Chapter 604 US$146 billion
As one of the largest online game companies in Asia, Penguin Group has a group of top-notch artists under its command.
Worried that he would not be satisfied with the designs produced by pop artist Jeff Koons, Fan Wumian came up with the idea of "custom processing based on drawings" and assigned the design task to them in advance.
He thought his request was simple.
The main task was to help a female emperor in "Emperor of the Wilderness" design an extremely sexy modeling rendering. The requirements were that it should have wings, be simple, mysterious and heart-moving, and suitable for being made into a sculpture.
As Party A and major shareholder, Fan Wumian personally issued such a strange and confusing task under the banner of promoting the online game "Emperor of the Wilderness". The art team of Penguin Group had no choice but to follow the instructions. They held a meeting immediately to study, communicate and discuss the specific design plan, which made them so worried that they were exhausted.
More than ten hours later, several dynamic structural drawings of simple sketches were sent from China. Fan Wumian picked out the styles of holding an umbrella and a sword and asked them to further optimize them.
Dozens of people put down their work and gathered around him. Once they had a general idea, they got busy very quickly.
The next day, another batch of pictures was delivered, and Fan Wumian continued to screen them.
I don’t know whether these artists did it to save time or to cater to the tastes of the artist, but some of the pictures were clearly based on the prototypes of Zuo Ziyan, Zhuang Muxi, and Feng Ying’er, successfully catering to Fan Wumian’s aesthetic.
Because it is a sculpture, the eyes are difficult to make, and some shapes are designed to be covered with masks or cloth strips.
He carefully selected from hundreds of pictures, and after further refinement and adjustment, he slowly created the feeling that Fan Wumian wanted.
at the same time.
Unlike Fan Wumian who was busy all the time, Zuo Ziyan finished her last exam seriously, immediately packed her luggage and rushed to the airport, flying to New York to meet him.
After several hours of flying, she arrived at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel and unexpectedly found a thick stack of concept drawings on the desk. She ignored her tiredness and asked with a strange expression:
"Are you like many otakus, obsessed with virtual female characters? The real world can no longer attract you, so you start paying attention to these things?"
Fan Wumian hugged her waist from behind and said with a smile:
"How could that be? I just thought I could take this opportunity to promote the online game 'Desolate Emperor' and wanted to ask Jeff Koons to customize a sculpture. I'm afraid stainless steel won't work. If I build a model in advance and cast a bronze sculpture, I can try to create the feeling of the two-dimensional beauty I want."
"Instead of spending money on advertising, it's better to spend money on this, at least there is a chance that it will increase in value."
“I’m not looking down on Jeff Koons, but it’s hard for him to figure out what I want. Now I’m just feeding him the food. At least I don’t have to worry about failure. I can just give him some processing fees when the time comes.”
Zuo Ziyan flipped through a few sample pictures that were placed separately and praised them:
“This one is great, the shape is very beautiful.”
"Well, a group of people worked overtime every day for four days and it's basically close to the final version. I guess they are going crazy. It's hard to make a sculpture taste perfect. I know a realist oil painter named Leng Jun. I will ask him to customize a painting for me. I have already thought of a name in advance, it's called "Empress."
As the party A, Fan Wumian has not been busy at all these days.
I strolled around leisurely and even went to see several luxury houses near Central Park. I didn't do that with the intention of buying a house, but simply to look for inspiration and prepare for the development of Shenzhen Bay and Yanjing real estate.
Fan Wumian was more familiar with villas, but he was not quite sure how to design a large flat-floor apartment building. There happened to be a large number of top-level luxury apartments in Manhattan, so he spent a little money to hire a real estate agent as a tour guide to observe the site.
In addition, he was invited to attend a party hosted by his partner Jowon Rogers, during which he was mainly responsible for negotiating business with clients and praising companies such as Apple, Google, Facebook, and Amazon to everyone he met.
In this way, when their stock prices go up, these guests will think that Fan Wumian has a good vision, which can help their long-term business and also help them integrate into the local upper-class social circles in New York.
