Hollywood Hunter

As many times in the past, the results of the 64th Academy Awards once again caused controversy in the media.

Three women were nominated for Oscar nomination for Best Director at the same time. Under the atmosphere of politically correct public opinion in the past few months, no one would think that this year's Oscar for Best Director award should not be awarded to a woman.

However, in the eyes of many media, Barbara Streisand's contrast with the other two female directors nominated this time is too obvious.

You know, this time in the Oscars Eight and Six Middle School, the media score is only 6.8, which is barely decent. In the other two movies, "The Last Road" is 7.4 points, and "Piano Love" is up to 9.2 points.

Even if the media style does not represent the meaning of the Oscar judges, and even if Barbara Streisand’s qualifications in Hollywood exceed that of the other two directors, it’s okay to get the best director of "Jing Tao", even the best film. Also won, it seems that Oscar is too unfair.

Of course, some media have done an analysis from another perspective.

These media believe that the works of the three female directors, "The Last Flower" and "Piano Love" are all films produced by Daenerys Entertainment, which is the key to the result of this Oscar award.

Because in the past few years.

The 61st Oscar, best film, "Rainman", produced by Daenerys Entertainment.

The 62nd Oscar, best film, "Driving for Miss Daisy", produced by Daenerys Entertainment.

The 63rd Oscar, best film, "Dancing with Wolves", produced by Daenerys Entertainment.

For three years in a row, Daenerys Entertainment has won the Oscar for the best film three times in a row, but nothing more than three. If this time, the best film and other awards are still awarded to Daenerys Entertainment, then Oscar will become Danny. The Oscars exclusive to Lisi Entertainment Group.

Even though the previous "Rainman", "Driving for Miss Daisy" and "Dancing with Wolves" all have excellent qualities enough to win the Oscar for the best film, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences certainly does not want an Oscar Become a reserved place for Daenerys entertainment.

Therefore, this time, Daenerys Entertainment produced a film, not a film released by other brands, but still won 23 nominations, but only got two small gold men. This result is completely expected. in.

Simply put, Oscar is playing balance.

As for this balanced view of the media, the Academy naturally strongly denied that some of the Academy’s top executives and the Olympic Award judges who clearly understood that “Story of the Year” were operated by the high-profile public relations team were even mixed.

Since it is still an award run by her own family, Daenerys certainly will not manipulate public opinion to question the fairness of the Olympic Awards, but only a little boost the controversy between the three films in order to stimulate the commercial potential of the three films.

Both "Piano Do Not Love" and "Story of Time" were released in December last year, and there is no downgrade at this time.

As of last Friday, "Piano Love" took advantage of the award season attention from the beginning of the year, a small-scale long-term screening of more than three months, the cumulative box office reached 36.32 million US dollars.

Compared with the production cost of the film of 7 million US dollars, it is expected that "Piano Don't Love", which may hit the box office of 40 million US dollars before the next file, is definitely a big sale.

The cumulative box office in North America as of Friday last year reached $71.51 million.

This partial mainstream movie directed and starred by Barbara Streisand is expected to exceed US$80 million at the box office before the next stage with multiple awards such as Best Film.

"Lost Road" was released on September 6 last year, and it has been downgraded at the beginning of December. The total box office in North America finally reached 45.36 million US dollars, which is also regarded as a selling block.

After a three-month window period, Daenerys Entertainment officially released a video of the film before the Oscars in early March.

Taking advantage of the popularity of the award season, 730,000 boxes have been sold in the last three weeks.

Based on an average video tape sale price of $30, the film may have a sales revenue of up to $60 million in video tapes, which is better than the box office.

With the Oscars held and media controversy surrounding the results of the awards, the box office and video tape sales data of the three films have increased significantly in the new week.

In the final analysis, Oscar is both a hall of glory and a commercial feast for Hollywood.

Cersei Capital’s competitor KKR made a bid of US$2.15 billion to Victoria’s parent company LTD on March 30. Simon dropped four women in Los Angeles and flew directly to New York.

