Chapter 251： buy Netflix

That night, Dunn and Penelope Cruz lingered all night.

It's a pity that neither Natalie Portman nor Nicole Kidman accepted Dunn's invitation together.

Fortunately, his private jet is already in place, and on weekends, Dunn can fly directly to the "Unsinkable" crew, where there are Charlize Theron and Liv Tyler, both of whom are models, and have a more open style. Moreover, their personal relationship with Dunn was average, so it was impossible for them to have the courage to refuse.

According to the information provided by Reese Witherspoon, the co-founder and CEO of Netflix is ​​Reed Hastings, who rented a videotape from Blockbuster that year, but because of his busy work, the return was overdue. , resulting in a late payment fee of $40.

Such a high fine directly caused Reed Hastings to give birth to a rental model that exempts "late fees", and thus Netflix was born!

Now Netflix, in addition to the early online payment model, has also added a membership subscription model, which is the biggest difference from BestCard.

Users only need to pay a monthly membership fee of $19.99, and you can get no rental fees, no late fees, free postage, and no rental period, which is undoubtedly attractive.

Best's business model is the "landlord model", which means that I have assets, lend them to others for use, and collect rents through asset-heavy storefronts.

Netflix's business model is asset-light, without storefronts, and operated online. To change the term of the era, it is the o2o model!

As a past person, Dunn, of course, can see the prospect and potential of this model.

That morning, Dunn received Reed Hastings and his party grandly in his office.

"Mr. Walker, your time is precious. Let me tell you my request first. The sale price of Netflix is ​​not less than 50 million US dollars!"

Reed Hastings' confidence made Dunn laugh, "$50 million, so simple?"

"what?"

Reed Hastings was startled, $50 million was not a small amount. He didn't expect Dunn's tone to be so relaxed.

Tang En said with a smile: "Reed, I have read all the Netflix materials, and I have a lot of affinity with the top students at Stanford University. I might as well tell you that I am very interested in Netflix."

Reed Hastings was immediately excited. He had heard Reese Witherspoon say on the phone that Dunn was very optimistic about Netflix. Unexpectedly, he was so arrogant, 50 million US dollars, without even questioning.

"It's...sorry, Mr. Walker...I'm really surprised."

"Surprise? Are you so unsure of Netflix's business model?"

"No, I'm very confident in Netflix!" Reed Hastingston paused for a moment, he couldn't say he didn't have confidence in Dunn, right?

Well now, the biggest basis for cooperation, there is no problem.

The rest are details, but for Reed Hastings, they are just as important.

"Mr. Walker, you can buy Netflix for $50 million, but not all of it, you can only own up to 60%."

"Um?"

Tang En raised his eyebrows and glanced at him, "I'm afraid this is not an acquisition, but financing, right? This seems to be different from the initial conditions."

Reed Hastings was a little nervous, and immediately said: "No, no, Mr. Walker, this is the plan we negotiated with the investors, and this 50 million US dollars will not fall into anyone's pocket, it will enter Chennai. Fei's account helps the company develop."

Tang En said lightly: "That's financing."

"In any case, I must get the autonomy to operate Netflix." Reed Hastings looked at him cautiously.

Tang En waved his hand, "It's natural, you go to paypal, I have never intervened in the company's operations. It's just a financing issue, I need an explanation."

Reed Hastings took a deep breath and said slowly: "Mr. Walker, acquisition... oh no, financing plan, in fact, if the shares exceed 50%, it is equivalent to acquisition. We designed two sets of plans at the beginning. , if you are not satisfied with this plan, there is a second plan."

"Tell me."

"$60 million, you can get 80% of Netflix's shares."

For Reed Hastings, Dunn gets 60% and 80% of Netflix's equity, there is no difference, anyway, once the deal is reached, Netflix will become a holding subsidiary of Dunn Capital.

Tang En's eyes lit up, "I'm interested in the second set of plans, let's talk about it."

Reed Hastings said: "Before this, Netflix had two rounds of financing, and 20% of the equity was held by three foundations. However, they were not optimistic about Netflix's prospects and rejected the third round of financing. We've talked to investors that if you make a $10 million bid, they'd be willing to give you 20 percent of their stake."

These days, it is the dream of many venture capital funds to recoup their early investment in high-tech companies.

Tang En understood what he meant, "You mean... I can only own 80% of Netflix at most, right?"

Reed Hastings nodded and said: "Yes, 15.3% is the current management's shareholding, and the remaining 4.7% is the reserved option pool."

