Who would still start a business seriously after being reborn?

Chapter 431 This is esports!

During this period, Simon and his team approached many investment institutions to discuss the sale of their assets, but these institutions either lacked confidence or took the opportunity to lower the price. An honest investor like Enze Capital was truly a good choice.

As expected of a long-established financial group in London.

No wonder they almost went bankrupt a year ago; they're just too conscientious.

In white papers on residents of various regions of Europe, Londoners are renowned throughout Europe for their polite and friendly attitude and their spirit of mutual assistance in times of emergency.

Now, Simon is experiencing this spirit of mutual assistance firsthand.

According to the prices offered by other investors, Blizzard's highest selling price was $5.4 million, while Ubisoft's selling price was only $13 billion.

The selling price of Blizzard did not surprise them. After all, they only spent $3.6 million when they bought Blizzard. Moreover, although Blizzard's games over the years have been very famous, they have always been limited to single-player games, which are a weak point in revenue.

However, Ubisoft's price has been severely suppressed. Ubisoft's market value is now close to 10 billion US dollars, and Vivendi owns 27% of Ubisoft's shares. No matter how you value it, the price should not be lower than 2 billion US dollars.

If you also include all the various game industry shares they hold, it's already outrageous that they could sell it for a total of 30 billion US dollars.

This $30 billion can definitely solve their immediate crisis. At the very least, they'll get the interest on their $240 billion debt, and it will give them a few more years to recover.

Simon considered for a moment and said, "Okay, I'll report it to the board first. If it's approved, I'll let you know as soon as possible."

"Alright, since we've reached an agreement, let's go back and wait for news." Tony stood up and smiled, "By the way, we'll still charge 0.3%, is that alright?"

“Of course, no problem,” Simon laughed. “You guys are really fair about service fees.”

“We at Enze Capital have always valued our reputation.” Tony and Simon shook hands.

At this point, Simon also realized that Tony's status was somewhat high.

After all, Tony, as the vice president, had complete control over the negotiations, while Mike, as the president, never interrupted.

Simon shook hands with Mike again and said with a smile, "Mr. Mike, I'm counting on you."

“Hmm.” Mike’s expression was a little unnatural. Tony’s price was too high; the entire European market couldn’t offer that price.

After declining Simon's invitation to dinner, Mike and Tony left Paris by car.

As soon as they left Paris, Mike couldn't help but say, "Mr. Tony, your offer is too high. I've asked around in the industry, and the highest offer from investors across Europe for Blizzard right now is only $5.4 million. $6 million is enough for us to win them over."

Tony laughed and said, "The $8 million is the big boss's idea. The big boss guessed that Microsoft would be the last to enter the game, so he asked us to come up with a price that would make Microsoft hesitate."

“Microsoft?” Mike was taken aback.

Microsoft does want to acquire Blizzard, but what Microsoft wants is the complete Blizzard, not the Blizzard where all the veterans have left.

What does Blizzard have now? Only a newly formed team, some popular but unprofitable single-player games, and a still-developing, uncertain online game.

In Mike's view, Microsoft is unlikely to pay for such uncertainty.

However, since it was the big boss's idea, Mike didn't dare to say anything more. He then asked, "Was the offer for Ubisoft shares also made by the big boss? This price is outrageous."

“Oh, that’s my offer,” Tony said casually.

"What? Your offer? My God, you must be crazy." Mike's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets.

He glanced at Tony and said, "Where are you going to find investors with such a high price?"

"Find investors? What kind of investors?" Tony looked at Mike with a puzzled expression.

Mike said, "Of course, it's about finding investors for Vivendi's gaming business."

“We’re only acquiring Blizzard, aren’t we? Why are you involved in other businesses?” Tony asked again.

Looking at Tony's composed expression, Mike's lips twitched, and he said in a trembling voice, "You mean, you're not going to help them find investors?"

“We’re lucky if we can help them sell Blizzard; we don’t have time to find investors for them,” Tony said. “$8 million is enough for them to pay the loan interest for the next two years.”

"Besides, who says you have to keep your promises?" Tony said shamelessly. "We tried our best, but we just couldn't do it. They can feel our sincerity."

"..." Mike fell silent.

