Chapter 454

Adriaan was not a sports fanatic. He had always been appreciative of all kinds of sports, but he was not invested in them. Although he often went to watch some games with his woman, such as ice hockey, basketball, baseball, and football, he also participated in social activities on the sports field. Perhaps it was because he was reborn, but the enthusiastic atmosphere could not completely affect him. A part of his soul could always stand in the void, calmly watching the fanatical crowd and thinking silently.

Therefore, he wanted to get his hands on the Lakers for the same reason that Claude wanted to get his hands on the Dallas Cowboys. In his previous life, other than the Houston Rockets, which Yao Ming joined, the most people heard about the NBA were the Purple and Gold Dynasty. Shaquille O 'Neal, Shaq, Kobe Bryant, Black Barman. These names were familiar. Adriaan would not be like Claude, who fantasized about a team far away from California. There was a well-known NBA team in Los Angeles, so he would just go for it.

"Hey, Eide, Jerry Buss has already agreed to accept your investment," Claude reminded him.

"But I want the entire Lakers." Adriaan raised his hands and drew a big circle in the air. "Buss is doing this because he wants to use AC Media to increase the influence of the Lakers, but it is not enough to just give him an empty promise."

"I think this is already very good. Buss has also agreed to give up a small part of his power. After all, they have been managing the Lakers for more than 20 years. It is not good to be too aggressive," Claude advised.

"Really? If the Dallas Cowboys made the same offer, would you agree? "Adriaan immediately asked.

"I will continue to negotiate the specific terms with them, but I definitely do not want to have complete control of the team," Claude answered quickly.

Adriaan could not help but raise his eyebrows. Before he could speak, Claude laughed. "Well, Eide, do you have enough time and energy to manage the Lakers? If you don't care about it and let the professional team take care of it, what's the difference from now? Buss has also made it clear in private that this is his biggest concession. The Buss family will never give up on the Lakers. If you force them too much, they will try to resist at all costs. To be honest, if it really comes to this point, I am afraid that your reputation will be affected. Even if you get it, the entire team will not be convinced. "

Adriaan snorted. He did not take this threat seriously. Although the Lakers had just won the Triple Crown, it was not easy to deal with. With Ivanka's help in collecting information and some understanding of basketball and some related memories from his previous life, he still had some understanding of the current situation of the Lakers.

Although there was a conflict between Shaq and Black Barman, it was not to the extent of shedding all pretense of cordiality. This would only erupt after the Lakers lost their heads and created the Four Superstars and lost the finals. Right now, they were still very united on the surface. However, this was not the most depressing thing for Adriaan. The most depressing thing was that Big Yao had already gone to the Rockets. Based on the habits of the Chinese people and the precedent of Big Yao, as long as the Rockets put in a lot of effort to nurture him and did not do anything wrong to him, he was likely to play with the Rockets until he retired.

Adriaan had originally planned to expand into the China market, but he missed a great opportunity because of his stalemate with Buss. How could he be happy? That was why he said something like he wanted the entire Lakers. But then again, even if he got Big Yao over now, it would not be easy to make arrangements. Was he going to let Shaq sit on the bench? The China audience wanted someone who could fight hard on the court and fully display their charisma, not someone who only appeared as a substitute from start to finish. That way, even if he won a championship ring, not many people would like him.

So, if he wanted to use him to further expand into the China market, he could only wait until O 'Neal left and his rookie contract expired. If the plan in China went smoothly, he might be able to think of something from there. This way, he would be back to the beginning, how to have a say in the Lakers. Adriaan's previous words were not wrong. Buss agreed to accept his investment mainly because he wanted to borrow the influence of AC Media. Everyone knew about Adriaan's status in Hollywood and the Lakers' strategy of becoming a superstar.

"Let's not worry about this for now. Maybe when you stop thinking about it, a solution will pop up." Claude smiled and changed the topic. "Why don't you tell me about your little toy, Eide?"

"Oh?" Adriaan raised his eyebrows again. "Is there a problem?"

"Why do you want to separate it and not incorporate it into our group?" Claude asked bluntly. When it was just the two of them, neither he nor Adriaan would put on an act.

"It's simple. This is not a little toy, Krau. This will be a social kingdom with 500 million or more users," Adriaan answered seriously.

Naturally, they were talking about Facebook. It had been almost two months since the website was officially launched. Although the three Stanford students estimated that it would take three months for it to be officially launched, the bespectacled guy named Moradi Fisher, who took the initiative to talk to Adriaan, was quite smart. Although he did not fully see the value of Facebook, he knew that Adriaan would not create such a website just for fun. So, every time Adriaan asked about it or made a request, he would try his best to express his views and brief introduction. Even if it was useless, he put in a lot of effort to create it. That was why the launch date was brought forward.

