Chapter 255: Surrender! Let’s put an end to it!
Renren Group held another board meeting.
"Perfect World can no longer operate. If it continues to decline like this, it will really be worthless."
“End the internal beta test and announce to the public that the game will undergo a comprehensive and thorough upgrade.”
Everyone agreed because this way there is still a bit of decency. If we wait until the number of online users plummets to an extremely ugly number, there will be no surplus value at all.
"And then? What should we do?"
All shareholders present fell silent.
Yes, is it possible to really recruit a professional team to redo it?
Impossible, how much money would that cost?
"Sell it. While Perfect World still has some residual value, try to get a good price for it." Liao Feng.
Miyazaki: "How much does it cost?"
Liao Feng thought for a while: "Quote, 100 million?"
Everyone just felt a toothache.
The investment in this game from start to finish, including publicity costs, server costs, and buying out all the shares of this game at a super premium, cost hundreds of millions.
Sell for 100 million.
It was really a huge loss.
………………
Then, Renren Group began to contact various parties, hoping to sell "Perfect World" in its entirety.
Their primary targets are Sina, Sohu, Tencent, and NetEase.
Because mobile SP policies are becoming increasingly stringent, everyone is working hard to transform and has set their sights on the huge gold mine of online games.
Liao Feng has great expectations for Sohu because the two parties are strategic allies and Sohu is also one of the major shareholders of Renren Group. If it purchases this game, it will be like transferring from one hand to the other in a sense.
Moreover, although Liao Feng was reluctant to admit it, he always had a deep memory of one scene.
That was the style in which Wu Lingxi persuaded Zhang Chaoyang to hand over Chinaren and the social department of Lingxi Island for a merger.
So, he kind of wanted to copy this scene.
"Mr. Zhang, I won't hide it from you. The number of online users of this game has fallen below 100,000, to about 86,000." Liao Feng said, "But it has a very large number of potential users, and it has also created great glory. If it is completely reworked, there is still great hope."
"In addition, because Lightning Group has set a very bad example, the cost of developing domestic online games will continue to increase. Perfect World has already completed a large part of it, so it will be much easier to rebuild on this basis."
"So the price of 100 million is really not expensive."
Zhang Chaoyang didn't say a word from beginning to end.
Liao Feng: "Mr. Zhang, the price is not negotiable."
After a long while, Zhang Chaoyang slowly said, "It's not about the price, but I don't know how to buy it."
Liao Feng: “Why?”
Zhang Chaoyang: "Even if I want to enter the online game industry, I will start a project from scratch. That way I can feel the pulse of the entire industry and train an excellent team."
“So, I won’t buy this game.”
"Of course, there is another important point. I... am very reluctant to cooperate with you."
………………
After the failure at Sohu.
Liao Feng went to Shanda and Jiucheng.
All were rejected.
They made it very clear that it was not because of the price issue, but because they were worried that buying this game would drag down the reputation of the original company.
Because this game has been dying so quickly recently.
Sina and Tencent also showed little interest.
In the end, it was Mr. Chi from Hong En Online who extended an olive branch. He was willing to buy the game back, improve it, and then start operations.
Because this game was originally produced under his leadership, but it was bought by Liao Feng for a large price in the middle.
but……
The price Mr. Chi offered completely broke Liao Feng's defense.
Ten million!
The other party was only willing to offer 10 million.
Fuck you.
Your investment in this game was only a few tens of millions, but I spent more than 100 million to buy back part of your shares.
As a result, you now want to buy it back in its entirety, but are only willing to spend 10 million?
Even if it completely rots in my hands, I will never sell it to you.
……………………
When Liao Feng returned to the company, another piece of bad news came.
Renren’s traffic has plummeted.
Liao Feng found Chen Yizhou and asked, "You have always been the co-CEO. Why did the traffic of Renren.com drop so much after Wu Lingxi left?"
"Is her ability really that strong?"
"Once she leaves, will the effect be so immediate?"
Chen Yizhou said slowly: "Boss Liao, there are two reasons."
