Chapter 657： Sudden news

After the bypass surgery, although Michael Eisner was repeatedly taken care of by his family and doctors, he had already sat in his office at the global headquarters just seven o'clock in the new day. Because at 10 o'clock this morning, Firefly will officially auction its hand-painted animation department at the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

Opening the brand new ibm desktop on the desk, Michael Eisner quickly clicked on the top link of Yahoo! Portal Entertainment to read the detailed inventory of the animation department that was about to face the auction.

Until now, Michael Eisner has clearly remembered that in 1986, at the suggestion of Bill Michalnik, the head of the family entertainment department at the time, the management was under pressure from all sides to start publishing Disney classic animated films.

Prior to that, both the industry and Disney, the valuation of the Disney film library with hundreds of films was only $200 million, but then Disney first tried to release the video of the 1940 Pinocchio, although the flower With a high marketing cost of $7 million, this animated film sold 1.7 million boxes in a year, with sales reaching $51 million. The next sale of animated films such as Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella. The amount is more than the $200 million valuation of the Disney film library.

Michael Eisner, who witnessed the re-emergence of the Disney 2D animated film in the late 1980s, felt that he was definitely more aware of the value of Disney animated films than anyone else.

When the fireflies threw out the news of the packaged sales animation department, it was decided that it was not a fake news. Michael Eisner’s first thought was to take it at all costs, even without the box office explosion of "The Lion King", Michael Ai Sner felt that he should do the same.

However, the response of the global Japanese parent company Matsushita Group gave Michael Eisner a cold water.

The Panasonic Group’s willingness to enter the entertainment industry is not so eager. When I first bought the world with Sony, I was completely worried about being beaten by competitors in this electronics industry.

In the past few years, Panasonic has found that the film companies that bought Hollywood have not been so obvious about the promotion of their electronic products. The Japanese also realized that from the beginning, they were given a slap in the face of Hollywood. Relative to the "-style_txt" that still holds some fantasies; Sony, Panasonic has not had much to continue to operate around the world. It will not bring out more than ten billion dollars in cash for an animation department.

Michael Eisner, who was unwilling in his heart, flew three times in a row in Japan in the past month. He could not get any support from Panasonic. However, things quickly turned around.

The success of "Mummy" has brought a very beautiful financial report to the world. Panasonic intends to take advantage of this opportunity to take off the world. It is very coincidental that the Seagram Group from Canada also revealed its willingness to enter Hollywood. I entered the secret negotiation stage.

As the helm of the world, Michael Eisner is certainly in the negotiations. In the process, Michael Eisner realized that Cie Edgar Bronfman of Seagram Group had a strong interest in the media industry and took the opportunity to lobby Edgar Bronfman to buy it before he won the world. Disney Animation Department. Thanks to the success of "The Lion King", Edgar Bronfman did not hesitate and agreed.

Time passed unconsciously, and the secretary’s knock on the door pulled Michael Eisner out of his thoughts: “Mr. Eisner, Mr. Bronfman is here.”

Michael Eisner stood up and sorted out his suit. Exposing a professional smile greeted, at the same time. A middle-aged man with a tall figure wearing a glasses walked in.

Warmly greeted each other, Michael Eisner said: "So, Edgar, let's go now."

Edgar Bronfman was a little hesitant: "Michael, don't we need to wait for Mr. Ovitz?"

Michael Eisner shook his head slightly and said: "Edgar. If you are sure to buy Universal, maybe we need to take a moment to talk about Michael in detail, but today we are still focusing on the Disney animation department. ”

From the expression of Michael Eisner, Edgar Bronfman realized that the recent news about the breakdown of the decades-old relationship between Michael Eisner and Michael Ovitz is true.

However, Eisner said so. Edgar Bronfman no longer mentions Michael Owitz, and they both drove to the Beverly Hilton Hotel.

......

After spending a sweet night together, Nicole wanted to join Eric in the animation department's auction, but had to go to New York to discuss a film with the agent. After the "Mummy", Nicole plans to take a film in front of the sequel to the "Mummy" sequel, and honing the acting and brushing the nominations to improve the image of the vase in the hearts of the critics.

Eric thoughtfully sent Nicole to the plane before he rushed to the Beverly Hills Hilton Hotel.

After getting out of the parking lot, Eric saw Kelly, who was in a blue folder and hurried over, saying, "I am sorry, Kelly, there are some things."

Kelly smelled Erik's faint perfume, and although her face did not change, she couldn't help but say, "You are my boss, there is no need to apologize to me."

Eric didn't expect the female assistant who was always skilled and capable, and the little woman who was eating. The index finger moved forward and tried to hold Kelly's waist and appease. A black Cadillac drove into the scenery. parking lot.

Kelly, who was shocked by Eric's action, took a step back and was complaining that a few people from Cadillac came over to Eric.

"Eric, I haven't seen you for a long time," Michael Eisner came over and took the initiative to start with Eric to introduce the middle-aged people around him: "This is Edgar Bronfman, the Canadian Seagram Group. Ceo."

Eric has already seen the information of the relevant bidders, but he is not unfamiliar. He enthusiastically reached out and said, "Hello, Mr. Bronfman."

"Mr. Williams, nice to meet you," Edgar Bronfman and Eric shook hands. With a smile on his face, he felt a little weird in his heart, especially when he called this young man, Mr. Williams, who was twenty years younger than himself.

