National Tide 1980.

In order to sign Ken Utsui and Tomokazu Miura, Keiko Matsumoto had to pay more than just the termination fees from their original agencies. The actual cost was almost 200 million yen.

You know, in order to truly achieve the effect of buying a good horse with a lot of money, and to allow these two famous actors to film with peace of mind after joining Mist Studio, Matsumoto Keiko completely followed Ning Weimin's advice and gave them the treatment of real first-line stars.

For example, assigning each of them a support team.

Including full-time agents, public relations staff, life assistants, stylists and car drivers.

Therefore, we have to add at least eight or nine people to the office, and the monthly expenses just for salaries will be an additional 5 million yen.

In addition, the agency contracts signed by Keiko Matsumoto with two people in the name of Matsumoto Agency also offered very favorable terms.

The contract stipulates that, apart from appearing in film and television dramas and related promotional activities, Ken Utsui and Tomokazu Miura will not be forced to participate in programs and performances they dislike.

Moreover, the profit-sharing contracts signed between Matsumoto Office, Ken Utsui and Tomokazu Miura are 40% and 60% respectively.

The firm took fourth place, while Ken Utsui and Tomokazu Miura both took sixth place.

It should be said that this is a very rare benevolent contract in the entire Japanese entertainment industry.

Because usually, in Japan, even for top-tier celebrities, the best treatment is just 50-50.

Moreover, this kind of contract is only possible in small and medium-sized agencies. Large art agencies will never offer such conditions.

Like when Keiko Matsumoto was contracted to Shochiku, she was the well-deserved "No. 1 in Shochiku".

However, they still only received 40% of the film remuneration, and 60% went to Shochiku.

This is why all the big Japanese stars eventually become independent.

It's really because of the industry atmosphere in Japan, where agencies exploit artists too harshly.

Both the former large film studios and the current television talent agencies are the same in this regard.

Only when the agency has made enough money first, the artists will have a chance to get a share of the profits.

Therefore, a financial contract like the one signed by Mist Studio, which offers generous treatment but demands little, is unique in the current Japanese entertainment industry. Ordinary agencies would not do such a stupid thing.

From this point of view, Matsumoto Office has completely deviated from the original intention of capital, which is worthy of the integrity and goodwill of Ken Utsui and Tomokazu Miura.

What's more, as the old saying goes, people scatter money gather; money scatters people gather.

For Keiko Matsumoto, although she was not smart in economics, she successfully gained the loyalty of Ken Utsui and Tomokazu Miura by gaining goodwill.

Such an "iron triangle" is exactly the support that Fog Studio, which is the least short of money at the moment, really needs.

Whether it is a profit or a loss, whether it is stupid or smart, this is a matter of opinion.

As for Ning Weimin, he understood this principle better than Matsumoto Keiko.

And when it comes to spending money, he is much better than his wife.

Two hundred million yen is nothing. He really spends money without blinking an eye, like a landslide or tsunami.

In fact, just when Matsumoto Keiko signed Utsui Ken and Miura Tomokazu, Ning Weimin was taking Watanabe Mitsuru and the lawyer Mamiya from the law firm to conduct a business negotiation with the major shareholder of the Taurus Palace, Hirohei Saburo, and the president, Minoru Funaki, which was likely to be a very costly one - to buy Taurus Palace shares for Matsumoto Keiko.

As long as this deal is done, he will have to spend who knows how many 200 million yen.

Of course, some people may be curious.

Isn't the Taurus Palace doing very well? It has a double-crown queen like Teresa Teng under its command, and her record sales are skyrocketing.

Moreover, once "Crazy Rich Asians" is released and becomes a big hit, it is entirely foreseeable that Teresa Teng and her new song "The Flowing River" will surely ride on the sedan chair and become even more popular.

  Why are you selling the shares all of a sudden?

Isn't this equivalent to selling the golden goose that lays golden eggs? That's too stupid.

In fact, this is not surprising at all, not for any other reason, but because Taurus has to take this step right now, and there is really no better choice.

  how?

It turns out that after seeing that Suo Ikuo felt threatened by him, Funaki Minoru, out of fear, immediately called Teresa Teng to tell her about the situation and wanted to discuss with her what to do.

Unexpectedly, Teresa Teng was Ning Weimin's staunch ally, and the two had already fully communicated about the pressure they faced due to "Crazy Rich Asians". Teresa Teng stood on Ning Weimin's side without even thinking about it, and her attitude was very tough and resolute.

After she understood Funaki Minoru's intention, she only said, "I will definitely stand with President Ning on this matter. I can't leave the crew, and I can't help outsiders to deal with my friends. If you insist on me doing this, then I can only consider leaving Taurus Palace."

