I’m in Hollywood

Time came to five o'clock in the afternoon without knowing it. Outside the glass curtain wall of the city of freedom, the setting sun dyed the horizon where the sky and the sea meet a magnificent orange red. Eric and Chris were still in their original seats. It doesn't seem to have moved all day.

It has been half a year since Eric made up his mind to buy Disney. In the past six months, in addition to secretly absorbing Disney stocks, Chris has also done a lot of detailed investigations on the entire Disney group, including Disney's shareholders, Disney The creditors and the attitude of these people to Disney management, as well as the details of the various assets of the Disney group, just these data investigations cost millions of dollars, and it can even be said that no one knows better than Chris now. disney.

Throughout the day, Eric remained an audience member most of the time, asking his own questions from time to time. Chris is always patient to answer Eric.

But when the sunset completely sank into the horizon, things were almost discussed, and Chris finally said: 'Cutthroat Island' has just been painted, because of the huge losses, now is the time when Disney shareholders and creditors are the most dissatisfied with the management. The best time for us to launch the acquisition, so we try to launch the acquisition offer after a week, we need a week to consolidate the Disney stock in our hands, and set up the acquisition team, by the way, I just forgot to mention this...

Eric was holding a list of Disney's upcoming movies in the second half of the year, raised his head and asked, What?

I don't have enough people to build a professional acquisition team, so I want to work with Morgan Stanley, you know. I still have some connections at Morgan Stanley. And they have a ready-made M\u0026A team. Can take assets All acquisition matters such as appraisals, legal matters, price negotiations.”

Eric said: This is no problem.

Chris added: Actually, I mean, you should have heard that Michael Ovitz led caa's team to help Panasonic acquire Universal, and finally got a commission of 70 million US dollars, and Morgan Stanley's price was not high. will be cheap.

Eric said with a smile: Everyone knows that the Japanese are fat sheep who came together to be slaughtered by themselves, but we are not. How much does it cost to hire a Morgan Stanley team?

If it is based on a 100-person team, I estimate it will cost $50 million. Once a hostile takeover is initiated, it will take at least half a year to complete the acquisition. It is not impossible to delay it for a year or two, Chris said and looked at Eric , waiting for his decision.

Although Disney's current market value is only more than three billion US dollars, the amount involved in the final acquisition will not be less than five billion US dollars. Morgan Stanley is equivalent to taking a 1% commission from it. This ratio is very reasonable, because Eric I vaguely remember that these big investment banks assist shareholders of listed companies to sell stocks, but they charge a commission of more than 10%.

Thinking of this, Eric quickly made a decision. Dao: Then hire Morgan Stanley's team. In addition. Tell the person in charge of Morgan Stanley that if they can complete the acquisition in half a year, I can increase the commission by 30% on the basis of the original commission. remuneration.

For corporate mergers and acquisitions, the longer the delay, the greater the variables, and the higher the cost. Many hostile takeover cases are finally resolved after a long delay, so not only did Chris not dissuade Eric This suggestion, on the contrary, showed admiration for Eric's decisiveness: I will pass this condition on to Morgan Stanley.

For the next week, Eric stayed on the sidelines while Chris secretly made his final deployment.

With the box office of Toy Story successfully breaking 100 million on the first release day in the third week, and the box office of Terminator 2 rising steadily, professional box office statistics agencies have made two estimates for the total North American box office of the two films. With a valuation of US$100 million, there are two movies with a box office of over 200 million in one summer file. This achievement is enough to make all Hollywood film companies jealous.

Therefore, Firefly Films held a grand celebration party at Eric's Sharp Manor. This was the third time that the Sharp Manor held a large-scale party, and it was uncharacteristically low-key. Eric not only invited a large number of Hollywood Celebrities and film company executives also allowed reporters from dozens of media to enter the party scene.

All this is done, no surprise, to create momentum for the next acquisition. The greater the influence of Firefly, the more favorable it will be for the next acquisition.

In just one week, not only the box office results of Terminator 2 and Toy Story were hyped, but Cutthroat Island and Fox's Condor 2 were also shot again. Eric started Just like Sony and Panasonic, they intend to make a wholly-owned acquisition, and they are not prepared to replace the shares held by Disney shareholders with Firefly shares.

So this series of hype is not intended to make Disney investors have confidence in Firefly and sell their stocks. In many newspaper articles, Eric has been expressing a point of view, either explicitly or implicitly, if you do not sell , Disney will continue to have bad films such as Cutthroat Island or Condor 2, and will also be sniped by firefly blockbusters. Of course, although many people were keenly aware of the smell of gunpowder, it was not until Firefly submitted a takeover offer to Disney that no one realized the meaning of Eric's previous remarks.

On July 22, 1991, on Monday and the weekend, Michael Eisner did not take the slightest rest. Because of the box office fiasco of Cutthroat Island, he had been working hard to appease Disney's shareholders and creditors for more than half a month.

Eric's remarks on the so-called Cut Throat Island trilogy even made Michael Eisner itch with hatred. His short sentence made his situation worse, and a large number of shareholders accused Michael Eisner of giving up. Michael Eisner can't say for the good cooperation relationship with Eric. Of course he wants to cooperate with Eric, but after the turmoil last year, it has been difficult for the two sides to cooperate again.

After having breakfast at the villa in Malibu, Michael Eisner did not intend to go to the Disney headquarters for office.

He has already bought a ticket and is going to visit Disney's largest shareholder today. Bass family in Texas.

