I’m in Hollywood Chapter 431: Stalemate
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The atmosphere of rainy days can always evoke the deepest laziness in people ’s hearts. At Eric, I just planned to give myself a day off. Just after 9 am, the phone rang quickly.
The helicopter landed on the roof apron of the Firefly Headquarters building, Eric got off the helicopter, Alan greeted it with an umbrella, the two trot into the elevator, Alan said: "At nine o'clock, Summer Redstone was held at Susnet Tower Hotel The press conference said that Viacom will participate in the bid for Disney. Almost at the same time, Michael Eisner also issued a statement saying that compared with Firefly, Disney is more willing to cooperate with Viacom, stimulated by this news, after the stock market opened today, Disney's stock price was half an hour Within a substantial increase of 6%. "
Eric silently listened to the introduction of Alan, the elevator door opened, and the two entered the meeting room of Firefly together. At this time, the meeting room was already full of people, the main senior managers of Firefly, several directors of Firefly investment company and The head of Morgan Stanley's acquisition team sat around the oval desk, in twos and threes chatted together, saw the appearance of Eric, the buzzing sound of the meeting room stopped, everyone got up and set their eyes on Eric.
"Everyone sit down," Eric waved his hand and walked to his seat in two or three steps. Bernie Sanders, the head of the Morgan Stanley team sitting on his left hand, skillfully handed over a document: "Eric, you Take a look at the information first, and we will talk about it later. "
Eric nodded and opened the blue folder. The cover is printed with the words "Knight in White".
Regarding the problems that may be faced in this acquisition, Eric made quite detailed preparations after returning shoots from "Twister" to Los Angeles. So I didn't feel confused when I saw the term "white knight".
'White Knight' is a professional term for anti-acquisition strategies between companies. Companies that initiate malicious acquisitions against target companies are often referred to as 'Black Knights', and other acquirers who appear suddenly during the malicious acquisition process are called For the "white knight", the "white knight" is usually recognized by the target company's shareholders or management.
It can be seen from the corresponding Michael Eisner after the Redstone statement that the acquisition of Viacom has been supported by the Disney management, at least the support of the Disney forces represented by Michael Eisner, so Viacom can be called the white knight.
Disney's performance has been sluggish for two consecutive years. Many people saw a great opportunity to acquire Disney's. Before the announcement of the acquisition, Firefly realized that this acquisition would not be possible without competitors joining. And there won't be only one.
Looking at the information in his hand, Eric secretly praised the value for money of the Morgan Stanley team. It was less than an hour after the Redstone released the bid announcement. The Morgan Stanley team has compiled a detailed page of 30. .
The current market value of Viacom Group is around 20billion USD. Mainly engaged in TV program production, cable TV Network, wireless radio stations and other services, the most famous of which is the famous MTV music TV Network, and many famous singers including Madonna are famous through the MTV platform.
In addition to the control of Viacom Group, Redstone, the helm of Viacom, also operates a national entertainment company with a large chain of cinemas, with a personal value of 4billion USD.
Redstone operating Viacom Media Group has always adhered to the concept of 'content is king', and the idea of acquiring Film Studio has a long history. In the mid-1980s, Redstone competed with Metropolitan Media's John.Kruger for the successful Orion Film Industry , Because of financial disadvantages and finally failed to exit. Also. Redstone has also invested in several major Film Studio stocks such as Warner and Columbia.
It can be seen from this that Redstone suddenly announced today that the acquisition of Disney Film Studio is definitely not a whim.
After reading the data in hand, everyone quickly discussed the relevant countermeasures, relative to the Viacom Group with a market value of 20billion USD. Firefly may be very weak, but the biggest advantage of Eric is to have up to 8billion USD cash.
When taking over this acquisition, because I still do n’t know the bargaining chips in Eric, Bernie Sanders brought the promise of Morgan Stanley executives, Morgan Stanley can provide 2billion USD financing for Firefly, if Firefly is willing to accept Wall Street funds to buy shares. This financing figure can also be increased. So in general, the total amount of funds that Eric can use exceeds 10billion USD.
But even a malicious acquisition. Of course, the less money is spent, the better, otherwise Eric does not need to pay such a high price to hire the Morgan Stanley acquisition team, directly report a price that Disney shareholders will not refuse anyway and it is done.
For Eric, the bottom line of the acquisition of Disney's is around 6billion USD, and the remaining 2billion USD funds are used to pay off Disney's liabilities, so that Disney can be completely in the hands.
“Viacom only announced the acquisition intention today, indicating that the other party is not ready. For us, this is a great advantage. The cash flow of Viacom is not ample. In the absence of preparation, at least need It takes only three months to complete the financing, which is the best time for us. "
"Although Redstone of Viacom is very good at financing, he is not without weaknesses. It is said that the relationship between Redstone and his wife is very bad and may be divorced at any time. If the wife of Redstone suddenly proposed a divorce during the acquisition process, because he lost half of his property , Redstone may lose control of Viacom and undermine investor confidence. "
"We can't pin our hopes on this kind of thing. The key is to seize the three-month period, but if Mr. Williams does not give up the wholly-owned acquisition strategy, Disney shareholders will definitely not mind waiting for a while."
"I also think that if we only get 51% of the controlling stake, we can easily complete the acquisition with no more than 2.5 billion USD funds, and Disney shareholders will also cooperate very well."
Eric saw everyone turn to the topic of changing the acquisition strategy. Some helplessly said: "Sorry, everyone, I will reiterate one last time. The strategy of wholly-owned acquisition of Disney's will never change. I don't want to temporarily save 1billion USD expenditures, which will result in dividends far exceeding this figure to other shareholders every year. "
Everyone ’s eyes looked at Eric strangely. Although Hollywood ’s film and television industry has developed rapidly, so far, when the performance of several major Film Studios is the best, the annual profit will not exceed 1billion USD.
