Hollywood Domination Chapter 264: Just take it when you see it

"Let me introduce, Isaac—of course, Jennifer doesn't need to introduce herself anymore, she is her own business card." In the single-family mansion in the Upper East Side of New York, Kevin Feige Contrary to the usual slightly ecstatic style of conversation, he introduced Marvel President Isaac Bolmart to Jenny's team with a smile on his face, "This is her partner, Cesare Vigeri, senior partner of caa , I have mentioned his name to you many times, I think you should have left an impression on him."

Cesare is in charge of the most tedious and complicated part of the bargaining between Marvel and Dameng. If Kevin often mentions him to Isaac, it is obvious that he does not have a good thing to say. However, Isaac does not seem to be He didn't take Kevin's teasing hints to heart, but smiled heartily, and shook hands with Cesare, "Yes, of course I remember you, Mr. Vijari, I'm very glad to meet you, for someone like you I have always admired young talents."

"You are so humble, Mr. Bolmart," Cesare also put on a polite and lovable smile on his face, and he said humorously, "I heard you If you don’t know the tone, people who don’t know will mistakenly think that you are already old.”

For the 66-year-old Isaac, this kind of compliment is exactly what he wants-in the United States, there is no mandatory retirement system, and it is common for CEOs to work until they are 70 years old. The saying is not cold, but trying to cover up the old, to prove that he is still very young: old means unresponsive, means being robbed of work, so you will see 90-year-old business tycoons are still getting married and divorced, The 70-year-old man still retains his hobbies of mountaineering and horseback riding. Isaac has maintained a good figure and his hair has been dyed black. For Jenny and Cesare, it only takes one glance to tell What kind of compliment can bring you closer.

Sure enough, a relieved smile suddenly appeared on Isaac's face, and his tone became more affectionate. He took over the right to receive Jenny and Cesare from Kevin, "I have to let you meet Bill, he But your fans, as well as Mr. Perelman and Mr. Icahn, they all said to come, Jennifer, you are really powerful..."

Although she had already heard the news from Kevin before, when it was really confirmed that the two Wall Street tycoons would show up, Jenny couldn't help being slightly shocked by her own influence—she wasn't narcissistic, It’s true that Ron Perelman and Carl Icahn’s fame and energy are too great. Don’t look at her in Hollywood, but when it comes to economic strength, in front of these two tycoons, it is completely Not enough to watch.

The annual output value of the Hollywood film industry is about 30 billion yuan, which is of course a very large number. The net worth is also in the tens of billions - the combined net worth of the two of them is equivalent to about two-thirds of Hollywood, and this is just their personal wealth, not to mention the wealth they have gathered through funds up. These two Wall Street wolves, who are famous for issuing junk bonds, can even make big companies like Apple and Microsoft tremble. They have hostilely acquired the stocks of large companies countless times, and led the vulture army behind them to raid the shareholders of listed companies. Using various methods to force listed companies to give back profits to shareholders as dividends, issue junk bonds to collect cash, and divest assets to share profits with shareholders... If a listed company wants to avoid such a bad luck, the only way is to spend money to redeem itself. It can be said that these two financial tycoons fully embody the spirit of Wall Street: greedy, ruthless, shameless, and vicious. It is through this spirit that Wall Street squeezes wealth all over the world, and Ron and Carl are also doing it in this way. Under the guidance of the spirit, he has accumulated a shockingly huge wealth—although Marvel is one of the leaders in the comics industry, it is just a rather inconspicuous little **** in their industrial empire.

In 1989, Ron Perelman won the dominance of Marvel with more than 80 million US dollars. After that, he and Karl have been competing with each other for the position of the largest shareholder. The see-saw war suffered heavy losses, and Perelman forced Marvel to issue a large amount of junk bonds. In 1996, Marvel, whose market share once reached 80%, entered bankruptcy protection and was completely disabled. However, after that, Perelman did not give up on Marvel, and Karl stopped causing troubles. Instead, he stayed in the position of the second major shareholder, allowing Perelman to treat Marvel according to his own will. Transformation and adjustment of the strategy. ——After selling a batch of first-line heroes, Marvel gradually recovered and began to try to enter the film industry, and all this was not to make itself bigger, but to sell itself at a good price so that Pei Maximizing Lehman and Icahn’s investment returns: Or Ron once had the idea of ​​making Marvel the next Disney, but after several years of trying, he still gave up the idea and planned to invest his energy elsewhere went.

