Who are you calling "little fresh meat"? I'm the king.

Chapter 694 Influence (13)

That's right, the acquisition is complete!

And it's a big-budget project.

This shocked the entire industry...

Everyone knows Shen Yan is rich, but pulling out 13 billion at once... still makes a lot of people envious!

Keep in mind that Huayi Brothers' profit last year was less than 10 billion!
Shen Yan pulled out 13 billion in one go.

Following the acquisition, Maoyan became a ticketing platform under Xinghuo Studio.

Shen Yan also explained the reasons for acquiring Maoyan: We have always lacked our own distribution capabilities. Through several collaborations with Maoyan, we have determined that the Internet + film distribution model is the most effective.

Maoyan also issued a statement, which was quite long, but in essence, it said, "Simply selling tickets isn't profitable; we need to expand upstream in the film and television industry chain..."

In addition, Maoyan has also confirmed a partnership with A24 in North America, and Maoyan will distribute the film "A Quiet Place," which will be released next month.

Invested in three films: *A Man Called Ove*, *Manchester by the Sea*, and a horror film, *Don't Breathe*.

Well… investing in North American films isn’t surprising, considering it’s only $5000 million…

It's worth noting that Fosun International announced as early as June 2014 that it would jointly invest $1 billion with Sony Pictures in Hollywood film company Studio8.

Bona Film Group also announced a $2.35 million investment in TSG Entertainment for the production of six mainstream commercial blockbusters by 20th Century Fox, and will receive a proportional share of the global box office revenue.
In June, Hunan TV & Broadcast Intermediary Co., Ltd. announced a partnership with Lionsgate, investing a total of US$15 billion and a 25% stake in approximately 50 Lionsgate films over a three-year period.
Look at them, they spend hundreds of millions of dollars every time.

Maoyan's $5000 million... is simply not enough!

The most discussed topic is still Shen Yan's extravagant spending!

After all, Yan Ge has always been very low-key, and Xinghuo Studio has consistently refused to seek financing or go public...

Although there have been reports of investments and plans, they are mostly from visual effects companies and post-production companies, which are essentially supplementary productions.

This time, they actually made a big splash by acquiring Maoyan!

Many industry insiders are discussing whether Shen Yan will lack distribution opportunities after Maoyan merged with Xinghuo Studio…

Is the next step to build a complete industrial chain?
However, Shen Yan posted on Weibo: "Many years ago, I told Ji Xiang that the cinema industry would experience explosive growth, and as it turns out, I was right... The number of screens in my country has increased from 9200 in 2011 to 32000 now... and it is still growing rapidly. According to my judgment, the number of screens should reach about 80,000, since our production capacity has not seen a corresponding increase!"

"Back then, my agent Ji Xiang suggested starting a cinema chain, but I rejected it. First, cinemas are a relatively traditional property business, which is difficult to manage and has too much capital. Second, as audiences' tastes improve, our film market will quickly evolve from 'I watch whatever the cinema shows' to 'I won't watch movies that aren't good'... How can the cinema industry continue at that time?"

"But we are a pure content provider, and at times we are still worried about being controlled by the channels. So we have been looking for investment opportunities. We hope to influence these channels through investment. Even if we can't own them, we can at least influence them."

Although the film industry is now market-driven, I still believe that one day, competition among distribution channels could lead to increased market concentration and potentially a monopoly.

"Therefore, I decided to acquire an online ticketing company!"

"As for the future plans for Maoyan, I hope that Maoyan will become a comprehensive film company."

After all, the future of a pure ticketing website is limited because the total box office revenue is limited, so there will definitely be a ceiling and it will be divided. Therefore, Maoyan's business space must be expanded to find another business to support the company.

Maoyan will leverage its data, its influence on audiences, and its relationships with cinemas and theaters to expand into new businesses such as distribution and investment, including promotion and film merchandise distribution…

……

In fact, Shen Yan's acquisition of Maoyan is not considered a big deal in the investment world... After all, it only involves 13 billion yuan. You should know that Zhao Yanzi's investment in Ali Pictures involved a whopping 62 billion Hong Kong dollars!
And the hottest topic recently is Jia Yueting – LeSports raised 80 billion yuan in its Series B funding round, with 19 celebrity shareholders and a valuation of up to 220 billion yuan!
There was no way around it; Jia Yueting's boasts were too grand, and his early business was indeed very successful—he spent huge sums of money to purchase a large number of sports broadcasting rights, covering the vast majority of sports, and successively purchased the rights to the top five European football leagues, the Chinese Super League, and the NBA in Hong Kong and Macau, giving him a very advantageous position in the industry.

Even Tencent Sports and PPTV cannot compete with the sports event resources possessed by LeTV Sports.

Besides a host of celebrities, the company's shareholders include seven institutions and individuals such as Wanda Group, Yunfeng Capital, Oriental Fortune Capital, and BJ Pusi Capital.
Two of China's richest men endorsed it!

Ma Yun is the controlling shareholder of Yunfeng Capital.

Holding high the slogan "LeShi Sports, enabling everyone to better participate in sports," they boldly proclaim their ambition to build a full-industry chain sports company integrating "IP operation content platform + intelligent technology + internet services."

The company raised 80 billion yuan in its Series B funding round, led by HNA Capital, with investors including more than 20 institutions…

This naturally attracted a bunch of celebrity investors…

Valued at 220 billion!
Compared to that, Shen Yan's money is indeed insignificant...

But within the industry... especially since Shen Yan is a self-made man.

In just five years, they've built such a large business!

Really awesome!
Of course, compared to Huayi Brothers' acquisition of Feng Xiaogang's Dongyang Meila for 10.5 billion yuan and Dongyang Haohan for 8.75 million yuan...

The difference between the two is also apparent...

Shen Yan has always focused on developing the industry chain, while Huayi Brothers relies more on famous directors and celebrities…

It's not clear who's right and who's wrong yet...

However, WeChat's Yupiaoer, Taopiaopiao, and Baidu Nuomi, which see Maoyan as a formidable rival, are feeling the pressure…

First of all, in terms of production capabilities, the top-tier studio in the industry is Xinghuo Studio. Shen Yan's collaboration with Maoyan means a binding agreement, which will have a significant impact on all three of them.

Even though Baidu invested in Stellar Cinemas, it still had to connect to the Maoyan system—it couldn't very well prevent Shen Yan's movie from being released, could it?

Secondly, as a filmmaker who works across China and the United States, Shen Yan allows Maoyan to easily connect with North American films…

At that time, we'll bring Hollywood to the mainland...

Finally, and most importantly, which of the BAT companies does Shen Yan actually favor?

They're going to re-evaluate Maoyan...

A simple ticketing platform is not scary; what is scary is if it actually transforms into a media group that spans the entire industry chain!
Oh, after the acquisition, Shen Yan just posted a few words of reflection on Weibo, and then... disappeared...

Explanation to the outside world: I went to the United States to investigate new projects.

In fact... he went on leave!

And instead of going to the United States, they went to Greece…

Rumor has it that Greece has many beautiful women…

Okay, he was just enjoying the view, so Shishi stayed with him.

(End of this chapter)