Despite the pressure exerted by Firefly as a Disney shareholder, Disney management dragged on for a whole week before announcing Disney's latest financial report to investors.
Because of the sluggish performance for two consecutive years, Michael Eisner did not release quarterly financial reports as usual, but spent a lot of space reviewing the overall development of Disney since Michael Eisner became CEO in 1984, and focused on describing the The fact that Disney's market capitalization grew at a rate of 27% per year prior to 1990 underscores that the failure of several films such as "Cutthroat Island" and last year's "Rocketman" were accidental events. The parks and resorts and consumer product development businesses are both generating steady profits for the company, so a few movie flops shouldn't hurt Disney.
At the end of the report, Michael Eisner confidently assured that Disney's film and television department will be reformed, and the company will soon return to the development speed of a few years ago, calling on Disney's shareholders to stand on their side and jointly resist the firefly attack. hostile takeover.
In the face of Michael Eisner's attempt to downplay Disney's recent financial situation, Firefly quickly countered by revealing an inside story during the production of "Cutthroat Island" in the "New York Post" , Actual article.
"...According to the crew of "Cutthroat Island", during the film production process, from script revision to post-editing, Michael Eisner personally took care of everything, even the setting style of the film, the actor's personality, etc. Costume designs all need a nod from Michael Eisner to pass.
It was Michael Eisner's arbitrarily intervening in the filming of "Cut Throat Island" that made director Renny Haring unable to play his own directorial ideas. Ultimately leading to the failure of "Cutthroat Island".
Michael Eisner is a micromanager. This kind of management style is in the case of a manager's desire for power inflated during the day. It will strongly limit the work enthusiasm of the specific personnel in charge, thus causing the truly talented people to find another job, leaving those mediocre people who can only figure out the minds of the superiors.
There is no doubt that Michael Eisner made great contributions to the company in the first few years of Disney, but from the development of Disney in the past two years, it can be seen that Michael Eisner's headstrong management style has begun to show The disadvantages will cause immeasurable losses to Disney in the long run. "
Immediately after the article was published, Michael Eisner's representatives responded. Claiming that the New York Post report defamed Michael Eisner, Michael Eisner will have the right to sue for defamation.
The media is buzzing about you coming and going, but the real battlefield is where the public can't see it.
In the conference room of Firefly headquarters in Burbank, Bernie Sanders, head of Morgan Stanley's acquisition team, is discussing with everyone the specific acquisition strategy after Disney's board of directors rejected a friendly acquisition.
"In Saul Steinberg's hostile takeover of Disney in 1984, Disney finally adopted the anti-takeover strategy of paying 'blackmail and ransom', and redeemed Saul Steinberg's insufficient value with a huge sum of US$300 million. 200 million dollars in stock. But this time is different from the past, Disney shareholders obviously have a friendly wait-and-see attitude towards the acquisition of Firefly, so so far, most shareholders have only agreed to Michael Eisner's 'golden parachute' agreement, because This agreement will not harm their interests. The agreement stipulates that once the acquisition is successful, if 76 Disney executives are forced to resign within two years, Firefly will need to pay a total of US$500 million in compensation.”
Eric asked, "What if I just want Michael Eisner to leave alone?"
Bernie Sanders glanced at the information in his hand. Answer: "Michael Eisner first proposed the scorched-earth tactic. Any one of the 76 executives was dismissed. In retaliation, all the other 75 people resigned voluntarily, turning Disney's management into a barren 'scorched earth'. However, Disney’s management did not agree with Michael Eisner’s proposal, and the board of directors did not approve it. Therefore, if only Michael Eisner is allowed to leave, Firefly needs to pay Michael Eisner 30 million personally.”
"30 million US dollars, so little?" Eric couldn't help asking. He remembered that Michael Ovitz had only worked in Disney for more than a year in his previous life. When he was forced to leave the position of president, he took away a whole billions in compensation.
Chris, who was sitting next to Eric, rolled his eyes: "Eric, Michael Eisner's current annual salary is 750,000 US dollars, and 30 million US dollars is equivalent to Michael Eisner's 40-year annual salary. less?"
Eric wondered: "What about option incentives and profit sharing?"
