Hollywood Tycoon [US Entertainment + Business War]

After contacting Gusta, Jed once again thought of acquiring other film companies.Although there are many film companies under Jade's label, they lack dominance.Generally speaking, Hollywood's giant film companies have at least four major labels.A label is the company's main label, and movies with big box office, big productions, or awards that are easy to win are generally produced by this label.The other label mainly distributes art films or independent films. These films generally do not win any awards, but they are regarded as pearls of film art by film critics or film professionals.Generally, film companies set up such a label to please film critics, so that everyone has a good impression of the entire film group.In addition to these two labels, there will also be a label dedicated to releasing genre movies or cult movies. These movies are generally more bloody or have other problems that exceed the standard. It is also convenient to centralize them under one label. Firepower to avoid spreading the taunt to the entire group.

Although there are many problems with genre movies and cult movies, they have a fixed audience, so large film companies cannot avoid this genre.Of course, apart from these three labels, there are animated films.With the rise of Disney, no one will underestimate the genre of animated movies.At present, Galaxy Films does not have a label that specializes in the distribution of literary films and cult films. If Lionsgate is acquired and MGM may be included in the future, the label of Galaxy Films will be complete.

But at this time, Jed is just thinking about it, because the current problem lies in the recovery of the adaptation rights of Marvel superheroes. Except for Columbia Pictures, which basically will not come back, 20th Century Fox Films still has "X The right to adapt the two series of Men of War and Fantastic Four.The Fantastic Four may not be an S-class superhero, but the X-Men certainly are.Murdoch's old-fashioned fox will not give up the adaptation rights so easily. I am afraid that just the Fantastic Four can make Jed bleed.

Although Jed expected that Murdoch was not such a good talker, he still made an appointment with Murdoch, hoping to have an interview.And Murdoch agreed very readily, but when Jed arrived at the conference room for the interview, he found that Murdoch was not so easy to talk to.Because not only Murdoch himself participated in the meeting, but also Jim Genablis, president of Fox Entertainment Group, which is responsible for the entertainment media business of News Corporation, and Daniel Taylor, CEO of 20th Century Fox Film Company.Seeing that all the opponents were present, Jed knew that today's negotiation might be a headache.

"Dear Jed, I haven't seen you for a long time, what have you been up to recently?" Murdoch still said very gently.

"What else can I do? Isn't it just busy recycling the superheroes under Marvel?" Jed said straight to the point.In fact, Jed regretted being involved in the negotiations with Fox Corporation at this time. He should choose to talk about it after the "News of the World" monitoring scandal was exposed.At that time, News Corporation was in a state of desperation, and maybe they still had a lot of money left.It's just that if we talk about it at that time, the day lily is completely cold.

"Mr. Sherman, everyone is a businessman, and everything is valuable." Genablis said lightly, "Our Fox Entertainment Group is not easy to talk to, I want to know how much you plan to pay price?"

"We intend to recover the adaptation rights of "Fantastic Four" at a price of 500 million US dollars, and "X-Men" at a price of 1500 million US dollars." Jed paused, "If you accept non-cash transactions , we can use part of the shares of British Sky Broadcasting Corporation and Star Media Group to exchange for cash. Mr. Murdoch, haven’t you always wanted to recycle the shares of these two companies? I am the largest private shareholder of these two groups, if I If you are willing to sell the shares..."

Murdoch immediately frowned when Jed said that he was willing to sell the shares of Sky TV and Star Media. You must know that News Corporation actually consists of three major industries in the world. The American part is naturally Fox Entertainment Group, and the European part is Sky TV. TV Group, while Asia is Star Media Group.The reason why Jed owns a large number of shares in Sky TV and Star Media is that Murdoch still lacked absolute control over News Corporation, so Jed bought stocks from the side and became his ally.But as Murdoch's control over News Corporation has become tighter, these stocks of Jade have indeed made Murdoch somewhat taboo.

But Murdoch is not so easy to succumb, he said: "The adaptation rights of "Fantastic Four" are discounted by 600 million US dollars, which can be discounted with the stock market prices of Sky TV and Star Media in your hand. Use the stock of Direction Satellite Communication Company to offset the price. Jed, you can’t hide from everyone that you have seized the time to deploy satellite TV and cable TV operators recently. I think you have been coveting the holding of Direction Satellite TV Company for a long time, right? So , don't refuse my kindness."

Jed couldn't help but swear in his heart. Murdoch coveted the shares of Sky TV and Star Media in his hands, so why didn't he covet the shares of Guidance Satellite Communications in his hands?Guiding Satellite is the largest satellite TV operator in North America. At present, Jade's Sherman Interactive Entertainment Group has 45% of the shares. If Murdoch is willing to sell his 10% of the stock, then Jade can naturally Take control of this satellite company immediately.In addition to guiding satellites, Jed also ordered Shannity to keep a close eye on WorldCom. As soon as the Andersen and Enron scandals were exposed, it would be a good time to sell and forcefully acquire WorldCom.Jade knew that WorldCom would spin off various businesses and sell them separately, and what Jade wanted to buy was the cable TV business under WorldCom.