"The first reason is that Renren's foundation has never been as good as Facebook's. It was only by relying on Wu Lingxi's personal ability and hard work, one after another, that Renren managed to stabilize its traffic and reach its peak."
"The CCTV Spring Festival Gala was the last big trick. After that, she actually relied on spending money to generate traffic to maintain this superficial prosperity."
"After the upheaval, her entire team resigned, so... the internal operating system also collapsed."
"Many activities to maintain Renren's traffic have stopped, and spending money to increase traffic has also stopped."
“That’s the first reason.”
"The second reason is that after the great changes in our Renren Group, a large number of celebrities stopped operating their accounts. A large number of official organization accounts also shifted their focus to Facebook."
"Of course, these stars have signed contracts with us and have content tasks. But before, their management teams were willing to spend some time to create content, but now they are just perfunctory. So the traffic in this area is also declining."
"Of course, the most important reason is that we haven't built up enough semi-acquaintance social genes, so stickiness is always insufficient."
“In addition, there is Renren Video.”
Liao Feng: "What happened to Renren Video?"
Chen Zhou said: "Before, why did we compete with Lin Xiao's YouTube? We announced a grand plan and claimed that we would spend hundreds of millions to support content creation. Of course, we were just shouting slogans, and we didn't actually spend that much money. But at least we were still spending money, and after the incident, we... don't have the money to support these things."
"So, the traffic of Renren Video also plummeted."
Liao Feng: "Don't we have a lot of TV series and movie copyrights?"
Chen Yizhou: "If we rely solely on film and television copyrights, we need to constantly update the content. We may even need to produce our own content in the future. Otherwise, our copyright library may seem large, but in fact it is still insignificant for user needs."
Liao Feng turned on the computer and looked at the traffic curve of Renren.
It was a steep fall! It was just a steep fall.
It just kept falling.
Previously, Wu Lingxi monopolized the power of Renren.com and Chen Yizhou had some complaints.
But after he actually took over, he realized how difficult it was to maintain the stall, and how much effort Wu Lingxi had put in to keep it prosperous for more than a year.
"We are different from Facebook. It has built a mature social gene, so no matter what it does, it can get twice the result with half the effort. But we get half the result with twice the effort, and we need to continuously invest money, but now..."
Now, how can the entire Renren Group have any money? Last time, Liao Feng said that if he wanted to keep the remaining assets of the Renren Group, he would need to add more money, at least 300 or 400 million. Until now, these shareholders are unwilling to do so.
Now, shareholders are unwilling to pay for running World of Warcraft, let alone running Renren, which is even more of a money-eating behemoth.
………………
Compared with the miserable situation of Renren Group, Lightning Group is in its heyday.
Although "Drawing Sword" did not choose CCTV, it was still sold to several allied TV stations.
The five major TV stations bought the first broadcast rights at a sky-high price of two million per episode.
This move is actually not very rational.
Because there is a large overlap in the audiences of the three satellite TV stations in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai, a civil war will occur.
but……
The ratings are still booming.
Even among the five channels broadcasting simultaneously, Zhijiang TV's highest viewership has exceeded 10%.
The lowest ratings for Guangxi Satellite TV still exceeded 5%.
Another super phenomenal work.
Lightning Group once again proved to everyone that as long as they were strategically tied to Lightning Group, there would be huge benefits.
This year, Lightning Entertainment has three major dramas to be released.
Plus four variety shows.
The ratings of the five major TV stations will be amazing throughout the year.
Jiangnan TV, in particular, has directly entered the ranks of first-tier satellite TV stations.
On Zhijiang TV, “The Voice of China” will be aired soon.
Then...
A piece of news came out.
SoftBank Group will acquire a 20% stake in Lightning Entertainment at a sky-high price of US$300 million.
Once this price was announced, the domestic entertainment industry was shaken again.
Are you crazy? $300 million for only 20% of the shares? Does SoftBank Group have too much money to burn?
With so much money, how many dramas and movies can be made?
