America's Road to Wealth

Chapter 157 Two Amcs
11 month 14 day.

noon.

Smith Building, fourth floor.

In the office, Abel nestled on the comfortable leather boss chair, holding his mobile phone very seriously
Playing with Tetris.

A classic mini-game, even the super billionaire Mr. Smith likes it a little bit.

After a while, there was a knock on the office door.

"Come in~"

Abel didn't even look up.

Having said that, he still put most of his energy into the game.

The person who pushed the door and came in was full of energy.

Wearing a suit and combing his hair meticulously, he was a white man about forty to fifty years old.

The man's name is Alan Baker, a former senior actuary of Mingde Fengyi, and the manager of the business department of the European division.

This was the man's previous identity.

He now works for Smith Capital, working in the company's "special department".

This "special department" was originally created by Smith Capital.

Its role is to pay salaries and benefits to Abel's think tank.

Alan Baker, who came in, is a representative of the think tank.

After the Catherine Jones incident.

Abel lost interest in such things as "beautiful secretary".

Not losing interest in beautiful women.

Lost interest in the secretary.

He felt that instead of setting up a "secretariat" in the company, it would be better to have a think tank.

I have never had a fixed office location anyway.

Except when I like to come to Smith Capital when cutting leeks, I rarely appear here at other times.

Now they start running in Los Angeles and New York, and often go to Texas.

In the future, it is estimated that they will run around all over the world.

It would be better for every company to set up a secretary.

This secretary was in direct contact with the "special department".

This directly allows the think tank to take care of part of the secretary's work.

There are pros and cons to doing so.

The disadvantage is that the think tank will become particularly large and powerful.

With great power comes corruption.

It's unavoidable, it's human nature.

The only thing that can be done is to strengthen internal supervision.

The advantage is that the think tank has a representative with Abel at all times.

No matter where Abel is, he can know the situation of any company under his name at the first time.

At that time, a rotation system will be implemented.

For example, the secretary of company A will change to company B after a period of time, and the secretary of company C will go to company C and so on.

Then develop a promotion system, such as after someone in a think tank has worked for a period of time.

If the ability and experience are sufficient, there is a chance to be transferred to a company under Abel's name as a manager.

In addition, there are matching benefits and remuneration.

To stimulate the subjective motivation and enthusiasm of the work of the think tank.

In doing so, there may be other shortcomings that Abel cannot see.

But Abel feels that no matter what system there is, there will always be shortcomings and advantages.

The advantages are magnified, and the disadvantages can be improved.

Abel actually made such a nondescript thing according to the model of the "Military Aircraft Department" of a certain dynasty in China.

As for whether it is useful or not, that needs to be seen later.

At present, Alan Baker, the senior manager of the special department, temporarily acts as the business secretary next to Abel.

By the way, David Jones was also assigned to this department.

His duties were life secretary, which belonged to Abel's chief steward.

When Alan Baker came in, he saw the boss staring at the phone seriously.

He stood at the desk and waited quietly.

Wait for ten minutes.

The hair cube on Abel's phone failed, the game was over, looked up after him.

"Ah~ Allen, I'm sorry, I was fascinated by the game just now. I forgot you came in, what's the matter?"

The representative of the think tank then spoke softly:
"BOSS. The information you asked us to collect about the two ams yesterday has been collected. Do you want to read it now, or later?"

"Oh~"

Abel smiled and said, "Take it here."

In the United States, the English abbreviation is AMC, and there are mainly two companies with relatively large scale and reputation.

They are AMC Cable TV and AMC Theaters.

In the Chinese context, this English abbreviation will make people think that they are the same company.

But it's not.

In the English context, the full name of AMC Cinemas is "American Multi-Cinema", which translates directly into Chinese as "Many Cinemas in the United States".

The name of AMC Cable TV is actually "American Classic Cable TV".

The two are not the same thing at all.

AMC Theaters was acquired by Wanda in a parallel time and space.

But amc cable is a TV station, even if it is only a TV station with low ratings and influence.

