Chapter 879 Small Problem, Competitors (Two in One)

In the office.

Lin Baicheng listened to Errol Kilman's report on Blockbuster's various situations while looking at the company's relevant data.

Under the leadership of Errol Kilman, Blockbuster has developed rapidly, but it is not without problems. However, these problems are not big. In Blockbuster's rapid expansion, these problems have been hidden and not exposed.

Fortunately, Errol Kilman and other management also know that those problems need to be dealt with, so they took the initiative to report to Lin Baicheng and said that after the company's secondary financing and expansion, they will start to deal with them, so as not to let those small problems expand and become the company's cancer.

"I took a look. In the company's current direct-operated stores, the majority of the store employees are white and Chinese, and the number of other ethnic groups is very small. Are there no Africans or do they account for a very small proportion?"

Doing business in the United States must not be tainted with racial discrimination, otherwise the problem will be very big, and even large companies cannot resist it.

"There are no Africans in the company's direct-operated stores."

Errol Kilman replied after hearing this. He is the company manager and knows the situation of the company's direct-operated stores very well.

"Why is this happening? Is someone deliberately not hiring African Americans?"

Lin Baicheng frowned upon hearing this. Although he himself had no good feelings towards the dark African Americans, he had never expressed this attitude, and even repeatedly emphasized that his company did not allow racial discrimination, especially discrimination against the Chinese.

There was no problem with Blockbuster not discriminating against the Chinese. Although the proportion of Chinese clerks working in Blockbuster's direct stores was less than a quarter of that of white people, it was much better than other ethnic groups, and this was enough.

After all, Lin Baicheng only took care of the Chinese a little because he was Chinese. He didn't know those Chinese at all, so there was no need to take special care of them.

Blockbuster had no problem with the Chinese, but this did not mean that Blockbuster could target African Americans and not hire African American employees at all. If this kind of thing was exposed and reported in large numbers, it would definitely be disadvantageous to Blockbuster.

"Chairman, it's not that someone deliberately doesn't recruit African Americans, but that they really can't recruit the right African Americans."

Errol Kilman's words were helpless: "Chairman, African Americans account for a large proportion of people of color in the United States, and we certainly won't deliberately ignore them. However, our direct-operated stores also have requirements for store employees. African Americans do averagely in education, and their personal image and eloquence are not good. We can't lower the requirements specifically for African Americans, so we have not recruited African American employees."

"There are so many African Americans in the United States, it's impossible for all of them to ignore education."

Lin Baicheng shook his head after hearing this: "Among the people I have met, some African Americans are impeccable in terms of knowledge and conversation, and are absolute elites."

Although the proportion of African Americans in the upper class of the United States is not large, it is not to the point of non-existence. These are two different concepts.

Errol Kilman said: "Chairman, some African American families are very wealthy, and the children they educate are naturally elites, but people like them will not work as clerks in our Blockbuster stores, don't you think?"

"That's true."

Lin Baicheng nodded in agreement. Those elites are just ordinary clerks in Blockbuster because they have nothing better to do.

Errol Kilman explained: "Our company wants to recruit African-American employees who meet the requirements. There are African-Americans at this level, but there are not many. It is even more difficult for us to recruit them."

"No matter how difficult it is, we have to do it."

Lin Baicheng already understood what was going on, but he still reminded: "Blockbuster is about to conduct a second round of financing. With the expansion, it will definitely go public in the future. If this point is attacked by competitors or people with ulterior motives, it will not only directly hit Blockbuster hard, but also have a significant impact on Blockbuster's valuation. Therefore, this matter must be resolved and the company must not be affected by this matter."

"Chairman, I understand what you mean."

Errol Kilman replied: "I will order the human resources department to recruit suitable African-American employees to prevent the company from being attacked because of this."

"It's good that you understand."

Lin Baicheng said: "The number of African-American employees in the company can be small, but there must be no African-American employees. You must know the difference."

"Yes, Chairman!"

Errol Kilman nodded to show that he understood.

Lin Baicheng believed that with his special reminder this time, Errol Kilman would definitely handle it well. He could ask again when he had time. He didn't need to take care of the details himself.

