Chapter 288 Mirage Electronics’ new business

Chapter 288 Mirage Electronics’ new business

Developing a new game is no longer an all-out effort for today’s Tianba Studio.

In fact, since the release of the game "Global Evolution", the situation at Tianba Studio has been different from what many people thought.

"The studio currently has more than 320 employees, which does not include the total number of employees in subsidiaries such as Mirage Electronics and Xianyu Digital."

Huang Qing, CEO of Tianba Games, explained: “Of the more than 320 employees, the core game development team accounts for about 15%, which is about 50 people!”

"It can be seen from this headcount ratio that the current Tianba Studio is completely different from the past. The business focus and revenue structure have undergone tremendous changes..."

Today's Tianba Studio's business focus is mainly on "operation and maintenance of old games", and the development of new games is just a matter of course.

in other words……

There are two to three hundred people in the entire studio, and more than 80% of them are in game operation and planning positions. The employees who actually follow Chen Ba to develop new games are still the same group of people.

"The same is true for the revenue ratio. The operation and maintenance of many of its old games are the real source of money, and the revenue sources of new games only account for a small part."

"Of course, what I say does not mean that new games are not important and success or failure does not matter."

Worried about being misunderstood by Chen Ba, Huang Qing turned around and said: "What I said actually means that whether "Abba" makes money or loses money, it will not have a big impact on the company's business."

For the "Abba" project, Huang Qing knew that Brother Ba was under great psychological pressure.

After all, there were too many people within the studio who opposed it, including Yang Dong, Lu Jing, Zhong Shengwei, Luo Ji and a large number of entrepreneurial veterans. In fact, they were somewhat opposed to the project in their hearts.

But as a migrant CEO, Huang Qing was extremely supportive of Chen Ba on this project.

The reason for his support is simple.

On the one hand, Tianba Studio is not a company with dispersed equity and requires a board meeting to make important decisions. Brother Ba's decision is basically equivalent to an imperial edict, and it is useless to oppose it.

On the other hand, as the CEO, he knows better than anyone else how rich Tianba Studio’s real wealth is. It is no exaggeration to say that Tianba Studio can afford to produce whatever they want, let alone "Abba". Even if there are four or five more similar projects, Tianba Studio can afford it.

"You are exaggerating!"

Chen Ba was speechless and said: "I admit that the studio is indeed very profitable, but compared with big companies like Zhuge, there is still a gap, and the ability to resist risks is not that strong."

"That can't be compared like this..."

"How many years has Tianba Studio been founded? If you have to compare it with a big company like Zhuge, it's really far behind. There are gaps in all aspects."

Huang Qing said with a smile: "But if you change the comparison object, such as a rice factory, you will find that our Tianba Studio is actually not bad, it is really not bad."

"What do you mean?"

Chen Ba was a little confused when he heard this. How could he be compared with the rice factory? Isn’t this the same magnitude?

After all, Tianba Studio has not yet reached that scale, and there is also a big gap in operating income.

“But it’s not that far off!”

Huang Qing was a little surprised. He didn't seem to expect that Brother Ba would look down on Tianba Studio so much. Isn't this a company he founded? Why does it feel bad?

"Do you know what the latest valuation quote given to us by venture capital institutions is?"

"How many?"

Chen Ba really hasn't paid much attention to this aspect. After all, he has never thought about financing since Tianba Studio was established, so he didn't pay much attention to this aspect of the news.

About three years ago, a rich second-generation local from Jiangning approached him, hoping to buy 20% of the shares of Tianba Studio for 50 million, but Chen Ba did not agree.

Based on the price quoted by this rich second generation, he gave the overall valuation of Tianba Studio at that time to 250 million.

Three years ago, Chen Ba refused to accept the offer of 250 million. He thought it was a bit low and there was no shortage of money at the time, so he ignored the rich second generation.

Three years have passed. The overall business of Tianba Studio is booming. The scale has expanded and expanded. Earth-shaking changes have taken place. The valuation will probably increase many times, right?

"250 million?"

Huang Qing really didn't know that the rich second generation was trying to buy shares. After all, he didn't even come to Tianba Studio at that time.

Therefore, Huang Qing, who suddenly learned about this, was a little surprised, and immediately smiled and said: "Fortunately you didn't agree, otherwise you would regret it now!"

