Reborn America, this is my time

Chapter 253
"Cheers~"

"Dang bang~"

Everyone at the table raised their glasses together, and a crisp sound stirred up the blossoms of hops.

After finishing the drink, Steve Ballmer stood up decisively and poured wine for everyone. Roy Disney, with slightly red cheeks, leaned on his seat and laughed and said: "Oh - Ethan - it's really true this time Thank you so much!”

"When I came back to the group, Ron Miller's face was as elongated as a horse's!"

"Because he didn't expect that I would go to the scene on the day of the meeting! He didn't expect that I would directly seize the position of Disney's representative!"

"You know, that seat is usually occupied by Ron Miller himself!"

"It's just because I don't want to confront you head-on that I let the representative participate this time."

"And his concession directly let us inside Disney know that I, Roy Disney, am now the real president of the Disney Group! He, Ron Miller, is nothing!"

"Hahahaha——" Everyone burst into laughter in the huge restaurant.

Ethan Jones, who was sitting in the main seat, nodded slightly to express his understanding.

Spielberg and Lucas next to Roy Disney are like curious babies.

They opened their eyes for knowledge and asked eagerly: "Roy, apart from this, was there anything else that happened in the venue that day?"

"I heard that the meeting that day was extremely intense?"

"Of course!" Roy Disney slapped the table and raised his voice, "It's really a pity that you two didn't go there! Wow - Steve's attitude of angrily yelling at everyone is really cool!"

"I'm not here to ask for your opinion! I'm here to inform you!"

"Is there anything else I want to see, whether you can unite or whether we are tough behind the scenes!"

"That day, he really displayed the word arrogant perfectly!"

"To be honest! I personally think that if he had another black cat, he would be more like The Godfather than Marlon Brando! That aura that day! Oh - it's so awesome!"

"Oh oh oh - Roy - you are really exaggerating." The ups and downs of the words made Steve Ballmer stop pouring the wine, looked up and said: "I just participated in accordance with the boss's request that day. It was just a meeting. Everything was arranged by the boss and had nothing to do with me."

"Right, boss?"

Steve Ballmer did not dare to take credit, and everyone also turned their attention to Ethan Jones. After finding that he had become the focus of the audience again, some of the superior Ethan quickly waved his hands and said: "Nonsense! I Just a 23-year-old boy with no higher education!"

"What do I know about business? What do I know about meetings?"

"Today's celebration banquet relies on your support!"

"Yo——" boos were heard from the crowd.

Ethan smiled and shook his head, saying: "Okay, Okay, I drank a little too much, so I need to go to the bathroom. Don't worry about me, keep talking and drinking~"

After saying that, he stood up and staggered out of the private room.

As he left, the scene suddenly became chaotic again, and Ethan walked out of the restaurant...

Being a little tipsy, he first washed his face at the sink in the bathroom, then wandered into the back garden of the hotel, found a place and simply sat, feeling the sea breeze and staring at the night sky.

Today is February 120th, only two weeks have passed since the competition short film was broadcast, and only five days have passed since the impromptu meeting of the Film Association. However, the slowness of life cannot slow down the speed of work, because in just a short period of time, In [-] hours, Hollywood has changed.

Maybe he knew that he was not strong enough to continue playing on the Hollywood poker table, but it was also possible that Ethan Jones’s madness was frightening, so within 24 hours after the interim meeting of the Film Association, the only medium-sized studio in the association The film company, Embassy Pictures, put the film up for sale and announced it was for sale.

Embassy Pictures was founded by Joseph Levine in the early 40s. Its initial business was to distribute foreign films in America. Its most successful work was to introduce the original "Godzilla" to the United States with a licensing fee of US$1. , earning a box office dividend of 100 million, and the exaggerated 83 times revenue ratio made them famous in the American film industry.After that, they tasted the benefits and introduced a large number of foreign films, and marketed the No. 1 foreign best actress in Oscar history.

Of course, they also have outstanding performance in terms of production. They produced the well-known comedy "The Graduate" starring Dustin Hoffman, and they also invested in and distributed the satirical film "The Producers" , however, their strongest area is actually television. They hold the copyright of CBS’s well-known drama “The Jeffersons”, and they also produced the series “Living in the Moment”.

