Chapter 951： Viking Records

Eric has some doubts: "Why are the directors of Viking, why do we help us to match our record companies?"

Kasenberg replied: "Barry said that the other side is also a senior at Viking Records. Before the EMI acquisition of Viking in 1992, the development of Viking Records was very good. However, since it was acquired by EMI, Viking The year has been going downhill. He should want to get rid of EMI and seek better development space. In specific circumstances, Barry should know more clearly."

Eric thought for a moment and said, "Let Barry come over for lunch at noon, let's discuss it carefully."

After sending away Kasenberg, Eric continued to handle the work in his hands until he left the office at twelve o'clock.

Barry Weiss has already rushed from the headquarters of the Firefly Group in Burbank. Because of the business, Eric took him and Kasenberg to the restaurant in the Titanic exhibition hall. A box.

Barry Weiss apparently made a very good preparation. Just sitting down, I began to introduce Eric to the ins and outs of this matter.

“Viking Records was originally owned by the British Regal Richard Branson, a Virgin Group. In 1992, Virgin Atlantic’s operations were in difficulty, in order to raise funds to save Virgin Atlantic, Richard Bran Sen had to sell the Viking record. That is to say, from the beginning, the deal was not actively promoted by EMI, they just felt that after the acquisition of Viking Records, they could expand their strength.

However, the reality is not as good as imagined. Although the size of Viking Records is far from being comparable to the world's major record giants, it has a very well-established music production and distribution network. The business scope also covers most singers and record types. It is almost a mini EMI. record. Therefore, EMI also has no way to split the Viking record into its own group system, which will not be worth the candle.

There is no way to split, EMI can only let Viking Records continue to maintain its independent operating model. But in this way, because most of Viking's business and EMI are coincident, EMI will only tend to the parent company's own business development, not only will not give enough support to Viking Records, but will win the original The resources of Viking Records. Therefore, in recent years, Viking Records has not only grown and developed, but has declined. ”

After Eric listened to Barry Weiss, he asked: "What popular singers are there in Viking?"

"If you say the pillars, there will probably be only the Rolling Stones. Other singers can't be too good," Barry Weiss shook his head. "However, the Rolling Stones were founded in 1962 and now, although they have always been the most popular in the world. One of the band combinations, but they have long passed the peak of popularity and creation. Moreover, this band was signed with Virgin after the acquisition in 1992. Since its establishment, the Rolling Stones have released 40 The album, but Viking only has the copyright of the five albums after their signing, the remaining or the most classic ones, all in the hands of other record groups."

Eric had been a little excited to hear the name of the Rolling Stones, but when he heard the words of Barry Weiss, he was disappointed.

The status of the Rolling Stones in the history of world music is self-evident. If Viking Records has a lot of record rights for the Rolling Stones, the Yahoo Music Store will add a lot of classic music content to the record company.

However, Eric was very satisfied that Barry Weiss had not concealed the Rolling Stones from himself in order to facilitate the deal. It was only this point that he basically agreed to the deal. The Firefly Group has grown to its current size, and Eric’s inability to balance the business is increasing. Therefore, in Eric’s mind, the professional ethics of department managers is even more important than their own.

Barry Weiss couldn't guess Eric's inner thoughts, noticed the disappointment on his face, but began to be nervous, and quickly added: "Eric, I think the biggest help for Viking Records is that it has The music distribution network. In addition to the UK headquarters, Viking Records has branches in Europe, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, Spain and other countries, which is a record distribution system that perfectly covers the whole of Europe. It also has branches in North America and Sakamoto. Taking the Viking record and combining the media resources of the Firefly Group, it is impossible for the future Firefly Records to catch up with other major record giants."

Eric felt Barry Weiss's ambitious tone, and Kasenberg looked at each other and nodded to each other. This turned to Barry Weiss. "Barry, how do you think you need to buy Viking?" money?"

Realizing that Eric has agreed to the acquisition, Barry Weiss suppressed the excitement in his heart and said: "One billion US dollars, Eric, Viking record is a dispensable for the current EMI. Tired, these years have been going downhill, but its foundation is still there, EMI can not understand the intention of us to buy Viking records. So, although we quoted when the call will be lower, but want to impress EMI changed to Viking Records, I think the final transaction price will need at least $1 billion, perhaps even higher."

Eric smiled helplessly, and he also knew that Barry Weiss was telling the truth.

Compared with other media giants, the firefly group that has been developing at a rapid pace in recent years is simply a local tyrant in the eyes of everyone. Such a powerful big wealthy person initiates an acquisition of his own industry, and he is too sorry for himself if he slaughters a knife. It is.

Eric is thinking about this, Kasenberger said: "Eric, after the debts due this year, the firefighter debt will be reduced to 7.5 billion US dollars, I think, the acquisition of Viking Records We can fully raise funds by issuing claims."

The $7.5 billion in debt, even for other major media groups, is not high. Compared with the Firefly Group's $100 billion valuation, the 7.5% debt ratio is even lower than that of peer companies. Bond interest can be offset by tax, and the acquisition is carried out by issuing bonds. Fireflies are almost equivalent to adopting interest-free loans for the acquisition.

Eric’s concept of the company’s debt management has long been less conservative than it was originally, and it’s better to spend the money to do its own thing without paying too much.

Nodded, Eric said: "You should contact EMI as soon as possible. It would be better if you could negotiate the deal before the first album was released in April."

Although even the completion of the acquisition negotiations before April, the Firefly Group needs sufficient handover time to thoroughly master the Viking record, but as long as the agreement is reached, the first record of the Spice Girls group can be authorized to issue the Viking record, which is comparable to the Firefly Record. Doing your own work will do more with less.

