Eric raised his eyebrows slightly, and instead of answering, he asked, "What do you think the purpose of a company going public is?"
"Financial access to enable enterprises to achieve better development."
"Then, Firefly is not short of funds now, and its development is obvious to all. So, do you think it is necessary for Firefly to go public?"
The reporter was not discouraged, and immediately asked: "Mr. Williams, are you satisfied with the status quo and don't plan to continue to expand the territory of Firefly Pictures?"
"Of course not, but if you want to expand the territory of Firefly Pictures, there are many ways to obtain funds, and you don't have to go public. I have my own complete plan for the development of Firefly, and some development ideas may even cause a lot of controversy. I can I don’t want to waste my time explaining the reason to those old men on Wall Street every time I make a decision after going public. You are in the news, so you should be very clear about how difficult those people are. Okay, let’s stop here. Let's get back to the subject of today's press conference."
Listening to Eric's slightly teasing tone, the reporters present all chuckled.
They all knew what Eric meant. Although the relationship between Hollywood and Wall Street is quite close, in fact, the game between the two parties is more than cooperation. Wall Street pursues various operating indicators of a company. Due to the high growth rate and high rate of return, most investors often do not value long-term development, and only want to see beautiful financial reports, which is very speculative. However, the company's managers often pay more attention to long-term development, and often sacrifice short-term interests for this purpose, which forms a difference with Wall Street's concept.
If a company is not listed. Of course, Wall Street is a dog that bites a hedgehog and has nowhere to bite. I don't want your funds. You don't even want to meddle in my territory. And if you choose to go public, even if the control is still in the hands of the business operators, once the company's development footprint deviates from the track envisioned by Wall Street, it will still be subject to constant criticism from Wall Street investors. Today, this investment bank published a bearish article, Tomorrow, the Wall Street tycoon will come to criticize fiercely. In the face of the resulting stock price shock, if a company does not make compromises. Just stop trying to stop.
The most extreme example is of course the Marvel Entertainment Group that Eric has been paying attention to silently. In the 1980s, Marvel Comics had been operating very well, and even almost annexed DC Comics in the hands of Warner. But since the comic company fell into the hands of Wall Street investor Ron Perelman in the late 1980s, he has ushered in his own troubled life. Ron Perelman is only interested in capital operations and has no intention of Up to now, Ron Perelman has taken hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from Marvel Entertainment, but the operating conditions of Marvel Entertainment have been declining all the way, almost reaching the brink of bankruptcy.
There are countless speculators like Ron Perelman on Wall Street. In some memories of Eric's previous life, MGM finally got rid of the casino tycoon Kirk Kerkorian after 2005. But soon after, it became another "toy" in the hands of another Wall Street speculator, Carl Icahn. In the following years, MGM faced bankruptcy crisis many times, and the business situation did not improve at all, but Carl Icahn made a lot of money. Bowl full.
All of this information made Eric have a deep fear of Wall Street. Firefly Films is the foundation of Eric's career and his favorite career, so Eric has never made Firefly Films go public. Intend.
And some of the high-tech companies that Chris helped him run are the capital Eric prepared to expand his territory in Hollywood. No one knows better than Eric the development prospects of companies such as Cisco, America Online, and Yahoo. If Firefly Pictures needs a large sum of money to expand in the future, Eric can obtain a large amount of development funds by selling shares in companies such as Cisco or listing companies such as Yahoo. Moreover, even if he loses control of these companies in the future, Eric doesn't care too much about it. As a sunrise industry, the Internet has a lot of bubbles. It is the wisest choice to cash out and leave the market in time, and there are still countless investment opportunities in the Internet in the next two decades.
After Eric finished speaking, he handed the microphone directly to Ed Kamal on the other side. After Eric's reminder just now, the following reporters stopped asking about "Jurassic Park" and Firefly Pictures Instead, they focused on Firefly Software Company.
The event quickly created a huge buzz in the media both inside and outside of Hollywood, and it was clear to many that it was the digital sphere's first push back against recent poaching to stop Autodesk from moving into special effects software market and maintain an industry-leading position in the digital arena.
After the press conference, Autodesk's chairman and CEO Carol Bartz said in an interview that Autodesk would not give up on its march into film and television special effects software. However, news came out in the next few days that Autodesk The board of directors of the company has been divided on the strategy of entering the film and television special effects software market. Because the tactic used by Firefly is too lethal. Although it only takes half a year for Autodesk to launch mature special effects software, it is estimated that Firefly software has already occupied 90% of the market in the past six months.
Moreover, Firefly Software also has an advantage that Autodesk does not have, that is, the giant in the special effects industry in the digital field. The cost and technical advantages generated by the close cooperation of these two companies are definitely a tool that can only be produced by Autodesk. It is incomparable to a company without its own "experimental field". Although Autodesk has reached some cooperation intentions with Industrial Light and Magic before, the two parties are two companies after all, and it is impossible to cooperate as closely as Firefly Software and the digital field. .
Subsequently, Industrial Light and Magic’s approach also confirmed Autodesk’s concerns. Just a week after the Firefly software conference was held, Industrial Light and Magic announced to the outside world that it had decided to adopt Firefly Software’s products. A close handshake photo of Lucas and Firefly CEO Ed Kamal.
