As soon as Michael Ovitz and his party walked out of Los Angeles International Airport, the assistant who came to pick them up reminded him that MCA Chairman Lou Vassalman was already waiting at Marina Del Rey near the airport.
Arriving on a yacht in Marina del Rey, less than three kilometers north of Los Angeles International Airport, Ovitz's first reaction when he saw Vassalman was to shake his head slightly.
The time is already November 15th.
Panasonic suddenly announced three days ago that it would abandon the acquisition of MCA, which caught everyone off guard.
Unwilling to give up, Michael Ovitz rushed to Japan in person after communicating with Panasonic over the phone to no avail. Ovitz, who was inspired by Lou Vassalman, even hinted that MCA could accept a slightly lower offer than Daenerys Entertainment, but still failed to convince Akio Furui to restart the acquisition of MCA.
Michael Ovitz also regrets it now. Last week, when Meg Ryan gave up her planned lawsuit against Daenerys Entertainment without warning, he had already been alert, but he still didn’t expect that he was secretly trying to snipe Daenerys. Liz Entertainment had made so many preparations to acquire MCA, but unexpectedly, the other party used a trick to completely remove the salary from the bottom of the cauldron.
In the cabin of the yacht, Ovitz and Vassalman sat across from each other and said: "According to the information I collected, Westeros has proposed another cooperation plan between Daenerys Entertainment and Panasonic. Panasonic was originally targeting Hesitant about whether to continue to increase the offer, Akio Furui finally decided to abandon the acquisition after a secret meeting with Westeros last week, coupled with internal pressure from Panasonic."
Lou Vassalman asked: "Is there really no room for redemption? Or, if necessary, can I fly to Japan myself?"
Michael Ovitz shook his head again and said: "I did not get the contents of the cooperation plan between Daenerys Entertainment and Panasonic. However, according to Panasonic's words, Westeros showed great sincerity, and Panasonic's senior management agreed. I think we should abandon the acquisition and instead cooperate with Daenerys Entertainment.”
Lou Vassalman frowned, thought of something after a moment, and asked again: "So, Mike, didn't you say that there are other companies in Japan that are interested in acquiring Hollywood studios, Toshiba, Ito, or Sanyo?"
"This is what I said last year, but it was only last year," Michael Ovitz nodded, shook his head, and said: "The Japanese stock market bubble had not burst yet. The situation is different now. Even Panasonic's exit this time has Affected by the economic situation, the Bronfman family in Canada is also interested in acquiring Hollywood studios. However, they do not have enough funds for the time being and can only test the waters by investing in second-tier companies like Orion. Now Asia, North America and The overall economic situation in Europe is not very good, so, Lu, it is difficult for a second buyer to be interested in MCA in the short term."
After Michael Ovitz finished speaking, the two of them looked at each other for a while.
After a moment of silence, Lou Vassalman finally made up his mind and said: "Mike, in this case, give all the backup plans you prepared in advance to my people."
Michael Ovitz also nodded dejectedly and said, "Okay."
Now that Panasonic's exit is irreversible, using those methods again will have no effect. Instead, it will anger the young man again and again. Thinking of this, Ovitz was a little distressed. Perhaps, the Meg Ryan incident had once again caused discord between Daenerys Entertainment and CAA.
Thinking of this, Michael Ovitz couldn't help but ask Vassalman: "Lou, are you planning to cancel this acquisition?"
Lou Vassalman had a wry smile on his face.
To be fair, Lou Vassalman certainly wanted to cancel this transaction as soon as possible, because he had tried several times on Daenerys Entertainment, and the other party's attitude was very determined. After the acquisition was completed, he and Sid Simber Ge must resign. Once this happens, the two will completely leave the center of power in Hollywood.
Lou Vassalman definitely didn’t want to let go so easily.
However, Daenerys Entertainment’s $7 billion offer is almost twice the market value of MCA when it was at its lowest point some time ago.
At present, the United States is already in the shadow of another war. The industry is generally not optimistic about the future domestic economic trend and believes that it may continue to deteriorate. In this case, many shareholders of MCA hope to accept the offer and cash out. They don't care what happens to the management after cashing out.
Although he is the chairman and CEO of MCA and has run the company for decades, Lou Vassalman only holds about 5% of MCA's shares, and Sid Sheinberg only holds about 2%. The sum of people's shareholdings does not create much control.