This year's Oscar award results are basically within Simon's expectations.

Daenerys Entertainment's best foreign-language film little gold man in addition to the best actress in "Piano Love" is also a layout in advance by Simon.

Many years later, the reason why the "Transformers" live-action movie once broke the box office record of the other side of the ocean was that in 1987, Hasbro gave the "Transformers" animation to the local TV station for free, thus creating the image of Transformers. People's popularity.

The marginal award for the best foreign language film is actually not difficult, and there are no other outstanding foreign language films in this session. The high-profile public relations team easily put "Red Lantern High" on the podium.

While Hollywood was still immersed in the aftermath of the Oscars, Simon accepted some thank-you calls the next day and swept this matter into the past.

After KKR's bid, Blackstone also proposed cooperation proposals to Cersei Capital's Apollo Asset Management team, hoping that both parties will jointly invest in the bid for LTD.

If you do not have enough confidence in LTD, or the financial strength is not enough, choosing a partner is also a good choice.

However, this time is different from Simmons, which has previously chosen to cooperate with other capitals. For the LTD, Cersei Capital neither lacks confidence nor lacks funds, and does not intend to give half of future potential earnings to Blackstone Group.

There are already two private equity offer prices, and another private equity giant is eyeing. Many arbitrage capitals have entered the market to buy LTD stocks, which has led to a further rapid rise in LTD stock prices.

On the day KKR made its offer, the market value of LTD broke through 2 billion US dollars.

From US$1.3 billion two months ago to US$2 billion at this time, the market value has risen by more than 50%, which has complicated the mood of the LTD board and major shareholders.

If LTD had such a market value before the news of the acquisition leaked, relying on the confidence of the market, whether it is additional stock issuance or bond financing, can make this company easily overcome the cash dilemma that is not serious.

The situation now is that the acquisition of LTD has almost become a foregone conclusion.

Otherwise, once the acquisition fails, LTD's stock price will definitely not fall much slower than the increase.Even though Cersei Capital’s acquisition made many shareholders aware of the potential of the LTD company, they were still more willing to directly choose higher cash positions than the stock price plunged again.

"KKR hasn't got rid of the haze of the Reynolds Nabisco acquisition until now. I personally judge that this time we bid for LTD with us, mainly because of the successful acquisition of KKR, Henry Kravis hopes to revive KKR through a successful acquisition. Morale, there may also be the idea of ​​diverting investors’ attention."

In the conference room of Cersei Capital's headquarters in Midtown Manhattan.

Leon Black, president of Apollo Management, a subsidiary of Cersei Capital, is introducing the progress of the acquisition: "Because the negative impact of Reynolds Nabesk is too great, the US economy has not yet fully recovered. Facing the KKR board of directors and investors Pressure, KKR will definitely not have unlimited quotes. Therefore, 2.5 billion US dollars should probably be the limit of KKR."

The Reynolds Nabesco acquisition was caused by a catastrophe caused by the uncontrollable bidding of the parties under irrational competition.

LTD's market value before the leak of the February acquisition was only about $1.3 billion.

If KKR's offer exceeds 2.6 billion US dollars, a 100% premium will undoubtedly make investors question whether this private equity company will suffer the same mistake as the Reynolds Nabisco acquisition.

Therefore, KKR is very likely to control the premium limit within 100%.

Cersei Capital's side, $2.5 billion, is also the upper limit of quotations set by Simon.

Even if LTD is not available, Simon will not allow this price to rise even more than a dollar.

In fact, when the auction price is at the end and the transaction price is not much different, the competition is more likely to be a specific trading plan.

Simon considered these and asked Leon Black again: "Where is Blackstone?"

