Hollywood Hunter

The issue of charity is actually a bit sensitive for Simon. Amy Pascal just laughed a few words and didn’t continue, saying instead: “I just got the news this morning that Vivendi has confirmed internal promotion of Sandy Litwater and Bill Micnick is the CEO and President of Disney, and will announce his fate next week, and Frank Wells will retire."

Simon also got the news and nodded: "I know."

At the end of last year, the acquisition of Disney was completed, and the French Vivendi Group has been looking for a suitable professional manager for this company.However, some of Vivendi’s candidates have expressed their rejections, including CAA’s president Michael Ovitz, former Spielberg assistants Frank Marshall and Catherine Kennedy, and Hollywood gold producer Joe ·Silver and several executives under Daenerys Entertainment Group.

Probably everyone in the circle realized what it was, and Vivendi's caution in decentralization, these external candidates have all expressed their rejection.

In desperation, Vivendi had to promote executives from inside Disney.

Sandy Litwart is Disney’s vice president and head of the legal department, and Bill Micnick is the president of Disney’s home entertainment department responsible for video and television distribution.

The two were promoted to Disney's CEO and president respectively, equivalent to two consecutive upgrades.

However, in terms of actual powers, the two are actually only equivalent to a step up.

According to information obtained by Simon, after being promoted to CEO, Sandy Litwater was actually in charge of the business of former president Frank Wells, mainly in the administrative affairs of corporate personnel and legal affairs.Bill Micnick, as president, will directly manage the production business of Jeffrey Kasenberg.

The core corporate strategic planning and financial power, which should belong to the CEO, are directly controlled by Vivendi headquarters.

This is not actually the result that Vivendi's board of directors wants to see.

However, not willing to decentralize and want a good enough professional manager, there are not so many good things in this world.

I have discussed privately more than once how to deal with Disney after being acquired by Vivendi Group. Amy just mentioned this matter with Simon at this time. Seeing that her boss already knows, no more words, instead: "Ai Sner is trying to invest in the Internet field, and has partnered with Ovitz, and has finalized a project. I ate with Nancy at Morton restaurant last night. I just met them and talked about it. An interesting idea. ."

Simon was also surprised, and asked, "Eisner is ill?"

Amy nodded: "It's no longer a problem, but the risk of the quadruple bypass surgery was very high, and it will be fine to support it."

Michael Eisner had heard of the news that Daenerys Entertainment would establish Universal Studios in Europe before the heart attack recurred. At that time, he was almost not rescued. Simon had learned this earlier.

Disney President Frank Wells, who was supposed to have died in a ski accident last year, escaped because of the big butterfly Simon.If Eisner died unexpectedly because of the news she released, Simon would inevitably feel a little guilty.Legitimate business competition has not reached the point of killing people, not to mention that Hollywood is looking up and not looking down.

Simon nodded slightly and skillfully nipped some Chinese fried noodles with chopsticks. He smiled and asked, "What project does Esna vote for?"

Amy took a sip of the juice on hand and said, "Probably, it should be regarded as a social networking site in the workplace. This is the idea that Ovitz came up with. You also know that Ovitz is very good at managing contacts. He feels that he can completely realize the reality. The network business model in the network is moved to the Internet. Unlike recruitment sites that can only deliver resumes in a targeted manner, this workplace social networking site allows users to directly establish their own connections in certain circles and more intuitively display their profile resume And, after forming a circle, you can also obtain more accurate recruitment or application goals through mutual recommendation.

Simon across the table became more familiar with it, and soon understood.

Isn't this the LinkedIn in memory?

In the past, because of the failure to compete for power within Time Warner, Terry Semel left to serve as the CEO of Yahoo. This time, because of the support of Daenerys Entertainment, Semel has gained more and more advantages within Time Warner Group. The more obvious, it is likely to become the next chairman.

Unexpectedly, Michael Eisner, who left Disney ten years earlier, turned to Silicon Valley.