As a result, Funaki Minoru was completely dumbfounded and dared not mention the matter again.

To be honest, Taurus Records was originally a record company that couldn't be any smaller.

The development in recent years seems to be booming, and it is about to evolve into a medium-sized company with about 50 people, which seems to be a remarkable achievement.

But to be honest, the scene was only supported by Teresa Teng alone.

Funaki Minoru knew this best. As a record company, his Taurus earned 90% of its annual operating income through Teresa Teng.

Without this queen of singing, the Taurus Palace would no longer be a palace, but would probably just be called a cowshed.

So once Teresa Teng had spoken, everyone in the Taurus Palace, including him, had to obey unconditionally and would never dare to force the singing queen.

But then again, the problem now is, if Ikuo Suho's Burning System vents his anger on them and regards them as enemies, what will happen to the small Taurus Palace in the future?

Minoru Funaki really didn't think he could withstand the torment of the combustion system.

For this reason, as a little kid who was trembling with fear at the fight between two gods, he was thinking over and over again and was in a dilemma.

They could neither persuade Teresa Teng to quit the show nor dare to offend the "leader" of the Japanese entertainment industry.

Finally, he had no choice but to ask for help from Guangping Saburo, another major shareholder of Jinniu Palace.

This was his boss in the planning department when he first worked at PolyGram.

It was also the person who invested money to help him establish Taurus Palace after he left PolyGram.

As it turned out, the boss is still the boss, and his insights are indeed different. With just a few words, Hirohira Saburo broke through the limitations of Funaki Minoru's thinking.

"Don't think too much. Those who sit on the fence will not have a good ending. Since Teresa has made up her mind, what else can we do? We have to stand with Mist Studios. But if you ask me, while the company is performing best now, we might as well sell half of the company's shares. In this way, no matter what happens in the future, we will not bear all the risks ourselves." I have to say that this idea is really good, and it is quite clever to be able to attack and defend.

Funaki Minoru immediately realized that if he could really sell some of the shares of Taurus Palace.

Then, as shareholders, they can not only get a large sum of money immediately but also become rich.

Moreover, with the new shareholders as allies, the ability to withstand pressure will be strengthened.

Especially at this time, because the stock market and the real estate market are booming.

Then selling the company you have worked so hard to build doesn’t seem so painful. At least the money you get can be used to buy a house or invest in stocks.

If you really invest in it and catch a good market, you might earn more than running a company.

As a result, Funaki Minoru, who had suddenly realized the truth, immediately reached a consensus with Hirohira Saburo who came up with the idea.

The two of them got to work and soon went their separate ways to look for buyers.

Needless to say, if you want to sell your shares, in order to get a good price, you have to find someone with deep pockets.

But on this basis, Funaki Minoru actually has some little thoughts of his own, that is, he still has demands for management rights.

He is different from Guangping Saburo. Taurus Palace is the foundation of his entire career.

If possible, even if he sold his shares, he didn't want to be marginalized and sidelined in the company in the future.

I still hope to continue to serve as president and manage the operations of Taurus Palace.

Therefore, Minoru Funaki was not very keen on following Hirohei Saburo's idea of ​​contacting major record companies, and from then on he became a small label under a large enterprise.

The first buyer that came to his mind was Fog Studios.

The reason is very simple. In addition to the close cooperative relationship and common interests, by absorbing such shareholders, there is no need to worry about changes in the cooperation.

The key is that Matsumoto Keiko is not the kind of boss who likes to stretch his hands too far and has a strong desire for control. In the future, he should still be the one in charge of the Taurus Palace.

This can be seen from the fact that the management rights of Kiri Studios have actually always been in the hands of Akira Okamoto and Mitsuru Watanabe.

Even Matsumoto Keiko's husband Ning Weimin is young, wealthy, friendly, friendly, and generous.

In addition, he once helped Teresa Teng win the record award regardless of the cost, thus gaining Teresa Teng's trust.

Aren't they the best trading partners?

Even if we take a step back, Teresa Teng's contract with the Taurus Palace would have to be renewed in two years, and Funaki Minoru was not sure whether he could keep Teresa Teng by then.

It would be different if we had Fog Studio as a shareholder.

Presumably, because of this favor to Ning Weimin, Teresa Teng would still choose to stay in the Taurus Palace two years later.

  Therefore, Zhou Muren called Ning Weimin, hoping to find out from him about the strength of Mist Studio and whether he was interested in becoming a shareholder of Taurus Palace.

What Funaki Minoru was most worried about at this moment was whether the Mist Studio was short of funds as rumored.

Unexpectedly, Ning Weimin's response to him was quite positive.