In the past, the two men were still able to firmly control the company. This time, if they blatantly violate the wishes of shareholders, even if they can ultimately disrupt the acquisition, they are likely to be ousted.
Therefore, now we can only use external forces as much as possible to force Daenerys Entertainment to agree to more of its conditions, or force Daenerys Entertainment to voluntarily give up this acquisition.
Now that his physical condition has improved, Lou Vassalman feels that he can run the MCA for a few more years until he is 80 years old. Moreover, he believes that the U.S. economy will definitely recover one day. MCA’s stock price has been severely underestimated due to the recent downturn in the U.S. stock market. In the next few years, there will definitely be other buyers who can pay higher offers.
Simon also happened to be returning from the East Coast when Michael Ovitz and Lou Vassalman secretly met.
After this period of negotiations, Bell Atlantic and Westeros have initially reached an acquisition agreement worth a total of US$7 billion, which is in line with Simon's expectations a few days ago and is a full US$1 billion lower than the original budget. . Once the quotation is agreed upon, other detailed terms will advance quickly, and can even be discussed after the transaction is completed.
Therefore, Simon can announce the details of the acquisition as early as next week if necessary.
The next day is Friday, November 16th.
Thanksgiving is approaching, and she has to move into the finally completed villa in Point Dume over the weekend. Janet has been busy on the West Coast during this time, and Simon rushes to work at Daenerys Studios in Malibu as usual in the morning.
The box office data of the past week also appeared on Simon's desk as soon as he entered the office.
The box office performance of "Ten Days in Danger" was as expected.
It will be released on October 26, which is already the third week of shooting for the film.
After earning US$17.16 million in the first week, "Ten Days in Danger" saw a final drop of 35% in the next seven days, closing in at US$11.15 million. In the third week of release from November 9th to November 15th, the decline narrowed to 21%, and it continued to earn US$8.81 million.
After three weeks of filming, the cumulative box office of "Ten Days in Danger" has reached 37.12 million US dollars.
What Simon is paying more attention to today is "Dances with Wolves" which has quietly started screening.
"Dances with Wolves" opened on 16 screens in some core cities in North America two weeks ago on November 2. The average box office for the first seven days in the first week reached US$67,000, which already heralded the success of this film. Blockbuster potential. The following week, the screen size of "Dances with Wolves" increased to 51. With Daenerys' entertainment promotion and the film's reputation simultaneously fermenting, the screen size increased instead of falling, reaching US$69,000.
In just two weeks of screening, "Dances with Wolves" has already accumulated a box office of US$4.63 million. Moreover, relying on overwhelming praise from the media, this politically correct film about the history of whites and Indians in the United States has quickly become a favorite for next year's Oscars.
However, because the theatrical version of "Dances with Wolves" lasts three hours and opens on a large scale this week, Daenerys Entertainment ultimately only arranged for 1,031 screens, intending to rely on word-of-mouth and awards to accumulate long-term box office.
At the same time, with the official opening of the Thanksgiving season, in addition to the large-scale release of "Dances with Wolves", there are two other new films starting today, namely the sequel to Stallone's classic action film "Rocky 5" and Disney's 2D Animated movie "Little Hero in Rescue".
After Panasonic announced this week that it had given up its acquisition of MCA, the MCA board of directors found various reasons to delay the approval of Daenerys Entertainment's offer, but others were a little anxious.
Such as Paramount.
Before Simon contacted Panasonic last week, in order to prevent Paramount from interfering with the acquisition, he temporarily promised to cooperate with the other party on two new films and maintain the status quo of USA TV's equity after the MCA acquisition was completed.
The chairman of Paramount obviously noticed Simon's scruples and naturally waited for a price. Not only did they request that the number of cooperative films be increased to at least 3, they also insisted that the investment ratio between the two parties be 30-70, with Daenerys Entertainment only holding 30%. At the same time, more demands were made on USA TV.
However, when Panasonic suddenly announced its withdrawal and the situation reversed, Paramount was somewhat eager to reach a cooperation.
Amy has discovered that Paramount originally planned to block the acquisition by filing an antitrust lawsuit. However, after Panasonic withdrew, probably realizing the general trend, Paramount began to rush to secure the benefits promised by Daenerys Entertainment.
