Birth of an actor

The "merger of the century" between Time Warner and AOL should be called the "mistake of the century". The stock price rose, and then with the Internet bubble, the newly born AOL-Time Warner suffered a lot of bad luck. In the first quarter of 90 alone, there was a loss of 2002 billion US dollars, creating the highest single-quarter loss record in the history of American companies. , the stock price has also fallen all the way, from $542 when it was just merged, to $72 after the merger, to $47.25 in January this year, and to March when the company announced a huge loss and fell below $26, the market value has shrunk by more than half .

On the day when AOL-Time Warner's first-quarter financial report was released in 2002, one of the former Time Warner shareholders was so angry that he suffered a stroke and was hospitalized.This shareholder was also one of the leaders who actively promoted the merger of the two companies.

However, this is not the end of the capitalists' nightmare.

Not long after AOL-Time Warner reported huge losses, affected by the Enron incident, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, and the Federal Prosecutor’s Office began to jointly investigate whether the former AOL had colluded with accounting firms The act of making false accounts.

The federal agency's investigation was conducted in secret, but the news somehow found its way to Wall Street within a short period of time.Wall Street was shaken, the stock market was turbulent, and the stock price of AOL-Time Warner also plummeted to about 10 US dollars. Even the CEO Gerald Levine issued repeated statements but could not restore the decline.

In the two months after the news was leaked, bad news came out one after another from the federal agencies. The original AOL company not only faced multiple accusations of misreporting revenue, but some media even revealed that during the merger operation with Time Warner, the US Made fake accounts online.

A stone stirs up a thousand waves.The stock price of AOL-Time Warner fell below $10 on the same day and closed at $9.64. Not long after, some investors began to sue the company in court, and some shareholders began to lose confidence in the company's future prospects and secretly sold their stocks , The situation of internal fighting in the company has also become more and more intense-mainly Time Warner's shareholders are very dissatisfied with AOL, thinking that the latter is the culprit for the sharp shrinkage of their assets.

What's more, after the merger of AOL-Time Warner, almost all positions with real power are occupied by AOL executives. Time Warner only retains the positions of co-CEO and COO, and most of the other shareholders hold false positions. Well, it’s okay if the company’s development prospects are good. Now the company is facing many crises, and even the reputation of the century-old brand “Time Warner” has been stained. After the shareholders of Time Warner got together to discuss, they finally decided to launch a power struggle.

The two shareholders were fighting each other on the board of directors. Because the shares were almost equally divided, neither could do anything to the other. AOL's executives were unwilling to give up power, and Time Warner's shareholding could not completely suppress the other to achieve the goal of cleaning up the management.

The high-level executives with fierce internal strife had no time to pay attention to other things. It was not until several small shareholders with little sense of presence disappeared from the board of directors that these high-level executives discovered that they had all sold their stocks to the same person, William Bradley .

And not only these small shareholders, after a little careful investigation, the executives of AOL-Time Warner were shocked to find that not long ago, Ted Turner, the vice president and largest individual shareholder, secretly sold about one-third of his shares. One stock, the buyer is also William.

One-third of the shares under Ted Turner's name is not a small number, plus the equity of several small shareholders, and finally there is a staggering figure-William's shareholding in the individual shareholders' equity Will be second only to Ted Turner.

This is an operation that is enough to be featured in Fortune magazine and analyzed and commented by financial analysts.

Not only because people will be curious about the reason and purpose of William’s large-scale acquisition of shares during the turmoil of AOL-Time Warner’s stock price, but also because in the equity allocation of AOL-Time Warner, the holders of more shares are basically Large conglomerates, investment banks, and foundations, such as Bear Stearns, American Vanguard, BlackRock, and Massachusetts Financial Fund, etc., have few individual shareholders with heavy stakes like Ted Turner - Turner It is also because the TNT cable network and CNN news network were sold to Warner in exchange for shares. The individual shareholders on the board of directors except him basically have so few shares that they have no right to speak on the board of directors.

Now that William has become the company's second largest individual shareholder through the acquisition of a direct stake in AOL-Time Warner, what impact will his presence have on the board of directors?How does it affect this company?

Ted Turner had a rough few days at the company, with other shareholders accusing him of being responsible for the instability on the board and secretly annoyed that he had slipped away fast enough to secretly sell their shares. a good price.

Before the new board meeting was held, Ted Turner went to see William with a bunch of questions and a proposal-he and other shareholders who had already lost a lot, wanted to know that William would use his shares What to do, Time Warner can't afford any bad news, they just want to hear good news that will make the stock price go up.

On the other hand, the shareholders of the original Time Warner are really fed up with the incompetence of the current company management. They want to launch a resolution to remove a few idiots and replace them with people who can really lead the company out of the predicament, and this requires a majority of shareholders Standing on their side when the board of directors voted on resolutions, although William's shares have not reached 5%, but at critical moments, these shares can play an unexpected important role.