This is indeed the style of this Vice President Tony. He has witnessed it many times in the past year, but every time he chooses to believe it. He is fooled every month, but every time it is different.

If Tony hadn't always been accompanied by two highly skilled, armed bodyguards, he probably would have been beaten to a pulp long ago.

On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year, Cheng Yi received a message from Cheng Jian.

All done!

Just those two short words were enough to get Cheng Yi's blood pumping.

What is finding a bargain? This is what finding a bargain is all about!

2003 was arguably the year Blizzard's market value hit its lowest point.

In addition, Blizzard is the company most eager to be acquired in the world, so it became Cheng Yi's top target when he established Enze Capital.

If Blizzard weren't so spineless, with its global influence and status, it could easily have become one of the world's top internet companies.

Unfortunately, Blizzard loves to find adoptive fathers, just like Lu Bu's personality.

He possesses incredible skills, yet he has a fatherly dependence on others.

After Vivendi, Blizzard subsequently joined Activision and Microsoft.

DA Blizzard.

SE Blizzard.

CUC·Blizzard.

Hawass Blizzard.

Vivendi Blizzard.

Activision Blizzard.

Microsoft Blizzard.

And now, it's Enze Blizzard.

Mike and his team had already prepared a contingency plan for the funding to acquire Blizzard.

In 2002, Enze Capital received a total of US$5.55 million in dividends from Momo Group.

The company spent $8000 million investing in Musk and $1.2 million investing in emerging semiconductor and LED companies. Enze Capital currently has approximately $3.5 million in its accounts.

There is still a $4.5 million shortfall in the acquisition of Blizzard.

However, acquisition plans exceeding $3000 million are not paid in a lump sum. There are many forms of acquisition, with cash acquisition being just one of them.

Mike and his team plan to use a bond acquisition. Vivendi is currently mired in difficulties, and Enze Capital is their savior; therefore, Enze Capital has the initiative in implementing the acquisition plan.

An initial payment of US$3 million will be made, followed by the repayment of 80% of the monthly dividends from Enze Capital until the payment is completed.

This plan is sufficient to solve the funding problem.

Mike was perfectly capable of handling the specific implementation plan. In any case, without Cheng Yi's fingerprints, Mike wouldn't be able to take a single penny of the money in Enze Capital's Swiss bank account.

Once the first payment was made, Blizzard would be Cheng Yi Blizzard. Cheng Yi had no time to think about anything else; he just wanted Blizzard to generate revenue for Momo Group as soon as possible.

Cheng Yi logged into the VPN and sent a letter to Mike, asking Mike to send him all of Blizzard's data.

By the afternoon, a complete document about Blizzard arrived in Cheng Yi's email inbox.

The information is very detailed, including the number of Blizzard employees, the games they have developed, and the number of games they have released.

In 1994, the first game, Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, sold 24 copies and earned $2460150.

In 1995, Warcraft II sold 273 million copies and generated $37084825 in revenue.

In 1996, Diablo sold a total of 397 million copies, generating $49486179.8 in revenue.

In 1998, StarCraft sold 571 million copies, becoming the world's best-selling PC game, generating $69285142.9 in revenue.

In 2000, Diablo II sold a total of 241 million copies, generating $34144252 in revenue.

In 2002, Warcraft III sold a total of 312 million copies, generating $33944391.5 in revenue.

Total revenue was nearly $2.3 million, and after deducting employee expenses and game expenses, net profit was around $7000 million.

Hmm... I overpaid.

While the sales figures aren't very high, if you include pirated copies, the number is alarmingly high.

In particular, StarCraft saw an astonishing 20 million pirated copies in just China and South Korea.

Many people believe that Enze Capital made a huge mistake in this deal.

一家从1994年到2003年净利润只有7000万美金的游戏公司，市值不过只有6亿美金，竟然有冤大头愿意出价8亿美金收购。

Cheng Yi printed out these materials, spread them out on the table, and began to analyze the potential of these games.

If you want to make quick money, sue the pirates, especially the South Korean pirates. StarCraft is so popular in South Korea that it's practically a household name. With one lawsuit, getting tens of millions of US dollars shouldn't be a problem.

But that's just a small amount of money.

Aside from World of Warcraft, which is largely in development by Blizzard, there's still a lot of potential in Warcraft III and StarCraft.

