I’m in Hollywood Chapter 1148: Broken tail survival
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The TV is on and the Viacom Group ’s sudden press conference in New York Headquarters has ended.
Elizabeth exchanged several channels in a row, only to find the picture of Viacom and Chairman Tom · Freston squeezing frantically questioned reporters from CNN on CNN.
Nevertheless, through the subsequent introduction of the CNN anchor, Eric quickly figured out the ins and outs of the matter
Just now, Tom · Freston announced that in order to further optimize the company ’s asset structure and avoid operating risks, Viacom plans to divest the Blockbuster chain store that cannot keep up with the company ’s overall development pace from the group ’s business and establish a separate Operating holding company. After the split, the shares of the Blockbuster chain store will be listed and traded separately, and will no longer intersect with the Viacom group.
Elizabeth sat on the side of the bed, listening to the two CNN anchors on this topic with great interest for a while, and then said to Eric beside him: "What do you do next?"
In theory, Viacom stripped Blockbuster out, and the Firefly system ’s ban on Blockbuster does not seem to affect the entire Viacom group anymore.
But in reality, this is obviously only wishful thinking for some people.
Eric grabbed the waist of Elizabeth and said, "It's a clever decision to survive with a broken tail. It's just that Viacom seems to have made a mistake. They aren't prey lizards. Firefly is not the snake behind it. . Therefore, this matter has nothing to do with the survival of nature Basic Instinct. "
Elizabeth leaned on him with the power of Eric and fiddled with the remote control in his hand, saying: "But this works, Viacom Group is a publicly held company, except for the Redstone family, there is basically no other holding Large shareholders with a share ratio of more than 5%, most of them will only make their own judgments based on open market news, and perhaps the share price of Viacom will rebound next week. "
"Not so simple," Eric said: "Although Blockbuster is not well-managed, as a large retail chain, its biggest advantage is that it can provide a large amount of cash flow for the parent company Viacom Group, which was also the most acquired by Redstone to acquire Blockbuster. The main purpose. But it also means that to complete the split successfully, Viacom must first sort out the complex financial relationship between the Blockbuster chain and other businesses, but this is enough for Viacom to be busy for a month or two. "
When Redstone initiated the acquisition of Paramount, due to lack of sufficient funds, it adopted a roundabout tactic, first annexed the Blockbuster chain, and then raised a large amount of funds through the cash flow support and asset mortgage of the Blockbuster chain, and finally Completed the acquisition of Paramount.
Now, if you want to split Blockbuster, Viacom must return the cash drawn from Blockbuster uninterruptedly over the years to sort out the accounts, which is relatively easy to deal with. After all, even after the split, whether it is Viacom or Blockbuster, the shareholders are basically the same, not to mention the control of Viacom has always been in the hands of Redstone.
However, once the split is completed, Viacom will definitely not be able to enjoy the convenience of Blockbuster chain cash flow in the future.
But another problem is more difficult.
That is the debt problem of the Blockbuster chain.
In order to acquire Paramount, Redstone initially mortgaged the Blockbuster chain store. Viacom has been expanding rapidly over the years, and there is simply not enough funds to pay off the debts left over.
According to the financial data of Viacom group that Eric has seen some time ago, the debt scale currently undertaken by Blockbuster chain still reaches 2.6 billion USD. Compared with the market value of Blockbuster chain more than 8billion USD a few years ago, this money is certainly not an exaggeration. Even now, if it is diluted across the entire Viacom group, the debt of 2.6 billion USD is still not worth mentioning.
But if you want to split, the valuation of Blockbuster has now fallen to less than 3billion USD, and the debt of 2.6 billion USD has almost brought the company ’s debt ratio to 100%.
Then a problem appeared.
How to solve the debt of 2.6 billion USD?
All left to Blockbuster, Viacom Group will definitely agree in every way, but the debtor will definitely blow up. With the current operating status of Blockbuster, who knows this chain store still has the ability to repay the loan, in case of further mismanagement and bankruptcy Now, who should pay the money?
But if it is all undertaken by the Viacom Group, neither Redstone nor other shareholders will be happy.
The final result can only be apportioned, but how to apportion is destined to cause a stalemate.
Eric and Elizabeth are discussing this matter, and the mobile phone placed on the bedside table rang.
Seeing that it was Katzenberg, Eric answered.
After a brief conversation, Eric hung up.
Putting on the chest of Eric to eavesdrop, Elizabeth waited for him to hang up the phone, and immediately said: "Carr Icahn?"
