Hollywood Hunter

On the second day of the Rebald’s dinner, Janet began to negotiate with the Blackstone Group to acquire the equity of Blackstone Financial Management Company.

Busy, Thursday will come soon.

Blockbuster chose to list on the Nasdaq exchange. Simon and Janet rushed to Midtown after getting up at seven o'clock. Blockbuster chairman and CEO Wayne Huizanga and Daenerys Entertainment said Amy and others on the side have arrived.

Everyone ate breakfast in a hurry and came to the Nasdaq Exchange Hall on 42nd Street, which was already overcrowded.

In addition to the management of Daenerys and Blockbuster, we also invited Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Diane Keaton and other big celebrities to help out today.

If other companies want to do this, an expensive appearance fee is definitely indispensable, and it may not be requested. For Daenerys Entertainment, it is only a few phone calls. Because the people invited are all filmmakers who live in New York, they don't even need to pay for travel expenses.

Simon's attendance also belongs to the nature of helping out.

After eight o'clock, with Janet showing her face in front of the media, the two temporarily hid in the lounge upstairs of the exchange to wait for the bell ringing ceremony.

Robert De Niro and others also arrived.

Simon also met Catherine Bigelow who hadn't seen each other for a while.

After "Thunderbolt", Catherine lived in New York most of the time.

Simon could feel that the woman was clearly distancing her from her on purpose, and he didn't force it. Catherine has always been a very independent personality, it is impossible to become a vassal of someone, and Simon does not want Catherine to be his vassal.

"This is a remake of an old 1962 film called "Cape Terror". It tells the story of a convicted criminal who retaliated against the judge and lawyer who sent him to prison. Spielberg started very early. I started to adapt the script for this project, but I haven't voted for it. He recently asked Martin and I if he would be interested in taking over. Martin saw the script written by Steve and felt it was bad, so he was still hesitating."

In the lounge.

Simon, De Niro and others sat on the sofa chatting about recent events.

Martin Scorsese is already looking for his next new film while taking care of the late stage of "The Good Guy". De Ni Roma will enter the group to start a biographical film "The Wordless Asking Heaven", which is expected to be released at the end of the year, which makes him Two large-screen works that are still relatively high-yield this year.

The "Corner of Terror" we are talking about now can only be counted as next year's project.

The box office of "Cape Terror" in my memory is very good, but since this is a project led by Spielberg, Simon does not intend to intervene.

Of course, if "Cape Terror" was shot by Universal like the original time and space, and Simon could successfully win Universal again this year, the movie would still belong to his own hands.

Amy and James have been paying close attention to the development of MCA recently. Simon's plan is to find the right time to formally initiate a takeover offer to MCA after the establishment of Cersei Capital’s M&A business team. Such a business can just help Cersei Capital’s acquisition. The business team opens the game.

After chatting with De Niro and the others for a while, Simon got up and went to Janet and Catherine who were hiding nearby and chatting.

New York in January was the coldest time of the year. Entering the room, everyone took off their thick coats. Catherine was wearing a black turtleneck sweater and was lovingly leaned against by Janet, who was wearing a white sweater. Around me, I naturally feel a little more CP.

This is a three-seater sofa, with Catherine next to an armrest and Janet sitting in the middle.

Seeing Simon coming over, Janet, who was originally wrapped around Catherine, immediately moved to the other side and gave Simon the middle position.

Simon sat down politely, and saw Catherine moved up a little, so he deliberately leaned against the woman, naturally, he was thrown a blank eye.

Janet came over with a smile, and lay on Simon's shoulder and said to Catherine through the man: "Look, it's still such a bastard."

Simon pretended to be dissatisfied: "Should you avoid the person when you say this?"

Janet curled her lips: "I want you to hear it."

Catherine smiled and watched the two people quarrel, and said: "I saw you punching someone in Melbourne. Don't be like this in the future, you will get hurt."

Simon nodded and asked, "How is the preparation of your new film, do you need my help?"

Catherine's new film is called "Surprising Point", which is roughly regarded as a police film.

Simon has some impressions of this movie, one of Keanu Reeves’s early works, and the actor Patrick Swayze of "A Man and a Ghost", the movie’s surfing and skydiving action scenes are very classic. Although the anarchist views expressed are not liked by mainstream film critics, they are very successful in business and have a group of very loyal fans.

