hunt hollywood

In order to avoid some media turmoil caused by Sony's acquisition of Columbia last time, the acquisition led by Michael Ovitz is indeed very confidential.

It's just that people are not as good as heaven.

Just the previous Friday, Michael Ovitz led the team back to Los Angeles from Tokyo, and unexpectedly met Hollywood actor Charlie Sheen and his team.Charlie Sheen is not a star under C, so naturally he has no obligation to keep it secret. Then, this matter leaked out, which became the proof that Ovitz was working on Panasonic's acquisition of MCA, which the media has been speculating for a long time.

Although Daenerys Entertainment has not yet contacted MCA, the preparations for this acquisition have not stopped in private.

Simon plans to enter the game after the outbreak of the war in the second half of the year and the news that Panasonic officially announced the acquisition of MCA.Now, if this leak leads to Panasonic having to make an early takeover bid, things could get tricky.

After a small crash in the North American stock market last year, MCA's share price in the first half of the year slowly recovered to above US$45, and its market value fluctuated between US$45 billion and US$50 billion.

If you want to make a move now, if the two are competing, it will be difficult to win MCA without $80 billion.

In my memory, Panasonic bought MCA at a price of 66 billion U.S. dollars. In the following years, Universal Pictures also produced super-best-selling works such as "Jurassic Park". high price.

Therefore, let alone 80 billion US dollars, as long as the price exceeds 70 billion US dollars, Simon would rather quit than be taken advantage of by this.

$70 billion is Simon's price ceiling for the planned acquisition.

Simon was thinking about how to deal with the changes in front of him. Janet, who was wearing a long aqua blue dress, walked into the restaurant energetically, leaned over and hugged Simon's neck and kissed him, sat down beside him, glanced casually and then stood still. Claire, who was next to Simon, asked Simon, "What's the matter?"

Claire noticed Janet's seemingly unintentional eyes, she dodged them guiltyly, and walked quietly towards the kitchen.

Simon didn't notice the small eyes of the woman beside him just now, and showed her the newspaper in his hand, saying: "Panasonic may have to announce the acquisition of MCA in advance."

Janet scanned the press release at a glance, with some schadenfreude on her face, and said: "Panasonic probably wasn't ready, and launching an acquisition offer in advance will not do them any good, and it will only push MCA's stock price soaring. I guess whether it is Either C or Panasonic will publicly deny the report."

Simon nodded, this possibility is also very high.

Thinking of another incident, Simon said to Janet: "Cersei Capital, don't touch MCA's stock this time."

With the news breaking out, Wall Street arbitrage capital will definitely start to enter the market to absorb MCA stocks, and Cersei Capital is also involved in short-term arbitrage transactions. If you start buying now, you may be investigated by the SEC for insider trading.

"I know."

Janet obliged, and Claire and Deborah brought breakfast.

Originally planning to rest at home for a day, something like this happened suddenly. Both Amy and James called, and Simon rushed to the studio after breakfast.

After sending the man away from the house, Janet returned to the villa.

Alison and Betsy from the nearby residence came later, and the four ABCD girls gathered together.

Janet directed the four girls to clean the villa, checked the kitchen and the bathrooms of each bedroom, personally made a list of some daily necessities to be purchased in the new week, and sent the two girls AB to go out to purchase.

After arranging this, I made several phone calls in a row to discuss some trivial matters of various properties in the Westeros family. The mansion on Mercer Island in Seattle needs to buy a speedboat. Is the latest manor purchased by Rome, Italy installed? The latest alarm system and the like.

These things, which Janet started doing when she was Janet Johnston, are even more legitimate now that she is Janet Westeros.

I really enjoy the feeling of being a hostess.

Moreover, because she can always hand over most of the things to others, Janet always handles the seemingly complicated and trivial housework with ease. Take it easy and never let yourself get tired.

So busy until noon, before Simon went home for lunch, he could curl up on the sofa in the living room and look through the materials on Cersei Capital.

The Leon Black team of Apollo Management will participate in the bid for a $15 billion bond asset under the name of Columbia Savings and Credit Bank next week. This business will cooperate with Citibank and Union Bank of Australia, each contributing 5 One hundred million U.S. dollars.

