Chapter 688： Expand industrial layout

Nicole can temporarily throw away work and rest, but Ryan can’t. Disney is entering a stage of rapid development. As an excellent professional manager, Robert Iger has never forgotten to expand Disney’s territory, not to mention that he is also a larger Disney company. One of his personal shareholders, this is also closely related to his interests.

In recent years, major Hollywood film companies have replaced their CEOs. In the past, managers with content production experience like Ron Meyer are no longer popular. Instead, a group of managers such as Robert Iger have been replaced. People who have no actual film production experience, but are extremely good at handling interpersonal relationships and marketing promotion.

In Hollywood, content manufacturers are always at the bottom of the publisher. Labels with North American and even global distribution capabilities are at the top of the Hollywood food chain. Especially after entering the new century, the so-called six major manufacturers, except Disney itself, have become Except for media groups, all others are acquired by media companies, which further expands their advantages in distribution.

Since decades ago, Hollywood has been a game of giants, and today is no exception.

Among the traditional six major companies, now only Disney maintains high production and high investment in films, and rarely accepts foreign investment such as private equity film funds, and the division of labor at the top is quite clear. Ryan is in charge of content production. , Dick Cook and Robert Iger are responsible for daily work such as marketing and promotion.

The former Ryan is one of the most basic members of the film industry. He knows that the future entertainment distribution will become more and more fragmented. An executive with a keen sense of the changing market will be responsible for the company's promotion and expansion. This is very important. , So that Disney can quickly respond and reposition its content investment strategy.

This may not mean that there will be better movies, but it must mean that there will be more savvy businesses.

"Robert knows how to expand Disney's horizons and look for potential resources for new entertainment businesses outside and in the company."

This is what Ryan once said to Nicole. Perhaps he started using the other party more because of the factors he understood in his previous life, and it was also a helpless move at that time. But Robert Iger's ability is indeed beyond doubt.

He has made outstanding achievements in promoting Disney's copyrighted works to offline platforms, and even shortened the window period for Disney films from the theater to enter the home to the shortest four months currently recognized!

Beginning in 2002, non-theatre revenues accounted for more than 70% of total film revenues in Disney’s films. Among them, the high-quality movies brought by Ryan were the key, while Robert Iger’s original work at Disney On this basis, it further strengthened the vertically integrated industrial chain of content production, online and offline distribution, and peripheral channels, which also played an important role.

Those movies made by Ryan during the Jenkins film industry. In the later stage, it can only rely on a simple model of copyright transfer fees plus sales commissions to achieve extensive profits, but Disney’s own capabilities can magnify these revenues to the limit.

The film industry is undergoing changes, and the traditional model will definitely be gradually eliminated.

Most typically, after major film companies became part of a media group, creative geniuses rarely appeared among the top executives, and their attitudes towards brokerage companies were tougher, such as caa.

Since the end of the 1990s. It is difficult for caa's agents to rush into the high-level offices of the film company as in the past, and the people they deal with are gradually replaced by some lower-level employees of the film company, and their bundled sales strategy is even more difficult.

Even caa's agent occupies more than half of Hollywood's market. In fact, in front of the media group, it is simply not enough.

The times have changed, and business thinking and business methods will definitely change accordingly.

Just like Disney, in addition to securing its inherent advantages, it has been working hard to expand to the Internet. And the pace of expansion has never stopped.

It is now the largest online video site in the United States and even the entire world. The impact of this industry on the media industry has been evident in the past year. Although the balance of payments was barely achieved in the first half of this year, countless people are optimistic about its future and potential.

The online video of movies is a future that most Hollywood management can see, and Disney is of course no exception.

Just this month, Disney invested 35 million U.S. dollars to jointly establish another online video website hulu with Twentieth Century Fox. This website is not the same as its business policy, and its main goal is to develop potential paying users. .

This is just another beginning of Disney’s deployment on the end after Facebook and Twitter. Also this month, Disney expanded Ryan’s personal website into a Disney-Ryan family online channel. The goal of this website is now. The main body of the network-teenagers!

With Marvel Comics, Jenkins Pictures and Pixar Studios completely digested, Disney once again embarked on the path of expansion.

