Chapter 697: So Mischievous

In the days following the Tu Piaopiao shareholders' meeting, Tu Piaopiao quickly issued a statement, roughly stating that.

Wanda violated the agreement and will be removed as a shareholder of Tu Piaopiao.

This removal is gratuitous, meaning Wanda will receive no funds whatsoever, and its shares will be forcibly reclaimed.

This naturally requires legal procedures.

Upon this statement's release, Wanda Pictures and Tu Piaopiao's stock prices both fell, as both sides lost their complementary advantages.

This means Tu Piaopiao lost Wanda Cinema Line's share; Wanda lost its empowerment, and the prior effects had already manifested.

Without Tu Piaopiao, foot traffic dropped sharply.

Even with Captain America 3, most people were still diverted to other cinema chains.

The industry was stunned, with mixed reactions; cinema operators naturally remained unmoved, as this benefited them—Tu Piaopiao, backed by the Chang'e Yutu System, possessed massive traffic and premium films.

Without Wanda, this traffic would naturally flow to their other cinema chains.

Although the conflict had already existed before the statement, they remained uncertain until the formal announcement.

The film and television circle was shaken—should they side with the Principal or with Wanda?

Wanda was now scrambling to find resources to invest in their films, yet dared not offend the Principal.

Previously, the Principal had poured tens of billions into the film industry; many had received his money, so betraying him now felt somewhat unjust.

Xinli was the first to set an example: the film Some Like It Hot expelled Wanda.

This was done without a public statement—no need to reveal details to outsiders; Wanda was simply kicked out, and Tu Piaopiao took over, meaning Tu Piaopiao would also heavily invest in film and television, handling both distribution and investment.

The two sides were now as hostile as water and fire; others dared not move, waiting to see.

Only the two brothers from Huayi were loudly cheering for the Principal, saying: "Just watch—Wanda means nothing before the Principal!"

These two brothers had recently gone mad; everyone looked at them like fools.

Wanda quickly launched a counterattack, suing Tu Piaopiao for "lack of fairness" and "procedural illegality."

This would drag on—now that the conflict was public, it had become everyday gossip.

Tu Piaopiao's next move pulled its stock price back up: it announced it would acquire Damai for 5 billion.

Acquiring Damai had been a strategy set since its IPO, negotiated for a long time.

Damai is the leader in concert, music festival, theater, and sports event ticketing, with over 60% market share!

This acquisition means Tu Piaopiao is no longer merely a movie ticketing platform, but a diversified entertainment ticketing platform covering concerts, operas, theater, sports events, exhibitions, and family activities.

It will also integrate with Chang'e Technology's Big Data system—traffic is no longer a concern.

This creates a moat for Tu Piaopiao, completing another link in its ecosystem—anyone wanting to sell concert tickets well must now bow to the Principal.

In this trajectory, it will comprehensively control the entertainment circle, from upstream traffic to end sales channels.

This acquisition stabilized Tu Piaopiao's market cap at over thirty billion, even pushing it higher.

The money naturally came from issuing additional shares on the secondary market, equity allocations to major shareholders, and convertible bonds—public companies easily raise funds.

If they couldn't raise even this much, going public would be meaningless.

Previously, the IPO had raised 4 billion, and Tu Piaopiao had long been involved in distribution, earning distribution revenue.

They simply hadn't charged service fees yet; once other ticketing markets died and users developed ticket-buying habits, service fees would naturally follow.

The acquisition of Damai was widely supported, marking Tu Piaopiao's next step forward.

The dialogue and competition between the Principal and Lao Wang Zong also reached Jack Ma and Tony Ma's ears.

Jack Ma's reaction was normal—he had participated to some extent; Tu Piaopiao's massive spending was seizing the market space left by their competition, and he was waiting for Lao Wang Zong to come to him to jointly confront the Principal.

But Lao Wang Zong, with his strong pride, refused to beg for help, so he never approached Jack Ma.

Tony Ma's attention was not on film and television, but on Chang'e Technology—that was the real threat; yet, given the Principal's nature, he would never merge with Tencent.

More likely, he intended to stand as a third pillar, to stand alongside Tencent as an equal.

One Alibaba was already enough; another Chang'e Technology would spark another bloody war among internet giants.

"Principal, Tencent has restricted users from directly sharing TikTok video links in Moments and chats, severely reducing dissemination convenience," Zhang Nan suddenly reported.

"Ignore it. Focus on developing our own," Fang Hong now had no interest in Tencent's moves.

This restriction was inevitable and unstoppable; in his past life, TikTok faced the same—though this life had changed, the overall trend could not be altered.

And Tencent wasn't stopping at one move—it was fully promoting its own short-video platform, such as Satellite TV.

