Chapter 396: Investment and Blacklisting

The morning in Los Angeles was pleasant, with temperatures warmer than the previous day, reaching above 18 degrees Celsius. Link, dressed in long-sleeved athletic wear, ran along the long asphalt road for fourteen to fifteen kilometers, working up a good sweat. As he returned from the pier, he saw the morning sun rising from the top of Hollywood Hills, casting a dazzling golden rim on the city of Los Angeles.

"Good morning, Link!"

As he ran past 1072 Villa, he happened to see Arnold Schwarzenegger running from the opposite direction, dressed in athletic wear, his hair combed back, accompanied by a burly bodyguard.

Seeing Schwarzenegger, he couldn't help but think of recent news. After the governor stepped down in January, the media exposed his affair with a nanny and the existence of their love child, causing quite a stir. Due to this incident, Schwarzenegger and his wife separated, which was probably the reason why he was living here.

"Good morning, Arnold!"

Link slowed down and greeted him. He was about to continue running when he saw Schwarzenegger stop and stand by the roadside. Link also had to stop and see what he wanted to talk about.

"Hey, Link, the newspapers say you're planning to enter politics and run for president in the future. Is that true?" Schwarzenegger grinned.

"Sounds like a good idea, but I don't have that plan at the moment," Link said helplessly.

Recently, he had also seen relevant news in the newspapers. Some said he was a Republican, funding Republican congressmen, and others said he was actively involved in politics and would run for president in the near future.

Compared to the news of him being a Republican, the news of him running for president was even more sensational. A beach boy who climbed out of the slums, after becoming a world boxing champion, a world-famous star, and a billionaire, if he became president, it would be a true "American Dream."

Because of this news, many people went to his fan website to leave messages, encouraging him to run for president, saying they would definitely support him and donate money to him. In less than three days, there were over 500,000 related messages.

Because of this news, he now had to answer more than ten extra calls every day. Most of them were acquaintances calling to confirm the truth of the news. When they heard him say it was fake, everyone encouraged him to try, maybe he could succeed. Everyone took this as a joke.

Link didn't expect Schwarzenegger to ask this question in person. Considering that he was a recently retired Republican governor, he guessed that this conversation might have political implications.

"Haha, Link, I've seen your resume and your speeches in media interviews. You're very suitable to be a politician and even have a chance to run for office. I think you should give it a try," Schwarzenegger said.

Link was noncommittal. He had never participated in politics and didn't know what kind of abilities a politician needed, but considering the presidents who had been assassinated in history, he felt that he needed to be cautious about this matter.

"If there's a chance, I'll consider it."

"Very good, I'm optimistic about you."

Schwarzenegger punched him in the chest and continued running with his bodyguard.

Link had just seen some regret on his face. Although Schwarzenegger had served two terms as governor of California and had good political qualifications and prestige, he was born in Austria and had dual citizenship in Austria and the United States. According to the U.S. Constitution, citizens not born in the United States were not eligible to participate in the presidential election.

---

When Link returned to the bay villa, Ivanka was also up, wearing a tight white T-shirt, khaki cropped pants, and white sneakers, swinging a badminton racket on the lawn.

Seeing him come back, Ivanka picked up a racket from the ground and handed it to him, asking him to play badminton with her.

"Are you sure you can play badminton?" Link looked at her full chest curve. With her size, whether jumping or swinging the racket would affect her speed.

"I'm not your opponent in tennis, but you're not my opponent in badminton," Ivanka challenged with her racket.

"I've never played badminton, but I don't think it's a problem to beat you."

"Stop bragging, serve." Ivanka bent down, her chest sinking, staring at him and shouting.

Link smiled slightly, took a couple of sips from the water bottle on the ground, then picked up the shuttlecock and served it. The first time, it didn't even go over the net, which made Ivanka laugh heartily.

The second time, it went over the net smoothly and was quickly intercepted by Ivanka, who hit it to the left corner. Link retreated a few steps and hit the ball back, but unfortunately, the arc was too low, hitting the net and losing a point.

"You're improving quickly, keep it up," Ivanka said, her lips curling up.

Link knew she was proud, so he grabbed the shuttlecock and smashed it over.

After playing for half an hour, they barely managed a tie. However, Ivanka ran around on the court, panting and sweating profusely. Her chest was hit twice by the shuttlecock, and she rubbed her left chest, glaring at him coldly, saying that he was playing dirty and deducting five points.