The meeting between Ted Turner and William was very pleasant, and he got a positive reply-William was not prepared to be a speculative second-hand trader, and he would sell his shares after finding a suitable seller. He was optimistic about the future of AOL-Time Warner and was ready to make a investors.

One, two good news, William agreed to side with Time Warner in the board resolution, if the company is willing to sell DC Comics and WB Television Network to Willot.

The reason why it is said to be two pieces of good news is because in AOL-Time Warner's powerful content industry, DC Comics and WB TV are both in the category of losing money every year.

No way, the 90s was the most difficult era for American comic companies. Whether it was DC Marvel or Dark Horse Image, every comic company had a hard time.The WB TV network is also an embarrassment among the many TV networks owned by Warner. It does not make pay TV as impressive as HBO, and its ratings can sometimes even be higher than the three major channels. It does not have various sports events like TNT. The ratings of WB are supported, especially the advertising expenses of the NBA Finals and NASCAR racing cars. Lost, purely because no one offered a good price.

When Ted Turner returned to the company with the contract drafted by Willot's lawyer, the management, including the CEO, was very excited.

AOL-Time Warner's first-quarter financial report is really ugly. On the first day of public announcement, it created the largest stock price drop in history. Some investors have already sued the company to court. The next step is likely to face a class action lawsuit. At this time, if several companies that have been in a state of loss are sold, the financial report for the second quarter may be much better.

When the two contracts were actually discussed at the shareholder meeting, the WB TV network deal was fine. The management and shareholders of AOL-Time Warner almost heard that Willot was going to Offered a good price to buy the loss-making TV station, and immediately nodded in agreement, but DC, DC's deal was a bit difficult.

……

"The board of directors has been arguing for several weeks about whether to sell DC comics." Ted Turner said: "Willot's offer to DC is very exciting, but after all, Warner already owns this It has been a comic company for more than 30 years, and many senior executives in the company have deep feelings for DC, and Barry Meyer is also constantly lobbying. He and several shareholders are extremely persistent, and they have persuaded others—”

William's expression didn't change.

Although Willott offered AOL-Time Warner the intention to purchase DC comics as early as April, Warner did not respond ambiguously, and the time dragged on until "Spider-Man" was released and became a comic. After the box office bomb, he knew the deal was dead.

Ted Turner kept explaining that the reason why AOL-Time Warner did not sell DC comics was due to the deep affection for DC.

If Ted Turner didn't mention Barry Mayer's name, William might still believe it seven points, but knowing that Barry Mayer was also involved, he only believed three points for the reasons Turner said. point.

Barry Meyer has been the head of Warner's TV department for the past few years. He is an ambitious and talented person who has successfully developed the business of dozens of TV stations under Warner. Bi is not very outstanding, so since last year, he has been promoted to the president of Warner Pictures—yes, that Warner of the Seventh Hollywood, sitting in this position, it can be said that he stomps his feet casually. I'm going to shake it up.

William knew Barry Meyer because he released such acclaimed and well-received movies as "The Matrix" as soon as he took office. I also found the descendants of Tolkien who wanted to buy the copyrights of "The Hobbit" and "The Silmarillion", and found George Martin to express his interest in "A Song of Ice and Fire", but the copyrights of these works are now It has already belonged to Willot, so Warner can only let it go in the end, but Warner's frequent big moves are also one of the reasons why Hollywood's purchase of adaptation rights has increased a lot.

Obviously, after Barry Meyer came to power, the shooting plan he made for Warner Pictures was not to develop original series of movies, but to take a shortcut route of IP adaptation and leverage high returns with medium and low-cost movies.

In the past two years, the most successful Hollywood adopts this type of development model is Willot. It goes without saying how high the box office of films such as "Harry Potter" and "Lord of the Rings" is, so I don't blame Barry. Mayer wanted to imitate, and the payoff was simply too high.

If comic-book adaptations don’t do as well as they did a few years ago, then Warner may still sell the unprofitable DC comics. Now, thinking about it with his knees, William can guess how Barry Meyer persuaded Warner shareholders not to sell For DC comics, it must be "The market for comic-adapted movies has picked up now, why did Warner sell DC instead of making its own superhero movie?" After all, DC has a larger "material library" than Marvel. ".

Thinking of this, William couldn't help but sigh in his heart.

When the sales of the comic book market were declining year by year, and when superhero adaptation movies were in a slump, buying Marvel had already spent all his time and energy.After the merger of Marvel into Willot is all done, Time Warner's market value has soared to more than 1000 billion U.S. dollars with the continuous mergers and acquisitions and the prosperity of the stock market. .Now finally, when the cooperation between Time Warner and AOL fails, the stock price plummet can take advantage of it, and the manga film market is getting hot again. If Warner still can’t see the value of DC comics at this time, it must be the collective eyes of the management. blind.

