Global monopoly of technology

"How is it? Mr. Allard, how are you thinking about it?" Zhang Bowen calmly looked at the chairman and CEO of Marvel Comics at the moment.

If you want to acquire Marvel Comics, you must first settle Avi Allard, and if you balance him, he can better settle the Marvel board of directors.

It is very important who is the speaker.

Secondly, Marvel does not have much bargaining power now, and the initiative is in the hands of Bluestar Technology Group.

"US$1.5 billion is too low. Although Surprise is currently facing difficulties and does need external support, even if I can accept it, I can't convince the surprised shareholders." Avi Allard said helplessly. .

Through the interview, Zhang Bowen also confirmed that Marvel Comics did intend to find an owner to sell itself, so the other party did not say anything that he did not consider selling.

Finding an owner is equivalent to buying insurance for you, so that even if "Iron Man" fails at the box office, the company will not go bankrupt.

Surprise is indeed miserable now, and no one cares about selling himself intentionally.

Only Luo Sheng knew that in only one year, the box office explosion of "Iron Man" caused Marvel, which was on the verge of life and death, to turn over overnight, so it is necessary to miss this point in time and wait a month later. The release of "Iron Man" is a different story.

At that time, even if Marvel also needs to recognize its godfather, many people will throw an olive branch to Marvel, and the purchase price will increase substantially.

Zhang Bowen put up a finger: "OK, I will add another 100 million US dollars, 1.6 billion US dollars."

Avi Allard gave a price: "2 billion US dollars, at least this price, otherwise I can't convince the board."

Hearing this, Zhang Bowen smiled inwardly. As soon as the other party had a counter-offer, he knew that it could definitely be lower than 2 billion US dollars. He put away the thoughts in his heart and replied calmly: "All I have to say is, only one month. The time is running out. The release date of "Iron Man" is set in early May. Once the box office fails disastrously, the copyright of IP characters such as Captain America and Thor will belong to Bluestar Technology."

When talking about this, Allard's face changed slightly, and the people at Merrill Lynch could not help but yell at him in his heart.

Damn Wall Street!

After a while, Zhang Bowen added: "Once the insurance period expires, by that time, once "Iron Man" fails at the box office, Surprise may really be worthless, and valuable IP roles are basically gone."

Zhang Bowen played a bright card and directly turned his hole cards over to play. This kind of arrogant negotiation strategy is the least and the most helpless for the other party.

Because Marvel Comics doesn’t have much confidence in the success of "Iron Man" and can’t afford to lose. Once the box office fails and the first-line IP roles are gone, the value of Marvel Comics may be less than 700 million US dollars. It's not even the lower limit.

"We need to discuss it internally. This matter is too important and has a bearing on the life and death of the company." Avi Allard did not continue to bargain, but responded with such a response.

"No problem, I will stay here for about two or three days, only three days." Zhang Bowen said, and immediately got up, Allard also quickly got up, the two sides shook hands, this meeting is over.

The first meeting did not reach too much substantive consensus. M&A transactions involving more than one billion US dollars cannot be negotiated in a few words.

But one thing can be confirmed is that the time will not be too long.

Regardless of whether the M&A deal is successful or not, it will end before the "Iron Man" movie is released, so there are actually only more than ten days left.

But the most anxious one is obviously not Bluestar Technology Group, but Marvel Comics.

For them, if they want to sell themselves and don’t want to take the huge risk of the fiasco of "Iron Man", it is best to facilitate the transaction before the film is released, which is equivalent to buying an insurance for themselves. The movie failed miserably, and the new owner, Bluestar Technology Group, came to the bottom.

The meanings of the films are completely different.

Marvel Comics would definitely not dare to bet that the "Iron Man" movie will be 100% successful. This is a bet on the rhythm of the life of the family. There can be a more moderate way out. No one wants to bet on everything.

...