Until many years later, Hollywood actress Megan Fox, who became famous with "Transformers", also named her son Bodhi after the role of Patrick Swayze in "Storm Point". , The corresponding word in Chinese is'Bodhi'.

Catherine heard Simon's casual questioning, and smiled at the little man beside her and said: "Warner has formally established the project, and Keanu and Patrick have also agreed to participate in the show. Shooting will probably start in the second half of the year."

The cost of "Surprising Point" is expected to exceed 20 million US dollars, which is already a big production for Catherine.

Hollywood's prejudice against female directors is deep-rooted. Without Simon's line, Warner could not agree to the investment so readily, and the original Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze would not necessarily agree to participate.

Catherine knew all this well.

Everyone chatted, and the time soon came to a quarter past nine. The staff came in to inform that the bell ringing ceremony was about to begin, and everyone got up and left the lounge.

The exchange is already overcrowded.

Simon and others appeared on the stage, and the flashes in the hall immediately turned on frantically again.

After Wayne Huizanga gave a speech, everyone gathered at the operating desk and pressed the trading button together. The bell ringing ceremony was considered complete.

The next step is the inquiry stage before the market opens.

Because of the strong subscription demand during the roadshow, Blockbuster’s issuance price was finally determined at US$17 compared to the underwriter’s initial suggested price of US$13 to US$15, 15 million new shares were issued, and US$255 million was raised.

US$255 million is enough for Blockbuster’s expansion in the next year.

Therefore, shareholders and management unanimously rejected the underwriter’s proposal to increase the issuance.

In the first round of inquiry, the quotation jumped directly to the range of 17.5 to 18.5 US dollars.

After completing his platform mission, Simon and his party left temporarily. There will be a celebration reception at noon. Today's guests can decide whether to attend according to their own arrangements.

Simon must be attending the noon reception, but there are still some things to return to his apartment on Fifth Avenue before that.

Catherine was about to leave, but Janet was forced to take her home.

There are already some people waiting here. They are staff from a genetic research institute in the UK.

It's very simple.

After collecting blood samples from Simon and Janet, several staff members confirmed something with Simon again, and hurriedly left and flew back to the UK.

Catherine watched all this, but felt confused.

Janet leaned into her ear to explain a few words in a low voice before the woman understood.

Then, thinking that Simon and Janet were about to get married, there was still some sourness in my heart.

Inside the lobby of the Nasdaq exchange.

After three consecutive rounds of bidding for an hour, Blockbuster’s opening price was finally confirmed as $19.5.

Subsequently, the formal trading began, and the stock price immediately broke the $20 mark.

The celebration reception at noon began, Blockbuster's stock price has exceeded 23 US dollars, and trading in the afternoon is still very active.

As of the end of the trading day on Thursday, Blockbuster's stock price was finally fixed at 26.5 US dollars, compared with the issue price of 17 US dollars, a 56% increase in one day, and the total market value reached 2.199 billion US dollars.

Because of participating in the subscription of this new share issuance, Daenerys Entertainment's shareholding in Blockbuster still remains at 35%.

After the two investments, the company's total expenditure is about 210 million US dollars.

As of the close of the day, Daenerys Entertainment's $210 million investment has grown to $770 million, with a return rate of over 300% in just one year. In fact, the reason why Blockbuster's stock price rose sharply on the first day of listing was mainly due to Daenerys Entertainment's great success in this investment.

Daenerys Entertainment’s huge book profits stimulated investors’ enthusiasm for buying and the market’s pursuit, which in turn made Daenerys Entertainment’s investment more successful.

After the listing of new stocks, the major shareholders and management of listed companies have traditionally entered a quiet period.

However, this will not hinder the normal operation of Blockbuster.

On the second day of listing, Blockbuster announced that it would acquire the Erol video tape chain company headquartered in Baltimore on the East Coast. Compared with Blockbuster, which already has more than 1,200 chain stores across North America, Erol is only in the east. There are 250 chain stores in several states including New York and Washington on the coast.

The final purchase price reached by the two parties was US$40 million, in the form of cash and stock transactions, Blockbuster will also assume Errol’s debt.

This transaction has been under negotiation during the Blockbuster IPO, and the official announcement on the second day of listing is also a good thing.

After the completion of the transaction, Blockbuster will own more than 1,500 chain stores. Although the market share is still less than 20%, it is also the largest video tape rental and sales chain in North America.

The news of the acquisition of Errol was announced, and Blockbuster’s share price on Friday also rose slightly as expected, breaking through $28 at the close of the market on Friday.