After Amy finished speaking, seeing Simon being silent, she asked, "Simon, what do you think?"

Simon recovered and nodded with a smile: "It's a very good idea, the key depends on whether they can find a suitable business model."

The previous LinkedIn was acquired by Microsoft with a huge investment of more than 26 billion US dollars in 2016, which illustrates the feasibility of the concept of this workplace social platform. The key depends on whether Eisner and Ovitz can find this company in the future. Business plan for sustainable website development.

In the final analysis, ideas are never valuable.

Just like LinkedIn once, Simon did not believe that Silicon Valley would have only one workplace social networking site, but LinkedIn finally stood out.

Opposite the dining table, Amy listened to Simon's words and paused. "So, Simon, are you interested in this project?"

Simon looked up at Amy, seeming to understand something, and smiled: "Aisner they asked you to ask?"

Amy shook her head and said, "No, but, I think that since they told me so in detail at that time, I just wanted to let you know. Perhaps, if you are willing to invest, it would be better."

"Shouldn't Eisner lack money?"

Amy shrugged: "You know, it's not just about money."

Simon pondered a little, and understood roughly.

First of all, Amy Pascal, Michael Eisner, Michael Ovitz, they are all Jewish.

This is a typical mutual help between Jews without conflict of interest.

Second, probably as Amy said, if it were not for Simon’s intention, the two of Eisner would not have described their project in such a detailed way at a dinner, which was obviously intended to attract Simon’s attention.

As for the issue of money.

Eisner and Ovitz are certainly not short of money. It is certainly a piece of cake to provide millions of dollars in start-up funds. However, the two obviously still maintain a certain inertial thinking in Hollywood.

The first principle of Hollywood movie investment: don't spend your own money.

The same goes for Silicon Valley.

Everyone only saw the success of Yahoo, Google, Amazon and other websites, but they did not know that behind these successful people, more than 90% of the projects were finally floated, and the investment of hundreds of millions of funds did not even hear. To.

Moreover, if Simon is willing to invest for Eisner, not only can alleviate some of the previous friction between the two sides, this project can also receive the support of the Westeros system, which is crucial.

Now in Silicon Valley, there are more than one photo sharing website. In order to set up Instagram for only half a year, is this website's business model really so good?

the answer is negative.

At least most of them are negative.

The key is the overall support of the entire Westero system for Instagram in terms of hardware, software and network traffic.

Speaking of which, Eisner and Ovitz have always appreciated the latter.

After the rise of the Westeros system, Simon occasionally considered recruiting Ovitz to join, because the huge Westeros system, the need to reconcile and maintain the interpersonal relationship is really huge, and in this regard, Ovitz happens to be an expert level.

However, after all, ideas are just ideas, and there are many obstacles to action.

Such as loyalty.

Because it is not a maid like Amy Pascal who has risen together from scratch, lacking the identification and loyalty formed by long-term integration, it is very rash to invite the other party to maintain a very sensitive system relationship.

In any case, Simon admired the man Ovitz.

As for Eisner, there was no friction between the two parties, but because of some information in memory, Simon did not have much affection for Eisner.

Now, many things have changed, and Simon has never been a man of care. Think about it for a moment and say, "In this case, you can ask me, if you have time on the weekend, drink coffee and talk together."

Amy nodded and noted.

Simon saw Amy's point-and-stop appearance again, and said, "In this way, I can give a name to their website, LinkedIn," and said that I was writing this word on the table. With some joking tone: "The most troublesome thing in Silicon Valley right now is the name, because for many years, the slightly normal words have been registered by various companies, I guess this is definitely not."

Amy noticed Simon's gesture.

LinkedIn is obviously a combination of the two words Linked In. Literal translation is'connection', which is in line with the concept of a workplace social networking site.

Knowing that her boss's naming affair happened again, Amy agreed with a smile: "I will tell them."

