Hollywood Tycoon [US Entertainment + Business War]

The entertainment industry has always had an ambiguous relationship with gangsters, whether it is Hong Kong, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, or the United States.The history of several giants in Hollywood is actually not very clean. MGM and Paramount have some ambiguity with the Italian Mafia; while Warner was once ambiguous with the Ku Klux Klan, so Jed has never been pure enough to become a star in the American entertainment industry. As clean as pure water.

In the most prosperous era of Hollywood, it was also the era when gangsters were most rampant. After all, making movies was one of the fastest and most convenient channels for money laundering.The biggest gang that ruled Hollywood and even the United States at that time was the Italian Mafia, and their top leaders were the five New York families.The Kolobo family used to be one of the five major families, and it was also a very interesting family.The Mafia and the U.S. judiciary are naturally a match, but Kolobo has always insisted on using legal means to fight against the U.S. judiciary. Yes, the methods they use are all legal means.

Before Paramount was acquired by West Bay Company, he was the property of the Kolobo family, and Kolobo used Paramount to shoot what is known as the "greatest public relations film" in film history-the "Godfather" series.This movie changed the American people's perception of the Mafia in one fell swoop, and also forced the US Federal Department of Justice to ask the media not to use the discriminatory term "Mafia" in public.In fact, if the Kolobo family can be completely cleansed under the development of their patriarch Joe Kolobo, but unfortunately, because Joe's reform violated the interests of some people in the family, the Kolobo family split up, and finally they were completely wiped out by the New York police. The removal also led to the removal of the Kolobo family from the five major families in New York.

So if this John Colob comes from that Colob family, Jed is really very interested in chatting with him.After the mafia was severely cracked down by the US judiciary and declined, South American gangs, Russian gangs, Eastern European gangs and Asian gangs appeared one after another, making Los Angeles even more smoky.

Don't think that Hollywood doesn't have the example of shooting Andy Lau in the head like Hong Kong, and sometimes the gangsters in Los Angeles go too far.Fortunately, these gangsters knew that behind Jed stood the richest Jewish force in the United States, and coupled with Jed's cheap grandfather's ambiguous relationship with the Chinese gang, these saved Jed from a lot of trouble.But even so, every year Jed will encounter things such as gang harassment, although usually Jed will entrust a lawyer to get rid of these troubles.But although flies can't kill people, they can't stand it when they respond.

Jed temporarily put these unhappiness behind him, and he called Stanley Jaffe, Meribo, Susan Decker, and Shirley Lansing into his office because they had the right to know that they had a relationship with the Walt Disney Company. Cooperation.

"What? The level of this cooperation has risen to the Walt Disney Company?" Stanley Jaffe couldn't believe it, "Disney's parent company has been dispatched, Mr. Sherman, I want to know what you talked to them about? "

"First of all, you will hear a very big news. I have learned from a reliable source that the Walt Disney Company has acquired ABC and its affiliated television networks for approximately $190 billion. The current legal process of the acquisition It should have been completed, and now we are going through some internal processes of the company, if nothing unexpected happens, this news will be announced at the end of this year to the beginning of next year."

The news of Jed surprised everyone, not to mention the staggering amount of the acquisition, but Disney's reverse acquisition of a media company as a film company to form an entertainment group Very maverick too.

Jed looked at everyone's expressions, and then continued, "So I and Disney Films proposed a very interesting form of cooperation. Our Galaxy Film Production Company will continue to be independent, while Galaxy Film Distribution Company and Galaxy Home Entertainment The company will accept the investment from Bowei International, and own 5000% of the shares of each of the two companies with US$20. They will exist as "silent investors" and only enjoy dividends without interfering with our company's operations. In addition, we Commit to producing a sitcom for ABC in the next year with a guaranteed TV show or series and ABC will have the right of first refusal."

"Will this upset News Corp?" Shirley Lansing posed a question. "Different from CBS, FOX's most important opponent now is ABC. If we help ABC regain viewership, if FOX is dissatisfied, what should we do?"

"Then ask them to come up with a higher price to buy our TV series." Jed said lightly, "Mr. Murdoch is not such a stingy person when it comes to business. And FOX and the other three TV stations are not so stingy. It's completely different, they tend to be very conservative, which is different from other TV stations, and this kind of conservative TV series and TV programs are not what we are good at."

"I see." Lansing naturally knew what Jed was up to. If Murdoch approached him, Jed could completely reject it because of his different stance on the show.People in Los Angeles don't know that the Sherman family is a die-hard supporter of the Democratic Party, so how could they make a show to please the Republican conservatives?

