Reborn as a tycoon in Hong Kong

The time has entered the eighties.

A few days after New Year's Day in 1980, Lin Baicheng boarded a private plane and flew to Los Angeles.

In the past few trading days, the international gold price has been rising every day. It's just that it rises more on one day and less on the other.

Today, the international gold price has exceeded US$500/ounce, which is only a 20% increase from the price of US$600/ounce. The higher the price of gold, the higher the price per 1% increase.

Lin Baicheng knows very well that the reason why the price of gold has risen so much now is because of the news about Hongsu and the war in Afghanistan. The price of gold, which has risen sharply due to news stimulation, will not last long and will fall back soon.

Therefore, the price of gold is likely to rise and fall sharply in the next period of time, and Lin Baicheng has a huge investment in the gold futures market. Of course, he will go to the United States to take charge during this period.

The reason why Lin Baicheng went to Los Angeles instead of New York was mainly because the two places were about the same time and the distance was not very far. If necessary, he could go from Los Angeles to New York on the same day.

When the private plane arrived at the airport, Katherine Jackson took someone in a stretched Lincoln to pick up Lin Baicheng at the airport.

On the way to the Beverly Hills villa, Catherine reported to Lin Baicheng. Galaxy Games' arcade performance, sales of Star and Moon consoles and cartridges, the current box office of "Home Alone", etc.

Lin Baicheng listened very carefully and read the relevant documents at the same time.

The performance of various companies during the Christmas period is very good. Lin Baicheng knows this. What he is looking at now is the specific data. Before, he only knew the general situation.

Before Lin Baicheng could finish reading, the car arrived at the villa, and Lin Baicheng had no choice but to return to the villa before continuing to read.

"Catherine, it's quite late now. You should go back and rest first. If you have anything to do, we'll talk about it tomorrow."

Lin Baicheng told Katherine Jackson that it was already eleven o'clock in the evening when his plane arrived at the airport. It took more than half an hour, and it was almost twelve o'clock.

Catherine responded: "Chairman, I'll go back first."

In order to adjust to the jet lag, Lin Baicheng only took a nap on the plane, so he was very tired and sleepy now. After letting the bodyguards who came with him rest, he also went upstairs to rest.

The next morning, Lin Baicheng was eating breakfast while reading the documents that he had not finished reading last night.

"Brother, why did you come here suddenly?"

Lin Qin walked into the restaurant wearing pajamas.

"I have something to do here, so I came over."

Lin Baicheng replied casually, looked at her and said, "It's you, today is Saturday, why did you get up so early?"

Lin Qin said: "I made an appointment with a friend to go camping today and tomorrow."

"Lijun and Qingxia?"

When Lin Baicheng heard this, the first thing he thought of was Deng Lijun and Lin Qingxia. After saying this, he immediately reacted: "It shouldn't be them, otherwise you wouldn't say they are friends, but your classmates?"

Lin Qin nodded: "Yes! My classmates and her friends."

"Are there boys and girls?"

Lin Baicheng immediately said: "Although I don't object to you falling in love during college, your partner must be checked by me and my parents, do you understand?"

Lin Qin explained after hearing this: "My friend is a woman. Although she has invited men, I don't know them yet."

"Remember to bring a bodyguard, and don't think about getting rid of the person, otherwise she will be unlucky and you will be unlucky too."

Lin Baicheng reminded aloud that this is the United States, both men and women mature earlier, and men are more bold, and it is not impossible to use force. Lin Qin went camping with his friends, and Lin Baicheng was really worried if he did not bring bodyguards with him.

"I know, brother, don't worry."

Lin Qin made an OK gesture. She knew that her brother was warning her, and she didn't dare to mess around.

"As long as you have an idea."

Lin Baicheng nodded, thinking that he would talk to the bodyguards who specially protected Lin Qin for a while, and let them know that they must follow Lin Qin at all times and ignore Lin Qin's threats, lest Lin Qin violate the law.

Some things are better to prevent. Once they happen, they will have a lifelong impact.

Lin Qin also sat down to eat breakfast. Seeing Lin Baicheng looking at the documents carefully, she didn't bother him.

Before Lin Baicheng finished breakfast, Bill Harveys and Catherine came over one after another. Lin Baicheng asked them to wait for him on the sofa in the living room.

