As a capitalist country dominated by money, most of the policy directions of the United States are closely related to the economy. Even if a war is launched, it is ultimately for the sake of interests.

Similarly, whether business cases such as corporate mergers can pass the review of the US Department of Justice, policies and regulations are one aspect, and the most important point is the game between various stakeholders. Competitors in the same industry definitely do not want a strong competitor to appear, which creates a conflict of interest.

The rise of Daenerys Entertainment in Hollywood is a relatively slow process. The merger of Metropolitan ABC Group is a short-term expansion. Once successful, it will have considerable industry advantages in a new field and form a stronger synergy after the merger is completed.

The US market is so big, and Daenerys Entertainment's expansion will only invade the interests of other competitors.

Even if the federal government has lifted the media integration ban, if the entire industry except the company involved opposes the merger and acquisition, the Ministry of Justice will not be able to risk the world's ruthless approval, which means offending too many people.

These are the problems Simon needs to solve.

On June 19, after the news was made public, in addition to CBS Group, which was suddenly "abandoned", another veteran rival of ABC, General Electric, also responded quickly.

A Republican Congressman in Pennsylvania interviewed NBC's "Today Show" program the day after the merger and acquisition case was announced on June 20, saying that the huge scale of Daenerys Entertainment Group has seriously affected the industry balance. If it is allowed to continue to expand, it will further impact the living space of small and medium-sized media companies and even damage the federal press freedom.

The Westeros family's political consulting team immediately delivered the relevant members' information to Simon.

As expected, this congressman is one of the spokespersons of General Electric Group in Washington. General Electric's influence in the American political circle can definitely be described as deeply rooted. The famous Alstom incident in the original time and space was spared no effort, and the US government spared no effort to act as a thug, and eventually split the old French industrial giant into pieces. The behind the scenes was actually General Electric's work.

General Electric happens to be NBC's parent company.

The merger case between Daenerys and Metropolitan ABC was made public. Even General Electric Group, the only American veteran industrial giant, entered a 100 billion market value club, has not escaped this impact.

On Monday, General Electric's stock price also fell 2.6%, and its market value fell from US$123.9 billion to US$120.6 billion. With the size of General Electric, its market value evaporated by US$3.3 billion in one day, which is already a big drop that cannot be ignored. Although a spokesperson for General Electric Group issued a press release through the NBC official website at noon that day, it emphasized that the media business only accounts for 12% of General Electric's revenue, it was ultimately unable to escape this wave of decline.

A Citibank analyst commented on his Facebook that General Electric's biggest mistake was actually missing the opportunity to merge its media business with Daenerys and become an important shareholder of Daenerys Entertainment Group.

With the announcement of the merger and acquisition case, the industry is generally more optimistic about the stock price prospects of Daenerys Entertainment, and some more radical industry analysts even gave market value estimates of US$300 billion.

Considering that the bull market in the United States is still continuing, the market value of $300 billion is not impossible for Daenerys Entertainment.

In addition, NBC's two very important popular shows, the sitcom "Friends" and the reality show "Survivor", are both produced by Daenerys Entertainment. Once Daenerys merges with Metropolitan ABC, in order to suppress its competitors, NBC is likely to lose these two ratings aces.

What's more, NBC has also had many other cooperative film and television projects with Daenerys Entertainment in recent years.

When the interests of both parties conflict, the results can be imagined.

Daenerys Entertainment has already overwhelmed other peers in Hollywood. With the performance of this Hollywood giant in the TV industry in the past few years, after annexing Metropolitan ABC, the situation of three-legged rivalry is likely to become the dominant one like Hollywood, and several other public television networks may become completely vassals.

Citibank analysts also suggested in their own article that NBC Group sells its media assets as soon as possible to avoid long-term losses.

Simon deliberately handed over two popular programs last year's "Friends" and "The Story of the Emergency Room" to NBC and CBS respectively, instead of ABC that had been selected, in order to achieve penetration expansion similar to Hollywood, so that after taking ABC, he will continue to use NBC and CBS channels to make profits for Daenerys Entertainment. Therefore, as long as the other two companies are not doing too much, Simon is happy to continue to play a series of TV projects on each other's platform.

