In the early morning, Wei Yang was woken up by the ringing of the phone. He patted Liu Shishi, who was frowning in his arms, soothingly, and answered the phone. Yang Tianzhen's voice came from the other end.

"Hello?"

"Boss, the big dog is dead."

What the hell? You're calling me late at night because your dog died?

Wei Yang opened his mouth to curse, but when the words reached his lips he suddenly realized: "Which big dog?"

"I just received news that the chairman of Xiaoma Pentium, Mr. Li, has passed away due to a sudden illness."

As mentioned before, Boss Li of Xiaoma Pentium is a generous person who considers himself as the big brother of the underworld. Many of his acquaintances in the circle call him Big Dog Brother.

Wei Yang sat up, put Liu Shishi down, put on his clothes and walked to the side, asking in a low voice: "Tell me the details."

He soon knew the general situation, but time was tight and Yang Tianzhen didn't actually understand it very clearly.

I just heard that late tonight, this underworld boss suddenly fell ill in his own private club and was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment, but died.

It has only been confirmed not long since the person left, and the news has not yet spread, but Yang Tianzhen has a good relationship with a senior executive of Xiaoma Pentium.

The latter, perhaps out of a desire to do a favor or to find a way out, told Yang Tianzhen about it.

Xiaoma Pentium is not a small company in the circle, and Dagou is also considered a big boss. The sudden death of a person of this level will have a significant impact. After Yang Tianzhen got the news, he hurriedly notified the boss Wei Yang.

"You did a great job on this matter. Go get more information and tell me if there is anything."

Wei Yang said a few words and hung up the phone. With such a big thing happening, he couldn't sleep.

He simply put on his clothes, sat on the sofa in the hotel, lit a cigar, and thought about the impact of this incident on himself and the blue whale.

Wei Yang had known for a long time that Boss Li of Xiaoma Pentium was not very old, but he didn't know the exact time, only a rough range.

The two of them didn't have much of a relationship, and his illness was an acute one that couldn't be avoided by giving advance warnings, so Boss Wei didn't bother to care.

This kind of gangster, who is in the entertainment industry, is always smoking and drinking, and he smokes and drinks a lot. He also has no shortage of women, and staying up late is a common thing for him. With such a lifestyle, the hidden dangers in his body can be imagined.

In addition, the failure of Pentium Pony to go public at the end of last year was a major blow to its business and was likely a cause of the disease.

He is almost 50 years old, has poor health, and is at the bottom of his career, so it is not surprising that anything happened to him.

As for the conspiracy theory that it was suicide due to an incident, Boss Wei doesn't quite believe it.

The big dog died too quickly, giving almost no one time to react. It also left behind too many hidden dangers and disadvantages, which directly led to the demise of the little pony. If it was suicide, at least it would not have implicated his wife and children.

But no matter what, with the departure of Big Dog, Pony.com, which was already in a precarious situation due to its failed IPO and the heavy debt from gambling, is now in danger.

When Pony.com raised funds two years ago, its valuation was over 3 billion yuan and was snapped up by many institutions.

The company is currently facing an unfavorable listing situation and its prospects are bleak, but the hot environment means that the company is still valuable. It is said that Huayi was interested in acquiring it last year with a valuation of 5.3 billion yuan, which is definitely a first-tier company in the industry.

In addition, Pony Galloping can not only be sold for money, but also has a lot of cards to play.

They have the talented director Ning Hao, who is a close friend of the internationally renowned director Wu Baige. It is said that Zhang Yibai is also interested in joining. The current popular film industry figure Huang Bo and the popular screenwriter Ning Caishen also have in-depth cooperation with Big Dog, and they have multiple mature IPs under their names.

More importantly, Pony.com is very successful in CCTV, and its early success was largely due to CCTV.

It can be said that although the failure of the bet is troublesome, Wei Yang feels that if Big Dog is still alive, Little Pony will never fall apart.

As for Ning Hao alone, as long as the big dog can keep him stable, judging from the subsequent development, there is still hope for Pony.com to make a comeback.

After all, Bad Monkey Pictures, which Ning Hao founded, has a strong presence in the film industry in the last few years. Although it cannot compare with those big companies, it will definitely have no problem supporting Pony.

But the premise is that the big dog is alive. Now that he is gone, many things are completely different.

Ning Hao is a genius director, and Big Dog can still be won over. Even if the former is independent, given their friendship, in-depth cooperation would not be difficult.

Most of the others are not Pony’s guys, but partners. The big dogs are capable, and everyone works together to make money.

Now that Big Dog is gone, Little Pony's Optimus Prime has fallen. Wei Yang even remembers that due to Big Dog's mistake, the internal equity was unclear, which eventually led to internal strife. The two sisters joined forces to kick the widow out of the house.

Anyone with a little ability and long-term vision would not continue to be tied to such a company.