Since she intends to act as a business lobbyist, she must collect information. After carefully understanding this previous love story, Jenny also understands why Marvel's management is so willing to sell herself to Paramount—— For Kevin and Isaac, they are both engaged in business, and they must have certain feelings for Marvel itself. If the company stays in the hands of a boss like Ron, it may be forced to split up and sell it anytime and anywhere In the end, there was only an empty shell left, which was sadly acquired and sold to Paramount. Not to mention that it can maintain a certain degree of independence. At least Paramount is also engaged in movies, rather than thinking about how to make more money through financial means. money. That being the case, of course, before Ron changed his mind, it would be best to settle this matter quickly. If Ron changed his mind because of the rising stock price of Marvel, then Marvel would still be It is precarious, and there is a risk of being disassembled and sold.

At this time, she also understood why Robert had been so disapproving of her suggestion, even after the success of "Iron Man". At the conference, if Disney wants to buy Marvel, it can only be based on cash, but after the acquisition of Pixar, Disney may not have the money on hand.

But now, things are a little different. First of all, "Iron Man" has shown Marvel's IP library a high potential, and the benefits in this area can outweigh the risk of letting Ron enter the shareholder group. Third, Disney now has cash in hand, and the share compensation can be reduced accordingly, so the share Ron gets is definitely not enough to make him a threatening shareholder. Moreover, after Marvel uses the treasury shares this time, Jenny, an ally, will also Occupying a certain share of equity, various factors have reduced the risk again, and the balance of choice has also tilted. After all, if Ron wants to attack Disney, he can also collect Disney shares directly from the secondary market. There is no need to reject a great acquisition that can make Disney even more powerful just because of guarding against this illusory risk.

This is why it is said that knowing the future does not mean being able to make profits in major events... Jenny also feels that she has learned a lot: this is the same as she knew that Lehman Brothers would collapse, but without thoroughly studying the financial market, she became Before financial masters, it was absolutely impossible to obtain huge benefits beyond personal ability from this matter. Her previous suggestion that Robert buy Marvel was too rash. No wonder the other party didn't take it seriously. Even if it was this time, if there were no successive big hits and intuition at the bottom, it is very likely that Robert would directly Treat her suggestion as 'big star childish nonsense'.

Actually, to solve this problem, the best way is to lay a solid foundation. After all, intuitionism can only treat the symptoms but not the root cause. , Jenny and Dameng are weird people and weird companies talking about each other. But this problem is currently unsolvable, because her main job is still an actor after all, and even if she is willing to spend a lot of time learning this knowledge instead of filming, by the time she becomes a teacher, 2014 must have passed , When the golden finger fails, how can we use the advantage of the prophet to make a profit? And doing so is actually the most stupid way to commit suicide, because Dameng's current advantage is not her excellent business knowledge, but her acting skills and personal influence-so this is back to the vicious circle, in order to maintain this influence, She spends a lot of time on her job, which prevents her from being a good business person.

As for Cesare, from Jenny's point of view, he is a very good agent and producer, and he is also competent enough for the CEO of a private company, but these three things basically occupy all of his Time, asking him to take on any other duties is directly killing his health, so the help he can provide is also very limited.

This is also why most of the companies founded by celebrities are not big. Jenny feels that according to her and Cesare's current capabilities, it should not be a problem to make big dreams come true, but if they want to get involved in billions of dollars Level commercial acquisitions, which involve all aspects and are almost exclusive to the consortium, their abilities are very limited, and if they want to develop their company into a new consortium, they may not be able to do it The six major Hollywood companies were all established when the film industry was just taking shape. It took decades of development to achieve this step. Relying on the copyright she won and the ability to gradually develop, even if the prophetic advantage fails in the future, she and It should not be a problem for Cesare to maintain a medium-sized film company, but it is almost impossible to grow to the point where it can compete with the Big Six. ——Of course she knew that it was difficult in the past, but that was a broad perception. Now that she has learned more about the film industry, she has become more and more aware of how difficult it is. I'm afraid it's impossible to operate for one year, let alone achieve this in just six or seven years. It's even impossible to achieve such a big dream.

