Exploiting Hollywood 1980

"This is the buying situation that has been statistically analyzed."

The company's financial department has used some methods to list the brokerage companies that have been buying Coca-Cola stocks in a scattered and continuous manner over the past period of time.

"This is a premeditated action. You see, the fixed amount of buying every day keeps the trading volume slightly higher than that of the past year, reducing costs while not attracting the attention of the market. Once they exceed 5%, they must disclose it to the Securities and Exchange Commission. At this time, they will join other small shareholders and propose to replace the board seats at the annual shareholders' meeting." Donald Keogh's fighting spirit was aroused by this behavior.

"In fact, they have already broken through 5%. In addition to these relatively consistent purchases, which have accumulated to more than 4.5%, they also have several other hidden purchases. I suspect that they are from the same company as this acquirer.

Look at these accounts. They are very similar to the buying style of this major stock brokerage seat. Since the beginning of the year, they have bought 0.2% of the stock in two batches. Recently, they have been more cautious, buying no more than two million US dollars worth of stocks every day. If we are careless, they can launch a surprise attack."

The person in the financial department pointed out that the other party might propose to hold a special shareholders' meeting based on the number of shares held, combined with a part of the S\u0026P 500 fund that currently holds Coca-Cola, and then the management might be caught off guard.

"Sergio, what do you think?" When everyone was expressing their opinions, President Donald Keogh found that the marketing director Sergio Seaman, who had returned from Ronald, was thinking while holding the stock purchase record.

Sergio Seaman was originally a strong contender for the successor president. The Diet Coke he promoted during his tenure was a huge success. After Coke fell into a trough in the 1970s, it beat Pepsi in the market segment for the first time.

But the subsequent failure of New Coke in the southern market kept him away from the successor echelon. However, in some ways, this also made President Keogh more trustful of his opinions.

"Have you noticed that these stocks were not purchased by Wall Street stock brokerage companies."

"Huh?"

After being reminded, everyone looked at the table. Sure enough, there were only the first two suspected purchases of 20 million US dollars each, which were purchased from Wall Street brokerage seats. After that, they were all purchased from the Midwest and West Coast company seats. Among them, Charles Schwab Financial was particularly popular.

"Midwest and West Coast, damn, they can't be my old friends?"

President Donald Keogh cursed and went to the inner room to make a phone call.

"Warren, this is Donald. Hello, is that you? Are you buying Coca-Cola?" Keough didn't beat around the bush with the boss of Berkshire Hathaway, and directly asked his old friend about the stock purchase.

There was silence on the other end of the phone for a while, and Warren Buffett replied, "Coincidentally, I am buying. But I would be very grateful if you could keep silent before I make a statement on your holdings."

"You still want to buy?" Keough was surprised. Was he going to buy 10% of the shares and then launch a special shareholders meeting alone?

Buffett meant that if the news of his purchase of Coca-Cola shares leaked out, other investors would flock in and eventually push up the stock price, and Berkshire's purchase target might not be achieved.

"Yes, I have been following your stocks for several years. At the Berkshire shareholders' meeting in the millennium, I used cherry-flavored Coca-Cola as a beverage. I like your style of doing things.

I also think your business is very good. As a shareholder, I will continue to respect and support the efforts of your management team. After all, management ability is also the most important aspect of a company's operating ability."

"If you join the board of directors, will you promise not to interfere with the operation of our management team? Coca-Cola has been defeated by a bad management team. I don't want me and Robert (Goinzueta, Keo's boss)..."

"This is exactly why I want to buy. You have increased the profit margin from less than 8% when you took over to 17% last year... I also appreciate your new strategy for the bottling plant..."

"Okay, okay", Keo completely believed Warren Buffett's words. When he bought a stake in the Washington Post before, he also kept his promise and never interfered with the operation of his boss, Mrs. Graham. "But Warren, don't do it too much..." Keo is still very welcome to have such a strategic investor who supports his team, and the alarm is lifted.

"I plan to buy a little more than 5%. After reporting to the Securities and Exchange Commission, I will see the market price..." Buffett is very optimistic about this stock this time. He plans to exchange one-third of the company's total assets for Coca-Cola, betting on this once-in-a-decade opportunity.

"What do you mean by buying a little more than 5%? Didn't you make those hidden investments in New York and Los Angeles?"

