Thinking of Ways to Make Money

Acquire MGM?!

Well, Zucker did indeed have this ambitious idea. After all, MGM's film library contained over 5,000 movies. These copyrights were the foundation of a major studio, and they consistently generated tens of millions of dollars in wealth every year from television, DVD, and VHS markets. It was impossible for Zucker not to be tempted.

However, he had no money!

The little money he did have needed to be set aside for taxes at the end of April.

"Looks like I have to find a way to make some money, otherwise, forget about expanding the film company; I won't even be able to film Spider-Man."

"System, are you still alive?"

"..."

Zucker couldn't help but be furious. This damn system was truly useless! Aside from occasionally providing a bit of future information, it was of no use at all—not even as good as a 21st-century computer.

The most useless system, that title belongs to you!

The idea of making money was wonderful, but the difficulty of actual execution was too great.

That's right, Run Lola Run was about to be released. In the original timeline, its reputation was quite good, but it wasn't exactly a high-grossing film. Using this movie to let Wald Pictures show off a bit was fine, but the box office profits probably wouldn't be much. As for how much profit it would eventually make, Zucker had no idea, since it wasn't the original film, but one shot by a rookie director like himself.

Counting on it to get rich was simply wishful thinking.

"Futures?"

"I remember that stuff makes money really fast!"

In an instant, Zucker thought of futures, and couldn't help but think of Soros, the financial tycoon.

In '92, he attacked the British pound and made a profit of $1 billion in a short time; in '97, he attacked the Thai baht and the Hong Kong dollar, triggering the Asian financial crisis; in 2012, he shorted the Japanese yen and once again made a profit of $1 billion in one fell swoop.

For a period after graduating in his previous life, Zucker had been obsessed with so-called wealth myths, so he had studied the stock market and read a few reports on Soros, giving him a relatively superficial understanding of him.

However.

Damn it, it's 1996 right now!

It was still more than a year away from the attack on the Thai baht in July '97, so how could that be Zucker's first choice for making money right now?

The stock market?!

At this moment, Zucker thought of the stock market. After all, the majority of his net worth came from the stock market, and while it didn't make money as fast as futures, it wasn't low either. Plus, the late 90s were a time when the internet was booming; otherwise, where would the bubble have come from?

Netscape, Cisco, Comcast, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon...

In an instant, the names of many internet companies popped into Zucker's mind.

Netscape?

Zucker ruled it out immediately!

That's right, Zucker had made his fortune by relying on Netscape's IPO, but precisely because of that, he didn't dare to buy its stock.

No other reason; he just knew it too well.

Netscape went public in August 1995, and its stock price reached a high of $75 on the day of the IPO, which could be described as glorious. In the words of The Wall Street Journal: It took General Motors 43 years to reach a market value of $2.7 billion, while Netscape took "about 1 minute."

However, prosperity leads to decline.

Microsoft's Internet Explorer was released and promoted comprehensively.

The battle between Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer was later called the "Browser Wars." By December 1997, Netscape's stock price was less than $20 per share; it could be said that they had completely lost to Microsoft.

"Buying Netscape now is basically suicide, though I could short Netscape next year to make some extra cash."

"Cisco's stock price still has room to grow, though the gains this year won't be huge (after all, the gains in '98-'99 are what you'd call amazing), so I can consider buying a little; at least I won't lose money."

Apple?

Forget it, forget it. Before Jobs returned in 1997, Apple was still that rotten apple, half-dead;

Comcast?

It was America's second-largest internet provider. By 2020, its market value exceeded $200 billion. It was constantly in the process of "buying, buying, buying," either acquiring this company or merging with that enterprise. The stock market was almost always rising, but the gains in '96-'97 weren't exactly huge.

Amazon?

That's right, it was a giant enterprise. But buddy, it was a company founded only in 1995; it was just a little newbie right now, and it wouldn't go public until '97.

After calculating everything, Zucker was shocked to find:

The stock market could make people rich, but based on what he knew, hoping to get rich overnight in the stock market this year was almost impossible!

(Cisco and Microsoft's stock prices were rising, that was true, but getting rich overnight in the short term wasn't possible.)

In an instant, Zucker's dream of getting rich in the stock market was shattered!

"God, why is making money so hard!"

Zucker almost sighed up at the sky.

That night, Zucker barely slept. When he got up early the next morning, he was listless, but he still forced himself to get up.

There was no choice; it was already the beginning of April, and the store managers and finance personnel of SpongeBob House were meeting this morning to report on recent business conditions.

Eris Cafe.

It is a cafe located near the TCL Chinese Theatre, right next to Zucker's flagship SpongeBob House, which is why it has become Zucker's designated meeting spot at the end of every month.

It saves money!

"Boss, thanks to the popularity of Toy Story, even though it has finished its theatrical run, our merchandise is still selling well. After deducting all labor, utility, and property costs, the flagship store's net profit for this month is $70,000," the flagship store manager James spoke up first.

"Boss, the second store's net profit for this month is $63,000."

"The third store's net profit for this month is $40,000."

In the end, the total net profit for the seven SpongeBob House locations came to $345,000. Compared to last month's $375,000, that is a decline of eight percent.

Another decline?

That's right, the net profit has been falling since January.

However, this is something Zucker can accept, as the hype for Toy Story has already passed. Furthermore, since January, Zucker has consciously lowered the prices of the merchandise to increase customer retention.

In fact, compared to other movie merchandise chains in Los Angeles, in terms of single-store profitability, Zucker's SpongeBob House still ranks in the top three.

Because of Zucker's listlessness today, the meeting ended quickly.

Stepping out of the cafe.

"Zucker, what's wrong with you today?" James asked curiously after the meeting.

"No money, not happy." Zucker waved his hand.

Hearing this, James frowned deeply.

Holy crap!

With a net profit of over three hundred thousand dollars a month, what else could you possibly be unhappy about? Even if the profits might decrease in the coming months, you're still looking at an estimated annual income of three million dollars, and you're still saying you have no money?!

Of course, James didn't say these words out loud.

After all, the two of them are at different levels now, so they consider different problems.

"Jenny, are you really planning to buy Yahoo stock? I heard this company isn't doing so well; your investment might end up losing money."

"It's fine, I wasn't planning on buying that much anyway."

Just at this moment, a burst of discussion reached Zucker's ears.

Yahoo?!

In an instant, Zucker jolted.