"How to say?"

"Valuations go up and down, and they may change over time, and different investors are not equally optimistic about the business, so the quotes are also high and low. Can you understand this?"

"I understand, so the highest bidder is, what is the latest valuation?"

"This number..."

Huang Qing opened the five fingers of his right hand, nodded in front of Chen Ba's astonished eyes and said, "You read that right, it's 50 billion!"

"Hold the grass!"

Chen Ba was shocked. Although he rarely understood valuation because he had no plans to raise funds, as the head of the company, he probably had some idea.

In his mind, Tianba Studio is only worth about 10 to 20 billion. The unit is RMB, which is equivalent to 1.5-2.5 billion U.S. dollars. It can't be too high.

After all, he is not a professional. He relies purely on estimates to calculate the company's valuation. Moreover, he would be a little unsure if he valued himself.

He guessed that the real valuation should be higher than the value he estimated himself. After all, there is a certain "premium"!

But he never expected that the premium would be so high, more than double what he estimated...

"To be honest, I'm surprised!"

Chen Ba asked curiously: "There must be some reason, right? Why are these investment institutions so optimistic about Tianba Studio?"

"Is this a surprise?"

Huang Qing laughed loudly and said: "You must know that in financing, there is a saying that you can pay back the money without asking for a high price. In other words, this 50 billion is just a preliminary intention. If we really want to talk, it is not impossible to double it. .”

"As for the reason you want to know, this has to do with the real difference between Tianba Studio and other game studios..."

In the eyes of players, Tianba Studio is just a game company, nothing special.

But in the eyes of Jiangning officials, Tianba Games is not only a game company, but also a high-tech computer technology enterprise, referred to as a high-tech company!

In the same way, the reason why these venture capital investors are so optimistic about Tianba Studio, and the reason why their valuation is rising every month and they are chasing after it, is also because Tianba Studio’s “technical” strength is very strong.

"technology?"

"Oh yes! I really didn't expect it if you didn't tell me. This is indeed a big plus point."

Chen Ba suddenly realized.

He has always looked at this valuation issue from the perspective of a "game company". He has never thought about looking at valuation from the perspective of an Internet high-tech company.

If you put it this way, the 50 billion is really not much, even a bit "low"!

What international joke are you kidding?

Based on the technical strength of Tianba Studio, assuming it is a "pure" Internet technology company, the valuation is estimated to be in another unit, 50 billion or 50 billion. Is it not too much to change the unit to US dollars?

It is a pity that the identity of Tianba Studio, an Internet technology company, is not pure. After all, their main business area is games.

"So, I'm worth tens of billions now?" Chen Ba asked.

"certainly!"

"If you are willing to cash out, there are probably investment institutions that are willing to take over. The premise is that you don't go too far. If you sell the entire company at once, there may not be so many takeovers, and the price will have to shrink a bit."

Huang Qing joked: "How about it? After hearing what I said, did you feel a little bit moved?"

"It would be a lie to say that I am not moved..."

Chen Ba did not deny that he was moved. He even had an outrageous idea just now, which was to sell the company and start a new Tianba Studio.

But then he thought about it, this could sell a hammer!

The core asset of Tianba Studio, which is the underlying code of many of its games, cannot be copied and applied by anyone except Chen Ba himself.

This leads to the fact that as soon as Chen Ba leaves, everything existing in Tianba Studio will be "revealed".

Unless other people are like him and can read those codes that are comparable to heavenly books, and know what these codes are exactly...

Based on this premise, Chen Ba knew very early on that there was no possibility of Tianba Studio changing hands. After all, no one in the world would be that stupid.

Before confirming the acquisition, the company's assets must be verified and calculated. How should Chen Ba explain the source and characteristics of the codes for this calculation?

“No matter how high the valuation is, it’s none of my business!”

After sighing, Chen Ba said: "Whether the valuation is tens of billions, hundreds of billions, or even trillions or tens of trillions, it will not affect my daily life."

Is there anyone really stupid enough to treat valuation as an asset?

