America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM

Chapter 340 338. Acquisition of Warner

"Surpassing Bill Gates, the world's new richest man is born!"

"Breaking news! Facebook successfully went public, with a market value of $153.3 billion on the first day. Eric Cooper's net worth soared, and he was crowned the world's richest man at the age of 25."

"A new miracle of technology stocks, Facebook's listing has driven the entire technology sector up, and the haze of the Internet bubble has been completely cleared."

"An article reviews the history of Facebook's development, how it grew from its birth to the world's third super company!"

"Eric Cooper's road to genius, how was the world's richest man created?"

"From film and television to technology, from the best screenwriter to the world's richest man, this young man It shocked the whole world!"

"Eric Cooper's brilliant idea, why is Facebook so valuable? How much impact has Facebook had on people's lives?"

"The world's richest man is crazy, the biggest acquisition since the new millennium is about to start."

"MGM acquires Warner, the wheel of history repeats itself, the lions will take back their own wealth."

"Eric Cooper said he would acquire Warner Bros. in full, Hollywood fell into turmoil, and the era of industry reshuffle kicked off."

On the second day of Facebook's listing, related news had flown out of the United States and completely occupied the news pages around the world.

And it became a hot topic for people to talk about after dinner for a while.

Whether it is Canada, Europe, South America, Australia or the Middle East in Asia, even backward Africa, people are quite sensitive to the word "the world's richest man".

People like this kind of impactful news. It is no exaggeration to say that for ordinary people around the world, it is more concerned than the US invasion of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Just like a super GG, it instantly triggered discussions among people.

Whether in private or on the Internet, many people who had never heard of Eric's name have also noticed this young man who is changing the world.

"Eric Cooper is actually going to acquire Warner. He is preparing to launch a revenge. I heard that it was Disney and Warner who took the lead in launching the action against MGM."

"It must be revenge, but why not acquire Disney?"

"Disney is too expensive. After all, it still has the strength to compete for the throne."

"Come on, use your brain. It is obviously more difficult for Disney to acquire it. They can even use the poison pill plan to sabotage it."

"But Warner Bros. can't do that. Once Time Warner makes the final decision, it has to sell it."

"If tens of billions of cash are placed in front of me, I will sell it without hesitation. Waiting for Warner Bros. to make tens of billions of copyright resources is impossible in 20 years."

"What's more, even if it is sold, it doesn't matter. Time Warner still has HBO, Time Magazine, CNN, and a lot of high-quality resources."

"If I were the decision maker, I would buy another medium-sized film and television company."

"Although copyrights, equipment, distribution networks and other resources are gone, invisible resources such as connections cannot be lost."

"Even if a new Warner Bros. cannot be created, it will take ten years to build a new one. It shouldn't be difficult to create a New Line or Lionsgate, but can they make tens of billions of dollars in ten years? Don't be ridiculous!"

"Wow! It seems that classic movies such as Tom and Jerry, Gone with the Wind, and Ben-Hur will return to MGM's hands."

"I don't care about the others, but Tom and Jerry should be remade soon. The Warner version is really unbearable. I still miss the hand-painted feeling."

"You're right. Warner's Tom and Jerry is simply ruining the classics. The style of flash animation makes me feel like eating shit. Ugh!"

"That's because it's cheaper to make animation this way. Hand-drawing is too difficult and too inefficient. The development of the times will inevitably abandon that model. Businessmen pursue profits. "

"But Miyazaki has always insisted on hand-drawing, so he has become a world-recognized animation master."

"Yes! But because of this, there is only one Miyazaki in the world, because it is too difficult, and look at Miyazaki's production speed, he can't adapt to the increasingly fast times."

"Just announced that Eric Cooper has arrived at the headquarters of Time Warner."

It has been less than half a month since Eric announced that he would acquire Warner.

During this period, Time Warner made a statement on this, neither saying good nor bad, with an ambiguous attitude.

