During this period, Simon paid special attention to the sale of BBK VCD and the development overview of China's VCD industry.
In the first quarter of 1995, with the emergence of some other VCD brands besides Wanyan and the development of the piracy industry chain in the southeastern coastal areas, China's total VCD shipments reached 110,000 units. This is according to Scoop video decoding chips According to the statistics of shipments, this is Scoop's exclusive business at this stage.
In the second quarter, when the news spread that Chen Qing’s team had acquired the absolute controlling stake in Scoop at the end of April, VCD players received a significant increase in attention. In addition to BBK, which was directly supported by the Westeros system, it began to launch VCD projects, and many others Chinese manufacturers have also begun to follow suit, and companies that have already launched products have increased their marketing and promotion efforts. As a result, China's VCD shipments quickly exceeded 200,000 units in a single quarter, reaching 230,000 units, an increase of more than 100%.
Now, just one month after the third quarter, VCD shipments in China have exceeded 150,000 units, and it is expected that the third quarter will also achieve at least a quarter-on-quarter growth of more than 100%.
Based on this calculation, the total VCD shipments in 1995 are expected to reach about 1.5 million units, and show explosive exponential growth. Although the VCD industry exploded earlier than Simon remembered, this exponential curve is not far different from the past history.
As the only supplier of VCD video decoding chips at this stage, relying on the strong performance support brought by the outbreak of the Chinese market, coupled with the "Westeros concept stock" halo gained after being acquired by Chen Qing's team, within three months, Sri Lanka Goldberg's stock price has increased by more than 400%, and its market value has broken through the US$1 billion mark from about US$200 million when Chen Qing's team acquired it. As of the close of trading on July 31, Goldberg's market value reached US$1.076 billion.
A total of US$94 million was originally invested to acquire 53% of Scoop's shares. Within three months, the book profit had reached US$477 million, with a return rate of 500%.
Over there in China.
The BBK team that left Little Overlord did not disappoint Simon.
Even with the abundant funds and strong technical support of the Westeros system, it took three months to successfully launch the first product on the market. This kind of super execution is still eye-catching.
The BBK VCD, which was released on July 15, only relied on the temporary market of Guangdong and Fujian to test the waters. The sales reached 6,000 units in the first week. It is expected that the sales volume in the first month can easily exceed 20,000 units. With the further expansion of the market, the BBK team It is expected to achieve sales of at least 150,000 units in the second half of this year, directly occupying more than 10% of the Chinese VCD market.
According to the pricing of BBK VCD of RMB 3,999, the sales volume of 150,000 units is directly equivalent to sales of RMB 600 million.
It took Xiaobawang five years to achieve sales of 1 billion. Now, BBK only needs two years to achieve this goal. This not only proves the correctness of Simon's heavy investment in recruiting the BBK team, but also shows that the VCD industry has a huge market size that far exceeds that of game consoles.
During the meal, Simon and Chen Qing mainly discussed two topics.
The first is how Scobo balances the relationship between BBK and other VCD manufacturers, as a direct line, to prevent these manufacturers from turning to other electronics manufacturers because they are worried about the supply of video decoding chips being restricted. The other is to use Scoop's influence to control VCD prices and constantly adjust prices to develop the Chinese VCD market to the greatest extent, while also avoiding price wars between different manufacturers from killing each other for market share.
Industries that interest Westeros at this stage always attract a lot of attention.
After Chen Qing's team acquired Scoop in April, Simon quickly heard the news that manufacturers such as Sony, Toshiba, and Samsung had begun investing in the research and development of VCD video decoding chips. Therefore, even if Scoop successfully completes its planned comprehensive technological upgrade next year, the Chinese market will inevitably face competition from other manufacturers of similar products.
With a whole generation of technology difference, even established giants like Sony and Toshiba cannot compare with Scooper.
However, if these backward chips adopt a low-price strategy to invade the Chinese market, it will still cause trouble for Scobo. The gross profit margin of video decoding chips is very high, which actually means huge room for price reduction.
If Scoop wants to achieve the goals discussed by Simon and Chen Qing, he needs to find a suitable balance point in terms of pricing. It can suppress latecomers from sharing too much market share, but must also ensure sufficient profit margins for itself. In addition, since the initial strategy was to make quick money, Chen Qing's team also had to choose the right time to sell Scoop's shares in time to cash out.
These all test the personal abilities of professional managers.
The lunch lasted for an hour, and most of them were discussing work. It was not until after everyone walked out of the restaurant that Chen Qing, who was following Simon, had a chance to talk about other things: "Boss, are you free tonight? Maybe we can have dinner together?" "
When Chen Qing said this, Emmanuel, who was following the man with Girl A, quietly pricked up his ears for some unknown reason.
Simon smiled and shook his head: "Next time."
Chen Qing didn't bother, and said that she had brought back many gifts from her trip to China.
