"Since you have made up your mind, of course I have to consider the long-term. △↗,."

Chris smiled and said, "As for the acquisition, the information you have collected is already very comprehensive. Although Nokia's recent 1011 mobile phone sales are good, Nokia's own dilemma has not been solved. Coupled with our financial advantages, there is no big problem with the acquisition of Nokia. What we want to discuss is which acquisition method to adopt. Eric, if it acquires all-in-one, the premium will be very high, and your original plan to acquire the TV network will be hindered. Now among the four major TV networks in North America, Fox TV Network is developing the fastest and will definitely not sell it. However, the other three major TV networks have a market value of more than US$10 billion. If you use share exchange and mergers, you will even lose the absolute controlling stake of Firefly."

Eric has actually been considering these issues. Things like the Gulf War that make money will definitely not happen again. When the IT stocks explode, they have to wait a few more years to make money, and the sooner the TV network is, the better.

Eric vaguely remembers some data. In the original time and space, the order of the three major North American TV networks and film companies was ABC, CBS and NBC. In 1996, Disney completed the merger and acquisition of ABC was about US$19 billion, but only three years later, Viacom spent US$37 billion to acquire CBS in 1999. The size of the two TV networks is not too different. This situation is mainly due to the rising stock price caused by the rapid economic growth of the United States in the 1990s.

"Chris, do you think it is feasible to acquire the TV network based on Firefly's current performance situation? "

Chris thought for a moment, and Eric did not hide many of his plans. If he followed the plan that Eric communicated with him, Fireflies could raise about $5 billion in cash during the negotiations to acquire the TV network, but if he wanted to swallow any of the three major TV networks, the funding scale would be about $15 billion to be safe.

15 billion minus $5 billion …

Thinking of this, Chris suddenly widened his eyes and looked at Eric with an incredible look on his face: "Issue $10 billion in corporate debt, Eric, you are such a lunatic."

Not to mention the debt financing of $10 billion. By 1993, even around the world, there were very few companies involved in corporate mergers and acquisitions, not to mention issuing corporate debts of $10 billion in order to acquire a company. This can only be described as crazy.

Eric didn't care about Chris's frightened look and said, "Chris, think about it from another perspective, we all know the current situation of MGM. MGM's current assets are around US$1 billion to US$1.5 billion, but the company's debt is as high as US$1.7 billion, with a debt ratio of more than 100%. However, if the TV network acquisition is completed, Firefly's asset size will reach US$30 billion, then the existing debt will be less than 40%.

"But Eric, the billion-level liabilities and billion-level liabilities are no longer simple numbers."

Of course Eric knows this. Investors generally buy corporate bonds because the risk of bonds is relatively low and they do not have to bear the risks brought about by the ups and downs of corporate performance like stocks. Therefore, the larger the amount involved, the more cautious the investors will be and discover tens of billions of dollars in corporate debt at one time. Even giants like General Group have not yet.

However, Eric was full of confidence. In his memory, Disney's acquisition of ABC TV station in the original time and space successfully completed a debt financing of 10 billion US dollars, not to mention that Firefly Pictures' current operating conditions are much better than Disney in parallel time and space: "Chris, perhaps for other companies, issuing 10 billion US dollars of corporate bonds at one time. This is indeed so large that Wall Street investors are discouraged, but Firefly is different. Last year, Firefly Pictures' net profit was close to 10 billion US dollars last year. And this year, the box office share of the three movies, "Jurassic Park", "The Crisis of the Bug" and "The Collision of the World" will all reach 500 million US dollars, which is only part of the film's omni-channel operation. Such profitability is enough to dispel the concerns in most investors."

Chris was about to speak when the car suddenly stopped. Eric looked out the window and found that the car had been parked in the underground parking lot of the hotel.

Chris took all the information back into his suitcase and said, "Eric, I will pay attention to this matter. When I return to New York, I will take time to do a feasibility assessment. Yoma Olila may be returning to Finland in the afternoon, so we only have one lunch time with him, so let's focus on Nokia first."

