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The news that Daenerys Entertainment is about to bid for MCA with Panasonic is almost known.

After confirming that Simon was not joking, Raymond Smith subconsciously asked him if he planned to give up MCA.

The answer surprised Smith even more.

Simon Westeros intends to launch two acquisitions with a combined value of more than $100 billion at the same time.

Raymond Smith subconsciously regarded Simon's offer as a traditional leveraged buyout, and was about to turn it down. He didn't want Bell Atlantic to fall into a situation like Reynolds Nabisco or Time Warner after being acquired.

It wasn't until Simon gave a rough explanation of his acquisition intentions that Raymond Smith gave up his immediate refusal and began to ask about some more specific acquisition matters.

Because they had made sufficient preparations in advance, driven by the topic of Simon, the discussion between the two became more and more in-depth without knowing it. Further expansion, the federal government's policy direction on the telecommunications industry, and so on.

When the noon sun fell on the coffee table between the two of them, which was covered with various documents, Raymond Smith realized that the time was close to 12 o'clock.

Simon did not pay attention to the time issue, and still said: "Many times, listed companies have to give up a lot of long-term plans in order to cope with the short-term benefits that shareholders are looking for. With Bell Atlantic privatized, these constraints will disappear, and we can calmly Make bigger bets in the field of mobile communication and Internet business with great potential for future development. As long as you have accumulated enough advantages in advance, once the federal merger control on the telecommunications industry is reopened, Bell Atlantic can immediately expand on a larger scale .”

Raymond Smith was brought back into the topic by Simon's words, and said: "Simon, the prospect of mobile communication is still very clear, but the Internet, how can you confirm that you have not made the wrong bet? You know, according to your thinking, We only need to invest $10 billion in basic line upgrades. Once the development of the Internet industry does not meet expectations, the company will not only face financial losses, but may even be a matter of life and death.”

"Lei, I have compiled a memo on various ideas of the Internet industry before. If you are interested, you can take it back and read it. I think that an industry has never existed in the first place. It needs us to develop and create it ourselves. Electronic information networks around the world have been sprouting since the 60s, and have been brewing for more than 20 years. They have been widely used in military, commercial, scientific research, and government offices, which is enough to prove the development potential of the Internet industry. Since the Internet It can be applied in so many professional fields, so there is no reason why it cannot be promoted in the public field where the market potential is wider."

When Simon said this, he paused for a moment, and then quickly said: "Imagine, Lei, if one day, in addition to the news, forums, personal homepages, and emails that the Ygritte Portal already provides, people can also How big is the potential for this industry to get movies, music, games, dating, shopping, and countless other online services that you can think of or can't think of through the Internet?"

Raymond Smith also browsed and tried the online services provided by the Eaglet Portal. After thinking for a moment, he pointed to a pile of materials on the coffee table and asked, "Simon, if you tell me these thoughts, you won't be afraid that I will dump you." Do you do it yourself? My control over Bell Atlantic is not as bad as you think."

Simon shook his head and smiled: "That's because you haven't done enough to go against the will of shareholders. For a company like Bell Atlantic, even if you have a lot of power, you can't do whatever you want. I believe Bell Atlantic There are certainly plenty of executives out there who want to take your place. As a public company, any setbacks, even momentary, in pushing these strategies out, your so-called 'control' over Bell Atlantic fades quickly. Compared to Speaking of which, as long as we can reach an agreement on the fundamental development direction of the company, I can tolerate the long-term losses of the management in a certain business even for more than five years.”

Raymond Smith fell silent for a moment.

The two had been discussing for more than an hour, and Raymond Smith knew that if he hadn't been moved, he wouldn't have discussed it with Simon for so long, and even canceled his original itinerary.

It's just that accepting Westeros' takeover offer has advantages and disadvantages after all.

On the positive side, as the young man said, he is freed from the strict regulatory shackles of listed companies, so he can boldly adopt some radical business strategies, and the company does not need to rack its brains on financial reports every quarter.

However, on the downside, as the chairman and CEO of Bell Atlantic, he does have a lot of power now. As long as he doesn't make too risky reforms to the company, he can stay in this high-paying position very safely until retirement.

