Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 430 Five-Surname Slave - Blizzard
"Bang!" Cheng Yi slammed his hand on the table, almost jumping up.

The four founders of Blizzard have finally left!

Blizzard Entertainment, which is now praised and admired by many, was actually in a very awkward position at that time.

Blizzard's predecessor was Silicon & Neural Synapses Studios, which mainly developed small games.

They later shifted their focus to computer games, were acquired by software distributor DA for $675 million, and subsequently changed their name to "Blizzard Entertainment," releasing Warcraft: Orcs and beginning to make a name for themselves in the gaming industry.

After the release of Diablo II, the well-known game company Square Enix recognized Blizzard's potential and acquired both Blizzard and DA.

Another year later, the business travel company CUC once again acquired SE, DA, and Blizzard as a package deal.

Later, the French media group Havas acquired CUC, marking the fourth time Blizzard has changed hands.

In 1999, the French giant Vivendi acquired Havas along with Blizzard Entertainment.

In less than a decade, Blizzard changed hands five times, but each time its value soared, making it a dominant force in the computer game industry.

You could say Blizzard is the European and American equivalent of Lu Bu (a legendary general in Chinese mythology).

Blizzard's several changes of ownership were essentially just a game played by various capital groups, and the new owner, Vivendi, encountered the same problems that NetArt had faced at the end of 2002.

Suspected of falsifying accounts.

In the capital market, this is absolutely a fatal problem.

It directly evaporated 90% of its market value.

Just when Vivendi was at its lowest point, Blizzard executives began flirting with EA. They first negotiated a price with EA, and then used that price to confront Vivendi, trying to get a higher share of the profits.

At the time, Vivendi was already facing a financial crisis. Now, Blizzard executives suddenly demanded a higher share of the profits, which Vivendi was definitely not going to agree to. Subsequently, the shocking departure of the four Blizzard executives occurred, which stunned the global gaming industry.

These four people thought that by threatening Vivendi with their resignation when he was at his weakest, they could force him to comply. Unfortunately, they overlooked a very important issue.

Vivendi can't even pay its current executives' salaries, so how could it possibly agree to their demands?

So, just like Wang Duoyu in "Hello Mr. Billionaire," they were bound by a promise, and double happiness came their way.

After that, Vivendi launched a massive purge within Blizzard, dismissing all employees who had even the slightest connection with the four founders.

The four Blizzard executives probably never dreamed that Vivendi would be so ruthless.

They also overlooked the importance of the platform, mistaking the platform's capabilities for their own.

After the departure of Blizzard's four founders and veteran employees, Blizzard's business took off rapidly, transforming from a geek spirit to a craftsman spirit, thus ushering in the era of "Blizzard products are always top-notch".

For Cheng Yi, who has gained a god-like perspective, the owner of Vivendi is truly wise.

However, judging from the current situation, Vivendi's owner was simply driven mad by a surge of anger and violence.

He genuinely intended to disband Blizzard and carry out this massive purge, which also eliminated Blizzard's cronyism and gave many honest technical staff a voice.

"They finally left! I've been waiting forever!" Cheng Yi suppressed his excitement.

The reason why Momo Group only has one game is to wait for the departure of the four Blizzard executives.

This is the perfect time to acquire Blizzard. With Enze Capital's pure London roots, the acquisition is almost guaranteed to succeed as long as the offer is reasonable.

Once Momo acquires Blizzard, it will no longer have to worry about game issues.

It's important to know that until 2013, Apple's operating system was completely dominated by games, which forced Apple to focus its sales efforts on business users.

He quickly opened the report and read through its contents word by word.

Although Vivendi's market value has shrunk by 90%, it is still a giant in the market.

Vivendi still has a market value of $120 billion. Although their main business is media, they still own top game companies such as Blizzard and Ubisoft.

This is the foundation of a business giant.

Acquiring Vivendi is impossible because Vivendi has more than $240 billion in debt. Even if Vivendi were willing to sell the company for a dollar, no one would dare to take it on.