Talking like this, at the end of lunch time, the two returned to their office busy.

This afternoon’s work is about other things than Daenerys’ entertainment.

Simon returned to the office. The female assistant reminded Celia Miller, who had returned to New York, that she was online, and the documents she wanted to see in the afternoon were all listed on her desk.

The first is the success of several important cooperation negotiations with the Ukrainian side during this period.

With regard to the Rovno nuclear power plant, under the lead of the Westeros system, the First Boston team finally finalized a bond issuance contract with Ukrainian nuclear power company of up to 1 billion US dollars for the unit 4 of the Rovno nuclear power plant Construction costs and the transformation of power lines between the nuclear power plant and Rivney.

In Ukraine today, no investor dare to rush to lend each other $1 billion.

Therefore, in addition to the reputation guarantee of the Westeros system, the Ukrainian Nuclear Power Company has also carried out actual pledge operations. The target is the 50% stake in the Rovno nuclear power plant. Once the Ukrainian nuclear power cannot repay the principal and interest of the bond on time, First Boston It will be entitled to auction 50% equity of Ukrainian nuclear power to raise funds to repay investors.

Not only that, the 10-year US$1 billion 10-year bond has an annual interest rate of 12%, far exceeding the industry average.

You know, the current 10-year Treasury bond rate in the United States is only 2.8%, and the 10-year bond rate of high-quality companies is generally only about 5%.

Although the Ukrainian economy does not work, in fact, the solvency of Ukrainian nuclear power is still very guaranteed.Under the circumstances that the output of other traditional Ukrainian power plants has plummeted, only Ukrainian nuclear power has maintained a stable 50 billion kWh of power generation annually, with annual revenue equivalent to about 3 billion U.S. dollars.

Such a monopoly state-owned enterprise with stable income, as long as the repayment can be guaranteed, even if a 5% annual interest rate is offered, no one will take over.

The reason why there is such a bond program that seems quite stupid in Simon’s eyes. On the one hand, it is clear that Ukraine has no experience in dealing with the national financial giant, and instinctively puts itself in a weak position that lacks confidence. Others are international financial giants, of course. What is what.

On the other hand, probably too, enough money.

Simon once heard similar broken things in his memory.

Now that such a contract is finalized, it is nothing more than to cut off a piece of Ukrainian nuclear power that can be turned over to the national finance every year for national economy and people's livelihood to pay off debts. Anyway, Ukraine's finances have already been riddled with problems.

Moreover, according to the original estimate, these 1 billion US dollars are actually unnecessary, and 700 million US dollars is enough.

The current increase of $300 million is mainly used to purchase power generation equipment for Westinghouse.Because compared with the local production in Ukraine, the offer for Westinghouse equipment is one cup higher.

Simon also knows that this is actually bargaining, and the range of bargaining is quite high.

However, obviously, enough money, and no one wants to bargain, anyway, it is the national money.

Not only that, high-priced imports of American equipment can also be used for publicity purposes. Of course, American equipment is of higher safety. You can rest assured that you can sleep without any second Chernobyl accident.

This is not Simon's conjecture, but the trend of public opinion in the Ukrainian local newspapers.

good results.

Nowadays, Ukraine is basically still in the mindset that the United States is nothing but its own country is useless, and it will be difficult to get rid of it for many years to come.

None of this has anything to do with Simon.

During the telephone discussion, Simon only asked Celia to set up a special financial supervision team to ensure that the $1 billion bond financing was spent where it was spent. After all, whether it is the construction of Unit 4 of the Rovno State Nuclear Power Plant or the nuclear power plant The transformation of the power grid between Rivneys will eventually be used in the layout of the Westeros system in Rivne.

In addition to this matter, there is also the establishment of a mobile phone production plant in Rifney City by Nokia. After negotiations, Nokia successfully received a series of preferential policies, mainly a 10-year tax concession agreement and 150 in the north of Rivney City. Hectares provide free land for building factories.