Tencent loves breeding monsters; it has developed many short-video platforms—Su Kan, Xia Fan, Yoo, and countless other bizarre ones.

But none could defeat TikTok; TikTok still rose to become the leader.

After another half-year of growth, TikTok's daily active users surpassed 100 million, monthly active users surpassed 300 million, its rise unstoppable.

TikTok was separately carved out as a strategic-level product, with a dedicated business unit established to operate it, and Zhang Nan was promoted to CEO of TikTok!

This is the highest-tier platform, able to mobilize all resources for development.

The overseas version, TikTok, was born under these circumstances—just a basic version, launched on Google Play.

After deliberation, Chang'e Technology's partnership group accepted Zhou Shouzi's suggestion and resolved to acquire it for one billion U. S. dollars—to trade capital for time.

This is a similar type of short-video platform; it has already been promoted globally, with professional teams familiar with each country's laws and conditions.

Acquiring it would save immense effort, avoiding the need to travel country by country and taking wrong turns.

This acquisition will be led by Gao Zhun's team, with Zhou Shouzi serving as consultant—anything unclear can be asked of him; this is also training Gao Zhun.

Recently, Xiao Wang has been extremely irritable; no one in the livestreaming circle dares to hang out with him, and even close friends in entertainment like Chen Chichi and Da Baobei no longer associate with him.

Everyone fears the Principal, fears being sanctioned by him.

He constantly yelled at those around him: "What the hell are you trying to say?"

"I just wanted to tell you that many streamers have left, many agencies have stopped investing in us, and we still owe salaries to streamers and staff, plus the debt from our earlier financing bets."

"I know. Can you say something else?"

Zhang Juyuan hadn't finished speaking when Xiao Wang waved him off abruptly.

"The court hearing is about to start, this time we might really be in for more misfortune than fortune."

"Damn it, I told you to stop talking."

Xiao Wang cut him off again, hurling a pen holder straight at him. Damn it, told him not to talk and he still talks.

Zhang Juyuan covered his swollen forehead, backed out of the office, still cursing under his breath: "Rich second-generation really has a terrible temper, no wonder the Principal got him, serves him right!"

Looks like this company is done for, time to find a new employer. Panda's current situation—tens of billions in debt, no capital coming in—it's doomed.

With the Principal isolating it, there's basically no chance of survival.

These past two months, Panda Live has been utterly bleak. Apart from clueless new little streamers and irrelevant entertainment streamers, basically no streamer dares to come broadcast here.

Even those once dazzlingly brilliant stars don't dare come do live streams.

Many stars used to live-stream playing games here, but now none of them come, and they don't live-stream games anymore either.

And those mid-to-large streamers took away huge amounts of traffic with them. No one dares to broadcast the three games of Swan Castle, so naturally a lot of viewers left.

No viewers, and Panda Live has no popularity.

Once the court rules that Panda Live infringed, Panda Live can be directly declared bankrupt.

This makes even Xiao Wang feel like going to the Principal to back down.

But the moment that thought appeared in his mind, he quickly dismissed it—his old man had already been scolded by the Principal like that.

If he went to find the Principal, wouldn't he just get stepped on.

"Damn Principal, it's just scolding a performer, is it worth treating me like this!" Xiao Wang was furious.

Before, he cursed those performers every day and nothing happened, cursed the Principal and nothing happened. This time he only cursed Liu Tianxian a little, and now he's being driven to bankruptcy.

Fang Hong paid no attention to the outside world's commotion. As time entered June, he couldn't go out anymore and could only stay home accompanying Liu Tianxian.

Because she was already nine months pregnant and could go into labor at any moment, if he went out and missed it, she'd definitely blame him.

For such a big event, if the husband isn't by her side, how could that be acceptable.

June in Beijing was already getting hot. Liu Tianxian, with her big belly, generally just wore a single long dress and called it a day.

It happened to be the Dragon Boat Festival, so Liu Tianxian invited a group of girlfriends over to the house to hang out.

There were Zhang Jingying, Shuchang, Meng Jia, Tang Yan, and Hui Yinghong who came all the way from Hong Kong.

A group of them, chattering and laughing, gathered around Liu Tianxian, looking very curious. One would touch her belly, another would press an ear against her big belly to listen.

"Oh wow, the little one kicked me!" Zhang Jingying pressed her ear against her belly, very surprised.

"Really? Really? Let me listen too." Tang Yan was very eager, wanting to listen to her belly as well.

"This little one is so naughty now, feels like it's doing somersaults in my belly." Liu Tianxian laughed.

"That's a good sign, proves it's healthy!" Hui Yinghong, who was beside her, said.

(End of chapter)