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Chapter 675
The materials accusing Michael Ovitz almost landed on the headlines of all front-line media the next day. The controversy caused by Ci's "incompetence" material can be imagined. It is difficult for the outside world to understand what happened in Hollywood. They can only know through the media that the internal conflict that Universal has been trying to cover up finally broke out. Rumors of a conflict with Michael Ovitz, which had been denied multiple times in press interviews, have also been confirmed.
Although most people can only see the surface of this incident, Eric got the detailed ins and outs of the whole incident on the night it happened.
Michael Eisner was desperate to use the deal to kick Michael Ovitz out of Universal during Seagram's acquisition of Universal to consolidate his power. In order to reduce the cost of dismissing Michael Ovitz, Michael Eisner came up with the idea of letting Panasonic bear the cost of Michael Ovitz's departure, and specially compiled such a material for this purpose.
As Sony's deadly rival in the electronics industry, Panasonic did not have the "consciousness" of being willing to be taken advantage of like Sony, so it conveniently disclosed to the media the materials that Michael Eisner tried to include in the negotiation terms. Do not make any public comments on the materials, but through this kind of behavior, the attitude expressed is also very simple. This is an internal contradiction in your Hollywood, don't let Panasonic pay for it.
Matsushita put on the appearance of a bachelor who is about to leave, and he can manage so many bachelors, but he messed up Hollywood.
Although the material that accused Michael Ovitz was full of Michael Eisner's personal prejudice, the content was not fictional. Therefore, after confirming the authenticity of the material, Sony immediately canceled the decision to let Michael Ovitz take charge. The idea of Columbia, just like what Michael Ovitz thought of immediately after seeing the information, just that he once spent 2 million US dollars to decorate the office around the world, made Sony, who had just experienced the pain of Peter Guber's profligacy, Cut off the idea of inviting him. [ㄨ]
For Universal, the irreconcilable conflict between the two helmsmen was torn apart. The deal negotiations between Panasonic and Seagram, which were almost only one step away, came to a halt. Both parties knew very well that if this matter is not resolved, the final deal will be difficult to reach.
The 'dirty water' splashed all over by Michael Eisner. Michael Ovitz knew that it would be difficult for him to find a new home, and the hope of returning to the brokerage industry was even slimmer, so Michael Ovitz began to report to Michael Eisner on the phone every day on time. Universal commutes, as if he really intends to 'tie' himself to Universal's desk. It's just that there is no direct communication between him and Michael Eisner.
With the protection of the golden parachute agreement, Michael Ovitz is like a group of hedgehogs in the world, and people have nowhere to 'talk'.
Although he felt a little regretful about throwing out the information too eagerly, Michael Eisner could not admit that he was wrong, because in Western society, admitting mistakes means taking responsibility, and the helm of a large group should take responsibility. There is often only one way to take the blame and resign. This kind of result is definitely not what Michael Eisner is willing to bear, therefore, in the process of subsequent interviews. In order to gain the approval and support of the media, Michael Eisner completely abandoned the firm friendship he had publicly declared with Michael Ovitz, and made a big fanfare to discuss the correctness of that material.
After spending Thanksgiving in the hustle and bustle of the public, Eric hurried back to New York to do the latest post-work for the upcoming "Victoria's Secret Annual Show" on December 6. Even so, Eric's eyes were always fixed on the City of Angels on the west coast.
If it was a few years ago, Eric must have been able to stand on the sidelines of these messy things happening in Hollywood.
However, now he is considering how to further intervene to 'modify' the Hollywood structure through this incident. The development of the Firefly Group has reached a peak, and Eric's next plan. It is to take the whole of Hollywood into his own hands step by step. This kind of arrogance that seems a bit whimsical to outsiders is not unrealistic for Eric. First of all, Eric already has enough financial strength. Even without considering the assets owned by Firefly Investment, which is only the Firefly Group in the media field, the initial payment for the two asset sales this year and the group's operating profit for the whole year are added together, excluding the necessary tax expenses, it can still bring more benefits to Firefly. With a free cash flow of around US$2.5 billion, the operating cash flow of all companies in the entire Firefly Group system is almost three times the free cash flow. With tens of billions of dollars in cash reserves. If Eric is willing, Firefly can even pack and eat Columbia and Universal in the hands of the Japanese.
However, if Firefly really does this, it will definitely cause anxiety and fear in Hollywood and trigger anti-monopoly investigations by relevant agencies. So everything can only be gradually figured out in a subtle way. In this regard, Eric undoubtedly has another big advantage, that is time. Even if it takes ten years to control the entire process of Hollywood, Eric will only be thirty by then. Five years old is in the prime of life, and many people even just start their own business at this age.
Compared with Los Angeles, which is sunny all year round, just after Thanksgiving, the entire east coast ushered in the first heavy snow after winter.
Early in the morning, the black Chrysler was parked outside a high-rise apartment building next to the entrance of Sixth Avenue, next to Central Park. Kelly got out of the car with the documents in her hands, gave a few words to the driver and assistant in the car, and stepped on it with her neck shrunk. Before I had time to clear the snow-covered road, I walked into the high-rise apartment, came to the door of Eric's apartment on the top floor, and reached out to ring the doorbell. After a moment of hesitation, the female assistant took out the key, opened the door and walked in.
The cold light in the morning after the snow stopped covered the spacious living room through the glass curtain wall. At this time, there were a lot of messy documents and materials in the living room, and the laptop screen on the coffee table in the middle of the living room was still on. Dong's luxurious penthouse overlooking the entire Central Park seemed out of place, and Kelly even felt that she had suddenly entered the home of some Frankenstein.
