The merger negotiations between General Electric and Time Warner are still going on, and another large-scale media industry merger has been finalized again.
On September 11, Westinghouse Electric and CBS Group held a joint press conference at the CBS headquarters in Rockefeller Center, New York, announcing that Westinghouse Electric would acquire CBS Group with a cash offer of US$9 billion, and at the same time assume CBS Group's total debt of US$1.9 billion. The total transaction The amount reached US$10.9 billion.
When news of Daenerys Entertainment's intention to acquire CBS Group went viral some time ago, CBS' market value peaked at US$8.7 billion. If the deal comes true, it will be difficult for Daenerys Entertainment to acquire CBS within the US$11 billion offer. .
Daenerys Entertainment turned to Metropolis ABC Group with a false shot, and CBS's stock price plummeted. In this transaction, Westinghouse Electric only gave a 23% premium based on the stock price before the merger was announced. Not counting debt, the merger and acquisition amounted to US$9 billion. The amount is $2 billion less than the expected offer for CBS to be acquired by Daenerys.
This is taken for granted by many media.
How can Westinghouse, with a current market capitalization of just over US$40 billion, be able to compete with Daenerys Entertainment
Since it can't take advantage of Daenerys' ride, it can be sold for US$9 billion, which is already a very high price compared to CBS, whose market value was still hovering around US$5 billion at the beginning of the year.
With the announcement of the change of ownership of CBS, it is basically announced that the three major established television networks in the United States are all attached to large corporate giants, and it is unlikely that there will be any changes in the short term. Those who have a keen sense of the media industry will realize another meaning behind these changes.
Monopolistic carving up of public television networks by large corporate giants.
Although the market share of public television networks continues to be eroded by cable TV, no one can deny that the three major established television networks play a vital role in influencing and controlling American public opinion.
These are three loudspeakers that can advertise nationwide, and their communication capabilities are stronger than any traditional paper media.
With the rise of the Internet, the decline of print media, and the carving up of public television networks, the U.S. media industry has returned to the era of oligopoly from the blooming of a hundred flowers that lasted for decades before the 1990s.
Monopoly means loss of freedom.
Loss of press freedom.
However, not just anyone can stop this industry trend that will eventually merge after a long period of separation.
On the other hand, Viacom Group, another 'suitor' of CBS, lost the merger dispute. When the merger between Westinghouse Electric and CBS Group was announced, the stock price fell sharply by 6.1% that day. It missed the opportunity. This acquisition of CBS is an opportunity to transform into a media giant. Viacom's future fate is likely to be the acquiree, and it is unlikely to carry out large-scale expansion.
A frustrated Summer Redstone publicly stated that afternoon that he would file a lawsuit against Westinghouse Electric and CBS Group, accusing the two companies of defrauding Viacom during the merger negotiations, and intended to prevent the merger at all costs finally achieved.
The outside world is confused about this.
However, Simon got the news that Redstone had been tricked by CBS major shareholder Larry Tisch during the transaction negotiations. Tisch promised that Redstone could agree to the other party's stock exchange merger as long as he raised the offer to US$9.2 billion. The two parties reached a tacit understanding about the offer, and in a blink of an eye, the news was given to Westinghouse, forcing Westinghouse to increase the offer from the previously agreed upon US$8.7 billion to US$9 billion at the last moment.
It still seems not as high as Viacom's $9.2 billion offer, but Westinghouse's offer is an all-cash deal.
In the process of corporate mergers and acquisitions, unless they are very optimistic about the development prospects of the two companies after the merger, most shareholders of the acquired company will tend to get more cash and settle down.
Viacom increased its offer to US$9.2 billion, which on the surface seems to allow the original CBS shareholders to obtain more shares of the new company after the merger. The problem is that no one can guarantee that after the merger of the two companies, the new Viacom What will happen if the stock price plummets
You must know that CBS' stock price is seriously overvalued because it was snapped up by two companies at the same time. After the merger, the bubble is likely to be burst.
Therefore, as long as you are not too stupid, you know how to choose between a US$9.2 billion stock-for-share merger and a US$9 billion all-cash acquisition.
As for Redstone's anger, the result was nothing but anger.
Being fooled means being fooled.
Even if a lawsuit is actually filed, it will only become a meaningless entanglement that will never end.
After all, the two parties did not sign a contract.
In the final analysis, Viacom itself was unable to raise enough cash from Wall Street for this acquisition. This was also the result of the Westeros system quietly exerting its strength. Simon did not want to see Viacom acquire CBS in the first place. .
At the same time that Westinghouse Electric and CBS Group reached a merger agreement, another much smaller deal was also officially finalized.
