America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM.

Chapter 327 325. Eric's ultimate plan to monopolize Hollywood
Warner was bound to acquire it, not to mention the many copyrights it held, including those it had snatched from MGM.

DC Comics alone is a huge gold mine waiting to be developed, and the wealth that can be mined from this gold mine will be no less than that from Marvel.

Although according to the situation before the time travel, DC was simply beaten by Marvel, it was not because the comics and those superheroes were not influential enough, it was simply a human factor.

Isn’t there a sentence that clearly reveals the problem?
DC's biggest enemy is Warner. If you didn't give orders recklessly, you wouldn't have missed the golden period of development of superhero movies.

So if the copyright falls into Eric's hands, it will be a different story.

With DC in the left hand and Marvel in the right hand, he can do all kinds of things.

So whether from an emotional or economic perspective, Eric always puts the acquisition of Warner first, and Disney has to step back.

Because half of Disney's wealth comes from the amusement park economy, if we only compare the resources in film and television, Warner is actually better.

Especially now it is 2005, not 2024, and without a large number of subsequent acquisitions, Disney is far from being as powerful.

Inside the room, Eric continued to speak as he looked at the four people with surprised expressions: "Howard Stringer and Barry Meyer are not here. I am willing to talk to you openly and honestly."

"I believe you. Of course, it doesn't matter if you want to remind Barry Meyer. Anyway, no one can stop Facebook from going public."

“Similarly, when I launched the acquisition of Warner, Barry Meyer couldn’t stop me because the colonel couldn’t influence the general’s decision.”

"I will directly launch an acquisition of Time Warner. What do you think the result will be?"

"Sell Warner Pictures and cash out tens of billions of dollars to ease its own debt?"

"Or do you want to watch the money slip away and continue to sink deeper into debt?"

Gudong!

The four of them swallowed at the same time, because this was indeed a difficult question to judge.

Many people don’t realize that although the seven major Hollywood companies seem to be extremely powerful and control the lives and deaths of hundreds of thousands of practitioners, they have a huge influence on the global film and television industry.

But most of them don’t stand alone.

Not to mention how many times it has been bought and sold in the hundred years since it was established in the early 20th century.

As far as the current situation is concerned, the only two companies that can decide their own destiny and still maintain their independence are MGM and Disney.

Sony Columbia, as the name of the company suggests, naturally belongs to the Japanese Sony Corporation.

Universal Pictures belongs to Comcast Group, whose parent company is engaged in telephone, cable TV, Internet and other businesses.

Paramount was acquired by Viacom more than a decade ago, while 20th Century Fox belongs to Murdoch's News Corporation.

Similarly, Warner Bros. Pictures is a subsidiary of Time Warner Group, which is equivalent to a consortium of multiple subsidiaries.

HBO, Time Magazine, CNN, DC Comics, etc. have the same status as Warner Bros.

Normally, these subsidiaries operate relatively independently, but they are all responsible to their parent company, Time Warner.

If Time Warner insists on selling Warner Pictures, not only will Barry Meyer's words be useless, the entire Warner Pictures board of directors will have to compromise.

But Time Warner has not been doing well in recent years, and the reason can be traced back to the millennium.

In early 2000, the emerging Internet company AOL spent $1810 billion to acquire the entire Time Warner Group, and the two companies merged to become AOL-Time Warner.

This was originally a very promising deal. Time Warner has a large amount of film, television and entertainment resources, while AOL has powerful Internet resources. It is a strong combination no matter how you look at it.

But human power cannot fight against the tide of the times. In other words, when you are unlucky, even drinking cold water will get stuck in your teeth. The newly merged company ran headlong into the Internet bubble.

Under the influence of this bubble wave, AOL fell directly from a high-quality company to a garbage company, and Time Warner suffered as well.

That scene is equivalent to suddenly discovering the truth about your wife's family after you get married: a gambling father, a hospitalized mother, a disappointing brother, and a broken heart.

But the legal obligation has already been created, what can you do?
Let’s grit our teeth and carry it together.