Eric nodded and said: "The other party wants to invite me to dinner at noon, go together?"
Elizabeth nodded and said again: "He wants to do something with Viacom?"
"Obvious."
The famous corporate sniper of Wall Street, Carr · Icahn is undoubtedly much more famous than Ron · Perelman.
Ron · Perelman's malicious acquisition targets are often only companies with a market value of less than 1billion USD such as Revlon and Marvel, but the hunting targets of Carr · Icahn are often world-class corporate giants such as Universal aviation and Motorola. .
After the new century, the trend of corporate mergers is gradually cooling, and a group of famous Wall Street snipers are gradually quiet, including Ron · Perelman. But Carr Icahn has been very active, Eric vaguely remembered that later Carr Icahn also launched the acquisition of Lion Gate Film Industry.
......
Soon after Viacom released the news of splitting Blockbuster, the Yahoo portal did not need the Yahoo portal to quickly publish the headline article, analyze the Viacom split Blockbuster faced a series of difficult problems, pointedly pointed out that Viacom did so just to transfer investment People's attention, the split plan cannot be implemented in the short term.
Looking at the lively and unaffected media also followed up, joined the heated discussion, and generally took a downturn attitude toward the Viacom split.
People who are familiar with the situation are even more aware that the goal of the Firefly system is the entire Viacom group, and it is impossible to give up because of Redstone's tail-cutting action.
Furthermore, creditors of the Blockbuster chain also issued a statement soon, saying that they will pay close attention to the Viacom Group's split plan. Some vigilant creditors even issued outspoken warnings, asking the Viacom Group to fully consider the interests of creditors and not make unwise decisions.
New York.
Viacom Group Headquarters at the center of Manhattan Rockefeller.
It is already afternoon on the east coast.
Although today is Saturday, Viacom Headquarters still has a large number of employees busy.
Since last Monday, in the face of the sudden attack launched by the Firefly system, the entire Viacom group is in a restless atmosphere.
Although it is impossible to get a glimpse of the ins and outs of the whole incident, in the media industry, most employees can guess why Viacom will face the dilemma of this time.
Think about the tough attitude of Eric Williams that left no room in the last online gossip incident, and then the whole Internet media circle was silent, the 'Hollywood gossip' website was shut down completely, and Sequoia Capital ’s important partners were forced to leave. Most Viacom employees expressed concern about the company's prospects.
Although I know that the Viacom Group will never collapse like the Hollywood gossip website, looking at the current chaos within the Group, some people are even thinking about job-hopping. After all, if Eric Williams is not willing to give up, even if Viacom group cannot be completely destroyed, this company will definitely hurt.
Actually, the Blockbuster chain is now broken.
As the summer DVD holiday season of videotape is approaching, this industry-leading home entertainment video chain suddenly loses more than half of Hollywood's large Film Studio content support. Last year's series of popular videos that should have been released in recent days. For example, "The Day After Tomorrow", "Charlie's Angels3", "Ring", "Mission: Impossible3", 《Ted》, etc., will not appear on the shelves of Blockbuster chain stores.
It is conceivable that Blockbuster's business situation in the coming months will definitely be very bleak.
Moreover, despite the abandonment of Blockbuster chain store as the largest retail chain channel, the Firefly system will not actually lose much.
After all, no matter whether it is a movie DVD retail company of the same type such as movie galleries, Hollywood video, or a large supermarket chain like Walmart, it can provide sufficient terminal sales channels for Firefly system movies, and fans will basically not be Blockbuster is out of stock.
Even customers who are accustomed to renting and selling video tape DVDs at Blockbuster, just need to transfer to other stores to easily buy the desired videos. On the contrary, the loss of this loyal customer will be a disaster for Blockbuster.
Inside Viacom, after the public appearance on Monday, the hard-lined Redstone strictly forbids any senior management of the company to contact the Firefly system in a trial and fight against the end.
However, looking at the declining stock prices for a week in a row, as well as the continued declining feedback from various media after the morning press conference, the mood of Viacom executives has gradually become more depressed. Then, when I heard the news that Eric Williams met with Wall Street corporate sniper Carr · Icahn from Los Angeles, several core senior executives of Viacom could no longer sit still.
After some discussion, the Viacom Group and Chairman Tom Freston, who personally chaired the press conference this morning, knocked on the door of the Redstone office.
Although it is a weekend, Redstone also has no rest.
After getting permission, Tom Freston pushed in the door and saw that Redstone was talking to the group ’s legal adviser, so he stood next to him and waited patiently for a while. After the legal adviser left, he walked over.
