Hollywood Hunter

After hesitating for a moment, Lou Vasalman said: "Simon, it is impossible to completely waive the exit fee, and the board of directors will not agree, but we can discuss the specific amount carefully."

Simon did not intend to waste too much time on this matter, and said: "Then 50 million dollars, fixed numbers."

US$50 million is a huge sum of money that is elusive for most ordinary people, but to Simon now, this amount of money is nothing.

The exit fee negotiated by MCA and Panasonic is 2.5% of the final transaction value of both parties. If calculated based on the recent market value of MCA close to US$6 billion, once Panasonic abandons the acquisition, it will need to pay US$150 million in exit fees, which is roughly equivalent to MCA's half-year net profit.

Vasalman originally considered that Daenerys Entertainment’s exit fee could be set between 1% and 2%, which is already a big concession. Hearing that Simon was only willing to give a fixed fee of 50 million US dollars, he shook his head. : "Simon, this number is too low."

Simon insisted: "You want me to get involved in this matter as soon as possible, Lu, this is the price that must be paid."

Vasalman thought about it again and said, "Then, things must be made public in advance."

Simon shook his head: "No, after signing the agreement of intent, Daenerys Entertainment will initiate a feasibility investigation for the acquisition of MCA, and it will not actually initiate the acquisition immediately."

Vasalman twitched his mouth, feasibility investigation, who would believe that Daenerys Entertainment has not even completed this pre-work yet?

However, everyone knew that this was just an excuse, and Vasalman did not refute it.

The two continued to bargain for a while, and Simon reluctantly raised the exit fee to $60 million, roughly equivalent to 1% of MCA's current market value. Daenerys Entertainment will sign an agreement of intent with MCA within a week to investigate and evaluate the feasibility of acquiring MCA. MCA needs to cooperate with the initiative to provide necessary internal assets and financial data.

At the same time, although this matter needs to be kept secret from the outside world, MCA can inform Panasonic that Daenerys Entertainment has officially participated in the bidding.

He personally sent Simon to leave. Vasalman returned to the office just now. MCA President Sid Simberg has appeared. Seeing Vasalman nodded, Simberg knew that Simon had confirmed the entry and asked: "Lu, you and Has Westero discussed the issue of company management?"

After experiencing a serious illness three years ago, Lou Vasalman finally expressed his intention to retire, which is why he will agree to sell the company he has controlled for decades.

However, power has always been more difficult to let go of the deeper the immersion.

Over the years, as his physical condition improved again, Vasalman's thoughts of retiring gradually faded. Among the acquisition conditions discussed by Panasonic and MCA, maintaining the existing management's control over the company is a very important one.

Compared with Lou Vasalman, who is 77 years old this year, Sid Simberg, who is only 55 years old and in his prime, does not want to give up his power.

Lou Vasalman shook his head, sat down slowly behind his desk, and said: "A friend of mine in Washington called me yesterday morning and said it was Ovitz and they were contacting people to try to stop Danieli. Silk Entertainment’s acquisition of MCA. I personally asked Ovitz this morning and he admitted."

Ronald Reagan was a contract artist under MCA in his early years, so Vasalman actually has a good network in politics.

Sid Singberg was a little surprised by the news. He forgot about the question just now and subconsciously said: "We can't let Ovitz destroy this acquisition."

"Of course," Vasalman motioned to Simberg to sit down opposite him, and said, "I have warned him. However, if I choose between Panasonic and Daenerys, I still hope to sell MCA. To Panasonic, do you understand why this is?"

Sid Simberg pulled a chair and sat across from Vasalman. After thinking about it, he nodded quickly: "If the company is acquired by Daenerys Entertainment, Westeros will probably not continue to let us take control. MCA."

"It's not very possible, it certainly won't," Vasalman said: "Once Westeros gets the MCA, he will definitely integrate Daenerys and MCA together. Many of our company's businesses happen to coincide with Dany. Liz complements each other. Westeros has built a very good management team in recent years, and he will never be able to keep us at that time."

Sid Simberg quickly sorted out Vasalman's thinking.

