"3,000 stores, I think this is the best number of Blockbuster chain stores in the United States. It is very unwise to pursue market share blindly. This will only waste our funds and energy in commercial areas with very low returns. By continuously optimizing the configuration of the 3,000 videotape chain stores in the planned range, I hope Blockbuster can achieve a 50% local market share in the next three years."

The videotape industry in the United States has developed rapidly in recent years, and is expected to exceed US$10 billion in sales this year, which is twice the local box office.

If Blockbuster can achieve a market share of 50%, it will be an industrial giant with an annual revenue of US$5 billion and a profit of about US$500 million. The individual market value is enough to easily exceed US$10 billion.

Inside the office 3 of Daenerys Cinema.

Simon heard Nancy say this and said, "If your goal is really achieved, maybe I should buy out the remaining shares of Blockbuster now."

"I've calculated it," Nancy said with her slender fingers on the table, saying: "Baseda's recent market value is around $3.2 billion. As the war on the Gulf continues, it may fall to less than $3 billion in the next period of time. For a wholly-owned acquisition, the offer can be controlled between $4.5 billion and $5 billion, and the cash we actually need to pay is about $3 billion."

Simon looked at Nancy's beautiful and delicate little hand, smiled at the corner of her mouth, and said, "You know, I'm planning a big acquisition plan recently."

Nancy felt Simon's gaze and gave him a blank look. Seeing that the man had no guilt at all, she did not look away. She had to pick up the coffee cup next to her and put it in her mouth and sip it, saying, "The two things are not conflicting. Even if you lack funds, it wouldn't be easy to borrow billions of dollars from the bank?"

The debt crisis that broke out at the end of last year caused major banks in North America to tighten credit, and it was significantly more difficult for many companies to obtain loans. However, high-quality borrowers like Simon have become the most keen lending target for major banks.

Even if Simon wants to raise $10 billion now, it will not be too difficult.

"That's right," Simon said. "But, outside of the world, I'm also considering other things, which are also very expensive plans, and the rate of return is higher than that of Blockbuster, so this matter can only be left behind."

When it comes to the acquisition of billions of dollars of funds, Nancy didn't expect Simon to agree at once. Hearing that Simon had another plan, he said curiously: "What?"

Simon shook his head: "I can't tell you."

Nancy said dissatisfiedly: "Boss, do you think I am not trustworthy?"

"Of course it's worth it," Simon affirmed: "But trust is actually something that needs to be maintained. The most important thing is that if it is not necessary, don't give others a reason to destroy this trust."

Nancy realized something: "Okay, I won't ask."

"So, talk about overseas," Simon continued: "I found that Blockbuster's overseas expansion seems to be a bit slow. Video tape chains are different from cinema chains. They are subject to few government controls and trade barriers in overseas markets. Since they intend to grow, overseas expansion should also be a very important one."

Compared with Blockbuster's US mainland, which can exceed 2,000 chain stores this year, overseas, it has only completed a small-scale layout of neighboring countries in the United States and five countries in Europe. Moreover, in addition to the synchronic development pace of Canada and North America, the total number of chain stores in other markets is less than 200, and it is mainly concentrated in core cities such as London, Paris and Berlin.

"The overseas chain stores are just to explore the market for the time being. Early market research and data analysis are very important. If you complete these, as long as you have sufficient funds, the overseas expansion speed will not be worse than that of North America. In addition, I recently planned to connect all the chain stores in the Boston-Washington metropolitan area on the East Coast to the Internet, and re-plan the membership system of Blockbuster. In short, many things need to be done, and the overseas market cannot temporarily distribute too much energy."

"Just be sure," Simon nodded and reminded: "Also, don't take everything into consideration. If you should give Wayne Hueyzanga and James Frey, you must let go."

Although it is a very important shareholding company under Daenerys Entertainment, Simon is very relieved by the existence of Nancy Brill, Wayne Hewizhanga and others. In addition to some important financial and personnel changes, he is basically not asking about Blockbuster's specific operations now.

"I understand."