After the meeting.

Lin Baicheng picked up a document in his hand and said, "Tell me more about this company called BesTV."

"The boss of BesTV was originally a senior executive of a local bank in San Francisco. Because of an accident, he resigned from the bank and founded this company more than two months after his resignation. He should have seen that our Blockbuster was developing well and had potential, so he imitated us."

"BesTV has been established for more than two months, but the boss of this company does not have enough capital, so he opened two stores, and the scale of the stores is incomparable to our direct stores."

"At present, without external capital investment, this company cannot pose a threat to us at all."

"Therefore, the company will wait and see for the time being. Once this company has a tendency to expand its scale, the company will respond and prevent this company from having the opportunity to grow and develop."

Best Video is a company similar to Blockbuster. Errol Kilman and other company executives are not fools. They noticed it not long after the other party was established. However, this company is not a threat at present, so they ignored it.

"Remember not to be careless."

Lin Baicheng nodded and reminded: "Now the other party has only two stores, of course there is no threat, but you can't completely forget about it. You should pay attention to it from time to time, and don't wait until they develop one day before you realize it. Also, with the development of Blockbuster, and even after it goes public, there will definitely be capital progress. At that time, the other party will not be a small company, so you must be prepared for competitors."

Blockbuster has no technical barriers. As long as there is money, anyone can set up a company similar to Blockbuster. Even if the scale is not as large as Blockbuster, the other party can compete with Blockbuster in some areas.

For example, if the other party does not have so much money, then they will only open stores in Los Angeles at the beginning, concentrate their strength, and compete with Blockbuster in Los Angeles. If they can develop or defeat Blockbuster in the competition with Blockbuster, they can expand on a larger scale.

So, even though Blockbuster is developing well now, it is possible to be defeated if you are not careful.

"Don't worry, Chairman, we will be on guard."

Errol Kilman responded immediately. Blockbuster made him what he is now. His career is tied to Blockbuster. Of course, he hopes that Blockbuster will develop better and better.

"Just keep it in mind."

Lin Baicheng said and continued to read the documents.

This time, until he finished reading, he did not find any major problems that deserved Lin Baicheng's attention.

Putting the documents aside, Lin Baicheng asked: "Manager Kilman, your next work focus will be the company's financing and independence, among which financing is the primary task. Complete the secondary financing as soon as possible."

Errol Kilman replied: "Don't worry, Chairman. The company, MGM and shareholders are in contact. It won't take too long to complete the financing."

"That's good."

Lin Baicheng said no more.

After reading the documents roughly, Lin Baicheng and Errol Kilman held a high-level meeting together, and then went to various departments to take a look.

As for the physical stores, Lin Baicheng did not go to see them. There was no need.

...

The financing of Blockbuster was negotiated by the Secretariat, Shirley Lansing, Errol Kilman and others, and Lin Baicheng did not participate.

When Blockbuster was raising funds, Lin Baicheng happened to go to other companies in Los Angeles to take a look.

As for New Century Software Company, he went to take a look after Isabella returned to Los Angeles.

New Century Software Company has Isabella to help Lin Baicheng manage it, so Lin Baicheng does not have to worry too much. If he doesn't even have this little trust in Isabella, how can he entrust Isabella with a bigger burden?

Besides, New Century Software is a listed company. Even if Isabella wants to harm the interests of the company, other shareholders will not agree, unless Isabella only harms Lin Baicheng's personal interests.

But it's not easy to do this. After all, there is a secretariat. The secretariat is not just for free. Every company under Lin Baicheng's name has people from the secretariat, and the secretariat often asks about it.

For the secretariat, even if the company is fine, they will often ask about it. Only in this way can they show their rights.

When inspecting New Century Software, an employee asked Lin Baicheng, the big boss, whether the company still has investment value under the current situation.

Lin Baicheng also knows why the other party asked this question.

New Century Software was listed at the end of October last year. It has been about nine months now. When the restricted sale expired three months ago, shareholders reduced their holdings one after another. Even Lin Baicheng transferred 5% of his shares at a low price. Although he was transferring from one hand to the other, the outside world didn't know and thought that shareholders including the big boss were selling stocks.

