Although the thing Isabella cared about most right now was the progress of the "Hollywood giants suing YouTube for copyright infringement" case, what came faster than the case updates was actually the equity transfer agreement sent over by YouTube's founders.
Yes.
There was no way Isabella was going to help YouTube for free.
After all, YouTube wasn't her company.
So before helping them, she had already made an agreement with the founders—
As long as she could help YouTube get through this crisis, the founders would have to reduce their holdings to 30% of the total shares, meaning Isabella would hold 70% of YouTube.
And this reduction would be a free transfer.
Also, this agreement would not affect the previously signed directed acquisition agreement between both parties.
Uh—
Although most investors in the investment world are profit-driven, and squeezing founders' shares is nothing new in the industry—to the point that in the future, Tencent simply doing the most basic operation of "invest but don't interfere" could be praised as a breath of fresh air in a dirty era—still, pushing founders' shares down to 30% in one go… was indeed a bit excessive.
To put it bluntly, even the wolf king of corporate raiding, Carl Icahn, would probably offer Isabella a seat of honor after seeing this move.
But Isabella felt—her agreement with the YouTube founders wasn't harsh at all.
Because YouTube's success had nothing to do with technology—it was all about connections.
So if YouTube didn't have its own moat, and she could help it climb to the highest peak—
then wouldn't she become YouTube's moat?
And if she could become that moat, then even if she didn't invest in YouTube and instead hired engineers to build her own site, say, "YourTube," she'd still succeed, right?
So—
she felt that exchanging one move for 30% of YouTube's shares was already extremely generous.
To put it even more bluntly, if Chad Hurley didn't have an incredibly powerful father-in-law, Isabella would have kicked these people out in minutes—even if they had Peter Thiel backing them.
Since they understood their own situation, when Isabella made her demand, the YouTube founders didn't think there was anything wrong with it.
And now, although the lawsuit hadn't officially ended, after the May 15 hearing was voluntarily halted by the content capital side, knowing they would definitely win, they stopped hesitating and decisively came to the Cayman Islands to present the equity transfer agreement.
After this transfer—
Chad Hurley would hold 14.07% of YouTube;
Steve Chen would hold 13.28%;
Jawed Karim would hold 2.65%—
As the contract was signed, the three of them smiled.
Chad Hurley took the initiative to extend his hand and shook Isabella's. "Although we've now lost control of YouTube, the platform has also left the gray zone, so… thank you very much…"
"No need to be polite," Isabella replied with a smile.
She understood why they were happy.
Because "whitening" anything is never easy.
"Okay, since we've already transferred the shares to you, there's a question we've been holding onto for a long time. Now we finally dare to ask—Isabella, will YouTube go public?"
Chad Hurley pointed at the other two and said with a grin, "We were thinking, if you really love YouTube, would you just keep holding it… until the end of the world?"
"Oh, definitely not—"
Isabella waved her hand and replied with a smile, "I know what you're worried about. You're afraid your shares will get diluted to nothing, right? About that—starting today, YouTube will no longer raise funds.
"Because I won't take YouTube public. I'll just sell it.
"I don't have time to manage a public company, and you guys won't stay at YouTube forever, right?
"So just wait for the deal. If bandwidth isn't enough, then run up debt.
"I'll have the American bandwidth providers take YouTube's IOUs to the new owner to collect."
"As for your 30%—I can at least guarantee you'll get 500 million dollars in return."
Her words made all three of them beam with joy.
The reason they asked whether Isabella planned to take YouTube public was simple—
they wanted to know how much money they would ultimately make from founding YouTube.
The logic was straightforward—
If Isabella wanted to go public, their shares wouldn't be liquid in the short term;
and since YouTube needed funding to grow, if Isabella kept financing it, she could gradually dilute their shares to nothing at zero cost;
because right now, YouTube could only get funding from her, and its biggest expense was bandwidth.
But if Isabella didn't plan to go public, then growing YouTube and selling it to a buyer was inevitable;
based on current projections, if YouTube reached 100 million users, selling it for 3 billion dollars wouldn't be a problem;
and 30% of that would be 900 million;
which would instantly make Chad Hurley and Steve Chen billionaires;
even Jawed Karim, whose stake was small because he hadn't contributed much, would still walk away with tens of millions for free—and who would refuse that?
Isabella's promise reassured them, and the three chose to take their leave.
After they left, Isabella wanted to head back to the side room to play with her capybaras.
But just as she stood up, before she could slip away, she was stopped by the bald-headed Valentine O'Connor, who was in charge of reviewing the agreement. "Isabella, wait a moment—"
"What is it? Something else?"
"Yes. Since your holdings have been changing quite rapidly recently, I need to go over the details with you."