5 million US dollars, which is already half of the previous 10 billion US dollars fund raised by Apollo Management Company, so it is natural to be very cautious.

The bond assets of 15 billion U.S. dollars are actually the valuation after the U.S. bond market has continued to collapse and shrink for more than half a year. The book value of these bonds is close to 35 billion U.S. dollars.

If this business can succeed, the 5 million US dollars invested by Apollo Management Company will more than double the income after the bond is repaid within the next three years, with an average annual rate of return of more than 30%, which is very high for any private equity fund. It's a very impressive rate of return.

In addition, there are some other investment projects that are being looked for.

For example, in the acquisition of a mattress production company named Simmons, Simon seems to be very interested in this company, and Janet is even more concerned.

Chapter 351 Your uncle is still your uncle (repair)

Mergers at the giant level are very cumbersome. Early financial and legal feasibility assessments, negotiations on detailed acquisition plans after the official launch, review of corporate assets and liabilities after the agreement is reached, etc., usually take at least several months or even It will take a year or two to fully complete.

Panasonic began contacting Michael Ovitz late last year after Sony acquired Columbia Pictures, and also hopes to acquire a major Hollywood film company.

The Japanese stock market has fallen by more than 30% in the past six months. However, Panasonic, which has accumulated a large amount of US dollar cash in its hands over the years, has not given up the idea of ​​​​acquisition.

For half a year, in order to keep it as confidential as possible, Michael Ovitz even forbade the staff to disclose the specific business trip itinerary to his family when he led the team back and forth between Tokyo and Los Angeles many times. One of his deputy returned from Tokyo once and brought a The kimono, had to pretend it was bought in London.

Unexpectedly, the matter was leaked out ahead of time.

C headquarters in Century City.

Michael Ovitz had a busy day yesterday, communicating with Panasonic, looking for reasonable excuses, contacting the media, speaking with team members to determine a plan to deny the Los Angeles Times report, and finally reviewing the media release himself. It was already late at night.

Today, I still arrived at the company before eight o'clock.

After finishing the routine new week's high-level meeting, and discussing today's media feedback and next-step response plan with members of the acquisition team, the time has come to 09:30.

Back in his office, while browsing today's work schedule, Michael Ovitz asked his assistant if the lunch with Dustin Hoffman was arranged at noon.

Last year, under the pressure of Simon Westeros, he apparently terminated the contract with Hoffman and several people, but Ovitz has been helping several people maintain their careers as much as possible, and it is free, which greatly reduces the contract termination. Negative impact of the event on C.

Dustin Hoffman's ability to join "Captain Hawk" this time, as well as Terry Semel and Peter Guber's personal appearances, are all the result of Ovitz's behind-the-scenes operations.

Of course, the four people who terminated the contract last year actually only recovered three.

Westeros completely suppressed Meg Ryan in order to make an example of the long-term contract issue, and Ovitz had nothing to do about it.

After talking about lunch arrangements, Ovitz was about to start other work today, when the assistant handed him a box office report for the past weekend and said, "Mr. Ovitz, maybe you should take a look at this."

Michael Ovitz took the box office report, sent his assistants to leave, and looked down, with a look of surprise on his face.

In the past weekend, because the two new films "Presumed Innocence" and "The Jungle Book" did not perform well at the box office, "Total Recall" in the second week of production, although it fell by 41% year-on-year, still easily earned $1506 million at the box office. Won the weekend three-day box office champion position.

Ten days after its release, the cumulative box office of "Total Recall" also broke through the 5000 million mark in one fell swoop, reaching 5114 million US dollars.

Of course, such data does not actually surprise Ovitz.

What Michael Ovitz didn't expect was the name No.2 on the list, "Human Ghosts".

The opening of the film has entered its second week, and the word-of-mouth and box office in the first week of release failed to meet the expectations of many people. Daenerys Entertainment's summer opening film "Ghost Love" not only did not show the box office of "Total Recall" at the next weekend. It fell sharply, but rose against the trend.

Compared with the box office of 1219 million US dollars in the first three days of painting, the three-day box office of "Human Ghosts" fell by 2.7% in the second weekend, and received another 1252 million US dollars.

