I’m in Hollywood

Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway and Tom Murphy's Metropolitan Media Company do not have absolute control over AbTV, but the close of 40% of the shares of the two companies means that Buffett privately talks with Fireflies. After that, it would be a breeze to lobby the board to promise the deal. Oh,

However, the inside of the ab TV network is definitely not a piece of iron. Buffett’s attitude is tough, but it does not mean that other major shareholders of the aTV network do not want to reach this deal with the fireflies, especially since the firefly film industry has achieved huge profits for many years. In the case, even at the end of last year, Buffett’s separate contact with fireflies was a dissatisfaction with shareholders’ public disclosure of Buffett’s concealment of negotiating information.

After Firefly Pictures released its 1993 financial report, many investment institutions holding ab TV network shares hope to promote this transaction more urgently. After all, some interests are very easy to calculate, with the profitability of Firefly Films, the merger After that, even if the original shareholders of Ab TV Network only have a 30% interest in the integrated company, as long as the profitability of the fireflies does not change much, the profit dividends earned by the shareholders each year are almost equal to those in the ab period, but they A large amount of money can be drawn from this cash-and-equity transaction for other investments.

After the firefly film industry and Buffett negotiations failed to publicly release the invitation to buy, the ab TV network board quickly passed a resolution promised to start negotiations with the firefly film industry.

On February 10th, after getting a formal reply from Ab TV, Kasenberg and Firefly's chief lawyer Edward Lewis led the acquisition team to New York. Started a formal acquisition negotiation with the ab side.

Because the equity and debt status of Ab TV is not as simple as Firefly. Firefly also invited Morgan Stanley's team as a consultant under Chris's line.

In the process of acquiring Disney. The two sides have had a very pleasant cooperation, although the Firefly Films at this time are no longer the same, and the rich administrative resources they own make the Firefly not have to rely solely on Morgan Stanley's team in this acquisition, but Morgan. Stanley is still very enthusiastic, and the entire Wall Street can be seen, this is Morgan Stanley deliberately showing to the firefly film industry.

Because the fireflies will start a large-scale debt financing plan in order to complete the acquisition after the negotiations are over, the agent issuing stocks and bonds is the main business of investment banks. The resulting profits are also much richer than those that are occasionally handled.

Eric did not rush to New York with Kasenberg, but communicated with Kasenberg on the phone every day.

Of course, before Kasenberg left New York, the firefly's top executives had talked about Firefly's acquisition bottom line in detail. After many discussions, Eric authorized Kasenberg's permission to fire up to 25% of the shares. As for cash, it is relaxed within 10 billion US dollars.

Of course, this data is not arbitrarily decided. Firefly Films and Ab TV stations are in a very good period of performance. Therefore, no Ruihui suspects that the merger will produce one plus one and two effects. Under the best performance expectations, once the two parties merge. Under the strong alliance, the profit of fireflies in the next few years is likely to reach 2 billion US dollars. In this case, the proportion of shareholders who own 25% of the shares will be equal to the annual income of the holding ab network, so this data is relatively easy to be Accepted by ab.

Of course, what will happen in the future, except for those who can see Erik in the future, no one can expect it, maybe the firefly revenue and profits after the merger will break out again, or perhaps the heavy debt burden of the billion-dollar scale after the acquisition. Below, the fireflies will go to destruction.

Eric personally is always very optimistic about this transaction, although the performance of the original Disney acquisition after a while fell into a downturn for many years, but more of this is Michael Eisner's personal reasons, Michael Eisner After the step-down, the Disney Group quickly revived, and the giants such as Time Warner and News Group, both in terms of scale and profitability, were far from open, which is enough to prove the correctness of the acquisition.

As for the huge debt burden after the merger, Eric did not pay attention to it. In the late 1990s, it will be the most rapid period of economic development in the United States. All economic sectors, including the entertainment industry, have grown substantially, plus Eric. In the layout of high-tech industries, even if the fireflies are really embarrassed, Eric can easily raise enough funds from other channels to resolve the firefly crisis. Moreover, the possibility of such things is not high.

Since last year, Eric has repeatedly requested to expand the 3D animation production department of Firefly Pictures. However, in this era, 3D animation technology has just emerged. Except for Pixar, there is no scale 3D animation in North America or even the whole world. The company, as a last resort, Eric can only adopt an internal training mechanism. While expanding the size of Pixar, Disney's hand-painted animation department also stopped recruiting and cultivating hand-painted animators, and gradually tried to transform into computer animation.

While maintaining close ties with Kasenberg in New York, Eric has focused on his animation department for some time. To this end, he also personally led the organization of the exchange meeting between Pixar and Disney Animation.

The "Lion King" produced by Disney Animation Department has been completed, and began the pre-publication. In addition to "Lion King", Disney Animation also includes several animation sequels including "Aladdin's Lamp 2". Because the production cycle of retracting animations is longer than 3D animations, these projects were confirmed before Firefly’s acquisition of Disney, but in addition to these, Eric has no longer approved new hand-drawn animated film projects, and without a word It means that if Disney's existing hand-painted animators are not willing to accept computer animation training, after the hand-drawn animated film projects in their hands are completed, these people will only be able to produce low-cost animation projects for the Disney Children's Channel.

Most of Disney's hand-painted animators are not too old, plus a very skilled painting skills. It is not too difficult to complete the training of computer animation software. In order to avoid causing the rebound of hundreds of hand-painted animators. Eric also promised to give these people sufficient time to learn and adapt, and to fully cover the expenses required during the training.