Eric nodded, got out of the car, arranged Chris and his group as it was almost noon. Eric and Chris served on behalf of Fireflies to entertain Yoma Olila in a nearby restaurant.

According to the discussion between Eric and Chris, Firefly Investment will issue an acquisition offer to Nokia within three days. Before completing the acquisition, their position with Yoma Olila will be temporarily opposed, so the conversation between the two parties at this luncheon did not involve too many substantive issues. Eric just talked about why he became interested in Nokia. Yoma Olila talked a lot about the prospects of digital mobile phones and global mobile communication networks (gsm), and finally the host and host were having fun.

Yoma Olila returned to Finland in the afternoon to conduct preliminary communication with shareholders of several major banks of Nokia Group.

Eric and Chris rented the hotel's conference room and began to discuss specific acquisition plans.

Although Nokia Group has gradually divested or sold its paper, rubber and television businesses that have been in losses in recent years, as a once diversified Finnish giant enterprise, in addition to the mobile communication equipment department, Nokia Group currently owns other businesses such as energy, pharmaceuticals and cables. This part of the assets has not been divested and sold because it has been profitable and accounts for about one-third of the group's total assets.

Although mobile communication companies in some European countries have started operating GSM networks, which has increased the sales of Nokia's first GSM mobile phone 1011, GSM network has not been fully popularized after all. Coupled with the huge R&D investment in the early stage, although GSM mobile phone has broad prospects, Nokia's mobile phone department is still in a loss state, and the funds have been fed back by other profit departments. Except for Eric, a time traveler, no one can predict the explosive growth potential of GSM mobile phones in the next few years. Without seeing actual profits, shareholders of Nokia Group will not tolerate this situation and continue. This is also the reason why Yoma Olila urgently needs external investment.

Anyone knows that energy and pharmaceuticals are industries full of huge profits, but Eric is not interested at all. After all, in terms of scale, Nokia's businesses are not even considered a Xiaoxiami in front of those giants.

After detailed discussion, Eric finally decided to acquire Nokia's mobile communications department. This department not only includes mobile phone business, but also communication equipment business, mainly produces base station equipment for GSM networks. As the first country to use GSM networks, Nokia's technology in this area is much ahead of other communications equipment manufacturers.

The next afternoon, Eric and Chris walked out of the conference room together. Chris still held a stack of documents in his hand and said, "In order to develop GSM mobile phones, Nokia Group has been making losses in the past two years, which means that Nokia invested all the profits generated by those profitable departments into the research and development of GSM mobile phones. Now the results have been released. I think Nokia shareholders will not package and sell the mobile communications department to us as long as they have a little forward-looking vision."

"Who knows, maybe Nokia's shareholders will be in a hurry to cash out," Eric said. "But no matter what, we must at least get the absolute controlling stake in Nokia."

This is the bottom line of acquisition discussed by the team in the past two days. Chris also nodded in agreement and said, "Then, I will issue a formal acquisition offer to Nokia tomorrow morning. You should also give a name for the name of the offshore investment fund that I just discussed."

Because the tax rates of each country are different. During the cross-border acquisition process, the circulation of large amounts of funds always involves tax issues. The usual solution is to inject funds into an offshore company and then invest and operate through offshore companies. At the same time, this offshore investment can also play a role in hiding assets. Although it is only 1993 now, due to the convenience of offshore investment, the funding scale of offshore capital centers around the world has exceeded one trillion US dollars.

Eric remembered the sound of the two little guys yelling when they were on the phone yesterday and quickly said, "Just call it Hawaii Fund."

Chris nodded and smiled, "Do you prefer your daughter?"

"Yes, have you never heard of that saying? The son is the father's enemy in his previous life, and the daughter is the father's lover in his previous life."

