Hollywood Hunter

As soon as Michael Ovitz and his party walked out of Los Angeles International Airport, the assistant who came to pick them up reminded him that MCA Chairman Lou Vasalman was already waiting in Marina del Rey near the airport.

Arriving on a yacht in Marina del Rey, less than three kilometers north of Los Angeles International Airport, Ovitz saw Vasalman, his first reaction was to gently shook his head.

The time is already November 15th.

Panasonic suddenly announced three days ago that it would give up the acquisition of MCA, which caught everyone off guard.

Unwilling to give up, Michael Ovitz rushed to Japan in person after communicating with Panasonic on the phone to no avail. Ovitz, who was instructed by Lou Vasalman, even hinted that MCA could accept a slightly lower offer than Daenerys Entertainment, but still failed to persuade Akio Furui to restart the acquisition of MCA.

Michael Ovitz also regrets it now. Last week Meg Ryan gave up the planned lawsuit against Daenerys Entertainment without warning. He has increased his vigilance, but he still did not expect that he secretly attacked Dany. Lisi Entertainment has made so many preparations for the acquisition of MCA, but unexpectedly, the other party directly used a trick to draw salaries.

In the cabin of the yacht, Ovitz and Vassarman sat across from each other, and said: “Based on the information I collected, Westero proposed another cooperation plan between Daenerys Entertainment and Panasonic. Panasonic originally targeted He is hesitant to continue to increase the offer. After Akio Furui’s meeting with Westeros last week, coupled with Panasonic’s internal pressure, he finally decided to abandon the acquisition."

Lou Vasalman asked, "Is there really no room for recovery, or, if necessary, I can fly to Japan myself?"

Michael Ovitz shook his head again and said: "I did not get the content of the cooperation plan between Daenerys Entertainment and Panasonic. However, according to Panasonic's remarks, Westeros was very sincere, and the Panasonic executives agreed. I think we should abandon the acquisition and cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment."

Lou Vasalman frowned, remembering something after a moment, and then asked: "So, Mike, don't you say that there are other Japanese companies interested in acquiring Hollywood studios, Toshiba, Ito, or Sanyo?"

"This was what I said last year, but it was only last year," Michael Ovitz nodded, then shook his head, and said: "The Japanese stock market bubble hadn't burst yet, and things are different now, even if it was Panasonic's withdrawal this time. Affected by the economic situation. The Bronfman family in Canada is also interested in acquiring Hollywood studios. However, they do not have enough funds for the time being. They can only participate in second-tier companies such as Orion to test the waters. Now Asia, North America and The overall economic situation in Europe is not very good. Therefore, Lu, it is difficult to see a second buyer interested in MCA in the short term."

After Michael Ovitz said, the two looked at each other for a while.

After being silent for a while, Lou Vasalman finally made up his mind and said: "Mike, in this case, give me those who have prepared you in advance."

Michael Ovitz also nodded somewhat sullenly, and said, "Yes."

Now that Panasonic's withdrawal is irreversible, the use of those methods has no effect, but will anger the young man again and again. Thinking of this, Ovitz is a little bit distressed. Perhaps Meg Ryan's incident has once again caused a discord between Daenerys Entertainment and CAA.

Thinking of this, Michael Ovitz couldn't help but ask Vasalman: "Lu, do you plan to cancel this acquisition?"

Lou Vasalman had a wry smile on his face.

In all fairness, Lou Vasalman certainly wants to cancel the transaction as soon as possible, because he has tried several times on Daenerys Entertainment, and the other party’s attitude is very resolute. After the completion of the acquisition, he and Sid Simbel Grid must resign. Once so, the two will completely leave the center of power in Hollywood.

Lou Vasalman definitely didn't want to let go so easily.

However, Daenerys Entertainment’s US$7 billion offer is almost twice as high as the MCA’s lowest market value some time ago.

At present, the United States is already in the shadow of another war. The industry is generally not optimistic about the next domestic economic trend and believes that it may continue to deteriorate. Under this circumstance, many shareholders of MCA hope to accept the offer to cash out and leave the market. They don't care what the management will do after cashing out.

Although he is the chairman and CEO of MCA and has run the company for decades, however, Lou Vasalman only holds about 5% of MCA shares, and Sid Singberg only has about 2%. People's stock holdings together can't create much control.

