Chapter 502： The opening ceremony of the drama

For Dunn, the amazing box office of "Spider-Man 2" is just an appetizer this summer, and the real feast is Vivendi!

After so many years of planning, it is finally time to close the net.

Universal Pictures, Universal Music and other related entertainment assets, Dunn must get it!

This visit to France was a real business negotiation. Even the great director Luc Besson wanted to meet Dunn and talk about the cooperation between Europa Pictures and Dunn, but he refused.

In addition to Dunn himself, Dunn Films President Bill McNick, Vice President West Cotton, Vice President Toska Musk, Chief Financial Officer Brandy Norris and many other executives were dispatched collectively. .

The big Buddha, Michael Ovitz, also came later.

It can be said to be inspiring!

The Vivendi board of directors has long known the news that Dunn Pictures wants to acquire Universal Pictures.

Inside Vivendi now, there are two distinct factions: the French faction and the American faction.

The French faction is still firmly supporting the chairman of the board and CEO Jean Messier, believing that he can lead Vivendi to turn the tide; the American faction is simple and straightforward, they want to cut Messier, and then change the strategic direction and divest The debt assets of the entertainment industry save Vivendi's bankruptcy.

Dunn and his entourage stayed for two days at the Cousin Golf Club in Paris and met with several important directors of Vivendi.

One of the most important is Jean Paul, a financier with great political and business influence in France.

Paul is a French but a staunch American faction that has been pushing to get Messier out.

In May, he united with the Brown family in an attempt to subvert Messier's power. However, due to the strong maintenance of French factions such as Arnault, it ended in failure.

For Dunn and his party, Jean Paul showed great enthusiasm, and even invited Dunn to his house for a French dinner.

After a few days of contact, Tang En had a clear understanding of Vivendi's internal situation, "The current Vivendi is turbulent!"

In the guest room, he and his assistants were spying.

And Tang En's words are obviously meaningful and somewhat cynical.

Bill McNick shook his head, "But the board of directors still has more power to support Messier. Messier is a checkpoint, and he is the biggest obstacle to our acquisition of Universal."

West Cotton echoed, "Yes, as long as he is still in power, it is impossible to sell related entertainment assets to us! These are his heart and soul, and the greatest achievements of his work over the years."

Tosca Musk said lightly: "If it were me, I would also support Messier's continued reign. When he came to power in 1994, Vivendi was just a French water company, a small company. But now what? ? Vivendi is a world-class media giant!"

Tang En pouted in disapproval, "This moment, that moment!"

At that time, 38-year-old Jean Messier was appointed as the CEO of this water company, and then he led this "old" sunset industry company to quickly complete a major transformation——

Joint venture with Vodafone Group to develop mobile communication business and enter telecom operation industry; acquire canalplus TV network, Universal Pictures, Universal Music, enter TV network, film and music industry; acquire Houghton Mifflin Company and its related industries, enter Publishing, game industry; established an online e-commerce website with Sony, sold audio and video products online, acquired mp3. and other related websites, and entered the Internet industry; acquired the usa TV network and continued to expand the cable network layout; TV operation business...

In just seven or eight years, Messier led the rapid transformation of Vivendi, and its market value once approached 100 billion US dollars, making it the second largest media empire in the world after Time Warner.

This result is really outstanding!

However, the continuous large-scale acquisitions, and many of them are leveraged buyouts with debt, are too risky!

French shareholders can unswervingly support his expansion because of national sentiment, but American shareholders... no longer want to continue to take risks.

Of course, this is also related to what Jean Messier does not understand to please American investors.

However, in any case, this intricate and complicated environment in Vivendi is extremely beneficial to Dunn.

Michael Ovitz, who was born as an agent, has an extremely keen control over people's hearts and a gloomy smile, "Don't worry, something will happen soon."

"Oh?"

Everyone's eyes lit up.

Michael Ovitz said with a smile: "Most of the people we have met in the past few days are supporters of Messier, but haven't you noticed? Their will has also begun to shake, Vivendi's excessive debt, Even the need to sell some assets to pay off the interest on the debt has already made the French feel the crisis.”

Tang En was very interested, "Tell me specifically?"

Michael Ovitz said: "Now, the most critical person is Arnault, the vice chairman of the board of directors, who is the chairman of BNP Paribas and the source of funds for Vivendi. If this person can't support it, then The whole French faction will collapse in an instant. The American investors are obviously actively communicating with him. However, it does not matter."

"What's important then?"

"Real gold and silver!"

Michael Ovitz twitched the corner of his mouth, his eyes were slightly cold, and he snorted, "They all understand the financial situation of Dunn Pictures, we can easily take out more than 10 billion US dollars in cash! Although I don't communicate much with the French, But the commonality of capitalists will not change. Now, we only need to provide an attractive offer, which will certainly aggravate Vivendi’s internal conflicts and give American shareholders more voice and theoretical basis.”

Tang En pondered for a long time, and nodded again and again, "So...it's feasible!"

Bill McNick interjected, "We know the financial situation of Universal Pictures better. We can give Universal Pictures an offer first and try it out!"

The offer for acquisition should be based on the financial situation of the other company.

Universal Music and Blizzard Games will wait until after Messier steps down and Dunn Pictures officially starts acquisition negotiations with Vivendi before conducting investigations and quotations.

Now, take the lead with Universal Pictures!

...

On June 24th, Dunn Pictures made an invitation to buy to Vivendi - 5.8 billion US dollars, to acquire all the assets of Universal Pictures and its subordinates!

On June 25, the board of directors and senior management represented by Jean Messier responded quickly: Rejected!

On June 27, Arnault, the chairman of BNP Paribas, the vice chairman and director of Vivendi's board of directors, and Messier's biggest supporter, Arnault, announced his resignation withdrew from the board of Vivendi!

On June 28, Hollywood's public opinion media are boiling again!

The quotation from Dunn Pictures to Universal Pictures is business news and is not taken seriously in the entertainment page.

In the entertainment section, the most important things are stars, directors, and big movies!

On this day, there was indeed a big news.

Following "Titanic", "Star Wars: Episode 1: The Ghost Man Menace", "Spider-Man" and "The Unsinkable", the fifth film in history to exceed $1 billion at the global box office was born.

In this film, there is no way to leave a person's name.

That's right, it's Dunn Walker again!

The "Spider-Man 2" produced by him has been released for 8 weeks, with a North American box office of 510 million and an overseas box office of 490 million. The total global box office has successfully exceeded the $1 billion mark!

Of these 5 $1 billion box office films, 3 were directed by Dunn himself, and 2 were produced by Dunn.

For a time, the name "Dawn Walker" has almost become synonymous with the box office!

With the help of Dunn, Ridley Scott's low-key British director's name has also officially become famous and has become the focus of publicity for the film and entertainment industries in various countries.

Especially in the British film industry, Ridley Scott has become their pride in Hollywood!

On this day, Dunn once again appeared on the cover of Time Magazine. He was dressed in casual clothes and a pair of dark blue jeans. Even with black-rimmed glasses, he couldn't hide his young face.

Next to it, there is a bold and bold headline - "The Godfather of Commercial Films"!

Such an honor, for Dunn, is already the icing on the cake.

The focus of his attention now is all in France, only Vivendi!

Big play, start!

7

(Sanqi Chinese)