I’m in Hollywood Chapter 659: Postpone expansion

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The news that Disney Animation Department successfully auctioned at the high price of 2.5 billion USD once again caused a lot of media reports.

After the two parties successfully signed the contract, Summer · Redstone announced the establishment of the Paramount animation while hot, and appointed The Lion King's Director Roger · Allers as the CEO of Paramount Animation Department. At the same time, Viacom also announced that it will rely on the huge channels of Blockbuster chain stores and Paramount animation, Paramount movies, MTV TV and other content departments to jointly enter the lucrative film and television peripheral industry.

Roger · Allers held a press conference again the day after receiving the Paramount animation CEO contract, announcing that the three 2D Animation projects of "The Lion King" sequel, "Sound of the Desert" and "Mulan" brought from Disney were launched simultaneously , Quite meaningful for the old club Disney's.

The continuous good news stimulus in a short period of time directly boosted the share price of Viacom by 7.6%. The high share price has changed the concept of Viacom shareholders who had been very cryptic about the aggressive expansion strategy of Redstone. They all praised the Redstone ’s Wise and decisive.

Someone will inevitably be frustrated, and the most unlucky one is undoubtedly losing to Redstone ’s Time WarnerCEOTerry · Semel during the bidding for Disney Animation Department.

Although Seagram, 20th Century Fox and other companies that have failed in the competition have been more or less discussed by the media, the tone of the media ’s comments on Time Warner ’s defeat in this competition is almost ridiculous. After all, The overall strength of Time Warner Group is more than twice that of Viacom, and Time Warner ’s previous sluggish performance in Film Industry business has given it every reason to grab Disney Animation Department. Therefore, the impact of this failure on Time Warner is even greater than the simple failure itself, and many media even doubt whether Time Warner has a financial crisis.

Firefly suddenly announced the means of extending the payment period on the day of the auction, which disrupted all the bidding strategies within Time Warner after repeated considerations. Although Terry · Semel is the leader of Time Warner, the authority of Time Warner Group is much lower The previous generation of leaders Steve · Ross also made it impossible for him to flexibly change his strategy because of the sudden attack of Firefly, which ultimately caused the failure of Time Warner in this auction.

Although the ultimate cause of this failure is still the constraints of Time Warner shareholders and Board of Directors on Terry · Semel. But it is clear that the shareholders and directors of Time Warner certainly will not take the initiative to bear the responsibility, this black pot is finally detained on the head of Terry · Semel.

The share price of Time Warner has been declining for several months because of the bleak summer season. Box Office has failed with this auction. Time Warner's hope to enter the field of animated movies is shattered, and the negative impact of this incident has caused the stock price of Time Warner, which had originally stopped falling because of the summer file, to start to fall again.

In the face of increasing pressure and after busy work, Terry · Semel even had some resignation thoughts. Of course, this kind of thinking is just a flash. Not to mention the generous salary brought by the position of Time WarnerCEO, who has tasted the power and taste brought by the position of a large media group at the helm, no one will voluntarily give up. Therefore, Terry · Semel can only hurt and addicted to find a solution to the current dilemma.

Of course, as a seller, although Firefly Group has harvested huge amounts of cash for 2.5 billion USD because of this business, there is not much congratulation in the media ’s attitude towards Firefly.

Most media generally believe that the auction price of Disney Animation Department 2.5 billion USD is still far lower than its actual value. There is no need to pay attention to the future. The "The Lion King" still released will prove this. "The Lion King" expects 1billion USD within three years. Net profit. This means that on average, net income of more than 300 million USD will be brought to Firefly every year. According to the general law that the company's market value is usually more than 10 times its annual profit, the media believes that the actual value of Disney Animation Department should definitely exceed 3billion USD.

Compared with the overwhelming need to personally go to the major media interviews to reverse the recent decline of Time Warner Terry · Semel, Firefly only held a regular press conference when signing the contract with Paramount, and then did not do any more media comments Any response. This also reflects the benefits of non-listed companies, without having to withstand the pressure from the media and capital because of factors such as stock prices and financial reports.

Moreover, despite the abandonment of Disney Animation Department in the media because of Firefly Group, there have been disappointing voices in businesses such as Disneyland and Disney stores. But in fact, the development rhythm within Firefly Group is very clear.

After stripping Hand-Drawn Animation Department. Katzenberg immediately started the reconstruction of Disney Animation Department.

Although most of the best digital animators are concentrated in Pixar, in recent years, advertising design companies and special effects studios that use computer graphics technology are so numerous that they have tapped a group of computers and art from these companies. The excellent professional technical personnel with basic skills are trained, and restarting the Disney Animation Department in a short time can be said to be a breeze. Firefly software company and Pixar studio can also provide a full set of mature animation technology and some management talents for the new Disney Animation Department.

Under Katzenberg, the helm who once led the revival of Disney Animation Department, under the personal control, if all goes well, the new Disney Animation Department will be able to launch first part works within three years, so the rhythm of Disney ’s animation release will only appear for a short time in 1996. After the file is broken, the best production status of Pixar and Disney can be restored alternately.

The continuous divestiture of the sale of paper media assets and Hand-Drawn Animation Department has caused Firefly Group ’s cash reserves to skyrocket again. However, Eric did not rush to expand again.

Although the process of merging ABC was very smooth, there was no violent shock. But at this time, Firefly Group is like a huge media machine that has just been combined. This media machine has just realized the most basic operation, and there is still a long distance to reach the highest operating efficiency. Among them, there are many more. The problem needs to be solved. If you ignore these completely and can't wait for the next expansion, there will be only two final results. One is that the group expands too quickly and becomes more and more bloated, and the internal problems accumulate, resulting in the collapse of the entire business. Falling into operation and financial crisis, the other is Time Warner, which is powerful on the surface but has many internal contradictions. In the end, it is still difficult to avoid a decline.

