The news that Disney Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma and the news that Daenerys Entertainment Group is about to build a movie theme park in Europe quickly spread on Thursday.
Although there were only three Disney executives at the scene, some media directly linked the two incidents, speculating that Michael Eisner may have heard that Daenerys Entertainment was about to start building European Universal. The cinema's 'bad news' just gave it a heart attack.
During this period, due to a series of events such as Jeffrey Katzenberg's falling out with Michael Eisner and his resignation, Disney President Frank Wells' imminent retirement, Vivendi Group's acquisition of Disney, etc., Disney's Despite the hot news of Liz Entertainment's listing, it still received a lot of media coverage.
Disney's internal turmoil and several years of performance decline have already led to the federal media and Wall Street continuing to view this major Hollywood studio in a negative light.
The news that Vivendi Group intends to acquire Disney finally triggered a wave of stock price rebound. With Eisner's heart attack and Daenerys Entertainment's plans for European Universal Studios revealed, the company's stock price rebounded again on Thursday. started to fall.
Of course, the focus of many media and capital is still Daenerys Entertainment.
Disneyland Paris is already a catastrophic existence. It is not easy for such a theme park to be profitable even if it files for bankruptcy. For the billions of dollars of investment from all parties in the early stage and the employment of tens of thousands of employees, this theme park No matter what, we can only hold on with continued losses.
With such a bad case before, will Daenerys Entertainment make the same mistake again
Daenerys Entertainment, which has just completed its IPO, has a lot of money. Everyone knows this, but no matter how much money there is, it cannot be used casually.
However, there are some people who side with Daenerys Entertainment.
As Mark Belford, vice president of global operations for Daenerys, said in the "Hollywood Reporter" article, the overall size of the European film market far exceeds that of Japan. The establishment of theme parks in Europe is very conducive to further promoting and deepening the story of Dany The corporate brand of Liz Entertainment.
The potential advertising effect brought about by the theme park receiving tens of millions of visitors every year is definitely not something that can be estimated simply by the park's own profit and loss figures.
The reason why Disney in Simon's memory has become the dominant entertainment giant in Hollywood is that Disney parks all over the world have contributed to the company's brand value gain, including Paris, which has been financially losing money for decades. The same goes for Disney.
Therefore, Simon has been planning similar plans in his mind since the opening of Disneyland in Paris in 1992.
The size of the overall movie market is no less than that of North America and continental Europe, so there must be a theme park under the Daenerys Entertainment Group. Even if it is built and suffers long-term losses like Disneyland Paris, this must be done.
It was just that Universal Studios Osaka had just been completed at the time, and Simon was not so eager for quick success that he launched two huge theme park projects at the same time.
Now, the time has come.
Taking advantage of this opportunity to release the news can kill two birds with one stone and help hesitant Disney shareholders decide to sell the company.
As for the follow-up, the theme park location planning will take at least one to two years. By then, Universal Studios Osaka will have opened, and Daenerys Entertainment can easily transfer the current Osaka Universal Studios construction and planning team to Europe.
After the "Hollywood Reporter" exposure in the morning, Daenerys Entertainment published a more detailed article on the Ygrit portal during the day, explaining the necessity of building Universal Studios Europe.
However, the market still gave the most direct feedback to Daenerys Entertainment’s decision.
On Thursday's trading day, Daenerys Entertainment's stock price began to fall from the opening. As of the afternoon's close, the decline reached 2.6%. The market value fell from US$117.2 billion to US$114.1 billion. In one day, US$3 billion disappeared.
Daenerys Entertainment management did not respond much to this.
Whether publicly or privately, Simon has repeatedly emphasized his point of view that Daenerys Entertainment's operations will not be affected by short-term stock price fluctuations, but will focus on long-term planning.
If there are investors who do not agree with Daenerys Entertainment’s business philosophy, they can sell their stocks.
With the current strength of the Westeros system, it would be easy to privatize the entire Daenerys Entertainment Group again.
On the other hand, Disney is in a state of confusion.