Everyone left the building where the restaurant was located and realized that Simon had no intention of retaining them, so Chen Qing had no choice but to leave with Emmanuelle.
Simon and Girl A returned to Building 1 where their offices were located, where producer David Giller, director Tim Burton, screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, and actor Johnny Depp of "Sleepy Hollow" , heroine Mia Kirshner and other main creatives are already waiting in a conference room next to his office.
Since the launch of this project at the end of last year, the preliminary preparations for "Sleepy Hollow" have been basically completed.
It is tentatively scheduled for next summer as a major feature film wholly owned by Daenerys.
The budget of the project has been determined to be US$70 million. The filming location is still in the UK. The preliminary set has been completed and is expected to start filming in September.
Compared with the original version, the main change in the creative team this time is that the producer chose David Giller, the producer of the "Alien" series who was kind to Simon, and the heroine was changed from Christina Ricci to Mia. Kirschner.
After giving Simon a lot of help during the production of "Lola Run", David Giller has always been a contracted producer under Daenerys Entertainment. After his status was completely reversed, Giller has lived up to Simon's trust. Many projects he has been responsible for over the years have been completed very well, and this time "Sleepy Hollow" happens to be a subject that the other party is good at.
As for the heroine, compared to Christina Ricci, who was obviously in line with Tim Burton's aesthetic in the original version, Simon personally chose Mia Kirschner, who he liked better this time.
After receiving an Oscar nomination for Best Actress in "Little Women" last year, Mia Kirshner's fame is catching up with Winona Ryder.
The school youth film "Clueless" directed by Amy Heckerling will be released on July 14. The heroine played by Mia Kirschner also successfully proved that girls have a wide range of acting options. The comprehensive media score of "Clueless" reached 7.9 points, and many film critics specifically mentioned the girl's outstanding performance that is very different from "Little Women".
Supported by excellent word-of-mouth popularity and a production cost of US$12 million, "Clueless" grossed US$23.07 million at the box office in its first week.
Although the drop in the next week was a bit deep, reaching 43%, as of the weekend of July 30, in two and a half weeks, the film's cumulative box office has reached 41.53 million U.S. dollars. The total domestic box office is expected to be around 60 million U.S. dollars, which may ultimately be higher than that of July 28 The $175 million "Waterworld" released on the same day was even higher.
Even if the consecutive "Little Women" and "Clueless" are not blockbusters exceeding 100 million, relative to the cost, the projects are very successful, plus an Oscar nomination for Best Actress, Mia Ko Shi Na is definitely more capable than Christina Ricci in supporting the heroine of "Sleepy Hollow".
Of course, there’s also Simon’s personal preference.
Just like the original heroine Christina Ricci, it's totally Tim Burton's quirky aesthetic.
Personal preference is definitely not to make fun of a blockbuster.
Simon also feels that Mia Kirschner is more suitable for the role of Catalina in "Sleepy Hollow". Compared with Christina Ricci's weird elf appearance, Mia Kirshner has a kind of personality that comes from her bones. Evil and gloomy, it is therefore more suitable to play the role of a witch. Once these qualities are discovered, even the leading actor Johnny Depp may not be able to resist it.
Simon has always felt that Mia Kirshner, who was once only considered a second- and third-tier actress in Hollywood, was seriously underestimated, but she never had the opportunity to show her talents.
Of course, this sort of thing has been commonplace since the dawn of Hollywood.
There is no fairness.
Tim Burton was originally a little dissatisfied with Simon's predetermined heroine. After seeing Mia's audition, he immediately lost his resistance and felt that he had found his muse. He discussed with the screenwriter again and added some scenes for the heroine.
This production meeting is mainly to finalize all the details of "Sleepy Hollow" and ensure to the greatest extent that the project can be fully progressed according to the schedule after the official filming begins.
Girl A sent Simon into the conference room, but she had no intention of participating. She had other work to do.
Amanda Foer, who greeted Chen Qing and the two girls in the morning, was waiting in Girl A's office area outside Simon's office with a stack of documents. When her boss entered the conference room next door, Alison returned here and sat down behind her desk. Checking the documents handed over by Amanda, he stopped the girl who was about to leave: "Wait a minute."
Amanda stopped in confusion: "A, do you want coffee?"
Alison quickly marked a script file for the new season of "Wives of New York" with a pen, shook her head and said, "No need, tell me what you talked about when you received Chen and Brandt this morning?"
When Amanda saw Girl A asking about this, she felt a little uneasy. Suddenly he remembered that Chen Qing, or the red-haired girl, might be his boss's woman.
My previous indolence may have been a serious mistake.
Girl A's voice was cold, she raised her head and glanced at her again, her eyes were also cold. Amanda's spine felt slightly cold, she quickly cheered up, and spent the morning as usual with Chen all the way from Los Angeles International Airport to Malibu Studios. Qing revealed all the details of the exchange between the two women.
