Giant-level corporate mergers are very cumbersome. Early financial and legal feasibility assessments, negotiation of detailed acquisition plans after the official launch, review of corporate assets and debts after the agreement is reached, etc., etc., usually take at least several months or even

It will take a year or two to be completely completed.

Panasonic began to contact Michael Ovitz after Sony acquired Columbia Pictures at the end of last year, and also hoped to acquire a major Hollywood film company.

The Japanese stock market has plummeted by more than 30% in the past six months. However, Panasonic, which has accumulated a large amount of US dollar cash in recent years, has not given up the idea of ​​acquisition.

For half a year, in order to keep it as confidential as possible, Michael Ovitz led his team back and forth between Tokyo and Los Angeles many times, even forbidding the staff to disclose the specific business trip itinerary to their families. One of his deputies brought a piece of clothing for his wife when he returned from Tokyo.

The kimono had to be pretended to be bought in London.

Unexpectedly, despite all the secrets, the matter was leaked in advance.

CAA headquarters in Century City.

Michael Ovitz had a busy day yesterday, communicating with Panasonic, looking for reasonable excuses, contacting the media, unifying the rhetoric with team members, confirming the plan to deny the Los Angeles Times report, and finally personally reviewing the media release, it was already late at night.

Today I still arrived at the company before eight o'clock.

After finishing the regular high-level meeting for the new week and discussing today's media feedback and next step response plan with members of the acquisition team, the time has come to half past nine.

Back in his office, Michael Ovitz was browsing today's work schedule and asked his assistant if the lunch with Dustin Hoffman at noon had been arranged.

Last year, due to pressure from Westeros, he apparently terminated his contract with Hoffman and others. However, Ovitz has been trying his best to help several people maintain their careers, and it is free of charge, which greatly reduces the impact of the termination of the contract.

Negative effects caused by CAA.

Dustin Hoffman's ability to join "Captain Hawke" this time, as well as Terry Semel and Peter Cooper personally speaking out, are all the result of Ovitz's behind-the-scenes work.

Of course, of the four people whose contracts were terminated last year, only three were actually restored.

In order to scare other monkeys over the long-term contract issue, Westeros spared no effort to suppress Meg Ryan, and Ovitz had nothing to do about it.

After discussing the lunch arrangements, Ovitz was about to start other work today when his assistant handed him a box office report for the past weekend and said, "Mr. Ovitz, maybe you should take a look at this."

Michael Ovitz took the box office report, sent his assistant away, looked down, and a surprised look quickly appeared on his face.

This past weekend, because the two new films "Presumed Innocent" and "The Jungle Book" did not perform well at the box office, "Total Recall", which opened in its second week, dropped 41% year-on-year, but still grossed US$15.06 million at the box office.

Easily taking the top spot on the box office charts for the three weekend weekends.

Ten days after its release, the cumulative box office of "Total Recall" also exceeded the 50 million mark, reaching US$51.14 million.

Of course, such data does not surprise Ovitz.

What Michael Ovitz didn't expect was the title that ranked second on the list, "The Love Between Ghosts and Ghosts."

The film has entered its second week. The first week of its release did not meet the expectations of many people in terms of word-of-mouth and box office. Daenerys Entertainment's summer opening film "The Last Day" did not have the same box office as "Total Recall" the following weekend.

It fell sharply, but bucked the trend and rose.

Compared with the box office of US$12.19 million in the first three days of its opening week, the box office of "The Last Days" fell by 2.7% in the three days of the second weekend, collecting another US$12.52 million.

2.7%, this number seems insignificant. However, Michael Ovitz knows very well that when media reputation is only average, it is very difficult for a movie to reverse the decline.

"The Love Between Ghosts and Humans" did it.

Again.

"The Sixth Sense" in the same period last year, due to its explosive reputation and high topicality, it naturally realized a reverse decline the next week.

Now, what’s going on with “The Endless Love between Humans and Ghosts”?!

Michael Ovitz wondered, probably the question that all of Hollywood was paying attention to early this morning.

You know, with just such a seemingly inconspicuous reversal, the box office curve of "The Last Days" was directly pushed up. This film was originally predicted by many media to only have a domestic box office of 60 million US dollars, so it almost

It can definitely hit the 100 million yuan box office club.

Even, it may eventually surpass "Total Recall".

This is really surprising.

As a result, the media and other Hollywood studios began to pay attention to why this happened.

The plot of "The Love between Humans and Ghosts" made countless viewers cry...

"Unbridled Melody" resonates with countless people...

Another link-up effect...

all in all.

Audiences loved this movie!

This is the most important and direct reason, a reason that countless filmmakers cannot ask for.

The media rushed to report on the viewing scene of "The Last Days". When Hollywood was looking for ideas similar to this movie, many people thought of their own mentality when "The Last Days" was released and couldn't help but laugh at themselves. For Dan

Nelis Entertainment, deep down in my heart, I can’t help but feel a sense of powerlessness that your uncle is still your uncle.