It's a pity that in the world of Hollywood, it is not enough to have excellent production capabilities and excellent distribution vision. If you want to be promoted to the status of a giant, you must obtain the blessing of other factors. When Paramount has capital giants sitting in, Warner has The Undertaker enters the scene, Universal realizes the integration of audio and video, and Disney rides the wave of the times to build a perfect paradise. Embassy Pictures, which has nothing, is destined to be eliminated by the market.

Not to mention, now, Ethan Jones has lifted their pants off like a dragon crossing the river.

Therefore, knowing that they could not keep up with the times, they set a price for themselves, with a starting price of 2000 million. Whoever bids the highest price would get the company.

And this behavior attracted the attention of countless people.

Well-known director and creator of the "Billy Jack" series, Tom Laughlin, communicated with Embassy Pictures immediately and was willing to acquire the company for 2000 million in cash and 400 million in securities;
Jerry Perenchio, the billionaire manager of Elizabeth Taylor who invited Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier to have the fight of the century at Madison Square Garden, also participated in the bid and was willing to pay A $500 million cash bid for the company;
In addition, Paramount has also shown strong interest in their film library, quoting a purchase price of US$3000 million for Embassy Pictures, and stated that the transaction will be conducted in the form of a share exchange.

After the round of quotations ended, Embassy Pictures, who felt that Paramount was the most sincere, negotiated with them and signed a letter of intent for the merger within 48 hours. On the morning of February [-], they officially submitted a letter of intent to America’s business. The Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Justice submitted the acquisition agreement, and as long as the two ministries formally approve it, the acquisition can be completed.

When this god-like transaction speed appeared, people in the industry who learned the news were shocked. No one thought that Embassy Pictures would become the first victim in this war, but considering the amazing performance of Ethan Jones After the destructive power, everyone was relieved.

The second one who couldn't bear it was Columbia. As early as last year when MGM conducted a hostile takeover, Columbia's shareholders had plans to quit and stop playing. But now, when they are hammered by Ethan Jones's indiscriminate blow After feeling dizzy, they completely wanted to leave this circle.

So, on February [-]th, they officially signed an agency contract with the Wall Street investment bank Goldman Sachs, hoping that Goldman Sachs could help them find a buyer. It is said that those shareholders are not very eager for the company's value. They have only one request, that The entire company is packaged and sold, and all it takes is cash.

They do not accept any form of share exchange transactions.

Because after Destiny Pictures has stated that everything must be my priority, as long as you are a normal investor, you don’t want to experience a second threat.

When two of the eight former members of the Motion Picture Association of America decided to take their money and leave, the initiators of the war were also liquidated by the remaining players, starting with MGM, which was in full decline in Hollywood.

Under the coercion of his peers, Kirk Kerkorian, who wanted to take root in Hollywood but was powerless, officially announced on the afternoon of February [-] that he would split the MGM Group into two.

One is for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, a film company;

The other is MGM Resorts, which operates casinos and hotels in Las Vegas.

Moreover, he also stated that he would continue to split up the MGM film company, completely separate the film library and production, package and put it on the shelves, and rent it to the outside world for a period of ten years.

As long as someone takes pictures of MGM's film library, in the next ten years after the contract is signed, the owner will be able to enjoy all the rights and interests brought by the film library, including but not limited to the authorization of TV parties, the sale of video tapes, and the production of movies. reruns, and other visible revenue.

A few years ago, this film library would have been 'worthless'.

Because the profit points of the film library at that time were actually only TV screenings and film re-screenings.

But when the product of video tapes emerged, old movies that had been released for many years ushered in a second spring.

So, with MGM's high-profile auction, there was interest from both insiders and outsiders.

For major studios, what is more interesting is actually the production of gift packages.

Because after buying this gift package, they will be able to enjoy the subsequent filming rights of all MGM movies in the next ten years, and among them are "007" and "Tom and Jerry".

Just the filming rights for these two sequels will make them a lot of money!

So, after MGM released the news, major companies rushed to bid.

Perhaps because of his "unwillingness", Kirk Kerkorian is not prepared to split the company himself. He said that he will entrust the split to Wall Street investment banks and let them negotiate with interested parties.

At the same time, MGM also wanted to return to the film distribution industry, saying that the investment bank undertaking the split must help them acquire a film company with North American distribution channels, preferably United Artists, because MGM would not Give up the right to release and distribute the copyrighted film during subsequent filming.

