Back to 1995

Chapter 1266
With the development of science and technology in the future, there may be more and more entertainment activities, but relatively inexpensive entertainment methods such as movies, TV dramas, video games, and novels are still the most commonly used entertainment activities by the general public.

As for high-end gadgets such as golf, yachts, equestrianism, space tourism, and deep-sea submarines, they do exist, but ordinary people in America who cash out their credit cards all the year round can’t be expected to spend tens of millions of dollars to toss those gadgets. After selling them, they couldn't even get those beautiful knives together.

Therefore, Hollywood will never disappear. There will naturally be a market if there is demand. When smart TVs, smartphones, and tablets become popular in the future, Internet video represented by Netflix and IMDb will skyrocket to [-] miles. It will definitely become an existence not inferior to Amazon, Google, Microsoft and other companies.

Now Song Yang, if you add fire to Netflix, no one knows what it will become in the future, but you can be sure that this deal will never lose money.

Before leaving, Song Yang explained to Hastings that Netflix would develop a mobile version of the Netflix player as soon as possible. For this reason, ICQ, Alcatel Mobile and other companies would provide technical support for Netflix.

Hastings has some doubts about the launch of the mobile version of the Netflix player. There are not many mobile phones that can support the player, and mobile phone traffic is ridiculously expensive. He does not know how many people will use the mobile version of Netflix to play. equipment, but it was Song Yang's account, and there was no room for Hastings to refuse to provide technology and funds.

When he walked out of the Western Films office building, Reed Hastings was in a completely different mood than he was before he came here. Now when he looked at the movie town in front of him, which was still a construction site, his mood was also completely different.

The haze that had shrouded Hastings's heart before has disappeared at this moment. He has experienced what it feels like to have a big money lord.

The resources of Western Films provide copyright and funds for Netflix, and companies such as ICQ and PayPal provide technical support for Netflix and help Netflix develop a new high-definition video playback system. In the past, Hastings had a headache, but now it is instant It was gone.

"Western Pictures and Netflix, America's largest disc rental company, have reached a cooperation agreement. IMDb, a subsidiary of Western Pictures, and Netflix have officially completed the merger. Reed Hastings, the former president of Netflix, will be the director of Netflix. Together with the co-president of IMDb, the world's largest online video website was born!"

The media reported the merger between Netflix and IMDb. For Hollywood at the moment, it is not a big news. nothing more.

Moreover, after Disney was acquired by Comcast Group, it was rumored that Comcast Group was going to help Disney acquire Lucasfilm and DreamWorks. It was rumored that this involved tens of billions No one cares about Netflix anymore. At this moment, Hollywood would never think that this deal will become a turning point in Hollywood history. After all, people in history will not feel it. Become a part of history yourself!

But Blockbuster, which regards Netflix as its deadly enemy, can't laugh anymore. It was originally suppressed by Netflix, and now that Netflix has turned to the big money owner, how can Blockbuster survive? !

After Netflix announced the merger, Blockbuster's stock price, which was already sluggish, plummeted all the way. President Antioko was criticized by thousands of people, and Wall Street wolf Carl Icahn, one of Blockbuster's board members, also jumped. Antioco came out disgusting, and the whole Blockbuster was in a state of chaos. It is estimated that some people would believe it when it announced that it would close its doors tomorrow.

And when Blockbuster was still flying around, Netflix, which had just completed the merger, released a satellite, announcing its third transformation, becoming a content provider for Hollywood, the first self-produced drama, It is necessary to invest [-] million U.S. dollars to film and produce "House of Cards" adapted from Dobbs' novel of the same name with several media such as IMDb, Netflix, and ICNC TV.

As soon as the news came out, it really shocked the entire Hollywood, followed by a burst of ridicule. Blockbuster, which was still jumping around, almost screamed out of laughter. They didn't know if Netflix was tired of working, or I want to show the outside world a 180-degree vertical landing, which is like a concrete floor, and the knife pulls the butt to open everyone's eyes...