After more than two months of low-key negotiations, Apollo Management, a subsidiary of Cersei Capital, acquired IBM's battery R&D and production department for US$1.25 billion. This part of the assets includes a total of 5 IBM facilities in North America and overseas. A battery product R&D team and three battery factories located in New York State, Mexico and China, as well as, most importantly, a large number of battery-related core patents.
Simon conducted the transaction through Apollo Management primarily to facilitate the split.
The current IBM battery R&D and production department mainly produces traditional rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries for IBM's laptop computers and other electronic products. This is the case in two factories located in Mexico City, the capital of Mexico, and Guangdong, China. Only New York State last year A battery factory has just been built to produce the latest lithium-ion batteries, and its scale is far smaller than the two large battery factories in Mexico and China.
Simon took over IBM's battery R&D and production department, mainly for lithium batteries.
As an old electronics giant, IBM's heritage is no less than that of cutting-edge electronics manufacturers in Europe and Asia. After Sony first launched commercial lithium-ion batteries in 1992, IBM also completed the development of related products last year and established a new factory in Albany, New York. The city established a lithium battery factory.
After Louis Gerstner was appointed to take charge of IBM in 1992, he has been streamlining the huge and bloated IBM. IBM's battery department is not a burden to this old giant, but it is not the core business. The revenue and profits achieved by IBM They are not high, and they are part of the assets that can be divested and retained.
When the Westeros system reached out, Gerstner quickly agreed.
The head of IBM originally hoped to use the aura of Westeros, just like Welch who only wanted to sell half of NBC's shares, to change the IBM battery department from a sole proprietorship to a joint venture with the Westeros system, with IBM only holding a share , operations are handed over to the Westeros system.
If it had been any other situation, Simon would have agreed.
It is difficult for an independent battery supplier to survive independently, and it will definitely need customers. By maintaining IBM's shareholding, battery companies will naturally be able to obtain large orders from IBM in the future.
However, since all Simon wants is IBM's lithium battery R&D team, patented technology and product factories, and is not interested in the current mainstream heavily polluting nickel-cadmium batteries, maintaining IBM's shareholding will not work.
After Simon personally talked to Gerstner several times on the phone, the other party finally relented and agreed to hand over the battery department completely to Apollo Management Company for operation. At the same time, Simon agreed to give IBM Group a 25% stake in Rectery, a battery company directly established by Westeros.
Rectery is an original word derived from Recyclable Battery and follows common naming rules in Silicon Valley.
This is also Simon's positioning for this new company.
new technology.
Rectery will also be headquartered in Silicon Valley.
Mainly to take advantage of the new technology industry.
After taking over IBM's battery department, Apollo Management will spin off all lithium battery-related R&D teams, patented technologies and product factories and sell them to Rectery, and then operate the remaining traditional nickel-cadmium battery business alone.
Even if lithium batteries are an inevitable trend in the future, traditional nickel-cadmium batteries still have at least a 10-year life cycle. At this stage, they are the mainstream equipment of various portable electronic products, so it is not difficult to make a difference in this part of the business.
Once a sub-department of IBM, it was dragged down by IBM's solidified system and remained sluggish for a long time. This was not something Gerstner could change in just three years. After the split is completed, the nickel-cadmium battery business will also be established as a separate company. Apollo Management Company plans to improve corporate efficiency, expand production, and strive for more market share through several years of operation. It will then either package and sell it, or choose to go public. , and finally cashed out.
A standard private equity M&A and restructuring operation.
At the same time, it has inherited IBM's full set of lithium battery R&D teams, patented technologies and production plants, and is no longer constrained by IBM's bloated and huge corporate system. It also has extensive potential needs from IBM, Tinker Bayer and even Nokia. There is no need to worry about market issues, Rectery can devote itself wholeheartedly to the research and development and production of the latest lithium batteries.
There are many things happening in this world every moment.
In recent years, the American public has gradually discovered that more and more major events happening around them seem to be related to the Westeros system.
Because the subsequent split and reorganization plan is not known, and Simon's potential layout is even more confidential, IBM's sale of the battery department did not cause too many waves, but it was another Flas** that relied on the Igret Facebook social network. *It went online and gained nationwide attention.
This is "Happy Ranch" that has been developed for a long time and has been put on hold for a long time in order to maintain the status of "Happy Ranch".
In fact, it is also to build momentum for Yigret’s IPO road show.
Although an IPO will enter a months-long silent period after submitting a prospectus, it does not mean that a company cannot stimulate the market through some business operations.
As a result, "Happy Ranch", which is completely linked with "Happy Ranch", was launched on September 22.
Exactly 18 months after "Farm" was launched.