That's right, even if MGM rents out the rights to shoot sequels to copyrighted movies, they still want to participate in the subsequent production and lead the distribution of the movie.

When this kind of naughty struggle emerged, Hollywood giants instantly lost interest in MGM's production gift packages and began to compete for the film library. But for laymen, this is simply full of temptation.

After all, the most unpredictable thing in the film industry is content.

And a good IP can save novices from taking a lot of detours.

While Kirk Kerkorian was feeling the pressure, Warner was also having a hard time. After some private transactions, Warner Communications handed over Warner Music's concert ticketing for the next three years and sold it to Ticketing Startup. American Music, the parent company of Universal.

Not only that, Warner also signed a sharing treaty with Fox. From the date of signing the contract, Fox and Atari shared the patent license of Milowa video games until Atari's licensing contract expired.And Fox can use Warner Music's copyright library at will for the next five years to select songs or soundtracks to add color to film or TV projects.

Speaking of music, Ethan remembered another thing.

In the past few days, Spielberg called him and said that his good friend David Fincher, who was a former musician, wanted to make a comeback. Since he had previously received a blacklist order from Warner, he could not. A manufacturer dared to take him on, but when Ethan slapped Steve Ross until his face was swollen...

He wanted to start a company under the name of Destiny Music, a subsidiary of Destiny Pictures.

Both parties in the new company hold 50.00% of the shares. At the same time, Destiny Music enjoys the distribution rights of all the subsidiary's music works. If David Geffen no longer wants to work in the future, Destiny Music can acquire it first.

When Ethan learned that David Geffen offered to vote, he naturally accepted it with a smile.

Not only that, he also appointed David Geffen as the general manager of Destiny Music, reporting directly to Steve Ballmer and in charge of everything within the company.

After all, he didn’t understand music, and he started a music company just to get angry with Warner.

Now that a good general is here to take care of it, it is a good thing for him.

At the same time, he also believed that David Geffen did not have the guts to deceive himself.

Even if he is deceived, it doesn't matter, because he will defeat the enemy with his own hands.

Steve Ross started a war, but because of the failure of the war, he also had to pay a corresponding price to quell the incident. While Steve Ross and Kirk Kerkorian were cutting and bleeding, Walt As for the Disney Group...their situation is even worse.

Because of Ethan's relationship, they were indeed not targeted by Paramount, Fox and Universal, but also because of Ethan's relationship, Roy Disney's reputation within the group could not be increased at this moment.

When executives big and small knew it, Ron Miller chose Steve Ross and was humiliated, while Roy Disney chose Ethan Jones and was exalted in front of all his peers. After arriving at the external representatives of the Walt Disney Group... Anyone who is smarter has already become more active.

And the die-hard loyalists on both sides...

Ron Miller's side is a backwater.

On Roy Disney's part, it's like being paid.

According to Roy Disney, if nothing else happens, Ron Miller will definitely be questioned by shareholders at the shareholders’ meeting in a few months. They may not be able to seize power immediately, but they will take this opportunity to insert their power into Within the group, there would be no problem if Ron Miller could give up a few positions.

It was a good start to a long war.

Moreover, Roy Disney also said that he himself did not expect that the situation would develop so quickly after Ethan entered the scene. They reached a cooperation at the end of last year, but at the beginning of this year Ethan put Ron... Miller's pretense fell away, and he felt so happy that an emperor was so angry that he would lay down a million corpses.

"Oh Ethan, why are you sitting here?"

Just when Ethan was sighing that it was endless fun to fight with others, a call came from behind him.

The familiar voice made Ethan unable to move. The person who called him walked over quickly, crossed the stone bench and sat down side by side. He took advantage of the situation and looked at the starry night sky, which explained what the Milky Way is.

"You came out to see the stars, right?"

"Oh - why didn't you say anything?"

"I thought you fell into the toilet!"

"Ahem, cough, cough -" Maitai's words made Ethan dumbfounded. He turned his head and Evelin's face full of complaints came into view, "I just think it's too stuffy inside and I want to get some air."

"They are so eloquent! I really admire them!"

"and--"

"Didn't you come out because you couldn't bear the noise?"

Today's celebration party was led by Ethan. In addition to Spielberg, Lucas and Roy Disney, others had contributed to the table-turning issue, such as American Music Chairman Sidney Sheinberg. , Fox chairman Dennis Stanfill, Barbara Babcock who proposed the table-turning plan... He invited them all, and not only that, he also booked the Cliff House in San Francisco.