It seems that Willot is destined to miss out on DC comics.

Shaking his head to push the regretful thought out of his head, William interrupted Ted Turner's chatter: "So, the board of directors accepted the offer from WB Network?"

Ted Turner nodded immediately: "There are still some details that need to be negotiated, but if the lawyers of both parties are quick enough, the acquisition can be completed the morning after tomorrow."

"Finally there is good news." William smiled.

"Are you ready to officially enter the TV industry?" Ted Turner asked curiously, "Willott's movies have become a benchmark for Hollywood studios to imitate. I don't know what kind of surprises can be created in the TV industry?"

William didn't deny it, but just raised his glass: "This fall, the series produced by Willot's TV department will be broadcast on the integrated new TV station."

"Oh, what kind of episode?"

William thought for a while, and finally gave a succinct summary: "A story about jailbreak."

prison Break?Could it be a story like "The Shawshank Redemption"?Ted Turner repeated the name, didn't take it seriously, and raised his glass to William: "Forgot to say, Will, you are officially welcome as a member of the board of directors of AOL-Time Warner."

……

In mid-May, three TV stations in North America with long-term low ratings and financial difficulties announced the suspension of broadcasting for rectification.

There are a total of about 1700 TV stations in the United States, of which 1340 are private commercial TV stations, and more than 100 can cover most of North America. Most of these 100-plus TV stations are controlled by the five major consortia.

In the fiercely competitive North American market, the TV industry is not easy to do. Several giants of public TV networks and cable TV networks have almost divided up the ratings. Small and medium TV stations can only survive in the cracks. The three TV stations belong to the public TV networks whose signals can almost cover more than half of the United States, but the operating conditions are not good, and the ratings are low and the advertising fees are low, so it is difficult to make a profit.

Two of them are well-known, one is AOL-Time Warner's WB TV station, and the other is Paramount's UPN TV station.

Especially WB TV station, although the ratings of the 18-49 age group are miserable, but it is very influential among the audience of young people under the age of 18, especially the new drama "Smallville" last fall, among the 14-17 age group. There is a high degree of attention among audience groups.

Because of the previous superhero TV series, whether it was "Batman" in the 60s or "Wonder Woman" in the 70s, "The New Adventures of Superman" in the mid-90s, or "Thor" and "Hulk", superheroes They often begin to punish rape and eradicate evil as soon as they appear on the stage, or not long after they appear on the stage. TV dramas always talk about how superheroes fight crime, and at most they talk about their origins, but there has never been any drama episode, the focus goes straight to the adolescence of superheroes.

Only the story of "Smallville" does not focus on the brightest moment in Superman's life wearing the three primary colors, but a large-scale depiction of the confused, lonely young man Clark Kent who will have a crush on the most beautiful girl in the town. Resonating with young audiences who are also in adolescence, the TV series has just aired for one season, and it has won multiple nominations for the Saturn Awards, and it is also very popular in this year's Teen Choice Award finalists.

Smallville fans are starting to worry about the show's fate after The WB's sudden suspension of the air - will there be a second season in the fall?Will it be cut suddenly?If "Smallville" is cut, will other TV stations buy the copyright and continue to produce and broadcast it?

Although young audiences under the age of 18 have not been valued by mainstream TV stations because of their low spending power, they are undoubtedly the most active and good at conveying information. The news that "Smallville" may die is uploaded on the Internet. After the latest statement was released on the TV station's official website, they were the ones who spread the news as quickly as possible.

The content of the official statement of WB TV station is that TV station B is not going to stop broadcasting forever, but has been acquired by Willot, and will merge with the other two TV stations to form a new TV station-WL TV station.

As for the programs and episodes originally broadcast by the three TV stations, some of them are indeed going to stop renewing their contracts, but those with good ratings before will be re-broadcasted on WL TV, which officially starts broadcasting in autumn, such as "" "Smallville", I got the renewal contract from the second season to the fourth season in one go.

The fans of "Smallville" are relieved and quiet, and Hollywood is getting lively because of Willot's frequent actions.

The newly added TV business of Willlot has attracted a lot of attention, because the WL TV station established by the merger of the three TV networks, once it starts broadcasting, the signal will cover more than 96% of North America, and can radiate to [-] markets around the world.

The signal coverage area of ​​this scale far exceeds that of cable television networks such as HBO, FX, SNI, and Starz, and is second only to the five major public television networks of CBS, ABC, NBC, FOX, and PBS.

Even Warner and Paramount, which sold the TV network to Willot, were shocked at the big money of the other party at this time. They thought that even if Willot participated in the TV industry, it would be a trivial matter, but they didn't expect that the other party would not be involved in the TV industry. Well, once you step in, you make a big move.

