Simon rushed to the East Coast headquarters of Daenerys Entertainment in Greenwich Village in lower Manhattan in the afternoon. News that Elite, the internationally renowned model agency giant, had changed hands had spread rapidly.
This transaction is simply not worth mentioning compared to the two major mergers and acquisitions of Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of Metropolis ABC Group and Tinker Bayer's merger with Broadcast. However, the direct intersection between the well-known legendary tycoon and playboy Simon Westeros and the world's largest model agency industry giant really brings too many associations to people. It is just the natural lace flavor contained in it that arouses attention. Not much worse than the other two acquisitions.
The sudden occurrence of the transaction has also become the focus of heated discussion in the media.
The official statement given by Apollo Management Company is very routine: optimistic about the potential and future of the model agency industry, blah blah blah.
There is nothing that everyone expected.
So change the target.
When some reporters tried to contact Elite founder and former president John Casablanca, the always flamboyant fashion godfather uncharacteristically declined all interview invitations and only issued an equally formulaic statement through his lawyer, stating that he was quitting the company for personal reasons. , I hope Elite can get better and better.
Still no truth.
There is no airtight wall in the world.
Apollo Management and John Casablanca failed to satisfy the media's curiosity. According to the news that quickly spread in the circle, the media quickly locked in on Elite's new president Grace Spurter.
Grace Spurter was abruptly fired from John Casablanca a week ago, and then turned around.
The problem obviously arises here.
The first is the new head of Elite: he is an ordinary agent, has good looks, and a perfect family. He has risen rapidly with the help of Elite's new media operations department, which was established less than a year ago, and has outstanding capabilities.
nothing special.
Perhaps it is just another new member of the Westeros system’s women’s gang. Elite’s new media operations department cooperates very closely with the Westeros system, and both parties can be considered win-win.
Even if, well, there are some rumors circulating, and Westeros's preference for women is also well known, in the absence of photos and other solid evidence, it is impossible for these to be published in the newspaper anyway, otherwise, it is very likely that Will be sued for bankruptcy.
Grace also doesn't draw attention to herself.
After a little work, the media's attention turned to several clients under the woman's name.
Nancy Goff.
oh.
It was immediately clear.
This baby-faced girl, who is only 19 years old this year, has risen as fast as a miracle since last year. Not only did she sign a contract to become the sixth spokesperson of Victoria's Secret, she also participated in the phenomenal low-budget science fiction film "The Man from Earth" written by the Westeros writer. ", some time ago it was reported that Daenerys would join Warner Bros. in the science fiction blockbuster "Jumanji" as the heroine.
Now it seems that Simon Westeros' love for this lover doesn't stop there.
John Casablanca fired Grace Spurter, apparently ignoring the feelings of the agent's clients. It is said that after the incident, all of Spurter's contracted models suspended their work.
There are already clues.
Tracy Gauff obviously has a very good relationship with her agent, and she is also very dissatisfied with John Casablanca's behavior.
Then, Simon Westeros, the behind-the-scenes BOSS, appeared.
In order to please his little lover, Simon Westeros simply bought Elite, turning Tracy Gauff from a contracted model to a boss lady level existence.
Tsk tsk.
Qian Jinbo smiled.
I don’t know how many girls will be envious and jealous and stay up all night.
Of course, these gossips still cannot be published in the newspaper, otherwise they may still be sued and go bankrupt. However, there are some things that everyone knows very well, even if they can't say it directly, who can't beat around the bush. What's more, if everyone posts a batch of press releases from Qu Si Gauff, beautiful and beautiful photos, lavish compliments, and mentions a few words about Elite changing hands, Westeros will not be angry, right
How many low-level models are crying and shouting for exposure.
In the following days, the entertainment media was full of announcements about the change of ownership of Elite that were marked with photos of Qu Si Gauff, or the announcement of the change of ownership of Elite deliberately used beautiful photos of Qu Si Gauff.
Scandals have always attracted more public attention than boring business mergers and acquisitions.
The scandal caused by Simon's acquisition of Elite has largely diverted public attention from the merger between Daenerys Entertainment and Metropolis ABC Group.
While the two companies quietly submitted the merger case to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and other relevant departments for review, Simon was also dealing with various forces on the East Coast during the week of Independence Day. Amy Pascal also On the 5th, he rushed to Washington and accepted a routine question from the antitrust panel of the Judiciary Committee of the U.S. House of Representatives.
During this period, under the balanced mediation of the entire Westeros system, potential obstacles to mergers and acquisitions are being eased and eliminated one by one.
CBS, which was the most tense immediately after the merger was announced, was the first to stop under Simon's intervention. Now CBS has become the common pursuit of the other two giants, Viacom and Westinghouse.
This can be regarded as the result of Simon releasing all kinds of news to force him into a match.
