The Best Entertainment Era

Lionsgate, Navas hurried into the office of boss Frank Gusta.

What's the matter? Frank Gusta saw that Navas's face was full of anxiety, and asked, So anxious?

Navas didn't care to sit down, and quickly said: Chairman, I just got the news that people from Relativity Entertainment are in contact with Artisan Pictures, and Robert Iger's men have already interviewed several shareholders of Artisan Pictures , someone saw with their own eyes that Robert Iger himself went to Artisan Pictures yesterday.

Frank Gusta was quite surprised: What? Relativity Entertainment? He calmed down and asked, Are you sure Relativity Entertainment is interested in Artisan Pictures.

Navas said without hesitation: I checked with someone personally. I don't know what Robert Iger and Emil Marin talked about, but Robert Iger's men met with several shareholders of Artisan Pictures. It's an equity transaction.

Frank Gusta has calmed down: Relativity Entertainment is buying Artisan Pictures.

Yes. Navas continued: It is now absolutely certain.

He then asked: Chairman, what should we do? We have been preparing for almost half a year, we can't let Relativity Entertainment take the lead?

Frank Gusta raised his hand to silence Navas for a while.

Since August last year, Lionsgate has received news that Artisan Pictures has an internal intention to sell the company. After several discussions, Frank Gusta has decided to make the acquisition of Artisan Films a priority in the future. One of the plans is to hire a third-party agency to start evaluating Artisan Pictures.

Acquiring a company with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets is not a simple matter, let alone a decision made this month and the transaction can be completed next month.

Lionsgate's preparations have been in secret, and Frank Gusta has raised a sum of money from several Canadian banks for the acquisition.

According to Lionsgate's plan, it will soon formally contact Artisan Pictures and strive to complete the acquisition in the first half of 2004.

Who would have thought that a theory of relativity entertainment would suddenly pop up!

When Frank Gusta thinks about it carefully, Relativity Entertainment is not a sudden jump out. It was the first to cooperate with Lionsgate Films. Lionsgate Films released the Human Purge Project of Sandsea Entertainment under Relativity Entertainment. Later, the two companies There are also collaborations, but more of a competition, a few times Lionsgate seems to have won over Relativity Entertainment,

The result was a big loss.

Let’s just say that City of God has a good reputation and scares people to death, and it ranks in various annual top ten lists. For Lionsgate, which bought out the North American copyright, it is a standard loser.

The cost of buying out the copyright does not know how many years it will take to recover offline.

It seems that in the competition with Relativity Entertainment, Lionsgate has never been cheap. Sometimes it seems to win, but the result is the same as City of God, and it still loses in the end.

Frank Gusta suddenly asked Navas: Who is stronger, Lionsgate or Relativity Entertainment?

Navas hesitated a bit, but chose to tell the truth: The theory of relativity is more entertaining.

So, Artisan Pictures is more important to Lionsgate. Frank Gusta emphasized: If Lionsgate wants to grow bigger, it needs more complete distribution channels, especially overseas distribution channels. The same , we also need the film library of Artisan Films, which is the foundation of a film company's confidence and continuous stable income.

His tone became extremely tough: Whether it is facing the competition from Relativity Entertainment or the bidding of the six major companies, we cannot give up Artisan Pictures.

Navas said: Chairman, I have dealt with Ronan Anderson many times. This is not a person who will give up easily. We must make sufficient preparations, especially funds.

Frank Gusta nodded and said, I'll find a solution for the funds.

In the past two years, Lionsgate Films has developed, but it has not been particularly smooth, and funds have been relatively tight. Frank Gusta has already conducted financing in the secondary market for this, but most of the funds raised have been invested in film production. For the project, the company's internal funds are not sufficient.

Fortunately, since preparing to acquire Artisan Pictures, Frank Gusta has been trying to find a way to raise funds, and within half a year, he has also prepared a fund of nearly 300 million US dollars.

Originally, raising another part would almost complete the plan to acquire Yijiang Films.

But with the emergence of Relativity Entertainment, I am afraid that more funds will have to be raised.

Navas reminded at this time: Chairman, we have to speed up the plan and act quickly.

Frank Gusta is also a decisive person, and said directly: You contact Emil Marin, and if the opportunity is right, make an offer, and increase our initial valuation by another 10%, and the maximum offer can be 3 $500 million.

Knowing that this is a critical moment, Navas immediately said, I'm going to contact Artisan Pictures.

That afternoon, Navas walked into Artisan Films and met Emil Marin.