In the end, the ace director Ning Hao left, many partners scattered, and the trusted assistant to the chairman Kong Ergou joined Youzu.

His right-hand men also set up their own businesses. Zhong Lifang, who is known as a think tank, a frequent guest of Huayuwen and the royal housekeeper of the big golden retriever, started her own company; Zong Shuai, who is in charge of brokerage business, took root in the traffic craze and became the agent of the top returning star who stepped on the sewing machine in the future.

Pony.com’s valuation dropped from over 5 billion at its peak, once threatening to challenge the giant companies in the entertainment industry, but eventually disappeared.

Frankly speaking, Wei Yang felt somewhat grieved when he saw this.

Like Pony.net, Blue Whale also relies heavily on himself. Although he has started to develop in an all-round way in the past two years, everyone is still used to respecting Wei Yang.

The advantage of this is that power is concentrated, Wei Yang has unprecedented say, and as long as he can remain stable, the company will unite around him and develop rapidly.

The disadvantage is that it has poor independence and is easily greatly affected by the rise and fall of the core.

To be frank, if Wei Yang died suddenly like Big Dog, Blue Whale would not be much better than Galloping Pony, and might even be worse.

At least Big Dog has a wife to take over. Although Blue Whale has Xiao Zhao, a company veteran and his girlfriend, she is not legitimate and has no direct power, so it is difficult for her to control the situation.

The best outcome is that the parents take over the inheritance and entrust Xiao Zhao with the management, and in the absence of any external debt, they join forces with some more loyal executives to sell Blue Whale Company.

As for Xiao Zhao taking over Blue Whale and continuing to run it, Wei Yang was not optimistic about her ability.

Perhaps Xiao Zhao can grow from an ordinary girl into a top star and accumulate considerable capital, but running yourself and your artist studio is completely different from running an entertainment group worth tens of billions of dollars.

Whether the senior executives, directors and core creative staff can suppress him is not the same thing. The most crucial thing is the connections and relationships that Wei Yang has accumulated over the years, as well as some backers.

When a person dies, everything is over. Without Wei Yang personally spending several years to pave the way for him, it’s no use to anyone to pay attention to you.

Without connections and backing, taking over a cash cow company rashly would be like a child carrying gold through a busy street, and you would be targeted by countless jackals and tigers.

Now, the same is true for Galloping Pony. It may not be as perfect as the Blue Whale, but with its size, it is enough to squeeze out a lot of oil.

In a sense, this behavior is like "eating the entire family", which is very immoral, but also very realistic.

Deep down, Wei Yang was somewhat resistant to this approach, but reason told him that it would be foolish to be a moral role model at this time.

Not to mention anything else, "Lost in Thailand", a collaboration between Blue Whale and Pony.com, was originally controlled by Pony.com, but now they probably don't have much interest in it.

That would be fine. Wei Yang doesn't lack this piece of fat meat. If possible, he would even be willing to help Xiao Ma Pentium in this project and let them make some money.

But this project can be given up, but Ning Hao cannot.

As mentioned before, Ning Hao's subsequent development was very good. He was able to become one of the leading directors in mainland China. Although he seemed to have very few works as a director in his later years, his tentacles spread throughout the entire industry, and he even joined forces with Huang, Xu and others to become a small giant.

Wei Yang didn't want to recruit Ning Hao as his subordinate. He estimated that with Ning Hao's current strength, he might not be willing to work for others.

But his not signing with Blue Whale does not mean that he cannot cooperate with Blue Whale.

Wei Yang is optimistic about his abilities and prospects. Ning Hao will definitely lack backing and funds after setting up his own business. Both parties get what they need. Boss Wei is willing to be Ning Hao's new financial backer and behind-the-scenes boss.

In this regard, Wei Yang believed that he had an advantage, as he had laid the groundwork in the previous collaborations.

Ning Hao and Boss Wei have a very pleasant cooperation and a close relationship. Under the same conditions, there is a high chance that he will choose to join Wei Yang.

Blue Whale has always lacked a heavyweight director. If Ning Hao can be brought in to become a stable ally, it will be a great boost to the company's soft power and reputation.

This work is organized and uploaded by Liujiu Book Bar~~

Of course, there are definitely quite a few companies eyeing Ning Hao, so if Boss Wei wants to get what he wants, he will have to put in more effort.

In addition, Wei Yang is also willing to recruit some talents from Xiaoma Pentium. Even if the senior executives do not come, many of Xiaoma Pentium's core middle-level managers are also very attractive.

Wei Yang is not short of money and does not pay much attention to Pony.com's film and television projects and some IPs. What he cares most about is talent.

Blue Whale is working very hard, and the scale of Emerald Shrimp and Coral Entertainment is also increasing, and they need a large number of professional and mature talents to help expand their territory.

In addition, Pony.com previously acquired Cameron's Digital Kingdom, and Wei Yang also considered whether to acquire this special effects company.