Listen to the tone of Eric. It seems very confident that Disney can be operated as a behemoth with an annual profit exceeding 2billion USD.
The development of the entertainment industry is very elusive, like the 1940s and 50s. When the big Film Studio flourished, a Paramount bill let Hollywood fall into the cold winter for more than ten years. It was hard to recover, and found a suitable way of management, but ushered in the impact of the TV industry. Then immediately. The introduction of the home video recorder has made Hollywood, which is facing piracy concerns, a big enemy. For this reason, it has also been in a lawsuit with Japan Sony for more than ten years.
Although Hollywood has started to recover again in the past decade, no one knows what will happen next. In case of severe industrial changes, Hollywood will likely fall into the cold winter again.
Looking at everyone's gaze, Eric can roughly guess what these people are thinking. Everyone has their own inherent thinking concepts, not to mention the elites in all industries. These people are not people who can be thought by a few words, so Eric has no meaning to explain. Just said in an undoubted tone: "So, let's discuss the strategy of a wholly-owned acquisition, let's not mention the topic of holding. Ok?"
Although I do n’t understand why this young man insists so much, Bernie Sanders took the lead in nodding his head, and the people on the Firefly side absolutely support Eric.
The meeting continued.
Although some corresponding countermeasures were discussed, next, because Viacom announced to join the competition, the Firefly acquisition team negotiated with Disney's into a deadlock. There was no progress in the following month.
The time slowly enters September, and the two Firefly summer films "Toy Story" and "Terminator 2: Judgement Day" Box Office are both close to 200 million USD. And the two films have also started to land on overseas markets one after another, and they have achieved very impressive results.
Although it is not like the Seventh National Congress, the film will be released in the off-season after September, but the third season of the autumn file 《Friends》, the second season of "X-Files" and the variety show "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" have been registered again in Fox TV Station,
《Friends》 has become the absolute ace show of Fox, and the ratings have steadily remained above 20 million. Although "X-Files" and "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?" are not as conspicuous as the 《Friends》 score, according to the ratings of the three programs, only It is Fox TV Station's advertising share, and the sum of each season is above 150 million USD, and the profit of the subsequent sale of the broadcasting rights to hundreds of entire US hundreds of second and third tier small TV Station is even higher.
However, after the launch of several programs on Fox TV Station in September, the stock price of Disney Film Studio was stimulated, which made Eric cry and laugh, but there was no alternative.
Because of the stalemate between the acquisition team and Disney, Eric also began to transfer most of its energy to the Firefly film and television production.
In the shoots scene of "X-Files" in the northern part of Los Angeles Santa Monica mountain area, Eric had lunch in the crew and planned to leave. It was an afternoon in September in late autumn, and Famke Janssen wore a gray suit for acting, stuck in his pocket, and walked to the parking lot along with Eric.
"Just listening to your chat, you really plan to let us go to Canada for the next season?" When the car park was approaching, the girl tall and slender couldn't help but ask.
"They said that the cost of Canada shoots can be reduced by more than 30%," said Eric, and looked at Famke Janssen: "If you don't want to, then I will reject this proposal and stay in Los Angeles."
"I don't want to be so hateful, 30% of the cost is almost 10 million."
Eric stops and reaches for the girl: "For you, it does n’t matter if you spend more on 100 million."
Famke Janssen reached out to hold Eric ’s chest and ridiculed: "Did you say this to many women?"
Eric smiled and did n’t speak, but used force in his hand. Famke Janssen quickly begged for mercy: "Do n’t, this is a costume. It ’s crumpled and you have to clean up."
Eric did n’t let go, so he went to Famke Janssen and said: "Go to me tonight, I just asked Director, you guys will rest tomorrow."
Famke Janssen hummed softly before Eric released her. The two walked side by side to the parking lot. Eric got into their car and waved at the girl before instructing the driver to drive.
It took more than an hour for car to reach its destination again. It is located at the shoots site of "Dumb and Dumber" near Culver City.
Before "Dumb and Dumber", the three women's TG Film Studio also produced a "Thelma & Louise", so the progress of this movie is slower than that of Nicole's "The Heat". It is expected that the low in September will be filmed, and "The Heat" was completed in August shoots, and post-production has now begun.
In addition to the 《A Nightmare on Elm Street》 finale released on Halloween, the new year ’s show features Firefly ’s two comedy works “Dumb and Dumber” and “The Heat”. In addition to these two movies, there is something to do with Eric, that is, Fox's "Home Alone3" and "Dances with Wolves" cut from Orion last year.
Fox ’s new year ’s main title is “Home Alone3”, while “Dances with Wolves” is screened according to the standard screening mode of the Olympic Games. Eric does not value the potential of this four-hour art film Box Office. I hope that "Dances with Wolves" can squeeze out the nomination for the best film of "Beauty and the Beast" of Disney.
But there seem to be some other problems. The original 《The Silence of the Lambs》 was released this year, and now it is equivalent to a swap with "Dances with Wolves".
Eric was leaning on the back of the chair thinking about these things, and he saw Drew jumping up and down, knocked on the glass window of his car, and pulled the car door: "Eric, why are you here?"
"I just have time today, just come and have a look," Eric glanced at Drew and said with a smile.
Perhaps because of the set, small girl is very neatly dressed, wearing a pink baseball cap on his head, a white t-shirt and jeans, and a pair of small sneakers on his feet.
Drew pulled Eric out of the car and said, "It happened to have been filmed several times, maybe you can help." (To be continued)