Who can compete with Lightning Entertainment in the domestic market in the future?
……………………
After receiving this news, people within Renren Group began to question their lives once again.
How are you, Masayoshi Son and Yang Zhiyuan?
The valuation of our entire Renren Group is only about 1 billion US dollars, which is not as good as that of Lightning Entertainment? The offer we made was very sluggish.
So generous to Lin Xiao? But none of the senior capitalists are blind, and everyone thinks that Masayoshi Son bought it too expensively. Only he knows, and Lin Xiao also knows, that this price is very cheap.
Renren Games has not yet started making money, and Lightning Entertainment accounts for more than 80% of the entire group's revenue, and it is increasing rapidly every year.
It is already a blessing that such core assets can be sold.
And on the Renren Group side.
Once again, I have to face a life-and-death decision.
This is the nth board meeting.
Because Renren's traffic has been declining, a shareholder said something again.
"Otherwise, sell Renren!"
Good boy! When these words came out, everyone was stunned.
We are doing our best to preserve the value of Renren Group, and its core asset is Renren.com.
As a result, you have to sell it.
However, after being surprised, everyone regained their composure.
Why not?
Why did everyone create Renren? To create a platform and then develop other industries. More importantly, to package it, attract investment, and finally go public.
According to the previous logic, traffic is everything.
Now, faced with this drastic change, major investment is no longer possible and listing is nowhere in sight.
Moreover, the profitability of this social networking site is far from being realized. Instead, it requires continuous investment, perhaps for several years.
Even though Facebook is so awesome, it will be hard to see profits in the next few years, it’s just that Lightning Group has a cash cow.
"The social networking site track cannot accommodate two giants. The winner is the king and the loser is the enemy." IDG CEO Xiong said: "Now, do you still have the courage to surpass Facebook in terms of traffic on Renren?"
Even now, Facebook still does not disclose its traffic data.
But everyone knows that it has definitely exceeded it, and by far.
President Xiong: "Let me be frank. We don't have the courage to do that. The last battle was a one-shot victory. That battle exhausted all our strength and even all our expectations. If we lose that battle, Renren will never be able to recover. Because we can't spend any more money, and now everyone should understand what Wu Lingxi said, the social gene."
"Everyone has come to realize that the strategic direction at the beginning determines the success or failure later on."
"Facebook has been methodical from the beginning, working hard to consolidate its social moat and build its social gene among acquaintances, and has not dared to take any risks. Even a few months ago, at the critical stage of the war, it directly spun off the video site YouTube because it was worried about damaging Facebook's social gene."
“So, sell it!”
"Although the traffic has been cut in half, it is still very, very high. At least it is still valuable."
"Let's admit one thing. Right now, Renren Group's most valuable asset is only one, and that is the exclusive operating rights to World of Warcraft."
"According to our contract with Blizzard, we still need to invest tens of millions of dollars to improve, modify and promote this game."
"Of course, regarding the servers, there is good news. The vacant servers of Perfect World can be given to World of Warcraft."
"If World of Warcraft can achieve the same success as in the US market, then our Renren Group still has a future."
If all goes well, that's true.
Because when World of Warcraft was at its peak, it brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue per year.
"Now, shareholders are definitely not willing to pay tens of millions of dollars. So it's better to sell Renren and invest all the money into World of Warcraft."
“Totally focused on this game.”
Everyone looked at Liao Feng.
He said nothing, but left the office and returned to his suite.
The huge pain once again swept through my body.
Selling Renren? That would mean total failure.
The key point is that it seems that Renren is still very strong, but all shareholders have lost confidence and are unwilling to invest any more money.
Even if he couldn't be the first, he could be the second, right? Once upon a time, his focus was on Lingxi Island e-commerce, but seeing how successful and brilliant Renren was after Wu Lingxi's integration, he couldn't wait to seize power.
As a result, the focus of his career was completely shifted to Renren Group.
In less than a year and a half, it ended up like this? Is Renren Group, which sold Renren.com, still Renren Group?
