It's Thursday, July 21st.

Michael Eisner woke up early in the morning in the Plaza Hotel Suite in Manhattan, New York. He rushed to the East Coast yesterday to lobby in person to Sid Buss, the current head of the Bath family, to give up the idea of ​​selling Disney.

Although the Bass family made its fortune in Texas, many members of the family have liked to live in New York for a long time in recent years.

I made an appointment to have breakfast today. Michael Eisner got up and took care of himself. Just as he was about to leave the hotel suite, the doorbell suddenly rang.

The slightly rushing doorbell made Michael Eisner inexplicably have a bad premonition.

Opening the door, two middle-aged people stood outside the suite, namely Disney vice president and head of legal affairs, Sandy Litwatt, and family entertainment department president Bill Michanik.

This is after Jeffrey Carsonberg suddenly resigned and Michael Orwitz kept waiting and watching, Michael Eisner urgently selected two executives who planned to replace Disney's next president and studio president.

Michael Eisner knew very well that if he wanted to convince the Bass family to reject Vivendi's acquisition, Disney must stabilize as soon as possible.

Although he was unable to invite Orwitz to join, the two candidates in front of him were not Michael Eisner who chose to make up the numbers at will.

The Legal Department has always been one of the core departments of Disney companies that focus on copyright operations. The jokes such as Disney's "Copyright Maniac" and "California Pizza Hut" and the jokes that drawing a Mickey Mouse after drifting on a deserted island can attract Disney's special plane to save lives. It was a lawsuit made by Disney's Legal Department.

As the head of the legal department with Disney's vice president, Sandy Litwatt has always reported directly to Eisner himself.

Not only that, the current president Frank Wells also happened to be a lawyer. He has worked with Eisner in tacitly over the years and has now allowed Sandy Litwat to take over Frank Wells' position, which is easy to be recognized in front of Disney's board of directors and major shareholders.

Another Bill Michanik can be regarded as Michael Eisner's "direct line". Bill Michanik followed Eisner to switch from Paramount to Disney, and has been in charge of Disney's family entertainment department over the years.

When he first joined Disney, Eisner and other management teams valued the overall valuation of Disney film library by only US$200 million. However, under the operation of Bill Michanik, the re-released Disney classic animated film video tapes sold continuously, including 6 million boxes of "Cinderella" video tapes, with revenues of US$180 million.

Disney's rapid recovery in the late 1980s made a huge amount of cash provided by videotape sales.

Therefore, Bill Michanik also has enough qualifications to take over as president of Carsonberg Studios.

Seeing the two subordinates appearing in front of him with a serious expression at this time, Michael Eisner wanted to pretend to be relaxed and let the two into the room, but before he could speak, Sandy Litwatt handed over a newspaper: "Michael, you may need to look at this."

Michael Eisner raised his hand to take the newspaper.

This is a copy of "Hollywood Reporter". As one of the most popular professional film newspapers in the industry, "Hollywood Reporter" is also available at New York's East Coast Film Center.

Without Litwatt's special guidance, Michael Eisner saw the blacklisted title of the front page headline of the newspaper at a glance: "Danerys Entertainment is about to launch the Universal Studios European Plan".

Just after reading the title, Michael Eisner felt his heart tightening slightly.

Disneyland Paris, which has not improved for more than two years since its opening, is Disney's biggest weakness at present.

Stimulated by Tokyo Disney's success, the initial $1 billion European Disneyland project expanded to $5 billion like a snowball. It also suffered a loss of Tokyo Disneyland's loss of only taking copyright fees and not participating in investment. Disney accounted for half of its equity share in the European Disneyland project, most of which came from borrowing.

Disney currently has a total of US$5.3 billion in debt, and US$2.5 billion is brought by Disneyland Paris.

If Disney maintains the growth momentum of the late 1980s, this part of the debt may not be anything. Now, Disney's film business is sluggish, and several major theme parks that lack fresh IP injections are also implicated. The interest generated by huge debts every year is already a huge burden for Disney.

Because of its many Disneyland shares, Disney's net assets have reached US$12.8 billion, but its current market value is only half of its net assets. To a large extent, it has been dragged down by Disneyland Paris, which is struggling in the quagmire.