In the past, the two were able to firmly control the company. This time, if they blatantly violated the wishes of the shareholders, even if the acquisition can eventually be disturbed, they are likely to be ousted.

Therefore, now we can only use external forces as much as possible to force Daenerys Entertainment to agree to more terms of its own, or to force Daenerys Entertainment to take the initiative to abandon the acquisition.

Now that his physical condition has improved, Lou Vasalman feels that he can be in charge of MCA for a few more years, until after the age of 80. Moreover, he believes that the U.S. economy will definitely recover. MCA’s stock price has been severely undervalued due to the recent U.S. stock market downturn. In the next few years, there will definitely be other buyers who can pay higher prices.

When Michael Ovitz and Lou Wasalman met secretly, Simon also happened to return from the east coast.

After this period of negotiation, Bell Atlantic and Westeros initially reached an acquisition agreement worth 7 billion U.S. dollars, which is equivalent to Simon’s expectations a few days ago. Compared with the initial budget, it was a full 1 billion U.S. dollars lower. . When the quotation is agreed, other details and terms will be advanced quickly, and they can even be negotiated after the transaction is completed.

Therefore, as long as needed, Simon can announce the details of the acquisition as early as next week.

The next day is Friday, November 16.

As Thanksgiving is approaching, and the weekend is about to move into the finally completed villa at Cape Du Mui. Janet has been busy on the west coast during this time. Simon rushed to Malibu Danelis Studios to work in the morning as usual.

Box office data for the past week also appeared on Simon's desk as soon as he entered the office.

The box office trend of "Ten Days in Crisis" is as expected.

It was released on October 26, and it was already the third week of the film's opening.

After $17.16 million in the first week, "Ten Days in Crisis" had a final drop of 35% for the next seven days, and received another $11.15 million. From November 9th to November 15th in the third week of the show, the decline narrowed to 21% and continued to receive 8.81 million US dollars.

In the first three weeks, the cumulative box office of "Ten Days in Danger" reached 37.12 million US dollars.

What Simon pays more attention to today is "Dancing with Wolves" which was quietly opened.

"Dancing with Wolves" opened on November 2 in some core cities in North America on the scale of 16 screens two weeks ago. The average box office for the first week and seven days reached 67,000 U.S. dollars, which had already heralded the film’s success. Selling potential. The screen size of "Dancing with Wolves" increased to 51 in the next week of the show. With the announcement of Daenerys Entertainment and the promotion of the film's word-of-mouth at the same time, the museum did not decrease but increased, reaching $69,000.

In just two weeks of screening, "Dancing with Wolves" has accumulated $4.63 million in the box office. Moreover, relying on the overwhelming praise of the media, this film about the history and politics of white Americans and Indians is extremely correct, and it quickly promoted to next year's Oscar favorite.

However, because the theater version of "Dancing with Wolves" lasted 3 hours, and the large-scale painting was launched this week, Daenerys Entertainment finally arranged only 1031 screens, planning to rely on word of mouth and awards to accumulate long-term box office.

At the same time, with the official opening of the Thanksgiving holiday schedule, in addition to the large-scale release of "Dancing with Wolves", there are two other new films opened today, namely the sequel of Stallone's classic action film "Rocky 5" and Disney's 2D Animated movie "Little Hero".

After Panasonic announced the abandonment of the acquisition of MCA this week, the MCA board of directors found various reasons for delaying the offer of Daenerys Entertainment, but some others were a little anxious.

Such as Paramount.

Before Simon contacted Panasonic last week, in order to prevent Paramount from interfering with the acquisition, he temporarily promised to cooperate with each other in two new films and maintain the status quo of USA TV's equity after the MCA acquisition was completed.

The chairman of Paramount obviously saw Simon's scruples, and naturally waited for the price. Not only does it require that the number of cooperative movies be increased to at least three, but it also insists that the investment ratio of the two parties is 37 points, and Daenerys Entertainment can only occupy 30%. At the same time, there are more demands on the USA TV station.

However, when Panasonic suddenly announced its withdrawal and the situation reversed, Paramount was a little eager to reach cooperation.

