When Akio Furui heard Simon talk about cooperation, his expression did not change much, but the cooperation draft that Daenerys Entertainment had previously sent came to mind.
The draft is roughly divided into three contents. The first is in-depth brand cooperation, including the priority for Daenerys Entertainment’s future audio-visual products to be released on Panasonic’s electronic hardware platform and the Panasonic brand’s advertising in Daenerys Entertainment’s film and television content. Implantation and more.
This is actually the main purpose of Panasonic's acquisition of MCA.
The second item is the joint construction of Universal Studios Osaka.
Universal Studios Osaka in the original time and space was only completed around the new millennium, and there is currently no sign of it.
Relying on the Japanese's admiration for American culture, Tokyo Disneyland was a huge success when it opened in 1983. The US$1 billion investment was fully recouped in just a few years. This made the company only license the brand but did not participate in the investment. Disney regrets it.
The Universal Studios Osaka that Simon remembers was not as successful as Tokyo Disneyland, but it was still very popular.
As long as MCA can be successfully acquired, relying on Universal Studios' years of operating experience and Daenerys Entertainment's rich content accumulation, a very important expansion goal for Simon in the next stage is to build Universal Studios Osaka in advance.
It is said to be Osaka Universal Studios, but in fact, once the studio is completed, the potential customer base will cover the entire Asia, which will be of great benefit to the promotion of Daenerys Entertainment's brands throughout Asia.
Of course, Simon will not make the mistake of Disney again when he builds Universal Studios Osaka, where he can only get 10% of ticket sales and 5% of brand licensing fees from Tokyo Disneyland. However, he doesn't plan to invest alone either. As an outsider, if you don't find a local coworker to cooperate with, you will almost inevitably encounter various difficulties and setbacks in the future.
Panasonic, headquartered in Osaka, is undoubtedly the biggest local snake.
Moreover, compared to Tokyo Disney’s partner Japan Oriental Land Company, Panasonic, which is not involved in the studio park business, will not fight for control of Daenerys Entertainment.
The last cooperation was a five-year convertible bond worth US$1 billion.
Daenerys Entertainment issued a directional convertible bond worth US$1 billion to Panasonic. It is agreed that once Daenerys Entertainment conducts an IPO during the bond contract period, Panasonic can convert the money into shares of Daenerys Entertainment. In order to further deepen the cooperative relationship between the two parties.
The $1 billion bond amount was also carefully considered.
Simon is confident that as long as MCA can be successfully digested in the next few years, Daenerys Entertainment’s market value will not be less than US$20 billion when it goes public. The $1 billion in bonds converted into Daenerys Entertainment stock is equivalent to about 5% of the shares.
The 5% shareholding ratio is not only the lower limit for reporting by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, but also the upper limit of U.S. shareholdings for overseas investors in some restricted industries.
If the U.S. government still does not lift the industry restrictions that prohibit overseas investors from owning U.S. TV stations by then, it only needs to control Panasonic's shareholding ratio within 5%, and it will only exist in the form of an investor without a say, and it will not be touched. Related Prohibitions.
The potential value of each of the three cooperations actually reaches US$1 billion.
The total value of the cooperation plan is US$3 billion, which is almost half the size of the MCA acquisition. It can be said that Simon has shown great sincerity.
Seeing that Akio Furui fell silent, Simon also temporarily stopped persuading and began to enjoy the food in front of him.
After a few minutes of silence in the box, Akio Furui finally spoke again and said: "Simon, what if Panasonic still doesn't want to withdraw voluntarily?"
"Daenerys Entertainment will not quit voluntarily either," Simon looked up again, looked at Akio Furui and said without hesitation, and then smiled again: "Furui, I remember that the Japanese like a book very much called "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" ?”
Girl C next to Simon obviously didn't know "Romance of the Three Kingdoms". She looked at her boss and could only translate it according to her own judgment as much as possible.
Akio Furui listened to his translator explain a few words in a low voice, with an unexpected expression on his face, and asked: "Simon, do you also know about the Three Kingdoms?"
"Actually, I can speak very good Chinese." Simon nodded, poured some sake into a plate, dipped his fingers in it and quickly wrote a sentence in standard regular script on the table: The general trend of the world, if it is divided for a long time, it will be united, and if it is united for a long time, it will be united. Must be divided.
