Reborn Tech Maniac

Chapter 933 Tang Daheng's Miracle to Hollywood
……

There are two major obstacles to the marriage between AOL and Time Warner Turner.

Internally, the management of both sides need to coordinate how to distribute power.

Regardless of the fact that AOL’s market capitalization ranks [-]th on the ranking list, this does not mean that it has a background in the media field, surpassing Time Warner Turner—this is why their marriage is "merged" into "AOL Time Warner Turner", Rather than "acquisition" as "AOL" or "Time Warner Turner" is a big reason.

In fact, Time Group's first major expansion in the late 1980s—the marriage with Warner Media—had problems such as how to distribute power.

At the beginning, Time Group planned to acquire Warner Media, but Paramount came out midway and wanted to compete for Warner Media. As a result, Time Group had to raise its offer, and the connected company structure and power distribution were also changed from " "Acquisition" is tilted in the direction of "merger".

The final compromise was that Steve Ross from WarnerMedia and Richard Munro from Time Group became the co-CEOs of the new Time Warner Group.

However, this state did not last long, and was broken by the generation of mall tycoon Steve Ross who quickly gained the upper hand-he successfully squeezed out Richard Munro and monopolized the power of Time Warner Group, which is equivalent to Warner Controlled the times.

If it wasn't for Steve Ross's "untimely death" at the age of 1992 due to cancer in 65, it wouldn't be the turn of the original Time Group like the current CEO of Time Warner Turner, Gerald Levine A school of superiors.

Afterwards, in the 1990s, Time Warner made its second major expansion—a marriage with Turner Broadcasting.

With the support of the richest man, Ted Turner, who had many conflicts with Rupert Murdoch, sniped each other's expansion in the US cable television field in the mid-1980s—from the original time and space of "Fox News Network" As a result, it can be seen how much nutrition Turner Broadcasting Corporation, especially its flagship media—CNN, has plundered and how strong it has grown.

Under such circumstances, it is not difficult to imagine that the process of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting Corporation merging into Time Warner-Turner Group is also full of power distribution games.

Generally speaking, Ted Turner, who became the largest individual shareholder of the Time Warner Turner Group, and Tang Huan, who followed in, showed a more moderate attitude in exchange for more "real" power—for example, Gerald— Levine, the CEO, certainly holds great power, but in such a huge group, the power of the vice president cannot be underestimated; when Time Warner Turner and AOL merged, they could be transferred directly to From AOL's Steve Case's Helper.

Another major obstacle is that from an external point of view, review agencies, including the Federal Trade Commission, cannot be stuck with the marriage of AOL and Time Warner-Turner in the process of industry monopoly assessment.

Fortunately, there is no need for Time Warner Turner, who currently has more than 4000 million users and a market value of nearly 1600 billion U.S. dollars, to work hard. Time Warner Turner, who wants to enter the digital media wholeheartedly, can't wait to "marry" himself, and takes the initiative to go to public relations. up.

It can be said that the marriage between AOL and Time Warner Turner has no big problem after passing the government review. It is just that the time is a little earlier and a little later - AOL can just sit back and enjoy the profits while waiting to "marry a wife".

But Tang Huan knows too well how mysterious this "slightly later" is—you know, a large part of AOL's current market value of nearly 1600 billion US dollars is the Internet bubble, so we must make the most of this once-in-a-lifetime, Internet valuation far exceeds the "good market" of traditional industries to fully digest the marriage with Time Warner Turner.

The richest man has supported AOL from scratch for more than ten years. Is it just to make money from going public?
Of course this is not the case—AOL and Turner Broadcasting Corporation joined hands to perfectly harvest traditional media power, which is the ultimate goal.

And now at this closing stage, the "time difference" is becoming more and more important-just imagine, if AOL starts this year, and Turner Broadcasting Company, which has successfully "lurked" in, joins hands to digest Time Warner Turner , Then when the current economic cycle of the United States goes down, and the essence of "external power but incompetence" is exposed, is it possible for "divorce" to happen?
For this "time difference", the richest man has done a lot of secret activities - for example, the development of America Online is far more successful than it was in the original time and space.

And now, there is another opportunity to advance, that is, House of Cards, the AOL personal website service that has made many American politicians "zip" the scandal, can also be used as a bargaining chip for benefit exchange after completing its historical mission—— Counting birds with one stone like this, probably only the scheming richest man can do it!

……

Barack O's eight-yard errands are very efficient - the richest man saw that he had an affirmative answer, so he brought him to the America Online headquarters in Rockefeller Center, New York, and had a face-to-face meeting with Steve Case communication.

Tang Huan, the "mediator" in the middle, is actually a "performer"-Steve Case, who has long been aware of it, and Barack O's eight yards for a long time, only to allow the other party to bring the harvest as he wished Leaving with the joy of a great achievement.

Seeing the big boss shaking hands with Barack Obama and saying goodbye, he patted the other person's shoulder sincerely and encouraged him a few words. Steve Case joked: "It seems that this Obama State Senator, and very much admired.”

"Time! Luck!" Mr. Richest Man smiled playfully.

Steve Case tasted something else in his words, so he asked tentatively: "You mean, the negotiations between AOL and Time Warner Turner can no longer be delayed, and then with a higher market value, Come to make chips?"

"Emphasis on this point over and over again will easily lead to boredom and even reveal the truth." The richest man nodded slightly, "Isn't it already basically finalized, the shareholders of AOL, who own the new AOL Time Warner Turner has 55% of the shares."