Let’s not talk about whether it’s reliable to make a TV series with 8 million US dollars. At the current membership fee level of Netflix, it’s about 100 US dollars per month. If you want to pay back, Netflix needs to borrow "House of Cards "This drama has added more than [-] million annual paid membership users!

What kind of concept is this? It really has this level. A drama has added 100 million paid subscribers, and Netflix can hang on to HBO and other TV stations. As soon as the news came out, the ridicule of Netflix and Hastings has not stopped. Even Ted Sarando, who made the merger between Netflix and IMDb, was not less ridiculed. Song Yang didn't take action directly in this matter, otherwise the media would probably have to ridicule Song Yang.

"Netflix?!"

Blockbuster Headquarters, President Antioko saw the news about Netflix, and shook his head with disdain. He felt that this wave of Netflix was going to be played off, so he wanted to rely on a TV series to let the so-called online Video, more than TV users, how can he not believe that.

However, I can't help being a little envious. Netflix, which has taken refuge in the big benefactor, is now obviously ready to let go of its hands and feet, but Blockbuster is still stuck in a quagmire and cannot extricate itself.

Even Antioco felt sadly that Netflix no longer regards Blockbuster as its biggest opponent, but has begun to transform, preparing to compete with the Hollywood film industry giants. It is even more sad that the opponent ignores it.

"President Antioko, President Carl Icahn, requested another meeting of the board of directors. He is very dissatisfied with Blockbuster's cancellation of this year's mid-year dividend, as well as its performance loss and store subsidy strategy. The board of directors will explain!"

The secretary of the board of directors of Blockbuster walked in and said to Antioko. After hearing this, Antioko showed anger and helplessness on his face, but finally he could only sigh helplessly.

"If one day, Blockbuster goes bankrupt, it must be forced by that guy, Carl Icahn!"

Antioco said angrily, hating Carl Icahn, but he was helpless.

To be honest, Antioco helped Blockbuster stabilize its disc rental war with Netflix. Before him, Blockbuster was losing ground against Netflix and had no way to fight back.

Since Antioko took office, he has launched Blockbuster’s online movie selection system to compete with Netflix’s online disk rental, and at the same time provide subsidies to offline stores, cancel overdue fees for disk rental, etc. This allowed Blockbuster's user scale to stop losing, and instead increased by 37%!
This is quite scary. There are only so many users who rent discs. Blockbuster has increased users by 37%, and Netflix has decreased by so much.

Of course, playing this game is not free. In the first half of this year alone, Blockbuster lost more than [-] million dollars because of subsidies and cancellation of late fees. This made Blockbuster's board of directors and Wall Street Furious, this loss is all their real money.

As Blockbuster’s largest investor, Carl Icahn, let alone Carl Icahn, was critical of Antioko, trying to find fault with him, and asked Antioko to cancel the subsidy. Icahn doesn't care at all, but if he doesn't pay him a dividend, then he absolutely cannot accept it.

If Antioko doesn't stop the subsidy, and subsidizes those dog legs with the money that should have been distributed to Carl Icahn and the others, then Carl Icahn will definitely kill Antioko and kick Antioko. Let's go, another obedient leader will come up.

Even if Blockbuster goes bankrupt, so what? Carl Icahn is not losing money, and he even hopes that Blockbuster goes bankrupt. At that time, Blockbuster's legacy, such as the copyright library that Blockbuster has acquired over the years, many store real estate, and the headquarters building Wait, it can all be sold, when Carl Icahn will empty out Blockbuster, make a fortune and leave, and he will not care about the rest.

It seems that there is God’s will in the dark. After the merger of Netflix and IMDb, the deadly rival Blockbuster also experienced tremendous changes immediately. It was reported that Antioko and Carl Icahn had a fierce conflict on the board of directors, and then... Antioko was kicked out, and Carl Icahn recruited the president of 711 Convenience Store as the new head of Blockbuster doorman.

