Game Development Giant

Just like Jester expected.

The GT Academy plan he suddenly launched before the release of Dreambox 3 indeed aroused extremely heated discussions.

Both the players and the media feel a little crazy about this matter.

This is indeed the idea. They don't understand why Mars Entertainment suddenly connected video games with reality so much - can you become a professional racing driver by playing their games?

Since you can become a professional racer by playing their racing games, will you also have the opportunity to become a professional Rambo by playing their shooting games in the future?

Of course this is just a joke.

However, players' reactions and discussions have indeed become extremely enthusiastic, even surpassing GT Racing itself.

However, following this incident, the popularity of GT Racing suddenly soared. In a short period of time, it became the second most popular game among the first games of Dreambox 3 after The Hero. In many media Under the strong request of the company, although Jester was not interviewed, even three days before the release of Dreambox 3, he was not at the company headquarters in Los Angeles.

Instead, he went to the private island he bought in Australia. The couple took their children and lived a private life.

It is said that during the period when Dreambox 3 was released, he was bothered by various media, and it was not just the gaming media. After all, Jester had just become the chairman of the board of directors of Apple, and, from his previous several Judging from this massive investment, Forbes' previous estimate of his wealth is probably not very accurate. It is said that Jester's ranking will jump significantly on the new Forbes Global Rich List at the end of this year.

Very likely to be in the top ten.

He became the second richest person under the age of 35 to enter the top ten in recent years, after Bill Gates.

But be aware. There is an essential difference. Bill Gates relied on Microsoft's stock price to skyrocket after the release of its visual operating system, but Jester did not, of course. Although Jester also owns a portion of Microsoft shares, and now owns almost one-third of Apple shares, this is not enough for him to become one of the top ten richest people in Forbes.

However, Jester's own wealth is not limited to this, in Japan. Country Z, South Korea, and Jester all have large investments.

It is said that the offshore holding company controlled by Jester that holds shares with Samsung is Jester's private property. However, because this holding company is a completely private relationship, there is no way to know where Jester is in this company. How many shares are there in the company? But judging from the name of the company, this company has a close relationship with Jester.

In addition, the major shareholder of Travelers Group is also Jester Holdings.

Now that Travelers Group failed to merge with Morgan, they have not given up on their idea. It is said that Citibank is very interested in this. If Travelers Group and Citigroup can really complete the merger, then the status of Jester Holdings will naturally increase.

After all, according to Jester Holdings' shares in Travelers Group, if they can really merge with Citigroup, then they can almost or wait for 3% of Citibank's shares.

This is a very huge number.

You know, this is Citibank. For a long time, Citibank and the Rockefeller family were symbols of the entire United States.

It is said. Jester Holdings not only invests in these two investments, but also has a wide range of investments. For example, they have invested in many of the hottest network technology companies now. The most famous one is Yahoo, which was the first investor, and also invested in some entities. For example, they also invested in BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto for almost 7% of the shares in the two major mines.

It is said that they are also interested in the shares of Vale, one of the three major mines.

However, Brazil attaches great importance to this state-controlled company and does not accept any investment at all.

but. Although the current ore industry cannot be called a depression, it is not very prosperous either. Therefore, many people regard this investment of Jester Holdings as an investment in the future, because although it is difficult to invest in a mine in a short period of time, Receive enough return on investment, but the income from mining investment is stable, and you will definitely benefit in the future. It is just a matter of how long it takes.

But Jester scoffed at this analysis.

How could these people now imagine how important the three major mines will be in the economic rise of a large country in the near future? Their investment in the three major mines seems to take twenty years, or even It takes thirty years to receive sufficient returns, but in fact, it only takes ten years to make a lot of money.

Although Brazil does not want anyone to invest in Vale, Jester is not too worried, because Brazil's economy seems to be prosperous now, but it is already in deep crisis. In a few years, Brazil's economy will completely collapse. In Jester In my special memory, in 1999, Brazil's state-owned enterprises carried out privatization reforms, and Mitsui Group took advantage of this opportunity to obtain nearly one-third of Vale's shares and the management rights of more than half of the shares. .

This gave them the first right to price iron ore.

You must know that iron ore is implemented through long-term futures contracts, and the pricing of this contract adopts regional pricing. This method is not only to allow the mine to obtain sufficiently stable and generous profits, but in fact, it also prevents the same region from steel mills engage in malicious competition.

Otherwise, this steel factory buys a batch of ore for 100 yuan, and that steel factory buys a batch of ore for 80 yuan. In this way, the 80 yuan steel factory can produce cheaper steel of the same quality, and In order to be able to sell their products, the first steel mill had to sell at a reduced price and could not recoup its investment at all. If this continues, they would have to go bankrupt.

After that, the mines were only able to get orders from one company, but not the second one.

That’s why we have this kind of regional pricing.

Pricing in East Asia is unified, which is determined by the three major mines. Therefore, after each long-term contract expires, steel mills need to negotiate with mining companies. Not just any steel mill is qualified for this kind of bargaining.

In fact, among the three East Asian countries, basically only one steel mill in each country has the qualification to negotiate prices, of course. You can also give up the bargaining, but after the negotiation between other steel mills and the three major mines is over, you can only accept this price and have no bargaining power. The reason is simple. The three major mines are not afraid that you will not buy ore.

