The Best Entertainment Era

Walking into the lobby of the bank office building, Henry came to the coffee machine, picked up a cup of coffee with a coin, glanced at his hand, and went to the unoccupied corner of the lobby rest area, drinking coffee while watching the movement in the elevator.

I just heard that Judith accompanied an important client upstairs to go through the application process.

Looking at the time, he sipped his coffee unhurriedly. A cup of coffee was almost finished, and two people, a man and a woman, came out of the elevator.

The blond one is Judith, and the one next to him is Ronan Anderson, a big client of the Los Angeles branch.

The two walked straight to the lobby door, shook hands and said a few farewell words before Ronan Anderson left.

As Judith walked towards the office, Henry glanced at the document bag she was holding in her hand, which was for loan applications.

It seems that the news he got is correct, Relativity Entertainment Group is applying for a large loan from the Bank of America.

The specific loan amount is a commercial secret of the bank, and he can't find out with his ability unless he asks Judith directly.

But that's not worth it.

Henry put down his coffee cup, took out his cell phone, dialed a number, and spoke in a low voice.

Universal Studios, the new approach of NBC's Bernarde and Vivendi's Jean-Pierce, is at an impasse again.

Benarte looked serious: Your asking price is seriously inconsistent with the actual value of Universal Pictures, and it is very different from our assessment!

Jean-Pierce said: Is it possible for you to acquire Universal Pictures for US$11 billion? You have been planning to acquire Universal Pictures since the mid-1990s, and you should know the actual value of this company very well.

Thinking of Vivendi's difficult situation, Bernard said: Since your side lacks sincerity, there is no need for us to talk again.

Jean-Pierce was neither humble nor overbearing, and said with a calm smile: Universal Pictures Entertainment Group is such a high-quality asset, there is no shortage of successors.

Hearing this sentence, a name immediately flashed in Bernard's mind - Relativity Entertainment Group!

The preliminary negotiation between the two parties broke up again. After getting on the business car and leaving Universal Studios, Bennert's assistant answered the phone, hung up and said to Bernardt: President, you just got the bank from the Los Angeles branch of the Bank of America. feedback message,

Ronan Anderson of Relativity Entertainment Group applied for a large, undisclosed amount from Bank of America.

Bernard's already serious face became even more serious: I see.

With the ability of relativity entertainment, it is not easy to apply for a super-large loan, and the success rate is not high, but what if it succeeds?

After all, both he and Relativity Entertainment are first-class high-quality customers of Bank of America.

Bernalte quickly made a decision: Go back to the hotel and call a conference call immediately.

The assistant quickly took out his mobile phone: I'll notify you right away.

In the office of the president of Burbank Relativity Entertainment, Robert Iger said to Ronan: Vivendi didn't directly reject it, and they have the idea of ​​talking about it, but they have relatively big doubts about the number of films.

Ronan had a general understanding of the situation and said, Talk to them, our goals are Jurassic Park, Hulk and Fast and Furious, and the rest can be given up.

Robert Iger said directly: The Hulk movie failed miserably, and Fast and Furious is a medium-to-low-scale film. Would have cared. But Jurassic Park was so difficult, the series has had such an impact.

Ronan knew the difficulty, and said: The third film has already ruined this series, and it has been shelved indefinitely by Universal Pictures. On the basis of guaranteeing Hulk and Fast and Furious, we will try our best to fight for it. .”

Robert Iger said: I won't pass up any chance.

Ronan didn't say anything more. Apart from cooperating with the campaign, all the specific work was handed over to Robert Iger.

The next day, Robert Iger was at Universal again to negotiate a rights deal with Vivendi's Jean-Pierce.

The good news is that Vivendi is very interested in selling the rights to a handful of unremarkable movies for hundreds of millions of dollars.

On the downside, they have some doubts about the number of titles Relativity Entertainment has come up with.

After half a day of negotiations, although Jean-Pierce didn't really let go, he was obviously relaxed in Universal Pictures' attitude towards the transfer of the copyrights of the Hulk and Fast and Furious series.

The differences between the two sides are the price and the copyright of Jurassic Park.

After all, Jurassic Park 3 was relatively unsuccessful, with a global box office of more than 368 million US dollars.

Vivendi naturally knows the actual value of this series. It is not impossible to sell it to Relativity Entertainment. Please pay 1.5 billion US dollars.

Of Robert Iger's $200 million asking price, $150 million was actually for the Jurassic Park franchise.

There is too much price difference between the two sides.

The copyright negotiations for the other two films were relatively smooth, but Vivendi's asking price was also very high. The Hulk movie failed, but still asked for 20 million US dollars.