At the beginning, the "Happy Farm" game operation team decided to launch "Happy Farm" when the game started to decline, so as to provide help in times of need, rather than add icing on the cake. The initial estimated launch time was 12 months to 18 months after the opening of "Happy Farm" About a month.
The result is that, under the careful care of the operation team, the life cycle of "Happy Farm" far exceeds many people's imagination.
The operations team initially predicted that the peak number of users of "Happy Farm" should be around 100 million. As of the launch of "Happy Ranch", the total number of users of "Happy Farm" worldwide has reached 149 million, even though the game revenue has been spent At its peak, with a huge user base at the national level, "Happy Ranch" still brought in US$21.79 million in revenue through prop sales in the most recent week before "Happy Ranch" was launched.
This is the 11th consecutive month since the single-week revenue of "Farm" exceeded 20 million in November last year, and it has maintained this figure for 11 consecutive months. During the Easter event at the beginning of the year, "Farm" also created a highest single-week revenue of 33.12 million US dollars. Revenue record.
Comprehensive statistics show that in the 18 months since its launch on March 25 last year, the cumulative revenue of "Happy Farm" has reached US$1.376 billion.
It's a miracle.
Although it cannot be compared with the games such as "Pokémon" and "Super Mario" that Simon remembered, which brought billions or even tens of billions of dollars in revenue to game companies, the problem is that the revenue brought by those games is It is an entire series that has accumulated revenue over decades and even surrounding areas.
"Farm Farm", which is also a phenomenon, is just a game without a sequel. Moreover, it only took less than two years for the game revenue to exceed 1 billion US dollars.
Such dazzling results far exceeded the various farm games in Simon's memory, but it was not unexpected.
Because this is a game that Yigrit, which currently occupies the majority of users in the global Internet market, fully supports it.
As of September 1995, the number of global Internet users has reached close to 400 million. Unlike the diversification of the Internet industry in history, almost all global Internet users at this stage cannot avoid Yigrit, so it is impossible to bypass " happy farm".
Not only that, the game was a success after it was launched last year. Although the initial development cost was only US$1.5 million, the two giants Daenerys and Ygrit spared no effort in the follow-up investment of this game.
In order to ensure the "ecological balance" within the game to the greatest extent and avoid disadvantages such as excessive production of virtual items or too fast upgrades, the operation team specially recruited a team of top mathematicians and sociologists to study statistics on this game. Various data involved in the game are continuously optimized to ensure the user's gaming experience.
In order to make the planting activities in the game more realistic, "Happy Farm" also has a team of botanist consultants.
It is precisely by sparing no effort to improve these details that 18 months after "Happy Farm" was launched, although the user growth rate has continued to slow down, there has still been no obvious decline, and it has become an indispensable national level for Internet users when surfing the Internet. pastime.
The launch of "Happy Ranch" this time is mainly to build momentum for Tinker Bayer's IPO.
In addition, there is also the consideration that Daenerys Entertainment will release its first fiscal year full-year financial report next month. After last year's IPO, Daenerys Entertainment adjusted the group's financial statistics cycle from the natural year to October of each year to September of the following year, which is more in line with the schedule rules of the entertainment industry.
Because it is a game directly linked to "Happy Ranch", some props and virtual currencies of "Happy Ranch" can also be used directly in "Happy Ranch". Therefore, even though it is a seemingly simple Flas*** , after it was launched on September 22, it became a collective carnival on the entire Internet platform.
September 22nd happens to be a Friday.
After a large-scale pre-publicity warm-up, "Happy Ranch" was launched on time at 8 o'clock that night. As of 8 o'clock the next morning, in 12 hours, the number of activated users of "Happy Ranch" exceeded 40 million.
Subsequently, as of 12 o'clock in the evening on Sunday, September 24, during the three-day weekend, the number of activated users of "Happy Ranch" successfully exceeded 100 million, and finally reached 107 million, equivalent to more than two-thirds of the 149 million "Happy Ranch" users All have opened "Happy Ranch". The operation team announced on the official Facebook account of "Happy Ranch" at 12 o'clock on Sunday that it will apply for the Guinness record for the fastest number of users of this game to exceed 100 million.
On the first weekend of its launch, the opening revenue of "Happy Ranch" also got off to a good start, directly breaking the single-week revenue record of US$33.12 million set by "Happy Ranch" during the Easter period in the first half of the year. In three days, the game revenue It reached 36.75 million US dollars, successfully becoming another cash cow for Daenerys and Ygritte that is more profitable than drug trafficking.
When the new week comes, "Happy Ranch" has become the hottest topic of discussion in various media. This influence has also been transmitted to the capital market, causing Daenerys Entertainment's stock price to rise sharply on Monday.