Michael Eisner had woken up that morning. However, the Disney head's heart test results were very pessimistic. Due to long hours of high-intensity work, Michael Eisner's hereditary heart disease continued to worsen. , the examination results showed that the degree of blockage in multiple arteries in Eisner's heart exceeded 98%. If surgery was not performed as soon as possible, he would not survive for a year.
Moreover, because the condition is so serious, the risks of surgery are also very high.
He might even die on the operating table.
Reporters who gathered outside Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan that day got Eisner's heart test results as soon as possible despite Disney's strict security.
Perhaps most people don't quite understand the seriousness of arterial blockage exceeding 98%, but one thing everyone can be sure of is that it is impossible for Michael Eisner to return to preside over Disney's work in the short term.
Disney's stock price has been slowly recovering recently due to the leak of news about Vivendi Group's acquisition of Disney. As the bad news of Eisner's illness spread, Disney's stock price also fell by 3.3% on Thursday, with its market value from US$6.9 billion fell back to US$6.6 billion.
In the evening, Disney finally held a press conference to report Michael Eisner's condition and announced that the management of the Disney Company would be temporarily delegated to President Frank Wells. Frank Wells, who was personally responsible for hosting the press conference, also said that he had signed a temporary agreement with Disney to extend his tenure for one year until the Disney company is completely stabilized.
Not only that, Disney also quickly appointed Bill Michanick, president of Disney's home entertainment division, as president of Disney Studios at the press conference, taking over Jeffrey Katzenberg's former position and taking charge of all Disney's film affairs.
When reporters asked whether Disney would accept Vivendi Group's acquisition offer, Frank Wells said very tactfully that this is something that Disney's board of directors and major shareholders need to consider, and that he is only responsible for taking care of the company for the time being.
Compared with Disney's firm rejection when the news first leaked some time ago, Frank Wells's stance has obviously become much more relaxed.
The next day, the federal media was full of reports about the two major events in Hollywood yesterday.
Moreover, the two things are still commonly discussed in connection with each other.
Most of the media are still not optimistic about Daenerys Entertainment's European Universal Studios plan, and all the details of the failure of Disneyland Paris in the past two years have been revealed again.
However, although Michael Eisner's sudden illness caused a brief panic at Disney, Frank Wells' statement at yesterday's press conference once again made the media and capital feel a certain tendency.
Including a reporter from the ABC TV network who interviewed Sid Bass, the head of the Bass family, Disney's major shareholder, on the phone that morning. Although the other party sounded reluctant to part with Disney shares, everyone could feel that Sid Bass. ·Bass's tone was not firm at all, and his manner in the interview was more like a sale.
Disney's previous turmoil and decline, the illness of Disney head Michael Eisner, who was firmly opposed to the sale, and the strong uncertainty that Daenerys Entertainment's European Universal Studios plan has brought to Disneyland Paris, combined with these elements, The possibility of a sale of Disney has become increasingly high.
Then, the federal media again became aware of a problem.
We can no longer allow overseas capital to continue to erode our cultural industries.
The Washington Post commented on this on Friday morning, calling on the federal government to take measures to restrict overseas capital’s acquisition of major Hollywood studios. The Wall Street Journal also mentioned the media integration ban again. At this stage, the only companies that can compete with the Vivendi Group and achieve synergies are the three major established TV networks in the United States. Therefore, if you want to prevent this acquisition, Congress must act as soon as possible. Promote the lifting of the ban on media integration.
In response to the media's call, at the regular press conference that day, the White House spokesperson stated that the President attaches great importance to protecting the American cultural industry and has communicated with Congress many times before, but the final decision on this matter is still in the hands of Congress.
In his words, he repeatedly criticized the "inaction" behavior of certain politicians in both houses of Congress.
A White House spokesman even said that when necessary, the President will ask the Department of Justice to veto certain acquisitions that may affect the development of American culture.
Although both houses of Congress are temporarily in the hands of the Democratic Party, over the past year or so, many plans that Clinton has tried to implement have failed in Congress, and the White House and Congress have been very unhappy.
Congress, of course, was not willing to bear the taunts from the White House and quickly struck back.
