Hollywood Tycoon [US Entertainment + Business War]

All news agencies and media have received a press release from the Motion Picture Association of America, which basically states that in order to streamline the number of seats in the association, a policy of "one company, one seat" has been introduced; Narrator Entertainment was stripped of its membership in the Motion Picture Association of America.

The content of just one page caused the media to speculate, first of all, whether Time Warner Group will lose the second seat in the United States.You know, after the Japanese acquired Columbia, the Japanese Sony Pictures has always been the No. [-] in both North American distribution and box office; the Americans themselves have only one Time Warner left to fight against it.Now that Time Warner has lost an arm, this will not only arouse the market's trust in the Time Warner Group, but also cause uneasiness within the Time Warner Group.Time Warner, which originally launched the "Batman Prequel Trilogy" by virtue of the acquisition of DC Comics and Galaxy Films, has re-ignited the boom in comic book adaptation movies, and is planning to take advantage of the victory to launch a new "Superman" series. A scoop of cold water.What "New Superman" plan?What "Justice League" plans?What "Justice League vs Avengers"?Just when the Time Warner Group was going all out to fight for American films, the Motion Picture Association of America actually stabbed itself in the back, and the knife was stabbed in the heart!

In addition to Time Warner's loss of Turner Entertainment, Sherman Entertainment Group actually kept the MGM seat. One ticket.Moreover, it was learned from some insiders that the media suddenly discovered that Galaxy and MGM, which they had always thought to be one, belonged to two companies with no affiliation.Galaxy Films, Galaxy Animation, and Summit Entertainment belong to Sherman Film and Television Entertainment Group; while MGM, United Artists, and Lionsgate actually belong to MGM Pictures Group.

Although MGM Pictures Group is an unlisted private company, a reporter with great powers actually dug out that the holding company of MGM Pictures Group is MGM Holdings, and this company has In terms of division, it is a perfect holding company.MGM Holdings is made up of seven companies, three of which are industry companies, including Sherman Pictures Entertainment (12%), Lionsgate Entertainment (5%) and Luen Mei Holdings (3%); the other four are investment Firms, including Sherman Family Development Fund (10%), Colombo Trust (10%), Waring Capital (25%) and California Pacific Fund (35%).

Although Sherman Film and Television Entertainment, Sherman Family Development Fund and Hualin Capital have connections with Jade, only Sherman Film and Television Entertainment has a direct connection, and the other two belong to Jade's "third-party investment benefit ".John Colombo, who directly holds the Colombo Trust Fund and the California Pacific Fund, is the CEO of MGM Holdings and concurrently serves as the chairman and president of MGM Pictures.After the results of this investigation came out, public opinion was in an uproar.

Since the federal government hadn't repealed the Defense of Marriage Act, and the California Legislature hadn't repealed Proposition [-], Jed and John were legally friends.There is no law that would prevent two friends from starting the same company. The Justice Department official responded rather awkwardly: "Yes, their behavior is completely legal under the current law. MGM and Sherman are indeed two companies. Separate companies that are not affiliated with each other. Also, as long as two people are not knowingly talking about the core affairs of each other's companies when they get along in private, it is not against any laws. Yes, unless you have direct evidence that they did 'intentionally' Leak the core secrets of each other's companies, otherwise we have no way to interfere with them."

External discussions naturally cannot interfere with the agenda of the American Film Association meeting. In order to ensure that each other's companies can be nominated, each company has also launched active lobbying.According to the analysis of the "Los Angeles Times", CBS Group should be able to obtain the support of Paramount Films if there is no accident, and at the same time, it should also be able to obtain the support of MGM in exchange; DreamWorks Films should be able to pass Spielberg's face. Three votes from Disney, Universal, and MGM; RKO should also get the support of the "anti-Sherman Group" such as Universal, Disney, and Sony; Supported by GM and Paramount.

However, as far as the current situation is concerned, no company has yet secured four votes, so the expansion of the American Motion Picture Association's enrollment is very likely to fail.But just as the outside world was speculating, Jade asked Time Warner CEO Jeffrey Bewkes to have dinner.Although Bewkes was very upset that Turner Entertainment was kicked out of the American Film Association, he also knew that Jade was his ally.If there is no Sherman Film and Television Entertainment to charge ahead, how can Time Warner have the opportunity to secure the second position in the North American market?But Bewkes didn't want Jed to have two votes from the bottom of his heart.

After much deliberation, Bewkes agreed to meet Jed at a members-only restaurant on Sunset Boulevard.This member-only restaurant called "Zen" is a restaurant that has sprung up in Los Angeles in the last three years. It is affiliated with "Dao" in New York, "He" in London, "Li" in Paris, and "Xin" in Tokyo A restaurant named Oriental Catering Group.The restaurant has investments from several Michelin three-star chefs, but since all five restaurants are membership-only, they were not included in the Michelin Guide.But many gourmets think that the average level of these five restaurants is at least above the "Michelin two-star" level, and "Zen" in Los Angeles and "Xin" in Tokyo are even at the "Michelin three-star" level.