If not, he wouldn't be able to enjoy the sea breeze and look at the stars in the garden now.

Ethan's words also made Evelin glare at him, and she turned to look. The girl breathed a sigh of relief at the empty scene, "Don't talk nonsense!" Evelin hit him angrily, but the next step Seconds later, she giggled again, "Okay, I admit, it's too noisy in there."

"Their voices are like artillery firing, exploding in your ears."

"The speed of his excited speech was more like machine gun fire, and it kept clicking."

"Those who know know that we are having a celebration banquet."

"People who don't know would think there's a cowboy duel going on here."

"It just kept banging and banging."

The vivid metaphor made Ethan laugh, turned around and looked around. After confirming again that no one was around, he struck back, "Oh Evelin, you still say I'm talking nonsense?"

"Look at what you just said!"

"It's so noisy in there! It's like cowboys dueling!"

When Ethan imitated his sister's voice and imitated what he just said, the girl's face suddenly darkened.

Frowning and staring at Ethan, his anger-building behavior made Ethan change his mind decisively.

"Okay, Okay, I was just talking nonsense."

Not only that, he also raised his hands and surrendered directly.

The sudden slip on her knees made the girl curl her lips and turn her head to look at the sky.

Ethan knew that she was not angry, but he still held his hands back, looked up at the stars, and took the initiative to find a topic.

"What did they say after I left?"

Evelin ignored him.

"Are they complimenting me on how handsome I am?"

"Hmph~" Evelin sneered.

"Oh, are you praising me for being handsome and capable?"

"Hey - luckily I came out -"

"Otherwise I'd be bored to death with them."

"I've known this fact for a long time!"

"Say it every day! Say it every day! It doesn't make any sense at all!"

Ethan feels good about himself.

And those stinky words made Evelin burst into laughter.

"Why are you so shameless?" She turned her head and looked at Ethan.

"Isn't it?" Ethan asked with raised eyebrows.

Although what Ethan said was true, Evelin just didn’t want to admit it.

"Hmph." She pronounced it with her nose, ending the topic. The next second, the girl said: "After you left, they continued to talk about Hollywood, talking about each company's reactions, their gains and losses, and then..."

"Before I came out, they talked about the president of the American Film Institute, Jack Valenti, who had been promoted to the position by Universal. He retired and took his family to Southeast Asia."

This news made Ethan stunned, "Where have you gone?" He suspected that his ears heard it wrong.

"Southeast Asia." Evelin repeated the location.

"Oh——" Ethan said in a longer voice, and the smile returned to his face, "Southeast Asia?"

"Understandable."

In Ethan's previous life, after retiring, he went to live in Southeast Asia, which almost became an industrial chain in America because of its beautiful scenery, mild climate and low cost of living.

After all, not everyone can buy an island in Hawaii, and not everyone can turn a national wetland park into their own vacation estate like Lawrence Rockefeller.

When ordinary Americans have worked hard all their lives and saved some money, their biggest concern is how to use their existing funds to enjoy a more prosperous life.If you settle in Southeast Asia and only spend a thousand dollars a month, you can enjoy the life of the Kardashian family.

This kind of beauty makes people yearn for it, and it makes ordinary people flock here.

Of course, these are all advertisements that Ethan saw in his previous life.

He didn't know whether it was accurate or not.

But no matter how poor his understanding of world history is, he still knows that Southeast Asia is not a good place now. It is full of war. At this time, Jack Valenti went to Southeast Asia?
This only proves a problem.

He went to seek refuge.

When he betrayed Universal and screwed up Warner's arrangement...

Hiding in a place where neither party can touch is the best option.

As for what to say about the future of the family?

Those whose lives are important?

Of course, after he smashed the internal gameplay of the Film Association, these things have nothing to do with him. Compared with the whereabouts of Jack Valenti, Ethan at this moment wants to know what to do with Oracle's problems. solve.

Thinking of this, Ethan asked again: "Barbara has been with you these days?"

"Yes."

"Has there been any progress?"

"What do you think?"

This rhetorical question made Ethan purse his lips and smile.

Stand up and reach out.

"We should go back."

"End it early tonight, have a good sleep, tomorrow -"

“It’s also a day full of hope.”

(End of this chapter)