Chapter 372： Redstone like wind, fog and rain

In the early 1990s, Paramount was the best-performing film company in Hollywood. Redstone took a fancy to it and spent $10 billion to acquire it.

$10 billion, what is this concept?

Even Sony, which was devastated by Hollywood, spent $5 billion to acquire Columbia Pictures, which shocked the world. Then Panasonic bought Universal Pictures for $6.5 billion.

More importantly, Universal Pictures is affiliated with Universal Music, while Paramount is just a pure film company, not engaged in music.

After Paramount became a subsidiary of Viacom, the business situation changed. Redstone believed that investing in movies was too risky and refused to inject capital into Paramount.

As a result, the top executives of Paramount had to cast a large net in the market to find investors.

"Tomb Raider", which has just been released and has excellent box office results, is the most typical example.

Who would have thought that Paramount would start the filming plan without investing a penny in this film?

The first step was to use the tax rebate policy in Germany and the United Kingdom to get 22 million US dollars;

The second step is to use the influence of the game "Tomb Raider" and the appeal of Angelina Jolie to pre-sell overseas copyrights in Germany, Italy, Japan, Australia, Britain, France and other countries. A total of Raised $65 million;

The third step is to pre-sell the North American TV rights and sell them to TV stations for $10 million (because they are relatives, the price is very low).

After these three steps, "Tomb Raider" received $97 million before filming began, excluding some legal fees, and started shooting at a cost of $95 million.

Paramount has knitted together a beautiful investment network.

Every penny earned by "Tomb Raider" is Paramount's net profit!

It looks good, but Paramount chairman Shirley Lansing has had enough of this way of raising money.

Paramount has no investment risk, but in the same way, with such a beautiful box office performance of "Tomb Raider", how much return can Paramount reap? Only the North American market and a few insignificant overseas markets remain.

The cakes have been distributed in advance.

The films of Dunn Films have an amazingly high rate of return, because the films produced by Dunn Films are all exclusive investments! The risk is borne alone, and the profit is also enjoyed alone!

More importantly, rumors have now spread that in Europe...especially Germany, the tax rebate policy will be revised. Gone are the days of "cheating money" from Germany.

Paramount must find new investors!

The most reliable, stable and long-lasting investor is, of course, Legendary Pictures, which is currently booming in Hollywood!

Platter investment, so attractive!

However, in recent years, Paramount's performance has been very poor. It has been surpassed by Warner, 20th Century Fox and Universal. Shirley Lansing communicated with Michael Ovitz several times, but they were all rejected.

Call Dunn, he is also vague.

No way, Shirley Lansing's face is too small, she can only come forward to her big boss - Redstone!

…

Redstone has a daughter, a son, and a cold relationship.

The person he trusts most is Philip Dorman, the current vice chairman and chief executive of Viacom Group, who has followed him for decades.

Even the smr family trust fund set up by Redstone, the beneficiaries are his children and nephews, but the trustee is Philip Dorman.

At this moment, Philip Dorman is sitting in Redstone's office, discussing a vexing question.

In the field of professional cable TV, there is a new competitor - sta TV network!

"The two TV stations under the sta TV network were acquired by Dunn Pictures last year for $170 million. Since March this year, the sta TV network has launched a series of changes, increased subscription fees, and produced content with Dunn Pictures. , formally combined."

Philip Dorman is expressing his concerns to Redstone, "In May, Dunn's two films "Spider-Man" and "Chainsaw" landed on the sta TV network, rapidly expanding the number of users in a short period of time. , Although the number of paid members is still not high, it continues to grow. Especially after June, the TV series "Six Feet Under" made by Dunn Pictures began to be broadcast, which is very popular. "

Because it involves Dunn and has a great influence, even Philip Dorman is not good at making decisions without authorization. He needs to ask for instructions.

Lei Shidong is 78 years old, looks very old, and has a few age spots on his face, but his eyes are cloudy, his essence is flashing, and he looks full of energy.

"Our sho TV network... how many TV stations?"

"There are now six subordinate channels, the shotie women's channel, as well as the movie channel, the family channel and the extreme channel. In addition, there are four channels, which are being conceived for expansion."

Lei Shidong nodded silently, "That little baby Tang En... Haha, there are still some tricks."

Philip Dorman smiled and disagreed, "It's just a small trick. If we do it, we will definitely make the market share of the sta TV network not increase but decrease."

Redstone waved his hand, it seemed that the old man had lost his sense of strength, "Michael Eisner underestimated him, what do you think about Disney's current situation?"

"That's Disney's own problem." Philip Dorman shook his head, "I heard... Disney's board of directors has been in a lot of trouble recently."