For two consecutive Fast and Furious series with a box office of over 100 million in North America, Vivendi even offered a sky-high price of 100 million US dollars.

After all, although the peripheral income of this series is average, the box office and DVD profits are not bad.

It is not difficult to buy the copyright of the Hulk at a low price, but Vivendi has also been involved in the entertainment industry for many years, and it is very clear about the value of Fast and Furious, which can be regarded as a medium-selling movie.

Robert Iger and Jean Pierce finally reached an agreement on the total copyright transfer of Hulk and Fast and Furious for a total of 100 million U.S. dollars after several days of see-saw.

On the night the two sides reached an agreement, Robert Iger hosted a visitor at Tom Cruise's aquatic club in Malibu.

Bernat once again took the initiative to ask Robert Iger to meet.

Bob, I wonder how your talk with Mr. Anderson went? Bernat asked directly.

Robert Iger said: Relativity Entertainment has done a lot of preliminary work, and it is impossible to give up casually.

NBC's comprehensive evaluation of Universal Pictures has begun to wrap up, Bernat does not want to continue to entangle, otherwise it will be more troublesome if other competitors appear later, and said: I am very interested in how to convince your boss.

Robert Iger had already prepared for this, and NBC definitely disagreed if the condition was raised too high, and of course it could not be raised too low. Interest financing, if we choose to give up, we will have a huge interest loss in financing, after I talked about it last time, Mr. Anderson is full of doubts about the result of paying high interest if the goal is not achieved.”

Bernat remained calm. The issue of interest can't be passed on to NBC, right? What are your plans for this? he asked.

Robert Iger said: Mr. Anderson has no plan. The way to avoid paying high interest in vain is to complete the existing plan.

Financing from multiple overseas channels, without applying for a loan from a US bank, and it is said that the shares of Relativity Entertainment will be mortgaged. This young producer is as daring as he chooses to invest heavily in making pirate movies.

Thinking of this, Bernat feels that Ronan Anderson's gambling is very heavy. After Cut Throat Island, let alone investing 140 million US dollars to make a pirate film, who would dare to invest more than 10 million US dollars to shoot pirates? piece?

Ronan Anderson not only gambled heavily on Pirates of the Caribbean, but succeeded!

Dare to bet, and have the ability to bet successfully!

Can not be ignored!

Bernat asked: You should have a record of the failure of the acquisition to settle the loan and interest?

Robert Iger said with a smile: Raise funds from other places to make up for the loss of interest, but we haven't found the specific channel yet, so we can only take one step at a time. As long as the acquisition is successful, part of the business of Universal Pictures Entertainment Group Splitting and selling, these are actually not a problem.”

He changed his voice: To tell you the truth, there is also a failure plan. Mr. Anderson personally has some funds and stocks, and he can provide the group company with a five-year interest-free loan of 200 million US dollars.

Hearing this, Bernat immediately understood what Robert Iger meant. Although he was making a condition, the words came out of Robert Iger's mouth, which was tactful and not very offensive.

NBC can take care of this interest-free loan. Bernat quickly said: 50 million dollars.

Robert Iger thought for a while and said, Minimum $100 million.

Bernat murmured, the $100 million interest-free loan, although there are certain interest and depreciation losses, can be returned to NBC after five years. Strictly speaking, there is not much loss, but Relativity Entertainment continues to participate in the bidding, NBC may have to pay $13 billion, which is far more than the psychological reserve price.

Relativity Entertainment is one of the best-performing companies in Hollywood's second-tier companies, members of the Big Six, and they are extremely attractive to them.

And unlike those groups outside the circle, they have actual operating capabilities.

This account is not difficult to calculate, Bernat said quickly: You can submit a loan application, a five-year interest-free loan of 100 million U.S. dollars.

Robert Iger played a full set: I will go to Mr. Anderson immediately. Before he left, he said: I hope you can keep it secret for the time being. If Mr. Anderson agrees to withdraw, I hope we can sign a non-disclosure agreement.

Bernard looked over with some doubts, and Robert Iger simply explained: Once the news gets out and we learn that we have given up the acquisition of Universal Pictures, there will be a lot of trouble on the side of the investors, which may seriously affect the cash flow of Relativity Entertainment. .”

This is also my idea. Bernat said: We must sign the relevant agreement.

Robert Iger smiled: If I can convince Mr. Anderson, Relativity Entertainment's external attitude is not important, because you know very well that we have given up. This will also help create the illusion for the Vivendi Group that you have always They all have competitors and may not be actively reaching out to new buyers.”

Bernat said directly: We are all American companies, and we should be consistent with the outside world.