Vassarman urged Daenerys Entertainment to join the bid, which could force Panasonic to raise its offer.

Then, Ovitz shot at the right moment to squeeze Daenerys Entertainment out of the game, so that MCA can be sold to Panasonic smoothly. Although the shareholders have changed, MCA will continue to be in the hands of his own management.

Seeing the clear expression on Sid Simberg’s face, Vassarman added quietly: “And, after all, Hollywood has always been ours, and Westeros is just an outsider anyway. I don’t believe that the other companies will completely abandon the continued expansion of Daenerys Entertainment just because of the benefit of one or two movies."

The ‘us’ here naturally refers to the Jews.

Hollywood’s top seven, or now can be counted as Daenerys Entertainment’s new ‘eighth’, regardless of the shareholders behind the scenes, the studio’s own real power holders are basically Jewish. Lou Wasalman, Sid Simberg, Steve Ross, Barry Diller, Shirley Lansing, Peter Cooper, etc., are all like this.

Even Amy Pascal is the same.

Therefore, Hollywood is the Jewish Hollywood. Few people would object to this statement.

The Jewish community in Hollywood will surely instinctively resist a non-Jew controlling more and more power.

Simon Westeros is precisely a person of unknown origin. Although there is a surname that can show ethnic origin before Westeros, no one knows whether it is true or not, so there is no one. Know what his racial origin is.

In fact, the traditional and conservative Western countries and different groups of people have always taken this issue very seriously.

The unsubstantiated rumors that a certain American president will be more or less involved in the blood relationship with the British royal family is actually the best proof of this.

The rise of Simon Westeros is so fast that it is dizzying. However, in this MCA acquisition, probably no one will be too slow to react.

Although Westeros did not exclude Jewish racial tendencies in running Daenerys Entertainment, he was not a Jew after all, or he did not publicly declare that he was a Jew.

Regarding this matter, although Hollywood Jews do not necessarily know Eastern culture, they understand a common truth very well.

Non-my family, its heart must be different.

Sid Simberg didn't feel that there was anything wrong with Vasalmann's words, and asked: "Lu, Ovitz, what are you going to do?"

...

Simon didn't know the thoughts of Lou Vasalman, and when he returned to Daenerys Studios, he told Amy and others to officially start contact with MCA.

Sign the agreement of intent as soon as possible, so that not only can the exit cost of 60 million US dollars be determined, but also some internal assets and financial data that were previously unavailable to MCA can be formally obtained, so that the acquisition team can re-adjust the original acquisition plan appropriately .

After the meeting with Amy and others, Simon returned to his office, and the female assistant followed in with a document.

"This is the information from New York. Regarding the proposal by David Melrose to restrict the acquisition of US assets by overseas companies, they will formally submit it to Congress next week. Also, we have helped contact the New York Times. ", the "Los Angeles Times" and the "Washington Post" three media, they will simultaneously follow up and report on this proposal."

Simon took the folder from the female assistant and looked down after sitting at the desk.

David Melrose was the last US congressman Simon met at the Hearst House Party.

Although they broke up with the Hearst family and didn’t think that David Melrose’s proposal could win Congress’s support, Simon later urged James Rebald to contact the other party and let Westeros Company The sponsored Schlapp Consulting Company followed up on this incident simultaneously and took the initiative to help David Merrosh.

As long as it can put some pressure on Panasonic's acquisition of MCA, it will be worth it.

Moreover, with one collaboration, Daenerys Entertainment was able to successfully establish contact with the congressman named David Melrose. Human connections have always been accumulated little by little between you and me.

Because there are sufficient preparations for the MCA acquisition case, Daenerys Entertainment quietly signed an agreement of intent with MCA in just two days of the weekend.

Although the MCA did not secretly disclose the matter to the media this time, however, affected by the official entry of Daenerys Entertainment, Panasonic retracted an offer from last week and resumed negotiations with the MCA.

Because of this change, the MCA acquisition is destined to be delayed until at least the end of October before there is a result, which is exactly what Simon wants.