After the "Today Show" show on the morning of June 20, Simon quickly instructed Robert Iger to contact NBC. If NBC has related concerns, the two sides can completely re-develop a long-term agreement. Daenerys Entertainment's cooperation with other studios in Hollywood is enough to prove that Simon will not maliciously betray the contract and suppress its competitors.

Of course, Simon also needs to be wary of NBC and CBS deliberately suppressing these projects.

For example, deliberately reducing the publicity and exposure of related programs in the future and even adjusting the program to unpopular periods, which eventually leads to a continuous decline in popularity.

Whether it is "Friends" or "The Story of the Emergency Room", these phenomenal popular TV shows, the TV network broadcast revenue is second, and the profit is actually the syndicate income in the later stages. Just like "Friends", in the past, even after more than ten or twenty years, streaming giants like Netflix would have to spend $100 million a year to purchase playback rights. It depends on whether Time Warner, who owns the copyright, is willing.

While taking private measures to ease and appease these competitors, the Westeros system also actively released various news releases to guide public opinion.

General Electric's supporter of parliamentarians just made a statement on "Today's Show" that some politicians in Washington made a counterattack, and criticizing the other party's remarks is completely a prejudice of large companies. Under the background of the upcoming information age, the traditional media industry can survive better only by continuously integrating resources.

On the other hand, the Westeros family's political lobbying team has also begun to become active in Washington again, staring at the possible interference of the acquisition case at any time.

In short, in the next few months, there will be constant games.

Only by balancing all forces as much as possible and avoiding the overall rebound of the industry, this merger and acquisition can be successfully achieved.

In order to maximize the attention of the industry in this matter, Simon has to take the initiative to "proposal" for his competitors.

If only one merger or acquisition is too conspicuous, then if other companies also initiate similar mergers and acquisitions, the case between Daenerys Entertainment and Metropolitan ABC would not be too eye-catching.

Simply put, Simon intends to promote some other similar mergers and acquisitions.

Public opinion comes first.

On June 24, a news suddenly came from the Internet platform on June 24 that General Electric is in contact with Sony and plans to buy back Columbia Pictures to further improve its layout in the media field. Once the transaction is completed, General Electric can not only deepen its tentacles into Hollywood, which has recovered rapidly in recent years, but also make up for the shortcomings of the media business in content production.

This is actually fake news made by Simon.

However, just as Larry Tiss released the news that Daenerys Entertainment was about to acquire CBS Group some time ago, the industry soon spread the news.

And many people believe it.

Sony has been trying hard to maintain it in Hollywood in recent years, and there have been countless rumors that Sony intends to withdraw from Hollywood. General Electric wants to acquire a large Hollywood studio, and is inspired by the merger and acquisition of Daenerys and the Metropolitan ABC. This matter is completely natural.

By buying a large studio, NBC's strength in content production will increase significantly, so it is expected to reduce its dependence on content producers such as Daenerys Entertainment. This thing could not be done in the past, and it was mainly restricted by the media integration ban.

All in all, the two families hit it off.

Immediately afterwards, on June 26, some people posted so-called "insiders" news on online forums, saying that Westinghouse, which is also an American industrial giant, is in contact with CBS, trying to buy the old public television network and follow General Electric to carry out media business.

This rumor is true.

However, it is already outdated news.

In the past history, the merger between Disney and ABC was a huge and eye-catching person.

Because it is a cross-circle merger and CBS is relatively small, Westinghouse Electric bought this old TV network in the same year, which is not so noticeable, but something really happened.

Westinghouse Electric has actually also had contact with CBS this time.

Unfortunately, in recent months, affected by the news of Daenerys Entertainment's expansion into the TV industry, the stock prices of major TV networks have increased significantly. Just like CBS, before it was "abandoned" by Daenerys Entertainment, its market value had reached US$8.7 billion, while a few months ago, the total value of this company was less than US$5 billion.

Daenerys Entertainment is rich and powerful, and its overall strength is far from comparable to General Electric, Westinghouse Electric is unwilling to be this sucker. In addition, Larry Tisch is determined to sell CBS to Daenerys Entertainment, and the contact between the two parties has not come to any results.

Now that the news was suddenly revealed, Simon was just a matchmaker.

After the stock price plummeted on June 19, CBS Group's stock price continued to decline in the following trading days, and in five days it had fallen back to US$4.9 billion at the close of Friday, June 23, with its market value almost halved.

