Strictly speaking, compared to Miramax, who has not yet risen, Orion Pictures poses a greater threat to Gaomen Pictures in the field of art films. In the 1980s, this company produced many outstanding art films such as "The Legend of Mozart" and "Field Platoon" that won many excellent art films that won Oscars.

If there was no such big butterfly as Simon, projects such as "Dancing with the Wolf" and "Silence of the Lambs" would have been produced by Orion.

The main reason why Simon did not target Orion is that although the company is declining, it has very deep backend support.

In the 1980s, Sam Redstone of Viacom and media tycoon John Kruger also set up an equity war in order to compete for Orion. A few years ago, the two media tycoons realized that Orion was already declining and found the strong takeover of Canada's Seagram Group.

Daenerys Entertainment can easily kill New Line and Miramax, but it is impossible to destroy Orion Pictures, which has three stakes in Viacom, John Kruger and Seagram Group.

However, the little Orion could not satisfy the appetite of the Bronfman family, who had always been interested in entering the entertainment industry behind the scenes of the Seagram Group.

After the merger of Time Warner, the Westgram Group tried to absorb Time Warner's stocks while the group was under high debt in 1991, but before it even made a further acquisition offer, it was firmly rejected by the strong Steve Ross.

During the merger of Daenerys Entertainment in MCA, the Seagram Group also expressed its willingness to participate in the competition.

Just considering the strength of both sides, the Seagram Group once again gave up.

Now, Time Warner's operating conditions continue to recover, MCA has become the pocket of Daenerys Entertainment, Columbia is in the hands of Sony, Twentieth Century Fox is affiliated with News Group, MGM is also controlled by Australian capital, Disney has good operating conditions and its stock price is too high to acquire.

Therefore, the acquisition target that Hollywood left for Seagram Group is actually Paramount.

In other words, unless a malicious acquisition is initiated from Disney at a very high price, all other capital forces that covet Hollywood studios, the only suitable acquisition targets left is Paramount.

Paramount was just one of the subsidiaries of Bay West Industries in the early days.

In the 1980s, with the recovery of the entertainment industry and the outstanding leadership of Barry Diller, Michael Eisner and Jeffrey Carsonberg, Paramount grew rapidly and grew stronger. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, he produced annual box office champions such as "Grease", "Office and Gentleman" and "Raiders of the Lost Ark" in a row.

Gulf Western Industrial Company has also gradually sold its energy, food and other businesses, tilting more and more resources into the media field.

The turning point happened in 1983. Charles Brudan, former chairman of Gulf Western, died of a sudden heart attack, and Martin Davis became the new chairman. Compared with Charles Brudan's decentralized attitude, Martin Davis could not tolerate Paramount's Barry Diller and other three leaders, who were more famous than himself, and successively squeezed the three out of the company, thus laying the root cause of Paramount's decline.

In recent years, Gulf West has long been reorganized into Paramount Communications Group, and its companies are involved in film, television, music, theaters, publishing and other fields.

However, compared with the glory of the early 1980s, Paramount's film business, as the leader, fell in a day after the third part of Steven Spielberg's "Raiders of the Lost Ark" series ended.

In the previous fiscal year, Paramount Communications' revenue was US$4.3 billion, and the group's net profit was only US$260 million.

As a listed company, Paramount Communications, which has a total share capital of 120 million yuan, has recently maintained its share price at around US$39, with a market value of US$4.7 billion, and a price-to-earnings ratio of only 18 times.

As the US stock market generally begins to recover, a 18-fold price-to-earnings ratio is obviously a most suitable acquisition target.

Compared with the sluggish market value, Paramount's corporate net assets are more than US$7 billion. Even if it buys it and sells it, it can make a profit.

In fact, Wall Street corporate snipers Carl Icahn and Ron Perelman tried to do this a few years ago. If it weren't for the federal government's large-scale investigation into insider trading triggered by the fall of Michael Milken, the two would have almost succeeded.

In Seagram, the company made its fortune in the era of the Prohibition of the United States.