Momo Internet Cafe has always used modified versions of Warcraft and Starcraft. Because Blizzard has never optimized the Momo system, there aren't many players playing these two games in Momo Internet Cafe.

The main problem is lag.

Even Sun Baxin's internet cafe uses the Windows system.

Now that Blizzard is owned by them, the first thing to address is optimizing these games for the Momo system.

"Once we've dealt with Shengda, it'll be Lao Ba's turn to take the stage." Cheng Yi looked at the documents in front of him and felt like they were piles of gold mines.

If the e-sports industry is developed well, it will be extremely beneficial to the development of internet cafes.

The history of Momo Internet Cafe's rise to prominence includes a significant element of e-sports.

Cheng Yi vaguely remembers that in 2017, the scale of China's e-sports industry exceeded 2000 billion yuan.

However, most of the revenue from esports comes from live streaming, and since the internet is not yet well-developed, the only alternative is the internet television station that Du Yusheng is promoting.

Five months later, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television relaxed its control over computer games. Although they still cannot be advertised on television, some games can now be shown on television programs.

[I did a lot of research for this chapter. To ensure authenticity, I dug out all the Popular Software magazines from 2003 from my bookshelf, haha.]

Hunan TV was the first to dare to take the plunge.

The collaboration between Hunan TV and Potianyijian back then brought online games from print media to television. From July 2003 to September 2004, major TV stations made a fortune during that year.

2003 was a pivotal year for the development of esports in China.

Cheng Yi planned to delve deeper into this industry, and his discovery of people like Sun Baxin was precisely the foundation he laid for 2003.

Warcraft and StarCraft are more competitive than Age of Empires and Red Alert, and are highly entertaining for television programs, making them a good alternative to the rigid chess and poker competitions currently broadcast on television.

After sorting out his thoughts, Cheng Yi took out his phone and dialed Sun Baxin's number.

It's been such a long time since I've contacted Sun Baxin...

The phone rang a few times before Sun Baxin's familiar voice came through: "Brother Yi? Is that Brother Yi?"

Sun Baxin's question made Cheng Yi a little embarrassed. He laughed and said, "Are you so surprised to answer my call?"

"I thought Brother Yi had forgotten about me." Sun Baxin's words were as straightforward as ever.

Cheng Yi quoted a line from a Stephen Chow movie: "How could that be? Even a pair of underwear or a piece of toilet paper has its use. Lao Ba, the group has an important task to assign to you now."

"Brother Yi, please speak." Although Sun Baxin spoke bluntly, he was very grateful to Cheng Yi.

He went from being a dropout who frequented internet cafes to becoming the owner of an internet cafe with 300 computers, something that ordinary people like him could never even dream of.

He spent his days playing games and drinking wine, living a life of unparalleled happiness.

“These next few months, you need to train your players diligently, focusing on Warcraft and StarCraft. By June at the latest, you need to provide me with a group of capable esports players, because there will be an international competition in June! You must win this battle,” Cheng Yi said. “The public is paying close attention to international competitions right now, especially those against the US, Japan, and South Korea. If you lose, you will be a sinner.”

Cheng Yi spoke much more harshly.

Sun Baxin's tone became much more serious as he said, "Okay, I understand."

"Yes, if you have any requests, just let the group know. For the next few months, your e-sports studio will be the highest priority in the group," Cheng Yi said.

"Okay, I will do my best." Sun Baxin was also excited when he heard that he would be competing in an international tournament.

Damn it, we can't compete with the Americans in military and economic terms, but can't we even beat them in games?
We have to take them down!

Cheng Yi hung up the phone, put away the documents on the table, and felt a sense of relief.

By having Blizzard host an international tournament, with Momo Group leading the team, and with CCTV promoting its e-sports section, coupled with broadcasts from CCTV and internet TV stations, and Blizzard inspiring a sense of honor among players from various countries, this championship journey can be transformed into a battle for glory between nations, which is enough to mobilize the enthusiasm of the entire population.

These days, the Chinese people don't care what field you're bringing glory to the country in, as long as you've achieved it.

What the Chinese national football team can't give us, we will give us; the honors the Chinese national football team can't win, we will win; sweeping across a hundred countries, unstoppable.

This is esports!

(End of this chapter)