So, if controlling Hollywood includes the point of 'Comprehensively Suppressing the Big Six', then Jenny feels that she can give up this goal directly, but this does not prevent her from trying her best to advance in this Vanity Fair Climbing, just like now, she has learned the inside story, and is determined to seek more benefits in this bureau——As a contribution to the suggestion, Robert allows her and Cesare to buy the big one at a price below the market price. The shares in Marvel that Meng got are already paid for: Once the merger is successful, whether it is bought by Paramount or Disney, Marvel’s stock price will definitely soar, and Jenny and Cesare can easily make a lot of money Money, doubling, or even quadrupling is not surprising. It can be said that they have already made a profit by leaving the market now, and their favor with Robert is basically even. Robert asked her to undertake the work of lobbying shareholders. According to Jenny's guess, most of them are to take care of her emotions. Although he Maybe she doesn't think she can achieve anything, but it doesn't hurt to let her try. Anyway, it will take a while to form a consensus within the company, find a lobbying company, and secretly send out lobbyists. This period of time is just right for Jenny to take the lead. Even if she behaves inappropriately, it doesn't hurt. After all, she is a young actress. Big stars usually enjoy certain immunity privileges, as long as they don't make any threats to the media. There is no damage that Disney can't afford.

Of course, this is also a manifestation of her rising status in Robert's heart. Otherwise, Jenny suspects that Robert will allow her to come to New York to "crank up nonsense". Common sense can't get involved at all, and Disney doesn't need to take more risks.

However, although she was determined to make some achievements, neither she nor Cesare expected the opportunity to come so soon—unaware that they had another mission, Marvel was particularly enthusiastic about Jenny , This is mainly because I want to win her back to Marvel. This is also because Marvel's movie cake has just been made, and the management has just tasted the sweetness. Shareholders, therefore, it is understandable for the management to hold a welcome party and play the emotional card. She and Cesare promised to come together, but they just wanted to get acquainted, establish relationships, and exchange some phone calls, so that in the next few months, they will slowly establish a relationship, understand the mentality of the shareholders, and then Look for opportunities to lobby and contact, instead of acting rashly based on the mentality of grabbing credit, so as not to increase obstacles to the acquisition-they never expected that Ron and Carl would be so generous and even attend this party in person.

You know, the current stock price of Marvel is around 25 US dollars, and the market value is about 2 billion. Ron holds about 30% of the shares, and Carl holds about 20% of the shares. In their tens of billions of industrial territory, Marvel is only about 400-600 million. Considering their busyness, they may not attend the annual general meeting of shareholders and the board of directors, and may only appoint agents to participate, let alone this. It's a little welcome party. That's why, although Jenny was constantly told by the executives that the two tycoons would appear with an expression of "proudness", she was still skeptical, thinking that most of them were just rumors.

"Jennifer, nice to meet you, our family is your fan."

"Can I take a photo with you, Jennifer, it would be even better if I could ask you to sign my autograph, my daughter will be very happy to see it."

"I didn't expect to appear at a party with you, I think I have the capital to brag to my friends..."

Although many of the executives and representatives of minority shareholders who were present were also asking for group photos, their attitudes were of course much more relaxed and affectionate than ordinary fans. Guests, in the eyes of the world, are already considered successful, and even some minority shareholders may not be inferior to Jenny. If Jenny is not present today, but a b-list or c-list actor is replaced, then the status comparison will even be different. The reverse happened. For these actors, not to mention the two major shareholders, several small shareholders are ideal marriage partners-of course, if it is those newcomers in the film industry or supermodels in the modeling industry, this party The place is full of wealthy sons-in-law, as long as you can climb up to one, you will be guaranteed for the rest of your life.

"Group photo? Of course it's no problem, ah - Iron Man mask, it seems that you are a fan."

"To Jennifer? Oh, so cute, she has the same name as me!"

