Hollywood legendary director

Marvel, Lehman has been thinking for a long time.

Start by thinking about how to upgrade the business.

If you just want to achieve global distribution and even better profitability, then as long as the energy is continuous to produce excellent and popular film and television dramas.

This is why independent film companies are like a spring breeze. Every year, several independent film companies rush into the box office list, but everyone is not long and unstable.

How was DreamWorks broken?How was the new line acquired?

The reason is that the output cannot keep up with the profit. Once the capital chain fails, you have to bow your head.

Therefore, in the era of big IP, as long as the resources that Marvel controls can be well developed and realized, from film coverage to surroundings, and even to increase the popularity of comics, so as to feed back the establishment of the character image.

Marvel is a gold mine and the best acquisition target for sinking channels.

They started from comics, and once occupied the largest share of the American comics market in 1980, which was higher than DC. Of course, DC was already busy developing film and television dramas at that time, and the two focused on different directions.

Now, after Avi-Allard has taken over, in addition to the comics business, Marvel has its own toy factory, store, and Marvel Television.

Can well complement the lack of fireflies.

Not to mention, 2007 is a good time for acquisition. In the original time and space, banks have increased the difficulty of borrowing for companies that are unfavorable to their operations. Not angry.

In the end, Marvel’s management was forced to give it a go, take out most of its character IPs, and borrow 400 million from Merrill Lynch to shoot its own movies. If "Iron Man" is unsuccessful, Marvel will definitely be over.

Why dare to break the boat?

It is because once bankruptcy occurs, the funds invested by all shareholders of the board of directors will shrink by a large amount. In other words, if you don't fight, you will lose money. It is better to make a big one.

Since 2000, Marvel has always had the urge to adapt works, but they have assisted other studios in the development, such as "The Punisher" and "Blade Warrior".

Marvel is a layman, and the idea is to cooperate and realize character assets. If it weren't pressed, they would not dare to develop independently.

On the other hand, after Lehman planned to intervene in this industry, he naturally asked someone to investigate Marvel.

As Joseph said, at this time, Marvel was not in the eyes of anyone. The most valuable IPs, such as Spider-Man, X-Men, Hulk, and Fantastic Four were all sold, and the rest were second-rate. The role was not taken care of by several major studios. In addition, Marvel's internal real good assets are too few, even the toy factory is struggling to maintain it, and there is no room for comparison with companies such as Hasbro.

After all, DC has failed even Superman, and Marvel has some tatters left. It wants to take over, but has to bear huge debts and strip off bad assets. Who is doing this kind of trouble.

This is why Marvel has not sold it several times, but has been used by some Wall Street vampires for financial operations to sell assets at a low price.

At this time, Marvel is not owed debts, and its valuation is almost 900 million, which is seriously inflated. Adding debts, it is close to 1.6 or 700 million.

If you want to take over completely, Firefly will carry a big burden and have to borrow money.

After two years of hard work, removing the funds for maintaining operations and some project funds, roughly 1.1 billion can be allocated, but Blue Butterfly Pictures will also develop, and the 900 to 1 billion is still within the scope of operation.

Needless to say, the value of Marvel is only because of historical legacy and business problems that caused its own development to be slow. If you have a little money, you have to return it to the bank.

Although Avi-Allard only spent 50 million US dollars to take over Marvel, now it takes Lehman to spend more than one billion to have full control, but after the "Spider-Man" fire, Marvel's stock price rises After a wave, the situation improved a lot.

If the hidden dangers of subprime mortgages were not encountered last time, and the banks tightened their lending business, Marvel might be able to survive the small days, anyway, after so many years have survived.

......

CAA, Death Star Building.

Lehman met Brian Lord, one of the five core managers.

The two are old friends and have worked together for a long time, naturally and kindly.

Of course, Lehman didn't come here for friendship, but for Marvel.

CAA has always had a tradition of pimping. When Sony acquired Columbia, Michael Ovitz assisted in the acquisition and finally collected the benefits.