If such news is released, it will be better if the two companies can re-engage.

If not, Simon will lose no money.

Moreover, the main purpose of doing this is to re-hit the stock price of CBS. After all, even a multi-billion dollar acquisition case will take several months. Releasing news to market confidence, but the effect will be immediate.

The news was released in the morning. On June 26th, even though Westinghouse Electric immediately denied the news circulating on the Internet, CBS's stock price rose 8% that day.

This is what Simon hopes to see.

By pulling up CBS's stock price again, Larry Tisch will have less resentment towards Daenerys Entertainment, and she will have less stumbling in private.

The most important thing is that the continuous release of industry mergers and acquisitions rumors can also stimulate capital from all parties to develop a sense of urgency for mergers and acquisitions in the media industry. So many people are staring at it, if they take action too late, they will not even have to drink soup.

In fact, since the media industry integration ban has been lifted, many companies in the circle have been ready to move.

On the day when CBS's stock price was lifted again, Simon heard the news that Sam Redstone, the boss of Viacom Group, had quietly made a test to CBS.

Missed the previous Paramount, Viacom's development completely deviated from the trajectory of the past. Now, Hollywood has no suitable studio for Redstone's Viacom to acquire Viacom in the short term. The best choice for this media tycoon is to turn his target to the public television field.

ABC has been taken down by Daenerys. If it comes into contact with GE, it is not certain who will be annexed.

The only option is CBS.

This is not actually the situation Simon hopes to see.

Cable TV stations such as MTV, Showtime and Nickelodeon, which are under Viacom Group, are all high-quality assets that Simon is very jealous of. If possible, Simon hopes to wait for an opportunity to initiate an acquisition from Viacom after taking ABC. If Viacom merges with CBS, he wants to acquire it in the future, because Daenerys already owns ABC, and it is impossible to overcome this antitrust level.

Now, in order to win the Metropolitan ABC Group first, we can't take care of so much.

While the entire Daenerys Entertainment Group is trying its best to mediate to acquire Metropolitan ABC, the summer season in North America has also entered the hottest period.

The highly anticipated "Jurassic Park 2" was released in the third week from June 16 to June 22. Because the box office performance of the two new films "Brave Heart" and "Poems" were not very good, the decline in a single week narrowed a little compared to the next week, reaching 33%, and continued to earn US$55.36 million.

After three weeks of release, the cumulative box office of "Jurassic Park 2" reached US$267.12 million.

This makes the film's local box office more likely to exceed the 400 million threshold.

Disney's 2D animated film "Poems in the Wind" ranked second.

Although Vivendi Group, which has just taken over Disney, spared no effort to support it, because it focuses on "Jurassic Park 2", and the audience has been gained by Daenerys Entertainment's 3D animated movies in recent years, the film story is not too likable. "Legend of the Wind" has been painted on the screen for 2,569 yuan, and the box office in the first week was only 27.95 million US dollars, just breaking the threshold of hot selling of 10,000 yuan.

Although ranked second in the weekly box office list, this is mainly the result of Disney's efforts to promote and publish in the early stage. The film has only a mediocre reputation of 5.5 points, and it is hard to expect the potential. Whether it can exceed 100 million depends entirely on luck.

Another new film of the same period, "Brave Heart", after its release, reached a classic level of 9.0 points. The epic directed and directed by Mel Gibson was also identified as a popular Oscar next year by many critics.

However, because the production budget has reached $72 million, although Paramount has made the best schedule for the movie and has had a conflict with DreamWorks for this, he is unwilling to spend too much money on marketing. The budget for the promotion and distribution of the film is only $28 million, which just locks the entire project cost to $100 million.

The promotion and promotion were weak, and the scale of opening paintings was only 2,035 yuan, which was not as good as "The Legend of the Wind". Therefore, the reputation was well received. The box office of "Brave Heart" was only 17.14 million US dollars in the first seven days of the first week, and even the hot-selling level of exceeding 10,000 yuan in the museum did not meet the standard, and the box office lost its standard.

As the trend of "Jurassic Park 2" begins to slow down, the subsequent performance of "Brave Heart" will not be greatly affected.

However, because the start is not high, the total box office of the film in North America is expected to be about $70 million, which is comparable to "Die Hard 3" and "The Elf" that started during the summer season.
Chapter completed!