This caused the stock price, which had been fluctuating because institutions no longer supported it, to start falling. This fall lasted for two or three months, and the stock price was not far from the original issue price.

The stock price fell, shareholders reduced their holdings, and employees who still held original shares were of course worried.

In response to the inquiry, Lin Baicheng naturally told everyone that New Century Software Company was developing very well, and the stock price was just a short-term fluctuation. In the long run, the current price was definitely a low point and worth investing.

At the same time, Lin Baicheng also said that everyone could work hard with confidence. As long as New Century Software Company developed well, even if the company's stock price still fell, as long as it fell below the issue price, as long as the employees were willing, the company could repurchase the shares held by employees at the original issue price.

Employees actually don't hold many stocks, so even if they want to repurchase, it won't cost much money.

And as he said, under the condition that the development prospects of New Century Software Company remain unchanged, the decline in the company's stock price is only temporary, and it will rebound sooner or later, and this time will not be too long.

Lin Baicheng knew that the reason why the stock price of New Century Software Company was sluggish was related to the suppression of the stock price by institutions such as Goldman Sachs.

Institutions such as Goldman Sachs began to push up the share price of New Century Software after it went public. The company's restricted sale expired more than three months ago, and these institutions then sold a large number of shares at high prices to cash out. After that, they did not have many shares left, so they naturally would not maintain the share price and allowed the share price of New Century Software to fall. Some institutions even conducted a small amount of short selling.

The reason why Goldman Sachs and other institutions did this was to suppress the stock price of New Century Software to a certain extent, so that they could better buy a large number of stocks at a cheaper price.

Selling off at a high price and buying at a low price, this is the institutional trap, so they can make a lot of money.

Before doing this, Goldman Sachs and other institutions had greeted the three presidents of New Century Software. Lin Baicheng naturally knew about this. After getting his permission, Goldman Sachs and other institutions dared to do this. Otherwise, without the cooperation of the enterprise, once the enterprise issued a favorable announcement or repurchased, the institution would inevitably suffer heavy losses.

The reason why Lin Baicheng cooperated with Goldman Sachs and other institutions was that he knew that Goldman Sachs and other institutions were harvesting US stock investors and had nothing to do with him. Moreover, he needed to maintain his relationship with Goldman Sachs and other institutions. If he cooperated with them, he could make them owe a favor.

The stock price of New Century Software has been falling for a while, and Goldman Sachs and other institutions have almost absorbed the funds. They will not continue to absorb funds. Therefore, after the funds are absorbed, they will no longer suppress the stock price of New Century Software, but will start to pull it up.

By then, the share price of New Century Software will inevitably be pulled up. As long as the company's performance continues to grow, it is entirely possible for the share price to create a new high.

After New Century Software went public, Lin Baicheng still held more than half of the company's shares. This was fine when the company's market value was not high, but if the company's market value was high in the future, it would not be a good thing.

Therefore, after the expiration of the restricted sale, Lin Baicheng began to reduce his holdings in the form of block transactions, selling the shares to offshore companies or funds, anyway, from left hand to right hand.

However, because of the short time, Lin Baicheng has not transferred many shares now, and he will continue to transfer them later. Regardless of whether the company's stock price rises or falls, he will continue to transfer shares in the form of block transactions as always.

In other words, the restrictions on the sale of shares by major shareholders in the US stock market are relatively strict. If it were placed in the current Hong Kong stock market, Lin Baicheng would have transferred a large number of shares long ago, and there would be no need to take it slowly.

Fortunately, Lin Baicheng is not in a hurry now. The market value of New Century Software is only more than a billion US dollars. Before the company's market value reaches 5 billion US dollars, there is no need to be too anxious.

The company is too small to attract too many people's attention.

If the company's market value suddenly rises, Lin Baicheng has a way to sell a large number of shares directly, but that requires the approval of the Federal Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and a one-time transaction of hundreds of millions or even more than one billion US dollars is too eye-catching and not a good thing.

Therefore, unless it is forced, Lin Baicheng does not want to do so. It would be better to reduce the shares slowly.