At this time, Victor was also getting ready after his honeymoon. He was surprised that what Adriaan said at his wedding was true. Although Facebook was just a newly established website, he still resigned from his position at Yahoo after it was launched for a week and took over Facebook's operations. Then, with Victor's relentless promotion, coupled with Adriaan's strong support, the number of users on Stanford's campus had exceeded 10,000. Although Adriaan's memory of Facebook was incomplete, it was still quite good under the efforts of Fisher and the others. College students who had used it before were full of praise for it.

Next, of course, was to invest in expansion. He was not interested in conquering each school. He targeted all the Ivy League schools, then other universities, and then North America, Europe, and India. According to the people who were currently running the website, if everything went smoothly, the number of users was likely to exceed 5 million by the end of the year!

This was also the reason why Claude was envious. Although Facebook's launch was very low-key, and most of the time it was spread through emails between students, no one knew that the idea of the website came from Adriaan. However, as one of the insiders who single-handedly created the rise of AC Media, he could see the future of this social media website.

Even so, after hearing that there might be 500 million users in the future, Claude could not help but gasp, "Are you sure?"

Adriaan smiled with a little pride, "I explained in detail to Victor. If our current network environment is regarded as web 1.0, then the emergence of Facebook will lead everyone to web 2.0!"

"Please be brief!" Claude said impatiently.

"Okay, okay, to put it simply …" Adriaan shrugged, "Web 1.0 is when netizens collect all kinds of information by visiting websites. There has never been an era like now where there is so much information. People can read whatever they want to see, but what about after collecting the information? It is inevitable to share or show the information collected to others and like-minded people. Therefore, there are always many posts in popular forums. Even the communication software ICO and MSN are so popular. However, it is not easy to find friends or acquaintances with the same interests through these methods. The emergence of Facebook makes up for this. Netizens can easily build their own circle on the Internet. From this point of view, web 2.0 is direct communication between people on the Internet. "

Speaking of this, he paused, waited for Claude to think about it, then smiled and said, "Do I need to emphasize it again?"

"Of course not." Claude immediately raised his hands. Needless to say, Adriaan's vision was good. Because of this, Victor was so willing to take over the operation of Facebook.

But Claude still did not intend to let it go easily, "However, I still don't understand. Even if it is not included in the AC Media system, why not follow the previous plan?"

For a long time, for companies that AC Media could not acquire but held shares, such as Apple and Google, Adriaan had always controlled a part, Claude controlled a part, and then AC Group controlled a part. This way, it would not appear aggressive, and it could also affect their company's strategy when needed. But currently, Adriaan owned the majority of Facebook, and then Victor, Claude, Charlize, and Ivanka divided the rest. The last bit was given to the three programmers.

The reason why Charlize and Ivanka were on the list of shareholders was mainly because when they had dinner together that night, Adriaan asked casually, "Do you want to invest?" Charlize and Ivanka looked at each other and answered without hesitation, "Yes!"

What a joke, if they did not invest in the project that Adriaan wanted, what would they invest in? They even announced that they would take whatever shares he took out. Ivanka's savings were quite rich, and her father would definitely be willing to lend her money. As for Charlize, most of his expenses over the years were either from the company or from Adriaan. She could also be regarded as a veteran employee of AC Media, and she still had a few shares in the entire group. It was not much, but it was still a few million.

Of course, this was impossible, so the final composition became the above, and AC Media was excluded.

"Let's put it this way, Krau, Facebook is just the beginning. If it weren't for the fact that the latest version of Macromedia's Flash Player has just been launched, and its stability needs to be tested, I would have already put another idea into action." Adriaan explained, "In addition, I also have an idea for blogs. When people generally start to use mobile phones with Internet access, new ways to write blogs will appear. So, if Facebook does well, I'll separate our blogging business and form a new company with Facebook. "

"You mean …" Claude narrowed his eyes, and his eyes flashed with surprise. Obviously, he had already thought of the future.

"That's right, unless you don't care about the anti-trust investigation every few days, or think that we can be as lucky as Microsoft." Adriaan spread his hands, "It's good as it is now. Just like our agent company, even if we have merged with Endeavour, we still have enough say. Moreover, Victor's character and ability are trustworthy. We just need to equip him with an adventurous assistant. "

As for this candidate, Adriaan felt that Moradi Fischer was not bad. Although he was a bit flashy, he was capable and had a moderate ambition. Of course, as to who was more suitable, it depended on Victor's attitude.

"I understand," Claude said simply after a long silence.

Of course, he understood what Adriaan meant. Although this year's AC Media was relatively low-key, it was destined to be the focus of many people. If they continued to expand, especially on the Internet, then they were bound to become the target of public criticism in the end — if those websites were really as valuable as Adriaan said.

