Chapter 560： burn the war

On the way back, Dunn invited Barry Diller into his car.

"Last year, Lei Shidong asked me to put "Six Feet Under" on the TV station. Since then, I have made up my mind that one day, I will make him pay the price in blood!"

Tang En's face was calm, but his eyes showed unshakable sharpness and firmness.

Barry Diller said: "Cancellation of the cooperation with Blockbuster will bring some losses to New Universal, but ... it is a blessing or a curse, not necessarily."

Tang En smiled slightly, revealing a row of white teeth, "Maybe Redstone thinks too much of Best's strength, or too little of Netflix's potential."

Barry Diller shook his head and said, "As of now, Netflix has no chance of competing with Blockbuster."

"The bigger the size, the greater the inertia. If you want to turn around...you may have to roll over. Netflix is ​​different. It is light assets, small size, and can adjust its strategic direction at any time. In the future, it will be full of changes, which is very important." Tang En showed full confidence in Netflix.

Barry Diller raised his eyebrows. He heard something. "You mean... the video rental industry will follow the record industry?"

Tang En said: "Affected by Internet downloads, the record industry's market has taken a downturn. Even if Congress has issued a policy to crack down on pirated downloads, the development of the Internet should not be underestimated. Now the Internet speed is slow, at most it is downloading some music and clarity. For low-level adult videos, as long as the internet speed increases, the online video-on-demand business will definitely have a bright future."

"On-demand? There is no technical threshold, and there is no U-turn problem." Barry Diller shook his head.

Tang En said with a smile: "So, no matter how the old and new channels are replaced, the content remains the same! Controlling the content means controlling the source."

Barry Diller's eyes lit up, "You mean... the acquisition of MGM?"

Tang En clenched his fists and said solemnly: "I will do it!"

Barry Diller nodded again and again, "I firmly agree! Even if there is no new Internet channel, the acquisition of MGM is enough to give us more confidence in the fight against Blockbuster. MGM has 4,200 inventory, except Those joint ventures, shared copyrights, and controlled films have also reached 2,000. Counting our New Universal film library, such a large volume is enough to compete with Blockbuster!”

Blockbuster is powerful, but Blockbuster is just a channel.

After being blocked by New Universal and Disney, Blockbuster rentals will be drastically reduced.

Fans want to see these films, what should they do?

Only go to Netflix!

Netflix now implements a monthly membership system, where users pay $20 a month to rent and watch unlimited movies. (The monthly rental fee of $20 is actually very cheap. If you rent a film at Blockbuster, if you delay returning the film, you will pay a late payment penalty of $50.)

This is a new model.

Now, Netflix has more than 2 million users, including membership fees and advertising, annual revenue of 620 million US dollars!

Of the $620 million, half of it has to pay royalties, which are shared among major film companies, as well as warehouse rental fees, DVD transportation fees, and employee expenses.

Throughout 2002, Netflix's profit was only more than 34 million US dollars.

Still, it's pretty good.

This emerging model, which can create profits without burdening the parent company, is the greatest success. Especially the rapid growth of subscribers, the prospects are very bright.

If there is support from New Universal, Disney, and MGM's exclusive film library, will there be less user growth?

In the previous life, Pepsi did not go bankrupt until 2010.

Since Dunn has played against Viacom, he has to push this time forward for a few more years!

Natalie, who had been sitting beside Dunn and listened quietly, suddenly spoke up and said softly, "Acquiring MGM... But I heard that last year, Sony Pictures intended to acquire MGM. , but withdrew because the asking price was too high.”

"Last year? Last year, MGM had several hot-selling films such as "Hannibal" and "Legal Blonde", and it's not surprising that Kirk Kirklein was in high spirits. Let's watch it again this year? He vomited blood! He must be trying to get rid of MGM in a hurry."

Dunn is very disgusted with Kirk Kerkorian.

He was obviously a gambling tycoon, but he went into Hollywood to play movies. As a result, he made a lot of money and made MGM, the world's largest film company, crippled.

No Hollywood filmmaker has a good impression of Kirk Kerkorian.

Barry Diller thought of something and said, "I'll give Murdoch a call!"

Then, he took out his phone.

"Rupert, huh, didn't you come to the celebration reception for "The Lord of the Rings 2"?"

Barry Diller's voice is warm, like an old friend, and it's hard to imagine the two having a heated conflict ten years ago.