However, Richard Parsons, the current president of Time Warner, invited him a few days ago, hoping to discuss this matter in detail.

The purpose is self-evident, it must be to test the bottom, after all, you only said that you want to acquire, not how much money you want to spend.

"Please come this way, Mr. Cooper."

Bringing Eric and his party to the 17th floor, just walked out of the elevator, and saw Richard Parsons and his people waiting in the corridor to greet him.

"Eric, long time no see."

"Yes, the last time we met was at a charity gala in Salt Lake City."

"Young people have good memories. Is your father okay?"

"Not bad. He doesn't have much work now and travels with my mother every day."

"An ideal life, this is also my goal in the future."

"It's too early for you, Richard. I think you will have to work hard for at least 30 years."

"Hahaha. Come in."

In the meeting room, both parties sat down and there was no more laughing.

Relationships are relationships, business is business, and everyone is now in opposing positions.

"Eric, we want to hear your attitude on the acquisition of Warner Bros."

Straight to the point, a style Eric likes.

He glanced around at the Time Warner executives present and raised four fingers without any nonsense: "$40 billion, that's the price I'm paying."

"This price tag has far exceeded the value of Warner Bros. You are insiders and you must know better than me."

"What I want to say is that I am sincere in brokering this deal. What is your attitude?"

Hearing the figure of 40 billion US dollars, everyone present was shocked.

Judging from their individual abilities, except for Eric, they would never be able to touch the edge in this life.

Not an astronomical number, but a cosmic number.

But Richard Parsons shook his head slightly: "NO! The price you offered did not meet my psychological expectations."

"Eric, are you paying attention to Warner Bros.'s stock price? It's approaching $30 billion now."

"The price difference of US$10 billion is only a 33% premium. This is not how business is done."

"It is now US$30.5 billion, the market value after the market opened in the morning." A middle-aged woman in blue clothes added next to her.

"$30.5 billion, what does this mean? It means that the stock price is still rising, and it may rise to $35 billion in half a month. You need to bid more carefully, Mr. Cooper."

Hearing this, Judy laughed somewhat mockingly.

"Ma'am, I'm sorry I don't know your name."

"Dana."

"OK, Ms. Dana, your statement is very unscientific and unrealistic."

"We know very well, why did Warner Bros.'s stock price start to skyrocket? It was because Eric proposed an acquisition."

"But this only represents the laws of the market, not the true value of Warner Bros."

"It's like a pig standing on the edge of the wind. It can fly without any effort."

"If we abandon the acquisition, everyone knows that in half an hour the stock price will be back to where it was."

"We have shown a lot of sincerity. If you want to do this deal, you need to show equal sincerity."

Richard Parsons looked at Judy and thought that despite her young age, she was sharp-tongued and daring to speak.

"Judy?"

"Yes, Judy!"

"Judy Newhouse, my love, will also be the future manager of Warner." Eric added.

"Manager of Warner, you seem to be saying that Warner has changed hands."

"No, I just trust you to make the right choice, Richard."

“I don’t need to say how much debt Time Warner Group still carries.”

"Actually, looking at it from another perspective, the listing of Facebook has brought the entire technology landscape to life, and countless companies have benefited from it."

"Even AOL is the same, so you should be grateful to me."

"Accepting this money will be beneficial to both of us. To be honest, I know more about making movies than you do."

This sentence is indeed true. Based on Eric's achievements in bringing MGM out of the quagmire and back to the top, everyone must admit it.

"Eric, we cannot accept the $40 billion price. If you want to take away Warner Bros., you have to pay at least $51 billion."

"And it's cash. This is the result of our internal discussions and the bottom line we can accept."

Hearing this, Eric sighed: "It seems that Time Warner is not sincere. You treat me as a fool."

"I do have money, but I don't like to waste it. It seems that this is the end of it for today."

After saying that, he stood up and prepared to leave.

Seeing this, Richard Parsons was a little speechless, thinking that asking for a high price and paying back the money is not the same when talking about business.