"Los Angeles? No, my purchases were all made by Midwestern brokerage seats around Omaha. I don't want you to misunderstand. But someone actually thought of the same thing as me? This is very interesting. After you find out who it is, I would like to meet him."

"He only bought about 0.6%. I think he may be an individual investor. That's it. See you at the shareholders' meeting."

"It's Warren. We don't have to worry too much. He has a good reputation and everyone knows he is a passive investor." After President Keo came out, he said to the others waiting outside the door, "But he denied that the other buyer was him. Who do you think it was?"

"It's probably a discerning individual investor. Those public funds that focus on the Standard 500 components are not of this style, and they didn't say hello to us. Do you know which rich people are buying? The Middle East or Japan?" The financial director breathed a sigh of relief. Fortunately, it was Buffett. If those tycoons who used Wall Street's junk bonds and leveraged hostile takeovers came, they would face a tough battle. Even if they won, Coca-Cola's development strategy would be affected.

Marketing director Sergio Siman suddenly remembered something and said, "Interesting, I just heard a movie director say that he bought a lot of our stocks before. But I didn't take it seriously. A young director wouldn't be so rich, right?"

"Ask the people at Columbia Pictures how much the director earns? What's the name of your director?"

...

"Cut! I need some passion here, Julia, passion!"

On the set of Steel Magnolias, director Herbert Ross has restrained himself a lot. However, he will still severely point out the actors' performances that do not meet his performance requirements, but he no longer accuses Julia Roberts and Dolly Parton of not being able to act.

"Herbert has not been normal since his wife Nora passed away." Shirley MacLaine is relatively familiar with him and is also very disgusted with Ross's behavior. Among these actors, only she has seniority and is not afraid of the bad temper of these directors with super egos.

With the support of Ronald, she formed the Oscar Club (a gang of actors who have won the little golden man) with Sally Fields, Olympia Dukakis and others. Discussing the director's bad temper and how to perform well under such circumstances.

"His fiancée will come to visit the set soon, and I hope his temper will be better by then." Ronald also participated in the discussion, "I'm leaving soon, so please take care of this place. If Diane, hi, and Julia are attacked by others, you can fight back. I'm not worried about Dolly."

"She's very depressed," said Sally Field. Dolly Parton originally came for Ronald's invitation. She really can't act, and they are not as experienced as the three of them, who know what the director needs.

"Don't worry, your little sweetheart, we will take care of you." Shirley MacLaine laughed. She patted Ronald on the shoulder.

"And you, my big sweethearts... take care of yourselves, and call my assistant if you have anything..." Ronald smiled and hugged the three Oscar winners one by one.

"Has your cousin asked you to go to the platform now?" While hugging Dukakis, Ronald quietly asked her about the situation.

"Thanks to the moonlight, I have a lot of film offers now, and I don't have to support Michael to make money." Olympia now cares more about her acting career than politics. She supported her cousin at the Oscars, just because she was in a good mood at the time.

"What about you? Will you support my cousin?" Olympia Dukakis asked Ronald. They have the closest relationship and can chat about political tendencies half-jokingly.

"To be honest, I don't care much. At this stage, I support the Elephant Party more, hoping to get tax benefits. I am more concerned about the New York mayoral election next year. The security outside my apartment is not very good now. I hope the new mayor can solve it."

"I am preparing to buy a house now. The tuition fees of several children have been paid. I don't know where to find cheap houses in Lower Manhattan now."

"I dare not buy cheap ones now, and the ones with good security are not cheap, and it is getting harder and harder to rent apartments with rent control. My cousin can't find a suitable one."

The two New Yorkers complained. Ronald said goodbye to the crew and prepared to go back.

"Mr. Li...", the marketing director of Coca-Cola is back again.

"Why are you back?" Ronald was surprised.

"I was entrusted by the company's board of directors to find out the situation from you. Last time you said you bought a lot of our company's shares. If it's convenient, can you tell me the specific amount? I know this is private. I came here entirely because of the upcoming shareholders' meeting. We are very likely to reorganize the board of directors.

Of course, if you don't want to say it for privacy reasons, it doesn't matter. As long as it doesn't exceed 1%, we fully understand that some shareholders want to keep a low profile."

"Hey, where do I have so much? It's probably just over half of 1%, 0.6%." Ronald felt that such a company with a market value of more than 10 billion would probably not care about a small shareholder like him.

