As a capitalist country dominated by money, most of the policy directions of the United States are closely related to the economy. Even if it launches a war, it is ultimately for profit.
Similarly, when it comes to business cases such as corporate mergers, whether they can pass the review of the U.S. Department of Justice depends on policies and regulations. The most important point is the game between various stakeholders. Competitors in the same industry certainly do not want a powerful one. The emergence of competitors creates a conflict of interest.
The rise of Daenerys Entertainment in Hollywood is a relatively slow process. The merger of Metropolis ABC Group is a major expansion in a short period of time. Once successful, it will have considerable industry advantages in a new field. , and form stronger synergies after the merger is completed.
The American market is only so big, and the expansion of Daenerys Entertainment will only encroach on the interests of other competitors.
Even if the federal government has lifted the ban on media integration, if the entire industry except the companies involved is opposed to the merger, the Department of Justice will not be able to risk the public disapproval and approve it. This would be tantamount to offending too many people.
These are the problems Simon needs to solve.
On June 19, after the news was made public, in addition to CBS Group, which reacted most violently to being suddenly "abandoned", ABC's other old rival, NBC parent company General Electric, also responded quickly.
A Republican congressman from Pennsylvania said in an interview with NBC's "Today Show" the day after the merger was announced on June 20 that the huge scale of Daenerys Entertainment Group has seriously affected the balance of the industry. If left unchecked, Its continued expansion will further impact the living space of small and medium-sized media companies, and even harm the federal press freedom.
The political advisory team of the Westeros family immediately sent the information about the relevant members to Simon.
As expected, this congressman is one of the spokespersons of General Electric Group in Washington. The influence of General Electric Group in American politics can definitely be described as deep-rooted. In the famous Alstom incident in time and space, the U.S. government spared no effort to act as a thug. , eventually splitting this old French industrial giant into pieces, and it was actually General Electric’s handiwork behind the scenes.
General Electric, which happens to be the parent company of NBC.
The merger between Daenerys and Metropolis ABC was made public. Even General Electric Group, the only established American industrial giant to enter the 100 billion market capitalization club at this stage, could not escape the impact.
On Monday, General Electric's share price also fell by 2.6%, and its market value fell from US$123.9 billion to US$120.6 billion. Given the size of General Electric, its market value evaporated by US$3.3 billion in one day. This is already a big drop that cannot be ignored. Although a spokesman for GE Group issued a press release through NBC's official website at noon that day, emphasizing that the media business only accounts for 12% of GE's revenue, it ultimately failed to escape this decline.
An analyst at Citibank commented on his Facebook that GE’s biggest mistake was actually missing the opportunity to merge its media business with Daenerys and become an important shareholder of Daenerys Entertainment Group.
With the announcement of the merger, the industry is generally more optimistic about Daenerys Entertainment's stock price prospects, and some more radical industry analysts have even given a market value estimate of US$300 billion.
Considering that the current bull market in the United States is still continuing, a market value of US$300 billion is not impossible for Daenerys Entertainment.
In addition, NBC's two most important popular programs at the moment, the sitcom "Friends" and the reality show "Survivor", are both produced by Daenerys Entertainment. Once Daenerys merges with Metropolis ABC, NBC is likely to lose these two ratings aces in order to suppress competitors.
What's more, NBC has also cooperated with Daenerys Entertainment on many other film and television projects in recent years.
When the interests of both parties conflict, the consequences can be imagined.
Daenerys Entertainment has already overwhelmed other peers in Hollywood. Based on the performance of this Hollywood giant in the television industry in the past few years, after annexing Metropolis ABC, the three-legged situation is likely to become a Hollywood-like independent company. Big, other public television networks may become completely vassals.
Analysts from Citibank also suggested in their article that NBC Group sell off its media assets as soon as possible to avoid long-term losses.
Simon deliberately handed over last year's two popular programs "Friends" and "ER" to NBC and CBS respectively instead of ABC, which had already been selected, in order to achieve penetration expansion similar to Hollywood, so that after taking ABC, Continue to use the channels of NBC and CBS to make profits for Daenerys Entertainment, so as long as the other two do not go too far, Simon is happy to continue to put a series of TV projects on each other's platforms.
