Hollywood Hunter

Strictly speaking, compared to Miramax, which has not yet risen, Orion Pictures poses a greater threat to Gaomen Films in the field of literary films. This company produced "Mozart" and "Field Platoon" in the 1980s. 》And many other outstanding literary films that won Oscar awards.

Without the appearance of the big butterfly Simon, projects such as "Dancing with Wolves" and "The Silent Lamb" would also be produced by Orion.

The main reason why Simon did not target Orion is that although this company is declining, it has very deep back-end support.

In the 1980s, Viacom’s Sam Redstone and media tycoon John Kruger also set off an equity war to fight for Orion. In the past few years, the two media tycoons realized that Orion was dying, and they found Canada. The Seagram Group is a strong taker.

Daenerys Entertainment can easily kill the new line and Miramax, but it is impossible to destroy Orion Pictures, which has three shares of Viacom, John Kruger and Seagram Group.

However, the little Orion can't satisfy the appetite of the Bronfman family who has been interested in entering the entertainment industry behind the scenes of the Seagram Group.

After the merger of Time Warner, Seagram tried to absorb Time Warner's stock during the period when the group's debt was high and the stock price was low in 1991. However, it was rejected by the powerful Steve Rose without further launching the tender offer.

During Daenerys Entertainment's merger with MCA, Seagram Group also expressed its willingness to compete.

After considering the strengths of both parties, Seagram once again voluntarily gave up.

Now, Time Warner’s operating conditions continue to recover. MCA has become Daenerys Entertainment’s purse, Columbia is in the hands of Sony, 20th Century Fox is under News Corporation, MGM is also controlled by Australian capital, and Disney’s business is in good shape. The stock price is too high to be acquired.

As a result, the acquisition target that Hollywood left for the Seagram Group was actually only Paramount.

In other words, unless a hostile takeover is initiated to Disney at a very high price, Paramount is the only suitable acquisition target for all other capital forces coveting Hollywood studios.

Paramount was only one of the subsidiaries of Gulf Western Industries in its early days.

In the 1980s, with the recovery of the entertainment industry and the outstanding leadership of Barry Diller, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Katzenberg, Paramount grew rapidly, from the late 1970s to the 1980s In the first few years before and after the beginning of the year, he produced "Grease", "The Officer and the Gentleman" and "Indiana Jones" and other annual box office champion-level hits.

Gulf Western Industrial Corporation has gradually sold off its energy, food and other businesses, and has tilted more and more resources into the media field.

The turning point of the matter occurred in 1983, when Charles Brudan, the former chairman of Gulf West, died unexpectedly from a heart attack, and Martin Davis became the new chairman. Compared with Charles Bludan’s decentralized attitude, Martin Davis cannot tolerate Paramount’s Barry Diller and other three principals who are more famous than himself. They have been squeezed out of the company one after another, thus serving Paramount. The decline of Mongolia has planted the bane.

In recent years, Gulf West has long been reorganized into Paramount Communications Group, and the company has been involved in multiple fields such as film, television, music, theaters, and publishing.

However, compared to the brilliance of the early 1980s, Paramount's leading film business has gradually declined after the third installment of Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones" series.

In the previous fiscal year, Paramount’s revenue was US$4.3 billion and the group’s net profit was only US$260 million.

As a listed company, Paramount Communications, which has a total equity of 120 million, has recently maintained its stock price at around 39 US dollars, a market value of 4.7 billion US dollars, and a price-earnings ratio of only 18 times.

As the US stock market has generally begun to recover, a price-earnings ratio of 18 times is obviously also a suitable acquisition target.

Compared with the sluggish market value, Paramount's corporate net assets are more than 7 billion U.S. dollars. Even if they are bought and sold, they can make a fortune.

In fact, Wall Street corporate snipers Carl Icahn and Ron Perelman tried to do this in the past few years. If it weren’t for the large-scale federal investigation into insider trading triggered by the fall of Michael Milken, the two People almost succeed.

As for Seagram, the company started in the era of Prohibition in the United States.

At that time, Americans wanted to drink alcohol only through smuggling, but Canada couldn't help drinking at that time, so it made a lot of profits from the alcohol smuggling industry chain.