Unfortunately, his current strength is not enough to control the market in Manhattan. After all, there are only a few investors who are bearish on the subprime mortgage market. Many real estate developers and institutions engaged in subprime mortgage business only give part of their funds to WM-Rogers Hedge Fund Company to hedge risks. As more and more people are bearish on the US real estate market and subprime mortgage market, the total size of this hedge fund in which Fan Wumian holds 7% of the shares has increased by more than 10 million US dollars in just over a month, and it is only more than 2 million US dollars away from the threshold of entering the " billion club".
On the other hand, the total size of Paulson's hedge fund's financial products that short the subprime mortgage market has exceeded US$25 billion. At the end of last year, the subprime mortgage market experienced a slight turbulence, and some investors have begun to believe the predictions made by John Paulson.
On the other hand, WM Rogers Hedge Fund has recently begun to try to promote a new product that specializes in investing in high-tech companies in Silicon Valley and listed on NASDAQ.
Because Fan Wumian successfully bought $15 billion worth of Apple shares, he attracted a group of investors, mainly Asians living in North America, and the amount of funds raised was only more than 9000 million US dollars.
Everything is difficult at the beginning.
Fan Wumian's investment vision is particularly well-known in Asia, but in the United States, more people only know his identity as a star, singer, and internet celebrity, and don't care about things outside the United States, as if other countries, apart from this "great country", are just supporting roles on the world stage.
Even places like Australia and Canada, which are envied by many Asians, are just "remote and poor places" in the eyes of Americans, who don't take them seriously at all.
As for Japan and South Korea, it is hard to describe them. They are so humble that they are almost crawling on the ground. How can they have any dignity at all?
In a suite at the Waldorf Astoria.
It was only the beginning of January and it had just snowed in New York, but Zuo Ziyan insisted that she was sweating from the heat on the flight here and dragged Fan Wumian to take a shower with her.
It was obvious that Fan Wumian had other intentions, and pretending to be ignorant, he quickly gave her the experience she wanted.
British time is 5 hours ahead of New York time. He had originally planned to take Zuo Ziyan with him to find a place to have a meal, but they stayed in the bedroom for too long. As soon as it got dark in New York, she couldn't hold on and fell asleep.
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The next morning.
We first took a car to Jeff Koons' studio to help make a sculpture, but he asked for $800 million. He also mentioned that last year a British businessman asked him to customize an orange stainless steel "Balloon Monkey" for the same price.
Seeing that this guy was easy to talk to, Fan Wumian patiently argued with him for a long time, offering benefits such as "help with promotion in Asia" and "help showcasing his work on TV", and finally lowered the price significantly to 120 million US dollars. He also got a limited edition set of small "Balloon Dog" ornaments as a bonus.
Zuo Ziyan was still dizzy when she left Jeff Koons' studio. She asked in a puzzled tone:
"Shouldn't artists have strong personalities and tempers? I felt like I was at a street stall just now. How dare you bargain down from $800 million to $80?"
Fan Wumian shrugged and replied:
"I have almost designed the sculpture. I want $120 million just to use his name to put a sign on it. Where can I find such a good thing?"
"Even though the auction prices are so high, it's hard to say how much he can get. Most of the profits are taken away by galleries and agents. Otherwise, why would others help him hype the products?"
“Seeing Jeff Koons holding exhibitions all over the world and selling cheap peripheral products everywhere, I know that he is a qualified businessman who should understand that it is better to make less money than no money. Moreover, he really needs to increase his popularity in Asia. In his eyes, my celebrity status is also quite valuable. We are just using each other and cooperating with each other.”
Zuo Ziyan understood immediately and said happily:
"You spent $120 million on the sign, and once the sculpture is finished it might be worth four or five million dollars. And you also advertised for The Desolate Emperor, so you won't lose anything. No wonder your business is so big. You've almost figured out all the accounts. What's going on in your mind?"
Fan Wumian said with a firm tone:
"I miss you. Let's go shopping in New York today, and then we'll go. The representative of Dassault Company asked me to meet in Hong Kong the day after tomorrow to discuss the details of ordering the aircraft. I have only made $1.46 million from long Apple stocks so far. The stock price has been rising and falling for the past few days and it seems that it will not rise any more in the short term. I will have someone close the position and cash out later." (End of this chapter)