"Chairman, President Lansing said that Warner, MGM and Paramount, among the eight major Hollywood companies, have contacted Morningstar Pictures and want to buy the overseas distribution rights of "Home Alone" outside of the North American market from Morningstar Pictures. , or agency distribution, and Paramount even revealed that it wants to purchase all the rights to the movie "Home Alone."

After Lin Baicheng finished breakfast and went to the living room, Bill Harveys reported something to Lin Baicheng.

Lin Baicheng was a little surprised when he heard this: "'Home Alone' hasn't been released yet, right? Why does Paramount want to buy all the rights?"

"The main reason is that the film's box office performance was so good."

Bill Harveys explained with a smile: "The current local box office of the film has exceeded 100 million US dollars. According to the predictions of professional companies, the local box office of "Home Alone" will fall to 250 million US dollars. In terms of overseas box office, based on the film's With its performance, the box office performance in the English region will not be bad, and it is expected to have a box office of US$250 million."

"If the Eighth National Congress is allowed to distribute the film, the US$250 million box office will eventually earn at least US$100 million. This does not include the profits from other licensing of the film, as well as the profits that may be brought by the second or even third part of the film. "

"What did Shirley Lansing think?"

Nodding, Lin Baicheng asked aloud.

"President Lansing believes that the overseas distribution rights of "Home Alone" can be sold to the Big Eight, whoever bids the highest price will sell it to whoever bids the highest price. If it is an agent, the payment will be slow on the one hand, and on the other hand, we have to worry about the Big Eight tampering with the accounting. , there is no security like directly selling distribution rights.”

"President Lansing also said that Morningstar Pictures will establish overseas distribution channels, but it cannot delay the good results of "Home Alone". If the company does the overseas distribution, although it can help the company's expansion of overseas channels, "Alone" The box office share that "The Master" can get overseas will be greatly reduced."

Bill Harveys answered aloud, and then expressed his own point of view: "Chairman, in fact, if you value the development prospects of Morningstar Pictures more, you can hand over the overseas distribution of "Home Alone" to Morningstar Pictures Let’s do it to expand the influence of Morningstar Pictures and help Morningstar Pictures establish overseas distribution channels.”

"I can still accept some short-term losses, not to mention that "Home Alone" will definitely make a lot of money. It's just a matter of making more or less."

Lin Baicheng immediately said: "The overseas distribution rights of "Home Alone" will be handed over to Lansing. Please communicate with Lansing and ask her to seize this opportunity and build Morningstar Pictures' overseas distribution channels. If the company's funds If there is a shortage, you can go to the bank for a loan and don’t be afraid of spending money.”

"Okay Chairman, I think President Lansing will also be very happy after knowing your decision."

Of course Shirley Lansing would be happy if she found out. She is the president of Morningstar Pictures, and the more rights she has in making appointments with the company as the company develops, the more bonuses she can get. What's more, the management of Morningstar Pictures has 10% options. The larger the company, the greater the value of the option rewards received by the management.

"By the way, I asked you to contact Barry Diller of Paramount. Is there any progress?"

Barry Diller is the president of Paramount. Under his leadership in the past few years, Paramount, which was somewhat lagging behind, has gradually improved its performance and is on the verge of a comeback. This shows how capable this person is.

What's more, Barry Diller came from a television background and wanted to build a new television network, while Gulf Western, Paramount's parent company, didn't have the idea and didn't want to take that risk.

Lin Baicheng wanted to have his own TV network in the United States, so he asked a headhunting company to find suitable candidates for him. Among them, Barry Diller was the most suitable person in terms of qualifications and abilities.

Bill Harveys said, "Barry Diller does have an idea for a television network, but he wants to meet with you and talk to you in person."

"Okay, please help me make an appointment, preferably within these few days."

Lin Baicheng immediately said that he was sure he would have time in the next few days, but after the price of gold rose sharply again, his focus would shift to investment and he would not have much time or energy to deal with other things.

Bill Harveys responded: "Okay, after communicating with Barry Diller, I will report to you."

"Then I'll wait for your good news."