Japanese and Chinese have so many things in common that Akio Furui recognized the most famous sentence in "The Romance of the Three Kingdoms" without any need for translation. He read it again in Japanese and looked at the beautiful vertical lines of Chinese fonts. He looked up in surprise and said, "Simon, I have to say, you surprised me again."
Simon picked up his chopsticks again and said: "I didn't write this sentence to surprise you. This is actually my opinion on the development trend of the American media industry. Hollywood acted in accordance with the famous Paramount Act in 1948. The dividing point was preceded by the era of big studios. Big film companies firmly held control of Hollywood through a vertical business system from brokerage companies, studios to theaters. It was an era of 'unity'. After the Paramount Act, studios were no longer allowed to engage in talent agency and had to divest themselves of theater chains. Coupled with the rise of the television industry, many new small and medium-sized film companies began to emerge, competing with the traditional major studios. The competition lasted until the stock market crash of 1987. The economic boom of the 1980s in the United States ended, and the capital-intensive film and television industry fell into depression. Second- and third-tier film companies such as Canon Pictures and De Laurentiis Entertainment began to compete. If it goes bankrupt, this era of 'cents' will come to an end."
Akio Furui listened carefully to the real-time explanation of the translator next to him. Finally, he couldn't help but glance at the line of Chinese characters written by Simon on the desktop and said: "Simon, you mean that Hollywood has now reached a new stage. ' era?"
"That's right," Simon nodded and said: "The merger of Time Inc. and Warner Bros. completed in January this year is a very obvious sign. However, this time it is no longer the kind of vertical integration that happened many years ago, but Horizontal integration, driven by film and television content, major Hollywood film companies achieve synergy through diversified operations by expanding into music, television, print media, retail and other fields. Compared with the vertical management system in the era of large studios, horizontal integration After the completion of diversified operations, through all-round industrial barriers, it will be easier to suppress the rise of latecomers. In the future, it will be difficult for second- and third-tier film companies in Hollywood to have much room for survival, and the major giants will continue to compete with each other. annexation, eventually forming a few large media oligarchs."
Akio Furui didn't wait for Simon to explain in more depth, and a little understanding appeared on his face.
Simon further elaborated: "Furui, if you pay attention to recent public opinion trends in the United States, you will find that there are very strong calls to restrict Japanese companies from purchasing Hollywood studios. Even if you can beat Daenerys Entertainment on price, this case The acquisition may not be successful. On the other hand, even if you insist on getting MCA at a very expensive price, the first thing Panasonic has to do is to sell the TV stations under MCA in accordance with the restrictions of US law. I believe that there will be a long period of time in the future. Time, the federal government will not lift this ban. On the contrary, in order to prevent more Hollywood companies from being acquired by overseas giants, the federal government has recently considered lifting regulatory restrictions on mergers between TV networks and studios. I think this is It is an inevitable trend. By then, the horizontal integration of the American media industry will be further accelerated, and it will have increasingly stronger industrial advantages. Panasonic bought MCA, and would have been excluded by Hollywood as an outsider and restricted by American laws. You are destined to be unable to keep up with the pace of horizontal integration in the media field, and with multiple disadvantages stacked up, apart from exiting again, I can’t imagine that Panasonic will have another option in the future.”
Simon finished this slowly, and finally added: "Moreover, Daenerys Entertainment will not easily withdraw from this bidding, because Daenerys Entertainment must be in this major trend of horizontal integration in the media industry. Seize the opportunity. In addition, when it comes to available funds, I believe that my company is no worse than Panasonic. However, I do not want to start a bidding war with Panasonic. The current price is compared to the value of MCA itself. It’s already very expensive.”
"But, Simon," Akio Furui said quickly: "Panasonic bought MCA for its own diversified development."
Simon couldn't help but shook his head and said: "Furui, Panasonic is already diversified enough now. With Japan's current economic situation, what you should do is to prune branches and leaves, and try to ensure your own strength in some core industries during the economic downturn. advantages, and to explore emerging markets as soon as possible against the backdrop of tightening trade between Japan and the United States, rather than blindly expanding into areas that you have never set foot in."
After hearing what Simon said, Akio Furui fell into a longer silence.
Lunch lasted for nearly two hours. After the meal, Simon and Akio Furui rushed to a private house on the Osaka beach. The two discussed the cooperation draft and many other topics for more than two hours.