It is also impossible for the United States to allow it to be sold to foreigners, especially the Chinese.

Like some entertainment novels or Hong Kong Island novels.

After the male protagonist gets rich, he goes to the United States to acquire Hollywood giants or TV stations.

It simply cannot happen in the US.

Even if the boards and shareholders of these companies are willing to sell, relevant US departments will stand up to stop them.

Either the Ministry of Commerce or the Ministry of Security.

It's like in China, it is impossible for foreign capital to control domestic TV stations.

A truly sovereign country would never allow something like this to happen.

Only those countries that appear to be sovereign countries (say you, Britain and France), but are actually semi-puppet countries, will let Americans buy their country's TV stations.

Back then, the Marshall Plan injected more than just funds for economic recovery in Europe.

At the same time, the United States' "mind control" chains were also injected.

Abel took the materials handed over by Alan Baker, and there were two copies of the materials.

One is for amc theaters and the other is for amc cable.

In Abel's previous business plan, in his own media territory.

The last two sections he listed were theaters and TV stations.

Coincidentally, there are just two such companies with the same English abbreviation in the United States.

It just so happened that one was a cinema company, and the other happened to be a movie company.

Among the two documents, he first flipped through the information of AMC Cinemas, which seemed thinner.

AMC Theaters was founded very early, in 1920.

It also happened to be the golden age of Hollywood, and many movie theaters were born in that era.

AMC Cinemas has the No.2 market share in the US market. As of 2000, there are 349 movie theaters with a screen costing about 500 yuan.

This data lags behind the No.1 Emperor Entertainment Company and leads the No.3 Cinemark Studios.

According to the data, the valuation of AMC Theaters is around US$15 billion, with an annual revenue of US$[-] million.

The price is wonderful and looks cheap.

You know, this is the second largest cinema company in the United States.

But the company's market debt is as high as more than 30 billion US dollars.

Yet another insolvent company with debt far exceeding its value.

Regarding this amc theater chain, Abel remembers that after Wanda bought it in the parallel time and space, he was tied to death.

In addition to fame, I didn't make much money, and I kept losing money and posting money.

And now, if Abel wants to acquire this company.

In front of him, in addition to AMC's prohibitive debt.

And a shitty Paramount bill.

This bill stipulates that film producers in the United States cannot directly control movie broadcast channels, that is, movie theaters.

This bill was originally used to sanction Paramount in the golden age.

Hence the name Paramount Act.

In fact, this bill has been weakened since the 80s.

Take Viacom, the parent company of CBS and Paramount.

Its controller and boss, Lei Shidong, owns theater companies under his umbrella, as well as film companies such as Paramount.

The existence of these two businesses is itself a satire on the Paramount Act.

In addition, when working in parallel, this plan will be officially canceled in another ten years or so.

It's just that now, if the acquisition is really carried out, it should encounter a lot of trouble.

Those Hollywood tycoons probably don't want to see Abel buy AMC theaters when he has MGM.

Because that would greatly enhance MGM's strength in the market.

No one stopped it, and everyone was worried about the sanctions of the Paramount Act.

If someone intervenes, it will definitely hinder the acquisition action even more.

What's more, theater companies in the United States have always been an industry that does not make much money.

Otherwise, most of the movie theaters are in the city, and the attendance rate has always been good at amc.

There will be no various losses, so that it is almost to the point of being sold.

"Is there a way to bypass the Paramount Act?" Abel briefly glanced at the information on AMC Theaters, and Abel looked up at Alan Baker.

Alan Baker answered directly: "There is a certain degree of operability. Before Viacom officially entered the media industry, its main business was movie theaters."

"If the boss wants to acquire AMC theaters, we think that we can first acquire a small theater, and then use the name of this theater to contact AMC theaters."

"This approach has certain feasibility."

"The premise is that it must be fast, and find a way to keep the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Commercial Law from interfering as much as possible. Before other competing companies react, buy most of the shares of AMC Theaters."

Abel frowned after hearing this.

Alan Baker said yes, but there are too many preconditions and too much trouble.