2.7%, this figure seems insignificant, but Michael Ovitz is very clear that the reputation of film critics is only average, and it is very difficult for a film to achieve a reverse decline.

"Human Ghost Love Is Unbroken" has done it.

Again.

"The Sixth Sense of Spirituality" in the same period last year, due to the explosive reputation and high topicality, it is only natural that it realized a reversal in the next week.

Now, what's going on with "The Love of Ghosts"? !

Michael Ovitz's doubts are probably the issues that the whole Hollywood is paying attention to early this morning.

You know, just such a seemingly inconspicuous reversal, the box office curve of "Human and Ghost Love" was directly supported.This film, which was originally predicted by many media to only have a domestic box office of 6000 million US dollars, is now almost certain to hit the [-] million box office club.

Even, in the end, it may surpass "Total Recall".

This is really eye-popping.

As a result, the media and other Hollywood studios began to pay attention to why this happened.

The plot of "The Love Between Humans and Ghosts" made countless audiences cry...

"Unrestrained Melody" resonated with many people...

Another word of mouth effect...

all in all.

Audiences love this movie!

This is the most important and direct reason, the reason countless filmmakers cannot ask for.

The media flocked to report the movie-watching scene of "Ghostly Love", and Hollywood was looking for ideas similar to this movie. Daenerys entertained, and deep down in her heart, she couldn't help feeling a sense of powerlessness that your uncle is still your uncle.

On Sunday, I had a discussion with Daenerys Entertainment's high-level executives about the response strategy once Panasonic launched the acquisition of MCA in advance. With C's denial of the matter in the media, Simon's mind turned to other matters in hand.

However, although C publicly denied it, starting from Monday, the stock price of MCA rose in a wave in the next few days, reaching a high of $52 at one point.

Obviously, a lot of capital has already begun to enter the market at this time.

If Daenerys Entertainment has no plans to acquire MCA, Cersei Capital can start to absorb the company's stock on a large scale now. When Panasonic's acquisition of MCA is completed, it will definitely make a lot of money.

Now, such an opportunity can only be given up.

Speaking carefully, as long as no one is serious, this is actually not considered insider trading.However, Cersei Capital is already too eye-catching in the eyes of many people. Simon believes that if this is really done, there will definitely be people who will be "serious" about Cersei Capital.

Over there in Silicon Valley.

Because the number of AOL access users exceeded expectations in May, AOL management predicted that the number of users accessing the World Wide Web through the company may reach 50 in the second half of this year.

Moreover, other Internet service providers outside the service area of ​​America Online have started to contact Eaglet, which holds the core patents of the World Wide Web.

After so many years of accumulation, the base of Internet users across the United States is actually very large. If all of them turn to the World Wide Web, by the end of this year, the number of World Wide Web users nationwide will definitely be far more than 50.

Therefore, both AOL and Eaglet began planning to expand their own data centers and line networks.

Eaglet currently has two data centers on the east and west coasts that can only handle 40 user visits. This time, Eaglet plans to build two data centers with a level of 30 users on the east and west coasts, making the company The number of visits that the server can host extends to millions.

AOL mainly expands its own basic line network.

Although it is impossible to build a nationwide network transmission channel without a billion-dollar investment, AOL's own funds are still sufficient to support the investment in the backbone optical fiber network on the east and west coasts.Simon does not plan to inject capital to dilute the equity of other shareholders in the short term. If necessary, the next stage of AOL's financing will be in the form of loans.

In terms of Internet cafes, after confirming the Internet cafe models and business models, 100 Internet cafes are expected to open one after another around the end of July.

America Online holds 60% of the shares of the 'Internet Bar' subsidiary, and the basic cost of each Internet bar is more than 10 US dollars. However, the investment that AOL itself needs to bear is only 350 million US dollars. IBM's investment fund undertakes.

Daenerys Studios in Malibu.

The time is October 6th, Wednesday.

"Ghost Love" unexpectedly sold well at the box office. Although the box office of the previous weekend's three-day box office still fell behind the No.1 "Total Recall" by nearly 300 million US dollars, after entering the working day, "Ghost Love" Due to the continuous improvement of media popularity and audience reputation, the single-day box office has already surpassed "Total Recall".

