On November 24th, the contract was officially signed.

Shake hands, smile, take photos.

Zhou Buqi gave up the opportunity to show off to his own father. His father was full of joy, and little Glazer next to him was also smiling, albeit reluctantly.

From then on, Manchester United officially changed hands!

The transaction price was 1.26 billion pounds!

Dad has also officially become the chairman of the board of directors of Manchester United. Zhou Buqi and Zhu Jun serve as directors, David Gill is the executive vice chairman, Santoku is the vice chairman of the board of directors, plus two management executives.

The new Manchester United board of directors has been established.

However, internal executives knew very well that the real person in charge was Jr. Zhou.

Zhou Buqi once again felt the influence of football in Europe. Almost all the heavyweight media in Europe gathered in Manchester to attend Manchester United's official press conference.

The opportunity to perform was given to Dad and Zhu Jun.

Zhou Buqi has gone to London.

The takeover of Manchester United has been negotiated.

Next, we can buy No. 4 Cowley Street. The Liberal Democratic Party is already working on moving it.

The transaction price has been negotiated long ago, 35 million pounds.

As a result, all the accounts in the family trust have been spent, and they even owe Pluto Capital $250 million and have to bear debts of about $600 million for Manchester United.

But it's not a lot of pressure.

The US$250 million owed to Pluto Capital is management fees and subscription fees withdrawn in advance, which will be paid off at the end of next year. The debt of US$600 million is relatively easy, and it is enough to repay US$50 million per year in 15-year installments.

When the two major private equity funds under his control are operational, they can provide a steady stream of cash flow.

However, it doesn’t matter if there is no money in the account.

There was no other way, so Zhou Buqi could only continue to second him from left to right, and called Wall Street, "How is the operation going?"

Chen Randao: "The stocks of Apple, Google, and Amazon have been rising in the past few days. It seems that besides us, more institutions have entered the market, and the price of chips is a bit high."

Zhou Buqi said: "It's already the 25th, how can there be any time to hesitate? Buy quickly, even if you chase the rise. By next month, technology stocks will rise even more fiercely, and they may return to the level of June.

.”

"Ah?" Chen Ran was surprised, "No way? If you want to get back to the level of June... Apple is okay, but Google and Amazon need to grow by 30%."

Zhou Buqi said: "I can't say for sure the specific increase, but it is certain that it will rise sharply starting next month. We must act quickly and seize this lead. By next month, the funds of the Middle East consortium will be

It will return to Wall Street in large numbers, and other institutions will take action. It’s now time, don’t hesitate!”

"I haven't hesitated. I have been buying according to the plan." Chen Ran said in a lighter tone, "Neptune has completed its operations and purchased a total of 9.68 billion U.S. dollars in stock assets. The total value now exceeds 10 billion U.S. dollars."

"Where are we? The good days are yet to come! Hurry up and finish the operation of Neptune Capital!" Zhou Buqi paused, "I told you, Neptune Capital will set aside some funds for me."

Chen Ran said: "Well, remember, you want to buy an Airbus A330-200, which costs US$150 million. Don't worry, the total position will not exceed 97%."

Zhou Buqi coughed lightly and said, "Transfer another $100 million to my family account. Manchester United's price is too high and there is no money in the account."

Chen Ran felt more at ease, "The operation cycle of Neptune Capital is from January 1, 2009 to December 31, 2018, which is very stable. If there is a secondment of funds in the future, it will be directly connected with this side. Pluto Capital will try to keep it as small as possible."

Move, don’t make it too complicated.”

"Well, how many people do you have now?"

"25 people, okay?"

Zhou Buqi said: "The annual basic salary, benefits, bonuses and other labor expenses must be reduced to less than 20 million US dollars. You can handle the rest."

Chen Ran was a little speechless. Sometimes this big boss was extremely generous, and sometimes he was so picky.

The total capital of the two funds is US$22 billion, and the annual salary expenses are only US$20 million, less than 1%. Let alone private equity, it cannot even do public equity.

However, the big boss also has his reasons.

After the investment of these two funds was completed, there was almost no action. It is true that there is no need to raise too many high-paid talents. Just raise a group of young girls who are eloquent and good at handling interpersonal relationships and maintain the relationship with investors. They will be fine.

If you don’t participate in specific investment work, you don’t need too many dividend rewards.

Here, Zhou Buqi was talking to Chen Ran on the phone, while Wu Yu lay lazily on the counter of the small bar in the hotel suite, blinking and saying, "Husband, when will your new plane arrive!"

