Chapter 355： Redstone's birthday party

Now Dunn is shouldering two big tasks - the box office of "Unsinkable" and the rise of the sta TV network.

In comparison, sta TV network is more important!

"Unsinkable" is just a movie no matter how famous and invested it is. Even if the box office fails, it will not have much impact on Dunn's film industry. Marvel Universe, Pirate Alliance, Transformers... These are all enough to support the future of the film industry.

But the sta TV network is different. In this sensitive time period, once it is not handled properly, it is very likely that the entire TV industry laid out by Tang En will be swept away!

This is by no means alarmist.

In 2001, Time Warner was in the midst of a merger with America Online. Viacom Group, led by Redstone, is the undisputed most influential media giant in the world today!

Even Disney's market value is less than half of Viacom's!

Dunn has the courage to challenge Michael Eisner and Disney, but in front of Redstone's absolute strength, he has no qualifications to confront him.

Viacom Group is too powerful!

The four major business segments, cable television network (Viacom headquarters), cbs group, Paramount Pictures, and Blockbuster, each of which is an industry giant, except for Paramount, the other three are industry leaders status.

In particular, Blockbuster has almost monopolized the video tape and DVD rental market in the United States.

Dunn dared to challenge Disney because Disney's development direction has little to do with Dunn's business, but Viacom is different.

Blockbuster alone can give Dunn Pictures a fatal blow in the film field.

For the sta TV network to rise, Viacom's sho TV network and Time Warner's hbo TV network are two mountains that must be overcome.

Time Warner is too busy to take care of itself and can be ignored.

But Viacom, must be highly valued!

Especially the old guy Lei Shidong, when he was fierce, the whole Hollywood was filled with a terrifying atmosphere.

The best manager in Hollywood right now is Disney's Michael Eisner. But who was the best manager in Hollywood before Michael Eisner?

It's Barry Diller!

Where is Barry Diller now?

Was driven away by Redstone!

Barry Diller, who used to be Megatron Hollywood, ran wma, abc, Paramount, and founded Fox Television Network, has now moved to the Internet and played e-commerce, completely saying goodbye to the media field.

Can't afford it, can only hide!

So in front of Redstone, Dunn didn't dare to play with fire like he did with Michael Eisner, and he had to deal with it carefully.

Fortunately, this old guy is 78 years old this year. He is far from being as wise as he used to be. He has become drowsy, and his management of the company has become more and more chaotic.

So much so that his children had serious disagreements with him.

...

May 27 is Mr. Summer Redstone's 78th birthday.

However, on this day, the Lei Shidong family did not hold a large banquet, but held a private banquet in their own family.

On the day of May 30th, we recruited a wide range of guests and received blessings from elites from all walks of life.

The show is huge!

Tosca Musk was appointed by Dunn as the vice president of Dunn Films. In addition to being in charge of Siliwood Animation, he was mainly responsible for the communication with Viacom Group, that is, Redstone himself.

She does a good job.

Dunn received an invitation with Mr. Redstone's autograph: "Sincerely invite you to my birthday party. - Summer M. Redstone."

On such a formal occasion, Dunn definitely couldn't go with a messy female companion. Fortunately, Harvard's summer vacation had begun, and Natalie was by his side.

"What? You're not going?" Dunn looked at Natalie in surprise.

Natalie pouted and said, "How do I get there? It's not a Hollywood party, it's a formal business occasion. Most of the attendees are old guys, the youngest are in their 40s and 50s. I'm a little one. Girl, a primary school student, how embarrassing it is to go?"

Tang En said in disapproval: "What kind of elementary school student, you are a student of Harvard University! The best institution of higher learning in the world!"

Natalie said weakly: "In the entertainment industry, of course, my education is proud, but in that case, how can I talk about my education? Did you know that Mr. Lei Shidong was admitted to Harvard at the age of 17? You know When he was at Harvard, he served in the U.S. military, and what about a war hero!"

"Ah? So powerful?" Dunn widened his eyes.

Natalie sat on the bed and threw the five or six dresses around her on the floor angrily, "I'm an actress who doesn't understand anything, in front of those big people, if I say the wrong thing, it's a shame. ?I dont go!"

Tang En pondered for a long time and sighed.

Of course he understood Natalie's mind.

Where is she afraid of embarrassing herself?

She was afraid of saying the wrong thing and losing face to her boyfriend.

The latest "Forbes" magazine has announced that Dunn's assets have reached 8 billion US dollars, ranking 37th among the world's richest people. Although far behind the No. 18 Summer Redstone with a net worth of more than $14 billion, it was enough to shine throughout the banquet.