On such an occasion, Jenny is destined to attract the attention of all. No matter how handsome Cesare looks, he can't attract everyone's attention. Except for a few people who know how powerful he is, everyone Most people regard him as Jenny's follower, and he himself is very content with such a role, always following Jenny, echoing everyone's conversations with a smile, and cooperating with Jenny to be familiar with the preferences and personalities of the executives And context: Sometimes, a direct meeting can build understanding more than a detective agency can gather information. Like the young shareholder just now, when he took the photo, he took out an Iron Man mask in an instant. He is obviously an otaku fan who likes Marvel. Paramount and Disney are at loggerheads, and he may become a breakthrough in Disney's lobbying.

"Yeah, I haven't been to New York in ages—ah, really? Did you see me in Chicago?"

When Jenny was talking happily with a middle-aged woman, Cesare suddenly touched Jenny and said in a low voice, "Ron is here."

Jenny stuttered when she spoke, and she couldn't help but look at the door curiously—because she doesn't often attend occasions that have intersections with Wall Street, Ron may really be the first hundred she saw. The billionaire—and the shareholder representative named Melanie didn't care about her faux pas. She also put on a warm expression, stretched her neck as far as the etiquette allowed, and looked at the movement at the door.

It seems that although Ron is notorious, he naturally has a high prestige among the shareholders... Of course, this is also a common phenomenon on Wall Street. The stock price of the company they are eyeing will always soar. After all, when Ron puts money into his own pocket, it will also benefit all shareholders. Therefore, how much the management and major shareholders of listed companies hate him is purely for investment profits. And how much the small shareholders who step into the stock like them. In Marvel, of course, is no exception.

Jenny also noticed Melanie's expression, and nodded secretly: As expected, it seems that the key person in this acquisition case should be Ron. As long as he can be dealt with, coupled with the small shareholders who follow suit, even if Karl has a different opinion, nothing will change the sky.

"Mr. Perlman—ah, Mr. Icahn!"

"Ron, Carl, long time no see."

Although this was Jenny's party, Ron's appearance still attracted the crowd to move in his direction, and unexpectedly, when Jenny was about to walk over to say hello, she heard two names: It seems that Ron Perlman and Carl Icahn actually attended together. Obviously, if the two of them attended this small party is a once-in-a-century event, then it is a once-in-a-millennium event for the two of them to come together event.

With surprise, apprehension, slight excitement and curiosity, Jenny and Cesare exchanged glances and walked towards the door together. Make the best first impression with a tycoon—

"Jennifer!" Before reaching the hall, a somewhat familiar voice interrupted Jenny's rhythm. shot. ——This handsome young man from the Middle East had a friendly smile on his face, "We haven't seen each other for a long time, at least two months!"

Jenny stretched out her hand suspiciously, and shook hands with him lightly. Said glanced at Cesare, and smiled more enthusiastically. He naturally put his hand around Jenny's shoulders, and brought her affectionately towards him. The two old men in the middle of the crowd said, "Come on, let me introduce you, although I think you should have known each other for a long time, Jennifer, this is my good friend, and of course our family friend Ron. Perlman, this one is the famous Wolf of Wall Street Carl Icahn—"

Judging from his intimate posture with Ron, and Carl's reserved yet kind and friendly attitude towards him, Said should come to the party with Ron, and Carl and him may be halfway However, these two tycoons must be very familiar with him and take him seriously.

He came from the royal family of Abu Dhabi, which Jenny had known for a long time—compared with the royal family of Abu Dhabi, Ron and Karl were not enough. After all, the Abu Dhabi consortium dominated by the royal family had almost With trillions of funds, it is the second largest consortium in the world—however, due to the large population, the power and importance of the prince and the prince are far apart, and the whole family acts in a low-key manner, and outsiders have no way of knowing the inside story, so she has never She thought deeply about Syed's identity, and only now, seeing Ron and Carl's affectionate expressions towards him, did she realize that Syed's identity might really be so noble.

While greeting Ron and Carl, Jenny lowered her eyes and glanced at the ground without a trace——when she saw that Ron and Carl's toes were pointing in the direction of Said, Jenny He also affirmed his conjecture: the reason these two big shots came to this small party probably had nothing to do with her, most of them came to win over Said.