The operating conditions of Disneyland Paris are not satisfactory. If there is another movie theme park from Hollywood in Europe, and the Daenerys Entertainment Group, which has rich IP resources in many classic blockbusters in recent years, will inevitably divert the customers of Disneyland Paris, making Disneyland Paris even worse.

I originally planned to let the two subordinates enter the room, but because of my inner concerns, Michael Eisner stood directly at the door and began to read the news from "The Hollywood Reporter".

A striking photo of Daenerys Theme Park President Bruce Peck led a team to visit near the Italian capital Colosseum.

The Westeros system has had many layouts in Italy in recent years, and all sectors of government and business are closely connected. Universal Studios in Europe first considers Italy, which is completely expected.

The news article begins with Bruce Peck and his party suddenly appeared in major European cities in recent days for field investigations for Universal Studios in Europe.

Not only that, after the reporter of "Hollywood Reporter" called Daenerys Entertainment's media public relations department, although the other party did not disclose too much, he gave a positive answer to the Universal Studios European project. Daenerys Entertainment did plan to build a movie theme park in Europe.

Subsequently, "The Hollywood Reporter" simply contacted several core senior executives of Daenerys Entertainment and obtained a brief telephone interview opportunity from Mark Belford, vice president of global operations at Daenerys Entertainment, and briefly talked about Universal Studios in Europe.

Mark Belford said that the overall size of the film market in Europe far exceeds that of Japan. For many considerations such as brand marketing, it is imperative for Daenerys Entertainment Group to build its own film theme park in Europe.

Of course, the reporter will not forget to talk about Disneyland Paris.

Mark Belford did not criticize and sarcastically at the extremely failed Disneyland Paris. Instead, he said that Disneyland Paris has exceeded 10 million tourists every year in the past two years, which is enough to prove that Europeans also like movie theme parks. The failure of Disney Paris is largely a failure of Disney in planning and management.

Mark Belford also said that Daenerys Entertainment's Universal Studios will try its best to avoid making the mistake of Disneyland Paris. For example, in terms of site selection, this time it will definitely choose the Mediterranean coast, which is like spring all year round, rather than Paris, which can only open for half a year due to climate.

Of course, it is an exaggeration to only open for half a year every year.

However, Paris, which has distinct four seasons, enters the off-season of the theme park in winter, and the sharp decrease in passenger flow is indeed a major mistake in the initial site selection process.

Disney actually considered this issue during the initial site selection stage.

However, Disney did not conduct more detailed research, but instead applied Tokyo Disney's successful experience to Disney Paris.

Tokyo is also distinct in four seasons, but the Japanese are willing to queue up in the cold wind to visit Disneyland.

So, Disney's planning team took it for granted that Europeans would also be willing to continue to visit Disneyland Paris in the cold winter.

In the two years since its opening, the fact that Disneyland Paris's winter passenger flow has dropped significantly proves that Disney's original idea was very wrong.

Due to France's strict labor and social security laws, tourists have dropped significantly in winter, but Disney Paris cannot lay off a large number of extra employees during the off-season, which has caused serious personnel redundancy, which is also an important reason for the continued losses of Disneyland Paris in the past two years.

Michael Eisner regrets more than once in the past two years why he did not identify the address of Disneyland in Europe along the Mediterranean coast.

The Mediterranean coast is the most authentic Mediterranean climate, and is very suitable for tourism consumption all year round.

Regret now is of course of no use.

In the headlines, although Daenerys Entertainment has not discussed the failure of Disneyland Paris too much, Michael Eisner can almost imagine that with the release of news that Daenerys Entertainment will establish a movie theme park in Europe, the most direct impact will definitely be Disneyland Paris.

There is no need to wait for other media to take the lead. After the headlines, the Hollywood Reporter article lists the various failures of Disneyland Paris.

Serious mistakes in the early planning, great joys and excitement led to the loss of control of the budget, the arrogance and tyranny of management caused many cultural incompatibility events, Disney's decline in recent years has caused the theme park to lack new projects to inject playability seriously, and so on.

Standing stiffly at the door of the hotel suite, after reading two articles in a row, a layer of sweat had already oozed out of Michael Eisner's forehead.

If it were other times, Daenerys Entertainment revealed that it would soon build a movie theme park in Europe, which would only impact Disney's stock price at most, and may lead the media to jump out and comment on Disneyland Paris.

However, at the time when Vivendi is preparing to acquire Disney, this kind of news suddenly comes out. It can be imagined that this incident will inevitably seriously affect the confidence of many shareholders in Disney.

