LTD Group was acquired by Firefly Investment Company and the Brighton family through a hostile acquisition. Although the two companies jointly hold 62% of the shares and have absolute controlling rights, when Eric threw out 20 million US dollars to make the marketing of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show When the plan was made, it was immediately strongly opposed by representatives of other shareholders on the LTD board of directors. In order to avoid another turmoil within the LTD group that had just completed a hostile takeover transaction, Eric took the initiative to take over the matter. Even taking into account the possible reaction of the minority shareholders of the Firefly Group, the production cost of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show was entirely invested by Eric himself.
From the establishment of this fashion show project to the final TV broadcast, the sensational effect produced all proved the great success of this fashion show, but before the release of the video tape of the Victoria's Secret show, no one thought that this Nei Yixiu itself has the potential to generate profits, even though the high ratings after the Victoria’s Secret show attracted a large number of TV stations who attempted to purchase broadcasting rights, but in order to expand the influence of the Victoria’s Secret brand as much as possible, Eric is interested in broadcasting The asking prices for the rights are very low. Some TV stations in small European countries even took away the TV broadcasting rights of the Victoria’s Secret Show for only US$100,000. In the end, the total income of this piece was only more than 10 million, which was still not enough to recover 20 million. USD production funding.
However, after the release of the videotape of the Victoria's Secret show, an unexpected situation appeared.
The collection value of the videotapes of the beautiful and fashionable Neiyixiu, the six songs that hit the top of any music charts, and the hunger and thirst marketing effect caused by repeated sales out of stock by accident, led to the Victoria's Secret show. The popularity of the videotape has far exceeded everyone's expectations. In the United States alone, the sales of the videotapes of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show may reach 20 million boxes, and the sales prospect of the vast overseas market is even more unpredictable.
With the hot sales of Victoria's Secret show video tapes, only the sales of video tapes in the United States can bring Eric 300 million US dollars in income, even though Eric's current net worth has reached tens of billions of dollars, but the money It was also an unexpected windfall for him.
When everyone is amazed by the sales of the Victoria's Secret show video tape, the most regrettable must be the part of the LTD shareholders who strongly opposed the production of the Victoria's Secret show. It is estimated that those people heard about the sale of the Victoria's Secret show video tape number. I can't help but have an urge to hit the wall. If it wasn't for their strong opposition at the beginning, the income from the Victoria's Secret fashion show video tape will now belong to LTD, and this income can almost double LTD's annual profit.
What's more serious is that the huge profits brought by this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show will definitely not be shared by LTD. However, because it hastily sold the copyright of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show to Firefly, LTD will also not be able to share the profits in any future business operations of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show.
Therefore, it is not surprising that Emily just tried to take back the copyright of the Victoria's Secret fashion show.
Although the relationship between the two parties is very close, Emily is a member of the Brighton family after all, talking about business. If the copyright of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show can be withdrawn, the Brighton family will also be able to benefit in the future.
In fact, from the very beginning, Eric’s plan was to make a Victoria’s Secret show alone for LTD to see the advertising effect, and then return the so-called copyright to LTD to continue to operate. He never thought about the Victoria’s Secret show at all. To be able to bring such a windfall for myself. But now, just like Emily is talking about business, since the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show itself has achieved unexpected success in business, it is impossible for Eric to carry out the original plan.
However, Eric is also very clear that the unexpected success of the Victoria's Secret show in the release of video tapes is only possible this time. Because this year's success was achieved after Eric spared no effort to mobilize the entire Firefly Group's media resources and Yahoo's network media, and also personally carried out half a year of operation to achieve the final effect.
But it is impossible for Eric to continue to spend countless media resources to do this in the future, and even if he is willing, after the Victoria's Secret show loses its freshness and mystery, the audience will not continue to buy it. The form of the show is actually very simple. It is not like the Super Bowl or the Oscars, which can bring enough suspense to the audience every year, so this kind of success is completely impossible to replicate.
therefore. Although due to the successful operation of the first edition, the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show will definitely bring some profits in the next few years, but it cannot last for too long. So, let go of the copyright of Victoria's Secret Fashion Show now. It is almost equivalent to selling a stock at the highest point.
After thinking about it for a while, Eric said to Emily: "If I am willing to return the copyright of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, what kind of price can LTD offer?"
"Ah?" Emily's eyes widened suddenly, and she looked at Eric in disbelief, as if she wanted to make sure if she heard it wrong. Even Chris and Joanna looked at Eric in surprise gram.
Although at the last LTD board meeting, someone proposed to take back the copyright of Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. Emily was also quite moved, otherwise she would not have tested Eric at all, but at this time, when Eric said that he was willing to let go of the copyright of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Emily still had an unbelievable feeling It felt like, because like many people, she didn't have any expectations for this matter at all.
However, after being surprised for a moment, Emily recovered and asked with confirmation: "Eric, is what you just said true?"
Eric shrugged: "Of course, but if the price offered by LTD is not sincere enough, I will definitely not agree."
"Well, we really haven't considered this situation," Emily smiled awkwardly, and said honestly: "I need to go back and discuss it with other shareholders, but, Eric, yourself..." Emily As he spoke, he gestured carelessly: "How much money do you need to be satisfied?"
Eric said: "I'm not short of money now. If you pay cash, I have to pay personal income tax. It's not worth it, so the copyright of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show can be regarded as an equity investment."
Hearing that Eric wanted to convert the copyright of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show into LTD equity, Emily immediately showed a pitiful expression: "Eric, LTD sold the copyright at a symbolic price. Here it is, are you embarrassed to offer too high a price, and you have already earned so much this time."