The main point is that each of the shareholders of Marvel, large and small, can easily reveal their intentions and raise their expectations, leading to a lot of unnecessary money.

No one wants Marvel, the value is low, and if they are taken over by others, you see if they will increase the price or not, Lehman doesn't want to be cut off by others, taking debt is the limit he can promise.

Therefore, while allowing people to buy from the stock market, he started from within Marvel.

The latter requires the help of a well-connected person, and CAA is naturally suitable for this job.

After explaining his intention, he was naturally willing to accept the channel information and network that Brian Lord had mastered. Anyway, if he succeeded, he would definitely not miss a big red envelope.

However, he felt that Lyman was a little unsuccessful.

If you are a studio, if you don't make a good movie, or buy a messy comic entertainment company, it's a bit taken for granted.

Brian Lord thinks about it a bit and knows that Lehman is focusing on Marvel's IP image, but the problem is that Warner can't handle DC, and the development is not smooth. What is the worth of Marvel without Spider-Man and X-Men? Is it important?

To develop Marvel, Warner could acquire it 20 years ago.

However, this is someone's business. He is only responsible for helping to make money by making connections, so he doesn't seem to worry about anything.

Two days later, the two met for the second time.

This time, Brian Lord took out a thick stack of documents.

It contains the internal financial details of Marvel in recent years, as well as information on major shareholders, including the unhealthy assets of Marvel, the identification of the bank, and the debt situation.

More importantly, even the management details, power factions and other things have been investigated by CAA.

It's no wonder that Sony liked to find CAA to match, with these channel information, the acquisition is greatly facilitated.

At the beginning, Michael Ovitz was elected to the Hollywood power list for three consecutive years. The connections and information that CAA can accumulate is really amazing...

Brian Lord smiled and said: "Sony acquired Columbia for US$3.4 billion, and Panasonic acquired Global for US$6.6 billion. We operate. Small companies like Marvel are actually simpler, as long as they get the support of most of their shareholders. After the transaction is completed, reorganization and delisting will do."

——Privatization operation.

Lehman glanced at Brian and said, "I am personally looking forward to cooperating with CAA. If it happens, 4% of the total transaction amount, the lower the negotiation price, the higher the share, how about?"

Brian Lord’s expression has finally undergone a subtle change. The smile is stronger and more sincere. Is it profitable? Give it to whoever doesn’t like it. "Mr. Rust, we will complete the acquisition negotiation of Marvel Entertainment, please Wait patiently for a while."

"Thank you very much, then."-Involving tens of millions of dollars in trading profits, and it is their high-level profit sharing, this motivation is still sufficient.

When the time came to April 20th, the North American box office of "Juneo", which had been screened for more than a month, had accumulated 113 million at the box office, 140 million overseas, and 253 million globally. It also made people in the industry very envious of Firefly's development of a low-cost dark horse. Make a big profit.

In addition, it is the casting of "Twilight".

After receiving the invitation, Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinson were inexplicably excited and quickly signed a long contract.

Of course, the actor's main creation, including supporting roles, is a long-term contract.

Two unfamous actors, with low prices and no confidence to negotiate prices, for fear that the opportunity will slip away, so Robert's first film was paid 3 million US dollars, and Christine was even less, 2.2 million, because she is an actress. , Hollywood rules.

Warner Studios, "Twilight" set.

The selected actors are trying and rehearsing, because some preparations have not been completed, the shooting time is estimated to be in early June, but it does not prevent them from working hard, hoping to seize this opportunity to gain fame.

After all, the actors all know the fans of Firefly.

In the afternoon, Lyman came over.

Kristen Stewart watched curiously, and saw Lyman glance at random and skipped her, which was a little disappointed.

This person is an industry leader. It would be easier if he could hold his thigh, had no shortage of resources like Eva, and was able to transform himself into a more powerful producer.

It's a pity that people don't pay much attention to her. I heard from the agent that he personally ordered his role. Is it just because it is appropriate?Didn't think of anything else?

Oh, why are you even more disappointed.

Coming and going like wind, people are gone again.