By the time Eric came through, it was around May 2002.

The new company released its first quarter financial report, showing a staggering loss of more than $540 billion.

How much was MGM worth at that time? Its assets and liabilities were less than $30 billion, and they lost 18 MGMs in one quarter.

AOL-Time Warner's full-year loss in 2002 reached a record high of more than $980 billion.

What concept?

It was equivalent to the combined GDP of Chile and Vietnam at the time.

Although the Internet bubble wave gradually passed and market confidence recovered somewhat, it was still in the red.

In other words, Time Warner Group is still burdened with huge debts.

If Eric remembered correctly, the debt was not fully paid off until 2009.

A failed deal almost brought down the entire Time Warner.

When Facebook goes public, with tens of billions of cash thrown in front of Time Warner, Eric doesn't believe that they won't be tempted.

From the moment he traveled through time, he never thought of relying on MGM to acquire other film and television companies. He was not stupid enough to do that.

From the beginning to the end, he intended to use Internet unicorns to do this business.

Relying on a film and television company? Sooner or later, you will be acquired by others.

"Eric, what do you want us to do?"

When he asked this question, Howard Stringer felt his throat was very dry, but he had obviously drunk a lot of water.

"Cooperate with me, especially when facing antitrust investigations. Disney will definitely not sit idly by and watch Warner being acquired. I will need your help at that time."

"Similarly, you can enter the power of Lionheart Network. I can promise each of you 7.5% of the shares, which will be redeemed within 3 months."

"Think about it. Following Howard Stringer and Barry Meyer, if the six of you share 40% of the shares, Disney and Warner will definitely take the lion's share."

"You four companies will probably only get 20%, which means 5% each, and now I'm giving you 7.5% each."

"Guys, use your brains to see who is the real generous one and who is causing you to lose money."

The four of them looked at each other without saying anything, but everyone had different thoughts in their minds.

Money, it’s all money. Although what came out of Eric’s mouth were just words, these words would soon be converted into gold.

Snapped!
There was a crisp sound of clapping, which woke them up, and the four of them turned their attention back to Eric.

"In addition to Lionheart's shares, you can also invest some money in the stock prices of my companies such as MGM and Facebook, which is guaranteed to make a profit."

"Of course, after enjoying such great benefits, I also hope that you are willing to give a little in return."

"Eric, what more do you want?" Brad Grey asked.

"It has little to do with Paramount. As for Universal, I hope to get the rights to the Hulk and Namor back."

"Money is not a problem. The Hulk has already failed in your hands, and Namor still doesn't believe in you."

"For Fox, I hope the copyrights of X-Men, Fantastic Four and Deadpool can return to Marvel." "Then as for Sony, MGM is willing to give you a satisfactory price for the copyrights of Spider-Man series and Ghost Rider."

As soon as Eric finished speaking, the three related families immediately shook their heads.

Universal may be following the crowd, but Sony and Fox are really shaking their heads.

"Eric, you should be able to see the value that X-Men has created for Fox. This is a gold mine. We signed a contract with Marvel in the first place."

"And Spider-Man, Peter Parker is more valuable than the X-Men. Although Spider-Man 2 did not meet expectations at the box office, its global box office exceeded $6 million."

"We have already planned Spider-Man 3, and the project will start soon. How can I explain to everyone if I sell it to you?"

"Eric, your request is outrageous."

Eric was so thirsty from talking that he picked up the water cup and took a sip. The cool feeling in winter was particularly refreshing.

"It's outrageous because your minds are not open. We can get two Spider-Men."

"Sony develops Sony's, Marvel develops Marvel's."

"what?"

"You continue to work on your Sam Raimi and Tobey Maguire versions of Spider-Man, and I will work on my Marvel version of Spider-Man, and we won't interfere with each other."

"How is it possible that they don't interfere with each other? What will the audience think? Two Spider-Men, who is the real one? Who is the fake one?" Howard Stringer stared speechlessly. He had never heard such a nonsensical idea in his life.

"They are all real, nothing is fake, they just belong to different universes."

