America's Road to Fame

Chapter 330 Netflix's big move
William Chen hurried back to the United States and did not continue his trip in Russia.

The reason for making this choice is naturally that the United States has a major event that needs him to deal with, and this matter is about Netflix.

Previously, after William Chen invested in Netflix, he took advantage of the subprime mortgage crisis to acquire some stocks from Netflix’s shareholding organization. As a result, the total number of Netflix shares he held was about 2545 million, accounting for about Flying 37.6% of the total share capital.

Then, when Netflix wanted to raise funds for self-made content, it bought 25 million preferred shares of Netflix at a price of US$800, so that if these preferred shares are converted into common shares, then the Netflix shares held by Chen William It will reach 3345 million shares, accounting for 44.2% of the total share capital.

At this time, even though William Chen still supports Hastings' management of Netflix, anyone with a discerning eye can see that it must be a matter of time before Netflix is ​​finally merged into the Meta Group.

Because although William Chen gave up his voting rights in the shares he held in Hastings' operation of the company, if Netflix continues to raise funds, it will definitely not bypass William Chen, and it is impossible to dilute his holdings through financing. It is even possible to continue to accept William Chen's investment, thereby increasing his shareholding to an unshakable ratio.

This kind of result, other people can see, Hastings is naturally good, but he still will not give up control of the company easily, but has shown his greater ambition.

Let alone Hastings is a lunatic, he made a proposal to William Chen, hoping to use Netflix to acquire [-]th Century MGM Pictures, so as to complete their content puzzle.

I have to say, this is a crazy proposal, how crazy is it?
After the merger of [-]th Century MGM, it acquired Summit Entertainment, and William Chen resolved all the company's debt problems. In addition, in less than a year, it released a series of blockbuster movies.

In addition, they have the authorization of almost all superheroes of Marvel Entertainment, and superhero movies have proved their potential in "Iron Man" and "Invincible Hulk".

Even MGM, which was previously pulled across, has delivered a perfect answer after being merged into 007th Century MGM Pictures. So far, the global box office of "10: Skyfall" has exceeded 007 billion US dollars. It is the highest-grossing [-] series movie ever!

Therefore, the valuation given by the industry for 200th Century MGM Pictures at this time will not be less than [-] billion US dollars!
Even at $25 per share, Netflix's current market value will be less than $19 billion.

Therefore, the market value of MGM Pictures in the [-]th Century is more than ten times that of Netflix.

That's it, Hastings still said that he hoped that Netflix would acquire MGM Pictures in the [-]th Century. This is how crazy it is, and it is enough to show his confidence in Netflix.

It was for this matter that William Chen put aside his affairs in Russia and rushed back to the United States as soon as possible.

You know, this matter is not just a matter of the merger of the two companies, otherwise it would be nothing more than Chen William's words. After all, [-]th Century MGM Pictures is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Meta Entertainment Media Company, a subsidiary of Meta Group.

But other than that, all aspects that need to be considered are very complicated.

The simplest point is that the emergence of a network streaming platform such as Netflix has given Hollywood a great sense of crisis. Therefore, if MGM Pictures of the [-]th Century is merged into Netflix, then for Hollywood, It can be said that this is equivalent to a new thing - the network broadcast channel, which has begun to eat traditional Hollywood film and television companies.

Of course, this matter was not new in William Chen's past and later lives. After all, Amazon also acquired MGM at that time.

It's just that the backgrounds of the two are different and cannot be compared.

In the era of Amazon’s acquisition of MGM, Netflix has completed its counterattack against Hollywood, from being initially resisted by Hollywood companies to successfully relying on self-made content to turn around. In William Chen’s previous life, in 2019, Netflix produced The film has achieved great results in Oscar nominations and was accepted by the American Film Association, becoming the "seventh largest" film and television giant outside the traditional Hollywood six.

After that, it also announced that the online streaming platform has become an emerging force that cannot be ignored in the American film and television industry. That is, in 2021 after that, Amazon announced the acquisition of MGM.

But even so, this acquisition was also subject to an antitrust investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) on this acquisition.

So it is obvious that if Netflix publicly announces the acquisition of [-]th Century MGM this time, it will definitely be subject to the antitrust investigation by the US Federal Trade Commission, and the level of this investigation will be higher than that of Amazon’s acquisition of MGM. Second, only high not low.

Imagine, why did the "Paramount Act" appear in Hollywood back then?
The "Paramount Act" is the anti-monopoly law of the U.S. Department of Justice for the film industry. In May 1948, the U.S. Supreme Court made a ruling on the "Paramount Case" based on the anti-trust law, ruling that the vertical monopoly of major studios was illegal. Requires studios to give up the business of film distribution and theatrical exhibition.

After this ruling, Paramount Pictures gradually sold its theaters and became a company focusing on distribution and production, and could not own the theater business.Other Hollywood companies also want to divest their theater business. The "Paramount Act" has completely changed the ecology of the Hollywood film industry.

Although calls for the abolition of the "Paramount Act" have been emerging over the years, and in fact, many small film companies are allowed to own theaters, but the main reason for this situation is the rise of the Internet broadcasting industry, which makes people think that Film and television companies only own theaters, and in the current Internet age, it is no longer possible to create a monopoly.

But at the same time, the purpose of the "Paramount Act" at that time was to prevent Hollywood from being controlled by large companies and affect the healthy development of this industry.

So if Netflix, which currently has the largest market share in the global streaming media player industry, acquires MGM Pictures of the [-]th Century, which ranks second only to Disney among the top five Hollywood film companies, it will definitely touch the nerves of relevant departments. This allowed the FTC to focus its antitrust attention on the deal.

At that time, William Chen knew how Microsoft was overwhelmed by the antitrust investigation, so he didn't want his company to suffer like this again.

But then again, the merger of Netflix and [-]th Century MGM was indeed an attractive proposal for him.Although in this way, when he feels that he is threatened, the relationship between [-]th Century MGM Pictures and theatrical distribution will have a lot of twists and turns, but he understands that online broadcasting will eventually become a trend. It can be seen from the market value of Netflix in the past and later.

Therefore, it is very feasible to combine the two and turn the two pieces of the puzzle into a complete system.

And through this merger, William Chen can firmly hold the shares of Netflix, and it is really a good opportunity to include this company that will miraculously rise in the future into the Meta Group.

This is also the reason why William Chen is hesitant. There are challenges as well as opportunities. Is it right to do so?

This time, he couldn't use the experience of his previous life to make a decision, because in his previous life, there was no such exciting merger.

The Airbus A380 landed at the Los Angeles Airport, and William Chen first returned to his villa on the beach in Malibu. When he got here, William Chen put down other things first and came to see Nozomi Sasaki who was waiting to give birth in this villa.

At this time, Nozomi Sasaki was already nearly 4 months pregnant, and her stomach was slightly bulging visible to the naked eye, but after seeing William Chen, she still walked towards him happily like a girl.

Well, at this time, she has subconsciously started to pay attention. If it was before pregnancy, she would definitely trot over and rush into William Chen's arms.

"Xiko, thank you for your hard work."

William Chen grabbed Nozomi Sasaki's hand, kissed her on the lips, and said softly.

"What's so hard about it? My pregnancy reaction is not serious, and my appetite is good. In addition, my mother always finds ways to cook delicious food for me. I am afraid that I will not lose weight after giving birth."

Nozomi Sasaki was very happy to see William Chen, her hands were just holding him, her eyes had already turned into crescent moons:
"But the doctor said everything is normal, and the baby is growing up healthy in my stomach. Whenever I think of this, I feel very happy."

(End of this chapter)