Ford quickly gave Li Mu a definite reply through Davidson. In the reply, Ford made it clear that Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo could all be considered for sale.
As for more specific issues, Ford hopes to have an interview with Li Mu, or for both parties to send representatives for a simple consultation first.
Li Mu immediately thought of sending Elon Musk to take the lead. Elon Musk is one of the top liars in Silicon Valley. It would be no problem to leave this matter to him, and it would even be more effective than doing it himself.
Fortunately, Elon Musk is in the United States, and he can take the time to fly to Ford headquarters to have the first round of talks with them.
So Li Mu called Elon Musk again and asked him to go to the city where Ford's headquarters is located over the weekend and go directly to interview with Ford people the next Monday morning.
On the phone, Li Mu made several requests to Elon Musk:
First, Ford must be required to transfer all assets under its three brands, including hidden assets such as patented technologies;
Second, Ford must ensure that after the acquisition of Makino Technology, 80% of the core teams of these three brands will not leave their jobs in the next three years. Similarly, Makino Technology also guarantees that the salaries of employees under these three brands will not be lower than those in the same industry;
Third, payment must be made in installments. Regardless of the final acquisition amount, Makino Technology must pay in five years, with 35% in the first year, 25% in the next year, 20% in the third year, and the remaining four to five years. 10%, that is to say, from 2004, it will be paid back until the opening of the Yanjing Olympics.
If Ford can agree to these three points, then continue to talk to them. If he can't agree, there is no need to continue the chat.
If that doesn't work, you can still talk to Daimler about acquiring several Chrysler brands.
Daimler and Chrysler have been unlucky since they merged. Chrysler has no ability to make money and has a strong ability to incur debts. It is said that the current market value of DaimlerChrysler is not as high as Daimler's own market value before the merger. .
It is definitely impossible for Daimler to sell Mercedes-Benz to itself, but Chrysler, Jeep, and Dodge should still be fine.
As for the acquisition price, it is naturally impossible for Li Mu to let Elon Musk make the decision, and he himself cannot make a decision immediately. The team he asked Elon Musk to form was prepared for this. For such a large-scale acquisition case, The whole process will take at least about a year. After the intention is reached, you can slowly get to know their bottom line, and then combine it with their quotations to formulate a pricing strategy for the acquisition.
Elon Musk naturally obeyed his orders. After receiving Li Mu's call, he immediately started preparing for the trip.
After leaving the negotiation with Ford to Elon Musk, Li Mu continued to focus on Panda Bear.
As the panda bears became famous, Sichuandu became the biggest beneficiary. The number of tourists surged, tourism revenue soared, and even local housing prices skyrocketed overnight.
I think back then, Zhao Lei sang about the housing prices in Sichuandu with her song "Sichuandu" on "I Am a Singer", not to mention the global brainwashing propaganda of Panda Bear.
Panda Bear made this city famous all over the world overnight, becoming the city that tourists from all over the world wanted to visit most in 2004.
Many hotel groups have also focused their attention on Sichuandu. At one time, there were more than ten hotel groups preparing to open branches or expand their operations in Sichuandu. Tourism capital from other levels also poured into Sichuandu.
Even Sichuan Airlines is actively applying for loans and government subsidies, hoping to expand its fleet as soon as possible and make full use of Sichuan as its base to enjoy good food during this wave of dividends.
Currently, the marketing team of Makino Technology has reached a consensus with the Sichuan City Government to make the panda bear the most important visual element of Sichuan City in the future.
In other words, in the future, the image of panda bears will be overwhelming throughout Sichuandu. When tourists come to Sichuandu, they are guaranteed to see panda bears as soon as they open their eyes.
This is also a copy of the operation method of Kumamoto Prefecture back then. In Kumamoto, Kumamoto bears are also overwhelming. Traveling to Kumamoto Prefecture is equivalent to being in a sea of Kumamoto bears.
At the same time, Makino Technology has not stopped cracking down on piracy and infringement. Currently, market supervision departments across the country are focusing on pirated Panda Bear products, so that it is almost impossible to buy pirated Panda Bear-related products.
The entire Yiwu Small Commodity Market seems to have been cast under a spell. Originally, it was all Kumamon-related products, but now there is no trace at all.
From production to wholesale to retail, every link is under the watchful eye of the market supervision department, which has led to the breakage of the monetization chain for pirated goods.
For example, some small workshops want to take risks and continue to produce some pirated Panda Bear products to seek illegal profits, but it is difficult for them to find wholesalers who dare to continue to distribute pirated Panda Bear products, let alone retailers scattered across the country. ;
If some intermediate wholesalers want to take risks and go to their upstream suppliers, the upstream factories may not dare to start production, nor the downstream retailers.
It would be even more troublesome if a low-level retailer wants to take risks. Others may try to sell goods but simply cannot get them.