If you just break up the business if you don't agree with me, what's going on?

But he won't keep him, after all, Eric wants to take the initiative to acquire him now, and he's not asking for help himself.

Seeing the other party's indifferent look, Eric knew that he had to use a stick, only carrots didn't work.

"Judy, arrange to cancel the acquisition of Warner Bros., and also re-plan MGM's film schedule this year."

Before Judy could respond, Richard Parsons indeed tried to persuade her to stay.

"Wait, we have to reschedule again. It's been a year. Haven't we played enough games? Vicious competition is not good for anyone. We have all lost 1 billion US dollars."

Eric smiled: "It's not exactly the same as last year, because this time I will launch a precise sniper attack on Warner."

"One billion US dollars is last year's figure. Unless your movie no longer appears on the big screen, the loss will definitely be greater."

"Just because I have more cards, how you dealt with me last year, I will deal with Warner this year."

"Also, these were originally prepared for Disney, but it seems you have to enjoy them first."

"Are you threatening me? Cooper!" Richard Parsons became angry.

Eric shook his head: "I just hope that both parties will show equal sincerity."

The two just looked at each other, and other people in the conference room stared at them blankly.

After a while, Richard Parsons patted the table and softened his voice: "Sit down."

The other side relented, and Eric returned to the negotiating table.

He didn't want to be too disrespectful to others: "Richard, actually US$51 billion is not absolutely unacceptable."

"As long as Time Warner is willing to cooperate, I can pay this money."

Richard Parsons looked at Eric in disbelief: "What do you want to do? How do you need to cooperate?"

"The first is to speed up. I hope to complete the entire acquisition process as quickly as possible."

"Of course, I promise to pay the money as soon as possible, in cash."

"But I heard that many people in Warner Bros. resisted this acquisition. I hope you can manage your people and prevent them from interfering."

Everyone knew who Eric was talking about.

During this period, the group represented by Barry Meyer had expressed their opinions to Time Warner headquarters many times, strongly resisting the transaction.

"Don't worry, we represent the opinions of the board of directors, and no one can stop us!"

"That's the best. Second, I hope to buy New Line's shares as well. Time Warner still has 28% of New Line's shares."

Richard Parsons understood what Eric was thinking.

This is to buy New Line's shares as a bonus, which is equivalent to buying a big one and giving a small one away.

If he also makes a public acquisition, the share price of New Line will also rise, and that will be a different price.

"Eric, this is not part of our deal, and New Line is very valuable now, don't you know?"

"The Lord of the Rings trilogy is so successful that it is the world's number one magical epic movie."

"I know, but then what? In addition to The Lord of the Rings and several horror film IPs, does New Line have other valuable things?"

"Richard, let's be frank. Although you hold the largest share of New Line, you do not have the right to operate it."

"If you are lucky and release the Lord of the Rings, you will make money, but what if you are unlucky?"

"Anyway, Warner Bros. has decided to sell it to me, so why not package it and send away the film and television production."

"Otherwise, what's the point of keeping New Line's shares? You can't participate in production management?"

"Do you want to find a new home for Barry Meyer? Although Bob Meyer also has the last name of Meyer, I'm afraid he won't accept it."

Richard Parsons looked at Eric with a smile: "But if you count New Line, your price is not enough, young man."

In fact, Time Warner has certainly discussed New Line's business.

As Eric said, without Warner Bros., New Line's value will be greatly reduced.

Although the two are independent, they are actually closely connected.

"I haven't finished yet." Eric interrupted him.

"I want New Line's shares, but the DC comics business will be left to you to avoid problems during antitrust investigations."

"I only want the copyrights of existing DC characters other than comics publishing, including film, television, animation, TV series, and peripheral derivatives."

"Even if DC creates new characters in the future, they will still belong to you."

"If you calculate it this way, one plus one minus, in exchange for $51 billion, no one will lose in this deal."