Without having a god-like perspective, Vivendi is already in a hopeless situation. For a normal company, a debt ratio of 90% is basically a death sentence.

Vivendi's debt is more than twice its market capitalization.

It can only be said that Vivendi was exceptionally lucky. The unexpected popularity of World of Warcraft pulled Vivendi out of the brink of collapse. After surviving the ordeal, Vivendi disbanded its media business and devoted itself to Vivendi Games.

Of course, that's all hindsight; the immediate outcome is that Vivendi is doomed.

If they want to acquire Blizzard but don't want to acquire Vivendi, they'll need to make some careful preparations.

To take over Blizzard, Vivendi needs to be convinced that the gaming industry cannot save them.

Now, a 3D game similar to World of Warcraft, EverQuest, has just been released. The dismal performance of this game can serve as a negative example, showing Vivendi's top management that the game industry is a dead end.

Vivendi's gaming and IT businesses could be sold off to recoup a significant portion of its losses.

Vivendi's stake in Ubisoft alone is enough to fetch over a billion US dollars.

Cheng Yi thought for a while and quickly typed his thoughts into the email in English.

[Vivendi is currently desperate to sell assets to save itself. First, help Vivendi find a suitable buyer; General Electric is negotiable. Second, convince Vivendi that computer games have no future. This requires citing the ratio of legitimate to pirated single-player games in recent years, and using the online game *EverQuest* as a model to discourage Vivendi from investing in online games. Third, Vivendi is currently facing financial problems, and there is widespread anxiety within Blizzard. If Vivendi doesn't comply, privately contact Blizzard employees and offer 1-5 times their current salaries to poach all of them.]

After clicking send, Cheng Yi sent another message to his older brother, Cheng Jian.

It's about 2 p.m. London time now, which is the perfect time to schedule work.

After that, all we can do is try our best and leave the rest to fate.

Poaching Blizzard employees is a poor strategy, especially since World of Warcraft is already in its mid-stages of development.

However, if poaching Blizzard employees causes World of Warcraft to be delayed, this could be a decent temporary solution.

If World of Warcraft had been released a few years later, its global influence and other aspects would have been greatly diminished.

At that moment, Zoll Mike, president of Enze Capital, who had just turned on his computer, also received Cheng Yi's letter immediately.

He looked at it carefully and couldn't help but exclaim, "Oh my God, my boss's business acumen is truly amazing!"

He copied and saved Cheng Yi's email, then stood up and called out, "Contact Vivendi's vice president for me; I need to meet with him." Although Enze Capital's account only held a few billion yuan, Enze Capital had always claimed to have 30 billion yuan in available funds.

This is how capital leverages its power.

Companies like Enze Capital rely on connections and making money out of thin air.

They always prioritize projects over funding.

If your project is good enough, they can use it to make even more money.

Therefore, investment firms like Enze Capital are highly sought after in the global market.

Vivendi is now in dire straits, and they see all capital companies as their saviors.

Mike called on Stephen Tony, the big boss's spokesperson, and together they drove to Vivendi's headquarters.

Mike still held Vice President Tony in high regard.

This guy changed his impression of Koreans.

That's really awful.

He suspects this is a side effect of eating kimchi since childhood.

After a year of working together, Mike felt that his anti-fraud skills had improved by several levels.

He was alright, after all, he was Tony's colleague, but the people from other companies in this building were really unlucky.

Almost everyone has been taken advantage of by Tony, and even this Korean guy doesn't spare Koreans.

However, Tony also possesses an advantage that most people don't have: negotiation skills. Tony is fluent in multiple languages ​​and is eloquent; he can talk to someone for an hour without getting tired.

Even Mike suspected that Tony's major was not economics, but diplomatic translation.

The distance from London to Paris is about the same as the distance from Lanling City to Jingzhou City.

They drove for more than two hours and arrived at Vivendi's headquarters.