"In short, don't look at Dunn by age and experience." Seeing that Philip Dorman didn't care, Lei Shidong pondered for a while, and said slowly: "Dawn Pictures has produced two content products, one reality show and one Cartoons, he mentioned it to me last time at my birthday party."

"Well, 'American Idol' and 'Fantastic Four' are both working with us." Philip Dorman paused for a moment, understood what Redstone meant, and his face changed, "You mean...he did it on purpose. ?"

Lei Shidong said indifferently: "I was doubting it half a month ago, but now... I'm definitely convinced that this is his intention."

"This…"

Philip Dorman's face showed a somewhat unbelievable expression, horrified and shocked, and he believed very much in the judgment of Redstone, who had had countless experiences in his life.

"Where did he get so much confidence? He dared to guarantee that "Under Six Feet" would be liked by the audience? It was a TV series about funerals and dead people. I watched it, and it was completely different from the current mainstream movie viewing trend. Match!"

"Yeah, confidence!" Lei Shidong's eyes were empty, as if recalling the old events of the year.

As I get older, I always love to make memories.

After a long while, Lei Shidong came back to his senses, sighed, and shook his head repeatedly, "I met him once, and the sunshine, positivity, self-confidence, and calmness he showed are definitely not the best in the social field."

Philip Dorman frowned, his face was ugly, "It seems... this kid has a lot of plans! Sir, let's do it!"

Even if DreamWorks, which was founded by the Big Three and invested by Paul Allen, would not dare to play TV, even if it was invincible back then, Dunn's ambition was too great!

"Do not!"

Lei Shidong did not think about it and directly rejected it.

"Sir, raising tigers is a problem!"

Philip Dorman struggled to persuade.

Redstone said with a smile: "Tell you two things, the first one, this morning, Shirley came to me and asked me to support Paramount financially, which is of course impossible, the risk of the movie is too great. Then She took the next step and asked me to come forward in person, use this old face to contact Legendary Pictures, and seek cooperation with 'Platform Investment'."

"Indeed, platter investment is a very new and efficient investment method in the film field. It is said that it was conceived by Dunn." Philip Dorman nodded, "So you contacted Michael Ovitz? That guy has since After leaving caa, I don't care much about human relationships."

Redstone shook his head, and then he laughed, "This is the second thing, I received a call at noon today, from Dunn. He said that he hopes to promote the cooperation between Legendary Pictures and Paramount, so that I can learn from it. Help. Help? Hehe, look at how much this little guy can talk."

Philip Dorman's face was almost contorted, unusually wonderful.

He is 45 years old this year. He really can't understand how Tang En, a 23-year-old young man, can handle things so smoothly?

Old-fashioned, steady, gentle, calm!

More importantly, he can always react one step ahead!

Before "Six Feet Under" aired, enough benefits had been given to Viacom. Now, "Six Feet Under" has been released, and he has sent another big gift!

Philip Dorman didn't know what Redstone was thinking.

This big boss is very shrewd, and even his own children can't read his mind. Philip Dorman doesn't know whether Redstone doesn't bother to care about Tang En's younger generation, whether it is he who cares about Tang En or not. En's "gift" is very interesting.

But one thing is certain, Dunn has completely seen through his mind!

Philip Dorman didn't want to sit back and watch the sta TV network grow and develop, and Dunn took various measures to prevent it from happening as early as a month ago.

He is the executive chairman and CEO of Viacom, and it is an absolute shame to be found out by the owner of a small film company!

Lei Shidong took a deep look at Philip Dorman and smiled slightly, "Your idea is correct, but you are a little wrong. What is the business of doing business? Is it business? It's wrong, it's people! Different things , facing different people, there are different ways to deal with it.”

Philip Dorman was suspicious.

I can't grasp Redstone's true thoughts.

His words, sounding high-sounding, are correct nonsense. Maybe... He valued the gift from Tang En too much, and it was just an excuse for himself because of his face.

Thinking back to Lei Shidong in the past, it can be said to be ambitious!

The acquisition of Viacom is the largest cable network in the United States; the acquisition of Paramount is the best film company in the United States; the acquisition of Blockbuster is the largest video rental company in the United States; the acquisition of cbs radio and television company is America's largest public television station.

Now, the other three major sectors are still No. 1 in the United States, and only Paramount has gone downhill.

At this time, Redstone will definitely focus on the development of Paramount, even at the expense of part of the interests of the sta TV network.

This is normal.

It's just that Philip Dorman, as a confidant, must understand his true thoughts.

And as Lei Shidong got older, he could not see the true thoughts of the big boss more and more.

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(Sanqi Chinese)