"It seems that there is such a saying, and I think it's quite scientific. For a long time, my relationship with my father was not very good, but Emily has always been very harmonious with her father. Maybe you don't know, I had a few arguments with Emily's father, and she stood on her father's side almost every time." Chris said with a smile on his lips, and said again: "Then I'll let someone register this name."

Eric nodded, the conference room was at the bottom of the hotel, and the two of them arrived at the end of the corridor. The rest of the team went directly to the restaurant for dinner, but Eric had to go upstairs to change his clothes. Chris also had to go to the room for some things. When waiting for the elevator, Chris asked curiously: "Which company's date is this tonight?"

In addition to Nokia, in order to cooperate with the negotiations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Eric also needs to take into account the matter of negotiating cooperation with European film forces.

"People from the Credit Bank of Lyon, the largest shareholder of MGM, have suffered huge losses in both movies released by MGM during the summer season. Credit Lyon failed to auction MGM last year. Now they want to take out MGM, a hot product. However, before taking out, they hope that MGM's performance will recover so that it will be easier to find the next one."

The elevator door opened, Chris and Eric turned sideways together, letting the guests in the elevator leave, and then walked in. Chris pressed the button, and then asked the question just now: "Have you never thought about buying MGM?"

"Of course I think so. I am very envious of MGM's huge film library. If I can win MGM's film library, I will not only be able to fully utilize Firefly's current omni-channel operation resources, but it will also have great benefits for the future development of TV networks. After all, TV networks still need a large amount of high-quality content. But apart from the film library, there is nothing that touched me."

In the 1986 transfer, Ted Turner only left MGM's film library before 1948, which is also the reason why Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting Company has started broadcasting MGM's old movies in recent years. However, MGM still has the copyright of more than 4,000 movies and more TV series copyrights, and the scale of the film library is second only to Time Warner. However, due to MGM's continuous losses for many years, this once glorious film giant cannot take advantage of the huge film library scale, and can only continue to struggle in the vicious cycle of continued borrowing and continuous losses.

Chris said: "Isn't there any copyright 007?"

"As MGM's current debt scale, at an annual interest rate of 5%, the debt interest to be paid every year is as high as 80 million. MGM launched a 007 unit in two years on average, and the profit generated is not enough to pay corporate bonds. Therefore, MGM has been losing money these years, and its debts are getting more and more." Eric said casually about MGM, and suddenly had an idea. He couldn't help but kicking the elevator wall with his toes, and said excitedly: "I suddenly came up with a good idea."

Chris looked over in confusion: "Hmm?"

"Compared with the giant Credit Bank of Lyon, these European film companies are all small fish and shrimps. If Credit Lyon is matched by it and then operated with MGM's "shell" as a carrier, fireflies can escape from this matter without interrupting the established operational trajectory."

Chris has also understood what Firefly needs to do in order to cooperate with the negotiations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. After listening to Eric's words, he immediately understood what he meant. Originally, many of Firefly's production plans for next year and even the following year have been determined. In order to cooperate with the negotiations of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade, Firefly needs to take out some resources to share with European film forces. Then Firefly's established development plan must be adjusted accordingly, but if Firefly indirectly cooperates with European film companies through MGM, the headquarters does not have to make too much adjustments.

However, Chris is not very optimistic about Eric's idea: "You just said that MGM's current annual profit may not even have enough interest on corporate debts. I think those European film companies will not be unclear about this. Do you think they will agree?"

"Then invite all parties to sit down and negotiate. In this situation of MGM, I think as long as we can lead the company out of the predicament, those creditors will agree to temporarily give up some interests. Otherwise, once the company goes bankrupt, MGM's assets will not even repay its current debt. The biggest problem with MGM now is that there is not enough funds to start more film projects. Creditors have demand, European film companies have funds, and Firefly can provide high-quality film projects. These conditions combined can almost revitalize this dead film company. Do you think they will be moved?"
Chapter completed!