With the successful completion of the IPO, Blockbuster will also start the expansion of overseas markets.

On the other side, Blackstone Group received Cersei Capital’s offer to acquire Blackstone Financial Management Company led by Lawrence Fink, and initially rejected it directly.

Although there is a discord between Blackstone Group CEO Steve Schwarzman and Lawrence Fink, the performance of Blackstone Financial Management Company has been outstanding since its establishment. The Blackstone Group is reluctant to let go of this fast-growing subsidiary. the company.

It wasn't until Lawrence Fink threatened to lead the entire team to leave collectively, and Schwarzman reluctantly compromised, but he still offered a price of $200 million.

Blackstone Financial Management's revenue figure last year was 33 million U.S. dollars, and the net income before tax attributable to shareholders was approximately 7 million U.S. dollars.

Because of the debt crisis in the second half of last year, even most of the listed financial companies on Wall Street had a recent P/E ratio of only a dozen times. The Blackstone Group's quotation of US$200 million for Blackstone Financial Management is equivalent to a price-earnings ratio of close to 30 times, which Cersei Capital naturally cannot accept.

Ending the Blockbuster business, Janet stayed in New York to continue negotiations with the Blackstone Group for the acquisition and preparations for other departments of Cersei Capital, while Simon returned to Los Angeles with Amy and others over the weekend.

For Daenerys Entertainment, from January 12 to January 18, the box office drop of "Batman: Hour of War" still reached 31%, and another $41.06 million was collected. However, four weeks after the release, the film’s cumulative box office quickly reached 271.75 million U.S. dollars.

At the same time, on January 19, Daenerys Entertainment's first new film released in 1990 was officially released, called "I Want to Go Home".

This is a film that Ella Deutschman bought from the Venice Film Festival last year. At that time, a total of three films were selected, and only this one was negotiated.

"I want to go home" starred by the famous French actor Gerard Depardieu, who has over 10 nominations and awards for the Caesars Award, tells the story of an eccentric American cartoonist who took his wife to Paris during a trip to Paris. Just like the "A Fish Named Wanda" that took advantage of the differences between British and American cultures, "I want to go home" ridiculed the differences between British and French cultures.

However, since it was placed in January, Gaomen Films obviously did not expect much of the film’s box office. The number of screens opened was only 523, which is considered a work to fill the release schedule.

Daenerys Entertainment's recent announcement is focused on February's "Pretty Beautiful Lady".

The confirmed release date of the film is February 9, the week of Valentine's Day.

The management was not very optimistic about this project, which was adapted from a black drama film to tell the love story of call girls and financiers, but the final result of the film was very good. If it weren't for Daenerys Entertainment's film release plan for the whole year of this year, it would even consider changing to a more popular schedule.

Speaking of which, Daenerys Entertainment has confirmed 12 film releases for the whole year of 1990. According to the release time, they are "I want to go home", "Beautiful Lady in Wind and Moon", "Crazy Fatty Variety Show", "Children in the Cornfield 2", "The Love Between Humans and Ghosts", "Teenage Ninja Turtles", "Ghost Chasing", "Journey to Heaven", "Angels at the Table with Me", "Dancing with Wolves", " Life Intersection" and "Home Alone".

In addition to this batch of films released by the company, there are four other works planned for last year’s 10 films, namely "Sleep with the Enemy" in collaboration with Fox, "Shaking Hands in the Cradle" in collaboration with Disney, and in collaboration with Universal Pictures "Ten Days in Crisis" and "Pink Alliance" in cooperation with Columbia Pictures.

There are 16 films in total, which is the same as last year's release scale.

Simon returned to Los Angeles this time, and his main job was to sort out the sixteen films in various stages of production and distribution, and to confirm some of the projects in 1991 in advance.

According to the plan, Pixar will launch its first 3D animated film "Toy Story" at the end of 1991, and the last "Scream of Scream 3" in the "Scream of Scream" series is also scheduled for next year. In addition, there will be Madonna. Music documentaries and foreign cooperation films such as "Death of the Dead" and "Terminator 2".

These are obviously not enough.

Fortunately, with the continuous expansion of Daenerys Entertainment, the company, like other Hollywood studios, has a number of projects that can be established at any time. A large number of independent Hollywood producers are also looking forward to cooperating with Daenerys. For entertainment cooperation, these people have more abundant projects.