Exploiting Hollywood 1980.

Chapter 1595: Cannot Exceed % of My
Ovitz and Joe Ross soon met at a hotel in Aspen. Joe Ross was a client of Ovitz before, and he was very familiar with Ovitz's dominance at CAA.

So, as soon as they met, Joe Ross told Ovitz straight to the point: "I am very worried that after you come to Disney, will you use your relationship with CAA to bypass me to develop film projects and undermine my work at Disney?"

"Why do you think so?" Ovitz pretended to be very surprised, but in his heart he was thinking something else: Of course I would do this. When I get established in Disney, how could I be limited to ABC?
Although large companies are different from small companies and it is impossible for you to directly reach the grassroots level from the front line, but isn't it a very basic operation to arrange some of your own people to gradually occupy key positions and thus sideline you executives?

"Would you do this, Michael? I know you. When you were at CAA, you would never allow any dissenting voices to appear in the company. I don't want this to affect our friendship, so Michael, can you tell me the truth now?"

Joe Ross looked at Ovitz, furious. He had a good chance of succeeding Katzenberg as Disney's COO after he left. Eisner had also hinted to him privately many times that he, Joe Ross, was the best candidate to succeed Frank Wells, who died in a helicopter crash.

Why did Ovitz suddenly come? Why did you come to a big kingdom like Disney to compete with me instead of being a king in your small kingdom of CAA? It's really confusing.

"You can trust me as always, Joe. I won't take your job." Ovitz put on the fake smile he had developed when he was a broker and reassured Joe Ross again and again.

In the end, Joe Ross said that he believed in Ovitz's promise and said that he would work closely with Ovitz in the future to make Disney's live-action film business prosper.

After talking with Joe Ross, Ovitz went back to discuss the issue of salary with Eisner. He still had a professionally trained and very confident smile on his face, but his heart was full of doubts.

This was definitely not a good sign. Ovitz felt that Eisner was not as he had imagined, that he would gradually withdraw from front-line management after the heart surgery. He was still testing himself.

Today's meeting with Joe Ross is a way of testing his leadership. Joe Ross is someone he used to know at CAA. He is a typical subordinate. He has such thoughts and concerns and can communicate with him directly. Eisner must want to see how he communicates with such a subordinate.

Outside Eisner's room, Ovitz waited for a while before the door opened. Eisner smiled and apologized repeatedly, saying that he had to answer a call from his wife Jane.

Ovitz suspected that this might be a call from Joe Ross, who had just met with him, but he remained calm. After the two sat down, he raised the issue of salary to Eisner.

"As for the annual salary, I think it can be set at one million US dollars..."

Eisner looked at Ovitz and felt relieved. He had just been talking to Joe Ross about his opinion of Ovitz.

Eisner was testing Ovitz. What he feared most was an Ovitz who was as tough within Disney as he was within CAA.

Disney is an ownerless public company with no shareholder in a controlling position. Even the Buss family, which holds the largest stake, is not able to dominate the strategy, not to mention that the Buss family is relatively obedient to him.

In such a company, no one can gain absolute say from equity, and the say of senior executives needs to be acquired through their own attitudes. What worries people most about Ovitz is his attitude of having his own way when he was at CAA.

This kind of attitude, combined with a few brilliant business moves, can easily establish authority in a place like Disney where there are many factions. Especially since he had just had a heart surgery, he said that he was fine, but his energy was indeed much worse than before.

If Ovitz keeps stirring up trouble and then takes advantage of the fact that I don't have the energy to take care of too many details to gain authority over my subordinates by abusing his power, then I will be in trouble.

The ideal situation would be for Ovitz to change his one-man show at CAA and adopt an attitude of good communication. Then he would not be a threat in an arena like Disney.

For this purpose, he specially set a trap for him and let him first meet these subordinates who were dissatisfied with him. As long as he did not intimidate them with a strong first-hand impression at the beginning, these naughty boys would not be afraid of Ovitz.

The feedback from Joe Ross was very good. It seemed that after being backstabbed by Bronfman Jr. and Ron Meyer, Ovitz had lost the strong self-confidence he had developed. Now he was "friendly" when dealing with small characters like Joe Ross, so he didn't have to worry about not being able to control him in the future.

"One million dollars?" Ovitz didn't respond immediately to this ridiculously low number. After all, this wasn't a small company like CAA with hundreds of employees, and Eisner wasn't a fool, so he might as well listen to what else he had to say.

"Then your bonus will be determined based on the performance of the Disney Group..." Eisner expressed his considerations.

Low annual salary can be easily approved by shareholders, while high performance bonuses are not likely to become a news point in the eyes of those media that don't care much about Disney and only care about news. Except for professional financial media such as the Wall Street Journal, it is estimated that no one will report it.

When Eisner first came to Disney, he used this trick to gain the approval of the board of directors. In the following years, he made a lot of money but did not attract any special attention.

"OK, this is a good idea..." Ovitz smiled, as if to say "everyone understands". "Then how do I determine my stock options? Are they also linked to performance?"

The key is not the performance-linked bonus of up to 20 or 30 million per year, but the options. The reason why Eisner was able to get a billion-dollar fortune was not because of these tens of millions of bonuses, but because of the options.

Using the stock price when entering the company as an option, and then cashing it out after a few years, the speed of wealth accumulation will increase by orders of magnitude.

"That's no problem, hehehe..."

Eisner smiled happily. At this point, the two of them became comrades in the same trench. They were both trying to fleece Disney shareholders, so they decided to do it together.