At first, only Viacom expressed interest.
Simon really didn't want to see Viacom, which owned high-quality cable TV assets such as MTV and Showtime, merge with CBS, so he secretly re-encouraged Westinghouse, which was originally interested in CBS, to join the fray.
As an old industrial giant that once competed with General Electric, Westinghouse's strength far exceeds that of Viacom. Not only that, in order to promote Westinghouse's determination, Simon also used the Westeros system's resources on Wall Street to upload in the media After the news came out that Westinghouse was interested in CBS, he secretly bought a large number of Westinghouse shares, raising the stock price of this old industrial giant by more than 10%.
This is public opinion.
The market is so optimistic that Westinghouse will follow GE in developing its media business, so what reason does Westinghouse have for not taking action
What's more, Michael Jordan, the new CEO of Westinghouse Electric, who came to power a few years ago, split and sold part of the old industrial giant's business. Westinghouse now has nearly US$2 billion in cash, which can be used to launch an acquisition of CBS. In contrast, although Viacom is not short of money, if it wants to annex CBS, it will most likely have to adopt a stock exchange merger. This is an outcome that many CBS shareholders who want to cash out after the capital gains tax reform do not want to see.
In order to push the M&A balance further toward Westinghouse Electric, the Westeros System also quietly used its power on Wall Street to try to block the possibility of Viacom raising funds for cash acquisitions.
Two potential buyers emerged at the same time, CBS's stock price recovered, and Larry Tisch became less angry with Daenerys.
Simon also sent a message to Tisch that if the merger between Daenerys and Metropolis ABC cannot be approved, then CBS will not be able to successfully sell itself. The influence of the Westeros system in Washington far exceeds that of CBS, which is enough to achieve this.
After the big stick, of course don't forget to give some sweetness.
Daenerys also took the initiative to re-sign the contract for "ER" with CBS to ensure that this ratings star will not be withdrawn after acquiring ABC.
CBS's blockage was thus sealed.
In terms of General Electric, Daenerys has also re-signed new contracts with GE's NBC television network for projects such as "Friends" and "Survivor", which has dispelled NBC's doubts about Daenerys' cooperation with ABC to the greatest extent.
In addition, on Independence Day on July 4, Simon also invited General Electric Chairman and CEO Jack Welch to play golf at a golf course outside Greenwich.
The two chatted all morning.
About General Electric, about Westinghouse Electric, about traditional American industries, and about the media industry.
Simon elaborated on his views on this pearl of American industry from the perspective of a latecomer.
Simon told Welch that General Electric at this stage is at the peak period after the second industrial revolution, and this peak will be the peak of the current bull market in the United States.
Then, it flourished and then declined.
GE may be able to maintain its advantages in the most cutting-edge aviation field or in the monopolistic and closed defense field, but in the near future, GE’s relatively mid-range electrical, lighting, transportation and other businesses are destined to be overtaken by lower-cost Japan and South Korea. Even China and other Asian countries continue to erode.
The U.S. automobile industry has already proven this.
At this stage, traditional industries, which still account for a high proportion of U.S. GDP, will continue to shrink, and tertiary industries such as finance, media, and entertainment will further rise. Therefore, maintaining cutting-edge industrial advantages while developing tertiary industries is the future of General Electric.
Actually there is one more thing.
Suppress competitors as much as possible.
Compared with the diversified expansion trend that General Electric still maintains, as one of the most important competitors in the country, Westinghouse Electric is constantly splitting up, which is tantamount to abandoning its martial arts skills. In addition, Dongshi's imitative acquisition of CBS is also heading towards a path of no return. Because compared to ABC and NBC, CBS's overall strength is too weak. CBS lacks the layout in the cable television field that has grown rapidly in recent years, which is also the fatal weakness of this established media giant.
As long as Daenerys merges with Metropolis ABC and facilitates Westinghouse's acquisition of CBS, then Daenerys and GE can work together to completely wipe out Westinghouse.
Historically, this was actually the fate of Westinghouse Electric.
Even after the complete decline of Westinghouse Electric, some media questioned that Westinghouse Electric CEO Michael Jordan was a commercial spy sent by Jack Welch, deliberately using irrational splits and disorderly mergers and acquisitions to destroy General Electric's domestic company in the United States. Biggest competitor brought into the abyss.
Simon has investigated the resume of Westinghouse CEO Michael Jordan. This man, who has the same name as a famous basketball star, is actually a white, middle-aged professional manager in his sixties and has no connection with General Electric. The claims of commercial espionage were only later made by the media. A conspiracy theory complaint.
