Chapter 609： take advantage of

Thirty years ago, Sony pioneered the videotape format.

Since then, in addition to watching TV sets and cinemas, film and television works have also been viewed through videotapes.

The "Beta" recorder developed by Sony sold 100,000 units in just two years.

Sony has thus become the world's leading technology company in one fell swoop!

Unexpectedly, two years later, Panasonic launched a new video tape and video recorder in vhs format.

Although the "Beta" video recorder is of better quality, due to the monopoly of the format and the high price, it has completely lost to Panasonic in the market in just a few years.

The videotape is obviously a video format developed by Sony, but it has been picked up by rising stars.

A few years ago, Sony also developed a "pvr" based on a TV set-top box, a hard drive that stores TV programs.

Through this kind of hard disk, viewers can completely not be restricted by the broadcast time of TV programs, and can copy TV programs to the hard disk for watching at other times.

With the VCR business stagnant, the DVD projector business saturated, and the Walkman business dying, Sony urgently needs a product that can lead the world in technology.

The "pvr" hard drive has high hopes.

However, the sales of the product in the past 3 years have not been ideal. Although the sales growth rate exceeds that of DVD projectors, there are only 1 million users worldwide.

Sorry for the huge amount of R&D money Sony paid.

Various business failures have implicated Sony's stock price in falling year after year.

Sony, which had a market value of $200 billion that year, now has only $35 billion in market value.

To save the crisis, we must have new key business!

Sony's eyes are pointing directly to the next video format after video tapes and DVDs - Blu-ray.

Only by winning this format battle will it be possible for Sony to return to the ranks of the world's top technology companies.

The movie copyright library is the key to winning the format battle.

In fact, as early as 3 years ago, when the concept of the next-generation high-definition format was just proposed, Howard Stringer, CEO of Sony America, proposed to acquire MGM.

Not only can Columbia Pictures and MGM Pictures combine to improve the territory of film and television entertainment.

It can also pave the way for the future.

However, Sony America is only a division of the Sony Group.

Sony's power is in the hands of the Japanese Idei Nobuyuki.

Sony's market value at that time was more than 200 billion US dollars, and it was as easy as spitting on MGM.

However, the CEO of Idei Nobuyuki is too narrow. He doesn't want to see Sony America become too big, and then suppress the Sony headquarters.

Sony is a Japanese company, not an American company!

The Japanese have a strong national sentiment, and even Japanese companies are extremely repulsive of foreign capital.

Under such circumstances, Sony Pictures' plan to acquire MGM failed to materialize.

Now, here's your chance.

If you want to promote the development of Blu-ray disc, MGM is almost inevitable.

Howard Stringer Revisited, Wants to Buy MGM.

This time, Idei Nobuyuki agreed.

However, Sony has run out of money, and can't wait to sell the headquarters building to ease the pressure on cash flow.

Howard Stringer had no choice but to contact Comcast, intending to pull the international consortium to leverage the acquisition of MGM in the name of the holding company.

It seems to be determined to win!

Unexpectedly, because of Dunn's spoiler, Comcast did not accept Sony's plan, but chose to show favor to New Universal.

Nobuyuki Idei's vision is really not very good, and he will soon lose power completely and be ousted by the board of directors.

American Howard Stringer was elected the first foreign CEO in Sony history.

The first thing he did when he took office was to buy MGM at all costs!

This is an opportunity!

Dunn can take advantage of this gap and start as soon as possible, and before Nobuyuki Idei steps down and Howard Stringer does not take power, he can win MGM in one fell swoop!

Get caught off guard!

"What about the sales plan of Houghton Mifflin Press?" Dunn was not interested in the box office reports of Daredevil and Finding Nemo. He was about to go to Israel for a "vacation", and then took over the shooting "The Departed".

To get some important things down as soon as possible.

Barry Diller said: "There are three companies ready to bid, all of which are in talks at around $2.25 billion."

Tang En waved his hand, "Make a decisive decision and sell it quickly. I just got news from Toshiba that Sony recently held an expanded board of directors in Japan, and everyone from Sony in the United States went. We must hurry up and win MGM!"

Barry Diller frowned and said, "That man, Kirk Kerkorian, is very awkward!"

"How much is he asking for?"

"No. But Time Warner's $3.8 billion bid was rejected."

"The shameless old thing is really insatiable! It has plagued Hollywood for decades, thinking about sucking blood, I will teach him a lesson sooner or later!" Tang En sneered, closed his eyes and pondered slightly, and said categorically, "No matter what, get it done. Him! $4 billion won't work, just $4.5 billion!"