Nancy said, remembering something, she waved to her assistant waiting nearby, explained a few words, turned her head and explained to Simon: "When it comes to Blockbuster's membership system, you can help see what needs improvement. There is also the "Dune" video game, which has started internal testing, and it happens to get a copy for you."

Seeing that the little woman was going to blatantly squeeze her boss again, Simon said, "I'm about hundreds of thousands a minute, so don't bother me like this, right?"

The layout of real-time strategy games is an important category from the single-player game era in the 1990s to the new century online game era. Many years later, the phenomenal popular online games such as "World of Warcraft" and "League of Legends" are closely related to real-time strategy games.

Therefore, Simon has been following up on the production of "Dune", after all, it is related to many future layouts.

He had no interest in discussing Blockbuster's membership system.

There are so many people in Blockbuster, it is impossible to keep them in vain.

Nancy didn't understand the meme that was hundreds of thousands of dollars a minute, and said, "Just let you see if you have any good ideas. Of course, we will do the details ourselves. I found that you can always create novel ideas that break through the limitations of ordinary people's thinking. This kind of talent is simply jealous."

"Is this a compliment? But why didn't I feel it myself?"

Nancy said: "Dc Cinema Universe is just such a plan. Do you know how amazing it is? As long as the two films next year can be successful, this plan may be added to the case textbook by Harvard Business School."

Simon smiled and said, "Okay, it seems that I'm really amazing."

Nancy gave Simon another glance.

The assistant soon sent a folder and a copy of the "Dune" floppy disk.

Simon put the game floppy disk aside, flipped through the document, and Nancy opposite said: "We are temporarily planning to divide members into two levels: junior and senior members, mainly providing member discounts, extending the video tape return period, reducing liquidated damages and other terms, as well as some ideas for monthly or annual payments."

He asked Nancy's assistant to help him get another bottle of water, and Simon looked down and began to look at the membership plan in front of him.

Nancy didn't waste time either. She read another piece of information casually. She noticed that her assistant brought a bottle of mineral water over and found a topic casually, saying, "I have seen you only drink water several times, why don't you drink coffee?"

Simon didn't look up and said, "Jenny and I plan to have a child, but it's not good to drink coffee."

Nancy wondered: “Will coffee affect the child?”

"It has a serious impact, so you need to pay attention to it in the future."

"I don't plan to get married."

“Not getting married does not mean you cannot have children.”

"It's very troublesome to have a baby. If necessary, I plan to adopt one."

"It's better to have children yourself."

Nancy thought of something and said dissatisfiedly: "Machismo."

Simon wondered: "Is there a causal relationship between these two things?"

"have!"

"Well, I'm machismo."

Both of them were quiet. After a while, Simon said: "I look good at these plans. What is the specific effect? ​​I think Blockbuster can choose a chain store in one or two states as you just mentioned. If it is feasible, it will be promoted nationwide. If it is not feasible, it will be cancelled and it will not affect the overall situation. In fact, the benefits of a large enough enterprise are here. The fault tolerance rate is very strong. Not just a membership system. As long as you have any good ideas, you can choose some areas to try it."

Nancy turned her head and thought about it, picked up her memo and started recording.

Simon smiled and said, "Don't you be so serious, don't you remember?"

"I thought of the first half of what you said, but not the second half," Nancy said, quickly writing a few words and looking up, "Is there any?"

“About value-added services for members,” Simon said: “Have you rented videotapes in person at the Pepsika chain?”

Nancy said: "Of course, it will be every week."

"Do you feel troublesome?"

"trouble?"

"Have you ever thought about delivering goods to your door?"

Nancy asked for a moment and said, "The cost is too high, choosing film sources, remote booking, and logistics are all big problems."

"In the short term, you can use the telephone to book. As for logistics issues, try to cooperate with the postal system. The federal postal system is very developed. They should not mind having an extra money. Sign a package contract to contract annual orders with the local postal system, and then Blockbuster will be able to get rid of the constraints of chain stores. A city only needs several large warehousing and logistics centers."