"Huh? That? Can't you just talk to my mom directly?"
Isabella pointed at her mother as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
Since she was still underage, many legal documents still had to be signed by Vivian. So after the YouTube founders arrived, Vivian had been forced to return to the still slightly smelly villa that wasn't quite freshened up yet.
Of course, even after Isabella came of age, she wouldn't put her own name on all those agreements.
First, her companies and charitable foundation were all under her mother's name.
Since everything was running fine, there was no need to go through the trouble of changing it.
Second—
she was lazy.
Signing agreements itself was easy, but the tedious social interactions and running around that came with it—
what status did she have now?
Not just anyone was worthy of meeting her.
To put it bluntly but truthfully—
if YouTube hadn't suddenly run into trouble and been targeted by its "own people," she might never have met its founders in her life, even if she held a pile of shares.
It wasn't that she looked down on them.
It was just that they weren't worth her time or effort to understand or interact with.
But just as she was about to make a quick escape—
"Stop right there."
Vivian said irritably, "You don't even want to understand your own business? I'm your mother, not your nanny!"
"You can play with capybaras and otters anytime. Why now?"
"Sit down!"
"…Fine…" Isabella pouted and obediently sat down.
Since her mom was still annoyed about the messy house, she could only go along and calm her down.
Although their conversation contained a lot of information, Valentine O'Connor showed no interest in prying. Once Isabella sat down, he immediately pulled documents out of his briefcase and said, "Isabella, you currently have four companies and one large charitable foundation under your name."
"Since your main business is in entertainment, let's start with your entertainment holdings—"
When it came to entertainment, the first company mentioned was naturally Beaver Entertainment.
As the starting point of Isabella's career, the company was doing quite well:
Although its film division had completely stalled—
because Isabella had canceled the Resident Evil project;
the TV division was thriving—
Hannah Montana and Nashville had both entered their second seasons;
the animation department was also hard at work—the untitled Beaver animation was more than halfway done and expected to release next summer, or the year after at the latest;
and the IP trading department had once been the strongest—holding IPs like The Voice, Resident Evil, How to Train Your Dragon, Iron Man, and Fantastic Four;
now, Hannah Montana and Nashville could also be added to that list;
however, since the end of last year, the glory of the IP department had been partly taken over by the asset division—
which was only established last year and currently had just one asset: a 10% stake in Marvel.
On the surface, none of this needed reporting since Isabella already knew it, but—
"Isabella, I need to talk to you in detail about Marvel."
"Last year, after you acquired the 10% stake, Marvel's board was reorganized due to the change in ownership."
"At the time, you said you didn't want to deal with it and told us to coordinate with Robert Iger, and now—"
"he's secured three out of the nine board seats."
A company's board restructuring due to ownership changes was perfectly normal.
So after Isabella acquired 10% of Marvel from Carl Icahn and Ronald Perelman, she naturally gained a seat on Marvel's board.
But even though Marvel represented the future of the film industry,
Isabella hadn't spent much effort on its board restructuring.
There were two reasons:
The key rights needed to build the MCU were already in her hands, so regardless of Marvel's stance, she could make the Avengers. The comic industry itself wasn't very profitable. Since she could freely make films, simply holding Marvel shares for future gains was enough—anything more wasn't worth the effort.
Because of this, when she noticed Robert Iger's interest in Marvel, she handed her voting rights to him.
And now he held three seats?
This—
"I don't quite understand what you mean," Isabella said, looking at O'Connor. "Uncle O'Connor, just say it directly. My mind is full of my capybaras and baby otters right now."
"I just want to stack my baby otters on top of my capybara like building blocks."
…
Her bluntness made Vivian want to hit her.
Valentine O'Connor simply smiled and nodded. "Alright, here's the situation."
"Last year, after receiving your authorization, Robert Iger mentioned something to me."
"That if he could control Marvel's board, he would have Marvel re-sign contracts with you."
"The rights you currently hold are incomplete, aren't they?"
"He wants to grant you the remaining rights."
"That way, if the Marvel films succeed, you'll enjoy all the profits alone."
"But right now, he only has three seats, so—"
"If you're interested in exclusive profits, you'll need to have a proper discussion with him."
"Oh—" Isabella nodded.
She understood.
Right now, the Marvel rights she held were incomplete.
So since she and Robert Iger were allies, and she trusted him enough to give him her voting power, the first thing he wanted to do was help her consolidate those rights.
The method was simple: control the board, then sign a new contract with Beaver.
For example, under a new agreement, Isabella's rights would have no time limits, she could freely produce derivatives, and in return, Marvel would receive 1% of all project profits.