After all, if a lawsuit is filed, the likelihood that Paramount will successfully block Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of MCA is low. Even if it succeeds in preventing it, Paramount itself will not actually gain much benefit, and the relationship between the two parties will further deteriorate.
Simon met with Martin Davis in person in the morning and also made some concessions. Paramount gave up its demands on USA TV. In terms of movies, both parties still maintained a 50% investment ratio. At the same time, they increased the number of cooperative films to three. , as well as the sequels to the collaborative films.
Through this cooperation, Daenerys Entertainment also successfully obtained the rights to the "Mission: Impossible" movie that Paramount has been preparing.
As a result, after several ups and downs, Simon was able to control the two most famous spy film series in Hollywood after the 1990s, "Mission: Impossible" and "The Bourne Supremacy".
After working non-stop for such a long time, I finally have a break on the weekend.
Moving by the way.
The streamlined shell-shaped building modeled after the Iron Man villa in Simon's memory has become the focus of a lot of media attention after it was first formed.
As a larger silver structure than Simon remembered was completed on the cliffs of Point Dume, the building gradually attracted more and more public attention.
Of course, it is inevitable that it once again became evidence that many media criticized Simon for his luxurious life.
The finally completed villa only covers an area of 5,000 square meters. It looks like a museum on the outside. It is far more luxurious than the Iron Man villa in my memory that was only generated through CG. The silver building spirals up in a streamlined style, with a total of three floors. , if you include the underground garage modeled after the Iron Man studio, the total internal space exceeds 12,000 square meters.
Compared with ordinary apartments and villas, this shell-shaped building cannot even be simply described as 'big'.
If I have to say it, it is very big.
The final construction cost of the villa was far higher than expected. Not counting post-renovation, the main construction cost alone reached 30 million US dollars.
Janet will naturally not save on the later decoration and furniture, because she is still adding various things, and the final budget may even exceed the construction cost.
Therefore, the seemingly simple decoration in the villa actually looks expensive everywhere.
The couple originally lived in a villa less than 500 meters west of Dumeijiao Manor. Everything in the Shell Villa was already ready. The so-called move only meant moving some daily clothes and books. It only took half a day to basically move there. Done.
I put them away bit by bit until the evening, when all the details were initially worked out, and then I settled down.
Next to the huge glass curtain wall facing the sea, Simon was relaxing on the sofa. Janet curled up her legs and leaned against the man, looking at the magnificent sunset sea view outside the curtain wall. The woman whispered: "It's like a dream."
Simon stroked the woman's fragrant hair from the side of his face, crossed his legs and smiled: "Have you never thought of building such a house before?"
Janet leaned on Simon's shoulder and shook her head: "No, even if I could think of it, I would really have to spend so much money to build such a house unless I sell the stocks in my name, but if I do that, the old man will definitely jump up. .”
"Isn't it your dowry? Of course you can spend it however you want."
"I never thought about finding a man before. The stocks in my name are my lifetime living expenses. If I spend them all at once, the rest of my life will be miserable."
"Katherine mentioned it to me," Simon said, still smiling, "Why didn't you want to find a man in the first place?"
Janet raised her head and bumped Simon's shoulder lightly, saying in a coquettish tone: "Waiting for you."
"Oh, this is such an honor."
"Humph," Janet said proudly, but she took one of Simon's hands and held it in her arms. She lowered her voice and said, "Actually, very early on, I was liked by someone, and also liked someone else. Boy. However, maybe I am too smart, and those guys disappointed me so much that I just planned to be alone forever."
"Always alone, very lonely."
"That's why God allowed me to meet you."
"Well, many years later, when we see him, we must express our gratitude."
"Haha," Janet touched Simon again, looking at the increasingly majestic fire cloud outside the curtain wall, and said, "I really need to thank you, otherwise, you may be alone forever."
"I won't. I'm so popular with girls. If I hadn't met you, I would definitely become the number one playboy in Hollywood."
"Uh-huh, the secret is finally revealed, playboy..." Janet scratched her little paws dissatisfiedly, and when Simon rubbed her wrists, her little body suddenly softened, and she said angrily: "You little bastard, you bullied me again."
"Do you like being bullied by me?"
"dislike."
Simon added a little more force: "Change the answer."
"Yes, I like it."