On the contrary, once the company is acquired, he who was originally in power is equivalent to finding a boss for himself.It's a good thing that the future development of the company meets the young man's expectations. If it doesn't, he may be kicked out at any time.Even if you can get a huge termination fee through the prior golden parachute contract, your career will basically be ruined.

After weighing repeatedly for two or three minutes, Raymond Smith looked up again and said, "Simon, I need more promises and guarantees from you."

"Ray, you must know Amy Pascal, as the CEO of Daenerys Entertainment, she will receive more than 1 million US dollars in compensation this year, which I believe should be the highest salary ever paid by a female executive. West Many people in Luo's system will also receive very generous remuneration this year, so you don't need to worry about not being rewarded for your efforts."

When Simon said this, he changed the subject and continued: "However, Ray, I also understand what you mean. You need to still obtain enough power after I complete the acquisition of Bell Atlantic. Frankly speaking, I I can't promise you anything. I've seen your resume and I'm sure you have the ability to run this company well, but I will never let it go completely. If you follow Hollywood, you will know the two senior executives that Sony hired after acquiring Columbia. No matter how absurd it is now, they are completely squandering and ruining this big studio. Before they were hired, both of them were actually very good producers. The reason for this situation is largely due to Because their power lacks restraint. This case has happened before, and I will never make the same mistake."

Raymond Smith still had a hesitant expression on his face.

Simon waited for a moment, then said: "Ray, I remember an anecdote about Apple in Silicon Valley. When Steve Jobs invited Apple's current CEO, John Sculley, who was still working at Coca-Cola, to join Apple, he asked him, Do you want to sell sugar water for the rest of your life, or seize the opportunity to change the world? In fact, I also want to say, Ray, do you want to stay at the helm of Bell Atlantic until retirement, and then quickly after a lively retirement party? To be forgotten, or together with Simon Westeros, to create a business miracle enough to be remembered by the world?"

When Raymond Smith heard Simon's words, he thought of the brilliance of the young man in front of him in just a few years, and a long-lost passion gradually grew in his heart, he hesitated briefly, and finally reached out his hand: "Simon, I promise you. "

Simon and Raymond Smith shook hands tightly, and finally heaved a sigh of relief.

With Raymond Smith settled, there are no major obstacles to Bell Atlantic's board of directors.

After everyone had lunch together, Raymond Smith hurried back to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, which is only more than 100 kilometers away from New York, where the headquarters of Bell Atlantic is located.Smith also took away a draft of Westeros' intention to acquire Bell Atlantic, which mainly included some informal acquisition offers and exit fees.

Simon initially gave an unofficial offer totaling $63 billion, a premium of 10% compared to Bell Atlantic's average stock price in the previous three months. '

In terms of exit fees, the price that Simon promised this time is 2% of the final transaction price.

Although he agreed to Simon's acquisition offer, Raymond Smith quickly returned to his role during the lunch, bluntly saying that the recent stock price of Bell Atlantic has been severely undervalued due to the impact of market conditions, so Simon must make a sincere enough offer, Only then can it impress many shareholders of Bell Atlantic.

However, because of the cooperation of Raymond Smith, this acquisition has been determined to be a goodwill acquisition, and the possibility of a competitor is very low, coupled with the continued downturn in Bell Atlantic's stock price in recent months, the original $80 billion Budget, definitely more than enough.

It should be known that the stock premium is basically within 20% in the usual goodwill acquisitions.

Even taking into account the undervalued factors of Bell Atlantic stock due to the market downturn, according to Simon's original estimate of 30% premium, the acquisition price of Westeros will not exceed 75 billion US dollars.It's actually more likely around $70 billion.

However, Simon also promised in the intention plan that not only will he not withdraw cash from Bell Atlantic to repay debts in the future, but will continue to inject at least US$10 billion in funds for the development of the company.

Therefore, the overall budget for Bell Atlantic is still $80 billion.

After sending Raymond Smith away, Simon hurried back to Los Angeles.

After two days of final preparations on Sunday and Monday, on Tuesday, October 10, Daenerys Entertainment officially made an open offer to MCA.

$ 70 billion.

complete in one step.