Eric spent a few days reading the script and budget plan for Broken Head Valley.

In the plan, the film will set up dozens of real scenes in the UK, including the complete Gothic Sleepy Valley town. In addition, the film also needs to use a lot of CG special effects, which is actually the reason why the film's budget cost reaches 100 million US dollars.

Since the money can be used in filming, rather than simply inviting high-priced stars, Eric agreed, and did not even plan to cut the budget.

The project of "Decapitated Valley" turned a few laps in the hands of all Hollywood film companies, and was suddenly taken over by the Firefly Group. It is naturally impossible for other film companies to remain indifferent. I have been negotiating with Tim Burton for a long time, and Paramount Pictures, who almost won the project, immediately raised the bargain and tried to save the project.

However, in order to help Tim Burton's film project find a host, Johnny Depp has signed a two-part agreement with Fireflies in advance.

If Tim Burton repents, "Decapitation Valley" can only replace the male lead. The good brothers have just inserted their own knives, and Tim Burton is obviously impossible to put his brother in the backhand. The recruitment of Paramount will naturally have no result.

After the establishment of "Decapitated Valley", because it requires a lot of preparatory work, at least until the second half of the year, Johnny Depp can complete the filming of "Midnight Ring". The production cycle of "Midnight Ring" is not long, and the schedule has been confirmed in July.

At the record company, EMI also responded quickly to the invitation of the Firefly Group to acquire Viking Records. The Firefly Group offered $700 million, but the Philippine lion opened a $1.5 billion price.

Want to win the Viking record, it is almost inevitable to pick up this knife.

Eric and Kasenberg, Barry Weiss talked a few times, determined that the Firefly Group's offer ceiling was $1.2 billion, and then handed over the negotiations to Barry Weiss.

After being tossed by EMI for so many years, the actual value of Viking Records is actually $7.8 billion. The $1.2 billion premium is also the upper limit that Eric can afford.

Exceeding this price tag, Eric prefers to integrate small record companies in Europe for integration, although the time will take longer, but the cost will not be used for $700 million. The premium that fireflies have to offer, which is actually bought, is actually more development time.

During the busy work process, on January 18th, the important film awards in the awards season, the date of the American Film and Television Golden Globe Awards came unnoticed.

Several film companies under the Firefly Group have no important lottery films this year. The new line, Elizabeth, which was co-operated with the UK-based Working-Title Film Company, was just completed at the end of last year and is still in the post-production stage. The new line is going to make "Elizabeth" released as a lucky film at the end of this year.

However, the new line has a "No Night" directed by Paul Anderson, which has been widely praised by the media and filmmakers.

Only in the Golden Globe Awards, the film only got two best supporting nominations. The new line also made an Oscar nomination public relations for the film. It is expected to get several more nominations, but it is basically impossible to win the prize. .

Because this year, Miramax has emerged two popular punching films, "British Patient" and "Psychic Catcher".

The original awards of Miramax's awards are "British Patients". Although the Weinstein brothers were quite optimistic about "The Soul Catcher", this film is based on the distribution model of commercial films. But the result was a big surprise.

The release date of "Psychic Catcher" was on November 7 last year. After two weeks of small-scale screening, it accumulated enough reputation. The film's screening scale has rapidly increased to more than 1,700.

Subsequently, under the influence of commercial films such as "Museum of the Museum" and "Monsters Film Company" at the end of the year, the single-week box office of "Psychic Catcher" has been kept at around 10 million US dollars, and the highest box office in a single week has only more than 14 million US dollars. However, with the excellent reputation of continuous fermentation, before the Golden Globe Awards, the total production of the film with a production cost of only 10 million US dollars has reached more than 81 million US dollars, and the weekly box office still remains at about 7 million US dollars.

This box office score far exceeds Miramax's expectation of "The Soul Catcher", and the Weinstein brothers naturally do not know the people who are flexible.

A literary film is released for ten weeks, and there are more than 7 million box office tickets in a single week. If you can get an Oscar, the final box office of this low-cost art film will definitely exceed more than 100 million US dollars, and the video revenue will be more abundant in the later period.

In comparison, "British Patient" completely adopted the standard lottery release mode, which began to be released in early December, and the number of theaters released in the film has remained at around 500.

Although it has also won a lot of praise from the media and became a big hit in the lucky season, but at the box office, "British Patient" was worse than "Psychic Catcher". After six weeks of release, the total box office was only over 25 million US dollars.

According to this trend, even if a number of Oscars can be captured, the North American box office of "British Patients" is difficult to have a billion-dollar expectation. It is good to reach 80 million US dollars, and the production cost of this movie is 27 million US dollars. It is almost three times that of the "Psychic Catcher".

Although he won a good voice, whether it is "Psychic Catcher" or "British Patient", the business achievements are still far from being comparable to several commercial films at the end of the year.

A week before the Golden Globe Awards, the Firefly Group released "Jurassic Park 3" for four weeks, the box office has reached 173 million US dollars, the overseas box office has also exceeded 150 million US dollars, the global box office reached 323 million. Even if the overseas box office market response is not too good, "Rush Hour 2", the box office of the fifth week of North America's release also successfully broke through 200 million, reaching 207 million US dollars.

Going forward, the two films of Firefly and MGM Thanksgiving Day, "Monster Power Company" has reached a total of 251 million US dollars. The North American box office of Museum Wonderful Night 2 also reached 175 million. Although it was less than expected, the overseas box office easily broke through 200 million. It is estimated that the global box office will be close to 500 million US dollars. These are far from being comparable to literature and art films.