Eric hopes that the major departments of Firefly Group will be reorganized and coordinated to achieve a perfect state that they can still run smoothly even if they encounter high-level iterations like Time Warner.

Therefore, while rebuilding Disney Animation Department. In order to realize the further connection between the two major business sectors of film and television, Firefly Group is also constantly adjusting the business of ABCTV Network, Disney Channel, ESPN, Marvel Entertainment and other departments.

Internal business adjustments often do not need to consume too much money, Firefly Group's internal operating cash flow is completely sufficient to deal with these adjustments.

Under the circumstances that Firefly's various businesses still maintain strong profitability and have just brought huge capital through the divestiture of two parts of assets, a huge cash surplus has emerged within the group. Firefly temporarily chose to extend the payment period when auctioning the Disney department, which also has considerations for this reason. Because there are too many accounts in a short time, if you can't put it into operation, you have to pay taxes!

If this is the case before, Eric ’s first reaction is often to choose to pay off Firefly ’s debt.

However, after several years of experience, Eric's originally conservative business philosophy began to gradually change, and he gradually accepted the state of corporate debt management. Although the current Firefly debt reached 10billion USD, the debt ratio was only about 30%. For some group companies, this debt ratio is very healthy. It also helps to use debt interest for tax avoidance.

In addition, although paying off debts in advance can save a part of interest expenses for Firefly, even if all 10billion USD debts are repaid in a short period of time, the debt interest that Firefly can save is only about 5billion USD, but if you use this 10billion USD to invest, the long-term debt of ten years Within the time limit, with the advantage of Eric's rebirth, there is absolutely no problem in doubling this 10billion USD several times, therefore. How to choose before paying off debts and investing is almost completely unnecessary.

With abundant cash support, although the internal expansion of Firefly has temporarily stopped, Eric has accelerated the pace of investment in the high-tech fields that are familiar to them. It is about to enter the second half of the 1990s when the high-tech industry rises. This is also the best opportunity to enter the game.

In order to support the technology research and development of Yahoo Advertisement Alliance and Yahoo Technology Alliance, Eric once again injected 200 million USD development funds into Yahoo.

The 200 million USD debt financing promised to AOL also hit the other party ’s account at one time.

At the same time, in accordance with the angel fund plan that was originally planned for the rapid promotion of Yahoo Advertisement Alliance, Eric began to accelerate the injection of funds for websites with good development potential.

However, these investments still only occupy a small part of Firefly Group's capital reserves. Of course, Eric will not blindly increase investment to make a big deal, therefore. Almost 1billion USD of cash after leaving dividends from other shareholders has also become a more distressing thing for Eric.

"It's really a distress for happiness," said Disney Animation Department more than a week after the auction, Eric sat in the office of Firefly Studios and looked at the recent group financial statements.

The Kelly, who just opened the office door and walked in, glared at Eric, came across Eric, handed a schedule to Eric, and quickly said: "A Gulfstream business airliner has been contacted, Victoria’s Secret team I will be able to fly to New York tomorrow morning. Miss Brighton has arranged a press conference there. In addition, the setting of the Manhattan Lexington Avenue arsenal has been arranged according to the drawings you gave, but the camera remote control slide you said is still being customized. It may take another week. There is also a headset recorder ... "At this point, Kelly paused and said:" I really don't know that you have so many strange ideas, but Motorola said that they are willing to customize for free, but they The eye-catching Motorola trademark needs to be printed on the device. "

Eric nodded: "This is no problem, but they also have to hand over the device within a week."

"Of course, I have told them," Kelly nodded and said: "This is Victoria’s Secret. In addition, Mr. Katzenberg's assistant just called and he will go to New York tomorrow."

Eric, who is looking at a document, looks up: "What is he going to do?"

Kelly did not tease Eric this time, explaining: "Tomorrow is 19th, Monday," Survivor "premieres on Tuesday. Mr. Katzenberg should hope to see the ratings news of" Survivor "as soon as possible, if ... If something happens, it will be convenient to adjust as soon as possible. "

Eric nodded suddenly, he just remembered that the broadcast time of "ER" and 《Friends》 was September 28 and September 29, but he ignored the first broadcast date of "Survivor" one week earlier.

After the trial broadcast, ABC has not had much worry about the ratings of "ER" and 《Friends》, but it is very novel Reality Show for the program of "Survivor". Although this program was selected by Eric himself, but Many people still have doubts. Moreover, because of the special program format, "Survivor" could not arrange a trial broadcast, Katzenberg wanted to personally sit in New YorkABCHeadquarters, and it was no surprise to make immediate adjustments to the possible consequences of this program.

Eric is not too worried about the "Survivor" program. After all, the previous life program has proved its popularity. Even after the program was launched more than ten years ago, various types of similar Follow the trend Reality Show. However, Eric did not intend to interfere with the Katzenberg decision.

Kelly said nothing about Eric, and handed over a thick document: "This is the information you asked me to collect. The product developed by this Radio Communications Technology company completely deviates from the mainstream GSM format. I did not see it. What is necessary for investment, unless you are confident that their communication system can completely replace GSM, but I think this situation is unlikely. The first generation of analog signal transmission method was used by more than 20 years before it was eliminated by GSM, Even though this new communication format has more advantages than GSM, I do n’t think he can replace GSM in a short time. After all, all the mainstream communication technology companies and mobile device manufacturers in the world use GSM. Standards, and invest a lot of research and development funds, these world-class electronic giants are unlikely to allow the technological results just obtained to be replaced by other technologies. "(To be continued.)