Could this **** be the chief's nephew, or simply a direct descendant? Jenny couldn't help but look at Said again, trying to find some clues from his smile: they didn't seem to have talked about his family before, maybe she was really slow, in fact, Ron and Carl didn't know each other. It's not the first two tens of billionaires she's seen. It's not necessarily true that this title belongs to Said...

Almost instinctively, she immediately dispelled some small thoughts since she knew that Ron and Carl would come to the party, and replaced the enthusiasm in her smile with reserve. Jenny stretched out her hand and said gracefully, "It's a pleasure to meet you You, Mr. Perlman, and it is an honor to meet you, Mr. Icahn..."

She no longer wants to take this opportunity to have a relationship with the two, and she is even considering whether to withdraw from the lobbying for the acquisition. She and Cesare have already gained enough benefits in this matter, so maybe stop here and focus more on it. It wouldn't be bad to turn a lot to her next film, either.

"Miss Jefferson, I have heard of you for a long time."

"I have always been a fan of your movie, dear Miss Jefferson."

I don’t know if it’s because of Saeed’s face, the two tycoons treated her very respectfully and politely, and Saeed took no time to explain why he appeared here, “When I last week When I came to New York and had a meeting with Ron, I happened to hear about this party, so I wanted to give you a surprise."

He blinked at Jenny and smiled innocently, "Did I surprise you, Jennifer?"

"You really surprised me." Jenny admitted with a smile, she took a step back indistinctly, and led the topic to Isaac who had already come to the side, "Isaac, maybe you still You don’t know Syed…”

The appearance of Ron and Carl is like two black holes overlapping each other, and the double attraction forms the event horizon. No matter how bright the star Jenny is, it is destined to be completely covered up. Whether it is a management like Isaac or a small shareholder like Melanie, they are all attracted to them for various reasons. On the contrary, Jenny found a gap and politely and firmly slid through the crowd. It came out: I have participated in many banquets, and I can still hone my skills in this area. On the contrary, Said, whose high-profile appearance has also made him the focus of the crowd, is still in the mud. He can't get out of Ron's side .

"Water?" Cesare walked up to her and handed her a long glass.

Jenny took it and took a sip gratefully, "Why can you find me wherever I go-you and Melanie finished chatting?"

"Yes," said Cesare. He put his hands in his trousers pockets, raised his glass and took a sip, and stared at the beautiful view of the garden outside the window with Jenny, "but nothing. Melanie belongs to Ron. Loyal fans, they believe that Ron and Carl will not let shareholders suffer."

Unexpectedly, Jenny nodded. She turned sideways, looked at the figures swaying in the other room, and suddenly asked curiously, "Will you regret entering the brokerage business, Chesa?"

Cesare raised his eyebrows at her and followed Jenny's eyes. He seemed to understand what Jenny meant: with his talent and connections, if he entered Wall Street, he might already be Goldman Sachs, Morgan Chase's partner is now, and even more legendary, it is not impossible to hold tens of billions of funds. Not to mention the speed of net worth growth, even on such an occasion, he would not be treated as Jenny's follower, but would become the center of the crowd.

"No," he shook his head, the social smile on his face had faded away, returning to the usual blank, Cesare said, "I never thought about choosing the financial industry."

"Why?" Jenny asked.

Cesare shrugged.

"How much money do you have now?" he said, "100 million, 200 million? Your worth is only one percent, one thousandth of theirs, but when a hundred years from now, guess what people will be talking about Who? Is it you or Ron Perelman?"

"It's more likely that neither of them talks about it," Jenny said, but then admitted, "Yes, but if they do, it's more likely that they talk about me."

"And I want to create something that will be talked about a hundred years later," Cesare said, "Works that can leave traces in history, when I was in CAA and Dameng , I participated in those works that can leave a name in history, and people will still talk about its name, its genre, of course, this is not just a movie, we are talking about an industry-later generations will talk about it How windows changed the world, talking about nuclear fission and HIV, talking about AIDS and cocktail therapy, but when they talk about the financial industry, all they can think of is crisis.”

His lips curved into a sarcasm, "Financial crisis after crisis, this is all that the financial industry has left us except money-and this is why I don't choose Wall Street."

Jenny nodded.

"Yeah, that's true," she said, "that's a strong reason."