"So tall?" Barry Diller's expression changed slightly.

The current market value of MGM Pictures is only $3.2 billion. According to the normal cash acquisition practice, a premium of 20% is about $3.8 billion.

MGM's performance is so poor, no matter how high the price is, the lion will open its mouth.

If the asking price reaches $4.5 billion, that is a 50% premium. This is an acquisition offer that can only be obtained by a company with great development prospects.

Tang En said: "There's no other way, it's not too late. If they really wait for Sony's Blu-ray technology to develop and take shape, and they make up their minds to stick with MGM, the price may be higher. Now, Comcast has rejected Sony's invitation to cooperate, This is an opportunity for us to jump in.”

"MGM is not worth that much money." Barry Diller shook his head frequently.

Tang En said with a smile: "Don't worry, the "007" series is in the hands of MGM. The money you spend now can be earned back in the future."

Half an hour later, Dunn called Kevin Turner again, "What happened to the streaming media rights?"

This is Kevin Turner's most important job right now.

"We have reached agreements with Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox, DreamWorks, Lionsgate and 16 other independent film companies, and we have now obtained the streaming rights to 8,000 movies. The agreed rental period is fixed. 25 years."

"it is good!"

Dunn is very satisfied with this result.

Hollywood's film library, a total of about 16,000.

Warner Bros. has the most with 6,500, followed by MGM with 4,200, followed by Universal with 3,600, Sony Pictures with 3,500, Twentieth Century Fox with 2,000, Paramount with 1,000, and Disney with 500. And 3800 of several other independent film companies. (Some video copyrights are divided into several parts, so there are repetitions.)

Now, Kevin Turner has secured 8,000 movie rights, which is equivalent to half of the entire Hollywood!

If New Universal can successfully acquire MGM, coupled with the MGM film library, after removing redundant redundancy, Netflix can almost get about 80% of Hollywood's movie streaming rights!

Such a rich film library resource is enough!

This will greatly help Netflix's streaming media business in the future.

Kevin Turner was very dissatisfied, "We're asking for too long, a 25-year contract... Unless companies like DreamWorks and Warner Bros. are desperate for money, they will cooperate with us. Many film companies and content distributors will cooperate with us. , are reluctant to sign such a long loan agreement."

Dunn said with a smile: "8,000 movies are enough, and counting our own, it's enough to support Netflix's streaming media business in the future."

Kevin Turner frowned and said, "But... Netflix currently holds 30,000 DVD film and television copyrights! Blockbuster has even more, as many as 75,000!"

Copyright law in the United States is rather strange.

Party B must sign a contract with Party A for the related copyrights of movies such as online copyright and adaptation copyright, and can only use it after obtaining permission.

But DVD copyright is different.

As long as Party B buys the genuine DVD released by Party A, it can carry out various commercial activities on its own as long as it provides enough profit and dividends.

Unless New Universal and Disney block Block by name, Block will not allow the use of New Universal and Disney's DVDs for commercial purposes.

Netflix owns the rights to 30,000 DVD movies, and all but almost all Hollywood movies are foreign and very low-budget American movies.

This is also the reason why the disc rental business is easy to develop, while the streaming media business requires a lot of financing.

Dunn heard a bit of meaning from Kevin Turner's words, laughed dumbly, and waved his hand, "Speak straight if you have something to say!"

Kevin Turner said with a smile: "I think the acquisition of streaming media rights must persist, and it must be bigger and bigger! The rental records of Netflix users tell us that they love excellent foreign movies no less than for our Hollywood movies."

Tang En pondered: "Well, excellent overseas movies do have high value. For Hollywood, this is a blind spot, and it is an opportunity for us to take advantage of the situation and make arrangements as soon as possible. However, for overseas film companies , we don’t have to be as polite as the Hollywood studios, we have to change our strategy.”

"Change strategy?"

"That's right. Hollywood movies are regarded as treasures by major companies, and they are usually only rented and not sold. As for overseas movies... They have no right to speak, and they have no future expectations. We can be tougher, only buy out, not Rent!"

Kevin Turner opened his eyes, "Buy out the streaming rights?"

"Do not!"

Tang En waved his hand and said indifferently: "That's okay, we first ask to buy out all the copyrights of the movie. If they don't agree, we will settle for the next best thing and only buy out the streaming media copyrights."

"I'm afraid it will cost a fortune."

Kevin Turner hesitated.

(Sanqi Chinese)