Just one day later, Lionsgate officially offered $330 million to Artisan Films, and held a press conference to publicly announce that Lionsgate plans to acquire Artisan Films.

This news is somewhat surprising, because the scale of Lionsgate itself is not large, at best it is comparable to Artisan Pictures.

On the day when Lionsgate officially contacted Artisan Pictures, Relativity Entertainment received the news that Robert Iger had been prepared. This was not an acquisition of a small company with zero corners, but a rather large and For the influential Artisan Films, it would be strange if there were no competitors.

Judging from his contact with Emile Marin and the preliminary negotiations between Relativity Entertainment and Artisan Pictures, even if Relativity Entertainment makes a low-key acquisition and there is no competitor for the time being, Artisan Pictures will create a high-profile momentum to attract competition opponent.

It is Lionsgate that jumped out now, not the Big Six or something like that, and the pressure on Robert Iger and Relativity Entertainment is not that great.

Considering the situation of Lionsgate, Robert Iger also thought of a solution.

Of course, Relativity Entertainment doesn't want to ask for trouble if it can be solved by itself.

Beginning in mid-January, the acquisition team of Relativity Entertainment began to formally negotiate with Artisan Pictures, and Artisan Pictures also has a team that is negotiating with Lionsgate Pictures.

The appearance of Lionsgate also means that this acquisition case has turned from the dark to the bright. The minority shareholders of Artisan Pictures quickly formed a group for their own benefit, and temporarily gave up private contact with Relativity Entertainment. Shares can be sold for a better price.

No one is stupid, and no one's money is blown by the wind. They all want to complete this transaction in the way that best suits their own interests.

The professional team is talking, and the contacts at the highest level have not been interrupted.

After several contacts, Robert Iger found Emil Marin again. Emil Marin is not only the chairman and largest shareholder of Artisan Pictures, but also a representative elected by many shareholders.

In fact, as long as the general transaction price is negotiated at a high level, the following negotiations will immediately make rapid progress.

In the reception room of Artisan Films, Robert Iger looked at Emil Marin and said, The third-party valuation of your company is 300 million U.S. dollars. According to the past three years, your company's annual profit is only more than 12 million U.S. dollars. Under the circumstances, Relativity Entertainment is willing to pay a premium of US$340 million for the acquisition.

It is impossible to acquire according to the actual value in such an acquisition case.

Emil Marin said: Bob, let me remind you that although Artisan Films has not launched a popular film in recent years, it can generate stable profits every year. He strengthened his tone: Artisan Films is A profitable company!

A premium acquisition is inevitable. Robert Iger is very aware of this, and said calmly: The premium offered by Relativity Entertainment has exceeded your company's three-year expected profit.

This price is very fair, if there is no Lionsgate to join the competition, Emil Marin will definitely be tempted.

But Emile Marin remained unwavering, and said lightly: I'm not afraid to tell you the truth. Lionsgate offered 350 million US dollars, but I rejected them all.

Artisan Films has been your painstaking effort for many years. Robert Iger would not be so stupid as to directly increase the price, and said: Lionsgate Films has not been operating very well. This is well known in Hollywood. There are too many film companies in Hollywood. Bankrupt. Mr. Marin, do you want to hand over your years of hard work to an unstable company?

Emil-Martin was moved. From the establishment of Artisan Films many years ago to the business expansion step by step, he invested not only time and energy, but also his own feelings.

If it is not old, Artisan Pictures is also facing difficulties, and Emil Marin will not agree to sell the company.

The emotion didn't last for a few seconds, and Emile Martin's businessman nature finally overwhelmed his feelings for the company, saying: I will retire immediately, Artisan Pictures has completed the transaction, and it has nothing to do with me.

Robert Iger sighed secretly, it was indeed too difficult to impress the old fox who had worked hard in business for decades with emotion.

The interview between the two was a bit deadlocked. Robert Iger suddenly thought of Universal Pictures Entertainment Group last year. Last year, he fanned the flames everywhere and used various conditions to make profits. Now, does Lionsgate play the role he played last year?

What Ronan said really made some sense, he always had to pay it back when he came out to hang out.

Robert Iger didn't make any rash offers anymore, and later used words to temporarily stabilize Emil Marin, and began to consider whether there were other ways to achieve his goal.

News about Artisan Pictures quickly spread in Hollywood, attracting the attention of many people and companies, and companies like Relativity Entertainment and Lionsgate were interested in Artisan Pictures.

The film library of Artisan Pictures and the North American and overseas distribution channels built over decades are quite attractive.