"According to the agreement Michael Eisner signed with Disney in 1984, he will only receive option incentives and profit dividends based on performance after he has worked at Disney for five years. At the beginning of last year, Disney's board of directors officially passed the corresponding plan," Speaking of this, Chris seems to be a little gloating: "But then Disney's performance took a sharp turn for the worse. Last summer, several films caused a loss of up to 100 million U.S. dollars. In 1990, Disney's profits from other channels other than film distribution could not only make up for this. In addition to some losses, there is also a need to pay 150 million US dollars in due debts and interest, and in the end Disney can only barely break even, and options and dividends are out of the question.”
After Chris finished speaking, Bernie Sanders added: "But I want to remind you, Eric, that among the 75 executives other than Michael Eisner, 18 of them are related to Michael Eisner. The relationship with him is very close, it can be said that he is his confidant, and the total compensation of these people accounts for 220 million U.S. dollars."
Eric glanced at Michael Lynn who was sitting not far away without any trace, and didn't care too much in his heart. After completing the acquisition, it would be good to see the performance of these people and then make corresponding arrangements, just like the old one left by the new line Most of the executives who have come down have now become the backbone of Firefly, and no one will struggle with the high salary and benefits.
"These things can be considered after the acquisition is completed. I still hope that Disney's current management can remain intact. Of course. Mr. Michael Eisner will definitely not be able to stay in his original position."
Bernie Sanders nodded. Turning over a page of the document in his hand, he said: "In addition, Eric, according to our team's assessment, the wholly-owned acquisition plan is not the best choice. If only Disney's controlling stake is obtained, with Firefly's outstanding performance in movies, , most Disney shareholders would be happy to sell some of their shares.”
Eric shook his head and said, "Bernie. I once said that I don't want external investors to interfere with the company's development. Moreover, I hope that Disney can be privatized so that it can be integrated with Firefly."
Bernie Sanders just abided by his professional ethics to provide Eric with more professional advice. Seeing Eric's firm attitude, he did not persuade him, and continued to talk about other topics.
Immediately after the meeting, Firefly held a press conference, and Firefly Films CEO Michael Lynn made the first official offer to Disney. At the price of a 20% premium to Disney's stock on the day of Firefly's public acquisition offer, it will wholly acquire all of Disney's shares.
Disney headquarters, also in Burbank. Michael Eisner was sitting on the executive chair in his office, looking at the latest quotation materials from Firefly that his secretary had just sent over, and said to Frank Wells on the other side: "$4.2 billion, the first quotation is a 20% premium. %, I don’t know what the bottom line of Firefly will be.”
Frank Wells looked at Michael Eisner's sunken eye sockets, and didn't know how to answer. Michael Eisner seemed to be talking to himself, not expecting an answer.
This week when Firefly released its takeover offer, Michael Eisner visited more than 30 investment institutions and creditors day and night, hoping to gain support. Berger's hostile takeover attitude was completely opposite. Many investors had high expectations for this takeover, so Michael Eisner was not given any success, and some drastic anti-takeover measures could not be implemented.
Although Michael Eisner chose to be vague when announcing the financial report, most investors are very clear that Disney's film business has been declining in the past two years, even though Disney's other businesses are still bringing in stable profits. However, as a film company, the development of excellent films is always the most important cornerstone of the company. Without enough hot-selling films as support, Disney parks and Disney stores all over the world will not be able to launch new products. Disney, which relies on Disney content TV ratings will also drop.
And Firefly, which is very strong in film and television content, even strong enough to cover up its channel disadvantages, can form a perfect complementarity with Disney, which has a very complete peripheral channel. more obvious.
If Firefly's acquisition plan is to choose Disney's holding instead of a wholly-owned acquisition, maybe most of the shareholders have turned to Firefly.
Frank Wells waited for a while, seeing that Michael Eisner did not speak again, he had no choice but to take the initiative to say: "This acquisition cannot be completed in a short period of time. If Disney's New Year's movie performs well, it may be able to regain the support of shareholders." .”
"I'm not Eric Williams, where can I find it..." Michael Eisner stopped halfway, unwilling to mention Eric's name, and continued: "I went to see a few people yesterday. The samples of the movie are already available. The "Beauty and the Beast" that has already been scheduled and the remake of Elizabeth Taylor's "The New Father-in-Law" are good, but the quality of Robert Benton's "Beauty and Courage" is not satisfactory. It cost 48 million U.S. dollars, which is the sum of the cost of the first two films, but everyone who has watched it thinks this film is worse than "Cutthroat Island", so I think about whether to change the film to next summer."
