hunt hollywood

Having made an appointment to have breakfast together today, Michael Eisner took care of himself after getting up, and was about to leave the hotel suite when the doorbell rang suddenly.

The slightly hurried doorbell made Michael Eisner inexplicably have a bad premonition.

When the door was opened, there were two middle-aged men standing outside the suite. They were Sandy Litwater, Disney's vice president and head of the legal department, and Bill Michanik, president of the home entertainment department.

This comes after Jeffrey Katzenberg's sudden departure and Michael Ovitz's wait-and-see attitude, as Michael Eisner hastily singled out the two executives to take over as Disney's next president and studio president.

Michael Eisner knew very well that in order to persuade the Bass family to reject Vivendi's acquisition, Disney must stabilize internally as soon as possible.

Although Ovitz was not invited to join, the two candidates in front of him were not randomly selected by Michael Eisner to make up the number.

The legal department has always been one of the core departments of the Disney company that focuses on copyright operations. Disney's "copyright maniac" and "California Pizza Hut" are ridiculed, and the drawing of a Mickey Mouse after living on a deserted island can attract a Disney plane to save lives. The joke was made by Disney's legal department one after another.

Sandy Litwater, as the head of the legal department with the title of Disney vice president, has always reported directly to Eisner himself.

Not only that, but the current president, Frank Wells, also happens to be a lawyer. Over the years, he has cooperated with Eisner tacitly. Now that Sandy Litwater takes over the position of Frank Wells, he is very popular with Disney's board of directors and major shareholders. Easy to get recognized.

Another Bill Michanik can be called Michael Eisner's "direct descendant". At the beginning, Bill Michanik followed Eisner from Paramount to Disney, and has been in charge of Disney's home entertainment department for these years.

When he first joined Disney, Eisner and other management's overall valuation of Disney's film library was only US$2 million.However, under the management of Bill Michanik, the re-released Disney classic animated film videos have continued to sell well. Among them, only the "Cinderella" video has sold 600 million boxes, with a revenue of up to 1.8 million US dollars.

Disney's rapid recovery in the late 80s was largely due to the large sums of cash provided by video tape sales.

Therefore, Bill Michanik also has enough qualifications to take over the position of president of Katzenberg Studios.

Seeing the two subordinates appearing in front of him with dignified expressions at this time, Michael Eisner wanted to let the two of them into the room pretending to be relaxed, but before he could speak, Sandy Litwater had already put a A newspaper was handed over: "Michael, you might need to read this."

Michael Eisner held up the newspaper.

This is a copy of "The Hollywood Reporter". As one of the most popular professional film newspapers in the industry, the "Hollywood Reporter" is also sold in New York, the East Coast film center.

Without Litwat's special guidance, Michael Eisner saw the blackened headline on the front page of the newspaper at a glance: "Daenerys Entertainment is about to start the Universal Studios Europe project".

Just after reading the title, Michael Eisner felt a slight tightening in his heart.

Disneyland Paris, which has been in business for more than two years and has not improved, is Disney's biggest weakness at present.

Stimulated by the success of Tokyo Disneyland, the initial US$10 billion Euro Disneyland project snowballed to US$50 billion. It also suffered from the loss that Tokyo Disneyland only paid copyright fees and did not participate in the investment. Disney accounted for the majority of Euro Disneyland projects. Half of the equity share, most of which comes from borrowing.

Disney currently has a total debt amount of US$53 billion, of which US$25 billion is brought by Disneyland Paris.

If Disney maintains the same growth momentum as in the late 80s, this part of the debt may not be a big deal.Now, Disney's film business is sluggish, and several major theme parks that lack fresh IP injection are also implicated. Now, the interest generated by the huge debt every year is already a big burden for Disney.

Because it owns shares in multiple Disney parks, Disney’s net assets reached 128 billion US dollars, but its current market value is only half of its net assets, which is largely dragged down by Paris Disneyland, which is struggling in the quagmire.

The operating conditions of Disneyland Paris are not satisfactory. If there is another movie theme park from Hollywood in Europe, and it is Daenerys Entertainment Group, which has produced many classic blockbusters with rich IP resources in recent years, the result will inevitably divert Paris Disneyland. The source of tourists made Disneyland Paris even worse.

Originally planning to let the two subordinates enter the room, because of inner worries, Michael Eisner stood directly at the door and began to read the news on the "Hollywood Reporter".

The press release featured striking pictures of Daenerys Theme Park president Bruce Peck leading a team around the Colosseum in the Italian capital.

The Westeros system has many layouts in Italy over the years, and the political and business circles are closely related. It is completely expected that Italy is the first consideration for the location of Universal Studios Europe.