Nancy showed an expression of surprise on her face and said, "This is simply a subversion. If we really do it, our existing chain store system will collapse."

Simon shrugged and said, "I can remember that others should have similar thoughts. Blockbuster itself subverts itself, or is subverted by others. Which of the two results do you choose?"

Nancy frowned and continued to think for a moment, saying: "This kind of service involves too many complex links and needs to be developed to a sufficient scale to form an effect of scale. Smaller video tape chain companies cannot carry out such a business. We ourselves do not seem to need to do this. Blockbuster's chain store distribution is carefully selected and is constantly optimized to maximize the convenience of users. They can often enter the store to select video tapes on the way off work, without remote mailing. By the way, you just said that in the short term, do you still have long-term ideas?"

Simon felt the denial in Nancy's tone, and it was not surprising.

It is indeed not easy to implement the business model similar to Netflix in this era when only telephone reservations can be used for the time being. Moreover, even in the Internet era, Blockbuster will instinctively resist this business model for the sake of maintaining its own chain store system.

"In the long run, if Internet users develop to a sufficient scale, Blockbuster can establish its own online website. Users can search and book video tapes through the website, just like the library's electronic book search system. This can solve the problem of film source selection and remote reservation, and it is safer and more convenient. After obtaining video tapes through the postal system, users only need to stuff the video tape into a specially made Blockbuster package and mail it back, and there is no need to leave the house throughout the journey."

"If I remember correctly, the number of American Online users this month should be able to reach 150,000. How many years do you think it will take to reach a sufficient user scale?"

"It only took ten years for the proportion of American households to own video recorders from 2% to 70%. I believe that it will only take ten years for the Internet to reach such popularity."

"The idea of ​​developing a business through the Internet is very good, but even if your predictions come true, you will need to wait at least another five years. The 2% home video recorder penetration rate cannot develop into Blockbuster." Nancy said, suddenly turned her mind and stared at Simon without blinking, asking: "Boss, I'm very curious, how did you come from these advanced ideas?"

This is not the first time Simon has encountered such a problem. Janet used to stare at her little eyes and said calmly: "The idea I just now was told by a guy named Reed."

"Reid?"

"Yes," Simon nodded, raised his chin to the empty seat next to Nancy opposite, and changed into a faint and weird tone: "He's sitting next to you."

Nancy turned to look at the air beside her and said unhappy: "Hey, Reid, can you sit across the street? I hate men."

The small woman cooperated with Simon seriously to make a joke. Neither of them laughed, but she confused Jennifer Rebled and Shirley Lansing, who happened to be walking over, and even felt a frizzy feeling.

What's the situation? This is?

Seeing Jennifer and Lansing, Nancy stuck out her tongue, greeted the two girls and explained, "It's just a joke." She said, and stood up, pointed to the "Dune" game floppy disk at Simon's hand, and said, "I'll go and do it first, remember to try it out and send me an email."

After Nancy left, Jennifer said to Simon who stood up, "Ms. Lansing has been waiting for you for a while, and I will bring her here."

Simon looked at the watch.

I was scheduled to meet Shirley Lansing at 2:30 in the afternoon to discuss the cooperation between Daenerys and MGM. The meeting was a bit early and I didn't rush to go back to the administrative district. I didn't expect to chat with Nancy, but it was already three o'clock before I knew it.

Sorry, just sit down here, Simon asked Lansing, "Have you read the script of "The Good People"?"

These days, Johnston Holdings in Australia has begun to take over the Seventh TV Network under the Qintex Group, and the cooperation between Daenerys Entertainment and MGM has been advancing.

In Simon's view, the most critical problem facing MGM is not to be sold around like in the 1980s. As long as a stable development environment is given, it is not difficult to recover in the context of Hollywood's global expansion in the 1990s.

No matter how bad it is, after working patiently for a few years, Australia can re-sell the company at a very good price.

As for the two planned collaboration films, Simon was not satisfied with several projects proposed by MGM, and finally took out a copyright from Daenerys, "The Good People".
Chapter completed!