"Sorry, I'm not paralyzed yet and can't understand your scientific point."

"Have you never read comics? Whether it's DC or Marvel, there are countless universes in comics, and the same group of people exist in every universe."

"For example, the Sony version of Spider-Man is based on Earth 1, while Marvel's story takes place in Universe 10."

"Different universes will have different stories. Even if they are all Spider-Man, their appearances, backgrounds, personalities, etc. are all different. Do you understand?"

"Similarly, the X-Men and the Hulk can both be explained by this theory."

"Genius!" After a moment's silence, Brad Gray suddenly spoke.

Then he sighed with emotion: "Eric, you are really a business genius, a super genius, this theory works."

"How do you know it will work?" Howard Stringer asked.

"Because my son kept telling me these stories. After all, you are the general manager of Sony in the United States. You should at least know more about the little hen that lays golden eggs."

Click!

The door suddenly opened and Michael Aeneas and Barry Meyer re-entered.

Seeing them, Eric stood up and left: "That's all I have to say. Think about it carefully and contact me when you have made up your mind."

After saying this, he left the villa under the suspicious gazes of the two people.

His goal this time is to unite the four companies to deal with Disney and Warner.

By then, as long as they can swallow up Warner in one go, Hollywood will actually become a one-superpower and many-strong country, similar to the dominance of Disney a dozen years later.

It is worth paying 30% of Lionheart's shares for this, and these shares are not enough to affect his control over the company.

Moreover, this 30% stake is current and will definitely be diluted when it goes public, but it will also allow them to make a fortune.

If you don't want to be diluted, you have to continue to increase your investment, and increasing investment is equivalent to tying your interests more firmly to Eric's.

The tighter they are tied to me, as long as it does not affect my decision-making, the more at ease I will feel.

At least it can slow down or eliminate the possibility of them starting their own streaming media and competing with Lionheart Network.

Then if it can swallow up Disney, it will do so. However, the acquisition of Warner can pass the antitrust hurdle, and the possibility of acquiring Disney is hard to say.

If you can't swallow it, you'll defeat it. At the same time, you'll launch acquisitions of New Line, Lionsgate, Lucasfilm, and DreamWorks, and acquire as many as you can.

Use three years to establish de facto control.

By then, although Sony, Universal, Paramount, and Fox will still be independent, they will inevitably have to bow their heads due to the interweaving of interests and strength.

If this step can be achieved, although an absolute monopoly cannot be formed, a relative monopoly position will have been achieved.

According to the development laws of later generations, the Paramount Act will be relaxed during the mask period, and the integration of film and television companies and theaters is advocated by many lawmakers.

Find an opportunity to give it a try yourself, starting with John Adams, and see if you can unbind this bill ahead of time.

Once this is achieved, all aspects of film and television production, promotion, distribution, and release will be returned to the hands of one company, just like Hollywood in the last century.

The audience will watch whatever I shoot.

Even if what I shoot is a pile of shit, the audience must watch it!

Because there is no choice, I control all the cinema chains, how do you choose?
What is a monopoly? This is a monopoly!

The Wrangler sped on the way back. Judy stepped on the accelerator hard: "You are going too fast. Fortunately, I didn't go too far."

"Negotiation is not gossip. I put forward the conditions and they consider them."

"If you accept, you will contact me. It's that simple."

"That's still too soon. I thought you were going to have lunch together or at least have a drink."

"I have no interest in eating and drinking with those old guys."

"Yeah, there aren't any pretty women among them."

Eric rolled his eyes: "In your eyes, am I an animal that only knows how to mate?"

"Tsk tsk. Almost. But I hope you don't mate as quickly as you did this time."

"Hehe! If I'm fast or not, go ask Gadot and the others. Everyone can vouch for me. If you don't have the skills, how can you serve several of them at the same time?"

"No need to ask her, I can verify it myself."

"Ok?"

scoff!

"What? Why are you taking off my pants?"

"Don't move, I'm driving!"

"It's okay, I'm driving too."

"Hiss, this scene seems familiar."

(End of this chapter)