The Pixar staff who attended the exchange meeting came out from the Disney Animation Studios headquarters in Burbank, and John Lasette, who walked alongside Eric, said: "Eric, although no one has publicly released yet. Retorted, but I feel that many people in the studio are still very resistant to this change, maybe you will have some trouble."

Of course, Eric is also very aware of this. Disney Animation Studio has more than 700 hand-painted animators, although more than 70% of the ages are around 30 years old. But some of them are even old people in the Walt Disney era. These people are definitely not able to adapt to the new animation production methods. It is almost inevitable that they will be eliminated in the future. In this case, no one will wait and see, so I just got Eric. When I spoke, there was no rebuttal, mainly because the various advantages shown by Pixar 3d animation were almost overwhelming, and Eric’s decision was a bit sudden. Many people could not react, and there was no I will do this 'out of the bird' without any preparation.

“They all understand the advantages of 3D animation over hand-drawn animation. Both Toy Story and Bugs Crisis have proven this, so this shift is inevitable.” Eric and John Russett As I walked, I said, "If you can't complete this change, the fireflies can only cut them off, and I have done what I can. The existing hand-drawn animation projects in their hands can last for at least two years. They are very loose. If they are really abolished, I don’t think they will ever go their own way. All major TV stations need a lot of hand-painted animators to make children's cartoons."

John Lasseter, who worked at Disney Animation for a long time, heard Eric’s words and sighed slightly. But he is very clear that capital is ruthless. Although Eric is not a demanding boss, he is not a philanthropist. It is very difficult to achieve this level. If it is other companies, if you are not optimistic about the prospects of hand-drawn animation, you may directly announce layoffs, and will never give employees such a relaxed time to adapt.

It’s still early, because of the busy work, John Russett and others are not planning to spend the night in Los Angeles. Eric also specially arranged the business plane of the Firefly Films to send a group of people back to San Francisco.

Eric had planned to personally send John Lasseter and others to Santa Monica Airport, but when he first arrived at the parking lot, Eric saw Elizabeth with a frog mirror coming down from a red BMW sedan. I waved at Eric and walked over.

"Eric, I think we have to go to Santa Monica ourselves," John Lasseter saw Elizabeth's slim figure, laughing at Eric, and everyone else chuckled.

Eric and other Elizabeth came over and took the initiative to introduce the two sides. Looking at the girl’s desires and words, Eric also had to dismiss the thoughts of John La Sette and others, but John La Sette and others. I didn't care too much about these details. After bidding farewell to Eric, I got on the train and left.

When everyone left, Eric and Elizabeth walked to the red BMW, smiled and reached out and knocked on the hood, asking: "New car?"

Elizabeth re-attached the frog mirror and raised her jaw and said: "I bought it half a year ago. In the eyes of a guy who never cares about others, it is not wrong to say that it is a new car."

Eric looked at the crowd and reached out and squeezed Elizabeth's chin. He smiled and said: "Don't you think that if you have something to ask me, should you put the 'little paws' up?"

Elizabeth’s hand opened Eric’s hand and looked at it with a sigh of relief. “We have completed the acquisition of Miramax.”

Immediately after work, Eric didn't want to be surrounded by people. He opened the door and sat in the red BMW. He smelled the faint woman fragrance in the carriage and asked Elizabeth who came in: "Oh, how much?"

Elizabeth launched the car and slowly drove out of the parking lot, saying: "One hundred million dollars to buy a 90% stake in Milamax, the Weinstein brothers retain 10% of the shares, and continue to take charge of Milamax's business."

"It's a bit expensive, but it's a good choice for the Weinstein brothers to keep some shares. Otherwise, if they both leave, Miramax will not have much value."

Elizabeth said: "If they leave Milamax, they don't have any value, and there is a whole news group to be a patron, so the brothers who are mercenary will not leave so easily."

Eric said: "The Weinstein brothers have eaten enough of the shortage of funds in the past few years. It will be very pleasant to cooperate with the 20th Century Fox for the first few years, but people are ambitious, waiting for you tolerate this. After the ambitions of the brothers, everyone will take a shot."

Elizabeth personally participated in the negotiations to acquire Miramax. Of course, she also knew exactly what the brothers were like: "If that's the case, if you want to go, then Fox can't let them be anti-custom."

Eric watched Elizabeth turn to the highway on the steering wheel before he thought about it: "Where are you going to take me?"

Elizabeth said in a sly and fearless tone: "The company's top management has decided to let the Weinstein brothers personally serve as the producer of "Brave Heart". This project is your first favorite, so everyone has a dinner and talks. ""

Eric was stunned by Elizabeth’s natural tone, and asked weakly: "This, Firefly and Fox are competitors after all... Are I doing this as an enemy?"

"Count!" Elizabeth nodded hard. "If you don't want to, the woman named Sophie Marceau will go back and forth."

"Okay, count you."

"Humph……"

The meeting was held in a fine French restaurant in Beverly Hills. When I saw Eric, the Weinstein brothers were very enthusiastic, and Mel Gibson was a lot colder. Eric could also feel that this guy was not Success has lost its nature, that is, emotional intelligence is too low. But Mel Gibson’s agent named Ed Limato is very eager, and Eric’s memory just happens to have this person, as if from the early 1980s Ed Limato’s act as a plum. Gibson's agent, until his death, has served as the agent of Mel Gibson for more than 20 years, Ed Limatobi Mel Gibson is twenty years old, the relationship between the two is the same as the father and son. But there is no exact date of death of Ed Limato in memory. If Ed Limato's death coincides with the date of the career of Mel Gibson, the encounter between Mel Gibson and Tom Cruise It’s too much like it. It also proves once again how important a good broker is. (To be continued.)