Chapter 2003 2005【Acquisition of YOUTUBE】

  DreamWorks Pictures was going to sell, which was completely within Xiang Nan's expectation.

  Because he knew that, in real life, Dreamworks Pictures also sold.

  So he immediately sent someone to contact DreamWorks, planning to acquire DreamWorks Pictures.

On the one hand, after the acquisition of DreamWorks, it got its film library. DreamWorks Pictures' film library includes "Artificial Intelligence", "Unlocked Rage", "Saving Private Ryan", "Galaxy Explosion", "Happiness "Terminal", "Anchorman", "Minority Report", "War of the Worlds" and other well-known movies.

  The reputation and box office of these movies are very good, and they are very valuable IPs.

  On the one hand, the acquisition of DreamWorks Pictures can also get Steven Spielberg, one of the most outstanding directors in the world. Although Spielberg is approaching the age of hearing, his creative energy is still very strong.

   In the future, he will also shoot a series of blockbuster movies such as "Raiders of the Lost Ark 4", "Letters from Iwo Jima", "Transformers", "Steel Steel", "The Adventures of Tintin", "Ready Player One" and so on.

   Therefore, it is cost-effective to buy DreamWorks Pictures, of course, the premise is that it is not too expensive.

  DreamWorks Pictures is also very interested in the acquisition of Xiang Nande.

On the one hand, Spielberg has cooperated with Universal Pictures many times, such as "Jaws", "ET", "Jurassic Park"... He and Universal have collaborated on many films, and they have a very good relationship with each other. cooperation relationship.

   On the one hand, Xiang Nan is a well-known good guy in Hollywood, and no matter which director he works with, he will not interfere too much with the other's work. Therefore, Hollywood directors like to work with him.

   And Spielberg has a contract with DreamWorks, and once DreamWorks is acquired, he will follow in the past. At that time, if he meets a boss who likes to interfere, his life will be miserable.

  So the two sides talked very well.

Although later, Paramount, Disney, Sony Pictures, etc. also wanted to acquire DreamWorks, but in the end Universal Pictures was superior and bought DreamWorks Pictures at a price of one billion U.S. dollars. Cover its $400 million debt. That is equivalent to spending 1.4 billion US dollars.

   This price, to be honest, is still very cost-effective. Not to mention anything else, just one Spielberg is worth more than a billion dollars.

  …

  The news of Universal Pictures' acquisition of DreamWorks Pictures caused huge waves in Hollywood.

   On the one hand, people did not expect DreamWorks Pictures to sell so quickly. You know, it was only founded in 1997, and it has been less than ten years now, and it has released so many big-selling works. Everyone thought it was alive and well, but how could it be expected that it would sell itself suddenly.

   On the one hand, Universal Pictures has had a huge appetite in recent years. Carolco Pictures, MGM Pictures, Urban Entertainment... were all swallowed up by it. At present, the film library under Universal Pictures has more than 12,000 films, which is one of the largest film companies in the United States. Now he has swallowed DreamWorks again, and in that way, the strength of Universal Pictures has increased again.

  The acquisition of DreamWorks from Universal Pictures also made people further realize the strength of Universal Pictures. Taking out a billion dollars is easy, which shows that it is really rich and powerful.

  The acquisition of DreamWorks by Universal Pictures also increased Universal Pictures' stock price by 10%. It can be seen that the investment community is still very optimistic about this transaction. It is believed that Universal Pictures' acquisition of DreamWorks is beneficial to its future development.

  …

  However, while the outside world was paying attention to Universal's acquisition of DreamWorks, Xiang Nan also made another acquisition. Although this acquisition is not eye-catching, it is more important than the acquisition of DreamWorks.

  Because Xiang Nan acquired YouTube, which was established less than five months ago.

  YouTube was co-founded in February 2005 by Chen Shijun, a Chinese network engineer, and his colleagues Chad Heli and Judd Karim.

  The three of them are former PayPal employees who decided to start their own business after being fired, so they started this website. The original intention was to share video clips among friends.

   Unexpectedly, after it was launched, it was very popular among netizens. It was launched less than half a year ago, and already has tens of thousands of users, as well as millions of video materials, with more than one million views every day. It is considered a very popular personal website on the current Internet.

  Xiang Nan knows the value of YouTube. In his previous life, it was the largest video sharing website in the world, with tens of millions of views every day. If it is listed independently, its market value may be more than 100 billion U.S. dollars, stronger than Netflix.

   But Xiang Nan bought it for only 200 million US dollars.

  After all, YouTube’s profit prospects are still unclear, and in order to pay bandwidth fees and allow users to have a smooth viewing experience, Chen Shijun and others even maxed out their credit cards.

  If you don't get outside investment, YouTube is likely to go bankrupt. So at this time, buying it for 200 million US dollars has already saved their lives.

  The reason why Xiang Nan did not continue to lower the price was mainly because he still had to continue to use Chen Shijun and others to continue to develop and improve network streaming media technology, so things could not be too extreme.

  After taking YouTube, Xiang Nan continued to invest in technology development, copyright purchases, and loan payments, which also allowed YouTube to develop rapidly.

  …

  In August, "Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End" was released.

   The first two parts of "Pirates of the Caribbean" set off a movie-watching frenzy around the world when they were released. Johnny Depp played Captain Jack Sbarro, who has become one of the most famous characters in film history.

   Now, the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trilogy has finally reached its climax. The nine pirate kings fought against the British Royal Navy. The scene was astonishing and the spirit was astonishing. It was the most thrilling and magnificent sea battle of the century that the audience had ever seen.

   Therefore, after the release of "Pirates of the Caribbean 3", word of mouth exploded and the box office sold well, with a global box office of 960 million US dollars. If DVD sales and peripheral product sales are included, this trilogy alone will bring tens of billions of dollars in revenue to Universal Pictures.

  Seeing this, Xiang Nan immediately announced that "Pirates of the Caribbean 4" will come out soon, and Captain Jack Sbarro will start a new adventure soon.

  As soon as this news came out, it immediately caused a sensation.

   Fans are reluctant to say goodbye to Captain Jack, and they are naturally very happy to hear that he will return again.

  …

  In the same month, Xiang Nan and the crew came to Taiwan for filming, which immediately attracted the media of Taiwan to follow up.

   This disturbed the crew a little. Because many media in Baodao did not follow the rules, they actually sneaked into the crew to film the filming process, and it was broadcast on newspapers and TV stations, which caused a very bad influence.

  Especially the scene filmed in the One Lingyao Building is the most important part of "Mission: Impossible 4". If it is leaked in advance, after the audience has watched it, they may lose their curiosity and may not join in the show.

   Therefore, in order to maintain maximum secrecy, the production team had to strengthen security measures. Reporters were not allowed to enter, and offenders would be held accountable.

  Xiang Nan also specially asked the intermediary to send a message to the Baodao media, hoping that they could cooperate with the work and not to embarrass the people of Baodao for some profit.

  (end of this chapter)