Rebirth of the Tech Madman

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

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

Regardless of the fact that AOL’s market capitalization ranks 10th 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, Not a big reason for acquisition for AOL or Time Warner Turner.

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 pattern is that Steve Ross from WarnerMedia and Richard Munro from Time Group will become 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 65 due to cancer in 1992, 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— Levin, 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 40 million users and a market value of nearly 160 billion U.S. dollars, to work hard. Time Warner Turner, who wants to enter digital media and can't wait to marry himself, takes the initiative to go to public relations. up.

It can be said that the marriage between AOL and Time Warner Turner passed the hurdle of government censorship. There is no big problem.

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 160 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 America Online for more than ten years from scratch. Is it just to collect money for listing?

Of course not - AOL and Turner Broadcasting join forces,

The ultimate goal is to perfectly harvest the power of traditional media.

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 been doing a lot of secret activities - for example, the development of America Online is far more successful than 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!

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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 scene where the big boss and Barack Obayard shook hands and bid farewell, they patted each other's shoulder earnestly and said a few words of encouragement, Steve Case joked: It seems that this Obayard A state senator, well appreciated.

Shi Ye! Luck Ye! The 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 with understanding: Since you have come, it's just right, let's hold a meeting of the highest level together.

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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, Mr. Richest visited the viewing platform of Rockefeller Center - Top of the Rock.

This place has been renovated and opened to the public again—although it is surpassed by the Empire State Building and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in height, the cruise ship landscape launched, borrowed from the big ship craze brought about by the movie Titanic, is still It has 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 with 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 250 million U.S. dollars.

After its full release in June last year, although it is not as explosive as Jurassic Park: The Lost World, which took a record first weekend box office of more than 72 million US dollars, it has a long stamina-about 3 A month later, it became the first movie in history to break through $1 billion at the box office, and in the following time, it broke through $1.1 billion, $1.2 billion, $1.3 billion, $1.4 billion... until now $2.1 billion.

Among them, the North American region contributed almost US$700 million in the box office; and with the help of Mr. Richest Man's scheduling to avoid the impact of the Asian financial turmoil, 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 14 not long ago. In one day, he made $15 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, brushing up to the halo of prestige 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 also used the movie Titanic to develop a lot of surrounding things, such as the new version of the Rockefeller Center viewing platform Top of the Rock, and the Aircraft Carrier Resort Hotel, etc., and actively feed back its old business .

Twentieth Century Fox has confirmed that it will release the Titanic dvd by the end of this year, and optimistically set sales at 1 million copies.

You must know that at this stage, the proportion of American households owning DVD players is about 5%-since the movie Titanic is so popular, then Titanic DVD will definitely promote 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.

Hearing the compliment from the CEO of General Electric, Tang Huan smiled self-deprecatingly, I'm afraid I will come to Top of the Rock more often in the coming time.

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 are competitions between Fangyuan Company and General Electric in the medical equipment business, Zheru Software Company and General Electric in terms of market capitalization, etc., they all belong to the level of games between innocuous powerhouses, and Tang Huan never It is forbidden to learn from General Electric as an example, such as a series of measures including creating its own business school and cultivating managers in line with its 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: It is true that we can learn from IBM's successful disposal experience.

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After relaxing on Top of the Rock, Mr. Richest Man attended a joint meeting with AOL and Time Warner Turner.

On such an occasion, Steve Case didn't hide his words, and directly claimed credit: AOL will stop serving the House of Cards website on the grounds of infringing the copyright of Twentieth Century Fox, and in exchange for this The efficiency of review agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission in assessing 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 Gerald Levin looked around at the group of people on his side, he said with complacency: We have agreed on this—after the merger of the two companies according to this principle, a company worth more than 300 billion U.S. dollars and spanning across the border will be created. An empire of media, entertainment, the internet, it's in everyone's interest.