The beginning of the news article introduced the fact that Bruce Peck and his party suddenly appeared in major European cities in recent days to conduct field inspections for the site selection of Universal Studios Europe.

Not only that, after the reporter of "Hollywood Reporter" called Daenerys Entertainment's media public relations department, although the other party didn't reveal much, they gave a positive answer on the Universal Studios Europe project. Daenerys Entertainment did plan to Build a movie theme park in Europe.

Later, the "Hollywood Reporter" simply contacted several core executives of Daenerys Entertainment, and obtained a short telephone interview with Mark Belford, the vice president of global operations of Daenerys Entertainment, and briefly chatted about some The Universal Studios thing.

Mark Belford said that the overall film market in Europe far exceeds that of Japan. Due to brand marketing and other considerations, it is imperative for Daenerys Entertainment Group to build its own movie theme park in Europe.

Of course, the reporter will not forget to talk about Disneyland Paris.

Mark Belford did not criticize and ridicule the failed Paris Disneyland, but said that the number of tourists in Paris Disneyland has exceeded [-] million every year in the past two years, which is enough to prove that Europeans also like movie theme parks.The failure of Disneyland Paris is largely due to Disney's failure in planning and management.

Mark Belford also said that Universal Studios Europe of Daenerys Entertainment will try to avoid making the mistakes of Disneyland Paris. It is not Paris, which can only open for half a year every year because of the climate.

It is of course an exaggeration to only open for half a year every year.

However, Paris, which has four distinct seasons, enters the off-season of the theme park as soon as winter arrives, and the passenger flow decreases significantly. This is indeed a big mistake in the initial site selection process.

In the initial stage of site selection, Disney actually considered this issue.

It's just that Disney did not conduct more detailed research, but rigidly applied Tokyo Disney's successful experience to Paris Disney.

Tokyo also has four distinct seasons, however, the Japanese are willing to wait in line in the cold wind to visit Disneyland.

Therefore, Disney's planning team took it for granted that Europeans would also be willing to continue to visit Disneyland Paris in the cold winter.

In the two years since its opening, the fact that the winter passenger flow of Disneyland Paris has dropped significantly has proved that Disney's original idea was completely wrong.

Because of France's strict labor protection laws, the number of tourists in winter has dropped significantly, but it is impossible for Paris Disney to lay off a large number of redundant employees in the off-season, resulting in serious staff redundancy. This is also an important reason for Paris Disneyland's continuous losses in the past two years.

Michael Eisner has regretted more than once in the past two years why he did not determine the address of Euro Disneyland on the Mediterranean coast.

The Mediterranean coast is the birthplace of the most authentic Mediterranean climate, and it is very suitable for tourism and consumption all year round.

Regret now is of course useless.

In front of the headlines, although Daenerys Entertainment did not talk too much about the failure of Disneyland Paris, Michael Eisner can almost imagine that with the news that Daenerys Entertainment is about to build a movie theme park in Europe , the most direct impact must be Disneyland Paris.

There was no need to wait for other media to hit the nail on the head. The headlines were followed by an article in The Hollywood Reporter listing the failures of Disneyland Paris.

Serious errors in early planning, big successes led to out-of-control budgets, arrogance and arrogance of the management caused many cultural incompatibility incidents, Disney's downhill road in recent years has caused the lack of new project injections in theme parks to seriously reduce playability, and so on.

Standing stiffly at the door of the hotel suite after reading two articles in a row, Michael Eisner's forehead was covered with a thin layer of sweat.

If it was any other time, Daenerys Entertainment's news that it will build a movie theme park in Europe would at most only impact Disney's stock price, and perhaps cause the media to jump out and comment on Disneyland Paris.

However, at the moment when Vivendi is preparing to acquire Disney, such news suddenly spread. It is conceivable that this incident will seriously affect the already low confidence of many shareholders in Disney.

Going a step further, Michael Eisner thought that once Disney was acquired, the Vivendi Group would definitely not leave behind him, the 'culprit' who caused Disney to fall into recession and turmoil, as the media said.

After 10 years in charge of Disney, Michael Eisner's foundation is all on this film company. If he leaves at the lowest stage of Disney, unless he sets up his own company like Jeffrey Katzenberg, otherwise, the whole of Hollywood will be destroyed. There will be no more place for him, which means that his career will be completely over.

Michael Eisner is only 47 years old this year, not Frank Wells who is over [-] years old. He is in his prime and he is not willing to experience retirement life now anyway.

