At the end of July, Dolly Copyright Company transformed into a treasure hunter, acquiring the film and television rights for Iron Man from Universal Pictures.
Ernst originally thought this was just a small surprise, but Universal Pictures directly threw out a big gift package, bundling the film and television rights for Hulk and Namor for sale as well.
This operation was even more generous than a supermarket’s big promotion.
Frank, on the other hand, played the art of price inflation to perfection.
Using 20th Century Fox as a prop, a bid of 1.3 million US dollars forced Ernst to grit his teeth and raise the price to 1.5 million US dollars.
After three days of hesitation, 20th Century Fox decisively gave up on competing for the Iron Man film and television rights.
After all, in America at this time, Iron Man was like an expiring product in a supermarket that no one paid attention to; not many people were willing to give him a second look.
Ernst felt he had been overcharged, and when he went to Universal Pictures to sign the contract, his face was stretched out, looking completely like a victim — an acting performance that even he himself admired.
“Ernst, you’ve made a good deal.
Getting Iron Man for 1.5 million US dollars will definitely be your wisest decision after taking over MGM.” Frank’s smug expression almost had the words ‘smug’ written all over his face.
“If this were Hulk, let alone 1.5 million US dollars, even 6 million US dollars would be fine.
But this is Iron Man, the one nobody cares about!” He had only grumbled, but he didn’t expect Frank’s next words to shock Ernst.
“Are you really willing to spend 6 million US dollars to buy the film and television rights for Hulk?
This is just film and television rights, you know.” After a moment of stunned silence, Ernst nodded, “Of course, I’ve loved superheroes since I was a child.
If it can be made into a movie, why not?” 3.7 million US dollars was the original cost for Universal to purchase the rights for Iron Man, Hulk, and Namor.
Six years later, Frank resold it for 8.7 million US dollars.
Now, Ernst knew he was about to become that fool in Hollywood with more money than sense.
But he didn’t care.
He wondered if, in ten years, or even less than ten years, Universal Pictures would cry themselves unconscious in the bathroom, with all their executives standing together cursing Frank.
Having settled the copyright matter, Ernst rushed to Stanford without stopping, taking the first step in his internet venture.
If you ask who is the largest tech company in the world?
If Google says it’s second, probably no one would dare to claim to be first.
Controlling billions of users globally, using Android to dominate over 70% of mobile operating systems, and using YouTube to control the majority of internet traffic, this Silicon Valley giant has turned the world into its giant laboratory.
Even with the arrival of the AI wave, many people say Google has fallen behind, but it is indeed the first and only enterprise in the world with a net profit exceeding 100 billion US dollars, a true king of ‘cash power.’ As an internet company, Ernst thought long and hard and decided to copy the Google model.
For no other reason than that in this era, Google is easier to succeed and can succeed faster.
On the Stanford University campus, Sergey Brin found Larry Page reading a book by Stanford’s iconic clock tower.
There were many people here, with many students eagerly discussing the problems they encountered and the inspirations they had in their academic research.
They were all extremely talented and creative young people, with unique and profound insights into the technological development of various fields.
“Hey, Larry, do you know what kind of lecture I just heard?
The speaker’s understanding of the internet made me feel like a new world had opened up.” Larry Page closed his book and looked at his excited friend, “What happened?” Sergey Brin couldn’t stop his excitement, “When I passed the auditorium just now, I saw an internet company recruiting.
Their recruitment method was very novel, it was a lecture style.
The company’s founder spoke on stage about the purpose of founding the company, its development, and visions for the future, etc.
He also welcomed questions from interested parties, just like an academic discussion.” “I was curious, so I went in and listened.
I can only say that his views on the internet industry are truly too advanced.
I can tell he doesn’t understand internet programming at all, and his knowledge of many internet concepts is very limited, but his thinking, his ideas — I’ve never seen anyone with such a thorough understanding of the future development of the internet.” “What company is it?” Larry Page’s curiosity was also piqued.
He knew his friend very well; he was definitely a rare internet genius, but even he was impressed by the other party, which aroused his interest.
“Google Company, a newly established internet company.” “Google?” Larry Page was stunned.
“What word is this?
Is it googol?
10 to the power of 100.” Sergey Brin shook his head, “That’s right, it’s Google.
The speaker said that the internet is a new thing, and naming it Google not only corresponds to creating a new word for the internet but also hopes that this word, like the company’s future, will be remembered by people all over the world.” “Google, huh?
To be remembered by the whole world, that’s pretty cool.” Larry Page found it increasingly interesting.
“Tell me the details.” Sergey Brin immediately described it vividly, as if he was back in that passionate auditorium.
The young man on stage was dressed casually, a stark contrast to the traditional entrepreneurs in suits, and spoke with intonation on the podium.
Every sound was so penetrating and captivating.
“Everyone says the internet is starting to boom, but in my opinion, the internet right now is a mess.
There’s no clear list or inheritance page.
When you want to search for information, the result you get might be a baby’s photo.” “Then Yahoo appeared, and I think you’re all familiar with this website.
They manually filter quality websites, categorize them, and then integrate them into a single page website.” “But in my opinion, this doesn’t solve any problems at all.
For example, if you want to search for an orange, while you won’t get an exaggerated photo of a child anymore, you might get a picture of a pomelo.
Because of their similar appearance, the algorithm might judge them as the same content.” “So why can’t we develop a more precise search engine?
Instead of manually adding like Yahoo, we use pure algorithms to let computers beat computers.” “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but when you search for certain information on the internet, some high-quality websites always frequently appear in the links, just like good papers are frequently cited.” “So, can we assume that if a high-quality website A references website B, doesn’t that mean website B’s quality won’t be too bad either?
This is like saying if Einstein cited your paper, doesn’t that mean your paper must also be good?” This analogy made all the students below laugh, including Sergey Brin.
“Does this mean we can use algorithms to evaluate the importance of web pages?
In the future, when searching for oranges, links with long visit times will be ranked at the top, while those with fewer visits will be pushed to the back.” “A genius idea!” Larry Page’s eyes lit up.
After listening to Sergey Brin’s animated description, he felt a surge of admiration.
Then the two looked at each other and said in unison, “You’re also interested in this company?”