My 1999

After breakfast and playing with the children for a while, Xu Liang and Christina went to the headquarters of Vivendi Group.

After a brief meeting with the senior management, the couple came to the office.

Christina also took out the group's operating data and financial reports for the past three quarters.

After the major reorganization in 2005, the current Vivendi Group's assets are mainly divided into two parts.

One part is "pan-entertainment assets".

The other part is "public utility assets".

Pan-entertainment assets are mainly divided into "Universal Music Group", Canal+ Group, Vivendi Video and Vivendi Telecom.

The public utility part is mainly "Veolia Environment Group", which is divided into four sectors: waste management, water services, energy management and transportation.

In addition, Vivendi Group also has an investment department, which holds 11.5% of Ubisoft Games and has two seats on the board of directors.

Netcom 4.6%, Sina 18.46% of the shares, but most of them have been sold under the auspices of Xu Liang.

Universal Music Group, the world's largest music group, conducts a full range of business in more than 60 countries and regions, including music production and distribution, copyright management, authorized merchandise sales and audio-visual content.

In terms of copyright, Universal manages a library of lyrics and music copyrights of more than 3.8 million songs worldwide, and its agency scope covers all kinds of music, including the world's most famous music authors and music libraries.

In terms of peripherals, Universal's vast global distribution network provides artists and brands with opportunities to establish deeper connections with fans through clothing, consumer products and unique experiences.

In terms of record production and distribution, it owns hundreds of well-known singers such as Erica Badu and Anne-Sophie Mutter, and also represents the music libraries of world-class top singers such as the Beatles, Queen, and the Rolling Stones.

In the first three quarters of 2007, Universal Music Group's total revenue exceeded 4.73 billion euros, a year-on-year increase of 2.37%; net profit was 519 million euros, a year-on-year increase of 5.39%.

The emergence of smart phones and the rapid development of video companies such as YouTube have brought new growth to the global music market, and also indirectly increased the revenue of global record giants, especially the top record giants.

Especially for large companies like Universal, which own the world's top copyright library, the impact will be more obvious.

Canal+ Group.

Canal+, or France TV 4, is one of the seven national TV stations in France and was established in 1984.

It is a private encrypted radio station that broadcasts movies and sports programs for a fee.

It is one of the three major satellite pay TV stations in Europe, along with Sky TV in the UK and TV One in Germany.

At the beginning, it had four channels: news, movies, sports and technology.

Now it has gradually expanded to 12 channels including music, animation, etc.

In addition to the original TV series production and advertising business, under the leadership of Xu Liang, Canal+ Group has developed film and variety show production business.

In terms of movies, the first two years were mainly investment, such as "Express Delivery", "Grand Morna", "Paris I Love You", "Scientific Sleep", etc.

This year, it started to involve production. The script was prepared by Xu Liang and the name is "Violent District".

This is the French movie that impressed him the most.

In terms of variety shows, "The Voice of France" and "Got Talent" not only earned the company nearly 400 million euros in advertising revenue, but also added a lot of high-quality singers to Universal Music Group.

At the same time, new seasons of content can be continuously produced in the future to continue to generate income.

In addition to the continuous development of content, in order to expand foreign markets, the group has also continuously acquired local satellite TV operators in Switzerland, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Italy.

Driven by many favorable factors, the group's TV users have also increased from 6.1 million at the beginning of the acquisition to 8.03 million now.

The group's total revenue has increased from 3.98 billion euros previously to 4.02 billion euros in the third quarter now.

Net profit also exceeded 739 million euros, an increase of 11.8% year-on-year.

It quickly narrowed the gap with Sky TV.

"How is the preparation of "The Cottage by the Sea" going?" Xu Liang asked.

"The address has been chosen, it's at 'Espiguet Beach', the interior decoration of the villa is in progress, and six of the eight candidates have been selected.

The filming will officially start by the end of the year at the latest."

'Espiguet Beach' is located east of Le Graudroix and is one of the most popular beaches in France.

And 'The Beach House' is a love variety show, similar to the domestic 'Heart Signal'.

"A new variety show every year, 'The Beach House' must be well built and made into a new hit."

"Don't worry, I have never neglected the program you personally instructed."

Xu Liang nodded, "Next year is the renewal period for the new season of the French Ligue 1 broadcasting rights. Have you talked to the French Football Federation?"

"We are already in contact, and they revealed that it will be no less than 2.5 billion euros for four years."

"Four years?"

When he acquired Vivendi, the group had just renewed its contract with Ligue 1.

Three years and 1.8 billion euros.