It also needs the background of the US Department of Justice and the Department of Commerce, and the acquisition must be fast.

It is necessary to acquire a small theater chain first, and any step will easily attract the attention of those Hollywood giants.

Once you get their attention, things can become troublesome.

After thinking about it, he still shook his head, "Forget it. Let's not watch AMC theaters for now."

The Paramount Act is there, and it's not easy to get around it.

But in fact, there is no way.

In a few years, after Internet streaming media booms.

Movie theaters have been greatly affected, and companies such as AMC will be even worse than they are now.

At that point, the Paramount Act became an afterthought.

In the end it was abolished, also because of the rise of the mobile Internet and the Internet.

While talking, Abel opened the information of the AMC cable TV station on the other side.

"American AMC Cable TV, the full name of American Classic Movie Cable TV, was established in 1984. AMC was originally a pay TV station that played classic old movies from the 50s."

"In 1987, AMC joined the basic cable TV camp."

"By 1989, there were more than 3 million subscribers in the continental United States."

Turning here, Abel frowned.

This 900 million data is not very outstanding.

In the United States, there are two types of cable television.

One is basic cable and the other is premium cable.

Translated into Chinese, it is probably the difference between a basic wired station and a customized wired station.

Among them, AMC belongs to the basic cable, and HBO, which is more familiar to Chinese people, is a customized cable.

Outside of these two types, there is also a limit wired.
As the name suggests, the latter has a lot of playable content that LSPs love.

Some of these restricted cable stations, and the episodes they aired, were indescribable sports for a while.

The plot is optional, I was very excited when I first watched it, but it was boring after watching too much.

The difference between the three lies in their broadcast content and charges.

Of course, the most expensive charges are restricted cable channels, and the purchasing power of global LSPs is obvious to all.

The second is HBO these custom cable.

The worst thing is of course the basic cable of AMC.

There are many basic cable channels, the most famous ones are USA, AMC, TNT, MTV, and Disney.

Compared with these similar peers, AMC TV's 3900 million subscribers are at the bottom of the list.

Because many times, these basic wired they are all basic stations in the same package.

Here I have to mention the "cable TV operators" in the United States.

Because the above TV stations are actually just program content providers.

They are commodities.

There needs to be a "supermarket" and a channel to be able to see them.

CSC, the real owner of the New York Knicks, is this kind of company.

In addition, Comcast, the giant that Abel has always wanted, is the giant among cable TV operators.

Compared with Comcast, any TV station and the media group behind them are scum!

But Comcast is so out of reach that it's not something money can buy.

amc tv is.

In the past few years, the situation of AMC has been getting worse and worse.

Its original film resources were not good enough. As a result, in the past ten years, its other peers of similar level have been acquired by media groups one after another.

These media groups have also acquired Hollywood giants.

This is equivalent to having the support of Hollywood giants in the same industry.

amc does not.

This made amc moved in the movie screening.

Obviously, it is obviously impossible for these film giants with their own brother TV stations to let AMC play the latest movies.

What amc can get are old movies that have been released for several years, even decades or decades ago.

AMC can only rely on TV series to continue its life.

But other peers, they also make TV series.

When they filmed TV series, they also had the support of those Hollywood giants.

AMC is at a disadvantage here again.

in parallel time and space,
If it weren't for the sudden release of "The Walking Dead" to continue life.

AMC, which no one wants, may go bankrupt around 2010.

"Evaluated at $13 billion"

Looking at the information of AMC cable TV station, Abel fell into deep thought.

Although the ratings coverage of cable television stations is far inferior to those of the public television networks.

But those public TV networks belong to companies that are not so easy to get.

It is delusional for any one of them to not have more than tens of billions of dollars in funds.

Most of them can't be bought even if they have money, and the only one that can be bought is an NBC.

But if you want to buy NBC, it is estimated that you will need at least tens of billions of dollars in cash.

At the same time, there must be some resources that its parent company, GM, want to exchange.

amc is much simpler.

There is no big boss behind it, Rainbow Entertainment Media is the controlling shareholder.

