hollywood melon man

Chapter 639 Want to Decouple
It's a new week and Kiri Ross has moved into her newly renovated CEO office.

As soon as she entered the office, Qili Ross asked her assistant to bring all the recent film investments and business plans of Warner Bros. Pictures so that she could check them one by one.

The focus is on the business related to Melon Studio.

At the same time, she summoned the executives of Warner Bros. one by one, asking them to talk about their views on Warner Bros. and Gilbert Jr.

In conclusion, Gilbert Jr. is very important to Warner Bros. Cantaloupe Studios' film projects account for 30% of Warner Bros.' overall revenue each year.

If it decouples from Cantaloupe Studios, Warner Bros. will lose a large and important chunk of revenue.

And it is not so easy to decouple. From film copyright income to peripheral product income to the establishment of film brands, Warner Pictures is already too deeply tied to Gilbert Jr.

It is not an easy task to complete the decoupling. What's more, many people within Warner Bros. and Time Warner are also opposed to decoupling from Gilbert Jr.

But Qili Ross felt that the more this happened, the more Warner should be separated from Little Gilbert. Otherwise, in time, Warner would have the same surname as Little Gilbert.

After gaining a full understanding, Qili Ross held her first senior management meeting as CEO.

At the meeting, she made a shocking statement, announcing that by 2012, Warner Bros. would sell off all of its shares in Cantaloupe Film Studios and complete the decoupling.

As soon as this statement was made, the entire Warner Bros. senior management was immediately in an uproar, and many executives expressed their opposition.

However, Qili Ross was firm: "This is the decision of the group company. If you are dissatisfied, you can ask the group board of directors."

An executive asked, "What about our film contract with Gilbert Jr.? Not to mention his popular projects. There are still two more Batman movies..."

"So I said it would take until 2012. That's enough time for Gilbert Jr. to complete his contract for two films, right?"

Kiri Ross strongly announced the separation, and the content of the meeting inevitably leaked out. The first reaction of many Hollywood companies was, what the hell is wrong with Warner?
Indeed, Warner's mysterious operations have confused many film company executives.

Although it seems like someone is trying to trick Gilbert, isn't Warner's eagerness to break away a bit hasty?
Putting aside the conflicts of interest, Gilbert Jr. is himself one of the best filmmakers in Hollywood.

Such a creator is treated like a treasure in every film company, which is an opportunity for other film companies.

What's more, Cantaloupe Studios also has IPs with huge commercial value such as "The Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter", as well as other film copyrights.

For a time, companies such as 20th Century Fox, Paramount, Universal, Sony Columbia, MGM and United Artists all had their eyes on Cantaloupe Studios.

But the most exciting thing is probably Disney.

"Good news, this is good news for us." Robert Iger excitedly told his two deputies: "This is a huge opportunity for Disney. Warner Pictures is starting to fall behind."

An assistant reminded him, “Bob, if you want to fully control Cantaloupe Studios, you will probably face many problems.

The first is the issue of equity. Warner Bros. will inevitably use an equity swap model to buy back the Warner shares held by Gilbert Jr.

So they wouldn't accept our cash offer to buy the shares, and we had to take all the shares from Gilbert Jr.

This brings up another problem. Gilbert Jr. will definitely not accept cash, so we need a stock exchange model, which will definitely greatly enhance Gilbert Jr.'s voice within Disney. In addition, other companies are also eyeing us, and they will definitely offer better conditions than us. "

Another vice president said: "I think the most direct reason now is the antitrust investigation. If Gilbert Jr. can only hold shares in one film company, the best choice is Disney."

Gilbert Jr. naturally knew about such a big turmoil, and the executives within Warner Bros. who were inclined towards him also revealed the specific details to Gilbert Jr.

Young Gilbert was not surprised at all. One of the gentlemen to whom he donated also told him that the scale was originally much larger, but in the end it only involved the film industry.

This is a backup plan. It turns out that they won’t give up so easily.

In this case, Gilbert Jr. fulfilled the other party's wish and actively cooperated with Warner's decoupling plan.

In 2012, Warner's % stake in Melon Studios will return to Gilbert Jr., and Gilbert Jr. will also gradually withdraw from Warner's board of directors.

"No one will miss this share, I think Bob will be interested in it," Gilbert Jr. said to Cameron Diaz.

Cameron Diaz expressed doubts: "But if Disney continues to acquire shares, won't you become Disney's largest shareholder?
There is also Marvel Studios behind it, and you and Director Lucas have agreed to take over Lucasfilm. This alone is worth a lot, so does Disney want to take it all?"

Gilbert Jr. smiled and said, "I think Bob is thinking about it, but whether the Disney board of directors agrees or not is another matter. If it is really completed, Disney will be completely under my control."

When most people think of Disney, the first things that come to mind are Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck, as well as countless animated characters and classics, and then Disneyland.

In the past decade or so, thanks to its collaboration with Gilbert Jr., Disney has also performed well in the live-action film business.

However, Disney has made achievements not only in the film business, but also in a huge media empire, with a total market value of $423 billion this year, second only to News Corporation owned by media tycoon Rupert Murdoch.

The reason why the company's market value has expanded so much, from less than $423 billion in the early s to $ billion today, is largely due to Gilbert Jr.

Moreover, Disney has made big moves, acquiring Pixar Studios. If it completely merges with Cantaloupe Studios and takes over Marvel Studios, it will become the number one film company in Hollywood and the number one media group in the world.

So among the big Hollywood companies, Disney is a very special one. Other companies have parent companies, but only Disney itself is its own parent company.

The decoupling of Warner Bros. and Cantaloupe Studios is quite troublesome, after all, it involves a lot of movie copyrights.

Not to mention "The Lord of the Rings" and "Harry Potter" series, "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest" has just become this year's box office champion.

There will be "Pirates of the Caribbean 3" next year, and there will be so many movie sequels in the future, as well as theme park projects in cooperation with Disney. Do they all have to be decoupled?

In response to this, Warner Pictures' new CEO Keely Ross said that decoupling from Cantaloupe Studios does not mean decoupling from film copyrights. Warner will continue to hold shares of these film copyrights and create value for the company.

This is destined to be a chaotic decoupling war, and who will suffer greater losses will depend on who makes the move.

However, this process is very long. The Kiri Rose project is scheduled for 2012, but it is estimated that by that time Warner Pictures will still have ties with Cantaloupe Studios.

Rumor has it that the world will end in 2012. Until the day of the end of the world, Warner wanted to die with little Gilbert. It's so touching.

(End of this chapter)