This price is higher than the Premier League and the Bundesliga.

Christina nodded affirmatively.

"Four years is fine. Let's test the other party's attitude regarding the price. If it doesn't work, we have to spend more money to get the broadcasting rights."

"Yes."

Football is the top sport in Europe. Any TV organization that aspires to become a top sports broadcaster cannot ignore football.

In addition to Ligue 1, Canal+ Group has also won the broadcasting rights of the Eredivisie, Belgian First Division, Swedish Super League, as well as Formula One, basketball, tennis and other events.

Although Canal+ Group has high revenue, its expenditure is also not low.

This is also the reason why Xu Liang has been making the company work hard on TV programs behind the scenes.

Only by diversified operations can the performance of Canal+ Group be continuously improved.

Vivendi entered the streaming media business very early, but after the Nasdaq crisis, it was sold in order to repay the group's high debts.

After Xu Liang acquired Vivendi, he re-established the "Vivendi Video Website".

Different from YouTube.

Vivendi Video follows the "Netflix model" and focuses on long videos.

Relying on the movie and TV IPs that Canal+ Group has accumulated over the years, Vivendi Video has more than 2 million users in just two years.

"How many versions has Vivendi Video launched now?"

"Five, French, German, Italian, Spanish and English. French has the most users, with 1.12 million, followed by Italian, and the least is English." Christina said.

"That's enough. There's no need to expand the languages ​​for now. If we do these five languages ​​well, Vivendi Video will be the largest long video website in Europe."

Christina nodded. She also understood the principle of biting off more than she can chew.

Like YouTube, Vivendi Video is still in a loss-making stage. The copyright expenditure invested in the third quarter of this year has exceeded 70 million euros.

But unlike YouTube, Vivendi Video is supported by Vivendi Telecom.

Behind Vivendi Telecom are three major telecommunications subsidiaries, France SFR, Maroc Telecom and Borore Telecom. They are all listed companies, but Vivendi holds the controlling stake.

The former has 3G licenses in France, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands, while the latter has a 3G license in Morocco.

Borol Telecom does not have 3G business, but it is indeed the largest telecommunications operator in the former French African countries.

It should also be emphasized that, except for France and Morocco, the 3G licenses of other European countries such as Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg were all acquired around 2005.

After all, the European 3G telecom bubble was too serious at that time, and the development of 3G was not mature enough.

Many companies with licenses have reduced their investment in the 3G field. As long as the price is right, it is not difficult to acquire.

However, Vivendi did not touch the UK, Germany, Italy, and Spain, because the 3G telecom licenses in these countries are too expensive.

Hutchison Telecom spent 4.4 billion pounds (6.9 billion US dollars) to obtain an A license in the UK (15MHz paired bandwidth + 5MHz unpaired bandwidth).

The bubble in Germany is even more serious.

The UK spent only 38.3 billion euros on 5 3G licenses, while Germany spent 50.5 billion euros on 6 licenses.

Of course, Germany has a larger population.

Calculating the per capita license expenditure, the UK is still higher.

Xu Liang does not want Vivendi Telecom to step into this huge 3G license bubble.

Therefore, except for France, 3G licenses in other countries are mainly affordable, and they are acquired at the right price.

Over the years, Vivendi Telecom has accumulated 7 3G telecommunications licenses.

France, Monaco, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Switzerland and Denmark.

The total license expenditures amounted to 3.7 billion US dollars, far lower than its peers such as Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom.

In addition to the licenses, Vivendi Telecom has also invested heavily in 3G equipment in these countries. Using base stations and optical fiber transmission equipment provided by Huawei, it has built 4,000 base stations in France with a network coverage rate of 60%.

It has surpassed the mobile brand ‘Orange’ under France Telecom and become the largest mobile telecommunications operator in France.

In Switzerland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and other countries, about 2,200 base stations have been built, with a network coverage rate of 45%.

No mistakes, one song, one post, one content, one 6, one 9, one book, one bar, one look!

In Morocco, 1,500 base stations have been built, with a network coverage rate of 50%.

In order to build these base stations, Vivendi Telecom began to invest before it was acquired by Xu Liang, but at that time Vivendi itself was in a financial crisis and investment was limited.

It was not until Xu Liang acquired the company that Vivendi was able to obtain a large amount of funds from the capital market, and thus continue to invest in 3G construction and broadband access.

"Does Kunlun mobile phone help the development of Vivendi Telecom?" Xu Liang asked.

Christina's pretty face showed a trace of excitement, "It helps a lot. Many people have signed up for the telecom packages we provide because of Kunlun mobile phones.