A satisfied smile appeared on Tang En's face, "It seems that you have all planned."

Reed Hastings sighed, "The danger of the stock market crash is getting bigger and bigger, and I just hope Netflix can survive."

Tang En said with a smile: "Tell me, after the 50 million financing is obtained, how do you plan to operate it?"

Reed Hastings is obviously well-informed, and he has a good idea of ​​Netflix's strategic layout, "Currently, Netflix's films are all delivered to customers by mail, but due to the distance factor, the time of mailing is a problem, which will give The customer has brought a very bad experience. If the funds are in place, I plan to establish at least 30 distribution warehouses in major regions of the United States, which will greatly shorten the delivery time, and strive to place an order the day before and receive the disc the next day."

Dunn was a little silent and sighed.

This is the year 2000. The old and beautiful technology companies already have such a strategic concept. Thinking of some online trading companies in the previous life, they proposed such a concept more than ten years later, and they also clamored for a business model that leads the world. Satire.

"According to the data, Netflix still has an online video-on-demand business, is this okay?" Tang En looked at the data in his hand, a little surprised.

Reed Hastings explained: "It's just an idea, the internet speed is too slow right now, it's not realistic to watch movies online, but with the development of the internet and the increase in internet speed, I think it's a very A promising direction for development.”

The real rise of streaming media began in 2010.

Netflix spent $1 billion to buy 5-year streaming licenses for Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM movies, and signed agreements with well-known cable TV stations such as hbo and sho to become paid distributors.

But in fact, in the late 1990s, the streaming media business had already taken shape.

Netflix's current online on-demand business has a certain concept of streaming media.

Tang En nodded, "Narrowband Internet is destined to be replaced by broadband, Netflix must make a plan in advance to meet the era of web 2.0. No matter how much loss it makes, it can't be cut!"

Reed Hastings couldn't figure out Dunn's routine. He didn't know whether he was echoing his own views or showing authority. He asked tentatively, "Mr. Walker, what do you think of Blockbuster?"

Tang En smiled suddenly, "I heard that you visited the headquarters of Besta before this?"

Reed Hastings blushed, "After all, Blockbuster is the leader in the video rental industry, I thought..."

Tang En waved his hand, and a bit of disdain flashed on his face, "Leader? Shit! Lei Shidong is already old, and he can't keep up with the context of the times. The future world is the world of technology and the world of the Internet!"

Reed Hastings flashed a bit of surprise on his face. He did not expect that Dunn, a layman, would have the same opinion as him.

Now is the period of the Internet bubble crisis, even many people in the industry have lost confidence in the Internet.

But I didn't expect that Dunn was so determined.

Tang En was still unfinished, and said lightly: "Basida is not a concern, and will be overwhelmed by heavy assets sooner or later. Netflix's structure should be bigger. Essentially, Netflix should not be an entertainment company, but a technology company. ."

Dunn's words set the tone for Netflix's future strategic development.

The future of Netflix is based in Silicon Valley, not Hollywood!

Dunn holds the major shares of Apple and Google. It is conceivable that in the future, Dunn will definitely have a pivotal position in Silicon Valley.

And what about Hollywood?

It's dirty and complicated, and there are many shady scenes. Even if Dunn Pictures can easily pass the Disney barrier, I don't know what kind of problems will be waiting for him in the future.

Netflix is ​​Dunn's last position.

It is the safest strategy for Dunn to make Netflix based in Silicon Valley and stay away from Hollywood.

Even if the future is difficult, Dunn really encounters an insurmountable hurdle in Hollywood, and he can rely on Netflix, which is backed by Silicon Valley, to rise again.

Of course, this decision of Dunn is also very correct for Netflix.

The Internet is the future direction. If Hollywood is as powerful as it is, it will be forced to transform and move closer to the Internet.

...

Three days later, Dunn Capital, under the leadership of Scott Swift, completed the signing of Netflix.

Dunn Capital spent $60 million to completely control Netflix!

And Reed Hastings also got his wish of $50 million in financing. He also holds 10.7% of Netflix shares in his own hands. This is the basis for his independent operation, and it is also his asset guarantee after Netflix goes public. .

At the same time, Dunn, as a middleman, also linked Netflix and PayPal.

This is a win-win cooperation. Netflix can abolish the development of the payment system and directly use the stable, free, and powerful current largest payment platform to complete online payment;

PayPal can borrow the platform of Netflix to increase the number of users.

Every Netflix user is also a PayPal user. The development of PayPal has ushered in a new opportunity.

(Sanqi Chinese)