American Peanuts

Chapter 34 "Vase" Brokerage Company

When Charlie walked into a small, exquisitely decorated living room, he found two people in the room.

One is Spielberg, and the other is the bald middle-aged man I met just now.

"This is David Geffen, one of the three founders of DreamWorks." Spielberg had a cigar in his mouth, and the compact room was filled with smoke.

If he was more like a craftsman just now, his temperament at this time is completely different, rather like a big boss giving advice in the world.

"We've just met." Charlie sat on the sofa.

"Well, it was actually David who wanted to meet you, and you just asked someone to send the news, so I called you both to the same place." Spielberg explained the whole story.

"Don't you want to hear why I'm looking for you first?" Charlie said suddenly.

Spielberg scratched his head: "You came to me because you wanted to collaborate on my new movie, Transformers? Who recommended you, Faith Hill?"

Maybe he guessed Charlie's purpose from the moment he received the news from Charlie.

"Yes, I want Playboy to be the co-distributor of the Transformers live-action movie." Charlie said without changing his face.

As soon as the words fell, the two old men laughed immediately.

"You're so interesting." Spielberg glanced at his old friend.

The other party responded with the same wry smile.

Both of them were respectable people, so naturally they couldn't be sarcastic towards Charlie like street gangsters, but their smiles were enough to explain the problem.

Spielberg felt like he was wasting his time with an idiot.

"I think we'd better talk about something practical..." Spielberg waved his hand, wanting to end the conversation quickly.

"In the future, I will acquire Weinstein Films." Charlie interrupted.

"Stop talking nonsense. I need to remind you. I include Mr. Geffen next to me, not those stupid girls around you. We need to communicate honestly instead of talking nonsense. If you do this again, just stop it. This conversation," Spielberg said sternly, with the tone of a high school teacher.

He didn't like Charlie at the beginning, and his evaluation of him was even more negative at this time.

"Okay, why don't Mr. Geffen tell you why you came to me first." Charlie changed the subject temporarily.

"Do you know Geffen Records? That's how I made my fortune. John Lennon, Guns N' Roses, Nirvana, and Aerosmith were all my artists. Now, I value Taylor Swift in your hands more. , but I know you won’t sell it, so I am willing to invest in your company without interfering in any operations. The total price is 5000 million U.S. dollars, which is a hundred times more than the 50 you spent to buy Taylor. Buffett didn’t even You're so lucky," Finger said of his thoughts.

It turns out that this is what happened, these Jewish businessmen really have a keen sense of smell.

"Ten percent of the shares?" Charlie tried to ask.

"That's right." Geffen nodded.

In this way, he valued the company at 5 million. It is interesting to know that he only spent [-] million to acquire PB more than half a month ago. The valuation has more than doubled in such a short period of time.

Of course Charlie will not accept any investment, he does not want to play with these Jews.

"Sorry, the company has ample cash flow and I will not accept any investment."

Spielberg looked at his old friend with a helpless expression of "Look, what I said before", but he still helped to apply pressure.

"Mr. Geffen is a shareholder of the William Morris Agency. He also holds a large number of shares in the New York Times. He is also a partner of DreamWorks. He can bring a lot of commercial conveniences to your artists. This is called strategic cooperation. "

He couldn't see that this bald head was quite useful. Charlie's mind was a little wandering and he began to think in his heart.

At the moment, he put on a dismissive expression: "Economic company? Please, this is not the era of big studios. They are just free agents and will be kicked out at any time. I can find Morris or CAA. You can also find UTA. As long as I have someone in hand, I don’t have to worry about choosing.”

"The New York Times shares are completely useless to me. As for DreamWorks, I know that the girls I have are not worthy of A-level productions yet."

"As you just said, Mr. Spielberg, why can't we be more honest?" Charlie asked.

The two old men stopped talking. There was nothing wrong with Charlie's words. His company really couldn't use these resources at the moment.

Seeing that the time was almost up, Charlie began to say slowly: "I will sign long-term contracts with artists, with a minimum of ten years, and some even for life. I want to return to the original large-scale studio system, and the entire upstream and downstream will be handled by the company. Control. Of course, this is not simple. Since you two have resources, why should we jointly open a new company? "

"I provide contacts, and the two of us provide business resources. We specialize in the small business market, including car models, advertising models, and supporting roles in B-level movies. Our advantage lies in our large number of people, and our profit mainly depends on our scale advantage. As long as the producer thinks The vase character will think of us, fast, convenient and reasonably priced. After a while, we will occupy the entire market segment."

A magazine is so thick, it can't be all photos. Those girls must have something to do.

It is imperative to enter the field of artist management, but you have to find a reasonable entry point in every industry. The appearance of Geffen made Charlie aware of the opportunity.

If we can find relatively high quality and sufficient quantity of small artists, we will only have our own company in the entire United States.This is a moat, and other companies will never learn from it.

As for top artists, they can only choose to defeat them one by one, such as Taylor Swift.Another example is Gisele Bundchen, whose contract with Victoria's Secret is about to expire. She must dig this corner if she has the chance.

Let the NO.1 in the modeling industry join his own banner, the value of publicity alone is immeasurable.

"I have hired a group of former girls. In addition, the company itself has signed artists. The total number has exceeded 100. This is just the beginning. My goal is to maintain 1000 active artists." Charlie deliberately overstated .

"What do you two think?" Charlie crossed his hands.

"If you can really get so many small artists to sign contracts, it's not impossible." Spielberg stroked his forehead and said reluctantly.

Next door David Finger felt the same way.

In a sense, both of them have been promoted to become capital players in the entertainment industry, so they can naturally perceive the business opportunities in it.

"You two don't need to contribute capital. You only need to provide business resources and jointly hold 15% of the shares of the new company. You two will figure out how to solve it yourself."

"That's too little." Geffen touched his bald head.

"15.00% per person is not bad." Spielberg shrugged, a little unhappy. He felt that his asking price was not high.

But even this Charlie didn’t want to give.

"Even CAA only dares to ask for a 5.00% share. This is already a sky-high price, and what I give is not low at all. To put it bluntly, you two are just running errands for me. I can definitely find it. other people."

Whose business resources are not resources?
Spielberg now felt that this somewhat crazy young man was not easy to deal with at all, and his mouth was as hard as a piece of iron.

After thinking about it, he chose to take a step back and said, "In that case, we have an additional requirement. We need the right of first refusal for future shares."

"Deal." Charlie agreed.

Preemptive purchase is not a forced sale. As long as you don't let go, this kind of promise is just a promise.

At this time, Spielberg turned to his old friend calmly: "Geffen, the two of us have been working together for so many years, how about we just split it equally?"

"Absolutely not. How many young actors can DreamWorks want in a year? I am the big one here, and I have to keep at least [-]%." Geffen immediately said alertly.

"I asked for few actors, but I paid a lot of money! I suffered a loss when DreamWorks was founded, and I absolutely can't give in this time."

"Then I still lend you money, and you still owe me the interest."

Two close friends who have worked together for many years began to settle old scores over a mere 5.00% stake.

I don’t know whether they think this company is still too important, or whether they are just so greedy in nature.

Charlie prefers the latter.

After a long tug-of-war, Geffen finally won.

"You just talked about acquiring Weinstein, what are your specific plans?" Spielberg asked at this time.

He just regarded this as a joke before, but now it seems... it can't be true, right?
Spielberg, a longtime Weinstein nemesis, was certainly interested in listening.

(End of this chapter)