Once it is sold, only World of Warcraft will be left.
………………
The shareholders did not give Liao Feng much time, just three days later.
As a shareholder representative, Miyazaki called Liao Feng directly.
"Mr. Liao, all shareholders except you have unanimously agreed to sell Renren."
Liao Feng was furious.
I didn't say I disagree, I just need to take it easy.
Are you so impatient?
Besides, have you forgotten one thing? Revenge on Wu Lingxi! Previously, we were united and wanted to put pressure on the Lightning Group to force Lin Xiao to hand over Wu Lingxi.
What is the result now? This is what Lin Xiao said, anger is worthless.
At first, you may be blinded by anger and only think about revenge, but as time goes by, it becomes more important to preserve your assets.
The amount of money lost every day is astronomical, and time really is money.
The important thing is to protect your assets as soon as possible.
Liao Feng: "Sell it, sell it."
Miyazaki: "We plan to let Mr. Xiong go to negotiate."
IDG is an international giant with many assets in China. It does not have the energy to waste on Renren Group, so it must cut the Gordian knot and stop the losses as soon as possible.
Liao Feng: "Who are you going to talk to?"
Miyazaki: "Geely, because it is also in the social field, Renren has the greatest value in its hands."
Liao Feng: "How much?"
Miyazaki: “I plan to offer $200 million.”
Liao Feng was speechless for a moment.
This price will certainly be a loss, because Renren is the core asset of Renren Group and the part with the largest investment.
From the merger of the two stations, to the first CCTV Spring Festival Gala strategy, to the entry of celebrities, to Super Girl, to the second CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and then to the daily maintenance costs.
It really is a matter of burning money to push traffic to its peak.
Even if it is sold for $200 million, it will still be a huge loss.
But...if it can really be sold for $200 million, all shareholders will have to open the champagne.
Although you will still lose money, at least you won’t lose everything.
…………………………………………
As partners, Mr. Xiong and Mr. Ma of Tencent are very familiar with each other.
"Two hundred million dollars, sold at a loss." President Xiong couldn't help but say, "Lightning Group sold its mobile SP business alone for one hundred million dollars."
Mr. Ma couldn't help but say, "Lin Xiao's asset is not expensive at 100 million US dollars, because it is a high-quality asset that can be profitable."
"Boss Xiong, you know that we can't judge this by cost."
IDG President Xiong certainly knows this very well.
For an asset, no matter how much it costs, the key is whether it is needed. If it is not needed, it is worthless.
Now, from the perspective of Renren Group, the only one who needs Renren is Tencent, because it is the dominant player in the social field.
President Xiong: "Let's be frank. Renren.com can be your biggest weapon to check and balance the Lightning Group. It allows you to attack or defend."
Tencent and Lightning Group still have a good understanding of each other so far.
Although Lightning Group has launched YY Voice, there is no trend of expansion or invading the field of social software.
The most important thing is that Tencent does not lack traffic now, but what it lacks is profit.
Controlling QQ, the largest traffic entrance, Tencent has always been a real traffic giant, but the difficulty lies in converting traffic into money.
In the past, it could make a lot of money relying on Mobile SP, but the policies on the mobile side have become increasingly stringent, and Tencent has begun to fully develop new revenue directions.
When Future Mobile proposed an unequal treaty, Tencent was the most resolute and decisive, and directly cut off the large-scale cooperation between the two parties.
Once you purchase Renren, you are building repeated traffic.
It doesn't bring any incremental value and can only serve as a defensive weapon at most.
Moreover, Tencent's current strategic focus is to shift to games. If it purchases Renren, it will need continuous investment.
Of course, if Lightning Group wants to have a big fight with Tencent, then purchasing Renren is a must.
So, a moment later Lin Xiao received a call.
"Mr. Lin, YY Voice has been very strong recently, and the number of users has exceeded 10 million." Mr. Ma said with a smile.
Lin Xiao: "Compared with QQ, it is a drop in the bucket. And it is highly unlikely that it will transform into a real instant messaging platform."