As soon as this guy took over, he never read Blockbuster's documents and didn't know Blockbuster's situation, so he overturned all of Antioco's orders and shut down Blockbuster's online disk, which was losing money. The disc rental system, stop subsidizing stores, and expand stores against the wind, sell drinks in disc stores, etc.

Hastings was dumbfounded watching this operation, but the last bit of worry about Blockbuster disappeared completely.

"Blockbuster is doomed!"

When convening the best screenwriters in Hollywood to adapt "House of Cards", Hastings told Mark Randolph that he did not expect that the war between Netflix and Blockbuster would end in this way.

In the end, Blockbuster was the one that defeated Blockbuster. By shutting down its online disc business, Blockbuster completely lost its ability to challenge Netflix. The more stores it opened, the faster Blockbuster would die.

Blockbuster is just like the war between Zhao State and Qin State during the Warring States Period. Lian Po was replaced in front of the battle, and Zhao Kuo, who was talking about war on paper, was replaced.

Hastings no longer took care of Blockbuster's affairs. He felt that the next time he heard the name of Blockbuster, it would probably go bankrupt.

In addition to Netflix, Eisner is also manipulating power on Disney's side. While starting acquisition negotiations with Lucasfilm and DreamWorks, on the other hand, using various means, it is important for Pixar animation. All kinds of suppression forced many Pixar animation projects to stagnate. Banks were unwilling to lend money to it, Hollywood actors were unwilling to dub it, and major Hollywood companies refused to release films for Pixar. Sina's wrist.

While Eisner was tossing Pixar hard, making Jobs scold his mother, Song Yang's private plane also took off from Los Angeles Airport and flew back to San Jose's Bruno Airport.

After the beginning of the new year, Song Yang has never stopped dealing with things, and this year has more things to deal with. When America starts preparing for the general election in the second half of the year, it will be even busier. At that time, it will not only be to support the small Cowboy, you have to deal with the relationship with the donkey party.

But this time when he returned to San Jose, he didn't have time to spend a few days with Bellucci Monica, who was filming in Los Angeles, because there were two matters in San Jose that Song Yang needed to deal with.

The first thing is that Siebel Automobile is holding the first global self-driving car competition. An electric car has finally been finalized. This is the first time that a Siebel electric car has appeared in front of the world. Of course, Song Yang has to join in.

As for another thing, it is even more important. Alcatel Mobile's annual global product launch is coming soon, and the P6 will be released soon!

I don’t know how many people are waiting to see the joke about Alcatel’s sixth-generation flagship mobile phone. In the past few years, every time Alcatel launched a global conference, no mobile phone manufacturer dared to compete. This year, it will hold a conference for the P6 mobile phone When the date of the mobile phone comes, many mobile phone manufacturers have announced that they will also hold new phone launches at the same time, and even some unknown small manufacturers seem to be ready to challenge Alcatel mobile phones.

During the press conference of the P6 mobile phone, Song Yang made a promise to Kevin Kelly in an exclusive interview with "Connection" magazine that he would appear at the press conference in person and accept questions from the media and the audience. Naturally, Song Yang must keep it Just promise.

There are also a bunch of mobile phone manufacturers who are going to head-to-head with Alcatel mobile phones, so we have to see if their heads are strong enough, and see if Alcatel mobile phones can break their dog heads!

After circling several states at San Jose Bruno Airport, the plane landed slowly on the airport. It was not yet the day of the press conference, but many media in the technology industry had turned into fun people and rushed to San Jose ahead of schedule, preparing to witness this year's American The tech industry's biggest fun event.

As soon as the convoy that picked up Song Yang left the airport, it was surrounded by many media reporters. It was obvious that they had received the news a long time ago and had been squatting here for an unknown amount of time.

"Director Bruno, will the Alcatel P6 global conference be postponed?!"

"Song, will you keep your promise and attend the P6 conference in person?!"

"How much do you predict the pre-sale and sales volume of P6 will be, and can it reach the level of P5?"

"Bruno, do you think Alcatel is still the best brand in the mobile phone industry?!"

　Sorry for the late update today.

　
(End of this chapter)