After 2003, nbc suddenly added a large number of major cable channels. Maybe the largest cable TV operator in the United States, Comcast, took a stake in nbc, which made nbc step on the leading cbs.How can Jed, who is so-called familiar with the future trend, not plan?Cable TV is a sharp weapon to occupy big cities, while satellite TV is a big killer that covers the entire North America and even the Caribbean Sea to the Eastern Pacific.Unexpectedly, the bait that he ran out was thrown by Murdoch with another bait.

Jed was choking very uncomfortable now, but after a short pause, he still said: "Mr. Murdoch is indeed an 'old fox'! Just do as you said, I will exchange the shares of Sky TV and Star TV for you Holding the stock of Direct Satellite Communications and the film and television adaptation rights of "Fantastic Four."

Jed is also a person who can afford to let go, if he really wants to care about it, I am afraid that he will really tear himself apart with the old man in front of him.As far as Jed knows so far, the box office of the first part of "X-Men" is very good, so they launched the second part.And Jed also knows that they will launch more "X-Men" in the future, and they even developed the derivative series "Wolverine".If Murdoch is more extreme, they can launch a TV series similar to the "Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D." Anyway, isn't there a few student characters in the "X-Men" series?Find a few youthful idols to come in and perform, maybe it can boost the ratings.

Murdoch was still very upset when he saw Jed's deflated appearance.After all, how many American media tycoons are under 70 years old?As a result, Jed created his film and television empire when he was less than 40 years old. He not only established the fifth largest wireless TV network in the United States, but also owned A+E, a cable network with the top ten ratings in the United States.His film company has already occupied 9% of the North American film market share. As long as it breaks 10, it will generally be accepted as a so-called "Hollywood giant", not to mention the Asian Broadcasting Group and Media Asia Entertainment Group he established in Hong Kong. The largest entertainment aircraft carrier in Greater China and even Japan and South Korea.Facing such a menacing young man like Jed, Murdoch felt a little powerless for the first time.Unlike Lei Shidong who loves Jed as his own son, Murdoch has always regarded Jed as a successor, so he is on guard against Jed.It's a pity that Jed, like himself, belongs to the fox, and he can't catch the tail at all.Fortunately, the Marvel characters I bought back then finally forced Jed to be deflated for a while.

"The "X-Men" series is not impossible to cooperate." Murdoch finally let go.He knew very well that if he really angered Jed, there would be no good results.An X-Men independent of the "Marvel Ultimate Universe Plan" will gradually lose its charm, and if it is forced to end by Jed at that time, then it will be a big loss for itself. "20th Century Fox Film Company is willing to convert the film and television adaptation rights of "X-Men" into shares and form a new film company with Galaxy Film Company to specialize in the filming of "X-Men". In this way, Fox still retains the adaptation rights, and you Galaxy Films You can also include this movie in your big plans."

"How are the shares allocated? How is the management right allocated? Who does the copyright belong to? And what is the composition of the investment?" Jed asked.

Murdoch smiled bitterly. These questions are really crucial. It seems that Jed will not force himself to express his opinion. "Twentieth Century Fox Film Company holds 20% of the shares, and has never intervened in the company's management. The copyright is owned by this joint venture company, and the investment ratio is half and half. If one party fails to pay enough, the other party can The company makes up. Domestic and overseas box office income is distributed according to the investment ratio, and videotape, DVD and TV network income is distributed according to equity.”

Jed figured it out, in fact, Fox and Galaxy jointly invested in the filming of "X-Men".Although Fox will take advantage of home entertainment, considering that the adaptation rights belong to others, Jed is too embarrassed to bargain, so the two parties reached a simple memorandum on this.After dealing with the matter with Fox, Jed suddenly felt a lot easier.When he smiled and shook hands with Murdoch, he suddenly felt a throbbing pain in his heart, and felt that the surroundings suddenly became quiet, and when everything returned to darkness, he only saw Mr. Murdoch's panicked face.

"According to the news just received by this station, Mr. Jed Sherman, the president of Sherman Film and Television Entertainment Group, suffered a heart attack after meeting with Mr. Murdoch, the chairman of News Corp., and has been sent to UCLA Los Angeles Medical Center for emergency. Treatment.” A piece of breaking news suddenly appeared in the hands of the news anchors of major TV stations in Los Angeles, “According to people familiar with the matter, Mr. Sherman had fallen into a deep coma before being sent to the hospital. At present, the relevant companies and hospitals refuse to disclose Mr. Sherman’s condition. Condition."