Thinking of the bleak prospects he might face, Michael Eisner felt a growing sense of suffocation in his heart, a tingling pain in his chest, his vision began to blur, and the voices of the two subordinates in front of him were also suddenly ringing in his ears become vaguely uncertain.

Sandy Litwater and Bill Michanik realized something was wrong and quickly stepped forward to help. Looking at it again, Michael Eisner, who was pale, had fallen into a coma.

Simon immediately received the news that Michael Eisner had a heart attack and was in a coma.

He was at the Woodside Mountain House in the Bay Area at the time.

Robert Iger called from New York. It was not five o'clock in the morning on the west coast, and the morning light was just getting brighter outside.

Standing by the window of the master bedroom and finishing the phone call, Simon didn't know what to say for a while.

Michael Eisner has a family hereditary heart disease, which Simon has known for a long time. In his memory, it happened to be around 1994. Michael Eisner experienced a life-threatening heart surgery because the risk of the operation was very high. Sina even made a will in advance.

did not expect.

Is this history repeating itself?

However, Katzenberg resigned, Wells is about to retire, and now Michael Eisner suddenly fell ill, coupled with Daenerys Entertainment just added a fire, Simon does not believe that many shareholders of Disney still have confidence Continue to hold shares in this company.

If it is not sold now, Disney may become less and less valuable in the future.

A petite figure behind him came over silently like a cat, put his arms around his waist, rubbed his face against him, and asked sleepily, "Simon, what's the matter?"

This is little Jenny.

It was agreed to abstain from sexual intercourse this week, and Simon's insistence was not lacking.

Last night, even the fine waist and legs in San Francisco rushed to the guest room, but the little goblin said that he was still a child and didn't understand anything, but he would be afraid to sleep alone at night, blah blah, anyway, he managed to get by Simon's side.

Simon didn't insist too much on this goblin that he could handle with one finger.

Turning around, he picked up the girl's light body and sent her back to the big bed. Simon said, "Go to sleep, it's still early."

The goblin, who was wearing a pink pajamas like a doll, saw that Simon went to the bathroom to wash up first, then began to get dressed, got out of bed, and graciously helped a little, looking forward to: "Simon, let's go out together." Running?"

Simon tapped her head lightly: "It's me, it's troublesome to be found out with you."

The little goblin looked innocent and fake lolita: "It's okay, I'm just a little girl."

Simon couldn't help pinching her cheek, and said with a smile, "That will only make things worse."

Having said that, after putting on the sports vest and shorts, and enjoying the Japanese-style kneeling service intentionally made by the goblin, and letting her put on the sneakers for him, Simon left the villa and took two bodyguards to start a morning run in the mountains .

For safety reasons, Neil Bennett and Ken Dixon, who are responsible for the security of the Westeros family, have not suggested that Simon go on a similar morning run, but Simon has not agreed. If there is no such freedom, What is the meaning of life.

If you are worried about safety, then make the environment safer.

The Westeros family now raises so many people, isn't it just for this.

Therefore, in addition to the two groups of eight bodyguards stationed in Simon's villa in Woodside Mountain, there are five additional groups of people distributed in several other properties in the mountain, three groups are in the light, and two groups are in the dark.Around Simon's morning jogging route, the security team of the Westeros family even installed cameras and other monitoring equipment quietly to ensure that no one would approach this area rashly.

Simon didn't see any waste in this.

The Westeros family does raise a lot of people now, whether it is on the surface or secretly.

On weekdays, Simon dispatched a lot of seemingly insignificant tasks such as 24-hour monitoring of Gralf's mother and daughter. The main purpose was to prevent these people from having nothing to do and causing them to slack off.Simon firmly believes that any team can only keep running smoothly at all times to avoid losing vitality to the greatest extent.

Chapter 677 Instagram Online (3) (Revised)

The news that Disney Chairman and CEO Michael Eisner suffered a heart attack and fell into a coma and the news that Daenerys Entertainment Group is about to build a movie theme park in Europe fermented rapidly on Thursday.

Although there were only three Disney executives at the scene of the incident, some media directly connected the two incidents together, speculating that Michael Eisner may have heard that Daenerys Entertainment was about to start building the Universal Studios in Europe. The studio's 'bad news' just had a heart attack.

During this period of time, due to a series of events such as Jeffrey Katzenberg and Michael Eisner's falling out and resignation, Disney President Frank Wells is about to retire, and Vivendi Group's acquisition of Disney Corporation, Disney is in Dani. Under the hot news of Liz Entertainment's listing, it still gained a lot of media space.

Disney's internal turmoil and several years of declining performance have caused the federal media and Wall Street to continue to look down on this major Hollywood studio.