This means that we have no intention to enter the instant messaging field. But if Tencent buys Renren, it will inevitably have a big battle with us.
Then we will have no choice but to switch YY voice to instant messaging. Even if we can't beat QQ, we will make you pay a huge price.
Mr. Ma: “Understood.”
Although the two people did not say everything clearly, up to now, Lin Xiao's reputation is still first-class and he almost always keeps his word.
………………………………
IDG CEO Xiong returns to Renren Group.
"Geely won't buy it. They didn't even bargain. They just won't buy it."
The entire Renren Group shareholders were once again in grief.
If Tencent doesn’t buy it, we’ll be in trouble.
Not only does it cost a lot of money to buy this thing, but the key is that it requires continuous investment afterwards.
Moreover... as long as they buy Renren, they will definitely become the enemy of Lightning Group.
What should we do? Now that everyone has reached a consensus, we must sell it.
No one is willing to invest money in this doomed race.
Next, Renren Group contacted many more companies.
If Tencent doesn't buy, they will set their sights on Sina because they have money and their annual revenue is approaching $200 million.
And because the backwardness of portal websites has become an inevitable fact and WEB2.0 has been proven to be the future of the Internet, Sina is also actively transforming.
So, Mr. Xiong went to see Mr. Wang from Sina.
Mr. Wang was slightly excited because Sina is indeed embracing web2.0, but they already have their own direction and will launch Sina Blog in the next few months.
Renren is indeed attractive to them.
But... the cost to buy it is too high, and the cost to pay in the future will also be too high.
The key is to be the enemy of the Lightning Group.
In this race, Renren Group has already staked everything on it, but still cannot beat Facebook. Even if Sina bought it, it still cannot beat it.
The key is how long can the income from mobile SPs last? Even if Sina has money now, it does not want to make such a large-scale investment.
As a result, Renren Group once again failed.
…………………………………………
“Such a high-quality asset, such a website with such a large amount of traffic, can’t be sold?”
Liao Feng suddenly asked: "Do you want to buy from Yingke?"
Miyazaki: "Yingke will definitely not buy it. They are more realistic. They will either buy very cheap ones or ones that can make money. Our Renren is a typical Internet heavy asset. They will definitely not buy it."
Chen Yizhou: "The traffic is still decreasing, and it's decreasing every day."
"On Facebook, the traffic is probably skyrocketing every day."
At this time, Happy Farm had completely gone viral and stealing vegetables became a huge hit.
But...didn't catch up with the battle.
Because, before he could show his prowess in stealing vegetables, Lin Xiao had already won.
As a result, the whole situation came to a complete deadlock!
It has been on sale for more than half a month, and not only has no one bought it, there is not even anyone bargaining.
He saw that this huge asset was about to be destroyed in his hands.
And today's Liao Feng was particularly strange.
His eyes were bloodshot, he looked a little crazy, and he seemed to be drunk.
His eyes were almost devouring people.
And his eyes kept flickering, as if he was making the final decision.
"Renren's price is falling every day, exceeding 10 million RMB a day. I have tried to offer 1 billion RMB, but still no one is willing to take it over."
"We really can't delay it any longer. The longer we delay, the less valuable it will be." Shareholders were discussing the matter.
Suddenly, Liao Feng slammed the table.
Everyone was silent, looking at him.
Liao Feng said slowly: "Right now, there is only one person who is capable and willing to buy Renren."
"That's the Lightning Group, Lin Xiao!"
"That's the Lightning Group, that's Lin Xiao!"
"Let him buy Renren and completely merge it with Facebook!"
Fuck!
This is a great shame! He ruined us, made us so miserable, and we still have to ask him to buy Renren?
Send yourself to be humiliated?
This... this is surrendering on your knees.
Mr. Liao, didn't you care about your face the most before? Didn't you care about winning or losing with Lin Xiao the most? When did you figure it out?
but……
After a long while, everyone was silent.