The two sides began to bicker with each other for a while.
The protection of the U.S. cultural industry has suddenly become a topic frequently asked by the media as U.S. congressional candidates begin the second half of the midterm elections.
As for when the ban on media integration will be lifted, no one has given an accurate answer.
Simon has been in San Francisco since Wednesday.
In addition to various matters related to the Westeros system in the Internet field, Simon has been mainly discussing with the core management of Cisco, AOL, and Igrit in the past few days about the antitrust investigation that the U.S. Department of Justice will officially launch at the end of the month.
In order to prevent Congress from setting up a special investigative committee in advance to target the Westeros system and put the U.S. Department of Justice in a passive position, some time ago, the White House had already disclosed in advance that it would target the Westeros system Cisco-AOL-Igret The antitrust investigation of the three Internet giants is imperative.
During this time, Simon once again received definite information, and the investigation will be launched at the end of July.
Since the White House has quietly revealed the time when it launched the antitrust investigation, it is actually trying to form some kind of tacit understanding with the Westeros system.
Of course Simon would not be so stupid as not to cooperate.
As for how to cooperate
What the White House wants is political achievements, an explanation to federal voters, so the Westeros system takes the initiative to deliver political achievements to the White House.
This is definitely much better than having the Ministry of Justice directly launch an investigation into the Westeros system without any communication, which ultimately leads to uncertain consequences.
Not only that, by reaching some tacit understanding in advance, the Westeros system can also actively cooperate to build momentum.
For example, this time, after discussion, it was determined that one of the concessions was that Igret would take the initiative to split its application software department. There is not a strong mutual complementarity between the software business and the network business of Igret. Even if they are separated, it will not have much impact on the overall development of Igret.
Simon had already made a similar layout early on.
However, in fact, it does not have much impact on Yigrit Company, but in terms of media caliber, since it has decided to make concessions in this regard, it must be a big exaggeration of the impact of the combination of Yigrit Company's software business and network business on the federal Internet industry. How serious the damage has been caused, how it will hinder the development of small businesses, how necessary it is to separate the two, and how Daenerys Entertainment resisted when the federal government attempted to separate the two businesses. How intense.
After such momentum is built up, when the two major business departments are finally separated, the media and the public will get great psychological satisfaction from seeing a super Internet oligarch split into two under the federal government's strong antitrust investigation. Similar people who do not know the truth will get great psychological satisfaction. New technology companies will also think that their spring has finally arrived.
The White House's approval rating will rise further.
The Westeros system can also avoid the bloat of Ygrit Corporation.
Everyone gets something and everyone enjoys it.
In addition to Eagle, AOL and Cisco will also make certain concessions in this antitrust investigation.
AOL will voluntarily give up the ten-year exclusive contract it originally signed with the three major operators. Cisco will also promise to limit the proportion of equipment provided to AOL and other operators within a certain range to provide small businesses in the United States. The company retains a certain market share.
Of course Simon would not be so stupid as to agree to various conditions of the Ministry of Justice within three to five months.
These concessions will take at least one or two years or even longer to be determined through antitrust investigations, and the final implementation will be even more protracted.
So until Friday.
July 22, nine o'clock in the morning.
Simon personally rushed to an office building in downtown Palo Alto not too far from Ygritte's headquarters to attend the launch ceremony of the Instagram website in charge of Girl D.
After three months of development preparation and internal testing, the photo sharing website Instagram is officially launched today.
The final design style of the website is very similar to the Instagram in Simon's memory. It is a 'photo wall' that many people think is extremely simple. Among the several girls who participated in the angel investment of the Instagram website under Simon's leadership, many of them were worried about this website. Simon is not worried about whether being too simple will lack appeal.
Simple and easy to use, this is one of the core attributes that make many Internet companies successful. What's more, the simplicity of the layout does not mean the lack of website functionality.
The Google in my memory is a typical example of the simple style of the Internet.
Moreover, for Instagram, the most important thing is users and rich content resources. Without these, no matter how colorful the website design is, it will not help.