Alison listened quietly to Amanda's words, and had already read through the documents in front of her attentively. She picked up the "Honey Wives of New York" script again and began to read it carefully. She said to Amanda: "Okay, go back. Go to work, and remember to compile a summary of the game department’s monthly report for July and give it to me before you get off work.”
Amanda nodded, but did not dare to leave. She hesitated and said, "A, if possible, maybe I would like to say sorry to Miss Chen and Miss Brandt in person."
Girl A looked up at her, suddenly smiled, shook her head and said: "No, and you did a good job this time. You will do the same to those women in the future. Keep it up, and I can apply for a salary increase for you next year."
Amanda's eyes widened slightly, and then she suddenly realized.
The boss in front of me is not only the boss's assistant, but also the boss's woman.
There is, of course, tit-for-tat between women.
Calculated this way, from the standpoint of my superior, I certainly did the right thing.
However, although she nodded along on the surface, Amanda secretly thought to herself that she would definitely not be able to follow Girl A's wishes in the future.
I am just a little shrimp.
There was a fight between the big goblins, and if she got involved rashly, she would be trampled to death if she wasn't careful.
Born in an ordinary middle-class family, Amanda, who graduated from the Ivy League school Cornell University at the age of 27 this year, is considered the best among many classmates around her. She doesn’t want to throw away Simon Westero’s personal assistant office. A lucrative job that paid off all of her college loans in one year.
After the two-hour production meeting for "Sleepy Hollow", I rushed to the Pixar office area on the second floor of the studio to discuss the soundtrack for the film for an hour with the team of the 3D version of "Beauty and the Beast" to be released at the end of the year. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Simon returned to his office in the borough, this time for a meeting.
Simon returned to his office, where the guests were already waiting.
This is a middle-aged man with black hair and a square face, about 40 years old, with a thin stubble, and wearing a formal dark blue suit. It is obviously not suitable for the man's burly figure and wild temperament, which is close to 1.9 meters tall.
The middle-aged man is Victor Mericis, 39 years old this year, and a white Angolan man of Portuguese origin.
This is the head of the coffee plantation that the Westeros family’s headhunting team in Angola found for Simon. Even if Simon has other thoughts on the 600 square kilometers of coffee growing area, if it can be taken care of well, he will of course be more happy to see it. This is still the principle that Simon insists on that a sustainable business model can support a business for a longer period of time.
Therefore, Simon was very selective in selecting the person in charge of the plantation.
After the two greeted each other, they came to Simon's office and sat down, waiting for Girl A to bring coffee and leave. When Simon asked him about his plan for the plantation, Victor Melisis' first words did not disappoint Simon: "Mr. Westeros, I believe that the plantation is not the most important thing to you. If I can get your authorization, I can personally contact Savimbi to talk."
Jonas Savimbi, leader of the Angolan rebels.
After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Savimbi, who was originally the spokesperson of the West in Angola, was abandoned and his strength shrank rapidly. Although the Angolan government army is still fighting a civil war, it has actually been compressed to less than 15% of the territory of southeastern Angola. Destruction is just a matter of time. A matter of time.
The coffee growing area that Simon obtained from the Angolan government happens to be located in the confrontation zone between Savimbi forces and government forces in the southeast of the country.
Although he had intervened to prevent the tragedy of the Rwandan Genocide, from the perspective of the Westeros system at this time, Simon did not want Savimbi to be wiped out by the Angolan government forces too early.
What did you say
Raise the bandits to respect themselves.
As long as the Angolan opposition persists, the Westerosi system's various deals with the Angolan government can continue.
To Simon's surprise, the 'farmer' he found not only discovered this keenly, but also volunteered to negotiate with Savimbi in person.
You know, if there is no communication between the two parties, it is difficult to guarantee that Savimbi will not send troops to harass or even attack Simon's plantation in Angola. If he wants to get peace, Simon has no choice but to take action. By then, both parties will have no room for maneuver. On the contrary, if a certain tacit understanding is formed after quiet communication, and both parties are in peace, Savimbi will only cause trouble for the Angolan government forces, which will be beneficial to both parties.
However, Simon didn't intend to do this.
Although I had carefully investigated the details of Victor Melisis beforehand, it was only the first time they met, and there was no trust between the two parties at all.
If Melises has collusion with the Angolan government, it will be self-defeating if Simon agrees to the other party's proposal. Moreover, even if he wanted to raise Kou to respect himself, Simon didn't have many thoughts of contacting Savimbi. He wanted to see if the other party was smart enough to take the initiative to make certain choices.
This will leave no hidden dangers.
Many facts in the past have proven that African warlords are very smart. However, if they have really lost their minds due to their failures over the years, Simon will not mind fighting with the other party's armed forces at all, and has invested so much money to form the Wei family's private army. , not for display.
Any army needs to see blood frequently in order to maintain strong combat effectiveness.