Blue Whale currently focuses on making feature films, but if it wants to expand its business, it will inevitably be involved in special effects blockbusters in the future.

Given Boss Wei's personality, he is unwilling to delegate all the technical keys to others.

Blue Whale has also been cultivating a special effects team. This team participated in the movie "Time Raiders", as well as "The Journey of Flower", "Swords of Legends" and the "Joy of Life" series.

However, the team size and technical level are not first-class, and Wei Yang has been thinking about building an excellent special effects team.

Digital Domain was founded by Cameron and has participated in many Hollywood blockbusters. Even though it is no longer at its peak and has even experienced bankruptcy, its team and technical level are still impressive, and it is at least a good supplement and reinforcement for Blue Whale.

However, the data kingdom is not small in scale, and coupled with large investment in special effects and low gross profit margins, its future development is vague and uncertain.

Maybe it will become a money-consuming burden that does not make any profit, thus affecting and slowing down the development of Blue Whale, so Wei Yang has to consider it carefully.

…

"You say you won't eat the family's flesh, but in your heart you want to tear them to pieces."

Wei Yang, who had been thinking for a long time, suddenly realized and couldn't help but laugh at himself.

Even with Wei Yang's discerning eyes and barely passable moral standards, he was envious of many aspects of Pentium. Not to mention those other companies that were far less confident than Blue Whale, which were eager to lie on Pentium to drink its blood and eat its meat.

After putting out the cigar, Wei Yang didn't think any more about it. He took off his clothes and brought Liu Shishi over to use as a warm baby to sleep.

As for other things, you don't have to worry too much. If you can do it, do it. If you can't, forget it. It's conscienceless enough to eat "the whole family", and it's too much to calculate everything.

Wei Yang knew that Yang Tianzhen was one of the first people to know about it, and other people who received the letter would definitely notify him, so he turned off his phone early.

When he woke up the next day and turned on his cell phone, he saw that there were indeed messages from various people, including Ning Hao's phone number.

"It seems that things may be easier than I thought."

Wei Yang specially called Ning Hao back. He didn't say much, just talked about Da Gou's situation and then made an appointment for dinner.

Not much was said, but both sides knew what they meant. Ning Hao was more decisive than Wei Yang thought.

He might not leave Pony Galloping now. After all, leaving when the boss dies is too cold-blooded and heartless. But he is also aware of the future of Pony Galloping, so he contacted the retreat route early.

Wei Yang believed that he might not be the only client that Ning Hao contacted, but he was definitely one of the highest priority.

China Film Group and Shanghai Film Group may be able to cooperate, but they are state-owned enterprises after all. Deep ties are too troublesome and involve team issues, so most people dare not get involved.

Huayi and LeTV are larger than Blue Whale, but one has Feng Kuazi and the other has just signed Zhang Yimou. Ning Hao may not be willing to be the second in command.

The same is true for companies in Hong Kong and Taiwan. There are too many famous directors, and Ning Hao's advantages are not enough to overwhelm those experienced Hong Kong and Taiwan directors.

As a result, there are only a few companies that have sufficient capital and value him.

Blue Whale definitely has better overall conditions, not to mention that he has a personal relationship with Wei Yang and has had many pleasant cooperation experiences. The latter two are crucial plus points.

Wei Yang didn't dare to say that Ning Hao was already in his pocket, but in this competition, Blue Whale was indeed far ahead.

In addition to Ning Hao, Xia Cong and Yang Tianzhen also called him. In addition to reporting the problems, they also proposed plans to recruit talents.

There are not many artists in Xiaoma Pentium, and most of them are talented. Yang Tianzhen is not very interested in them, but she is optimistic about the many talents in their team.

Including the person in charge Zong Shuai, who was previously the head of Huayi's brokerage business, was poached by Big Dog to be the vice president of Xiaoma Pentium. Later, he was in charge of Wu Moufan's return to China and joined Lemon Pictures as a partner.

In terms of seniority, Yang Tianzhen is not even as good as this person, so he really wants to recruit his own deputy, and even mentions option rewards.

Xia Cong had the same idea. He targeted a large group of people at Xiaoma Pentium and made a list of more than 20 to 30 people. Among the seven heads of subsidiaries, this guy listed four.

Boss Wei's eyelids twitched as he watched. At least he morally condemned himself. These two were truly inhuman.

Wei Yang did not comment on the two people's ideas. He did not say whether he supported them or opposed them. He just took a tacit attitude.

After hanging up the phone, Wei Yang couldn't help but ask Liu Shishi: "Am I sometimes too self-righteous and self-righteous?"

"No."

Liu Shishi, who was putting on makeup, shook her head: "In my impression, you have always been straightforward and shameless."

Wei Yang: “…”

I shouldn't have been soft-hearted last night. I should have been too lenient...

(End of this chapter)