Because, this is indeed the solution.
Mr. Xiong said: "I agree with this resolution."
Then he simply raised his hand.
He just wanted to get rid of it as soon as possible and then get busy with other things. He didn't want to waste time on this.
Immediately afterwards, other shareholders raised their hands in agreement.
This most outrageous resolution was passed at the fastest speed. It can only be said that money makes the world go round.
………………………………
Liao Feng shaved his beard, put on a suit, and led the team into the office building of Lightning Group.
Then, the two sides held talks.
Liao Feng: "Boss Lin, we are willing to sell Renren to Lightning Group for $200 million."
"In exchange, we promised not to hold Wu Lingxi accountable and we were willing to allow her to be the person in charge of Facebook overseas."
"Boss Lin, you win. Let me put an end to it!"
Two hundred million dollars? Are you kidding? Although Lightning Group has a lot of money, it won't spend it.
Lin Xiao said slowly: "Boss Liao, my purchase of Renren is just a duplication of traffic, it's meaningless."
Liao Feng: "You acquired Renren.com and then merged it. The total number of registered users exceeded 100 million. And this is a huge symbol of victory."
Lin Xiao: "There are so-called registered users exceeding 100 million, but there are many duplicates. And this symbol of victory is meaningless to me."
"However, I am not interested in Renren, but I am interested in Renren Video."
This is because Renren Video's copyright library is relatively rich, and when Liao Feng bought them, the prices of these film and television copyrights were also very cheap. In a few years, he would make a lot of money just from these copyright fees.
You see, although LeTV is paralyzed, the remaining LeTV is still living a comfortable life thanks to the copyrights it has accumulated before.
Liao Feng: "We don't just sell it. If you want to buy it, we'll buy the entire Renren.com. How much are you willing to pay?"
Lin Xiao poured a cup of tea for the other party, and then said with a smile: "Two hundred million RMB!"
"This is the price for buying Renren Video, and even if you want to sell the entire Renren website to me, it will still be this price!"
Fuck! That's too much!
I bid 200 million US dollars, and you bargained it down to 200 million RMB? Even if it's murderous, it wouldn't be that serious.
Liao Feng said slowly: "What you said before is right, anger is not worth anything as long as it can still be sold for money."
"Compared to revenge against Wu Lingxi, everyone wants to recover the investment as much as possible."
"So I came here, asking for peace as a defeated general, and even accepting this great humiliation."
"But there is a saying that enough is enough."
Lin Xiao: "Boss Liao, I don't mean to humiliate you. I really only want Renren Video, and I can only offer 200 million."
"And I believe that no one out there can pay more than me."
In 2009, Shanda wanted to acquire LeTV and offered 300-400 million yuan, but Jia Yueting insisted on 600-800 million yuan. The two sides fought a tug-of-war and ultimately failed to reach an agreement.
So Shanda turned around and bought Ku6.com for US$44 million, and Ku6 had already been listed in the United States at that time.
So in 2005, Lin Xiao offered 200 million RMB to buy Renren Video, which was definitely a high price.
But after a few years, this price is very reasonable.
Liao Feng: "Boss Lin, the trapped beast still fights!"
"Don't push us into a corner, or we'll both be defeated."
"You should know that I have a fatal handle on you, but I didn't use it before because of political reasons."
"But if you want to push us into a desperate situation, then I will have no choice."
Lin Xiao said slowly: "Oh? The fatal handle? I am very curious."
"But I still have to say that I may have flaws, but I have never had any fatal flaws."
"I don't care if the fish dies and the net is broken. Besides, the net may not break even if the fish dies."
"Mr. Liao, 200 million RMB, this is my final price!"
"If you are willing, we will make a deal. After I buy Renren Video, I will shut down Renren and make it disappear."
"If you don't accept it, I'm sorry, but the door is over there!"
…………………………
Note: I have been suffering from insomnia recently. Please let me sleep well at night! If you have monthly tickets, can you give me a few tickets to sleep? Thank you!
(End of this chapter)
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