Subsequently, under the impetus of Ryan, Disney issued a bona fide acquisition application to Netflix.

The latter is an online movie rental provider that can provide DVDs of many movies, and allows customers to quickly and conveniently select movies and deliver them for free.

As early as a few years ago, Netflix was the target of Scott Swift's investment, and Ryan's foundation has always held 5% of the shares.

This website currently has millions of subscribers. In recent years, the speed of development has not been particularly fast. Last year’s annual profit was only 11.9 million U.S. dollars, but this is not a problem of website management. They are mainly trapped by copyright. The content and the channels opened up are nothing but castles in the air.

Disney lacks the most content, and as a loose alliance of interests, it is not too difficult to obtain licenses for outstanding films from the film libraries of companies such as Warner Bros. and Twentieth Century Fox.

In order to complete the acquisition, Disney offered $1.45 billion to buy it at a premium of 5% over the market value of Netflix.

Netflix’s management has not responded publicly, but from internal news, many shareholders of the other company intend to sell their shares for cash. The final obstacle must be the price.

What Ryan is most worried about is not the shareholders of Netflix, but other companies. If a new company joins the acquisition, a goodwill acquisition will inevitably become a malicious bid.

Fortunately, after a long wait, news came from Netflix that it was possible to negotiate, and the rest was waiting for the result of the long negotiation.

For acquisitions of this scale, Disney does not need to use liquidity or financing at all, but reserves are sufficient.

Netflix is ​​just one of Disney's goals. For Disney, the most basic and fundamental business is their biggest goal.

Whether it is Disney's management or Disney employees, they have always placed themselves in the position of the world's animation hegemon.

So, when Robert Iger found Ryan to discuss the next acquisition target, he was a little surprised and returned to normal.

"Robert, what do you mean..." Ryan looked at Robert Iger sitting across from him seriously, "Shall we take down DreamWorks Animation Studio?"

"Yes." Robert Iger said equally seriously, "I have discussed with Cook, and this is completely feasible."

In terms of strength alone, it is only a trivial matter that Disney swallowed DreamWorks Animation Studios. The latter’s market value was less than 1.5 billion U.S. dollars. Even the highest market value in the previous life was only about 2 billion U.S. dollars. This little money is right for Disney. It's not a big deal at all, even Ryan can solve it by himself if financing.

"Ryan, although we have Pixar Studios and Disney Animation Headquarters." Robert Iger continued, "These two subsidiaries have extremely low output and implement a boutique strategy. The DreamWorks Animation Studios’ philosophy is just the opposite. They once Three to five cartoons can be produced. Although there are products that failed such as "Shark's Story", for Disney, as long as there is a quarter of the chance of success, it is enough for us to achieve profit through operating various channels. "

Ryan, as the largest shareholder of DreamWorks Animation Studios, naturally knows what Robert Iger is saying is the truth. Under the auspices of Jeff Katzenberg, DreamWorks Animation has embarked on the same development path as the previous life. To win with the tactics of Pianhai, in addition to the successful "Shrek" and "Madagascar" in recent years, they have also produced terrible box office works, but they are still profitable every year, although the profit is not too high.

"Robert, have you ever considered Jeffrey Katzenberg." Ryan reminded him not to forget that the other party was the president and creative director of Disney's animation department. It was in 1994. . "Robert Iger understands the grievances at the beginning. "It was Michael Eisner who drove out Jerefo, not to mention..."

He didn't say anything later, but Ryan understood that as long as there were enough benefits, this little grudge was nothing at all.

"We need a competitive opponent."

Blue Sky Studios has only the signature "Ice Age", and it does not have the strength to compete with Pixar and Disney Animation. "Competition can keep Pixar and Disney Animation Department vigorous, and we also need an opponent to deal with the federal government's monopoly. bill."

This is not the time when the Universal and Warner Animation Departments will develop in the future. Both are still in the groping stage. Not to mention whether a monopoly will be established. The related investigations alone will cause headaches. In addition, countless past experiences have proved that once they are lost Competitors, the consequences are terrible.

"I agree to this acquisition in principle, but not now." Ryan finally said, "Robert, you can buy shares of DreamWorks Animation Studios to deal with future acquisitions." (To be continued...) ()