The Best Entertainment Era

In another office of Relativity Entertainment, after hearing what Ronan told him, Robert Iger fell into thinking. He knew exactly what kind of ambition his boss had.

Many young people also have various ambitions and desires, but in Robert Iger's view, Ronan is completely different from those people.

Ronan has the ability to realize his ambitions, and he will not be dazzled by ambitions and desires, and he will not be too aggressive just because he has achieved some successes, thus launching a leap-forward development that is not in line with the company's actual situation, resulting in a complete collapse after a short period of glory .

Robert Iger has always believed that Ronan has a maturity and calmness far beyond his age, and his own abilities far exceed Michael Eisner of the same age.

Having said that, of course, Robert Iger would not know that Ronan's experience is extremely special. In fact, he is not a young man. He already has rich social experience and life experience. After he stepped out of school, he worked hard Time can be regarded as a small achievement.

What Ronan said about Universal Pictures made Robert Iger realize that Ronan had ideas for Universal Pictures.

Robert Iger also wants to become the operating officer or executive officer of Super Entertainment Group, and then reach the pinnacle of life, but thinking of the actual situation of Relativity Entertainment and Universal Pictures, as the COO of Relativity Entertainment, he thinks he has the responsibility to remind Let's talk about Ronan, the boss.

But he is not a person like Michael Eisner, who always pays attention to methods and methods in his work and conduct.

Is this news true? Robert Iger asked naturally.

Ronan shook his head: Now it's gossip. I've asked Robert Lee to verify it, but according to my analysis, it's probably true.

Robert Iger thought for a while and said, It's not surprising that Vivendi sold Universal Pictures. This group company that started out as a water company is good at capital operations, rather than carefully operating a company like us.

He slowly said: In 2000, Vivendi acquired Canada's Seagram Entertainment Group for US$34 billion, thereby obtaining absolute controlling stakes in Universal Pictures and Universal Music, and combined the group's own entertainment business at the end of the year. Together with PolyGram and other companies, the current Vivendi Universal Pictures Entertainment Group is formed.

Ronan understood what he meant. Just like Walt Disney, Universal Pictures has actually become a comprehensive entertainment company after changing owners several times.

Robert Iger also said: When Vivendi restructured the Universal Pictures Entertainment Group, it had already split the entertainment business of Seagram.

But they really want to sell Universal Pictures, and it is impossible to split the film company separately, which means that the value of other businesses may be greatly reduced. It must sell Universal Pictures Entertainment Group as a whole. The consistent style of a company that plays with capital, its transfer price must be more than tens of billions of dollars.

He emphatically emphasized: Based on my personal estimation, the current transfer value of Universal Pictures Group is between US$10 billion and US$12 billion.

Hearing this, Ronan couldn't help laughing: Excellent analysis. He paused for a moment, and then said: Bob, are you worried that I will blindly initiate the acquisition of Universal Pictures?

Robert Iger couldn't help but feel relieved when he heard what Ronan said. Being able to speak in this tone showed that Ronan was not in a daze: I'm really a little worried.

Ronan waved his hand: It's not even sure whether the news is true or not.

Robert Iger nodded, but asked directly: Ronan, if the news is true, do you want to acquire Universal Pictures?

Of course. Ronan said without hesitation: Who in this industry can't be tempted by one of the six major Hollywood companies?

He smiled: But thinking about it is one thing, but being able to do it is another.

Robert Iger said: This is almost an impossible task for us.

Ronan replied: I know, but if the news is true, I still want to try it. Even if it fails, we don't have much loss.

Robert Iger heard something else: Ronan, you mean...

Bob, you know that we have several acquisition plans in the future, and they are extremely difficult. Ronan said bluntly: The few people in the company except you have no experience in large-scale acquisitions.

Robert Iger suddenly realized: I understand, this is an opportunity to accumulate experience. He is an extremely experienced professional manager, and his heart moved: If the news is confirmed, we can formulate a plan and establish a special response team. According to the way the actual acquisition works...

Ronan tapped his fingers slowly: Advance can be attacked, retreat can be defended.

It is true. Robert Iger also said something in his heart: I also hope that we have the opportunity to get involved in Universal Pictures.

Ronan smiled: Very slim.

Robert Iger can fantasize, but as an operating officer of a company, he must remain sober: It is harder than a snake swallowing an elephant.

As if to remind Ronan, and also to remind himself not to be confused, he said: Based on the past style of the Vivendi Group, acquisitions are nothing more than two ways. The first is cash acquisition. At present, the entire group company has 400 million The dollar reserve, which can grow to $500 million by the end of the year, is not enough, we have to raise funds.