"It still needs to be renovated, and it won't be until March next year at the earliest."

"So long?"

"This is a big plane, and it's not that easy to operate."

Zhou Buqi gave her a brief explanation.

The Airbus A330-200 is a medium-sized passenger aircraft with a cabin length of 45 meters and a cabin width of 5.28 meters. Its current Gulfstream G550 has a cabin length of only 15 meters and a width of only 2.2 meters.

In other words, the internal space of an Airbus A330 is more than eight times that of a Gulfstream G550.

This is very comfortable.

At least 4-5 bedrooms can be planned inside, and the height of the cabin is also high, so it doesn't matter if you jump around. The height inside the Gulfstream G550 is only 1.88 meters, and Zhou Buqi doesn't dare to lift his feet for fear of hitting his head.

The range is also 2,000 kilometers longer.

The blind box business is booming. Wu Yu can't stay abroad for too long. When it's time to return to China, he wants to take a big plane back.

Zhou Buqi waved his hand, "Don't think about it. This aircraft will be in service in the future, and it will mainly fly abroad. In China, it will still be a small aircraft, so don't be too conspicuous."

"Where is Ning Yameng?"

"Uh... don't let her go back now. Let her go back when she gets pregnant."

"Baoshan and Aunt Xue are also going back."

"Yeah, okay."

…

The next day, Aunt Xue, Baoshan and Wu Yu took a special plane back to China.

Zhou Buqi was left with sisters Ning Yaxian and Ning Yameng, as well as two big-nosed British bodyguards. First, he went to the London branch of Ziweixing to pay attention to the progress of the business. Then he followed the president of the branch.

, went to a website company called goal for an on-site inspection.

goal, as the name suggests, is a football website.

It is run by the British and is considered the largest football information website in the world today. It has a wealth of football-related news for fans, not only European football, but also South America and Asia's low-level leagues, with detailed real-time information.

Match results report.

However, this is still a small website.

Fans would rather go to Yahoo to watch sports news than come here to watch news. The main reason is that the reputation is not enough and the publicity is not enough. Many people have never heard of this website at all.

However, the development situation of this website is very good.

Copyright protection in Europe and the United States is very strict, so football news cannot be reprinted at will. It must obtain the consent of the news source before it can be posted on its own website.

Often you have to pay.

There are several similar football websites, mostly in the UK.

This is determined by the general environment.

Europe is an Internet desert, and language is the biggest obstacle. The football environment in Germany, Spain, Italy, and Portugal is also very good, but the language is limited and you can't get out.

English is much better, it is a global language.

Another point is that the United States is the birthplace of the Internet. Internet talents have all gone to the United States. If you want to start a business, go to Silicon Valley! Both the United Kingdom and Silicon Valley are English, and the attributes of the back garden are stronger. Many people cannot reach the strength of Silicon Valley.

, I chose to settle in the UK.

For example, Farfetch, a luxury e-commerce company that Ziweixing previously invested in and had strategic cooperation with, is a Portuguese entrepreneurial team and had to go to London to set up its website.

The UK is the country with the most developed Internet in Europe.

There are many football media in Germany, Spain, the Netherlands, Switzerland, Italy and other European countries. Goal station obtains authorization from them and then translates it into English and publishes it.

This is a gathering platform for football news content. Unlike many football media that have professional reporters go to various clubs to investigate. Such platform attributes are more in line with the logic of the Internet and are an asset-light operation.

There are three core founders of the website, Michael Simpson who is responsible for product and content, Jonathan Gambo who is responsible for business and marketing, and Scott Rothlauck who is responsible for technology.

Equity distribution is 4:3:3.

Zhou Buqi felt it was unreasonable.

What technical content can a football news website have? Why can CTO Scott Rothlauck get so much equity? Even CEO Michael Simpson is not that important. All products and content rely on copyright.

In an environment with strong copyright protection, the most important thing is business operation and market operation, which depends on coo Jonathan Gambo to find copyright from outside.

Only with copyright can you publish news on your own platform.

Once I inquired, I found that it is quite good. More than 95% of the football news on the website is reprinted for free. Only the columns and commentaries written by some professional journalists and media people need to be reprinted for a fee.

"Have you ever received financing?"

Zhou Buqi was a little surprised after hearing what Jonathan said.

This website has been running for more than four years. It has not received any financing, has to support a team of more than 30 people, has to market across Europe and even spend money to buy news copyrights... How does it survive?
To be continued...