The real rise of Seagram began in 1981, when Seagram Group invested heavily in ConocoPhillips in the United States. Subsequently, ConocoPhillips was acquired by DuPont. Through a share swap, Seagram Group became the owner of DuPont. The largest shareholder with a 24.3% shareholding ratio.

The DuPont Group has grown rapidly over the years, and the shares held by Seagram have become more valuable.

However, the two sides basically look at each other and hate each other.

Edgar Bronfman Jr., who took over the Seagram Group from his father, wanted to get involved in the entertainment industry. DuPont didn’t want such a major shareholder to restrict its development. Over the years, the two sides have been discussing this group. Equity transactions.

Now, as long as Seagram Group initiates the acquisition of Hollywood Media, it is basically the time to sell this batch of shares.

The media’s valuation of the 24.3% DuPont holdings of Seagram Group is generally between US$8 billion and US$9 billion. Such a huge sum of money wants to annex Paramount Communications, which has a recent market value of only US$3.9 billion. Obviously more than enough.

Since Hollywood has only the last best acquisition target left, apart from Seagram Group, other capitals will certainly not remain indifferent.

Barry Diller, who helped Murdoch found the Fox Television Network and integrated the 20th Century Fox Pictures, left News Corporation last year and founded QVC Media, supported by the two major cable television giants Comcast and Telecom. Although there hasn't been any news yet, Simon is very clear that if possible, Barry Diller will not give up the idea of ​​acquiring Paramount Communications.

In the past, Barry Diller lost to Sam Redstone.

This time, in the face of Seagram, who has the same strong financial strength, Barry Diller’s chances of winning are equally small, because the two cable TV operators, Comcast and Telecom, are unlikely to draw large sums of money to support Diller’s competition purchase.

As for Viacom, Sam Redstone will probably also be interested in Paramount this time.

Unfortunately, Viacom Group cannot have such strength.

In the original time and space, Sam Redstone’s family capital once participated in the investment in Blockbuster, so in the process of merging Paramount Communications, Viacom first swallowed blockbuster with abundant cash flow through equity mergers and acquisitions. The company finally completed the acquisition of Paramount by using Blockbuster’s cash and stock exchange method.

Now, Blockbuster is one of the important subsidiaries of Daenerys Entertainment, and it is impossible to provide funds for Redstone.

Viacom Group is not as good as the original time and space. In 1992, Viacom Group’s revenue was only 1.9 billion US dollars, net profit was 56 million US dollars, and the current market value was 2.9 billion US dollars. The development prospects of cable TV channels such as MTV and Showtime under the company are promising. The market value of 2.9 billion US dollars already means a 51 times price-earnings ratio.

In Simon's memory, AOL's merger with Time Warner, which had a price-earnings ratio of hundreds of times, was a miracle.

Now, Viacom, which has a high valuation but a low market value, wants to eat Paramount Communications, which has a large net worth and low stock price. Of course, it is not impossible to exchange shares, but if someone proposes a cash acquisition, it is not too stupid Shareholders know how to choose.

Without Blockbuster Viacom, it would not be able to take out much cash at all.

The potential opponent is the Seagram Group, which can cash out more than US$8 billion in cash at any time. The outcome is self-evident.

Although Seagram Group only tentatively contacted Paramount Communications, Simon got the news immediately. He was also very concerned about this matter and tended to be able to acquire Paramount Group by Seagram Group. .

The current US media industry regulations have not lifted the restrictions on foreign investors from owning domestic television stations in the United States. At the beginning, Rupert Murdoch had to change his nationality in order to develop the Fox Television Network in the United States. Once Seagram acquires Paramount Communications, it must divest its own TV station assets.

In fact, it was once that MCA and Paramount jointly owned the USA television network, which currently belongs to Daenerys Entertainment and Paramount Communications.

Moreover, from the historical results of Seagram taking over MCA, it is obvious that Edgar Bronfman Jr. did not have much talent in the management of the media group. Paramount’s strength has been declining in recent years, Simon I am very happy that Bronfman will continue to toss for a few years and continue to consume the vitality of this big studio, so as to achieve the effect that Simon has been secretly promoting one and the other.