Disney has grown to the present. The Disney family that created the Disney brand has long ceased to be a major shareholder in Disney. At present, the Disney Family Foundation only owns about 3% of Disney's stock, while the Bass family, who made their fortune through oil, successively acquired 16% of Disney's equity in the 1970s and 1980s, becoming Disney's largest shareholder.

In 1984, it was with the support of the Bass family and the head of the Disney family, Roy Disney, that he was able to sit at Disney.

The driver drove Michael Eisner to Los Angeles Airport, where a small private jet was ready to stop, which was one of the perks of Michael Eisner's role as chairman of the Disney board.

After the plane took off, Michael Eisner explained a few words to the assistant. He just planned to go to the lounge to rest for a while. These days, he has been exhausted physically and mentally to cope with the box office fiasco of Cutthroat Island.

Not long after falling asleep, there was a knock on the door of the cabin lounge, and the assistant's voice was a little hurried: Mr. Eisner, Mr. Eisner, Mr. Wells is calling in a hurry.

Michael Eisner, who was suddenly awakened, frowned and got up and walked out of the lounge. The assistant looked at Michael Eisner's gloomy expression, handed over the receiver of the cordless phone, and explained softly, I said you were resting. . But Mr Wells said there was an emergency.

Michael Eisner nodded expressionlessly and took the phone. He closed the lounge door, turned around and walked to the sofa to pour red wine for himself, and asked, Frank, what's the matter?

...

On the other end of the phone, Disney President Frank Wells spoke in a hurried tone. After speaking for more than a minute, Michael Eisner realized that the red wine in the goblet had overflowed, but Michael Eisner But he didn't have the heart to care about these anymore. He put the empty red wine bottle on the table, hung up the phone and walked out of the lounge. He shouted to the assistant, Nick, inform the captain, and return to Los Angeles immediately after the plane lands.

Near noon, Michael Eisner finally returned to the Disney headquarters. The Disney board members who had been notified had already waited in the conference room in advance.

Sitting at the head of the conference table, Michael Eisner read the acquisition proposal submitted by Firefly in detail without a word, scolded lowly, and then asked Frank Wells, Frank, are you sure this is not the case? Is it a joke, where did Firefly get the funds to buy Disney, how can they have so much money?

Looking at Michael Eisner who was excited and could jump up at any time, Frank Wells explained patiently: I have personally called Eric Williams to confirm this.

I'm asking where did they get the money? Michael Eisner's voice had turned into a growl.

Frank Wells shook his head. Michael Eisner was about to continue his attack when a director sitting at the bottom suddenly said tentatively, Could it be the previous oil crisis?

Michael Eisner was stunned for a moment, thinking of Eric's actions in July and August last year, he quickly confirmed this, that time Eric raised a full $700 million in funds

It’s been almost a year since Eric had done nothing before. Everyone thought that Eric didn’t make much money that time, but seeing the acquisition offer in front of him, Michael Eisner realized that everyone They were all deceived by Eric.

With an embarrassed clenched fist, Michael Eisner raised his head and said, Now, let's talk about what to do, if the acquisition of Eric Williams is successful, then all of us here may be Pack up and get out. So, we absolutely can't let him get away with it.

The conference room soon burst into discussions. The 16 directors of Disney were either friends with Michael Eisner or former employees of Disney. Because of Michael Eisner's monopoly of power, these people's Power has been greatly weakened, but these directors don't care about it. Anyway, if Disney makes a major decision-making mistake, Michael Eisner must be the one to blame, just like Cut Throat Island. Therefore, no one will be dissatisfied with this kind of non-responsible, high-paying work, so they do not want to lose their jobs because of the acquisition.

The most important thing now is to stabilize shareholders. As long as they stand with us, it is unlikely that Firefly will buy Disney.

Hey, it's a pity that Cutthroat Island has just caused such a huge loss, and Firefly has seized the opportunity very well.

Don't forget that there are also creditors. We just discussed the plan to postpone the payment of the principal and interest of the due creditor's rights last week. Now this plan must not be taken out, otherwise the creditors will definitely put pressure on us. After all, Firefly's performance is It's great.

Firefly already owns 11% of the shares, which is a big problem.

...

...

The conference room was buzzing for five minutes. Michael Eisner couldn't hear any useful suggestions from these people, which made him very angry, even ignoring that this situation was originally caused by him. Yes, in order to consolidate its rights, Disney's board of directors, of course, has as many philistines as possible.

Ignoring the nonsense of these people, Michael Eisner said to the assistant: Call all management to a meeting, and also ask the Legal Department to send a letter to Firefly, we refuse the acquisition.

Mr. Eisner, according to the procedure, we should disclose this matter to the shareholders, the assistant reminded softly.

Michael Eisner glared at the assistant dissatisfied: You just need to do what you need to do.

The assistant responded with a guilty conscience and left silently.

Michael Eisner patted the table and asked everyone to stop discussing before saying, Okay, stop arguing, wait for the management to come and discuss.

A bunch of directors fell silent.

On the day Firefly submitted the takeover offer to the Disney board, the Disney board made a decision to reject the takeover, and selectively disclosed some of Firefly’s takeover plans to shareholders, accompanied by Michael Eisner’s remarks Sincerely handwritten letter.

While disclosing the takeover offer to shareholders, Disney's board of directors, in just three days, passed its first countermeasure, a golden parachute, to protect the interests of all Disney executives.

While disclosing the takeover offer to shareholders, Disney's board of directors, in just three days, passed its first countermeasure, a golden parachute, to protect the interests of all Disney executives.

While disclosing the takeover offer to shareholders, Disney's board of directors, in just three days, passed its first countermeasure, a golden parachute, to protect the interests of all Disney executives. (To be continued..)

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