Uh—
basically selling off the rights dirt cheap and hollowing out Marvel at the lowest cost.
As for whether this kind of operation was legal?
Put it this way—
A certain food and beverage company may be extremely famous, but it only produces products and doesn't handle sales.
All product sales are carried out by other companies under the chairman's name.
The well-known company sells its products to the chairman's sales company at cost price, and then that sales company uses the original brand name to sell them, with all the industrial and brand-added value going straight into the chairman's pocket.
When something like this can run steadily for ten years—
anyone trying to make capital gains has grabbed someone else's surplus value at some point, haven't they?
And all of the above is just the ideal scenario.
Right now—
Robert Iger does not control Marvel's board.
Under normal circumstances, this kind of issue could be resolved just by having his people and Isabella's people talk things through.
But now—
didn't Disney just sue YouTube?
When the people below don't know what the people above are thinking, Valentine O'Connor, who knows the situation on Isabella's side, can't directly communicate with Iger's team, and Iger's people can't easily talk to him either.
So—
"Okay, I get it. I'll talk to him when I have the chance."
Isabella waved her hand,
signaling she had taken note.
With the Marvel matter set aside, the update on Beaver Entertainment was finished.
Next up were Marmot and Capybara.
Compared to Beaver, the changes in these two companies were relatively small.
Starting with Marmot—
it currently had ten artists.
Those on the acting track: Margot Robbie, Anne Hathaway, Kat Dennings.
Those on the music track: Bruno Mars, Katy Perry, Lana Del Rey, Colbie Caillat, Carly Rae Jepsen, Rihanna, Lady Gaga.
That's right!
The reason The Voice Season 3's ratings dropped was simple: talent shows can last forever, but truly great undiscovered talent is limited.
Out of the 150 contestants in Season 3, Isabella only recognized Lady Gaga!
Once all the outstanding unknown talents on the market had been picked clean, Season 3 couldn't possibly match the quality of the first two seasons—and when the content declines, so do the ratings.
Of course, there was no real way around that.
Even so, Warner Music was extremely eager to acquire Capybara Records.
Because these artists all had star potential.
Because their music rights clearly had significant value.
As for that—
"Ignore them."
"If Warner Music has the guts, they can report their desires to Barry Meyer."
"Let's see if Barry Meyer gives them a hard slap in response."
Isabella waved her hand again.
She couldn't be bothered with Warner Music at all.
Those people only dared to talk big.
Actually negotiate?
How many people in Warner dared to risk making her angry now?
After covering Beaver, Marmot, and Capybara, the remaining report was simple—Valentine O'Connor only had the charitable foundation and Isabella's newly established investment company from last year left to discuss.
The former, the Haywood Charitable Foundation, had already grown quite large. Its Beaver charity branch had begun operations, and the company called Green Planet already owned 150,000 acres of agricultural land—roughly half the size of Hong Kong.
And in the future, it would continue buying land, especially aggressively across North America. As for why—
didn't "Lord of Ten Thousand Taxes" say he'd cut military spending before taking office? And yet after taking office, why did military spending keep increasing?
Because the military-industrial complex has companies spread across the entire country.
When they have factories in every state, if you dare cut military spending, they dare trigger nationwide layoffs.
Eighteen rebel lords, sixty-four uprisings—can you really suppress fifty of them at once?
At the same time, the Haywood Charitable Foundation registered another company last year called Blue Planet.
On the surface, it promotes water conservation and ecological balance.
But in reality—
buying into the water industry.
Those who understand, understand.
As for the latter, the investment company Isabella founded last year was called Robin.
It was essentially a miscellaneous holding company—her two islands, security firm, YouTube, American bandwidth services, even a stretch of coastline—all were placed under Robin.
Although Isabella didn't have many businesses yet—what wealthy person doesn't have hundreds of companies under their name?—
after doing a rough calculation—
"…Wait."
"Has my net worth already exceeded ten billion?"
After reviewing her assets, Isabella suddenly realized her wealth had reached eleven digits.
"Huh? Didn't your net worth pass ten billion a long time ago?"
Valentine O'Connor looked confused.
"The Voice IP alone is worth ten billion, using Forbes' method."
That's right!
Using Forbes' valuation, Isabella had already been a billionaire for a while.
Because The Voice brought in nearly 500 million dollars in cash annually.
Using Forbes' "20-year payback for a single investment" model—
5 × 20 = 100
Meaning if Isabella chose to sell The Voice, she could make at least 10 billion in cash.
Well—
to be honest, that kind of calculation is a bit ridiculous.
Because no one in the world would actually pay 10 billion for The Voice IP.