Going further, Michael Eisner thought that once Disney is acquired, Vivendi Group will definitely not leave him the 'culprit' that put Disney in recession and turmoil as the media.

After 10 years in charge of Disney, Michael Eisner's foundation has been pressed on this film company. If he resigns at Disney's lowest point, unless he sets up his own business like Jeffrey Carsonberg, he will no longer have his place in Hollywood, which means that his career will be completely over.

Michael Eisner is only 47 years old this year, not Frank Wells, who is over 60 years old. He is in his prime and does not want to experience retirement now.

Thinking of the dim prospects he might face, Michael Eisner felt that the suffocation in his heart became stronger and stronger, the stinging pain in his chest, his vision began to blur, and the voices of the two subordinates in front of him also became vaguely in the sudden tinnitus sound.

Sandy Litwatt and Bill Michanik realized that something was wrong and rushed forward to support him. When they looked at him, the pale-faced Michael Eisner was already in a coma.

Simon immediately received news that Michael Eisner had a heart attack and was in a coma.

At that time, someone else was at the Woodside Mountain Villa in the Bay Area.

Robert Eiger called from New York. It was less than five o'clock in the morning on the West Coast, and the outdoors were just a little brighter.

Standing by the window of the master bedroom and making the phone call, Simon didn't know what to say for a moment.

Michael Eisner has a family hereditary heart disease, Simon has long known this. In my memory, it happened to be around 1994. Michael Eisner experienced a life-and-death heart surgery. Because the risk of the surgery is very high, Eisner even made a will in advance.

Unexpectedly.

Is this a repeat of history?

However, Carsonberg resigned and Wells was about to retire. Now Michael Eisner suddenly fell ill again. In addition, Daenerys Entertainment has just added another fire, Simon does not believe that many Disney shareholders are confident that they will continue to hold the company's shares.

If you don't sell it now, Disney may become less valuable in the future.

A petite figure came over silently like a cat, hugged him around his waist, rubbed his face over, and asked in a drowsy sleepy manner: "Simon, what's wrong?"

This is Little Jenny.

Having agreed to abstinence this week, Simon has no shortage of this insistence.

Last night, even the waist and leg genitals who were recently in San Francisco rushed to the guest room, but the little goblin said that he was still a child and knew nothing. He was just afraid of sleeping alone at night. Balabala, in short, successfully reached Simon's side.

Simon was not very persistent in this little fairy who could handle with just one finger.

Turning around, he carried the girl's light body back to the big bed, Simon said, "Let's sleep a little longer, it's still early."

The little goblin who was wearing a pink pajama like a doll saw Simon going to the bathroom to wash up first, and after coming out, he started to put on his clothes, got out of bed, and helped him diligently, hoping to say, "Simon, are we going out for a run together?"

Simon tapped her head lightly: "It's me, I'll be troublesome if I'm discovered with you."

The little fairy looked like a fake luoli and innocent little: "It's okay, I'm just a little girl."

Simon couldn't help pinching her face and smiled, "That would only be worse."

As she said that, wearing a sports vest and shorts, and enjoying the Japanese kneeling service deliberately made by the little fairy, she let her put on her sneakers. Simon left the villa and took two bodyguards to start a morning jog in the mountains.

For security reasons, Neil Bennett and Ken Dixon, who are in charge of the security affairs of the Westeros family, have not suggested that Simon perform similar morning jogs, but Simon did not agree. If there is not even such freedom, what is the meaning of life?

If you are worried about safety, then make the environment safer.

The Westeros family now has so many people, it is not just used to make this.

Therefore, in the Woodside Mountains, in addition to the two groups of eight-person bodyguards who were permanently resident in Simon's villa, there were five additional groups of people distributed in several other properties in the mountains. Three groups were in the bright and two groups were in the dark. Simon's morning run route was quietly installed by the Westeros family's security team to ensure that no one would rashly approach this area.

Simon didn't think there was any waste of this.

The Westeros family does raise many people now, both openly and secretly.

Simon sends a lot of work such as 24-hour monitoring of Gralf and his daughter, which seems to be meaningless. The main purpose is to avoid these people being slacky and slack. Simon firmly believes that only by maintaining smooth operation at all times can any team avoid losing vitality to the greatest extent.
Chapter completed!