News of Vivendi Group's interest in buying Walt Disney Co. has finally triggered a wave of stock price rebounds. With Eisner's heart attack and Daenerys Entertainment's plans for Universal Studios Europe revealed, the company's shares rose again on Thursday. began to fall.

Of course, the focus of many media and capital is still Daenerys Entertainment.

Disneyland Paris is already a catastrophic existence. It is not easy for such a theme park with no prospect of profitability to even file for bankruptcy. For the billions of dollars of investment in the early stage and the employment of tens of thousands of employees, this theme park In any case, it can only survive in continuous losses.

With such a bad case before, is Daenerys Entertainment going to repeat the same mistakes?

Daenerys Entertainment, which has just completed its IPO, has a lot of money. Everyone knows this, but no matter how much money there is, it cannot be used for nothing.

However, some people are on the side of Daenerys Entertainment.

As Mark Belford, vice president of Daenerys Global Operations, said in the "Hollywood Reporter" article, the overall size of the European film market is far larger than that of Japan, and the establishment of theme parks in Europe is very conducive to further promotion and deepening of Dani. Liz Entertainment's corporate brand.

The potential advertising effect brought by the theme park’s annual reception of tens of millions of tourists is definitely not something that can be estimated simply by the profit and loss figures of the park itself.

The reason why Disney in Simon’s memory can become Hollywood’s leading entertainment giant is that Disneyland all over the world has contributed to the increase in brand value of the company, including Paris, which has suffered financial losses for decades. So is Disney.

Therefore, since the opening of Disneyland in Paris in 1992, Simon has been planning a similar plan in his mind.

The size of the overall film market is no less than that of the European continent in North America, and there must be a theme park under the Daenerys Entertainment Group.Even if it loses money for a long time like Disneyland Paris after it is completed, this matter must be implemented.

It was just that the planning of Universal Studios Osaka had just been completed at that time, and Simon was not so eager for quick success that he started two huge theme park projects at the same time.

Now, the time has come.

Taking advantage of this opportunity to release the news can be regarded as killing two birds with one stone to help hesitant Disney shareholders make up their minds to sell the company.

As for the follow-up, the site selection and planning of the theme park will take at least one to two years. By then, Universal Studios Osaka will have opened, and Daenerys Entertainment can calmly transfer the current construction and planning team of Universal Studios Osaka to Europe.

After the exposure of the "Hollywood Reporter" in the morning, Daenerys Entertainment published a more detailed article on the Ygritte portal during the day, explaining the necessity of building Universal Studios Europe.

However, in the end, the market gave the most direct feedback on Daenerys Entertainment's decision.

On Thursday's trading day, Daenerys Entertainment's stock price began to fall from the opening of the market. By the end of the afternoon, it had fallen by 2.6%. The market value fell from US$1172 billion to US$1141 billion. In one day, US$30 billion disappeared.

The management of Daenerys Entertainment did not respond much to this.

Whether in public or in private, Simon has repeatedly emphasized his point of view. Daenerys Entertainment's operations will not be affected by short-term stock price fluctuations, but will focus on long-term planning.

If some investors do not agree with Daenerys Entertainment's business philosophy, they can sell their stocks.

With the current strength of the Westeros system, it would be easy to privatize the entire Daenerys Entertainment Group.

Disney, on the other hand, is in a hurry.

Michael Eisner woke up that morning. However, the result of the heart examination of the head of Disney was very unfavorable. Due to long hours of high-intensity work, Michael Eisner's hereditary heart disease continued to worsen , The results of the examination showed that the blockage of multiple arteries in Eisner's heart has exceeded 98%. If the operation is not performed as soon as possible, he will not live for a year.

Moreover, because the condition is too serious, the risk of surgery is also very high.

Maybe even die directly on the operating table.

The reporters who gathered outside the Mount Sinai Medical Center in Manhattan got the results of Eisner's heart examination immediately under the strict guard of Disney.

Perhaps most people don't quite understand the seriousness of arterial blockage exceeding 98%, but one thing everyone can be sure of is that in the short term, it is impossible for Michael Eisner to re-host Disney's work.

Disney's share price has been slowly recovering recently due to the leak of Vivendi Group's acquisition of Disney. As the bad news of Eisner's illness spread, Disney's share price also fell by 3.3% on Thursday, with the market value from $69 billion fell back to $66 billion.

In the evening, Disney finally held a press conference. After notifying Michael Eisner of his illness, he also announced that the management of Disney would be temporarily represented by President Frank Wells.Frank Wells, who personally presided over the press conference, also said that he had signed a provisional agreement with Disney to extend his term for one year until the Disney company was completely stabilized.