Therefore, once the chain of production, wholesale, and retail is broken, pirated goods will lose the ground for their existence.
After solving the negative impact of piracy, Li Mu decided to continue to cultivate the influence of Panda Bear.
For him, Panda Bear is a super IP, but for now, it is popular enough but still lacks a lot of content.
This guy currently only has a few sets of cartoon images and two sets of real-life dynamic expressions.
In order for Panda Bear to continue to be popular, it is necessary not only to continue to promote cooperation between Panda Bear and top brands, but also to continue to launch new cartoon images, new dynamic expressions, and even launch more offline publicity and promotion activities. .
Li Mu knows very well that a good IP will suffer a big loss if the content is short and little.
Looking back at the operating model of popular IPs in the West and Japan, as long as the ratings of a TV series are good enough, it can be filmed season after season, and a comic can be produced for hundreds of episodes. This is the key point to strengthen the IP. .
Li Mu feels that the image of the panda bear is somewhat thin, because it only has images and actions, and no story behind it.
Since there are no stories, make some stories for him!
Li Mu's first thought was to invest in a Panda Bear cartoon series.
Just like Joy and Bear, we create a world view, a character, and a background for Panda Bear, and then connect them with a main line and countless small stories.
If it is made into a cartoon, it is not suitable to have a modern background, because once it is integrated into the modern background, it will inevitably have to deal with human beings, because human beings are the creators of modern society.
Li Mu didn't want a cartoon animal image to interact with modern humans, so why not give it a worldview with no humans and only animals.
When he thought of this, Li Mu immediately thought of "Zootopia" and "Kung Fu Panda".
"Zootopia" is a very new movie. The animal worldview in it is very large. Almost all the animals that can be imagined are included in it. The protagonist is a rabbit who dreams of becoming a policeman.
Li Mu can no longer remember the year "Kung Fu Panda" was released, but the plot of "Kung Fu Panda" is still vivid in Li Mu's memory.
There is not only a panda named Po, but also Po's adoptive father, a duck, as well as turtles, tigers, cranes, mantises, snakes, golden monkeys, rhinoceros, red pandas and other animals with distinctive personalities. The Animal World The structure of "Zootopia" is not as complex as that of "Zootopia", but because it incorporates China's unique martial arts style, it also looks particularly full.
Comparing the two, the theme of "Kung Fu Panda" is more suitable for Panda Bear.
Moreover, "Kung Fu Panda" itself is a blend of ancient Chinese background and martial arts style, with stronger Chinese elements.
In Li Mu's mind, he already had a rough idea.
This prototype is divided into two steps. The first step is to borrow the setting of "Kung Fu Panda". The background is a small town in the Chinese mountains. Various animals live in the town, including a panda named Po.
Po is the only panda in the town. His father is a duck who runs a noodle shop. At this time, Po has just grown up and has a dream of becoming a kung fu master.
The subsequent plot trend also completely uses the routine of "Kung Fu Panda".
However, this is only the first step.
The second step is to push the timeline of the story forward.
Po in "Kung Fu Panda" begins with him as a young adult, telling the story of how he became a kung fu master, and then goes on to tell the story of him and his people's special background.
The second step is to specifically describe the story that happened in this town when Po was a young panda. This can be set as a low-age route like Xi Yangyang, and attract the audience through short unit stories.
In this way, "Kung Fu Panda" seizes the big screen as well as the market for children, teenagers, and adults.
"Bao" is taking over the small screen at home and the market for young children and teenagers.
Thinking of this, Li Mu suddenly remembered that "Kung Fu Panda" seemed to be produced by DreamWorks.
DreamWorks belongs to Spielberg!
So Li Mu immediately called Spielberg.
We are all old acquaintances, wouldn't it be nice to let his DreamWorks make an animated movie for his panda bear, and everyone can get what they want
The call was connected, and Spielberg seemed a little excited to receive a call from Li Mu.
After Li Mu was polite to him for a while, he went straight to the point and said, "Stephen, I called because I have something to ask you for help."
Spielberg said hurriedly: "How can Mr. Li be so polite to me? If you have anything to do, just ask."
Li Mu said: "I recently created a cartoon character called Panda Bear. You must have heard of it, right?"
Spielberg laughed: "Of course, it's not just people who have heard about it, I am also a fan of Panda Bear."
"That's great." Li Mu said, "That's right, I want to customize a series of big movies for Panda Bear, animated movies. Your DreamWorks is a master of animated movies. Are you interested in making a big movie about Panda Bear? ?”
"Panda Bear?" Spielberg said subconsciously: "We just started a new project at the end of last year, which is about pandas. The art side has now started working on the visual design."
Li Mu hurriedly asked: "What project? Is it called easy to reveal?"
Spielberg said: "The tentative title is Kung Fu Panda."
(End of chapter)