Valuation is valuation, which can be converted into money to a certain extent, but the prerequisite for converting it into money is that you have to sell the thing. For things that cannot be sold, no matter how high the valuation is, they are just a bunch of numbers.

so……

It all makes sense that Chen Ba, a billionaire, is reluctant to add eggs and intestines when eating instant noodles, and only drinks instant coffee.

It's not like he has no money.

It's just that his money is mostly on paper and cannot be cashed out, so he can live his life however he wants.

In a sense, Chen Ba is much richer than Lao Wang, who is engaged in real estate, and is even several times richer. However, his quality of life is not up to Lao Wang's level.

Last time I was a guest at Lao Wang's house, the nanny always drove the Feitian Goddess when she went out to buy groceries. The villa she lived in couldn't even be called a villa, it should be called a "manor". It covered a large area and was extremely luxuriously decorated. Anyway, Chen Ba was very envious...

But he was envious, and he also understood that he was different from Lao Wang.

This is the gap between estimated value and actual assets!

Although a real estate guy like Lao Wang is only worth a few billion, he can afford tens of millions of luxury cars, live in a hundreds of millions of mansions, and leverage tens of billions or even hundreds of billions of dollars. .

But Chen Ba, who seems to be worth tens of billions, cannot do this.

Perhaps this is why a real estate company's previous scandal involved as much as a "trillion" level of debt, causing shock and heated discussion across the Internet.

If the company were to be packaged and sold, even if all the assets in the name of the boss and senior executives were included, it would probably not be worth so much money. This is the power of playing "capital flow".

"By the way, Mr. Chen!"

Huang Qing seemed to have thought of something, and then said: "Although Mirage Electronics was acquired by us, its business has little to do with us. Instead, it has a certain connection with Xianyu Digital. Do these two companies need to be merged?"

Fairyland Digital? Mirage Electronics?

Chen Ba thought for a while and realized that it was indeed what Huang Qing said. Mirage Electronics and Tianba Studio were really not closely related.

Since their business has a great intersection with that of Xianyu Digital, the two subsidiaries can be merged together to save unnecessary trouble.

"The main business of Mirage Electronics is the production of game peripherals, right? Controllers, keyboards and mice, and Galaxy sets?"

"right!"

"Then go and ask them if they are interested in expanding into new business."

new business?

When Huang Qing heard this, he couldn't help but asked curiously: "What business? It doesn't have anything to do with us, does it?"

"Of course it does matter!"

Chen Ba affirmed: "Many of the games under our studio have derivatives for sale to the outside world. This part is either authorized or customized by someone else."

You have to delegate authority to others anyway, so who should you delegate authority to?

Mirage Electronics is our own family, and licensing it to them means that the money will not flow to outsiders. It is simply killing two birds with one stone.

As for Mirage Electronics, which is mainly engaged in the business of digital technology and game peripheral hardware, and has never done any game peripheral derivatives before and lacks experience, that is not a problem at all!

We can make handles and keyboards, but there’s no reason we can’t make simple things like phone cases, keychains, and refrigerator magnets.

Moreover!

Even if you dislike the low technical content and low profit margin of these things and still want to concentrate on your old business, you can still make a fuss about licensing!

"Star Emperor" co-branded controller, "Cultivation Fantasy" co-branded wireless mouse, co-branded mechanical keyboard, isn't this a brand new way to make money?

Be bold!

Chen Ba then went to see Lao Huang Su's mother to discuss how to find a future for Mirage Electronics. It was really useless to just make controllers and keyboards.

Anyway, it’s all gaming hardware. Can peripherals such as controllers and keyboards be used, but hardware such as motherboards, graphics cards, and memory modules cannot be used?

It doesn’t make sense…

Backed by Tianba Studio, Mirage Electronics is naturally suitable for the PC hardware business. After design and production, Xianyu Digital will help with sales, providing a complete one-stop service.

The only problem is that if Mirage Electronics gets involved in the field of graphics card production, Lao Huang and Su Ma will probably have no objections, but it is hard to say whether they will beat Renshuo, shrink stars, or reject Baojia.

After all, it was a cooperative relationship in the past, but it has become a competitive relationship in the future.

But then again.

No matter how dissatisfied they are, as long as there is still the "link" between "Star Emperor 2" and the GAL League, the relationship will not be too tense.

The PC hardware market is huge and there are many brands. It doesn’t matter if a new brand pops up...