Cesare was silent for a moment, and then said in a clear but affirmative tone, "So, you gave up Said."

Judging from Syed's performance, he is already fascinated by Jenny, not to mention being a matchmaker, even if he buys Marvel out of his own pocket and sells it to Disney, he may be willing to do it. This is not the first time that the Arabian prince bought a team and a racecourse with a large sum of money, just because he likes it. Besides, this is not a business that does not make money—anyway, as long as Jenny asks, she will definitely become Ron. Perlman's guest, and with the purchase price being similar, maybe Ron would be happy to sell Saeed's face——

Countless conversations seemed to be skipped in Cesare's silence, and he even seemed to have an insight into the motive of Jeanne's question. Jenny smiled, and did not deny his guess, but asked instead, "Will you blame me?"

Cesare shook his head.

"No," he spit out a word briefly, "this is a plan led by you."

"Then we'll stop here," Jenny exhaled, "we know enough, the shareholders are almost all on Ron's side, Carl is alone, Ron is the keyman... I think these The news has satisfied Bob."

Of course, it's not that she can't get more. With Said's power, she can easily do more, and Robert will reward her more. ——However, this favor must be repaid after all. Even now, even if she doesn't want to use Said's power, as long as she shows an inclination to make friends with Ron, Ron will not hesitate to use her advance as a tool to make Said, and go through it , a guest role as a high-level pimp... Jenny believes that she doesn't need to explain this to Cesare, and Cesare doesn't need her explanation and analysis to understand this, he is by her side all the time, she can understand He knows everything, even what she didn't see, maybe he has already seen through.

"Then we'll stop here." Sure enough, Cesare expressed his position without any hesitation.

Without waiting for Jenny to answer, he lowered his head and looked at his watch, and continued, "If you leave now, you can sleep on the flight - we will arrive in Los Angeles tomorrow morning."

"Forget it, let's stay overnight in New York as originally planned." Jenny smiled and shook her head, "Let's wait until it's over—this is my party after all."

Although she said so, neither she nor Cesare had the intention of returning to the main hall: since they have decided to quit with satisfaction and no longer contact Ron, then Disney's acquisition of Marvel basically has nothing to do with them. It is no longer necessary to continue to have a relationship with Marvel, and they don't need to come and go with a group of strangers with smiling faces, and continue to stay, just to satisfy basic business etiquette.

They were silent for a while, and Jenny was idly speculating how Disney finally moved Ron—it was most likely a bid. Disney simply and rudely forced Paramount back with a high price, and the management also took a fancy to it. Without Disney's complete industrial chain, perhaps there is no room for lobbyists in the whole matter.

"You know what?" Cesare finally broke the silence.

"Know what?" Jenny asked, she turned her head curiously and looked at Cesare.

Under the illumination of the landscape lights, Cesare's expression seemed to be changing with the flow of lights, but his tone was still calm and indifferent as always.

"Benjamin Mogil is dead."

It took Jenny a few seconds to remember who he was—she even cut a black card of this man.

"Dead," she said, blinking, "has anything to do with what happened on Wall Street this year?"

"What happened at the end of last year," Cesare said, "before the crisis broke out. I heard that he embezzled special funds and caused Goldman Sachs to lose 400 million. Some people said that he was just suffering from depression. In short, he recovered from his apartment. Goldman Sachs took every penny he had, and his relatives — parents, fiancée and newborn daughter — got nothing.”

Jenny let out a long breath.

"OK," she said, "typical Wall Street elite, isn't it?"

"Pretty typical," echoed Cesare.

"Maybe staying away from Wall Street isn't such a bad idea," Jenny said.

"Maybe." Cesare was like a parrot tonight.

Jenny couldn't help giggling, she glanced at Cesare with a smile on her face, and it was no surprise that she also found a faint smile in his eyes.

"Okay," she said, "now that New York is over, let's talk about the next big thing."

Cesare raised his eyebrows wordlessly, waiting for her next words.

To be honest, she was still a little hesitant. Jenny was considering her words, thinking about how to speak, when she suddenly noticed that Said had appeared at the door of the side hall, she sighed silently, but instead So with a heartbeat, she seized the time and said to Cesare, "I want you to come with me for the trip to Beijing in August this year..."