After discussing for a while, Lansing suddenly thought of a question, "After talking for a long time, I still haven't said what the name of the new TV series is?"

"Everybody loves Raymond." Jed said the name.You must know that "Everybody Loves Raymond" can be regarded as an American national comedy, and it is a masterpiece of the same level as "Seinfeld".This is a family-themed comedy, so it's basically a level for the whole family to watch.

The story tells the story of a middle-class family in Long Island, New York. Raymond and Deborah are considered a typical middle-class American family.Raymond is a sports reporter and passionate; while Deborah is a housewife who takes it as her duty to build the family into the "Five Good Families in America".The two already have an older daughter and a pair of twin younger sons, which sounds like a very happy family.But as the Chinese say, "every family has scriptures that are hard to recite."Raymond and Deborah have to say that Raymond's parents and brothers are really weird.All the jokes revolve around the story between this happy family and the best relatives. It is a little warm and a little touching. It is definitely the first choice to impress American housewives.

After listening to Jed's setting and description of "Everybody Loves Raymond", Lansing immediately felt that this is another comedy masterpiece was born.Although Dongfeng TV Production Company has always been profitable relying on "Friends" and "Will and Grace", it is not a solution to always have no new classic works, and this time Jed really worked hard to cooperate with Disney.However, it is not enough to have an outline and creativity. Now Lansing also knows that Jed does not have the energy to write comedy scripts, but in any case, there must still be a few episodes per season that Jed writes. Morality checks.

After everyone finished talking about the future cooperation with Disney, they went back to their offices to prepare for some key matters.Although Disney's Bowei International is only a "silent investor", it will certainly obstruct some reports and documents based on Disney's current strength.The cooperation between the two companies has never been a simple matter. It will take at least half a year for the legal and accounting departments of both parties to conduct a joint review from the negotiation to the formal implementation.When Jed was working as an investment analyst in that time and space, he knew very well that the dark years really began after the M&A case was negotiated.The running-in of the two companies will take at least one year, during which the company's performance will decline sharply, and a large number of talents and management will be lost... Therefore, it will take at least two or three years to see whether the two companies can truly succeed in the merger.It's like everyone was touting the cooperation between AOL and Time Warner Group as a classic merger between emerging media and traditional media, but in the end, both companies were dragged down by this merger and ended up in a sad end situation.Jed is not worried that this merger will cause any trouble to his company, because the two companies only cooperate financially, and there is no deep-level cooperation at all.Just after the meeting ended, several phone calls were made to law firms, accounting firms, and investment analysis agencies that had business cooperation with the company.They will make a comprehensive analysis for Jed's company and avoid some troubles.Of course, the cost is not low.Fortunately, this kind of cost is still worth it, otherwise it would be really troublesome to deal with trivial matters.

At this time, a 178-year-old middle-aged man about 30 cm stood at the reception of Dongfeng Building.This man was dressed in a suit and was carrying a brown lawyer's briefcase. There was always a hint of sneer at the corner of his mouth, but his eyes looked at everything calmly."I'm John Colombo, I've made an appointment to see Mr. Sherman today," he told the receptionist. His voice was a typical New York accent, which is not common in Los Angeles.Then it seems that the speaking speed is deliberately slowed down, so it sounds extra charming and magnetic.

In fact, there are countless people at the front desk of Dongfeng Building. After all, there are Dongfeng TV Production Company and Yinhe Film Production Company in this building, and there are many celebrities and amateurs coming and going.One of the prerequisites for getting along in Hollywood is appearance, so the two front desks have seen countless handsome men, but the man in front of him has something indescribable.One of the girls blushed and said, "The president's office is on the top floor. When you arrive, a secretary will welcome you."

After John nodded, he took the elevator and went straight to the top floor under the guidance of the security guard.In the elevator, John was also thinking about what his friend said, "Perhaps it would be a good thing for you to help Mr. Sherman. The cases he is involved in are not complicated, and sometimes he needs your 'special means' to help with something very special."