Simon didn't relax.

Sleeping with the Enemy, the first of Daenerys Entertainment's 10-film plan last year, opens June 6.However, in the previous several consecutive internal test screenings of this film, the evaluations given by the media people who participated in the viewing were very low, and the test screenings by ordinary audiences did not produce too good feedback.

Daenerys Entertainment's 10-movie project is highly anticipated by both Hollywood and ordinary audiences.

Now, Daenerys Entertainment's "Ghost Love" has shown signs of being a big hit. If the foreign cooperation "Sleeping with the Enemy" fails at the box office, it will not only be the audience that will lose the follow-up films of the 10-film plan. Looking forward, other Hollywood studios will inevitably have different ideas.

Of course, Simon has no way to control the audience's feedback on the film.

However, so far, many Hollywood studios have been tied to the same boat by 10 film projects. This time, the problem is still to manipulate the media's reputation for "Sleeping with the Enemy" to ensure an evaluation above the passing line. not big.

Therefore, as soon as the new week came, Simon began to contact the media contacts accumulated by Daenerys Entertainment in the past few years, and at the same time asked Fox and other participants in the 10 film projects to work together.Everyone knows that "Sleeping with the Enemy" has a bad start, and the other 10 planned films that have already created a brand effect in the audience's minds will be affected.

The meeting room on the top floor of Office Building No. [-] on the fifth floor of the studio administrative area.

That's what the distribution teams of Daenerys Entertainment and Fox Pictures are discussing, with Simon, Amy Pascal and Fox's Joe Ross all involved in the meeting.

After a few days of busy work, Fox's distribution team, with the help of Daenerys Entertainment and other contacts in Hollywood, has already secured the "Los Angeles Times", "New York Times", "Chicago Tribune" and "San Francisco Chronicle" etc. The trend of film criticism in mainstream newspapers in North America.

Professional paper media platforms such as "Hollywood Reporter" and "Variety Show" also promised to give a relatively loose evaluation.

In addition to the influential paper media platforms, the team also contacted a group of well-known film critics such as Roger Ebert, who have also agreed.

Generally speaking, there may not be too high a rating, but a comprehensive pass score of 6 or more is absolutely no problem.

Simon is not worried that this kind of manipulation of film critics' word-of-mouth will be leaked. To put it bluntly, this is actually a kind of public relations, and this is not the first time it has happened in Hollywood.Moreover, although he can only be regarded as a new player in Hollywood, Simon knows that this kind of thing must not be abused.

Therefore, before "Sleeping with the Enemy", other films produced by Daenerys Entertainment have not carried out similar public relations.

Once in a while, as long as it's not too frequent, newspapers and film critics are more than happy to do Hollywood moguls a favor.

Even if it is exposed, because there is no real money transaction involved, there is no too shady inside story, and it is just a tacit understanding formed between talking and laughing when everyone drinks coffee or makes a phone call together, it will not cause too much disturbance.

There are a large number of print media platforms in the United States, but those are the ones with the greatest influence. Small and medium print media platforms are also easily affected by the wind direction of large print media.

After the "Los Angeles Times", "New York Times" and other large media are settled, the word-of-mouth of "Sleeping with the Enemy" will be guaranteed.

In the trivial busyness, another week passed quickly.

August 6 to August 8.

Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Total Recall" received another US$41 million with a 2132% drop in the box office for the entire week, still ranking first in the single-week box office charts, with a cumulative box office of US$5740 million in two weeks.

However, compared with "Human and Ghost Love", which has risen against the trend in word-of-mouth and popularity, the advantage of "Total Recall" is already very weak.

In the second week of its release, "Ghost Love" fell by 4% for the entire week, earning another US$2055 million, and the gap with the weekly chart champion "Total Recall" was only less than US$100 million.In two weeks, the cumulative box office of "Ghost Love" has reached 4031 million US dollars.

Because of the unexpected box office performance of "Ghost Love", Daenerys Entertainment quickly increased the number of screens in the third week of the film's release to 1866, a one-time increase of 1521 compared to the 300 screens it opened. With multiple screens, it is expected that the film's box office will not drop too much in the third week.