Robert Iger said truthfully: With the current strength of Relativity Entertainment, I am confident in financing or lending 1 billion to 1.5 billion US dollars, but it will be very difficult to do more, and it will not be possible in the short term. This is a huge funding gap. It’s something we simply can’t solve right now.”

Compared with most Hollywood companies, Relativity Entertainment has developed very fast and very stable, but it is still not enough in the face of such huge funds.

In particular, while completing the acquisition, it must not affect the normal operation of the existing business, otherwise it will lose all meaning, and the interest generated by the high loan must also be considered.

Robert Iger continued: The second way is to exchange shares with Vivendi. Ronan, Relativity Entertainment is not listed, and even if it is valued, it is far from Universal Pictures Group. Even if we use a share exchange plus cash I am afraid that Theory of Relativity Entertainment will also change owners.

This is something that Ronan cannot accept anyway. Once other voices can affect the company's decision, Relativity Entertainment will definitely not be able to develop rapidly in accordance with the general direction he set like it is now.

Ronan knew very well that even with his good cooperative relationship with Bank of America, it was impossible for the other party to lend a loan that seriously exceeded the entertainment value of Theory of Relativity.

I thought we were developing very fast. Ronan smiled: Our scale is still too small.

Robert Iger said: The speed of the rise of Relativity Entertainment has been unprecedented in Hollywood in the past few decades. It is not an exaggeration to say that it is rising like a rocket. No matter how soon we will have a weak foundation and internal instability problems , even if it develops quickly, it will collapse.”

He added: If there is a real opportunity, we might as well try it, but it cannot affect the normal operation of existing businesses.

In the end, the rabbit can't eat, and falls down and can't get up, so the gain outweighs the loss.

Ronan thought for a while and said slowly: Even if there is no opportunity, we can create an opportunity and see if we can get some benefits from it.

Once Vivendi sells Universal Pictures Group, no matter who the transaction partner is, there will inevitably be internal turmoil. Perhaps it can take advantage of the chaos to find an opportunity to win the film and television adaptation copyright of the Hulk.

Ronan will not completely give up the possible opportunities. On the basis of keeping a clear mind, he will make preparations. What if Vivendi can't find a buyer?

Hope will always exist, but as the parties involved, one should not have too many illusions about hope, otherwise it will affect the judgment.

Ronan discussed with Robert Iger for a whole afternoon, discussing the risks and various possibilities involved. If Robert Lee can confirm the news, a special team will be set up led by Robert Iger.

During the period, Ronan called Ron Meyer, who had been in contact several times, and Ron Meyer directly told him that he was not sure.

It's clear that both Vivendi and Universal are controlling the news.

The next day, Connie gave Ronan and Robert Iger a lot of detailed information about Vivendi and Universal Pictures.

After reading the information, Ronan discovered that Vivendi was originally the parent company of Blizzard.

Vivendi was originally a tax company established by Napoleon III himself. It began to transform in the 1970s and developed into a giant company involving water affairs, construction, film, music, publishing and many other businesses. It has been ranked among the top 500 companies in the world all year round 100 digits.

A few years ago, just before Ronan dug into the distribution channel of Polygram Pictures, Universal Pictures was in turmoil one after another. After Seagram bought Universal from Panasonic, it was full of ambitions and determined to build a media empire. Li Jin and several other entertainment companies, but Seagram, who is not familiar with the entertainment industry, quickly paid the price for blind expansion.

Subsequently, Vivendi, a water group from France, became the owner of Seagram. Vivendi obviously attaches great importance to Universal, because the name of the new company after the merger is Vivendi Universal Pictures Entertainment Group.

Last year, that is, in 2002, due to continuous loan acquisitions, Vivendi’s debt increased sharply, and high interest brought huge operating pressure. The group’s annual loss reached 23.3 billion euros, which directly led to the resignation of the CEO.

The debt of Vivendi that can be counted by the outside world has reached as high as 35 billion euros...

This also reminded Ronan that this kind of crazy rapid expansion of financing may not bring good results.

Vivendi has reached a situation where it must sell some assets to revitalize funds.

Combining the situation in his memory, Ronan judged that Vivendi must sell Universal Pictures Group.

The shrimp has always been unable to swallow the whale, but the collision of the two whales may not prevent the shrimp from encountering other opportunities.

In addition to the situation of Universal Pictures, Ronan received good news that Scott accompanied a South African delegation to Los Angeles.