After the "Today Show" program on the morning of June 20, Simon quickly told Robert Iger to contact NBC. If NBC has relevant concerns, the two parties can completely re-draw a long-term agreement. Daenerys Entertainment's cooperation with other studios in Hollywood is enough to prove that Simon will not maliciously renege on contracts to suppress competitors.
Of course, Simon must also guard against NBC and CBS deliberately suppressing these projects.
For example, they deliberately reduce the publicity and exposure of related programs in the future or even move the programs to unpopular times, which ultimately leads to a continuous decline in popularity.
Whether it's "Friends" or "ER," these phenomenally popular TV shows are only second in TV network broadcast revenue. The bulk of the profit is actually syndicated revenue in the later stages. Just like "Friends", in the past, even if Ten or twenty years later, streaming media giants like Netflix will still have to spend $100 million a year to purchase broadcast rights, and it depends on whether Time Warner, which owns the copyright, is willing.
While privately taking measures to appease these competitors, the Westeros system also proactively released various press releases to guide public opinion.
The congressman supported by General Electric just expressed his position on the "Today Show". Politicians in Washington responded tit-for-tat, criticizing the other party's remarks as a kind of big corporate bias. In the context of the coming information age, the traditional media industry Only by continuously integrating resources can we survive better.
On the other hand, the political lobbying team of the Westeros family has also become active in Washington again, keeping an eye on anyone who may obstruct the acquisition.
All in all, the next few months will be about constant gaming.
As long as the forces of all parties can be balanced as much as possible to avoid an overall rebound in the industry, this merger can be successfully completed.
Even, in order to divert the industry's attention to this matter to the greatest extent, Simon also took the initiative to "advise" his competitors.
If only one merger is too conspicuous, then the case of Daenerys Entertainment and Metropolis ABC will not be too conspicuous if other companies also initiate similar mergers and acquisitions.
Simply put, Simon intends to pursue other similar acquisitions.
Public opinion comes first.
On June 24, the weekend when the merger was announced, news suddenly spread on the Internet platform that General Electric was in contact with Sony and planned to buy back Columbia Pictures in order to further improve its layout in the media field. Once the deal is concluded, GE will not only be able to extend its reach into Hollywood, which has been recovering rapidly in recent years, but also make up for the shortcomings of its media business in content production.
This is actually fake news concocted by Simon.
However, just as Larry Tisch released the news that Daenerys Entertainment was about to acquire CBS Group some time ago, the relevant news quickly spread in the industry.
And many people believe it.
In recent years, Sony has been struggling to survive in Hollywood at a loss, and there have been countless reports that Sony plans to withdraw from Hollywood. General Electric wants to acquire a major Hollywood studio. Inspired by the merger between Daenerys and Metropolis ABC, this matter is completely logical.
By buying a major studio, NBC's strength in content production will be greatly increased, so it is expected to reduce its dependence on content producers such as Daenerys Entertainment. This was not possible in the past, mainly due to the ban on media integration.
All in all, the two families hit it off immediately.
Then, in the new week, on June 26, some people released so-called "insider" information on online forums, saying that Westinghouse Electric, also an American industrial giant, was in contact with CBS in an attempt to buy this old company. Public television network, imitating General Electric in developing media business.
This rumor is true.
However, it is already considered outdated news.
Historically, the merger of Disney and ABC was a splash and attracted much attention.
Because it was a cross-circuit merger, and because CBS was relatively small, Westinghouse's purchase of this old TV network in the same year was not so noticeable, but it did happen.
Westinghouse actually also had contact with CBS this time.
Unfortunately, in recent months, affected by the news of Daenerys Entertainment's expansion into the television industry, the stock prices of major television networks have increased significantly. Just like CBS, before being 'abandoned' by Daenerys Entertainment, its market value had already To $8.7 billion, the company's total value was less than $5 billion just a few months ago.
Daenerys Entertainment has a lot of money, and Westinghouse Electric, whose overall strength is far inferior to that of General Electric, is unwilling to take advantage of it. In addition, Larry Tisch wants to sell CBS to Daenerys Entertainment. Nothing came of the contact.
Now the news suddenly comes out again, Simon is playing tricks on him.
After CBS Group's stock price plummeted on June 19, the stock price continued to decline in the following trading days. Within five days, it had fallen back to US$4.9 billion at the close of trading on Friday, June 23, and its market value was almost halved.