To get this done, Simon flew to Melbourne as planned on the new Monday of October 15.

I spent several days with Jane de Bont and others in the shooting base that was originally an abandoned factory in the western suburbs of Melbourne. At this time, it was quite a studio. Although I was very satisfied with most of the samples taken by De Bont, because After all, not at the helm himself, Simon still found a lot of shots that needed to be shot, partly for technical reasons, partly because he was not satisfied with the lens effect.

However, the make-up work did not start immediately, but was scheduled for three months later, which is January next year.

At that time, the rough silhouettes and special effects shots of "Batman: The Dark Knight" will be basically completed, and the details of the supplementary shots can be confirmed more accurately to save budget.

Due to the great success of the first episode, the budget of "Batman: The Dark Knight" is actually unlimited as long as needed, but Simon has always paid great attention to this issue. With strict and detailed preliminary planning, the final budget of the project can be controlled within the planned 80 million US dollars even if the re-sale of about two weeks is included.

In the process of Simon's in Melbourne, Panasonic submitted an quotation to MCA again after urgent weighing, raising the overall purchase price to 6.5 billion US dollars, which was already comparable to the transaction price in Simon's memory.

Probably the news that Daenerys Entertainment officially entered the game inevitably leaked. This week, MCA's stock price also rose significantly again.

According to this trend, it is only a matter of time before the market value of MCA exceeds the $7 billion quotation ceiling in Simon's plan.

The only good news is that compared to Columbia Pictures’ huge debt of more than one billion US dollars, MCA, which has always been in a very good operating condition, has almost negligible debt ratio. Although it is impossible not to have it, it is basically short-term accounts payable. There are no large bank loans for operating liabilities such as bank notes.

The Johnston house on the outskirts of Melbourne.

It is already October 20, Saturday, and tomorrow, I will return to Los Angeles. Simon came here today to have dinner with everyone. Because of some things in North America, Janet did not come to Australia with Simon this time.

Still a big family, Anthony Johnston family, Norman Johnston family, and Johnston’s youngest sons Patrick Johnston and Sara Keston, who have recently been officially engaged at the urging of the old man, Ronika naturally rushed over.

After dinner, Simon came to the study with the old man and the eldest and second child. Patrick felt that since he was a man from the Johnston family, he should have the right to listen, but the joke was not finished, and the old man stared at him and changed into a quail.

"Initiating the acquisition of the two companies at the same time may avoid excessive enthusiasm in some markets, but Simon, have you considered the financial pressure in the later period? I mean, not only the pressure of future repayment, but also the further pressure of the two companies. The capital needed for development, especially Bell Atlantic, the telecom industry wants to expand, and the investment has always been very huge. Although it is only a regional telecom company, if you want to develop emerging Internet access services, it is just infrastructure investment. , About to be calculated at the level of billions of dollars?"

In the study, Raymond Johnston was clearly aware of Simon's recent developments, and he obviously asked with an unfavorable attitude as soon as he opened his mouth.

Simon naturally considered these issues.

With the current accumulation of the Westeros system, Daenerys Entertainment’s profit in the next few years, some of the technology stock assets that it plans to sell, and the cash flow of the two target companies after the completion of the acquisition will support the next three to five years. Debt repayment is not a problem.

Farther, after the Gulf War next year, the US economy will recover. Various other assets held by the Westeros system will rapidly increase in value in the next few years.

In my memory, in 1995, the market value of both Microsoft and Intel will reach about $50 billion.

With the Westeros system holding 20% ​​and 15% of the shares of Microsoft and Intel respectively, then the value of these shares is expected to reach 17.5 billion US dollars. If necessary, Simon can fully cash out part of his assets. Form to ease their own financial pressure.

After roughly speaking about his plan, the old man's brows frowned tighter, and said: "It is really stupid to pin the hope on the American economy to improve. Bush is not a president who cares about the domestic economy. He is still If you plan to drag the United States into another war, you can find out what the state of the U.S. economy was during the Vietnam War. If he succeeds in being re-elected, the U.S. economic situation will only continue to deteriorate and it is impossible to get better."