Dunn didn't know what Murdoch said on the other end of the phone, Barry Diller's expression was calm, and he said with a smile: "Redstone wanted to show "Truth or Dare" on cbs, but I refused You know, although I haven't signed with 20th Century Fox yet, I'm looking forward to "Truth or Dare" being broadcast on Fox, after all, the Fox network has some roots with me."

Dunn has had a lot of experience among business bigwigs, and he immediately analyzed the meaning of Barry Diller's words.

When a big man speaks, it is often in the fog, and the listener must avoid the false and follow the truth, so as to understand the deep meaning.

For example, what Barry Diller said just now-"Truth or Dare", cbs, fox, are all "false", only "rejection" is "true".

To put it bluntly, it was Barry Diller who rejected Redstone!

This is sending a signal to Murdoch that New Universal and Viacom are going to war!

If News Corp. can remain neutral, New Universal will maintain a partnership with Twentieth Century Fox and send "Truth or Dare."

"Okay! No problem... Hehe, that's fine, just do it."

Barry Diller hung up the phone and nodded to Dunn.

Dunn breathed a sigh of relief.

It's a lot easier to have a right-hand man.

After getting Murdoch, he can make an upright gesture with Redstone.

As for another media giant, aol Time Warner...

Dunn is not worried.

Now aol Time Warner is overwhelmed, and news has been reported in the industry. Time Warner intends to sell its Warner Publishing Group and Warner Music Group in order to solve the huge loss of deficit problem...

...

In the blink of an eye, it's another year.

2003 arrived.

With various payments arriving at the end of the year, New Universal's cash flow on the books exceeded $2.8 billion.

However, only 1.9 billion U.S. dollars can really be used, and the remaining 900 million U.S. dollars did not flow back to the United States overseas.

This amount of money is far from enough to acquire MGM.

But don't worry, you can earn it slowly.

New Universal's earning power is definitely the best in Hollywood!

Especially when the second season of "American Idol" is broadcast, there will be a lot of money in the account.

And MGM's acquisition will certainly be very complicated.

Since Kirk Kerkorian publicly stated that he wants to sell MGM, seven or eight companies have started asking prices one after another.

There's Sony Pictures, Paramount, Disney, Time Warner, Lionsgate, Comcast, and even Microsoft and General Electric.

Bidding for MGM must be a long and complicated process, and there is no rush.

However, another acquisition case, after repeated discussions, discussions and negotiations for 3 months, finally came to an end.

Amazon acquired PayPal, the world's largest online payment platform, at US$20.87 per share, issuing 40.72 million additional shares, plus US$200 million in cash!

The total transaction volume is as high as 1.05 billion US dollars!

Among them, Dunn received 27 million shares, accounting for 6% of the total share capital, becoming the second largest individual shareholder of Amazon after Jeff Bezos.

Elon Musk took $120 million in cash and 3.83 million Amazon shares because he wanted to get busy with his startup.

Since then, following Google, Hasbro, Apple, mga toy company, Legendary Pictures, space company, Scott Swift Angel Foundation, Dunn has another independent director status.

Amazon Independent Director!

But New Universal and Hollywood focus on another deal three days after this one!

New Universal spends $180 million in cash to acquire Amazon's imdb film and television information network! (Amazon is very poor and has no cash flow. The $200 million in cash for the acquisition of paypal is actually this money.)

After the acquisition is completed, imdb will be integrated into Netflix, providing a wealth of information for Netflix's video rentals.

Netflix members will also automatically enjoy the services of imdbpro members.

As soon as this news came out, the entire entertainment industry was shocked!

That day at the celebration reception of "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers", Tang En challenged Lei Shidong face to face, refusing to back down, the scene of confrontation with big swords, the outside world did not know, and the heads of the industry also heard about it.

Now, New Universal Firewire has acquired imdb, the world's most professional, complete and authentic movie and TV information website, and integrated it into Netflix, which has clearly explained the problem.

Dunn shot!

He is increasing investment in Netflix's business, and has challenged Blockbuster, the leader in the video rental market!

Perhaps Netflix is ​​far inferior to Blockbuster in terms of assets and storefronts.

However, Netflix represents a new force!

Just like the corporate slogan of the New Universal Group: "New Order, New Model, New Force, New Universal, New Hollywood!"

Netflix uses the Internet as a medium, with monthly membership as the foundation, oriented by the professional information of imdb, and featuring the exclusive rental rights of New Universal and Disney film and television works, and has formed a series of complete film rental chains.

Challenge the Best!

Didn't Redstone want to suppress Dunn with Blockbuster?

OK.

Dunn doesn't mind the fire of war!

(Sanqi Chinese)