this guy was actually complaining for himself!
Since Roland acquired Blizzard, he has the habit of going around at the end of each year.
At first, I really felt that life was boring, so I used to play games with them to enhance friendship.
After that, I went to see how many teams the new Blizzard has controlled with my intervention.
Now...
He hasn't been there for two years.
Last year, it was because I was filming, and this year, it was because a movie was released.
But who doesn't know, is this an excuse for him to be too lazy to move?
The once favorite games, like movies, have gradually become a tool for making money.
The decline in interest in sensory stimulation made him quite helpless.
But this is also normal.
In his previous life, the reason why he was excited to see a good movie and play a good game was because he was a spiritual taker, but now, when he changed from a taker to a As a seller, the only thing that can make him happy is the soaring numbers in the financial report, so...
The previous feelings have all become tools to create profits.
Although this idea seems cold-blooded, who can live up to the original intention?
Brother Xun, known as the acting school, has transformed into variety shows, and in an interview, he also publicly stated, "The reason for participating in variety shows is that the audience always thinks that I am in the clouds", so she took over four episodes in one year. Variety shows, I hope the audience can realize a more real self, this statement is true, but—
After "Red Sorghum", she has not produced any good works for five consecutive years.
The last film award was "Li Mi's Conjecture" twelve years ago.
Although I have been making movies, but after "The Wind", I am no longer in the cloud.
Oh no!
If you live up to your original intentions, the girl who called on fans to consume rationally during the live broadcast of her birthday is the real one!
Of course, some people say that the performance of the live broadcast really has nothing to do with her, because what the brand wants is the public's distressed gimmick.
Because Mr. Luo has already turned the sales of e-commerce live streaming into the sky on April 24th, all the e-commerce algorithms on the market are based on the order price, and this figure is much higher than the actual turnover.
In this way, whether it is worthwhile to post a distressed hot search on Weibo or sell thousands of copies of the product live, it can be calculated with the soles of the feet.
Of course, only the rehearsal team and the brand know what this kind of thing is.
...
"So Mike asked you to hear about me?"
Glancing at the documents, when he learned that Blizzard Entertainment released six games in 1999, namely "GTA: Guilty London 1969", "GTA2", "Siphon Warrior", "Medal of Honor", and "Rocket", the After the operating income reached 500 million, a year-on-year increase of 45%, Roland closed the report with satisfaction and acted as a fan, constantly fanning the wind.
"But I remember, didn't I meet them this year?"
“After successfully investing in Google, I even treated them to a meal!”
The righteous doubts made David sneer and shook his head, as if expressing displeasure with Roland's natural sense of distance, but more like agreeing with the kind of money in his hands, "He doesn't bother to inquire about your situation." As for their whereabouts, they are too busy with the door-to-door issue in order to vote for Google. Now they would rather write games in the company than answer your calls."
"It's just a procedure to submit the financial report at this time of year. What they really want to ask is when will the company's incentive plan be implemented? If it is to be implemented, when will the company go public?"
“They don’t want the company to go public as soon as possible, but if the incentive program is implemented, the company has to go public.”
When Roland bought Blizzard at a price of 500,000, he actually asked David to make an incentive plan for himself.
It's just that the incentive plan at the time was only for the Big Three of Blizzard.
After the crazy expansion, the policy of sending money to other developers has also been introduced.
So, the incentive plan for the equity and sales of other than the three of them was formulated by David.
However, this kind of incentive policy used by major companies seems to have no problems, but in practice, it has great limitations, because the "Company Law" of America stipulates that if a company has more than 500 shareholders, and If the operating income is relatively large, they have to apply for listing. If they don’t want to go public, they don’t force it. However, because of the large number of shareholders, in order to ensure the interests of shareholders, the company must disclose financial reports on time and accept the supervision of the SEC, just like listed companies.
To put it bluntly, this kind of regulation that bears the responsibilities of a listed company but cannot enjoy the rights of a listed company is to force you to go public.
As a result, problems arise. Blizzard headquarters currently has 130 employees, and Blizzard North, Rockstar, Naughty Dog, SuckerPunch, Bender Studios, and CDProjekt add up to nearly 200 people.
From the surface, three hundred and three are five hundred, and there is still a gap of one hundred and seventeen.
But one hundred and seventeen spread to seven companies, that is, each company recruits more than 20 people.
Wait for the number of people to be fully recruited. Once the project is launched, as long as it becomes popular, you can get incentive shares.
At that time, it is impossible for the company not to go public.
But for all companies except for financing needs, going public actually does more harm than good.
Unless they really want to make money, few are willing to go public.
"So they don't want to go public?" Roland knocked on the table.
"Yes." David nodded.