But it couldn't be helped—
so many fortunes are inflated by the "price-to-earnings ratio" lever.
When every wealthy person's net worth contains some level of bubble—
those with no bubble, or very little of it, are the truly rich ones.
Like Isabella right now—
none of her assets are leveraged.
Just the cash she earns each year is more than she can spend.
"Okay, okay, looks like I can buy some more things."
Isabella clapped happily and turned to her mother. "Mom, I want to buy two seals—"
"Get lost!"
Before she could finish, Vivian snapped sharply.
"…Fine."
Even though she got yelled at, Isabella didn't care. Since her mom told her to get lost—
off to play with the otters next door.
Her cheerful exit left Vivian a bit helpless.
Shaking her head, she turned back to Valentine O'Connor, who wore a wry smile.
"There's more to discuss, isn't there?" Vivian asked.
"Yes." O'Connor raised his brows.
"Then talk to me."
"Alright—"
While O'Connor's report made the atmosphere in the Cayman Islands relaxed—after all, who doesn't enjoy counting money—
at the same time, over in North America, the social atmosphere was tense, because Isabella's enemy had suddenly encountered a series of accidents.
May 16, 2006, noon:
News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch suddenly suffered a stroke.
Although he was rescued in time, his motor functions were severely impaired.
The news caused the company's stock to plummet instantly.
Because Rupert Murdoch was the pillar of News Corporation.
Even though he only held 17% of the shares, due to the dual-class structure, he controlled 39% of the voting rights.
So if his health failed, internal chaos was inevitable.
At the very least, his children would fight over the inheritance.
However—
that concern turned out to be the most optimistic scenario.
Because on the same day, his second daughter, Elisabeth Murdoch, fainted upon hearing of his stroke and hit her head hard on the ground.
Although she was rushed to the hospital immediately, after the anesthesia wore off—
she did not regain consciousness.
Then, the next day, May 17:
Murdoch's eldest daughter from his first marriage, rushing from Australia to New York to see him, had her plane suddenly lose control and crash into the Pacific Ocean, disappearing without a trace.
That same day, his eldest son Lachlan Murdoch and second son James Murdoch got into a violent argument in the UK while heading to the airport, which escalated into a physical fight inside the car.
The struggle interfered with the driver, and since they were on a highway—
the vehicle lost control, rear-ended a truck, and was then crushed by another truck from behind.
Flattened instantly.
A string of "accidents" that practically spelled out "family infighting" in bold letters.
And according to the "survivor must be guilty" logic, many speculated whether these incidents were orchestrated by Murdoch's current wife, given the turmoil surrounding her rise.
But before the public could fully indulge in speculation, on the third day after Murdoch's stroke, May 18, 2006:
John Malone, chairman of Liberty Media and the second-largest shareholder of News Corporation with 16.3% shares and 22% voting power, launched an attack, stating that the company could not function without a central leader.
He demanded an emergency shareholder meeting to elect a new chairman.
This immediately drew everyone's attention.
And under that scrutiny—
Murdoch's wife's "ruthlessness" seemed to become clearer.
That very night, reports emerged that News Corporation was willing to transfer 38.5% of DirecTV to Liberty Media in exchange for all of Liberty Media's shares in News Corporation.
After the deal, those 16.3% shares would be canceled, raising Murdoch's stake to 20.31% and his voting power to 50%.
The next day, May 19, 2006, both the U.S. Department of Commerce and the SEC received the transaction report—and approved it the same day.
Then, on May 21, 2006, Murdoch's wife, on his behalf, issued a notice to all employees.
Murdoch announced that due to his inability to manage the company, he would sell News Corporation.
The world was stunned.
No one expected him to sell the company because of an accident.
Even more shocking, that very night, News Corporation received four bids and accepted them at lightning speed:
Comcast would acquire the Fox television network;
Lionsgate would take Fox's film division;
Time Warner would buy the publishing business;
Viacom would acquire the communications division, including broadcasting in the UK and Australia.
Almost overnight, News Corporation ceased to exist.
The collapse of the empire kicked up a storm of dust, obscuring everything.
No one could see what had really happened.
And yet, at the same time, Murdoch's wife released a short statement on his behalf—
In it, Murdoch said that as a Jewish man, he deeply cared about his people and wanted more people to understand their tragic past, so he would donate 5.5 billion dollars to the Shoah Foundation in California to support its research on Jewish heritage and preservation.
Since the foundation had already received donations from countless prominent Jewish figures and was affiliated with the World Jewish Congress, no one dared to casually comment on the staggering sum.
And as for that—
the executive chairman of the foundation was Arnold Spielberg.
Its founder was Steven Spielberg.
"Ding—Isabella has received 5 billion."