Heads Up Hollywood

Chapter 651

The American media, let alone commercial secrets, can expose even state secrets.

New Universal offered US$4.2 billion, and it was an open secret that it wanted to acquire MGM.

The news was first reported by the "Wall Street Journal": "On August 30, New Universal Group once again made an acquisition offer to MGM, and the price was raised to US$4.2 billion! It is expected that the transaction will be conducted in an all-cash manner."

According to CNBC reports, New Universal Group offered $4.2 billion and would acquire all the assets of MGM Pictures. If the deal is concluded, the film territory of New Universal will be further expanded, and the Hollywood pattern will also undergo new changes. New Universal will surpass Time Warner to become the largest film group.

The "Hollywood Reporter" believes that "Twain Walker is rising rapidly and his ambitions are getting bigger and bigger", "If there is one person in this world who can save MGM, then this person must be Twain".

In an exclusive interview with CNN, Michael Ovitz said: "What New Universal is most admired by the industry is its complete industrial chain layout - film and television entertainment, media networks, theme parks and resorts, consumer product derivatives and interactive entertainment. The acquisition of MGM will further strengthen the strength of New Universal Group in the film and television entertainment industry."

In any case, just like Tang En wanted to build Hollywood's first film museum, New Universal's acquisition of MGM has also been recognized by the entire Hollywood.

MGM has been ruined by Kirk Kerkorian, and it no longer has the glory of dominating Hollywood in the past.

The fallen leaves return to their roots and return to Hollywood.

Rather than being a financial tool in the hands of a casino tycoon, this is a good choice.

Entering September, Tang En finished filming "The Departed" and returned to Los Angeles.

He became the most popular and popular person in Hollywood!

As for Sony, which also has a very high interest in MGM, it is not favored by the industry at all.

Sony?

In the past ten years, it has been the biggest joke in Hollywood!

That year, Sony spent $3.4 billion in cash, plus assumed $1.6 billion in debt, to acquire Columbia Pictures for a whopping $5 billion.

Then, he encountered Hollywood's "playing".

Columbia Pictures executives resigned on a large scale, and Sony Corporation was not discouraged. It spent huge sums of money to recruit two producers from Warner Bros. - Peter Guber and Jean Peters.

They are jointly responsible for managing Columbia Pictures.

For this, Sony offered an annual salary of US$2.75 million at the time, and set up an award fund of US$50 million, plus stock options.

Not only that, Sony also spent 200 million US dollars, at a price 40% higher than the market price, to acquire the production company of the two who are constantly losing money, hoping that the two will be loyal.

This is not the end!

At that time, Japan had just entered the U.S. market and did not yet understand the game of U.S. imperialism. I thought that the business environment in the United States is the same as that in Japan, where loyalty, trust, and Bushido are practiced.

Immediately afterwards, Warner Bros. sued Sony!

It turned out that Peter Guber and Jean Peters still had contracts with Warner, so they were poached by Sony.

The Japanese at this time don't even know how to buy out the contract!

They thought Peter Guber and Jean Peters had it all figured out.

As a result, Sony compensated Warner another US$800 million for this!

It's not over yet!

Who is Jean Peters?

He turned out to be a hairstylist for a Hollywood star. He didn't even finish junior high school. He was illiterate and had a violent personality. Because he could handle the relationship with the star well, he was reused by Warner;

Peter Guber is relatively better. He has a bachelor's degree in law and once worked for Columbia Film Company, but he was fired because of his misconduct.

Later, he went to work for Polygram Pictures, which made the company's film production business end with a loss of 100 million US dollars. This also led to a certain extent that Polygram Entertainment was acquired by the Seagram Group as a whole, Polygram Records was merged into Universal Music, and Polygram Pictures was merged into Universal Pictures.

All kinds of resumes have made the two of them have a very bad reputation in Hollywood.

Although they often use the name of "producer" in some famous films, they are often in vain.

For example, when they supervised the production of Steven Spielberg's film "The Color Purple", Spielberg clearly stipulated in the contract that the two were not allowed to step on the set!

Let these two people manage Columbia Pictures, what effect will it have?

One can imagine.

For the next five years, they squandered Japanese funds like crazy.

Use the company's money to decorate luxurious houses and offices, hold grand parties, buy expensive special planes, hire expensive "models" to enjoy life...

At the same time, the formal film business is left unattended, and each film released loses money more and more.

This is definitely the most public and earth-shattering prodigal behavior in the history of the entertainment industry!

Rare in the world!