Panasonic has already offered an acquisition offer of US$66 billion. If Daenerys Entertainment increases by US$[-] million, it will only appear very insincere, so Simon simply gave his own offer upper limit.

Countless people waited for a long time, finally trying to see each other.

When the North American media reported Daenerys Entertainment's move, MCA's stock price also rose sharply again.As of Tuesday afternoon's close, MCA's market capitalization was close to Daenerys Entertainment's $70 billion overall offer.

Panasonic has accumulated more than US$120 billion in cash reserves overseas over the years, and Simon Westero's personal cash assets have also reached US$80 billion, both of which can be regarded as strong.

Therefore, many people have begun to look forward to the arrival of a bidding war.

On the other hand, after several consecutive intensive discussions of the board of directors, Bell Atlantic responded to Simon's acquisition offer on November 11, agreeing to start formal acquisition negotiations with Westeros.

James Raybould personally led the team to start negotiations with Bell Atlantic management.

Because they have made very sufficient preparations in the early stage, what the acquisition team of Westeros needs to do is to reconfirm the operations and assets and liabilities of the Bell Atlantic company that they have already learned, and then quickly focus on the specific negotiations. Acquisition details.

At the same time, the buyout team also began secretly contacting Bell Atlantic shareholders.

As a listed company with a long history before the split, after the split in 1984, Bell Atlantic’s equity is still very scattered. Most of the shares are in the hands of many pension funds and insurance funds across North America, and there are very few shareholders. The shareholding ratio exceeds 5%, which greatly increases the difficulty for Westeros to acquire Bell Atlantic.

Chapter 383 Betrayal (Revised)

In the mansion on the hillside of the Palisades in Los Angeles, Amy Pascal greeted Simon as soon as he got out of the car.

The two came to a living room on the second floor of the villa together. Seeing them enter the door, both of them on the sofa in the living room stood up.In addition to Simon's female assistant Jennifer Raybould, another person is a bit surprising, Meg Ryan.

Just nodded slightly, Simon sat down on the single sofa beside him, looked at Meg Ryan, and said in a flat tone: "Tell me specifically, what's going on?"

Meg Ryan looked carefully at the young man on the opposite sofa. The first time we met, he was not the kind of approachable temperament. He had ups and downs under the shadow of this young man for more than a year. Goodbye now, he gave her The feeling seems to be a little more alienated from others.

Noticing that his eyes were sweeping again, Meg Ryan quickly cheered up and talked about recent events.

Relying on "When Harry Met Sally" became a first-line actress, but after the inexplicable accident last year, she suddenly fell into a situation where she had no film for a year in a row. Meg Ryan was almost To break down, and to resent a certain young man who is gaining power in Hollywood.

Therefore, when Michael Ovitz approached her, hoping that she could openly sue Daenerys Entertainment, Meg Ryan immediately agreed.

Anyway, they are desperate.

However, as things approached, Meg Ryan became more and more anxious.

Because she gradually understood that Michael Ovitz just wanted to use this lawsuit to prevent Daenerys Entertainment from acquiring MCA.

And, the more she thought about it, the more Meg Ryan felt she was just a pawn in the whole thing.

Michael Ovitz promised to help her claim huge compensation from Daenerys Entertainment and help her revive her career afterwards, both of which are unlikely to be realized in Meg Ryan's view.

Meg Ryan secretly consulted with a lawyer more than once, and the response she received was that the grounds for the lawsuit and the evidence that Ovitz helped her find were not sufficient. The best result was that Daenerys Entertainment was forced by public opinion pressure to settle the matter as soon as possible. Take the initiative to seek a private settlement and pay a sum of compensation to settle the matter.

However, this lawsuit may destroy a big business worth billions of dollars.

Some nasty young man just blocked her because she terminated her contract early after becoming famous, and she didn't know what would happen if she screwed up a multi-billion dollar acquisition because of her connection.

As for C, this talent agency failed to protect her last year. Meg Ryan doesn't think Michael Ovitz will really bear the pressure of the entire Daenerys Entertainment after the fact. Dollar's super-rich pressures go out of their way to help her.