What George Lucas did was of course a helpless move. Although Industrial Light and Magic had a set of software tools developed by itself before, the performance was completely incomparable with Industrial Light and Magic. If you give up the cooperation with Firefly software this time. Then Industrial Light and Magic's cg special effects production level is likely to be inferior to those third-rate special effects studios that use Maya and other tools. In that case, Industrial Light and Magic Industrial Light and Magic will definitely decline rapidly.
When the news of the cooperation between Industrial Light and Magic and Firefly Software came out, Autodesk's board of directors directly rejected the management's proposal to establish a film and television special effects software department.
While forming Firefly Software, Eric and the management of Firefly also began to make efforts to retain employees in the digital field, and adopted a series of measures to increase salaries and benefits. For employees who insisted on leaving, the digital field did not stop them. Encourage these employees to set up their own special effects studios and attach themselves to the digital realm in an attached way. And promised that these studios can not only get special effects software at a preferential price, but also receive a certain number of outsourcing projects from the digital field. This measure can keep these people in the camp of the digital field in disguise. weaken the competitiveness of rivals.
This measure is very attractive to many people. If you go to another company to continue working as an employee, how can you be as comfortable as your own boss, even if you are just a small boss of a studio. After the implementation of this measure, some small and small special effects companies that had nothing to do with the digital field at all expressed their desire to join the affiliated camp of the digital field in anticipation of obtaining corresponding discounts, and the digital field also selectively accepted a batch.
Because these small and micro special effects companies affiliated to the digital field camp rely too much on the technology and projects of the digital field headquarters, Eric is not worried that there will be another behemoth that threatens the digital field. And this approach has also accelerated the expansion of firefly special effects software tools.
More than a week later, the digital turmoil has finally died down. Stimulated by this incident, in order to ensure that similar incidents will not occur in the company in the future, Eric began to contemplate an equity incentive plan among all member companies of Firefly Films. A sense of belonging and cohesion towards Fireflies.
During this process, Pixar's second 3D animation "A Bug's Life" was officially released on more than 2,500 screens in North America. A large number of audiences of all ages received a box office of 33 million U.S. dollars in three days in the first weekend. It is expected that the box office in the first week will reach about 50 million U.S. dollars. The achievement of "A Bug's Life" is already fully capable of ranking among the top-selling blockbusters.
And the cost of this 3D animation is only about 70 million U.S. dollars. According to the North American box office trend, relying on the release of the North American market, the cost can basically be recovered. As a cartoon, the profit of peripheral licensing of "A Bug's Life" is the profit. The biggest gimmick is that in just three days after the movie was released, the peripheral products that were simultaneously put on the shelves of hundreds of Disney stores across the United States generated a turnover of nearly 12 million US dollars.
By the way, the peripheral products of "Jurassic Park" also began to be distributed through the Disney store channel at the same time as the film was released. In nearly a month, the sales of peripheral products also successfully exceeded 100 million US dollars. Eric It also deliberately imitated the original version and gave several clear close-ups of the peripheral products of "Jurassic Park" in the movie, and the history seems to be surprisingly similar, because Dr. Hardmond's granddaughter Lex made a series of pigs in the movie. The plot of teammates, the image of the girl’s hand-made doll has become the most unpopular product among the peripherals of “Jurassic Park”. Eric forgot to remind this at the beginning, which caused Disney's toy foundry to produce a batch of Lex's character dolls ahead of schedule. Half of them didn't sell.
Staying in Los Angeles means being busy, often before the things in hand are finished, other things come one after another.
Of course, most things are related to movies. Although Firefly’s direct profits from the movie business account for a smaller and smaller share of the company’s total profits, no one can underestimate this part. The movie business is like the engine of a movie company. , Only when the horsepower of the engine is strong enough can it guide other businesses to develop rapidly together.
After deciding to give up on the acquisition of Miramax, Firefly Pictures reactivated its Black Ant label and set up a special art film investment department. After a period of screening, some scripts were also sent to Eric one after another.
After Quentin Tarantino became famous in "Reservoir Dogs", he happily played soy sauce in many B-movies for two years, and finally remembered that he still had work to do. After Eric's urging and advice, Quentin Tingcai took out the script of "Pulp Fiction", and Eric also gave some suggestions based on the memory in the original, such as the candidates for the hero and heroine, and the so-called classic twist dance.
Maybe after watching "Pulp Fiction", many people don't understand where the classic twist dance between John Travolta and Uma Thurman is. However, when the movie was first released in North America When seeing this picture, many North American viewers would have tears in their eyes.
Things have to start from 1978. In that year, Paramount Pictures released a very anti-traditional musical film "Hot Boy". As soon as the movie was released, it immediately caused a sensation among teenagers in North America. At that time, the ticket price was only half of the 90s, and it abruptly won the box office of 170 million US dollars in North America, and took away the box office of the year without any suspense. box office champion. Moreover, this movie also led to the disco trend that was in full swing, and created a sales record that the soundtrack of movies could not break for many years.
"Pulp Fiction" happens to have a lot of John Travolta's hero fighting people in discotheques, and years later, "Pulp Fiction" through John Travolta and Uma. The way Thurman participated in the twist dance competition in the ballroom, recreating the classic scene in "Hot Boys" more than a decade ago, the effect is like Fa Ge wearing a trench coat and holding a toothpick after many years in "True Tomorrow". The appearance of the image on the screen is as touching as it is. If you use a more vulgar vocabulary to describe it, this feeling is called 'feeling'. (To be continued..)