"Why?"
“Because they want to ensure the creative enthusiasm of the entire company before the online game is completed.
If the company went public before the online game "Warcraft" was born, there would be countless voices in the production team.
Some people may see that the stock price is good and want to sell and leave, and other companies can also recruit our production team according to our share of equity incentives. At that time, game development will be affected by a lot of external forces. "
Roland understood.
Isn't this the usual routine of capital!
How to destroy a company?
Let the headhunters poach all the core team of the target company.
It's like Game Science released the real machine demo of "Black Myth: Wukong" just to recruit people, but they haven't been recruited yet. After seeing the demo, the HR of the opponent has already turned to poach their people.
Is this to add bricks and tiles to your own industry?
Don't be kidding, it's just that you have no one to work and die.
For listed companies with transparent financial reports, this kind of malicious poaching method is seen every day, and the team of listed companies is also easy to find, because others can estimate the price of the team by looking at your stock price financial report.
It doesn’t need to be too high, just set a number that you can’t keep up with, and most of the employees will leave.
Don’t say that people go to high places, and water flows to low places. The old employer deserves the embarrassment. Whoever told it not to raise the salary of employees.
This kind of guy who can be easily poached will not be reused by the new owner.
But for non-listed companies, this kind of operation is not very easy to use.
Because you never know how much they can give, and for non-listed companies, there are many transactions that do not need to be disclosed.
"So there is actually a solution?" Roland threw the file on the table.
Because of this question, he will, "Is it right to dismantle the entire Blizzard Entertainment?
Split Blizzard Entertainment into seven separate entities. In this way, the equity incentives each developer receives are the equity of the company they belong to, which will not bring a burden to Blizzard headquarters. The ownership of these seven companies is based on one The name of the new company is held. In this case, the seven companies can be listed separately based on their performance. When the development of each company comes to an end, we can merge these companies through acquisitions. Finally, Blizzard appears , the market value will also increase sharply. "
Such words made David nod repeatedly, "That's right, that's almost what it means, but in the incentive plan we prepared, there is also a merger incentive, that is, when a studio like Rock Star produces a blockbuster After the game, the internal shareholders have the right to decide whether to be re-acquired by Blizzard, and they will decide the price of the stocks in their hands. Of course, whether to merge is actually not much interference to you, anyway..."
"You are the chairman anyway." Roland waved his hand.
"Hahaha~" David slapped the table and laughed.
...
Almost all acquisitions and splits of companies are to use legal means to evade supervision.
For Roland itself, it doesn't make much sense.
However, since the Big Three of Blizzard wanted to calm down and play games, Roland let them do so.
Of course, if you want to dismantle it, you can completely dismantle it. Warcraft Films, Overwatch Venture Capital, and Interstellar Records are all dismantled from Blizzard Capital and become individual entities. The original head office Blizzard Capital actually controlled the dismantling from Blizzard Entertainment. The seven game companies in China, as for Marvel? It still hangs under the name of Warcraft Movies and TV.
After dealing with these items that Roland no longer needed to worry about, the sound of knocking on the door followed the trend.
Open it and see that the little girl who ran away before is lying on the door frame, looking in full of depression.
"What are you doing?" Roland pinched her face.
"Mom, sister and Kate are back." Little Loli said crisply.
"Oh~ it's five o'clock?" Roland glanced at his watch, full of surprises.
Then in the next second, he smiled and bent down to pick up the little guy, and poured the dirty water on David indifferently, "Are you hungry? It's all your dad's fault! Have a good Christmas Eve, and you must drag me up to be lazy! "
Such words made David, who had already got up, roll his eyes.
But before he could explain further, Roland had already carried little Loli downstairs, "Let's go, let's roast lamb chops for you!"
Note: ① The US "Company Law" stipulates that companies with more than 500 shareholders must publish financial statements within 100 days of the next year. If they do not publish, it is illegal, so many companies try to control the number of shareholders To achieve the purpose of not going public, including splitting, Google was forced to go public by the "Company Law", while Facebook, by controlling the number of people and splitting, let the company delay the listing for a year or two. In fact, many companies are not willing to go public, because as long as they do not go public, there is a lot of room for manipulation. ②The method of dismantling the company in this article refers to CBS and Viacom. ③Some readers said before that funds cannot be mixed, and it is indeed forbidden to mix them legally, but...so far no one has figured out what Disney’s custodial fee has not been found out after 25 years of investigation. When it is collected as a custody fee and then injected into other companies, there is nothing wrong with it when it is inspected by the SEC. Now after it is dismantled, it is really impossible to mix it. Before... Google also paid storage fees when it dismantled the umbrella company.
(end of this chapter)