Restart life

Chapter 542 0530 [Buying Yao Ming's Company]

As Byte Music continues to sign contracts with record companies, almost all major music platforms in China have become aware of it.

Besides Tencent, there are also Sina, Baidu, Kuwo, Kugou, Duomi, Jujing, Migu...

Among music platforms that are somewhat legitimate, only Tencent, Xiami, and Kugou Music are doing so properly. If it weren't for Chen Guiliang's financial backing, Xiami Music wouldn't have even attempted to legalize its content.

Although Baidu and Sina also have a few legitimate products, these are the result of joint lawsuits by record companies.

Faced with Byte Music's big move, its competitors were all baffled.

What's wrong with Old Master Chen again?

Only Xie Guoming, who had just left Sina, listened in disbelief to the news relayed by his former subordinates regarding Ocean Music's business license.

He resigned from his position as vice president of Sina because he wanted to take a gamble and go all out by hoarding music copyrights.

As a result, just as he got the company license, Chen Guiliang snatched it away!
Just as Xie Guoming was in a daze, it was revealed that Kugou Music, the only fully licensed music platform in China, had terminated its cooperation with Google.

Giant Whale dares to produce all-legal music because it relies on Google's strong backing and has non-exclusive licenses from nearly a hundred record companies at home and abroad.

The Series A investors were basketball superstar Yao Ming and his agent.

Google was a Series B investor.

Last year, Giant Whale Music also acquired Yiting Music for $1000 million ($500 million in cash + $500 million in stock).

Seeking an IPO!

Faced with a failed IPO and huge losses this year, Google has stopped cooperating with whales.

……

Yao Ming officially announced his retirement last year due to injuries, and devoted all his energy to the political and business fields.

His club was doing well, but most of his other investments ended in failure.

"How much do you think Mr. Chen can afford?" asked Zhang Mingji, Yao Ming's agent and a shareholder of Giant Whale Music.

Yao Ming laughed and said, "I'm very satisfied as long as he can take on the debt."

Zhang Mingji sighed, "Ah, yes."

Chen Ge, the founder of Giant Whale Music, remained silent and sat there drinking tea.

Chen Ge graduated from Peking University in 1988 and studied finance in the United States. In 1998, he invested in a music company, whose artists include Cui Jian, Luo Dayou, Qi Qin, and Lin Zhixuan.

During the peak of online music piracy, he resolutely decided to create a legitimate music platform and even brought in Yao Ming and his agent to invest $300 million. Through Li Kaifu's connections, he also secured a long-term partnership with Google.

Now, it's all over.

After several years of struggling, Chen Ge only learned one lesson: making legitimate online music in China is doomed to fail!

“He’s here,” Zhang Mingji said.

Yao Ming and Chen Ge immediately stood up to greet them.

"Hello, Mr. Chen."

"Haha, hello to the three of you."

Instead of discussing business upon meeting, Chen Guiliang pulled out a jersey and said, "Yao Ming, I'm a fan of yours, could you please sign this for me?"

He is a true fan of Yao Ming.

Yao Ming smiled as he took the pen and jersey, quickly signing his name.

After exchanging a few pleasantries with Zhang Mingji, Chen Guiliang warmly shook hands with Chen Ge: "Hello, Senior Brother Chen. I've long admired your name. We are both alumni of Peking University."

"I'm ashamed," Chen Ge said with an awkward laugh, "After decades of struggling, I've accomplished nothing in the end."

Chen Guiliang said, "One or two failures don't matter. There are plenty of opportunities to make a comeback. I've already sent someone to contact Google. The reason I'm treating you all to dinner is to make friends with you three."

If it were just about an acquisition, Chen Guiliang really wouldn't need to show up in person.

ByteDance had talked to Google, but Google wouldn't disclose any information to him? Chen Ge immediately realized that he had been completely abandoned by Google, and could only ask, "What price can Mr. Chen offer?"

Chen Guiliang said, "We are acquiring 100% of Giant Whale's shares for $80 and assuming Giant Whale's debt of more than $300 million. Your funds are almost exhausted, so I think this price is very reasonable."

Chen Ge still wanted to argue: "We have a massive user base."

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "Google terminated the cooperation, and your music copyrights are also expiring one after another. What's the use of having a lot of users? If I hadn't been interested in Giant Whale's user data, why would I have spent money to buy it?"

Yao Ming was getting anxious and secretly winked at Chen Ge.

The debts borne by the whale mainly consist of unpaid copyright fees owed to dozens of record companies.

Yao Ming has already admitted that the investment failed and now just wants to get out as quickly as possible. He's even willing to give up a single penny, just to avoid being chased for debt by the record company and ruining his reputation.

Chen Ge remained silent.

Chen Guiliang said, "The three of you can also choose not to sell, and pretend this never happened. We can still be friends."

“We’ll sell!” Zhang Mingji said quickly.

Chen Ge finally gave up struggling and instead asked, "I heard that Mr. Chen is buying up music copyrights on a large scale. Do you think there's potential in producing legitimate online music in mainland China?"

Chen Guiliang said, "It's definitely not going to happen in one or two years, but the time might be right in three to five years. I'm not investing in the present, but in the future of Chinese music. Once I've signed enough copyrights, I will do my best to push for tighter regulatory policies."

“It’s tough,” Chen Ge sighed. “When I founded Giant Whale six years ago, I thought that regulation would definitely be strengthened in the next three to five years. Now, six years have passed, and we’ve only heard a few thunderclaps, but haven’t seen any raindrops fall.”

