America: My Time

Chapter 73 Calculation
Chapter Seventy-Three: Schemes

The royalty fee announcement immediately met with opposition from Atari and a host of other game companies. Unfortunately, they couldn't stop the game world's decision. If you didn't join and weren't willing to pay the protection fee, someone else would. Those game companies already on the verge of bankruptcy had to join, no matter how unwilling they were, just to survive. Joining offered a glimmer of hope, while not joining meant no hope at all. They understood the choice.

The emergence of royalties has once again boosted the valuation of Game World. Its appearance has also given hope to Japanese game developers. Previously, the patent barriers of Game World had severely impacted Japanese R&D companies, especially Nintendo, whose investment in developing a home game console was completely wiped out, resulting in huge losses. Now that Game World has opened up its platform, it excites them.

Although they had to pay protection money to the game world, the profits from game cartridges were huge, and soon Japanese game companies began developing games for the game world's home console platforms and expressed their willingness to join the game world's platform.

During this time, John had been avoiding the media and was unwilling to be in the spotlight too much. However, with the release of the game's royalties, John had no choice but to face the media again and give everyone an explanation.

"Mr. John, the royalty system in the game world violates fair trade. How do you explain that?!"

"Explanation? The game world doesn't need explanation. Every platform needs to charge fees, and the game world is no exception. This is the most normal transaction, and there's nothing to explain. I know some people keep saying things like 'open platform, free for all companies to use.' You actually believe such stupid things? You're journalists, educated intellectuals. Don't you know developing a game platform costs money? The game world has invested a huge amount of money to develop the current game platform. How could we possibly let other companies use it for free? So use your brains and think about this carefully. Don't ask such stupid questions again in the future. You only get what you put in. If you don't want to put in anything, how can you expect a return?"

"Mr. John, in today's gaming market, GameWorld has become a monopoly, dominating the market. What are your thoughts on this?"

"Monopoly? We're just a new company, a company that's less than six months old. How can you call us a monopoly? Let's not even talk about how many game companies there are in the world, there are many in the US alone. But why are they so powerless against the gaming world? It's because they're too lazy and unwilling to update. That's irresponsible to consumers. My view is simple: they need to invest more money and develop new game platforms. It's that simple. The gaming world is looking forward to new companies joining this competition!"

John's words might fool reporters and the public, but many game companies know it's impossible. Investing money in researching new game platforms and figuring out how to bypass the patents of the gaming world is a huge problem. Controllers are one of the biggest issues, not to mention the many more patent barriers in game consoles. By the time they manage to bypass these patents, the gaming world will have already developed a new game console platform, and their investments will be wasted!
"Heh, this kid is indeed cunning. Warner's plan has completely failed. But it's for the best. If Warner continues to cause trouble like this, it won't benefit anyone. Warner simply doesn't have the ability to manage a company like Atari. Not only Atari, but DC Comics is also going downhill under Steve Ross's leadership. Steve Ross is an ambitious but incompetent person. He doesn't have enough ability himself, but he still wants to learn from other companies and diversify. Even without the emergence of the game world, Atari wouldn't have lasted long. Atari's financial problems have always been bad."

It would be easy for Morgan to understand Atari's situation. Atari's failure in the gaming platform competition would naturally give it a chance to turn things around. However, the key issue was Atari's internal management problems, which was also the reason why many Wall Street bigwigs were not optimistic about Warner.

"Boss, there's something I don't understand. Why is John so confident that he could agree to a $40 billion acquisition so readily? How could he agree to such a huge sum so easily?" "You mean why, when there was a possibility of negotiating the acquisition price down, he didn't do anything and just agreed without doing anything else?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I'm wondering about. This is a huge sum of money; even if we negotiate a little lower, it would still be tens of millions. But he seems completely unconcerned, which I find hard to understand!"

"What you see is money, dollars, tens of millions of dollars. This kid sees time, opportunity. For him, time and opportunity are the most important; money comes last. $40 billion isn't a big problem for him. If he wants, those crazy banks in Japan will give him enough funds without hesitation. Legendary Entertainment isn't the Legendary Entertainment of the past! Toys are selling like hotcakes, records are selling like hotcakes, books are selling like hotcakes. Almost the entire Legendary Entertainment is making money. The only thing not making money is Legendary Pictures. Do you think Legendary Toys will only have Transformers? If there are one or two more big-selling toys, do you think $40 billion in debt is a lot?"

"Boss, you mean John is going to use leverage to buy out Universal and NBC? That's insane!"

"You think this is crazy, but in this kid's eyes, it's the best choice, the most suitable choice. He's the epitome of youthful fearlessness! He has confidence in himself, confidence in Legendary Entertainment, and confidence in managing these two companies to repay the loans! Right now, this kid is like a greedy snake, constantly expanding to complete his media empire. Universal can't say for sure whether it will eventually go public, but it won't be long before Legendary Entertainment fully controls NBC and expands its viewership, causing NBC's market value to skyrocket, leading to another IPO! Public television networks can't be privately owned. At that time, we can earn another IPO fee—that's the best outcome. We don't need to think too negatively, do you understand?"

Do you understand? This Morgan manager, Jimmy, didn't understand. Things weren't as rosy as his boss made them out to be. Even if they purged the top executives of the two major companies, chaos would still ensue, and further development would be difficult in the short term. In his view, leveraged buyouts were too crazy! Unfortunately, he didn't have time to say any of this before he was ousted to accelerate his control over Universal and NBC television networks, contact various parties, and make final preparations. He didn't need to think about anything else!
This acquisition was naturally risky. What acquisition is risk-free? As long as you want to do something, there will always be risks. But is it necessary for Morgan to care about these risks? Absolutely not, not at all. Morgan is just an intermediary. All they need to do is fulfill Legendary Entertainment's commission. Success or failure has nothing to do with them.

In Morgan's eyes, Legendary Entertainment has a high chance of success, mainly due to John's undefeated record. All his investments have been successful, and success naturally inspires confidence, even if he is a little young. Wall Street giants never care about your age, only your achievements.

Morgan understood John's formidable nature, but since John currently clashed with Morgan, Morgan naturally wouldn't intervene. Not only Morgan knew this, but the entire Wall Street community understood that John was a powerful and formidable figure, yet few were willing to suppress him. This wasn't just because of John's status, but also because they were unwilling to offend a junior with whom they had no conflict, fearing future retaliation from John. Of course, this wasn't absolute; the HSBC affair had deeper implications, involving certain individuals.

For most Wall Street giants, as long as John doesn't interfere with Wall Street's interests, it's not a big deal, at least not for them. Right now is precisely when the conglomerates are at their weakest, and many people don't have the energy to target an 'entrepreneur' like John who focuses on real industries!
In the eyes of Wall Street giants, John was a true entrepreneur who had always been working hard to develop real businesses, even if those businesses leaned towards media and high technology. As financial giants, they would not make enemies of an entrepreneur, especially one with unlimited potential.

Even if John fails once or twice, it won't diminish their regard for him. They approach a prodigy with extreme caution; none of them want to bring trouble to their families. John is only eighteen now, and ten or even twenty years from now will be his prime. What will they be like ten or twenty years from now?
John's decision not to locate manufacturing in the United States was not a big deal to Wall Street giants. On the contrary, if John had located manufacturing in the United States, they would have to carefully consider the market value of the game world!
"Heh, with Universal Pictures and NBC, the media conglomerate is almost fully formed. Will you acquire a major newspaper company next?" As a Morgan tycoon, he was also considering John's next expansion strategy!
(End of this chapter)