Releasing such news would be better if it could provoke re-contact between the two families.
If not, Simon has nothing to lose.
Moreover, the main purpose of doing this is to raise CBS's stock price again. After all, even a multi-billion-dollar acquisition will take several months. The effect of releasing news to give the market confidence is immediate.
The news was released in the morning. On June 26, even though Westinghouse immediately denied the news circulating on the Internet, CBS stock price rose by 8% that day.
This is what Simon wants to see.
By raising the stock price of CBS again, Larry Tisch will have less resentment towards Daenerys Entertainment, and he will be less stumbling in private.
Most importantly, the continuous release of rumors about industry mergers and acquisitions can also stimulate capital from all parties to create a sense of urgency for mergers and acquisitions in the media industry. With so many people watching, if you take action too late, you won't even be able to drink the soup.
In fact, since the ban on consolidation in the media industry was lifted, many companies in the industry have been ready to make moves.
On the day CBS' stock price rose again, Simon heard the news that Viacom Group boss Sam Redstone had quietly tested CBS.
After missing out on Paramount, Viacom's development has completely deviated from its historical trajectory. Now, Hollywood no longer has a suitable studio for Redstone's Viacom to acquire in the short term. The media tycoon Your best bet is to turn your sights to the realm of public television.
ABC has been taken over by Daenerys. If General Electric contacts NBC, it is not certain who will annex whom.
The only choice is CBS.
This is actually not a situation Simon wants to see.
Cable TV stations such as MTV, Showtime and Nickelodeon owned by the Viacom Group are high-quality assets that Simon is very coveted. If possible, Simon hopes to take the opportunity to launch an acquisition of Viacom after acquiring ABC. If Viacom merges with CBS and wants to acquire it in the future, because Daenerys already owns ABC, it will be impossible to overcome the antitrust hurdle.
Now, in order to win the Metropolis ABC Group first, there is no need to worry about so much.
While the entire Daenerys Entertainment Group is trying its best to mediate the acquisition of Metropolis ABC, the summer season in North America has also entered its hottest period.
The much-anticipated "Jurassic Park 2" was in its third week of release from June 16 to June 22, because the box office performance of the two new films "Braveheart" and "Pocahontas" was not very good. , the single-week decline narrowed somewhat compared to the following week, reaching 33%, and continued to earn US$55.36 million.
In the three weeks since its release, the cumulative box office of "Jurassic Park 2" has reached US$267.12 million.
This makes it more likely that the film's domestic box office will exceed the 400 million threshold.
Disney's 2D animated film "Pocahontas" ranked second.
Although the Vivendi Group, which has just taken over Disney, spares no effort to support it, because it focuses on audiences of all ages with "Jurassic Park 2", and the audience has been attracted to Daenerys Entertainment's 3D animated movies in recent years. It whets the appetite, and the story of the film is not too pleasing. "Pocahontas" opened on 2,569 screens, and the box office in its first week was only 27.95 million U.S. dollars, just breaking the 10,000-yuan sales threshold.
Although it ranks second in the weekly box office list, this is mainly the result of Disney's efforts in promoting it in the early stage. The film only has a mediocre reputation of 5.5 points. It is difficult to expect stamina. Whether it can break 100 million depends entirely on luck.
Another new film of the same period, "Braveheart," received a comprehensive media rating of 9.0 points after its release. This epic film directed and starred by Mel Gibson has also been targeted by many film critics as a candidate for next year's Oscars. Popular.
However, because the production budget has reached as high as 72 million U.S. dollars, although Paramount has made the best time for the film and has had conflicts with DreamWorks, it is not willing to spend too much money on marketing. The publicity budget was only US$28 million, which happened to lock the entire project cost at US$100 million.
Publicity was weak, and the opening scale was only 2,035 dollars, which was not as good as "Pocahontas." Therefore, despite the overwhelming praise, the box office of "Braveheart" in the first week and seven days was only 17.14 million US dollars, and even the box office exceeded 10,000 US dollars. It didn't reach the best-selling level, and it won reputation but lost the box office.
As the trend of "Jurassic Park 2" begins to slow down, the subsequent performance of "Braveheart" will not be greatly affected.
However, due to a slow start, the film's total North American box office is expected to be only about US$70 million, which is comparable to "Die Hard 3" and "Ghostbusters" that started in the summer.