At that time, Americans wanted to drink, so they could only smuggle. Canada could not ban alcohol at that time, so they made a large amount of profit from the alcohol smuggling industry chain.

The real rise of Sigram began with the time when Sigram Group invested heavily in ConocoPhillips in the United States. ConocoPhillips was acquired by DuPont. Through the form of stock exchange, Sigram Group became the largest shareholder holding a 24.3% stake in DuPont.

DuPont Group has grown rapidly over the years, and the shares held by Seagram have become more and more valuable.

However, both sides are basically disgusted with each other.

Edgar Bronfman, who took over the Westgram Group from his father, wanted to get involved in the entertainment industry, and DuPont did not want to always have such a major shareholder to hinder its development. Over the years, the two sides have been discussing the transaction of this batch of equity.

Now, as long as the Seagram Group initiates the acquisition of Hollywood Media, it is basically the time to sell this batch of equity.

The media's valuation of the 24.3% of DuPont holdings in Sigram Group is generally between US$8 billion and US$9 billion. Such a huge amount of money is obviously more than enough to swallow Paramount Communications, which has a recent market value of only US$3.9 billion.

Since Hollywood only has the last best acquisition target, except for the Seagram Group, other capitals will certainly not be indifferent.

Barry Diller, who assisted Murdoch in founding Fox Network and integrating 20th Century Fox Films, left News Corp last year and founded QVC Media, supported by two cable giants Comcast and Telecommunications. Although no news has yet to be heard, Simon is very clear that if possible, Barry Diller will not give up on the idea of ​​acquiring Paramount Communications.

In history, Barry Diller lost to Sam Raystone.

This time, facing Sigram, who is also financially powerful, Barry Diller has little chance of winning, because the two cable TV operator giants, Comcast and Telecom, cannot withdraw large amounts of funds to support Diller's bid.

As for Viacom, Sam Redstone will probably be interested in Paramount this time.

It’s a pity that Viacom Group cannot have such strength.

In the original time and space, Sam Redstone's family capital once participated in investing in Blockbuster. Therefore, during the merger and merger of Paramount Communications, Viacom first swallowed Blockbuster, which had abundant cash flow through equity mergers and acquisitions, and then used Blockbuster's cash and stock exchange methods to finally complete the acquisition of Paramount.

Now, Blockbuster is one of the important subsidiaries of Daenerys Entertainment and it is impossible to provide funds for Redstone.

Viacom Group is not as glorious as the original time and space. In 1992, Viacom Group's revenue was only US$1.9 billion, net profit was US$56 million, and its current market value is US$2.9 billion, because the market is optimistic about the development prospects of cable TV channels such as Viacom's MTV and Showtime. The market value of US$2.9 billion has already meant a 51-fold price-to-earnings ratio.

In Simon's memory, the merger of Time Warner with a price-to-earnings ratio of hundreds of times is a completely miracle.

Now, Viacom, which has a high valuation but a low market value, wants to take over Paramount Communications, which has a rich net asset and a low stock price. Of course, it is not impossible to exchange stocks, but if someone proposes a cash acquisition, as long as the shareholder is not too stupid, they know how to choose.

Without Blockbuster, Viacom could not bring out much cash at all.

The potential opponent is the Sigram Group, which can cash out more than $8 billion in cash at any time. The ending is self-evident.

Although the Sigram Group only tentatively contacted Paramount Communications, Simon got the news immediately. He was also very concerned about this matter and tended to be acquired by the Sigram Group.

The current restrictions on foreign investors not being allowed to hold domestic television stations in the US have not been lifted. In order to develop Fox TV in the US, Rupert Murdoch had to change his nationality. Once Sigram acquired Paramount Communications, he had to divest his own television station assets.

In fact, it is the USA TV network that once jointly owned by MCA and Paramount, which currently belongs to Daenerys Entertainment and Paramount Communications.

Moreover, judging from the results of Sigram taking over MCA in history, Edgar Bronfman Jr. obviously has little talent in the operation of the media group. Paramount's strength has been declining over the years. Simon is happy that Bronfman will continue to struggle for a few years and continue to consume the vitality of this large studio, thus achieving the effect of one rise and another that Simon has been secretly promoting.