Investing in a brand new company under one's own name might not be as flexible as incorporating AC Media, but from a legal point of view, it was not easy to be caught. Moreover, although the amount of information in modern society was increasing, as long as the method was right, there was no need to worry about not being able to control people by constantly instilling all kinds of contradictory information into people. For a media company, people would always passively receive information.

Adriaan did not say anything more. He chatted for a while and then left Claude's office. He believed that he would make the best decision for everyone. As for the Dallas Cowboys and the Lakers, hmm … Let Claude try first. He also needed to talk to Buss. It was not enough to just accept investments. If he wanted them to help promote the Lakers, he would have to pay a lot more.

However, American football had a goal. Basketball also had a goal. Should he get involved in English football? Buy a club in the English Premier League, like Abramovich?

Adriaan frowned slightly. Buying the Lakers was in Los Angeles. Most celebrities in Hollywood liked the Lakers, and of course, the Clippers. Secondly, he had some understanding of the NBA because of Big Brother Yao and Hollywood movies in his previous life. However, he did not know much, so he knew that even if he got the Lakers, he might not be able to play well. He knew even less about English football. How much could a guy who did not even watch the World Cup know?

Wait! His eyes suddenly lit up. His limited memory in this area told him that Abramovich seemed to have bought Chelsea in 2003?! A smirk spread from the corner of his mouth. How about snatching Chelsea over?

Although such an acquisition must have started long ago, it was still a contest of connections and funds. It was fun to be a nouveau riche once in a while. Moreover, would it be better to sell the club to a Russian or to a well-known director who often made British-style movies and had a good reputation in the United Kingdom, who was also the head of a media group?

It could also allow AC Media to expand its influence in the United Kingdom and get a springboard into Europe. Wasn't ESPN planning to do so? Moreover, his lack of understanding of English football and the players allowed him to hand it over to the management. He just had to poach that Magical Bird or something … Oh, José Mourinho, the only football manager he could remember and give him the greatest support.

Well, yes, there was also a very powerful young British player named George Wood in his memory. He had a very abnormal physique and shone after 2005. In the end, he seemed to be the captain of the England national team. He seemed to be Mourinho's adopted son? Or was he poached by him and became as close as a father and son? Whatever, I'll just get someone to check it out.

Adriaan, who obviously did not know that he had mixed up his memories, began to think about how to disgust Abramovich.

In the blink of an eye, it was August. No matter how white-hot the summer holidays were, the post-production of "The Lord of the Rings", "The Matrix" and "The She-Devil" continued in an orderly manner. The trailers of the first two films had also begun to be released, but the third film was as low-key as it was when it started. The media did not even know that there was such a film because Adriaan was still waiting for the right time.

Some commercial blockbusters aimed at the Christmas slot released their trailers at this time, such as "Pirates of the Caribbean", which Miramax invested in and produced. Weinstein began to urge the post-production and gave the crew a strict order that it must be released at the end of the year.

"I've won you two Best Actress awards, but you've never fulfilled your promise — oh, I'm not blaming you, I just want to prove that the miracle director never fails to fulfill his promise!" Although Weinstein's answer was dignified, Adriaan knew that he was just eager to use a commercial blockbuster to promote Miramax.

After the millennium, with the rise of a series of big-budget films such as "Titanic", "Spiderman" and "X-Men", the gap between big film companies and middle-tier second-tier film companies was immediately widened. This was definitely a bad sign for Weinstein, who was bent on developing Miramax into a big film company, so he was eager to use "Pirates of the Caribbean" to promote Miramax further — at this time, he had no choice but to believe in the miracle director.

Adriaan let him do this. If a middle-tier second-tier film company was too obsessed with big investments, one wrong step could lead to eternal damnation. The New Line in his previous life was the best example. Now, without "Lord of the Rings", New Line had been developing slowly but steadily in the past two years, and Robert Shay didn't have much desire to gamble. If Miramax really went that far … The Weinstein brothers would be waiting to work for him for the rest of his life.

What made Adriaan a little happy and regretful was that Kayla was rushing to shoot a movie in the UK, which was said to have a supporting role before the Cannes Film Festival. It was "Love Actually", written and directed by British screenwriter Richard Curtis, who also worked with Adriaan before. Of course, New Line had invested in it.

So now that she was not here, Adriaan was a little worried about her increasingly obvious arrogance towards others, but he also missed her hands and his work — the pair of soft, B-sized hands.

Last time, because of the film festival, he left a little quickly. Maybe he should take some time to have a good talk with her. He thought that there were still a few years before the completion of the plan, so he couldn't make any mistakes.