It is conceivable that Dunn will definitely be the focus of this banquet. As a girlfriend, Natalie will definitely have to deal with the cross-examination of many ladies and wives.

Natalie, who is under 20 years old, will definitely struggle to cope with such an occasion.

Once something goes wrong, there will be a big joke.

"I'm not strong enough." Dunn sat beside the bed, took Natalie into his arms, and sighed with emotion.

Natalie shook her head, leaned against his arms, and said softly: "No, you are only 23 years old, even Bill Gates, at your age, can't be so successful. In my heart, you have already strong enough."

Tang En shook his head and laughed at himself, "I'm still too weak, if I am the richest man in the world now, hum, even if you say something wrong, even if you are an actress, so what? Huh! The whole world will look at your face! "

Natalie pursed her lips and said, "Then work hard and become the richest man in the world as soon as possible!"

Tang En smiled strangely, "You have so much confidence in me?"

Natalie raised her head, bit her mouth and said, "It doesn't matter, I will work hard anyway. In school, I took etiquette classes, language classes and social theory classes... Anyway, there are a lot of them. When I graduate from college, I'm definitely going to be very good, I'm confident!"

Tang En was angry and funny, "How can you have confidence in me, you have confidence in yourself!"

"I'm an actress anyway, but... I want everyone to stop looking at me with the eyes of an actress." Natalie said decisively.

Tang En nodded solemnly, "Let's work hard together!"

...

On social etiquette, Dunn is definitely not as good as Natalie.

But the status and wealth are there, these are Dunn's confidence.

It's like at a class reunion, when a person with status and wealth makes a few mistakes, everyone will not laugh at it, but think that this person is very real; but if it is the worst and poorest person who makes a joke , Even if everyone is friendly on the surface, they must be full of contempt in their hearts.

In the 21st century, wealth is the greatest capital!

Tosca Musk acted as Dunn's female companion and attended Redstone's birthday party.

She is only 27 years old this year, with blonde hair and blue eyes, white skin and long legs.

But the more such a match, the more uncomfortable Dunn felt.

"The whole world knows my girlfriend is Natalie Portman, don't get me wrong."

Dunn said calmly.

Tosca Musk smiled embarrassedly, holding his arm, not so intimate anymore, he followed step by step, a bit more like a secretary.

Her work tonight is also mainly the responsibility of the secretary. She whispered in Dunn's ear: "At nine o'clock on the left, it is Rupert Murdoch, the big boss of News Corporation!"

Tang En turned his head slightly, and sure enough, in that direction, he saw Murdoch, a newspaper tycoon, and his Chinese wife, communicating with an old man of the same age.

"The man who was talking to him was the godfather of cable TV - John Malone! He is very well known in the industry, and even Mr. Redstone, Mr. Murdoch, should have enough respect for him."

Dunn was a little surprised by Tosca Musk's words, he couldn't help but looked at it a few more times and asked in a low voice, "Why have I never heard of it?"

"He's retired." Tosca Musk shook his head, "but his business philosophy has influenced a generation."

"Oh?"

"His sentence is very classic. He said that high profitability means high taxes, so the strategic way to build a giant company is to use all possible conditions to reduce reported profits and taxes, and use pre-tax cash flow to support internal development and acquisitions. In fact , Comcast and Viacom, both adopted this business philosophy to develop into the scale it is today."

Hearing this, Tang En couldn't help but widened his eyes.

What a neat summary!

The way Wall Street values ​​companies usually uses earnings per share, so for a long time, the biggest goal of listed companies is to make profits.

until the advent of the Internet age.

But John Malone's view was decades ago.

Why is Amazon growing so fast? In addition to the fundamentals of e-commerce, this method of avoiding profits and reducing taxes is adopted, and all methods and cash are used to expand the company's business.

For decades, Amazon shareholders have not seen a penny in dividends!

As a result, the company's market cap is approaching a trillion dollars.

Tang En swallowed his saliva and nodded stiffly, "This person is amazing!"

Tosca Musk gave Dunn a strange look, "You really don't know John Malone? Sta TV network, it was originally a company under his tci group."

"Ah?" Dunn widened his eyes.

Tosca Musk suddenly realized and patted his head, "Yes, the sta TV network is too small, at that time he had the idea of ​​quitting. In 1997, he sold the teleport business for 11 billion US dollars. , sold the sprint/pcs business for $9 billion in 1998, and bought General Instruments to Motorola in 1999 for more than $11 billion. Later, the main business of tci was also sold to at&t for $48 billion , sta TV network...it's too unremarkable."

Dunn took a deep breath.

Only then did I know how insignificant the sta TV network business he was closely following was in the eyes of those big men!

He bought the sta TV network for $170 million.

(Sanqi Chinese)