Of course, the largest shareholder of this restaurant is John Colombo.Therefore, Jed has a box available for meeting Bewkes at any time.As a member-only restaurant, the confidentiality is naturally very strong. Without official members carrying it, outsiders can't even enter the door.And even if you are a regular member, you usually don't have a seat if you don't have a formal appointment.At this time, Bix and Jed were enjoying dinner in a relatively secluded box. Affected by the delicious food and wine, Bix was in a much better mood, but he still said: "Mr. Sherman, the board of directors cannot tolerate Time Warner helps you gain one seat after you lose one. It’s a balance between the companies, not you.”

"I can understand." Jed handed a document to Bix, "Although we are allies, we have never stopped investigating each other. I don't think Mr. Bix will either. Deny it? And when we investigated, we found that Kevin Tsujihara, the president of Warner Bros. under your company, seems to have something to do with other companies."

Bewkes' face was a little ugly. Kevin Tsujihara was promoted to the president of Warner Bros. by himself.As the two pillar industries of Time Warner, Kevin Tsujihara's position cannot be said to be insensitive.But the content of this document made Bix's face change a few times, and then he took out a phone he didn't often use, dialed a number, and said coldly: "Before midnight tonight, I want to see Tsujihara The investigation report of Kevin and the Japanese company. Yes, I need to know about any relationship!"

Warner Bros. was not someone to be messed with back then. The four Warner Brothers who founded Warner Bros. were all people who had been on the road.This has also led to Warner's films' enthusiasm and repeated tribute to gangster themes, so it is absolutely handy for Warner films to shoot dark themes.Therefore, Jed believed that Time Warner must have some dreadful forces in its hands at this time.We must know that one of the antitrust principles for media and entertainment in the United States is very strict, "TV and radio media shall not own newspapers and magazines."But the Time Publishing Group under the Time Warner Group owns a series of magazines and newspapers, and the Turner Entertainment Group under the Time Warner Group owns the television network Turner Broadcasting Company.If you don't have any skills, how can you dare to play like this under the eyes of the Ministry of Justice?

Bewkes said goodbye to Jed sullenly, and then Jed called again and asked Brian Roberts, the president of Comcast Group, to have coffee with him.Jed knew that both Universal Pictures and its parent company, NBC Universal, were unhappy with him. If this was the case, then find someone bigger.As the controlling parent company of NBCUniversal Group, Comcast can obviously influence every move of its subsidiaries.Jed is also very fortunate at this time, fortunately, Vivendi Group has sold NBC Universal Group to Comcast, otherwise, once Vivendi offers conditions for the merger of Vivendi Entertainment and Blizzard Entertainment, Jed really doesn't know what to do. refuse it.Although Comcast Group did not directly attend the American Motion Picture Association meeting, they also rented an executive suite at the conference hotel as the rear headquarters of NBC Universal Group.

When Roberts finished Jed's call, he said to everyone: "Look, Jed Sherman, a proud rooster, wants to negotiate terms with us!"

In an unknown hotel, Jed waited for Roberts to arrive while drinking Blue Mountain.And Roberts didn't keep Jed waiting too long, and arrived as scheduled in less than half an hour.Seeing Jed sipping coffee calmly, Roberts smiled sarcastically: "Mr. Sherman, if there is nothing important, I am a very busy person."

"I know, so I'll tell you straight to the point." Jed put down his coffee cup, "My Blizzard Entertainment's 'Battle.net' will list Comcast Group as an important partner in an important position. At the same time Internet access users of the Comcast Group will automatically obtain the qualifications of Battle.net ordinary certified members. The validity period of the certification is consistent with the service period of the Comcast Group. How? Telephone companies are interested, and by the way, Time Warner's America Online and Warner Cable are also my potential cooperation customers."

Roberts' heart shrank suddenly. Of course he knew the value of "Battle.net".The Blizzard of this time and space is far more successful than the Blizzard of the previous life. Battle.net currently has nearly 8000 million active users in North America, and these are all potential customers of Comcast in the future.Moreover, Blizzard has always had zero tolerance for piracy. All pirated game software cannot be connected to Battle.net. The only way is to buy genuine activation codes to launder their own pirated software.But now that Comcast users are given this "exemption", how many new users will they add in North America?If you don't eat it yourself and let America Online or AT&T eat it up, then you, the president, will be at the end.

Thinking of this, Roberts sat down, ordered a cup of charcoal coffee, and said with a smile: "Mr. Sherman, I want to know how we will cooperate?"