This was until the evening when Simon rejected Akio Furui's invitation to stay overnight and boarded his private jet to return to Los Angeles again.
Before leaving, Akio Furui promised Simon that he would give him a definite answer within three days.
It was a dusty journey back to the United States. Due to the time difference, when we arrived in Los Angeles, it was still Monday morning on the West Coast.
The Halloween schedule has already started during Simon's busy period. Previously, on October 26, three new films were released in North American theaters, namely "10 Days of Danger" and "Piece", a collaboration between Universal Pictures and Daenerys Entertainment. Ramon's "Graveyard" and Columbia Pictures' "Pillow."
In its first week of release from October 26th to November 1st, "Ten Days", which received excellent media reviews and invested sufficient publicity efforts, took the lead. With an opening scale of 1,639 screens, it won the first seven days of the week. The box office gross was US$17.16 million, far exceeding the first-week total box office of the other two new films, which combined was less than US$10 million.
However, in the three days of the second weekend, "10 Days of Danger" also dropped 33% compared to the first weekend, collecting another US$7.19 million, with a cumulative box office of US$24.35 million in ten days.
Due to the relatively large decline in the following weekend, the estimated total North American box office of "Dangerous Days" is between 60 million and 80 million U.S. dollars. This can be said to be the highest performance among the 10 films of Daenerys Entertainment that have been released. A bad one.
Of course, this is only relative.
The total North American box office of more than 60 million U.S. dollars is considered a big hit in this era, not to mention that the total production and promotion cost of "Dangerous Days" is only about 20 million U.S. dollars. It only relies on the local box office in North America. Danielle Silk Entertainment and MCA will be able to recover all costs and achieve profitability.
In addition, compared to the original version, the heroine Susan Sarandon in the new version has a "chilling" performance that the "Hollywood Reporter" rated as "chilling". She is very likely to win the best Oscar next year like Kathy Bates in the original version. heroine. After the film was released, the distributors and distributors have begun to build momentum for Susan Sarandon's best actress for the sake of subsequent channel revenue.
After the quiet and secret trip to Japan, Simon spent the next few days focusing on the announcement of Daenerys Entertainment's two major films at the end of the year. Before rushing to Japan, we prepared an additional publicity budget of 20 million US dollars. Of course, this money cannot be spent without purpose, and it must be used to maximize the effect.
On the other hand, negotiations between James and Bell Atlantic are also progressing smoothly.
Plans always fail to keep up with changes in many things. Before leaving Japan, Simon had already noticed Akio Furui's intention to quit, so he was no longer so eager to announce the news of the Bell Atlantic acquisition, which could also give both parties more time for negotiations.
This lasted until November 8, the last day Simon and Furui Akio agreed.
I haven't heard any news for three consecutive days. I originally thought that the next step would be news about Panasonic further increasing its offer for MCA. In the evening, Janet and I attended a community reception after the official establishment of Malibu. The couple had just returned to Dume. In the villa on the west side of the promontory, Claire, the C girl who was guarding the villa, reminded Simon that there was a call from Japan half an hour ago and hoped that Simon would reply to the call after returning from the cocktail party.
Simon dialed the number reserved by the other party and was quickly transferred to Akio Furui.
Akio Furui did not go around too much on the phone and said bluntly that Panasonic was willing to withdraw from the MCA acquisition, provided that both parties must first complete the signing of the cooperation plan. Moreover, Panasonic hopes to obtain more concessions from Daenerys Entertainment on some detailed terms.
The two re-discussed some details on the phone for more than an hour. The basic contract framework did not change. Simon also made some concessions on some terms, and finally reached an agreement quickly.
The next day was Friday, and Simon rushed to Japan again, this time with an entire team from Daenerys Entertainment.
Because a lot of preparations have been made in advance, this time we only signed an overall cooperation agreement, and many subsequent details still need to be adjusted in real time. Therefore, the two sides quickly signed a formal agreement after two days of consultations over the weekend.
Simon and Amy both appeared in Japan and had frequent contact with Panasonic executives. It was difficult to keep the relevant information hidden. People inside and outside Hollywood were speculating about what happened.
immediately.
On Monday, November 12, Panasonic suddenly held a press conference at its Osaka headquarters in Japan and officially announced that it would give up the acquisition of MCA.
When the news was announced, the media on both sides of the ocean were in an uproar.