Link didn't care. After knowing how to score, he wasn't interested in five or ten points. He was thinking about when he could score a hundred points and pick this thorny rose.

When they returned to the villa, the servants had already prepared breakfast. Link and Ivanka washed off their sweat, changed into dry clothes, and went to the dining room to eat.

"This villa is a bit small, and the security is average. Should we consider changing to a different place?" Ivanka said, stirring the fruit salad with a spoon.

"If you're also living here, I agree to change to a bigger one. If you're not, it doesn't matter where I live alone," Link said, eating bread and reading the newspaper.

"I've already started setting up a Link Music branch in Los Angeles and buying a large recording studio. In the future, the company's work can also be handled here."

"No problem, it's all up to you. I'll just give it a thumbs up," Link said, looking at the newspaper.

"Also, last year, our company's profit reached 180 million dollars. After dividends, we have over 60 million in cash reserves, and no debt at all. As a company, this situation is not reasonable. Wall Street consulting firms also said that our Link Music's industrial structure is too single, and our development is relatively conservative. They suggest we diversify and try to get involved in the downstream industries of the music industry to increase the company's industrial scale, such as music players, headphones, or music websites. Do you have any suggestions?"

"Is Link Music single? Don't forget we also have SB Projects, an artist management company. But having too much cash on hand is not good either. We should make some investments," Link thought for a moment and said.

"Oh, what are you planning to invest in? I trust your judgment more than those people on Wall Street," Ivanka put down her silver spoon and looked at him seriously.

"Let's talk while we eat. Don't treat the dining table like a conference table. Regarding the music player you just mentioned, there's no need to invest in it. It's very convenient to listen to music on mobile phones now, so there's no market for music players. As for headphones, we don't know anything about this industry, so there's no need to get involved."

"We can acquire a niche headphone brand or cooperate with a major brand to create Link Music branded headphones, mainly targeting the fan base. Based on your and Link Music's artists' fan base, this market is worth hundreds of millions," Ivanka explained the operation process of branded headphones.

Link thought for a moment. It was similar to selling celebrity merchandise, with not much investment. If operated well, it could be as profitable as selling records.

"Okay, we can give it a try. And what about the music website you mentioned? Do you have any good targets?"

"Currently, the main paid music websites are iTunes, Amazon Music Store, Universal Music website, etc. These platforms are backed by Apple, Amazon, and other groups, so we don't have a chance to invest. However, there are several free streaming music service platforms that are doing well. I've investigated four of them. The best one is Pandora Radio, the most popular music provider in the United States, which has already gone through three rounds of financing and has a market value of 2.5 billion dollars. The second is Spotify, founded by Swedes in 2008. It has undergone one round of financing and is currently valued at about 800 million dollars. However, due to copyright issues, Steve Jobs, together with Warner, Universal, and other record companies, tried to prevent Spotify from obtaining music copyrights in the United States last year, so Spotify's development in the United States has been hindered, and its future is uncertain. There are also Aspiro and Wrapster, two new streaming websites founded in the past two years, imitating the earliest music download website Napster. They have also received one round of financing and are currently valued at around 200 million dollars."

Ivanka didn't need a tablet; she could accurately recite the information and data she had read over breakfast, which Link found very impressive.

Link thought about the four streaming music platforms she mentioned. The first, Pandora Radio, founded in 2003, automatically recommends songs based on users' musical preferences and is currently the largest streaming music platform in the United States, with some investment value. However, it has less potential than Spotify.

Spotify, currently valued at less than $1 billion, will grow into the world's largest streaming music platform in the future. The platform has both paid and free modes, with the paid mode allowing users to listen to music for free for a month by paying $10, or paying $0.006 to $0.0084 per song. Link knew about this company because he had seen the news of Taylor Swift's fallout with Spotify. Due to music channel issues, Taylor removed all her songs from Spotify in 2014, causing a lot of controversy in the international music scene. By 2014, Spotify's market value had reached $8 billion, and by 2020, it exceeded $60 billion. From this perspective, Spotify was more worth investing in.

The third, Aspiro, was a music platform invested in by Jay-Z, dedicated to providing high-fidelity music and music videos, taking a boutique route. Taylor Swift also had two albums on the Aspiro platform. Link didn't know if Jay-Z had invested in it yet, but relatively speaking, Spotify had greater investment value.

He shared his views with Ivanka, suggesting they could talk to Spotify's representatives in the United States. If they agreed to invest, the songs released by Link Music could also be released on Spotify simultaneously, and they could also talk to Aspiro.