"Welcome, Mr. Shareholder. I will only convey this news to our board members, please rest assured." Sergio Seaman thought to himself that the people at Columbia Pictures underestimated the income of the person in front of him.

When Sergio told him that Warren Buffett was also buying, Ronald couldn't help but laugh. It seemed that his choice was very good and was recognized by one of the most powerful investors now.

"I know him, his son Peter, worked on my film. How much did he buy?"

"All I can say is that it's in the company's annual report."

"Oh...", Ronald was very happy. Buffett bought at least ten times his own stocks, and it was a heavy position. It seems that this time he bought casually and hit the same stocks as the professional investment master. He should continue to buy with his own money in the future.

Sergio Siman also understood clearly that Ronald only bought stocks for investment and the mentality of buying blue-chip stocks. This kind of investor is easier to deal with than Buffett. Unlike Warren, they have requirements for business operations. If the management ability deteriorates in the future, he will leave without hesitation.

Investors like Ronald don't know much about company operations. Such shareholders don't put much pressure on operators. Anyway, most of them are just sitting there to eat dividends, and few people really understand what management is.

The parties involved are all gentlemen, and the stock price of Coke has not fluctuated. In this way, Buffett continued to buy, and Ronald only regretted that his next dividend had not arrived. When the news spread, he would definitely not be able to buy such cheap stocks.

Ronald then came to New York, where he continued to discuss the romantic film with Rob Reiner and Nora Ephron.

The negotiations of the Writers Guild are now in a mess. The board of directors of the union has begun to no longer trust the negotiating representatives. Many members are secretly colluding, hoping to initiate a vote to force the union to agree to the conditions and end the strike.

Other backbones of the union began to fire at the seven major studios and the three major public television stations, accepting media interviews, condemning the largest employers of these screenwriters, having no sympathy for the miserable situation of the screenwriters, and only thinking about their own interests.

In this way, Nora Ephron could not openly hire other screenwriters to revise the script together. She could only slowly try to change the ending to a happy ending according to Ronald's requirements.

"If the ending is to be changed, I don't know how to direct it..." Rob Reiner pouted at the three people's quiet gathering, holding the first draft revised by Nora.

"What's so difficult about this? The audience likes this kind of ending, and why can't Harry and Sally be together? Isn't this the case for many people, who end up together with the person they were at the beginning after many twists and turns?"

"The change in this character is wrong, and it will damage the rhythm of the previous story. I don't have to insist on not filming a happy ending, but such a turn will be strange to the audience, and it may not be good for the box office." Rob Reiner insisted on his opinion.

"Let's think about it..." Ronald knew that what Reiner said was not unreasonable from the perspective of drama theory. But a romantic drama doesn't have to win an Oscar, right? A little flaw in the plot does not affect the audience's enjoyment.

These filmmakers here in New York have this problem. Although their egos are not as big as those in Hollywood, they are easier to communicate with. But at the same time, they also have their own ideas. If you don't find reasons that they agree with, don't even think about changing their own opinions.

This is a common problem among New York artists. Five people have six different opinions on a play. One person would say, "If Woody Allen were to film it, it would be like this. If John Cassavetes were to film it, it would be another way."

"What do you think?" Ronald had to ask Nora Ephron, who was silent beside him.

"I don't know. Sometimes I think Rob is right, and sometimes I think Ronald is right."

This is the first time Nora Ephron has met a director like Ronald who considers the plot of the movie and tries to keep it simple. His theory is very simple. The audience has regrets in their love life. They come to the cinema to make up for their regrets on the screen.

"I want to advance a sum of production costs. I will interview real couples in life. We all say that their princess and prince live happily together in the future. Why not see how many couples are happily together in the real world. This can also confirm whether a couple like Harry and Sally can't be together?"

"Your idea is very good. How much money do you want? I will advance it to you." Ronald agreed as soon as he heard it. These artists don't understand statistics. If you find a couple who are still married now, what is the probability that they often quarrel in life and can't get divorced?

It seems that my idea will definitely be confirmed.

"You can go for an interview, it will definitely confirm my idea." Rob Reiner insisted on his idea. He and Penny Marshall were attracted to each other because of their talents at the beginning, but later they got tired of each other and had a very painful divorce lawsuit.

"Okay, let's let the real interview decide," Ronald smiled.