Moreover, WL TV station will launch three new drama series in this fall. One of the major dramas has a high investment and is currently being filmed intensively. However, according to the evaluation of industry insiders who have watched the pilot episode, this prison-themed TV series is unique and novel. Definitely deserves nine points of praise, and maybe WL TV station will become a hit with this drama.

——Also, it is said that Willot has been preparing for this prison-themed TV series at least a year ago. They originally just wanted to find a broadcast platform for this TV series, such as selling it to NBC, HBO or Fox Cable or something, but then changed my mind for some reason.

Paramount, which was once brilliant but now has to worry about financial problems every year, especially wants to sigh for its wealth and wealth for this kind of behavior that buys TV stations to broadcast the dramas it shoots.

However, compared with the establishment of WL TV station, the fact that William Bradley became the second largest individual shareholder of AOL-Time Warner has caused more gossip and discussion.

Especially after the shareholding change, AOL-Time Warner’s board of directors made a series of adjustments—the original CEO Gerald Levin was dismissed, and Steve Case, the chairman of the board of directors from AOL, also stepped down. The newly appointed chairman and CEO of the board of directors are both from the former Time Warner, and the day after the change of positions, they and the company's largest individual shareholder Ted Turner had lunch with William Bradley together. Made it to the New York tabloids -- and made one wonder what was going on between AOL-Time Warner's new management and William Bradley.

Just looking at all the recent events of AOL-Time Warner and Willot's series of actions, many people have imagined a big shopping mall drama.

"Fortune" magazine tried to interview William, and wanted to ask him whether he chose to buy shares at the time when AOL-Time Warner stock was the most volatile and least optimistic, did he have a different interpretation and prediction of the financial market than others, and how he will balance himself in the future Angel investor, president of the film industry, Oscar winner and other identities?

"Fortune" magazine also wants to know whether Willot will continue to acquire other North American comic companies, such as Dark Horse Comics and IMAGE Comics after the failure of the acquisition of DC Comics?Dealing with comic companies so frequently, is it because Willot wants to make a big comic book adaptation movie cake, or is it because of William Bradley's fan complex of comic fans?

The ones who want to know the answer more than "Fortune" magazine are the president of Willlott's subsidiary Marvel Comics, Marvel Pictures, and Stan Lee. The news of Willott's failure to acquire DC has just begun to spread in Hollywood. At that time, they called William one after another.

The president of Marvel Comics and Pictures expressed his intentions in a rather cryptic manner, while Stan Lee asked directly: "Will, do you want to unify the North American comics industry?" serious.

There is a reason why Stan Lee would say this. In today’s North American comics industry, the combined market share of DC and Marvel is 78%. If Willot really acquires DC, and completely dominates the American comics circle It's almost there.

If several major comic companies belong to Willot, how will Marvel develop in the future? DC comics are half-dead in a large group like Time Warner. On the contrary, under the wings of Willlott, the comics and movies of Marvel have made great progress. In addition to choosing the right direction of development, The full support and complete decentralization of the company is another indispensable reason.

If Willlott also acquires DC or other comic companies, Marvel will not be able to enjoy the current treatment exclusively, and will have to compete internally with other comic companies... Although Stan Lee is not very involved in Marvel's business now The affairs have been managed, but he is still very worried about Marvel's future development and path, and worried that Willot will suddenly change from a sugar daddy to a stepmother.

"Even if I thought about it, it couldn't happen." William told Stan Lee: "Warner now sees DC comics as a treasure trove of resources to be discovered. The hotter the comic film market, the less likely they are to sell. Even if it fell into my own hands... If it were a few years ago to discuss the acquisition, it would still be possible."

"Marvel was founded in the 30s. There are more than 8000 heroes in total, which have influenced four generations of Americans. They are also an inexhaustible treasure trove of resources. There is no need for Willot to buy other substitutes. Marvel's wonderful The characters and stories may not be finished in dozens of movies." Stan Lee said with a little pride.

"Actually, what I really regret is that I can't make a Justice League vs. Avengers." William joked.

Stan Lee didn't realize that it was a joke, he thought William was telling the truth, and suddenly coughed violently on the other end of the microphone.

The Avengers, which has not yet been seen, is already a vision for Stan Lee. Justice League vs. Avengers?God, young people these days really dare to think.

In addition to Stan Lee and the president of Marvel, William was called by an unexpected person, Barry Meyer.

That's right, the president of Warner Bros.

This is an unexpected call, and what is even more surprising is what Barry Meyer said.

Barry Meyer not only expressed his desire to get closer to William, "Warner Pictures is a subsidiary of Time Warner, and you are a shareholder of the group. We need to be in touch frequently, Will, there are too many things I want I want to hear what you think." He really threw out an olive branch, "The cake in the global film market is so big, Willot and Warner can definitely strengthen cooperation and seek common development. By the way, I have recently restarted "Superman" , or a Batman movie, do you have any suggestions?"