Hollywood is actually enough to have two or three large media groups.

More than 20 years later in my memory, Hollywood has actually become more inclined to Simon's "ideal state" planned. Disney, Time Warner and NBC Universal with Comcast backed by Comcast. Especially after Disney acquired Fox, the three-legged state became even more obvious.

There are still five left, the decline of Paramount and the sluggish Sony basically have little presence.

This time, Simon hopes to basically complete the preparation of this situation in the 1990s, and even go further. The seemingly three-legged sect should actually be the dominant Daenerys Entertainment.

Malibu, Daenerys Cinema.

It is Wednesday, June 2nd.

On the previous weekend, the two new films "Super Mario Bros." and "Fairy Tale Ending" released last Friday were both bleak.

The $48 million Super Mario Bros. had a box office of only $8.53 million in three days in the first weekend. As one of Disney's blockbusters this summer, this dud directly caused Disney's stock price to fall by 3.6% on Monday.

"The Fairy Tale Ending", which tells the follow-up story of Snow White, was tossed by Disney for three years through copyright lawsuits. After it was released, it did not cause any waves. It only earned $1.75 million in three days on the first weekend. Obviously, there will be no follow-up. It will basically leave North American theaters completely in two weeks.

The dismal results of the two new films undoubtedly free up more potential market space for "Superman" released on June 4.

On June 4th, Superman is the only one that will be the only one of them. This Friday is released. Warner Bros. Pictures, which is responsible for the release of the movie, will hold a grand premiere for this superhero movie at the Hollywood Chinese Theater tonight.

Simon had a meal with Nancy Brill at noon and the Robert Shea and the Weinstein brothers who had just confirmed to join Blockbuster Entertainment.

Originally, lunch time was left for the female assistant. She was four months pregnant and had already started to show her pregnancy. Recently, she moved to the mountain villa in Woodside, San Francisco. Jennifer's mother, Carol Rebled, also deliberately turned down her job and rushed to the West Coast to take care of herself. Simon's schedule for flying to San Francisco has naturally begun to increase, and she has to travel back and forth two or three times a week.

After the auction was completed at the end of May, the Xinyi Company was officially disbanded.

Blockbuster finally bought the most important film library assets of the new line for $68 million, and also quietly took over part of the team, including Robert Shea, chairman and CEO of the new line.

Although he was targeted by Daenerys Entertainment during the release of "New Ghost Street", Robert Shay finally decided to join Blockbuster with Nancy Brill's lobbying. The filmmaker is only 54 years old this year and is far from retirement age. The new line went bankrupt. Shay actually doesn't have much capital to retire early, so she can only continue to work in this circle.

The survival status of Hollywood second- and third-tier film companies is getting more and more difficult. Even if they are used to being bosses, it will be difficult for Shay to start from scratch. Joining Blockbuster, which has a strong background, is actually the best choice.

The Weinstein brothers are actually even more so.

Even the three of them were quite surprised by Blockbuster's recruitment.

After all, this videotape chain that is strong and backed by Daenerys Entertainment, a giant videotape chain, actually has more and better choices. The three of them can only be considered losers in Hollywood.

Therefore, in front of Simon, even if Robert Shei, who had some rifts on both sides, was very respectful, and the Weinstein brothers were not as rude and strong as Simon remembered, so a lunch was a joy to the host and host.

At one o'clock in the afternoon, after lunch, the three of them left temporarily. Nancy Brill continued to sit in Simon's small restaurant on the high-rise and asked, "What do you think of them?"

Simon shrugged: "I only speak according to the results."

Simon is actually very clear about the three of them, especially the Weinstein brothers. Simon is already considering adding some restrictions to the two brothers to avoid the recurrence of the Hollywood sex scandal. In fact, as long as the two brothers can always work in the Daenerys entertainment system, the possibility that that happened was very low.

As for privately, there are many people in Hollywood like Weinstein. Simon has no moral integrity, or he is just a hunter himself, and as long as there is no trouble, it doesn't matter.
Chapter completed!