"Special means?" John snorted coldly in his heart.The reason why I broke up with Fumei in the end was not because of my own means. On the one hand, the company relied on its own means to earn excess profits, but on the other hand, it deliberately pretended not to know, and even tried to take the opportunity to fire me without compensation at the critical moment. .Fortunately, John still has a lot of contacts in the company. With these connections, he counter-sued the company, and finally forced the company to terminate the contract with himself at sky-high compensation.It stands to reason that I have nothing to pursue.But after he cashed the company's compensation check, an inexplicable emptiness made him unable to extricate himself.Because of this lawsuit with the company, he also became famous in the entire California lawyer circle. Not only the big law firms avoided him, but even the small law firms did not want him to work.And as his rest time increased, rumors about his embezzlement of company funds gradually spread, making him notorious in the entire legal industry.John had no choice but to move his family to the Bel-Air district of Los Angeles, a rich area in one of the famous Golden Triangles of Los Angeles.After I moved to Los Angeles, my old friend Ron En came to my door and said he wanted to introduce me to a job.When he learned that he was going to be Jed Sherman's personal lawyer, he was a little surprised.Jed is quite well-known in San Francisco. After all, as a celebrity in the city of his sworn enemy, he needs to get to know him better.Afterwards, the famous family was involved in a murder case that has not been settled so far. He started his business by relying on the copyright of three books, and finally became one of the bosses in Hollywood.John has always believed that everyone's luck is limited, but this man named Jed overturned his impression. Almost every investment of his is very far-sighted, and some people even began to analyze his investment theory in an attempt to Find some reason out.However, John is not interested in Jed's investment philosophy. What he cares about is that this person dares to single-handedly challenge the Mitsui consortium behind the Sony Group.Although he was also from a so-called mafia family, he knew very well that there was a kind of person who had better not be offended, and that was a consortium with government background, such as Mitsui.Even in the heyday of the five major New York families, they would not provoke the Morgan or Rockefeller families, because the risk was too great.

The elevator finally reached the top floor, and as soon as the door opened, he saw a woman with a stern face standing in front of him. "Mr. Kolobo, right? I'm Deborah Federer, Senior Secretary in Mr. Jed Sherman's office. Mr. Sherman is waiting for you in his office. In addition to me, there is Margot in Mr. Sherman's office Lit Hope and Donna Moss are two junior secretaries. Of course, due to Mr. Sherman's work needs, our office also has Miss Karen Browning in charge of finance and Mr. Dan Layson who provides basic legal advice. On behalf of They welcome Your Excellency!"

Deborah introduced the staff in the secretary's office and led John to the waiting room.She whispered: "This is a place for guests to take a break when they visit Mr. Sherman. In front is the door of Mr. Sherman's office, and on the left is the door of our secretary's office. — Wait a minute, I will go talk to you." Please explain, Mr. Sherman." After speaking, Deborah knocked on the door of Sherman's office.Not long after entering, Deborah came out and said, "Mr. Sherman is waiting for your Excellency!"

John just nodded, and Deborah gave John the door, and she waited for John to enter before closing the door.

"Mr. John Colombo, you are very welcome to our company! I have been waiting for a private lawyer for a long time!"

"It's a pleasure working with Mr. Sherman." John used a colder tone to alienate Jed, who was too enthusiastic, "I have no problem being your private secretary, but I must make three agreements with you. First, I must have my own I don’t want to stay with your secretaries, and at the same time, I must ensure that we can meet at any time; second, the finances of my office are only responsible to you, because I may need to use some not-so-glorious way, I don’t want to make them public; third, I don’t provide consultation on criminal cases, if one day you are prosecuted for murder, please don’t contact me.”

Seeing John talking to him in such a serious manner, Jed suddenly didn't know what to say. He was stunned for a while and said: "Your condition is a bit harsh, but if you can show the ability to meet these conditions, I am willing to abide by it." Your rules."

"That's good." John said lightly, "I won't charge you a penny for the first year, but if I need to investigate something, you must pay me some necessary expenses. If we are not satisfied with each other in the first year , automatically terminate the contract, how?"

"Okay." Jed nodded.He also told himself in his heart that if John was really capable, he would not hesitate to give him very special treatment.If it's just for show, then I won't leave anyone here to eat. "Your office is right next door to mine. There will be a secret corridor between me and your office. You can come and visit me at any time."

"No problem." John scanned the office slightly, "It turns out that Mr. Sherman still has a small lounge hidden here."

Jed was surprised. Indeed, he built a small lounge here, with bathroom equipment and beds, for his occasional rest or thinking.And in that secret room, there are some very important things stored, among which are some important things that will happen in the future that I sorted out.The design of this room is very secret, even the original construction party did not know its purpose.Due to the ingenious design, this room is perfectly hidden.

Seeing Jed's slightly surprised eyes, John responded: "Don't forget, I was born as a prosecutor. Please rest assured that I will not reveal my client's secrets at will, and at the same time, I will not make any criticisms because of it." Request. By the way, I am responsible for hiring my assistant, and the company only needs to provide the salary."