I just asked about his price, and he quickly expressed strong interest, replying that whoever is willing to arrange a time to meet and discuss in detail.

Even with Guan Pingsaburo's experience in the record industry, he had not yet had time to find out whether Sony Music and Victory Records were interested in investing in Taurus Palace.

Funaki Minoru successfully invited Ning Weimin to the Taurus Palace and brought him to meet Guangping Saburo.

Suddenly we entered the stage of substantive contact.

At this moment, as expected, the focus of everyone's attention is nothing more than how to bargain.

However, speaking of this, what greatly surprised Funaki Minoru and Guangping Saburo was that Ning Weimin did not take the conventional approach to discuss the Taurus Palace's offer in detail point by point, but instead took the initiative to give them two different offers for the acquisition plan.

Even the price difference between the two plans is a bit big, which is really puzzling.

So for this, Guangping Saburo opened his eyes wide and asked with a puzzled look on his face.

"Oh, excuse me, but the price of the plan you provided seems to be problematic?"

He pointed at the first document that Watanabe Mitsuru handed him and said, "Chairman Ning, in this proposal, you plan to purchase 34% of the shares of Taurus Palace for 1.2 billion yen. In other words, in your mind, you recognize that the value of Taurus Palace is about 3.5 billion yen. But this one..."

He took the second document next to him and said, "This plan is that you want to acquire 90% of the shares of Taurus Palace, and the offer you made is 4.5 billion yen. So in this plan, you think the value of Taurus Palace is 5 billion yen. This is very strange. The valuation of these two plans differs by 1.5 billion yen. Did you neglect it? Or did your subordinates..."

"No mistake. That's what I meant."

Ning Weimin coughed a little, and faced the stunned Guangping Saburo and Funaki Minoru, and said seriously, "Please allow me to explain it to you two."

"Okay, please speak."

"Actually, ever since I received the offer from President Funaki, I have been seriously considering investing in Taurus Palace. But to be honest, based on our friendship and the good cooperation we have always had with Taurus Palace, I am reluctant to haggle over every detail. So today, in order to avoid such disrespect, I am here to do what I can based on our own situation and with the utmost sincerity to come up with two plans for your reference."

"Oh, you mean, this is the final price you offer. To be honest, I hope you can calculate it with us one by one. After all, there is still a gap between the first proposal and our offer. And your share requirement is 34%, which is more than we expected. As for the second proposal, although the price is better, it can no longer be called a shareholding, right? It looks like a full acquisition. This is different from what we imagined. And even if you say so, I still can't fully understand the difference in valuation between your two proposals."

As Guangping Saburo said this, he turned his head and glanced at Funaki Minoru.

The middleman, Minoru Funaki, had no choice but to smile awkwardly and nod in agreement to show that he agreed with his opinion.

Although this situation made him feel a little embarrassed, he could still tell which one was closer to him.

"Please don't worry, Guangping-san, I will get to the point soon."

Ning Weimin didn't mind. He responded in a neither humble nor arrogant manner, and then continued to explain, "The price of the first plan is mainly based on your needs for cash. You asked for 1.5 billion yen for 30% of the shares, and we can give 1.5 billion yen. It's just that the shares to be purchased have been changed from 30% to 34%. I think this kind of price discount is completely normal room for compromise in normal business negotiations, right?"

"As for why we want to increase the shares by 4%, of course it's for the veto power. We spend money to buy shares, at least hoping to have the right to avoid decisions that may be unfavorable to us in major company decisions. This is very important, otherwise we don't need to spend this money. But frankly speaking, even if this is the case, this plan is not worth our expectations. Because at most one-third of the shares will be traded, which can only ensure the smooth cooperation between the two parties. From our point of view, there is not much benefit from it."

"But the second plan is different. If you two are willing to sell most of the shares of Taurus Palace, we would be happy to take over Taurus Palace completely. After that, we can not only integrate Taurus Palace and Fog Studio in business-related adjustments to reduce operating costs, but also find ways to increase investment in Taurus Palace, further expand the music business, and truly make Taurus Palace a powerful record company. Since this plan can bring us considerable benefits, we also hope to satisfy our friends in terms of price, so there is a considerable premium."

"Of course, even if we acquire all of the shares, we hope that President Funaki can continue to stay. In fact, the reason why our second plan only requires 90% of the shares is that the other 10% is for President Funaki. We know very well that President Funaki is indispensable to both Taurus Palace and Teresa. So if the two of you are willing to help, in addition to investing 4.5 billion yen to purchase 90% of Taurus Palace's shares, we will also accept President Funaki as our partner and be responsible for all record business in the future." (End of this chapter)