The key is that the business is poor and does not make money.

Basically, it belongs to the company that can be won with money.

After reading the information here, Abel also made up his mind.

AMC theaters can't be touched for the time being, it will have to wait for a few years.

Instead, we can do the Internet streaming business first, and then kill the Paramount Act first.

But to do Internet streaming media, you need to consider whether the bandwidth of the American Internet in this era can support it.

Let Silicon Valley worry about this kind of thing, and you only need to burn money to invest.

AMC cable TV is not the case, after buying it.

One's own media layout can be regarded as the most important piece.

Next, you only need to wait for the opportunity or raise your strength. When the time comes, you should be able to buy nbc.

If you get NBC, that powerful media empire will be announced to take shape.

Public TV has NBC,

Cable TV has AMC,

Film production has MGM,

Entertainment intermediary brokers have caa,

Newspapers have ab smith newspapers,
There is Isha show in fashion,

Basically complete.

At that time, a media giant that will not lose to Viacom and Time Warner will be formed.

If Comcast can also be won at the same time, it can be said to dominate the American media industry.

But... again, the size of Comcast is basically equal to that of American radio and television. It is still the private one.

Its shareholding is unimaginably complicated, and none of them has more than ten years of planning and sufficient strength.

It's delusional to want it.

"Contact Rainbow Company." Abel threw the information on the table, stood up and said to Alan Baker:

"Within $15 billion, I want AMC Cable TV."

"Understood." Alan Baker silently helped the boss pack up the materials, and at the same time responded immediately.

"Let's go, I'm going to see if David has closed the net. I should be able to leave the field completely today."

Abel smiled and walked out of the office.

Smith Capital's investment in the pound sterling currency pair had already begun to close its positions and leave the market the day before yesterday.

Due to the large amount of funds, it takes a long time to close the position.

Fortunately, in the past two days, the U.S. dollar has been going short.

This makes the pound, which is the strongest outside the dollar, keep going up.

Smith Capital's closing and leaving the market, the speed has been increased several times, and the difficulty has been reduced several times.

Originally, it would take at least a week, but it may take ten and a half days to guarantee a high-profit exit.

In terms of time and difficulty, it has been greatly reduced and reduced.

So yesterday afternoon, Abel announced that the blockade of the Smith Building was lifted.

The relevant personnel of the company can freely enter and exit the company building.

After all, at this time, even if you want to leak the secret, it is useless.

Why is the British pound so hot now, Smith Capital is selling it like crazy.

Other players on the field, those bulls are buying like crazy.

There are more buying orders than selling orders, and getting out of the market is naturally easier.

I heard the boss talk about this matter, the former senior actuary of Mingde Fengyi.

Alan Baker looked at the back in front of him, and suddenly felt a little reverence and awe.

After the blockade of Smith Building was lifted yesterday, as a think tank member.

Alan Baker only knew that the boss and Smith Capital had made such a crazy investment in this week.

The key is.
Such a crazy investment behavior is almost like Las Vegas.

fxxk actually made a profit.

The profit was particularly exaggerated, which shocked Alan Baker, whose main customers were in Wall Street before, by a huge shock.

This ratio of investment to income made Alan Baker feel numb after knowing some inside information.

Wait for Abel and Alan Baker to come to the trading room on the third floor.

The trading hall with hundreds of people was full of people at the moment.

As soon as Abel entered,

Alan Baker saw hundreds of people, led by David Mellon, clapping wildly and cheering.

After a few minutes of this frenzied restlessness, Abel was finally suppressed.

Alan Baker got a stat that left him speechless.

That is the relevant account of Smith Capital this time, after the official end of the entire investment cycle.

The account balance was $171.59 billion.

Alan Baker remembered.

The principal of Smith Capital this time is US$100 billion.

So the extra $71 billion.

Obviously, it is the profit in this investment cycle!
Seven days or so, $71 billion profit?
A profit of more than one billion U.S. dollars a day, this data simply made Alan Baker feel like he was about to suffocate.

(End of this chapter)