Because of the difference in the identity of the buyers and sellers today, just a few words, Michael Eisner and Edgar Bronfman took the lead.

Looking at the figure of the two leaving with the entourage. Kelly’s mouth smiled and said to Eric: “You can always make people who see you for the first time feel very uncomfortable.”

Eric knew that Kelly was saying that Edgar Bronfman had just responded, just smiled. The Bronfman family with the Seagram Group has rapidly emerged in Canada with the business opportunities brought about by the US ban on alcohol in the 1920s and 1930s. Although it still operates the brewing business, it has developed into a diversified comprehensive group, Ed. Gary Bronfman was the third generation of the Bronfman family, who was in charge of the family's tens of billions of dollars in business, but in front of Eric. The ‘rich three generations’ simply could not find any sense of superiority.

Thinking of Edgar Bronfman's appearance, Eric asked curiously: "Is Edgar Bronfman a Jew?"

"Yeah," Kelly nodded. "Brunfman, the standard Jewish surname."

"Sigram hasn't won the world, and he has played the mind of the Disney animation department. Together, it is likely to require $10 billion in cash. Both Panasonic and Firefly will only accept cash payments." Rick said, his tone became mysterious. Going to Kelly: "Hey, are you saying that there will be organizations like the Masonics invading Hollywood?"

Kelly gave Eric a look and said: "The Seagram Group bought a 24.3% stake in DuPont in 1981. In April this year, DuPont launched an equity repurchase agreement, which ended with $9 billion. Buying the shares of DuPont held by Seagram Group is the source of funding for their acquisition of Universal and Animation."

Eric looked at his watch. With Kelly going to the elevator in the underground parking lot, he said: "The $9 billion, what to do is not good. For this outsider, buying a movie company is really stupid."

Kelly doesn't quite agree with Eric's point of view: "The average annual growth rate of 9% in the movie market. After Seagram buys the world, even if it can't do it, it can be profitable by changing hands."

Eric thought about it and thought that Kelly said it was quite reasonable.

I remember that in the original time and space, after Sigram bought the world for a few years, he sold the world to the French Vivendi Group again because of various problems. Weiweidi played for a few years, still couldn’t play, and let go. Gave was given to General Electric. However, although I did not make any outstanding achievements, at that time, Universal did not fall to MGM's ruin, and now that Michael Eisner is in control, when Sigram can't play, it seems that Really won't lose too much.

However, in the event that Sigram is under the command of Michael Eisner and forcibly used the huge amount of money to win the Disney hand-painted animation department, the future situation will definitely be another look.

Global and Paramount and Time Warner are different. Global and its parent company, mca, may and may not be foreign capital now. In accordance with federal law, only foreigners cannot hold American TV, which limits the world. It is impossible to develop towards a comprehensive media group. This means that the global anti-risk ability will be far weaker than the big groups such as Firefly, Paramount and Time Warner. If you get the hand-painted animation department that is destined to be in trouble, the world will be almost no suspense in the next few years, and the music record industry will be hit by the Internet. It is impossible to get into the predicament of MGM in the world.

Kelly seemed to think of it with Eric, and asked curiously: "Eric, which company do you want to get the animation department today?"

"Paramount, I don't want Warner to fall so fast, I still hope that Warner can continue to compete with fireflies for a few years. Of course, whoever gets the hand-painted animation department is a good thing for fireflies, this is It means that one of our competitors will be in big trouble because of this burden."

The two said, they soon came to a conference room in the Hilton Hotel. Kasenberg, who is about to host the auction himself, is holding a document and seeing Eric and Kelly coming in, just nodding and saying hello.

Eric and Frank Wells and other executives chatted for a while, and time was near ten o'clock. Eric and the people left the meeting room and walked into the auction hall. Although the media reporters were blocked from the auction hall, there were still more than half of the people in the hall with hundreds of seats.

Eric greeted the Hollywood giants who had come to participate in the auction or were purely busy, and took Frank Wells and others to the back row.

At ten o'clock, Kasenberg rushed to the auction floor, and the whispering silence of the audience calmed down. Kasenberg said to the microphone: "Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to today's auction site. Everyone. As we all know, the 2D animated film "The Lion King" released on June 24 this year has already achieved the world's $670 million amazing box office, which is a very exciting news for Hollywood. This means that Hollywood's animated film market will once again usher in a new era. However, due to the strategic development of the Firefly Group, we still regret to decide to sell its hand-painted animation department as a whole."

After a simple opening speech, Kasenberg continued: "Although everyone has already obtained a detailed inventory of assets, here, I will allow you to briefly introduce them to you, in addition to the assets that have already been listed for auction. The Firefly Group also temporarily decided that in order to minimize the financial pressure on the buyer in the short term, we will extend the original one-year payment date to three years."

The words of Kasenberg have just fallen, and the hall that was originally quiet has slammed into a piece.

The news was so sudden that all bidders did not expect the fireflies to do so.

Of course, the purpose of fireflies is not difficult to guess, leaving buyers with sufficient payment time, which means that these buyers will likely open higher prices.

A somewhat old voice quickly overwhelmed all the whispers and sounded at the auction: "Jeffrey, I want the auction to be suspended, I need to discuss it with my team."

The people turned their heads together and found that the speaker was Viacom's ceo Somer Redstone.

Kasenberg also did not refuse, the smile said unchanged: "Of course no problem, Mr. Lei Shidong, then, the auction time is delayed by half an hour, if you need urgent discussion, you can be free." .)

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