Chen Guiliang laughed, "I've always been very lucky." Chen Ge spoke with a touch of grandiosity; before Google withdrew from China, he was riding high. Back then, his annual advertising revenue was close to 100 million yuan.

Because it was so profitable, he twice refused venture capital investment, believing that Yao Ming's Series A funding alone was enough to go public.

As a result, the company failed to go public due to the economic crisis, and then Google withdrew from China.

Last year, he took a gamble, using the company's remaining cash, plus a stock swap, to acquire AlistMusic. By telling a story of a "merger of equals," he secured Series B funding from Google and, with Google's help, sought an IPO.

A failed IPO means the end of everything.

Because they couldn't cash out their stock options, almost all of the company's senior executives have left.

Chen Guiliang asked, "After ByteDance acquires Giant Whale, would you be willing to join ByteDance? I can give you stock options."

Chen Ge laughed and said, "You actually think highly of a loser like me, Mr. Chen?"

Chen Guiliang said, "I'm sorry, I'm not asking you to be the CEO of ByteDance Music, but to be in charge of music copyright. You have long-term cooperation with domestic and foreign record companies, especially with the three major global record companies. I want to negotiate with the three major record companies through you."

Chen Ge exclaimed in shock, "You're going all in? You want to sign an exclusive license with the three major record labels?"

Chen Guiliang shook his head: "It's mainly the Chinese music library under the three major giants. As for the massive amount of foreign language songs, I only sign a portion of them."

"That's terrifying! Signing an exclusive contract would probably cost hundreds of millions!" Chen Ge thought Chen Guiliang was crazy.

Chen Guiliang laughed and said, "It's not that expensive. Signing all three would cost at most one or two hundred million. Besides me, what fool would buy all their copyrights as a package deal?"

Chen Ge said, "Even with a guaranteed minimum investment of one or two hundred million yuan per year, it's impossible to break even."

Chen Guiliang asked, "So, do you want to go crazy with me? I'll give you stock options, and you'll be in charge of overseas copyright acquisitions. If it works out, Byte Music's stock options will be very valuable."

Chen Gezai scrutinized Chen Guiliang closely, seemingly trying to determine if Chen Guiliang had truly gone mad.

Yao Ming and Zhang Mingji were secretly astonished. This wasn't just a matter of one or two hundred million, but a matter of one or two hundred million every year. And that one or two hundred million was only for the three major international record companies; the rest also had to be paid to other record companies.

Finally, Chen Ge smiled with relief: "It seems like I won't lose anything. I agree to join ByteDance Music."

The acquisition of Krypton Music must be swift, because with Google ending the partnership, the loss of users will be very rapid.

Chen Guiliang was eyeing those users; if he waited too long, there would be no need to acquire them.

Chen Guiliang said, "Go back and keep the employees who haven't left engaged. Don't slack off on updates and maintenance. You can let users know about ByteDance's acquisition. You must keep them here!"

This is also why Chen Ge was hired by ByteDance Music—to prevent users from leaving during the acquisition process.

"Understood." Chen Ge nodded.

After finishing their business, Chen Guiliang asked Yao Ming, "Yao, how about coming to visit my company? Many of the employees are your fans."

"Okay." Yao Ming was in a good mood, finally managing to clean up the mess that was Giant Whale Music.

After they had lunch, Chen Ge and Zhang Mingji went back to work.

Yao Ming then followed Chen Guiliang to ByteDance and Youke for a stroll and a visit.

"Guo Feng, Xie Yang, Ao Yanchen... they're all out here to greet customers!" Chen Guiliang shouted at the top of his lungs, acting nothing like a boss.

"Holy crap, Yao Ming!"

"Yao Ming, could you please sign this for me?"

"Yao Ming, I'd like to take a picture with you!"

"..."

Before the executives even showed up, the other employees had already recognized Yao Ming.

He's over 2 meters tall, there's no way you wouldn't recognize him.

Everyone forgot about their work and flocked over to join in the fun.

Signing autographs wasn't the main thing; it was taking photos together.

Many of the employees were not even as tall as Yao Ming's chest, and they all burst into laughter when taking a group photo.

"Holy shit, holy shit!!!"

Xie Yang was stunned when he saw Yao Ming. He also liked playing basketball and especially admired Yao Ming and Kobe when he was in high school.

Xie Yang ran up to Chen Guiliang and asked, "Why did you bring Yao Ming here?"

Chen Guiliang stood tall and proud: "How about that? Aren't I awesome?"

"Amazing!" Xie Yang was completely convinced.

Ao Yanchen squeezed next to Yao Ming, and during the photo session, he deliberately jumped around and even bent down to pat Yao Ming's knee. Then, he proudly announced, "I jumped up and hit Yao Ming's knee!"

"Hahahaha!"

This remark drew laughter from the entire audience; it turns out even Butler Ao can make jokes.

Chen Guiliang then took Yao Ming to You Ke's place, and the same thing happened again.

That evening, executives from both companies dined with Yao Ming, and all of them brought jerseys or basketballs for him to sign.

After the banquet, Xie Yang, wearing an autographed jersey and holding an autographed basketball, picked his teeth with a smug look and said, "Master Chen, you finally did something decent today. I originally wanted to usurp the throne, but because of what happened today, I'll reluctantly work for you for a few more years."

Chen Guiliang suddenly realized: "I knew that the transit of Venus meant a rebellion by a subject, but I never expected it to be you, you thick-browed, big-eyed fellow!"

(End of this chapter)