"Tom, sit down," Redstone pointed to the sofa opposite the desk and said, "I have heard the news."
Tom · Freston did not know whether Redstone was talking about the meeting between Eric Williams and Carr · Icahn. He sat down on the sofa and said, "Summer, Williams and Carr · Icahn are likely to have a relationship with Viacom. Initiate a malicious acquisition. "
"I just discussed with Fisher," Redstone said with a heavy expression: "If Williams and Carr · Icahn really unite to do so, we can just file a complaint with the SEC to investigate the malicious manipulation of Viacom by Firefly Group. Stock price violations. "
"Williams won't let us get the evidence, and he and Carr · Icahn have nothing to do with the meal," Tom · Freston shook his head, hesitantly, still said: "Summer, we Can't go on like this, the company should settle with Williams as soon as possible. "
Redstone immediately dropped his face: "You mean, let me old man apologize to that little guy?"
"You are completely unaware of the last incident, Summer," Tom Freston said: "As long as you agree, we can handle this matter."
“I ’m not going to use the clumsy excuse of‘ uninformed ’to pretend to be someone else, it will make me look like a hypocritical politician.”
"I understand, but we still have to face the current situation," Tom Freston said: "Since Carr Icahn is in contact with Williams, he must have entered the game now, as long as Carr Icahn get Viacom more than 5 % Of the stock, he can initiate an extraordinary general meeting. Summer, you have to understand that this is likely to change the company ’s shareholding structure, but we do not have any strong resistance measures now. Even if the SEC launches investigations on Carr · Icahn and Williams All of this may have nothing to do with us. According to Carr Icahn's character, he will get Viacom and will definitely take away all your hard work in your life. "
Redstone finally fell silent.
After a while, he said again: "Do you think that little guy would be willing to reconcile with us? Look at his means to the 'Hollywood gossip' website, all the employees of that company were ordered by him Blocking order, this is absolutely no room. "
Tom Freston clearly has this concern, but he said quickly: "But if we do nothing, the situation will only continue to deteriorate."
Redstone fell into silence again, and he was aggressive and aggressive. He did n’t mind the confrontation with the Firefly system, even if he lost both sides.
But the contact between Eric and Carr · Icahn really caused Redstone to worry.
Redstone has always been very afraid of losing control of the Viacom group. Therefore, although it is already 76 years old this year, as long as someone intends to separate his power, even his children, Redstone will not hesitate to take it. Kick away.
Because of this, in recent years, Redstone has been very nervous with almost all of its children.
After hesitating for a long time, Redstone said: "So, you call Los Angeles and let Sherry get in touch there."
Tom Freston said: "I think it would be more sincere to fly over by myself."
Redstone frowned, and finally nodded in agreement.
......
A restaurant in Venice Beach, just sent away Carr Icahn, and got on the car with Eric, Elizabeth ca n’t wait to say: "MTV and ShowtimeTV Station, Carr Icahn is really generous, and completely caught you Thoughts. "
In the process of just having lunch, Carr · Icahn proposed that as long as Eric can continue to exert pressure on Viacom to crack down on the company ’s stock price and get control of Viacom, he can connect the two major cable companies of Viacom TV Station split and sold to Firefly system.
Obviously, the other party is very keen to see that Eric has been focusing on expanding the cable TV business of the entire Firefly system in recent years. Moreover, the development momentum of the entire cable TV industry is also very rapid, so this tempting condition is proposed. .
The four major Film Studios already owned by the Firefly system last year accounted for more than 70% of the Box Office share in Hollywood, and the profit scale was unmatched by the other three major Film Studios. Therefore, Eric ’s continued engulfment of Paramount is not intense. As long as the four Film Studios in your hand are well managed, seize more Box Office and profits, and continue to squeeze the survival space of other Film Studios, the Firefly system is destined to be the overlord of Hollywood, which is better than swallowing the entire Hollywood regardless of the good and bad. Much more.
Therefore, for Viacom Group, the most exciting thing for Eric is the wired TV Station assets such as MTV and Showtime.
Thinking this way, Eric has a smile on his face, saying: "If he doesn't hand over what I want most, how could the entire Firefly system help him gain momentum, Wall Street doesn't have a few dumbass, let alone Carr Icahn. "
Elizabeth leaned over and embraced Eric ’s arm intimately, saying, “So, what are you going to do? You know, if we really cooperate with Carr · Icahn to sniper Viacom, we will definitely have a lawsuit in the future?”