Or, even if Ovitz is really willing to do it, when most of Hollywood has close ties to Daenerys Entertainment, she messed up Daenerys Entertainment's multi-billion dollar business When the conflict between the two parties was completely intensified, Meg Ryan did not feel that the major studios would take the risk of offending Westeros to cooperate with her.

When Michael Ovitz informed her yesterday that she would formally file a lawsuit against Daenerys Entertainment in the near future, Meg Ryan, who was still hesitant, finally made up her mind and decided to seek a relationship with Simon West instead. Luo's cooperation.

Although doing so would definitely offend C, it would never be wrong to choose the stronger one between Michael Ovitz and Simon Westeros.If Westeros still refuses to lift the ban on him afterwards, she has nothing to lose anyway, and it is not too late for her to file a lawsuit.

Listening to Meg Ryan's narration, Simon was also flipping through a draft indictment in his hand. After leading her to finish speaking, he raised his head and asked, "Apart from the Screen Actors Union's cooperation with your lawsuit, are there other Is it?"

Meg Ryan thought for a while, and said: "There should be more, but Mike... When Ovitz talks to me, he only talks about me."

Simon withdrew his gaze from looking directly at Meg Ryan, leaned on the sofa and closed his eyes to think.

If it was any other time, such a lawsuit would not be a big deal to Daenerys Entertainment. Any big company is almost surrounded by various large and small lawsuits all year round.

However, at the critical moment when Daenerys Entertainment initiated the acquisition of MCA, the sudden emergence of such a lawsuit that Daenerys Entertainment used its own industry advantages to suppress actors in the circle will definitely easily arouse media and public criticism of Daenerys Entertainment. Continuing to expand concerns and crusades.

In the original time and space, affected by the 'hacking scandal', News Corporation had to abandon its long-prepared wholly-owned acquisition of British Sky Television.Because the timing of the outbreak of the two events was very coincidental, it is difficult to say whether there is some causal connection among them.

Daenerys Entertainment is clearly about to face the same situation.

Of course, the situation is also different.

If there is any connection between the "hacking scandal" in memory, it is likely that the whole of the UK does not want News Corporation to expand further, because Murdoch's manipulation of British public opinion has made everyone feel like they are sitting on pins and needles.

Now, Simon knows that many people in Hollywood must have doubts about Daenerys Entertainment's acquisition of MCA, but there should not be many who will really jump out against this matter.Michael Ovitz did this, obviously just to ensure that his employer, Panasonic, can successfully complete the acquisition, and then he can get tens of millions of dollars in M&A consulting fees.

After carefully sorting it out in his mind, Simon opened his eyes, looked at Meg Ryan, who looked anxious, took out a checkbook from his pocket, put it on his knee to write and draw for a while, tore it off and handed it to the coffee table in front of him, yes Meg Ryan said: "Let Jenny contact WMA for you later, or if you want to go to ICM, you can re-sign an agency contract. If you want, Daenerys Entertainment can also sign you another film contract .In addition, this is for you, take this money and go abroad for a few months, and come back after the New Year.”

After hearing what Simon said, Meg Ryan finally breathed a sigh of relief, and even felt that all the hard work has come to an end.

Simon's assistant personally helped her introduce the brokerage company, which is enough to show Daenerys Entertainment's attitude, and then sign a film contract with Daenerys Entertainment, and she will be completely lifted.

Then, looking at the check on the coffee table, Meg Ryan wondered if she should get up to get it.

Simon didn't wait for her action, and said to the female assistant: "Jenny, take Miss Ryan away first, Amy and I still have something to talk about."

Jennifer nodded, got up and went forward to help pick up the check and handed it to Meg Ryan who got up on the other side, saying: "Miss Ryan, come with me."

Meg Ryan took the check and followed Jennifer, went out the door and walked through the corridor, until she stepped on the stairs, she dared to glance at the check in her hand carefully, and then almost staggered.

500 million US dollars.

Far exceeded her expectations.

Speaking of which, Meg Ryan has not only failed to get a film contract this year, but also began to struggle financially.

After becoming famous with "When Harry Met Sally", she signed the second film contract "Rocketman". The few endorsements she contacted, because of the rumors that she was blocked in the circle, didn't get any of them.