"However, I want to add an additional clause to the option..." Eisner suddenly stopped smiling and stared at Ovitz...

Ovitz was very familiar with this look. When he was at CAA, he used this aggressive look to deal with unfaithful agents in a good atmosphere during a meeting, making the other party nervous.

However, it would be useless for Eisner to use it on himself, because a lion will not be afraid of the threat of another lion.

"Your income from options and bonuses cannot exceed 60% of my total income..." Eisner felt a little contemptuous of Ovitz in his heart. A lion will always fight back immediately when faced with provocation.

After being messed with by a young man like Bronfman Jr., Ovitz lost his fighting spirit. He is no longer a lion like Mufasa, the Lion King, nor a lion like Scar who dares to attack the throne. At most, he is a hyena like Benjamin.

"Can I ask why?" Ovitz felt that he should find out the reason.

"Because I am the chairman, and you, my friend, will only be the CEO in the future after you win the trust of shareholders," Eisner declared proudly.

"No, how can I be a CEO and gain the trust of future shareholders?" Ovitz was happy that he got 60% of Eisner's salary. This was not a small amount of money. Before agreeing to join Disney, he did research and found that Eisner's annual income was over 100 million.

On the other hand, he was angry again. Eisner was just as he had guessed. His words were not accurate. He had promised to take over the CEO position, but after he agreed, he became the co-CEO and shared the position with him. Today, he changed again and was demoted to the position that he could only become the CEO after gaining the trust of shareholders in the future...

"But, Michael, you told me that we would serve as co-CEOs, but in terms of division of responsibilities, I would be more responsible for the ABC business?"

"Hehe..." Eisner sneered in his heart. It seems that I was right. Ovitz is just an obedient little hyena. If I demote him like this, anyone with self-respect would have already proposed to quit Disney.

But Ovitz still liked the salary I promised him, 60% of his own, which was also the second highest salary in Disney. In addition, he was tempted by the prospect of becoming CEO after being recognized by shareholders. Did he think he could slowly replace Eisner and become his successor?

"Michael, this is the first lesson you have to learn at Disney. Disney is a company where every board meeting is always a scene. You know, Frank Wells, may he rest in peace, was only the president of the company when he was here.

I have 100% confidence in your ability, but those annoying directors, who know nothing, can only say that Frank worked hard and made great contributions, but he only had the title of president, and you are new to Disney and have not made any contribution, but you want to get a position that exceeds Frank...

Others said that it would have been better to have promoted Katzenberg, which pissed me off."

"So what do you say?" Ovitz decided to hold back and not get angry. After all, he had a falling out with Bronfman Jr. in person because they couldn't agree on the terms, and the young man actually deleted him from the candidate list.

These large listed companies handle personnel matters completely differently from small companies like CAA. At CAA, as long as you show that you are going all in, those people will obey you obediently. Few people are willing to break away from the actors they represent. This is a valuable lesson I have learned. It is better to take it easy in a large company. If I had taken it easy at that time, maybe there would have been a turnaround with Bronfman Jr.

"These people don't really understand Hollywood. They don't know how hard it is for you, as the CEO of CAA, to achieve your current position in Hollywood, and how hard it was for me to bring you to Disney..."

Eisner changed the subject and put himself on Ovitz's side.

“I will not treat you unfairly. Although you don’t have the position of CEO, I suggest that they give you the titles of COO (Chief Operating Officer) and President. These two positions were originally held by Frank Wells and Katzenberg. In this way, you will still be the second-ranked executive in Disney, just below me.

After a period of time, when the directors understand the value you bring to Disney, I will propose that you be the CEO. Then I can retire smoothly."

"If I am the COO and president, who do I report to?" Ovitz asked. This reporting line is more important than the position.

Originally, according to Eisner, if he served as CEO or co-CEO, it would mean that he would report directly to the board of directors, so Eisner would not be able to control himself without any problems on such matters.

"Of course I report directly to the board of directors, Michael. This was the structure I used to work with Frank Wells. We worked very happily together. I hope I can work with you as happily as you do. This is why I invited you to Disney. I like working with friends..."

"Of course, I understand, I understand..." Ovitz felt relieved when he heard it.

"Haha, let's pop some champagne so we can have the lawyers draft your employment documents. Great, cheers to our friendship..."

……

“I heard that Disney’s legal and public relations departments have already started preparing a press release announcing Ovitz’s official joining.”

Richard stood in front of Ronald, trying not to laugh. Ronald was lying on the sofa, playing a face game with his daughter Linda, making her laugh. This guy was really different from most Hollywood stars, retaining many middle-class values.

However, compared to stars, directors can have more contact with society and are not under pressure from fans and paparazzi. In addition, Ronald's wealth level is similar to that of Spielberg and Lucas. These people can all enjoy the isolation from paparazzi of the super-rich and live a normal life happily.

"Very good. How are you doing in managing CAA?" Ronald handed his daughter to Helen, then turned around and asked Richard.

"We just need to wait for Disney to announce it, and then I can vote on the partners... Rick Nicita has also returned from Prague, Czech Republic, and he is waiting for this big event..."

"Very good, you and Kevin Hooven, take my plane back..." Ronald put away his thoughts. The English Patient was also going smoothly. He got a buyout offer, and Saul Zaentz agreed immediately, eager to get rid of the burden. Meanwhile, his partner was also going to take over CAA...

I wish you all the best in the Year of the Snake and a happy family. Today, the Spring Festival box office broke the record. I wonder which movie you have watched or are planning to watch?