On Sunday, he and Daenerys Entertainment executives discussed the response strategy if Panasonic launched the acquisition of MCA in advance. With CAA denying the matter in the media, Simon's mind turned to other matters at hand.

However, although CAA publicly denied it, starting from Monday and in the following days, MCA's stock price still experienced a wave of rise, once reaching a high of $52. Obviously, a lot of capital had begun to enter the market at this time.

If Daenerys Entertainment has no intention of acquiring MCA, Cersei Capital can now start to absorb the company's shares in large quantities. When Panasonic's acquisition of MCA is completed, it will definitely make a lot of money.

Now, such an opportunity can only be given up.

To be careful, as long as no one takes it seriously, this is not actually considered insider trading. However, Cersei Capital is already too dazzling in the eyes of many people. Simon believes that if this is really done, someone will definitely treat Cersei Capital by then.

'Real'.

Over there in Silicon Valley.

Because the number of users accessing AOL in May exceeded expectations, AOL management predicts that in the second half of this year alone, the number of users accessing the World Wide Web through the company may reach 500,000.

Moreover, other ISPs outside the AOL service area have begun to contact Igret, which holds the core patents of the World Wide Web. After so many years of accumulation, the base of Internet users across the United States is actually very large. If they all switch to the World Wide Web, by the end of

By the end of this year, the number of World Wide Web users nationwide will surely exceed 500,000.

As a result, both AOL and Igret began planning to expand their data centers and line networks.

Yigret's current two data centers on the east and west coasts can only carry 400,000 user visits. This time, Yigret plans to build two more data centers with 300,000 users on the east and west coasts, making the company

The number of visits the server can handle is expanded to millions.

AOL's main expansion is its own basic line network.

Although it is impossible to build a nationwide network transmission channel without a billion-dollar investment, AOL's own funds are still sufficient to invest in the backbone optical network on the east and west coasts. Simon does not plan to do more in the short term.

The capital injection will dilute the equity of other shareholders, and if necessary, AOL's next phase of financing will be in the form of loans.

As for Internet cafes, after confirming the Internet cafe model and business model, 100 Internet cafes are expected to be opened one after another around the end of July.

AOL's stake in the 'Internet Bar' subsidiary is 60%, and the basic cost of each Internet cafe exceeds US$100,000. However, the investment AOL itself needs to bear is actually only US$3.5 million, and the rest has sponsors and

Investment funds owned by IBM are responsible for this.

Daenerys Studios in Malibu.

The time is Wednesday, June 13th.

"The Last Days" was an unexpected hit at the box office. Although the three-day box office of "Total Recall" on the previous weekend was close to $3 million behind the first place, after entering the working day, "The Last Days" was a box office hit.

Due to the further increase in media popularity and audience reputation, the single-day box office has surpassed "Total Recall".

Simon did not relax.

The first of Daenerys Entertainment's 10-movie plan last year, "Sleeping with the Enemy," will be released on June 15. However, the film had previously been screened several times internally, and the media participating in the movie

The reviews given by people were very low, and the test screenings by ordinary audiences did not produce very good feedback.

Daenerys Entertainment's 10-movie plan is highly anticipated by both Hollywood and ordinary audiences.

Now, Daenerys Entertainment's independently-operated "The Last Day" has shown signs of success. If the externally-cooperated "Sleeping with the Enemy" fails at the box office, not only the audience will lose hope for the follow-up films of the 10-film plan.

Hopefully, other Hollywood studios will inevitably come up with other ideas.

Of course Simon can't control the audience's response to the film.

However, up to now, many Hollywood studios have been tied to the same boat with 10 movie plans. This time, the problem remains to manipulate the media's evaluation of "Sleeping with the Enemy" to ensure a passing grade or above.

Not big.

Therefore, as soon as the new week arrived, Simon began to contact the media contacts Daenerys Entertainment had accumulated over the past few years, and also asked Fox and other participants in the 10-film project to work together. Everyone knows that "With Enemies"

"Sleep" got off to a bad start, and the other 10 planned films that have already created a brand effect in the minds of the audience will be affected.

In the conference room on the top floor of Office Building No. 1 on the fifth floor of the administrative area.

That's what Daenerys Entertainment and Fox Studios' distribution teams are discussing, with Simon, Amy Pascal and Fox's Joe Ross all involved in the meeting.

After a busy few days, Fox's distribution team, with the help of Daenerys Entertainment and other connections in Hollywood, has secured the Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Chicago Tribune and San Francisco Chronicle.

Film review trends in four major newspapers on the east and west coasts.

Two professional media outlets, The Hollywood Reporter and Variety, also promised to give a relatively loose evaluation.

In addition to these influential print media platforms, the team also contacted a group of well-known film critics such as Roger Ebert, and these people have also agreed.

Generally speaking, there won't be any overly high evaluations, but a passing score of 6 or above is absolutely no problem.

Simon is not worried that this kind of manipulation of film reviews will be leaked. To put it bluntly, this is actually a kind of public relations, and this is not the first time it has happened in Hollywood. Moreover, although he is still only a new player in Hollywood, Simon knows this
To be continued...