Ivanka said she understood and would continue to follow up on these three projects.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

Before breakfast was over, the phone rang from the living room. Link put down the newspaper and went to the living room to answer the phone.

"Boss, I just received a call from the producers of 'In Time.' They're planning to replace your role," Ms. Anna said on the phone.

"Oh, what's the reason?"

"The crew originally planned to shoot in May, but because of your busy schedule, they had to postpone it to June. The crew originally agreed, but now the production company, New Regency, doesn't agree to the postponement and is asking the crew to replace you. I'm communicating with the producers of 'In Time.'"

"I understand. Continue communicating with them. If the crew doesn't agree, then give up the role," Link thought for a moment and said.

Ring! Ring! Ring!

As soon as he hung up the phone, it rang again. This time it was Katherine calling.

"Link, director Will Gluck just contacted me. Because of your schedule, Screen Gems is planning to abandon the co-production of 'Friends with Benefits' with us and instead cooperate with Weinstein Pictures. Also, Mandy called to say that the 'Hunger Games' crew is also planning to change their minds and give the female lead to another actress. Link, why are these problems happening at the same time? Is someone deliberately targeting us?" Katherine asked.

When Link heard Weinstein Pictures, he immediately thought that this matter was probably related to Harvey. Last time at the party, Harvey suddenly turned hostile and showed some animosity. Now, despite having his "black material," he suddenly took these targeted actions.

Could it be that Harvey guessed he didn't have the "black material"?

Link thought for a moment and told Katherine to leave the "Friends with Benefits" issue aside for now. Palm Beach Pictures currently didn't lack good scripts, so losing one project wasn't a big deal. Now they needed to continue negotiating with the "Hunger Games" crew to secure the female lead for Jennifer.

Katherine said she understood.

Link also told Katherine about his conflict with Harvey and asked the company to be careful. Last year, Miramax laid off several executives, some of whom joined the newly established Palm Beach Pictures. And Miramax was originally founded by the Weinstein brothers, with Mira being their mother's name and Max their father's. In 1993, it was sold to Disney for $80 million. In 2005, the two companies ended their cooperation, and Miramax became a subsidiary of Disney.

He warned her to be wary of Harvey contacting former employees and planting spies or creating trouble within the company.

After hanging up, he saw a missed call on his phone from Ms. Mandy.

He called back and told Mandy that he knew about the situation and not to worry. Take it slow. A few roles and a few movies wouldn't have a big impact on the company. Just work as usual and secure Jennifer's role first.

Ms. Mandy was relieved to hear that and said that she was communicating with director Gary Ross. They were very optimistic about Jennifer and didn't want to change the role, but the second-largest shareholder of Lionsgate was putting pressure on the crew, hoping to adjust the role.

Link said he understood, to communicate first, and report any new news.

"What happened?"

Ivanka handed him a glass of milk.

Link drank it in one gulp and explained Harvey's actions. First, he was stood up by the crew, then unilaterally terminated by a partner, and even the artists under Palm Bay Brokerage were affected.

Link suddenly understood the weight of Harvey, the most powerful person in Hollywood, which was heavier than he had imagined.

Those people knew that he was worth over $2 billion and had great box office appeal, but at this time, they chose to support Harvey, indicating that Harvey was more important to them and could bring them more benefits.

"Eva, I'm planning to take down Harvey. Is there a chance?"

"With his scandals?" Ivanka folded her arms and pondered for a moment. "It's extremely difficult and the cost is very high. First of all, most of the sexual assault and harassment cases in Hollywood are related to transactions. In the past hundred years, there have been thousands of similar cases in Hollywood, but only three people have been sentenced, and they were all small producers with no power. Harvey currently has great power in Hollywood, and many people rely on him to become famous and make money. If something happens to him, he will get a lot of help. Also, Weinstein Pictures has overcome its financial crisis and has enough money to hire lawyers.

In addition, the Democratic Party is currently in power. If something happens to Harvey, his allies will actively provide legal, political, and media assistance for their own interests. To bring him down, the cost is huge, and it could be a lose-lose situation.

It's better to wait a few more years, until the Democratic Party steps down or Weinstein Pictures is in poor financial condition. At that time, it will be easier to defeat Weinstein than it is now."

Ivanka gently persuaded him.

Link thought about the time when Weinstein fell from grace and nodded, "Then let's wait! Even without scandals, I can beat him in movies."

Seeing his confident look, Ivanka couldn't help but smile.

(End of chapter)