Heads Up Hollywood

For Tang En, the amazing box office of "Spider-Man 2" is just an appetizer for this summer, and the real feast is Vivendi!

After planning for so many years, it is finally time to close the net.

Twain must acquire Universal Pictures, Universal Music and other related entertainment assets!

This trip to France was a real business negotiation. Even the great director Luc Besson wanted to meet Twain and talk about the cooperation between Europa Films and Twain Films, but he refused.

In addition to Tang En himself, Tang En Pictures' president Bill McNick, vice president West Cotton, vice president Tosca Musk, chief financial officer Brandy Norris and other executives collectively dispatched .

The Buddha of Michael Ovitz also came later.

It can be described as mobilizing teachers!

Tang En Pictures wanted to acquire Universal Pictures, and Vivendi's board of directors had known about it for a long time.

Inside Vivendi, there are two distinct factions: the French faction and the American faction.

The French faction is still firmly supporting the chairman of the board of directors and CEO Jean Messier, believing that he can lead Vivendi to reverse the decline; the American faction is simple and straightforward. They want to cut Messier, then change the strategic direction, and spin off The debt assets of the entertainment industry saved Vivendi from bankruptcy.

Tang En and his party stayed at the Kusen Golf Club in Paris for two days and met with several important directors of Vivendi.

The most important one is Jean Paul, a financier with great political and business influence in France.

Paul was a Frenchman, but a staunch American faction who had been pushing for the removal of Messier.

In May, he had united with the Brown family in an attempt to subvert Messier's power. But because of the strong maintenance of French factions such as Arnoldt, it ended in failure.

For Tang En and his party, Jean Paul showed great enthusiasm, and even invited Tang En to his house for a French meal.

After a few days of contact, Tang En had a clear understanding of Vivendi's internal situation, "The current Vivendi is so volatile!"

In the guest room, he and his assistants were spying.

And Tang En's words obviously had a lot of meaning, and they were also somewhat sarcastic.

Bill McNick shook his head, "But the board of directors still has more power to support Messier. Messier is a hurdle, and he is the biggest obstacle to our acquisition of Universal."

West Cotton echoed, "Yes, as long as he is still in office, it is impossible to sell related entertainment assets to us! These are his heart and soul, and they are the greatest achievements of his work over the years."

Tosca Musk said lightly: "If it were me, I would also support Messier to continue his reign. When he came to power in 1994, Vivendi was just a French water company, a small company. But now ? Vivendi is a world-class media giant!"

Tang En curled his lips disapprovingly, "This moment, that moment!"

At that time, the 38-year-old Jean Messier was appointed as the CEO of this water company, and then he led this "old" sunset industry company to quickly complete a major transformation——

Joint venture with Vodafone Group to carry out mobile communication business and enter the telecom operation industry; acquire CanalPlus TV network, Universal Pictures, and Universal Music to enter the TV network, film, and music industries; acquire Houghton Mifflin and its related industries to enter Publishing, game industry; established an online e-commerce website with Sony, sold audio-visual products online, acquired mp3.com and other related websites, and entered the Internet industry; acquired the USA TV network, continued to expand the layout of the cable TV network; invested in Echostar, and entered the Internet industry Satellite TV operation business...

In just seven or eight years, Messier led Vivendi's rapid transformation, and its market value once approached 100 billion US dollars, making it the second largest media empire in the world after Time Warner.

Such a result is really outstanding!

However, the continuous large-scale acquisitions, and many of them are debt leveraged acquisitions, are too risky!

Because of national sentiment, the French shareholders can unswervingly support him to expand the territory, but the American shareholders... don't want to continue to take risks anymore.

Of course, this is also related to pleasing American investors that Jean Messier does not understand.

But no matter what, Vivendi's current complicated environment is extremely beneficial to Tang En.

Michael Ovitz was born as a broker, and he has an extremely keen grasp of people's hearts, with a gloomy smile, "Don't worry, something will happen soon."

"oh?"

Everyone's eyes lit up.

Michael Ovitz said with a smile: "Most of the people we met these days are supporters of Messier, but haven't you noticed? Their will has also begun to waver. Vivendi's excessive debt, It even needs to sell some assets to repay debt interest, which has made the French feel the crisis."

Tang En was very interested, "Tell me specifically?"

Michael Ovitz said: "Now, the most critical person is the vice chairman of the board of directors, Arnault. He is the chairman of BNP Paribas and is the source of funds for Vivendi. If this person can't support it, then The entire French faction will disintegrate in an instant. American investors are obviously actively communicating with him. However, this is not important."

"Then what's important?"

"Real money!"

The corners of Michael Ovitz's mouth curled up, his eyes were slightly cold, and he snorted, "They all know the financial situation of Tang En Pictures, and we can easily come up with more than 10 billion US dollars in cash! Although I don't communicate much with the French, But the commonality of capitalists will not change. Now, we only need to provide an attractive offer, which will definitely aggravate Vivendi’s internal conflicts and give American shareholders more voice and theoretical basis.”

Tang En pondered for a long time before nodding his head again and again, "So... it's feasible!"

Bill McNick interjected, "We know the financial situation of Universal Pictures better. We can provide Universal Pictures with an offer first, and try it out!"

The quotation for acquisition should be based on the financial situation of the other company.

Universal Music and Blizzard Games will wait until after Messier steps down and Tang En Pictures officially starts acquisition negotiations with Vivendi before launching investigations and quotations.

Now, take the lead with Universal Pictures!

...

On June 24th, Tang En Pictures made an invitational offer to Vivendi - 5.8 billion US dollars, to acquire all the assets of Universal Films and its subsidiaries!

On June 25, the board of directors and senior management represented by Jean Messier quickly responded: Reject!

On June 27, the chairman of BNP Paribas, the vice chairman and director of Vivendi's board of directors, and the biggest supporter of Messier, Arnault announced his resignation and quit the Vivendi board of directors!

On June 28th, Hollywood's public opinion and media are boiling again!

Tang En Pictures' offer to Universal Pictures was commercial news and was not taken seriously in the entertainment section.

In the entertainment section, the most important ones are celebrities, directors, and big movies!

And on this day, a big news did break out.

Following "Titanic", "Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace", "Spider-Man", and "Unsinkable", the fifth film in history with a global box office of over 1 billion US dollars was born.

This film, again, failed to leave one person's name.

That's right, it's Dunn Walker again!

"Spider-Man 2", which he supervised, was released for 8 weeks, with a North American box office of 510 million and an overseas box office of 490 million. The global box office has successfully exceeded the 1 billion US dollar mark!

Of the 5 films with a box office of 1 billion US dollars, 3 were directed by Tang En himself, and 2 were produced by Tang En.

For a while, the name "Dawn Walker" almost became synonymous with box office!

With Tang En's help, the name of Ridley Scott, a low-key British director, has officially become famous and has become the focus of publicity in the film and entertainment industries of various countries.

Especially in the British film industry, Ridley Scott has become their pride in Hollywood!

On this day, Tang En once again appeared on the cover of "Time Magazine". He was dressed in casual clothes and a pair of navy blue jeans. Even with black-rimmed glasses, he couldn't hide his youthful face.

Next to it, there is a line of eye-catching and bold headlines - "The Godfather of Commercial Films"!

Such an honor was already the icing on the cake for Tang En.

The focus of his attention now is in France, only Vivendi!

The big show, let's start!