Lin Baicheng nodded. If Barry Diller agrees to join and work for him, it will cost a lot of money to set up a TV network, and not surprisingly it will be an investment for several years, so it will be a big sum of money. invest.

Fortunately, the price of gold has risen sharply. With the settlement of long gold futures, Lin Baicheng will receive a large amount of funds and will no longer be short of money in a short time.

"Chairman, regarding the overseas distribution rights of "Home Alone", what price is more appropriate to sell to Morningstar Pictures? In addition, do you want to keep the copyright of the film yourself or sell it to Morningstar Pictures?"

Bill Harveys asked aloud that the movie "Home Alone" was privately invested by Lin Baicheng. Morningstar Pictures was only the distributor, and the copyright of the film was in Lin Baicheng's hands.

The reason why the division is so clear is because 10% of the shares of Morningstar Pictures were promised to executives including Shirley Lansing in the form of options by Lin Baicheng. Although these executives have not yet received the shares, The company's interests and Lin Baicheng's personal interests still need to be calculated separately.

Lin Baicheng said: "You discuss with Lansing and calculate a suitable price, and then I will sell all the copyrights to Morning Star Pictures, and the second and third parts of the film will be invested and filmed by Morning Star Pictures. "

"OK!"

Bill Harveys nodded in understanding.

Afterwards, Bill Harveys reported another thing to Lin Baicheng, that is, the clerk of Starlight Company in Los Angeles discovered that in recent days, someone had been inquiring about the sales of Xingyue consoles and cassettes, as well as the information of Xingyue console manufacturing company. etc.

"what are you thinking?"

Lin Baicheng couldn't help but raise his eyebrows after hearing this.

Bill Harveys said his judgment: "I think Atari sent people to investigate the situation of the Star and Moon consoles. During Christmas, the sales of the Star and Moon consoles and cassettes were very impressive, although Atari sold There are more consumers than us, but the sales volume of the Xingyue console is already very obvious, and it is impossible for Atari to ignore it."

Lin Baicheng said in agreement: "It seems that we have thought of it together. Apart from Atari, I really can't think of any other company that will investigate the sales of Xingyue consoles."

It's true that Atari didn't pay much attention to the Star and Moon console at the beginning, but Atari's management wasn't all fools. When the Star and Moon console sold more than half a million consoles in half a year, it was impossible for Atari to Not noticed.

If Atari has not discovered the threat of the Xingyue host under this situation, then Atari's management is really useless. Obviously Atari's management is not useless. It has already been discovered. Xingyue Host took the initiative to investigate the threat to Atari.

Bill Harveys said: "Chairman, I think Atari will definitely regard the Xingyue console as its biggest rival after knowing the sales volume of the Xingyue console this year, and then target the company."

"If there is one more competitor in the market, any company will choose to beat the competitor to death."

Lin Baicheng didn't think there was any problem with this. If it were him, he would do the same thing, defeat his competitors and dominate the entire market.

"Now that Atari has begun investigating Star and Moon Video Game Company, we cannot remain indifferent. Bill, please arrange for someone to investigate Atari Company, especially the sales volume of Atari VCS this year."

Bill Harveys immediately said: "Chairman, the sales volume of Atari VCS this year has exceeded 1 million units. Atari took the initiative to announce it two days ago. I think even if the real data is not as many as one million units, It won’t be much different.”

"One million units is actually not much higher than the sales volume of the Xingyue console. This year we will strive to catch up with Atari and make the sales volume of the Xingyue console number one in the industry."

Lin Baicheng did the math and found that the sales gap between Atari VCS and Xingyue consoles was not so large that they could not catch up. The quality of games has a great influence on the sales of consoles, and he still has several good games that have not been released on Xingyue consoles.

Take "Xiangjiang Cube" as an example. This game is very popular and is very suitable for consoles. Lin Baicheng plans to put this game on consoles for sale today to increase the sales of consoles and make money by selling cassettes.

In addition to "Hong Kong Cube", there are also very good games such as "Pac-Man" and "Tank Battle". After these games have been running in the arcade market for two or three years, they can be sold on consoles.

At present, in order to stabilize the arcade market, it is not easy to sell these popular games on the console platform immediately. Doing so will inevitably affect the interests of the arcade owners, which is equivalent to affecting the profits of Galaxy Games in the arcade.