According to statistics, since the sale of Kunlun mobile phones, Vivendi Telecom's users have increased by 17 percentage points year-on-year.

But..."

"But what?"

"France Telecom has signed a cooperation agreement with Apple, which may impact the market occupied by Vivendi Telecom."

Xu Liang: "Don't worry too much. The production capacity of smartphones is limited now, and the US market alone can absorb all of Apple's production capacity.

Even if it enters France, there are not many mobile phones to sell.

There is no need to be too anxious in the short term.

Wait until Apple's production capacity is increased.

Kunlun and Vivendi Telecom have occupied most of the market share here. It is not so easy to defeat us again."

After Christina nodded, "This year, the French telecommunications department plans to release the fourth 3G telecommunications license, with a bandwidth of 15 Hz, and the price is about 240 million euros. Do we want to join the competition?"

"240 million euros? So cheap?"

SFR, a subsidiary of Vivendi Telecom, spent 619 million euros to get a license.

Almost three times the reserve price of the new license.

"What do France Telecom and Bouygues Telecom say?"

"Martin Bouygues called me and hoped that we would jointly file a complaint with the European Commission to prevent the auction of France's fourth telecommunications license.

If the French telecommunications department must bid, it must give us three parties certain compensation."

Christina said.

Xu Liang nodded slightly.

That's for sure.

We spent so much money to get a photo, but you got it easily and for less money.

Aren't we a joke in the eyes of others?

This kind of thing must be resolutely stopped.

"Promise him, it's in our interest."

"I thought so too. By the way, the joint company of Telefonica and Telefonica intends to transfer the German and Italian telecommunications licenses they hold, and asked if we are interested in taking over?"

"How much do they want?"

"You can give us a 20% discount."

"Reject it." Xu Liang didn't even consider it.

At the beginning, the joint company of Telefonica and Telefonica spent $7.6 billion and $2 billion respectively to bid for the German 3G license and the Italian 3G license.

Add up to a total of $9.7 billion.

It is almost three times the cost of all 3G licenses acquired by Vivendi Telecom now.

Even a 20% discount is still an unacceptable number.

The key is that the subprime crisis is coming soon, and any large investment now is a pitfall.

Christina agreed, and Xu Liang's decision was within her expectations.

As of now, Vivendi Telecom has 45.216 million users, including 15.91 million fixed-line users, 22.1 million mobile phone users, 5.05 million Internet users, and 450,000 pay TV users.

30% of them are located in Africa.

In the third quarter of 2007, Vivendi Telecom's turnover was 17.826 billion euros and its net profit was 2.43 billion euros.

Vivendi Telecom has become the highest-earnings department of the Vivendi Group.

The total revenue of the entire Vivendi Group's "Pan-Entertainment Department" in the third quarter was close to 26 billion euros, and it is expected to exceed 33 billion euros for the whole year.

It increased by 12.7% year-on-year.

Net profit was 4.728 billion euros, and it is expected to exceed 6 billion euros for the whole year, an increase of 18.4% year-on-year.

It can be said that the "telecom channel + content" operating model inherited by Xu Liang from his previous life memory has played a huge role in promoting the development of the entire Vivendi Group.

Especially the emergence of Kunlun mobile phones.

When other telecom operators were still worried about the insufficient 3G revenue model and the huge base station and license investment that could not be recovered, Vivendi Telecom quickly took the lead with Kunlun mobile phones.

Users and revenue grew rapidly, and profits continued to accumulate.

In just a few years, Vivendi has completed the investment in 3G telecommunications base stations and fiber optic networks ahead of giants such as Telefonica and Deutsche Telekom.

"There is no problem with Vivendi's layout of 'pan-entertainment assets'. What needs to be done next is to continue to expand on the existing basis." Xu Liang said.

"The European telecommunications landscape is basically fixed. If you want to develop rapidly, you must acquire it!" Christina said.

Xu Liang smiled, "Let's not discuss this issue for the time being. Let's talk about it when there is a suitable opportunity."

After looking at him, Christina didn't say anything more.

She knew that this man never did anything he was not sure of.

The key is that Vivendi Group is indeed not short of funds now.

In addition to telecommunications and pan-entertainment, another pillar of Vivendi Group is 'Veolia Environment Group'.

Unlike telecommunications and pan-entertainment, Vivendi Group only holds 45% of the shares of 'Veolia Environment Group'.

In other words, this is a 'godson'.

But a godson is also a son.

What's more, the strength of Veolia Environment Group should not be underestimated.