Eric spread his hands and said with a smile: "If there is no unexpected income from the release of the video tape, I would have put in 20 million dollars this time, and it also consumed so many media resources of the Firefly Group and Yahoo Portal, so I will take the money I feel very at ease. Now that I have turned a soybean into a golden bean, of course you have to buy it back at the price of gold. Haha."
After hearing what Eric said, Emily stopped making those unnecessary gestures, and talked about the business in a serious manner: "Then, if LTD takes back the copyright. Will you still participate in the production of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show? "
Eric shook his head: "This year's participation is definitely impossible, but I am also a major shareholder of LTD. If I have any good ideas, I will definitely not be stingy. Moreover, this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show opened a very Good head, so next year even if I don't participate. You will definitely be able to pull in a heavyweight creative team, like the background song of the big show, next year you will be able to cooperate with some top musicians, with the Victoria's Secret big show now Influence, those singers must be very willing to use the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show as the first platform for new songs, so that although these singers will share a part of the video revenue, the profits obtained by LTD must be equally generous, and don't forget, The most fundamental function of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show is the marketing of the Victoria’s Secret brand. The benefits that the show itself can directly bring will definitely gradually decline. However, the Victoria’s Secret brand will continue to strengthen for many years. maintain a very strong position in its field.”
Emily kept nodding her head, and after listening to Eric's words, she jokingly said, "Eric, now I want to drag you to LTD as the director of operations."
Everyone laughed, and Eric also laughed and joked: "Then you must not be able to afford it."
In the next few days, LTD almost couldn't wait to come up with a plan, and finally the two parties reached a deal with an equity worth 225 million US dollars. Eric is still very satisfied with this offer. Originally, Firefly Investment and the Brighton family shared the 62% equity equally, but after this transaction. The shareholding of Firefly Investment increased to 35%, becoming the largest shareholder of LTD, and the shareholding of the Brighton family dropped slightly to 30%.
Although many industry analysts are very keen to point out that the commercial success of Victoria's Secret Fashion Show this year cannot be replicated, the market's reaction is often very blind. Otherwise, there would be no stock market bubble. Therefore, the conclusion of this transaction once again stimulated LTD's stock price, making LTD's market value break through the high of 5 billion US dollars. However, these have all happened in the following period of time.
After the Victoria's Secret TV show ended, Eric's energy turned to Hollywood again.
With the approach of Christmas time. "Face Changing" released by Firefly and "Game of the Brave" released by Columbia have been uploaded one after another, not because "Game of the Brave" involves a lot of special effects, but the special effects of the original version are obviously a bit shoddy. Of course Eric is unwilling to repeat the same mistakes , so the budget is very generous. In the end, the production of the new version of "James of the Brave" was much better than the original version, but at the same time, the budget continued to climb, eventually reaching a high of 80 million U.S. dollars, and the marketing expenses also reached 40 million U.S. dollars. In comparison, the final investment budget of "Changing Face" is only 60 million US dollars, and the marketing budget is much lower than that of "Game of the Brave".
However, after the release of the two films, there were still some unexpected changes. "Face Changing" was released a week earlier than "Game of the Brave". With unanimous praise from film critics, the final box office may reach about 120 million US dollars. Although the results are not so eye-catching compared with the original "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", this film can still recover the production cost only in the North American market. Issuance can also achieve profitability, and subsequent peripheral announcements are basically net profits.
Then, "Game of the Brave" was released.
This special effects blockbuster, which Columbia has high hopes for, also grossed more than $36 million in its first week. That's right, it's almost on par with "Face Changing", and Columbia's original box office forecast was that the film should earn around 45 million in the first week. There is obviously a big gap between reality and ideals.
Moreover, compared to the good reputation of "Face Changing", "Game of the Brave" has a bad reputation among film critics. Many film critics said that this film is too "noisy", and the director is a little too obsessed with the accumulation of CG special effects.
Although the CG special effects film market is not yet saturated, many viewers are obviously not affected by the low reputation of "Jumanji". In the second week, the box office drop of this special effects blockbuster was only a weak 26%, with a total of more than 62 million US dollars in two weeks. The box office performance of "Game of the Brave" is already very good, but according to box office estimates, the final domestic box office of "Game of the Brave" is likely to stop at around 140 million U.S. dollars, which is 60 million lower than Colombia's estimated local box office of 200 million U.S. dollars.
After the huge asset write-down incident of US$2.1 billion that just passed, Sony originally had infinite resentment towards Hollywood. Although the final box office of "Game of the Brave" was still able to make it into the top ten box office of the year, after distribution through various channels, This film also has very considerable profit prospects, but it is an indisputable fact that the box office did not meet expectations.
At the same time, Barry Diller, Amy Pascal, Michael Lynn and other well-known Hollywood executives have rejected Columbia's solicitation because of repeated obstacles in choosing the next leader of Columbia, feeling that the whole Hollywood is "bullying". In the end, his own Sony couldn't hold back his temper.
The first thing Sony, who was playing with his temper, became tougher in the negotiations with Firefly's "Men in Black" and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith", and even publicly stated that if Firefly continued to deliberately delay the sequel development process, Columbia would not hesitate to take advantage of it. legal means to protect their own interests.
Eric had no intention of embarrassing Sony in the development of these movie sequels. He also hoped that Sony would continue to stay in Hollywood to contribute.
However, Sony obviously doesn't think so. Regarding Eric's entanglement in the salary of the creator of "Men in Black", Sony has always believed that this is a gesture made by Firefly to monopolize the copyright of "Men in Black".
Therefore, when the negotiations failed in a short period of time, Sony instructed Columbia to do another thing, requesting to renegotiate the "Night at the Museum", "Forrest Gump" and even the movies that are still in theaters. The 'unfair' share contract for the sequel to the Mission: Impossible franchise. (To be continued.)