Steve Case understands the ultimate meaning of this marriage, "Time Warner Turner is eager to embrace the digital media revolution, and AOL is eager to turn its high market value into tangible assets".

So, he immediately suggested knowingly: "Since you have come, it's just right, let's hold a meeting of the highest level together."

……

The headquarters of America Online and Time Warner Turner are both in Rockefeller Center - it is naturally very easy for the executives of both parties to get together.

During this interval, the richest man visited the Top of the Rock, the viewing platform of Rockefeller Center.

This place has been renovated and is open to the public again - although it is surpassed in height by the Empire State Building and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center, the cruise ship scenery launched by the movie "Titanic" caused the "big ship craze". It attracted a large number of enthusiastic tourists and left a lot of praise.

Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric, who accompanied Tang Huan overlooking New York, said in admiration: "The masterpiece of "Titanic" is simply a miracle."

If the tens of millions of dollars in publicity expenses are included, the investment in the "Titanic" project has exceeded 2 million U.S. dollars.

After its full release in June last year, although it was not as explosive as "Jurassic Park: The Lost World", which took a record first weekend box office of more than 7200 million U.S. dollars, it has a long stamina-about 3 A month later, it became the first movie in history to break through $10 billion at the box office, and in the following time, it broke through $11 billion, $12 billion, $13 billion, $14 billion... until now $21 billion.

Among them, North America contributed almost US$7 million in box office; and with the help of the rich man's clever planning to avoid the impact of the Asian financial crisis, the overseas box office was almost double this figure.

Up to now, "Titanic" has been in theaters in North America for almost 10 months, and until now it can still sit at the top of the weekend box office list, even on February 2 not long ago. In one day, he made $14 million.

One of the reasons why the box office of "Titanic" is so strong is that under the promotion effect including traditional word of mouth and Internet viral spread, the audience of the movie is extremely large, and many people have watched it more than once. Especially those American girls who were deeply moved by the movie love story, went to the movie theater many times, so that Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the leading actor Jack, became a phenomenon-level heartthrob, even more than 200 Fans went to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to express their protest for not being nominated for Best Actor in the 70th Academy Awards.

This phenomenon reflects the essence of "Titanic" that can amaze business leaders like Jack Welch-not only attracting a lot of money, but also crazily attracting fans, reaching a prestige aura that can dazzle people's eyes.

Take China as an example, the government is trying to cool down the excessive popularity of "Titanic", while big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou are reluctantly organizing vigorous "farewell screening" activities.

The richest man has also used the movie "Titanic" to develop many peripheral things, such as the new version of the Rockefeller Center viewing platform Top of the Rock, as well as the aircraft carrier resort hotel, etc., and he has also actively contributed to the IT industry. .

Twentieth Century Fox has confirmed that it will release "Titanic" DVD by the end of this year, and optimistically set sales at 100 million copies.

You know, at this stage, the proportion of American households with DVD players is about 5% - since the "Titanic" movie is so popular, then the "Titanic" DVD will definitely promote the use of DVD in the field of digital media. further development and growth.

It can be said that under the operation of Mr. Richest Man, "Titanic" not only created a miracle for Hollywood - Jack Welch had to obey the brilliant vision and skill that could make the business so far.

After hearing the compliment from the CEO of General Electric, Tang Huan smiled self-deprecatingly, "I'm afraid that in the coming time, I will have to come to the top of the Rock to have a blast."

Jack Welch laughed knowingly, "You mean being troubled by Zheru Software's antitrust lawsuit in the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia?"

Although there is competition between Fangyuan Company and General Electric in the medical equipment business, and between Zheru Software Company and General Electric in terms of market capitalization, etc., they all belong to the level of harmless games between strong players, and Tang Huan never He refrained from learning from General Electric's example, including establishing his own business school and cultivating managers who fit his own corporate culture.

Therefore, Tang Huan maintained a good relationship with Jack Welch, known as "Neutron Jack", and General Electric.

So he didn't hide his feelings, and admitted frankly: "Isn't this annoying enough?"

"I think Zheru Software's coping strategy is quite right." Jack Welch said meaningfully: "We can indeed learn from some successful disposal experience from IBM back then."

……

After relaxing on the top of the Rock, Mr. Richest Man immediately attended the joint meeting of AOL and Time Warner Turner.

On such an occasion, Steve Case did not hide his words and directly claimed credit: "AOL will stop serving the House of Cards website on the grounds of infringing the copyright of [-]th Century Fox. In exchange for The Federal Trade Commission, Federal Communications Commission and other review agencies evaluate the efficiency of industry monopoly."

From the marriage of Time Group and Warner Media, to the marriage of Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting Company, and now to the marriage of Time Warner Turner and America Online, the current CEO of Time Warner Turner who has always played an active role in promoting— —Gerald Levine waved his hand excitedly, "In this case, we only need to handle the things within our own scope well."

Tang Huan glanced at Time Warner Turner's largest individual shareholder, Ted Turner, and then slowly confirmed: "AOL owns 55% of future AOL Time Warner Turner shares, and everyone has no objection. right?"

After looking around at the group of people on his side, Gerald Levine said with confidence: "We have agreed on this—after the merger of the two companies according to this principle, a company worth more than 3000 billion U.S. dollars and spanning An empire of media, entertainment, the internet, it's in everyone's interest."

(End of this chapter)