At the headquarters entrance, a white man in a suit was waiting for them.

Upon seeing Mike and Tony, the white man immediately strode over to them, smiling and saying, "Welcome, my friends."

“Oh, my friend, God bless you.” Tony went up and hugged the white man.

The white man is Simon, the vice president of Vivendi's headquarters.

Normally, Simon might not have personally received Mike and his group, but things were different now; they were a fallen phoenix, worse off than a chicken.

Tony smiled and said, "Mr. Simon, we heard that you have some financial problems, so we came here today to talk to you about investment and financing."

Simon said, "If Enze Capital can help us solve our current problems, we are willing to agree to any conditions."

Tony said, "You have a shortfall of $131 billion right now, and that's not something you can easily fill. To solve it, you'll have to sell some of your assets."

“That’s no problem,” Simon said immediately. “Our group just had a meeting and approved a plan. We intend to sell a portion of our media assets to raise funds. I will give you the list of assets later. If you help us find buyers, we are willing to contribute a portion of the money as a fee.”

"Please come in."

As Simon spoke, he led Mike and Tony into a small conference room.

There was only one U-shaped table in the meeting room, which was perfect for negotiations.

Shortly after, several secretaries came in and respectfully handed some documents to Mike and Tony.

These are some of the properties Vivendi has selected for sale.

Tony didn't look at the documents; he just looked at Mike.

When it comes to investment and industry, Mike is the real expert.

Mike read through the information carefully, then frowned and said, "Mr. Simon, the industries you've listed are all sunset industries; they won't fetch a good price."

Simon said, "These industries are businesses that our group has streamlined. Although they are sunset industries, they are still profitable."

“No, no, no, that’s not enough to save you.” Mike shook his head repeatedly and said, “You should sell some emerging industries, like the IT industry.”

Simon said, "The IT industry is the hottest sector, and we cannot sell it."

“If you don’t want to sell your IT business, you could consider selling your gaming business as a package deal,” Tony said.

"The gaming industry?" Simon frowned slightly.

Simon is not optimistic about the gaming industry, as both Blizzard and Ubisoft have very poor revenue-generating capabilities.

The piracy of computer games is so severe that the combined revenue of the entire gaming industry is less than one hundred million US dollars.

With Vivendi's $240 billion debt, it would take more than 200 years to pay it off through gaming.

Tony continued, "Ubisoft is currently valued at $37 billion. Your Ubisoft shares should be worth $10 billion. Blizzard is currently valued at $11 billion, but your Blizzard shares have just gone through a major upheaval, so they might not fetch a good price. We estimate they should sell for around $8 million. Add to that your game studios, and all things considered, $40 billion should be no problem."

When Mike heard Tony spouting nonsense, he felt he didn't need to say anything anymore.

This big boss's confidant is about to start deceiving people again.

“40 billion US dollars?” Simon exclaimed. “How is that possible? We had an appraisal agency assess it, and our gaming industry is worth at most 27 billion US dollars.”

"How much we can sell it for in the capital market is up to us," Tony said with a confident air. "Although the gaming industry is currently experiencing a severe bubble, there are still quite a few foolish and wealthy investors who want to get involved."

"Your Ubisoft's EverQuest, the game you distribute, must have very low online play and revenue, right?" Tony suddenly asked.

A hint of embarrassment appeared on Simon's face, and he nodded.

Their game, EverQuest, was released in January, but the response was very poor. EverQuest has complex gameplay, many classes, and the need to find your corpse after death, which directly deterred many players.

Tony said, "I heard you're developing a game called World of Warcraft. I can tell you with absolute certainty that EverQuest will end up like your game. That's why I suggested you package and sell your game business as soon as possible. If you think we're just talking nonsense, then fine, we'll help you sell Blizzard first and show you our ability to raise funds."

“8 million US dollars, I’ll find you a buyer within a week,” Tony said. “After we help you sell Blizzard, we’ll discuss the Ubisoft stake in more detail.”

(End of this chapter)