Because the maintenance cost of the mine is very low, after the mine is developed, all that is left is mining, and the amount of mining, the investment is simply not worth mentioning for the mine. If you don't buy it, the big deal is to keep it there. That’s right, the mine is permanent, and it’s not just a matter of decades of ownership. The price of ore may not have changed much more than a few years ago.

For the mines, they can bear such losses because they will definitely be able to earn them back in the future.

Therefore, mineral companies simply do not compete for temporary gains and losses.

Because they can afford to wait and spend.

But for steel mills, this trouble is huge. For example, if you are used to the ore from this origin, and suddenly change the ore, the entire production line will have to be rectified. This is a huge investment.

And, most importantly, there is no other country or company in the world. It is qualified to provide enough high-quality iron ore like the three major mines.

This is why the pricing power lies with the seller, not the buyer.

The steel mill in South Korea that is qualified to negotiate prices with the three major mines is Posco, and the one in Japan that negotiates prices is Nippon Steel. The domestic participant in price negotiations is Baosteel.

The key here is Nippon Steel, and the reason why the price of iron ore could be so high later was also because of Nippon Steel, because Nippon Steel is also an industry of the Mitsui Zaibatsu.

Moreover, raising the price of iron ore is also the intention of the three major ores themselves, because they know that the country that is developing rapidly is a giant beast that is devouring iron ore crazily. Such an opportunity is once in a lifetime, and it is not cruel. To make a fortune from him would really be a disgrace to my capitalist pedigree.

Jester also took a fancy to this.

In his opinion, although investing in mines is not as huge as the huge profits that technology companies can bring after going public, once the price of iron ore rises, this will be a period of profit that can last at least thirty years, or even fifty years. Moreover, the yield will be very scary.

No one in this world knows this better than Jester.

This is why Jester is so interested in investing in mines during this period.

As for why Jester didn’t just buy the mine and develop it himself, the simple reason is that it takes at least ten years to develop a mine from the time it is established to when it can produce ore. A mine cannot be mined just by asking. , you need to build dedicated railways and dedicated cargo terminals, which require an investment of more than one billion and at least ten years of construction.

Jester didn't want the trouble.

For him, he doesn't want to be a mining king. What he wants to do is to make a once-in-a-lifetime quick buck by taking advantage of the prosperous mining industry in the future.

Of course, although Jester really wants to win Vale, for the Mitsui Zaibatsu, which has been laying out major mines since the 1970s, Jester is still far behind, and he doesn't think it is. He was able to snatch Vale from Mitsui. In fact, even in 1999, no one could predict that the mining industry would be so prosperous in the future.

Otherwise, how could it be possible to acquire more than one-third of Vale's shares with a mere US$3 billion?

Jester didn't want to engage in this kind of bayonet-and-red competition with Mitsui. He just wanted to reap the benefits and watch others slaughter people, while he drank soup and ate some meat.

Of course, this is only part of Jester’s investment over the years. After ten years of growth, Jester Holdings has actually become much larger than that. It can be said that it has gradually developed into a behemoth. , in many financial publications, Jester Holdings is often compared with Temasek Holdings, a company invested and established by the Singapore state.

You know, Temasek is called a capital monster, and its total capital value is equivalent to 10% of Singapore's gross national product!

This shows the strength of Jester Holdings Group.

Of course, Temasek controls the financial and business method patent strategy research lifeblood of an entire sovereign country, and after decades of accumulation, its heritage is far beyond what Jester, a ten-year-old holding company, can compare with.

Closer to home, it’s still about GT Academy.

Although the reporter was unable to interview Jester, Kazunori Yamauchi had nowhere to go. Although Yamauchi was in Japan, the media industry in Japan was equally developed, and major American media outlets all have offices in Japan. , and, as a game media, in this era, it would be too unprofessional to not have a Japanese site.

Because Jester said before that the decision about GT Academy was made after discussing it with Kazunori Yamauchi, and the Japanese car manufacturer also contacted Kazunori Yamauchi.

Moreover, some Japanese car manufacturers are also very interested in Mars Entertainment's GT Academy plan. However, the negotiations with European and American manufacturers did not go very smoothly. Jester personally took action and found a lot of contacts. We negotiated with General Motors in the United States. Moreover, American cars were not very prosperous during this period, and General Motors did not have a professional fleet.

Basically, the top teams are all old car manufacturers in Europe.

The Japanese are all juniors.

However, the old European manufacturers do not give Jester face, and Jester has nothing to do. Fortunately, the Japanese car manufacturers are still very generous. Otherwise, the GT Academy plan will not be possible.

Kazunori Yamauchi is not as big a name as Jester. Faced with so many media interceptions, he cannot ignore it, so he still leaked a lot of information about GT Academy.

However, it can be seen from the state during the interview that Kazunori Yamauchi is not too disgusted with this kind of interview.

To be honest, my dream is to become a professional racing driver, but I also know that I can participate in some low-level events, but it is beyond my ability to participate in real professional events, but in my opinion Come on, this matter is more about participation, and I have also decided to participate in next year’s Qatar Rally...

Kazunori Yamauchi first casually talked about his ideas and plans, but the reporters were not interested in these.

He himself knew this, so he just stopped there.

Then, he continued to talk about GT Academy: This time about GT Academy, Mr. Li has talked about it a lot before, and I don't have much to say, but I can reveal a little bit, such as GT The college’s selection mechanism…”

Hearing Kazunori Yamauchi talking about this, the eyes of the reporters present lit up instantly.

They are indeed very interested in the selection mechanism of GT Academy, and it is even one of the things they are most interested in. (~^~)