"I'm not sure for the time being, but if Blackstone and we have no success, they may turn to KKR. The two companies will choose to bid largely because we are interested in LTD. They should choose the future of LTD. There is not enough confidence. Of course, if KKR also rejected Blackstone’s invitation to cooperate, Steve Schwarzman is more likely to give up completely. He is a very cautious and conservative person, and the current economic situation does not allow Blackstone to take the risk. It’s too risky. In addition, the fashion industry is not an area where Blackstone excels.”

Simon is playing with a pencil in his hand, thinking about it for a moment, saying: "In this way, you try to contact some media to spread the news that KKR and Blackstone are just blindly following the wind and capital of Cersei, and make as much impact as possible."

If any company loses its own judgment and just blindly follows others, obviously it will not gain the trust of investors.

Leon Black said: "There are already media evaluations, we can really help. But, Simon, this may also attract other bidders."

"You can just keep the quotation limit of 2.5 billion US dollars," Simon said. "Even if it fails, we still hold about 5% of the LTD stock in our hands. Well, how much can you make if you sell?"

"At least 50 million dollars."

"So, that's it, let's talk about your specific acquisition plan."

In the more than an hour that followed, in addition to the basic acquisition quotation, the crowd also readjusted future acquisition forms such as payment methods, management arrangements, and alleviation of LTD cash pressure.

Simon finally agreed that the Wechsner family, a major shareholder of LTD, retains 10% of the shares and the current chairman and CEO Leslie Wexner’s request to continue to hold existing positions.Leslie Wexner is the founder of the official LTD group, and the Wexner family still holds about 30% of the shares of the LTD company at this time.

In time and space, LTD was controlled by Leslie Wexner until many years later, and the subsequent development of LTD also proved the ability of this founder.Cersei Capital’s acquisition was more of an investment, and Simon did not necessarily intend to take control of LTD.

The meeting ended and the time passed five o'clock in the afternoon.

Simon and Janet returned to their apartment on Fifth Avenue, and on the way they went to the construction site of Westeros.

Today is April 1, Wednesday.

April Fools' Day.

After the construction started in January, the original buildings have been demolished and the foundation is being excavated.

The workers had already left work, but they simply took a look at the construction site and the couple left.

"It took a long time to negotiate with the New York Metro Company before they agreed to add a subway station next to our building, but the renovation cost was required to be paid by us. It would cost about 10 million US dollars. In addition, there are actually many Eastern European workers hired by Tishman Speyer. For illegal workers, I talked to James about this, and he said it was not a problem."

Janet and Simon were talking about trivia about the construction of the building, and soon returned to the apartment on Fifth Avenue.

Simon didn’t care too much about illegal workers: “There are probably no illegal workers on construction sites in New York, because there aren’t enough local workers at all. And even if something goes wrong, iron The Speyer family at Lions Gate can handle it too. They have been doing this for almost a hundred years."

Entering the apartment with words, Alina Makheji, the yoga teacher Janet found from India, greeted her.

After a few months of exercise, Janet's figure is already better than before she was pregnant.

However, the Indian girl who has a very good yoga appearance and a first-rate figure has always stayed.

Simon had seen Alina's body as soft as an acrobat, unlocking a standard of 100%, so she joked and asked if she had plans to go to Hollywood.

There are actually a lot of stars that Hollywood has turned into actors from fitness coaches.

Steven Sieg was once a Judo coach of Michael Ovitz.

Alina obviously has this kind of thought, but it seems that there is no lack of further patience and ambition.Simon didn't care about this, and let the flamboyant Indian girl continue to stay.

After taking a shower with Janet, the woman went to the kitchen to arrange dinner. Simon changed the casual cardigan and slacks and sat on the living room sofa while watching CNN's instant news while holding a picture book to depict.

When the special fragrance came, Simon stopped the brush and looked up to see Alina put a cup of coffee in front of her, just smiled, and then turned her attention to the split-screen painting in front of her.

After a moment.

Youxiang still did not dissipate, there was a voice in your ear: "Sir, you can paint really well."

Simon glanced sideways, and the Indian girl squatted beside him, her arms on the sofa arm, with just curiosity and admiration in her eyes.