Speaking of which, Michael Jordan split off and sold Westinghouse's traditional industrial business bit by bit in the original time and space and completely shifted it to the media field. In the late 1990s, he even simply gave up the name Westinghouse and changed it to CBS. This development path did not correct. The mistake was that this professional manager did not have the talent to run the media industry. In the end, he had to sell the media assets that he had spent a huge amount of money to integrate to Summer Redstone in 1999.
Westinghouse Electric also declined completely.
All in all, after playing golf all morning, Jack Welch agreed with Simon's ideas and made a clear promise to Simon during lunch that he would not create obstacles in the merger of Daenerys and Metropolis ABC.
After getting rid of CBS and NBC, the two potential competitors that are most likely to create obstacles to the acquisition, the matter is basically settled.
Hollywood, which is the foundation of Daenerys' entertainment, was unable to make any waves at the beginning.
As for many other small and medium-sized media companies, Simon will not take them lightly, but without the possible collective rebound led by the two giants CBS and NBC, Simon does not think they can create many obstacles.
The media's attention was diverted, competitors' obstacles were smoothly eliminated, and Washington was no longer a problem.
After getting these three things done, the merger and acquisition case has been smooth. .
Continuing to follow up on several key projects being prepared by the TV department, Simon returned to the West Coast on July 7.
This day is Friday.
Another weekend at the North American summer box office is over.
In this box office week that spans the Independence Day holiday, "Jurassic Park 2" released on June 2 finally gave up its position as the single-week box office champion. However, the successor is still a film produced by Daenerys Entertainment. "Apollo 13".
This film, set against the backdrop of the Apollo 13 crash in 1970, fits the mood of the Independence Day holiday perfectly, not to mention starring Tom Hanks, who just won the Academy Award a few months ago, so it attracted a lot of attention during the holiday. Ten spectators bought tickets to enter the venue.
The production cost is US$50 million, the promotion is US$30 million, and the number of screens is 2,793.
Relying on the same classic-level comprehensive media score of 9.5 points as "Jurassic Park 2", in the first week of its release from June 30 to July 6, "Apollo 13" grossed as much as 56.31 million U.S. dollars at the box office in its first seven days. Both exceed $20,000. Although it cannot be compared with "Jurassic Park 2", according to first-week box office forecasts, the total domestic box office of only 150 million to 200 million US dollars is enough for "Apollo 13" to recover its entire budget and achieve profitability.
After the championship, Fox's animated live-action film "Power Rangers", which was released at the same time as "Apollo 13", and Disney's action blockbuster "Judgment" starring Stallone, both failed to win the runner-up position. "Jurassic Park 2" successfully held on to the runner-up position. Second on the list.
In its fifth week of release, under the impact of three new films, even though it was a popular Independence Day holiday, the single-week box office drop of "Jurassic Park 2" still reached 38%, with box office revenue of US$24.36 million.
From 129.13 million in the first week to 24.36 million in the fifth week, the downward trend of "Jurassic Park 2" is very obvious. However, in five weeks, the cumulative North American box office of this dinosaur-themed science fiction blockbuster has reached 330.78 million US dollars. The revenue in a single week can still be maintained at 24.36 million, leaving only 70 million yuan away from the 400 million threshold.
Based on this prediction, it is really only a matter of time before "Jurassic Park 2" breaks into the 400 million box office club.
Immediately afterwards, "Power Rangers", which Fox produced with a production cost of US$15 million, relied on the popularity driven by the animation IP to earn US$16.49 million in the first week. It is estimated that the total domestic box office is US$30 million, which is considered a good success.
Sylvester Stallone's $90 million collaboration with Disney turned out to be a disaster.
With 2,204 opening screens, the box office in the first week was lower than that of "Power Rangers" with a production cost of US$15 million. The audience has obviously completely lost interest in Stallone's old-school action movie. The film's box office in the first seven days was only a pitiful US$14.13 million. It is expected that the local The total box office is approximately US$25 million.
It's like the past is reappearing.
Sony had just taken over Columbia and had been paying tuition for several years.
Now, it's Vivendi's turn.
Speaking of which, "Judge" was a project finalized last year when Michael Eisner was still in office. However, Vivendi actually had the opportunity to stop the project or significantly reduce the production budget after contacting Disney, but the Frenchman did not Instead of doing this, he planned to make a name for himself in Hollywood through a blockbuster film, so he spared no effort to support it.
The result was a huge somersault with broken bones and tendons.
It is estimated that the total local box office of 25 million US dollars will not even be able to recover the publicity and distribution expenses. Even if Stallone's overseas box office appeal is stronger, Disney will not be able to escape the ending of huge losses.
Not only that, the failure of "Judge" also indirectly affected two projects currently being promoted in Hollywood, namely "Game of the Brave" between Daenerys and Warner Bros. and Warner Bros.'s recent deal with Schwarzenegger. "The Secret Order of Evaporation".