Hollywood, in fact, it is enough to own two or three large media groups.

More than two decades later in my memory, Hollywood has actually tended to the "ideal state" planned by Simon. Disney, Time Warner, and NBC Universal, backed by Comcast, are in a tripartite position, especially after Disney acquired Fox. The state is more obvious.

It is said that there are still the top five, the declining Paramount and the sluggish Sony, basically do not have much sense of existence.

This time, Simon hopes to basically complete this situation in the 1990s, and even go further, the appearance of the three pillars, in fact, should be Daenerys Entertainment's dominance.

Malibu, Daenerys Studios.

The time is Wednesday, June 2.

In the previous weekend, the two new films "Super Mario Bros." and "Fairy Tale Ending" that were released last Friday had poor results.

The US$48 million "Super Mario Bros." had a box office of only US$8.53 million in the first three days of the first weekend. As one of Disney's blockbusters in this summer file, this dud directly caused Disney's share price to fall by 3.6% on Monday.

"Fairy Tale Ending", which tells the follow-up story of Snow White, was tossed by Disney through copyright litigation for three years. After the release, there was no splash. Only $1.75 million was collected in the first weekend and three days. Obviously, there will be no follow-up. , Basically will leave North American theaters completely after two weeks.

The dismal results of the two new films will undoubtedly free up more potential market space for "Superman" released on June 4.

The upcoming June 4th, "Superman" can be described as a dominance. Only this movie will be released this Friday. Warner Bros. Pictures, which is in charge of the film distribution, will present this superhero movie tonight at the Chinese Theater in Hollywood. Hold a grand premiere.

Simon dines with Nancy Brill and Robert Shea and the Weinstein brothers who have just confirmed joining Blockbuster Entertainment at noon.

The lunch time was originally reserved for female assistants. After four months of pregnancy, the female assistants have begun to show their feelings. Recently, they quietly moved to the mountain villa in Woodside, San Francisco. Jennifer's mother, Carol Rebold, also specially After quitting his job and rushing to the West Coast to take care of him personally, Simon's recent flight to San Francisco has naturally begun to increase, at least two or three times a week.

After the auction was completed at the end of May, the new line company was officially dissolved.

Blockbuster eventually bought the most important film library assets of Xinxian for $68 million, and quietly took over part of the team including Xinxian's chairman and CEO Robert Shea.

Although Daenerys Entertainment was targeted by Daenerys Entertainment during the release of "New Hell Street", Robert Shea finally decided to join Blockbuster with the lobbying of Nancy Brill. The filmmaker only has At 54 years old, it is far from the age of retirement. The new line is bankrupt. In fact, Shay does not have much capital to retire early and can only continue to work in this circle.

The living conditions of Hollywood second- and third-tier film companies are getting more and more difficult. Even if you are used to being a boss, it is difficult for Shay to start from scratch. Joining Blockbuster with a strong background is actually the best choice.

The Weinstein brothers are actually even more so.

Even for Blockbuster's solicitation, the three were quite surprised.

After all, this powerful videotape chain company, backed by Daenerys Entertainment, has more and better choices. The three of them can only be regarded as losers in Hollywood.

Therefore, in front of Simon, even if Robert Shay, who had some disagreements on both sides, behaved very submissively, the Weinstein brothers did not have any rudeness and strength in Simon's memory, so a lunch can be described as a good time for the host and the host.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, the lunch was over, and the three of them left temporarily. Nancy Brill continued to sit in the small high-level dining room at Simon and asked, "What do you think of them?"

Simon shrugged: "I only talk about grades."

Simon is actually very clear about the three of them, especially the Weinstein brothers. Simon is already considering adding some restrictions to the brothers to avoid the outbreak of the Hollywood **** scandal. In fact, as long as the brothers can always work in the Daenerys entertainment system, the probability of that incident is very low.

As for privately, Hollywood has a lot of people like Weinstein. Simon also has no ethics and cleanliness, or that he is a hunter himself, as long as there is no trouble, it does not matter.