Just now when she heard that the young man was going to send herself abroad, she thought that he would only sign a check for hundreds of thousands of dollars at most, but she didn't expect that the actual figure was 10 times more than she expected.

Although she felt that she was disappointing, deep down, Meg Ryan found that the resentment she had accumulated towards that young man for more than a year was inexplicably almost disappearing, leaving only some complex emotions with unknown meanings.

At least, he is much better than Michael Ovitz.

Also a Hollywood bigwig, Michael Ovitz just gave her some empty promises that were hard to fulfill.But Westeros was able to directly sign a check for 500 million US dollars, and completely lifted all the restrictions on her.

When Jennifer took Meg Ryan away, Amy couldn't help asking: "Simon, are you still planning to go to Japan immediately?"

Simon nodded and said, "Of course, I'm going now."

"So, what should we do here?"

Simon said with a serious expression: "I may have thought things a little too simple, but there is still room for redemption."

Amy didn't respond, just waiting for Simon to continue.

Simon organized his thoughts again, and said: "The key to the matter lies in one thing, the conflict of interest. If our acquisition of MCA will affect the interests of whichever party, whichever party may jump out to stop it. Hollywood, we and several big The relationship between the labor unions is not good, so it is not surprising that they will jump out. However, the resistance from the labor unions is actually not that great. We have already joined the Producers Union and signed formal agreements with several major labor unions. Even if they want to stop, they can only express some concerns in broad terms, or show actual evidence that Daenerys Entertainment has violated the interests of union members. Now that Meg Ryan has backed down, I don’t think they can find anything else evidence. Additional resistance may come from our Hollywood counterparts.”

Having said that, Simon suddenly stopped talking.

Amy waited for a moment, then tentatively said, "Paramount?"

Simon nodded: "Paramount."

Now among the eight major Hollywood companies, Daenerys Entertainment has more or less deep or shallow cooperation with the other six companies.Moreover, Fox, Warner Bros., and MGM, three of the six major partners, will definitely not jump out.Columbia and Disney are unlikely to come forward.Universal is the party involved, and it is impossible to object to being acquired by itself.

In the end, there was only Paramount, which was deliberately left aside by Simon.

The tide of integration in the US media industry has already started since the merger of Time Inc. and Warner Bros. In the next few years, as the legal restrictions on the horizontal expansion of the two major areas of the media industry, film and television, are further liberalized, this integration will be further accelerated.

Although Miss Universal, Daenerys Entertainment is not without other options, but it is absolutely difficult to meet a company that can strongly complement Daenerys Entertainment at a suitable price.

Not even Disney, who became one of the Hollywood overlords many years later.

Although Disney also operates the theme park business, it has little accumulation in records, TV and theaters at this time. As for the strength of the animation business, it will overlap with Daenerys Entertainment, not to mention the 2D animation movies that Disney is currently focusing on. It is destined to be eliminated by 3D animation movies, but after buying it, you need to face the trouble of pruning and cutting leaves.

Time Warner, which has a close cooperation with Daenerys Entertainment but is full of internal disputes, is even worse.

Simon doesn't think much of the other companies.

After sorting this out, Simon no longer hesitates. In order to successfully complete the two acquisitions in hand, some small entanglements must be discarded.After all, the two scripts that Paramount stole from Simon didn't do any good.

After making up his mind, Simon said to Amy: "You will contact Martin Davis of Paramount later, and ask him if he is interested in the two movies. In addition, as long as Daenerys Entertainment completes the MCA I can guarantee that MCA and Paramount each hold 50% of the USA TV station to maintain the original equity status. Unless Paramount takes the initiative to sell, otherwise, Daenerys Entertainment only seeks the right to operate the USA TV station. With what we already have in television, I'm sure Martin Davis won't be indifferent."

Amy nodded, a little in admiration for her boss's decision to not be dragging her feet. After thinking for a while, she said, "I remember that you wanted to buy the film and television adaptation rights of the "Mission: Impossible" TV series from Paramount. Maybe it can be counted as two Part of the film about."

Simon wondered: "Isn't "Mission: Impossible" already approved?"

"It should be delayed. Anyway, I haven't heard the news of the shooting. As long as the shooting hasn't started, we will have no problem getting this project."