Taking off her thick windbreaker and boots, Kelly changed into her slippers at the entrance and walked into the living room. She saw Eric lying on the sofa in the living room, sleeping soundly, under a blanket. Funny and puzzled, this little man sometimes has strict requirements on the quality of life like a son of a family, and even has obvious cleanliness. But sometimes he casually acts like a tramp, as if he is already very satisfied with enough food and sleep.
Walking lightly to Eric's side, Kelly gently put the document in her hand on the coffee table, leaned over beside the sofa and carefully stroked the messy hair on Eric's forehead. With a gentle smile on the corner of his mouth, he wanted to lean over to kiss him, but he didn't move because he was afraid of waking Eric up, so he got up and walked towards the kitchen.
Quietly cut the bread and put it in the toaster, and heat the milk. The female assistant was about to make fried eggs when she felt a pair of big hands hug her from behind.
Kelly turned her head, let Eric kiss her cheek, and said with a smile, "You're awake, go wash up, breakfast will be ready soon."
Eric leaned close to the female assistant's neck obsessively and sniffed the charming woman's fragrance for a while, then let go of Kelly, who was already limp, and walked towards the bathroom.
After a while, Kelly put the prepared breakfast in front of Eric and sat down on the other side. Then he asked: "Why did you sleep on the sofa last night? What if you catch a cold?"
Eric replied while picking up the tableware: "Thinking about something, I fell asleep on the sofa before I knew it."
Kelly asked curiously, "Is it something important?"
Eric nodded, but asked, "Is there any news in Hollywood today?"
Kelly nodded, and said: "Yes, yesterday Michael Eisner attended the "Larry King Late Show", this time he even accused Michael Ovitz of having character defects and mental illness, I really don't know what he thinks , if Michael Ovitz is really as incompetent as he said, how could there be CAA."
Eric nodded. Without making any comments, Kelly continued: "One more thing, the news from Colombia that their financial audit has ended. You would never guess that Columbia will face a $2.1 billion asset reduction. Value, this will be Sony’s largest loss since its establishment half a century ago, although this news has not been made public, it has spread throughout Hollywood, and everyone is discussing whether Sony will sell Columbia.”
this time. Eric shook his head decisively and said, "No."
Kelly showed a puzzled expression, Eric drank a few sips of milk, and then explained: "I read the information you collected on Nobuyuki Idei last night, we all know that he will soon be the CEO of Sony Group, you know that he What is your business philosophy?"
Although Kelly was in charge of sorting out Nobuyuki Idei's information, she didn't notice these and asked, "What?"
"Nobuyuki Idei's business philosophy is to let Sony go digital and informatized. Simply put, it is to shift the focus of Sony's future development from purely electronic products to entertainment media, records, and even the Internet industry."
Kelly blinked her eyes a few times, and said puzzledly: "But, Sony's fundamentals are electronic products such as walkmans, video recorders, and game consoles. If he does this, won't he..."
Eric smiled and nodded: "You guessed it right, if Idei Shinichi insists on doing this, it will definitely lead to the decline of Sony."
Having said that, Eric couldn't help thinking of the original time and space. After the new century, because Nobuyuki Idei ignored Sony's fundamental business strategy, Sony lagged behind other industry rivals in MP3 players, personal computers, mobile phones and other electronic products time and time again. In the end, in addition to high-end cameras, Sony only had the PS game console, which was a good product. In this way, it was also strongly competed by Microsoft's Xbox products.
Kelly didn't seem to have Eric's determination, and said: "I don't think Sony should be so...so stupid, even if Nobuyuki Idei wants to do this, isn't there any other management objection?"
"Japanese companies are very different from Western corporate boards. The board members of Japanese companies are basically their own company managers. In addition, in Japanese culture, they obey their superiors. No one will object to the decision of the top management. Otherwise, during the process of Akio Morita’s acquisition of Columbia for US$5.5 billion, some people would come forward to oppose it. However, I think Sony is facing a huge loss of US$2.1 billion this time. The founder Akio Morita will definitely leave the position of chairman of Sony. In this way, after Nobuyuki Idei succeeds, it is even less likely that anyone will oppose his business strategy. Since Nobuyuki Idei wants Sony to go digital and informatized, he will definitely not sell Columbia. This is a great deal for us. A good opportunity. Since the Japanese are unwilling to sell, as an outsider, they definitely need a partner. Firefly can also continuously obtain enough benefits from Colombia. I have considered this matter in detail last night. In the next few days, I will discuss with Katzenberg and the others again. It is only good for us if the Japanese stay, so we have to take the initiative to throw out the bait to make them reluctant to leave."
Kelly smiled, seemed to think of something suddenly, hesitated, and said, "Eric, what you just said, the composition of the board of directors of Japanese companies seems to be very similar to the board of directors of Firefly."
Eric looked at Kelly's cautious appearance, smiled too, and said, "I just thought about this issue last night."
Kelly was a little surprised, and said, "What happened?"
Eric spread his hands: "The result is that I am not yet 25 years old, so I don't need to think so long-term."
Kelly froze for a moment, then laughed out loud.
Yes, Eric is not yet twenty-five years old, not Akio Morita's seventy-five years old. There is absolutely no problem with Firefly's current development momentum, and Eric does not need to plan ahead in this regard.
"Actually, I'm also thinking that I can still stay awake now, but ten or twenty years later, I will probably go my own way like Akio Morita and make such a thing as buying Columbia at a high price. Then, I found that I have started to have this tendency now, so I have to reflect on myself."
Kelly was a little surprised again: "Huh?"
"Qualcomm, do you remember?" Eric said.
Kelly nodded: "I thought you had forgotten about it." (To be continued.)