In the past few years, not counting the junk physical assets acquired by the two, the lost cash flow alone has a total of 3 billion US dollars!

By the end of 1994, the two of them were finally dismissed. Sony announced a quarterly loss of 3.2 billion US dollars, which became the largest loss figure in the history of Japanese companies at that time.

It is also the largest loss case for foreign investors in the United States.

In the following years, through a series of management adjustments, Sony finally realized the self-financing of the film company.

But this year, it was miserable again.

"Charles of the Thunderbolt 2" suffered relatively little losses, and after two or three years of operation, it can still recover its capital.

But what about "Bad Boys 2"?

This movie is worthless!

Sony Pictures will lose at least 200 million U.S. dollars this year!

Sony's CEO Nobuyuki Idei originally wanted to curb the excessive development of Sony in the United States, so as not to show a situation of being too big to lose.

Now, Sony Pictures is suffering a serious loss, which has made Sony's financial situation even worse!

Sony's stock price is falling crazily, and every quarter's deficit is shocking. In order to make ends meet, they are all auctioning off the headquarters building. In this case, they have to spend extra funds to support the film and television industry and acquire MGM?

impossible!

Rao Howard Stringer, the head of Sony America, tried his best to persuade Nobuyuki Idei repeatedly about the importance of acquiring MGM.

It is also impossible to convince.

Can MGM afford such a high price with Sony's current cash flow?

If you can't find an international consortium to back you up, you have to give up!

At the beginning of the year, Kirk Kerkorian spit and MGM entered the auction market.

Many companies, including Viacom, General Electric, Microsoft, Sony, Disney, Comcast, New Universal, Lionsgate, and Time Warner, have had the idea of acquiring MGM.

In September, Sony, the last bidder, also officially withdrew.

Only the New Universal Group is left, which is still interested in MGM.

After Sony America announced its withdrawal from the bidding for MGM, New Universal received a reply from Kirk Kerkorian the next day, agreeing to sell MGM!

However, the price must be negotiated.

Kirk Kerkorian was greedy, asking $4.5 billion, $300 million more than New Universal's offer.

"fine!"

Tang En was quite satisfied with the result.

After his continuous layout efforts, he finally achieved his goal.

Moreover, the price was 300 million US dollars lower than when MGM was sold to Sony in the previous life.

Well, there should be room for price reduction.

...

After the failure of "Jedi Men 2", Jerry Bruckheimer switched to Paramount, and Michael Bay was even worse. He could only use DreamWorks as his final backer.

This pair of golden partners is completely broken up.

Don't look at Paramount being jointly sanctioned by New Universal and Disney. Life is very difficult, but this is far from what DreamWorks can compare.

In the current DreamWorks, except for the profitable department of DreamWorks Animation Studio, all other departments are losing money!

David Geffen, one of the Big Three, has made it clear that he has quit DreamWorks.

And Jeffrey Katzenberg is also firmly promoting a major move within DreamWorks - to split DreamWorks and DreamWorks Animation!

As the top person in charge of the live-action film department, Steven Spielberg is very helpless.

He can only pick up some projects or producers that the Big Six don't like, and work for DreamWorks.

As with John Wu, so with Michael Bay.

No, when he heard that Twain had returned from filming, Spielberg threw himself into the face and brought Michael Bay to the door in person to plead guilty.

Isla Fisher was reporting this incident to Twain, looking very excited, "Twain, that guy came to admit his mistake! Hmph, I thought that if I found Spielberg, I would be able to turn around, dreaming!"

She has been by Tang En's side since he started his business.

She knew that there was a period of time when Tang En faced tremendous pressure from all aspects.

Among them is Michael Bay's outrageous remarks in front of the media!

Taking advantage of his popular influence after filming "Brave to Kill the Island" and "Peerless Heavenly Tribulation" and other blockbusters, he openly criticized Tang En.

During that period, if Tang En showed any weakness, Tang En Pictures might collapse.

There will be no achievements of the New Global Group today.

Isla Fisher has a grudge.

Tang En was also very reluctant and didn't want to see Michael Bay.

"If you don't want to see it, then you won't see it. It's not an important person anyway." Ira Fisher didn't care much.

Being by Tang En's side, she has seen a lot of big shots. In her eyes, the former box office champion director is not worth mentioning.

Tang En waved his hand, "Michael Bay can disappear, but Steven must give face."

"I see!"

Isla Fisher puffed out her small chest and went out confidently.

...

"Director Spielberg, the boss let you in."

Isla Fisher is wearing a professional skirt suit, with a compelling temperament and extraordinary heroism.