Amy has investigated that Paramount originally intended to block the acquisition by filing an antitrust lawsuit. However, after Panasonic withdrew, Paramount was probably aware of the general trend, and Paramount was eager to take away the promised benefits of Daenerys Entertainment.

After all, if a lawsuit is filed, Paramount is unlikely to be able to successfully block Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of MCA. Even if it is successfully prevented, Paramount itself will not actually get much benefit, and the relationship between the two parties will deteriorate further.

Simon personally met with Martin Davis in the morning, and also made some concessions. Paramount gave up its claims on USA TV. In terms of film, it still maintains the 50% investment ratio of both parties while increasing the number of cooperative films to three. At the same time, the sequel of the cooperative film is also included.

Through this cooperation, Daenerys Entertainment has also successfully obtained the copyright of the "Mission Impossible" movie that Paramount has been preparing.

So, after several bumps, Simon remembers the two most famous spy film series in Hollywood since the 1990s, "Mission Impossible" and "The Bourne Shadow", all in his hands.

After working non-stop for so long, I finally rested on the weekend.

Moving by the way.

The streamlined shell-shaped building of the Dume Point Manor, modeled on Simon’s memory of the Iron Man villa, has become the focus of many media attention after its initial formation.

With the completion of a silver building larger than Simon’s memory on the cliffs of Cape Du Mui, this building gradually attracted more and more public attention.

Of course, inevitably, it has once again become a proof that many media criticize Simon's extravagant life.

The final completed villa only covers an area of ​​5,000 square meters. The exterior looks like a museum. It is far more luxurious than the Iron Man villa generated by CG in the memory. The silver building spirals upward in a streamlined style, totaling three floors. , If you count the underground garage modeled after Iron Man Studio, the internal space totals more than 12,000 square meters.

Compared with ordinary apartment villas, this shell-shaped building can't even be simply described by the word ‘big’.

If you have to say it, it is very big.

The final construction cost of the villa was also far beyond expectations. Excluding the post-renovation, the main construction cost reached 30 million US dollars.

Janet will naturally not save money on the decoration and furniture in the later period, because he is constantly adding various things, and the final budget may even exceed the construction cost.

Therefore, the seemingly simple decoration in the villa is actually expensive.

The couple originally lived in a villa less than 500 meters west of Cape Dumei Manor. Everything in the Shell Villa is already ready. The so-called moving is just moving some daily clothes and books. It only took half a day to basically Get it done.

I set it back to the evening finely, and initially got all the details, and then settled down.

By the huge glass curtain wall facing the sea, Simon relaxed on the sofa, Janet curled up against the man, and looked at the magnificent sunset seascape outside the curtain wall. The woman whispered: "It's like a dream."

Simon rubbed his face on the woman Xiangxiang's hair, and smiled with his legs folded: "Have you never thought of building such a house before?"

Janet shook her head on Simon's shoulder: "No, even if I want to, I really need to spend so much money to build such a house, unless I sell the stock under my name, but if I do, the old man will definitely jump up. ."

"Isn't it your dowry? Of course you can spend it whatever you want."

"I never thought of looking for a man before. The stocks under my name are my life's living expenses. After spending once, the days after that will be bleak.

"Catherine and I mentioned it," Simon said with a smile on his lips, "Why didn't you want to find a man?"

Janet lifted her head and bumped it lightly on Simon's shoulder, with a delicate tone: "Wait for you."

"Oh, it's such an honor."

"Humph," Janet was smug, but she pulled Simon into her arms, her voice lowered a little, and said: "Actually, she was liked by people very early and very early. Boy. However, I’m probably too smart. Those guys disappointed me so much. They just plan to be alone forever."

"Always alone, very lonely."

"That's why God let me meet you."

"Well, many years later, when we see his old man, we must express our gratitude."

"Haha," Janet touched Simon again, looking at the burning clouds that grew wider outside the curtain wall, and said, "I really want to thank you, otherwise, you might be alone forever."

"I won't. I am so fond of girls. If I didn't meet you, I would definitely become the number one **** in Hollywood."

"Hmm, it's finally revealed, dude..." Janet scratched her little paw dissatisfiedly, and Simon made her wrists, her body suddenly softened, and said, "Little bastard, you are bullying me again."

"Do you like being bullied by me?"

"dislike."

Simon added a little strength: "Change the answer."

"Yes, I like it."