The hotel where Zhang Bowen is staying is right now in the middle of the night, and he is contacting Luo Sheng in China through a special satellite telephone line.

"Investment of 550 million US dollars in cash for mergers and acquisitions, and the remaining funds are cross-shareholdings of Bluestar Technology Group to complete the merger." Luo Sheng on the other side of the communicator heard a voice.

"Understand!" Zhang Bowen responded little by little, and the communication was over soon.

It’s a stupid decision to buy all with cash. Take the current Bluestar Technology stock to cross-hold, and use the cash vacated here to repurchase the company’s stock in the second half of the year. At that time, the surprise money for mergers and acquisitions is equal to one cent. Instead of making money, I made a fortune.

On the one hand, the Bluestar Technology stocks held by Marvel Comics can be fully hedged through the repurchase of the funds. Not to mention, you can buy more stocks, then of course you will make more, because Luo Sheng expects Bluestar Technology The stock will plunge further, far less than the time to buy bottoms.

At the same time, the more important point is that if all cash acquisitions are used, the core layer of Marvel Animation may be cashed out. Maybe the Marvel universe plan will be changed or even broken. This billion-dollar investment may be hit. Water drift has become a bad asset.

Cross-holding, tying Marvel Comics to the Bluestar Technology Group’s chariot, and indirectly tying the core layer together. They have their own vital interests in it to make Marvel Pictures bigger and stronger.

Now that the stock market has plummeted severely, and the market value of Bluestar Technology is also constantly falling, but this is not important to Marvel. It is important to rely on a large group and at least working capital to be in place.

The stock market value is the most important thing when you want to cash out and leave the market, but if you want to continue to make achievements in the Marvel business, the fluctuation of the stock market value has no effect.

...

At the same time, Avi Allard is also holding a meeting with Marvel Comics’ board of directors for emergency discussions, discussing the Bluestar Technology Group’s merger and acquisition of the company. Most shareholders agreed to sell themselves to Bluestar Technology. Find a thigh to hold it, so you can enjoy the cool under the big tree, which is a perfect hedge against risks.

The only problem is the price of acquisitions. Most shareholders feel that Bluestar's offer is slightly lower. If it can be higher, a consensus will be reached soon.

You know, Marvel Comics is also very anxious, hoping to find a new owner before the release of "Iron Man", and transfer potential risks to Bluestar Technology Group. There is a big group to help, so that Marvel Comics does not have to face bankruptcy and liquidation. The crisis of life and death.

...

The day after Zhang Bowen met the head of Marvel Comics, the media suddenly published a piece of news and made a lot of noise in the industry.

"The New Yorker" did not know where to hear the news. The article reported that the global executive vice president of Bluestar Technology Group was negotiating with the CEO of Marvel Comics on mergers and acquisitions.

Zhang Bowen saw the report of "The New Yorker" in the morning. He didn't think much about it. It must be the wind on Wall Street. The purpose is very simple, in order to pull the surprise stock.

Sure enough, after the news came out, the stock of Marvel Comics rose, and the market value reached $2.9 billion.

I am afraid that it is not just Wall Street. Some shareholders of Marvel Comics must have secretly leaked the news to the media. This is normal. Once a company merges with another listed company, even if this listed company is in a bad situation. , The stock will rise against the trend, because someone buys it will definitely rise, this is the basic law of the market.

But it is also risky, because Bluestar Technology may also not buy it. For some stock traders, this situation can be miserable.

Risks and benefits coexist.

After this incident was exposed, there was a lot of noise in Hollywood. The $1.6 billion offer was quite satisfactory, even a little bit low, but there was no way, the situation of Marvel Comics was there.

As the saying goes, after the acquisition is exposed, other related matters also surfaced at the same time.

On the same day, two other things related to Marvel Comics were also reported by the Los Angeles Newspaper, the New York Times and the Hollywood Reporter.

One is that a copyright statement made new waves in the acquisition, and the other is that Disney suddenly came in and jumped in.

...