"It's better to change the file, and we can't let this movie affect this matter anymore," Frank Wells finished speaking, and suddenly thought of something, and said: "I remember that "Brave" invited Nicole . Kidman was cast in the lead role, and she turned it down."
"Eric Williams' lover?"
"Yes, if we had realized this earlier, perhaps we should... be more cautious about the project "Brave of the Heart"."
"Maybe it's just a coincidence." Michael Eisner waved his hand irritably: "Don't talk about him anymore."
While the two were talking, the phone on the desk rang, Michael Eisner picked up the receiver, and the secretary on the opposite side said: "Mr. Eisner, I just received a call, and the other party said he was Summer Ray Shi Dong, do you need me to come in?"
"Summer Redstone, Viacom's Summer Redstone?" Michael Eisner confirmed, and Frank Wells also pricked up his ears when he heard the name.
The secretary on the opposite side gave a definite answer, and Michael Eisner said: "Come in."
After speaking, Michael Eisner looked at Frank Wells and pressed the hands-free button on the landline so that Frank Wells could hear their conversation.
A somewhat old but energetic voice soon came from the landline.
…
In the villa of the Malibu Pointe Manor, Eric sat on the sofa in the lobby and looked at the list of movies that Disney is currently producing and about to release. Frank Wells can think of the importance of the New Year’s file to Disney. Of course, Eric With that in mind, he's thinking about how to snipe Disney's end-of-year movies.
Among the films being produced, the pinnacle of 2D animation in memory, "The Lion King", has not yet appeared, but another "Aladdin" has already been approved and is in production.
In addition, in the movies that will be released at the end of the year, Eric has seen two familiar movies, "Beauty and the Beast" and "Beauty and the Beast". What impressed Eric the most about "Brave" is Nicole's full frontal nudity scene, as for the plot, there is nothing to say at all. An ambitious work that wants to imitate "The Godfather" and "Once Upon a Time in America", the result is nondescript and has no bright spots.
Eric put more attention on the cartoon "Beauty and the Beast". In the original time and space, "Beauty and the Beast" was the first animated film to be nominated for Best Picture in Oscar history. The premiere scale of this cartoon is only more than 900, but Eric dare not take it lightly.
If "Home Alone" is still produced by Firefly, releasing this movie at the same time as "Beauty and the Beast" is a good way to snipe. Fox has now started the production of "Home Alone 3", but has not announced the schedule. Judging from the schedule of the first two films, "Home Alone 3" may still be released on Thanksgiving, just like "Beauty and the Beast". But who knows if Fox will change his mind, maybe he can find some time to test it out.
Eric is considering putting Jim Carrey's "Dumb and Dumber" on the Thanksgiving schedule. Nicole is wrapped in a short bath towel, dangling her long white legs from a out of the bathroom.
Seeing Eric staring at her, Nicole, who was wiping her wet hair with a towel, asked, "What are you looking at?"
"leg!"
Nicole gave Eric a blank look, came over and sat down next to him, and looked curiously at the information in Eric's hand. She knew that the things Eric read outside the study were usually not confidential information, so she did not What scruples.
Eric stretched out his hand and pointed at the information: "Do you know "The Wind and the Cloud"?"
"Well, I have received a film contract for this script, and I can work with Dustin Hoffman and Bruce Willis at the same time, but there are some nude scenes. I communicated with the director several times, but the other party disagreed. Delete these shots, and I won't take it."
Eric smiled and said, "It's a good thing you didn't pick it up, or if you failed two movies in a row, you wouldn't be far from box office poison."
Nicole asked puzzled, "How do you know, this movie is a Disney movie, and it hasn't been released yet."
"Look at its schedule. On November 1st, a movie with a production cost of nearly 50 million US dollars was placed in the schedule on November 1st. I can't think of a second reason except that the film was shot badly. "
Nicole agreed with Eric's point of view in her heart, and while she was a little fortunate, she joked: "Maybe Disney thinks it is the same as "Small Island Cry", and can ignore the schedule?" (To be continued...)