Chapter 1946: To Buy or Not (Part 1)

"Acquire Warner Bros. Pictures?" Guo Tailai was taken aback. He just listened to it purely for fun. The more unlucky Time Warner was, the happier Guo Tailai was. Now that Annie suddenly mentioned the acquisition, Guo Tailai was a little confused: "How high is Time Warner's current market value?"

"Under various losses, Time Warner's current market value is only about 50 billion U.S. dollars." Annie replied very excitedly.

"Only $50 billion?" Hearing Anne's answer, Guo Tailai didn't know how to describe his feelings: "What makes you think that $50 billion can be described by the word 'only'?"

Annie was definitely adrift, for no other reason. Only 50 billion, or US dollars, thanks to her being able to say it.

"A few years ago when AOL acquired Time Warner, it cost 181 billion US dollars." Annie explained slowly.

With such an explanation, it is immediately easy to understand. Time Warner's market value has dropped too much, not even a fraction of what it was back then. Without Guo Tailai and countless people suppressing it and developing normally, Time Warner's market value this year should be around 77 billion, but now it is only 50 billion, a difference of 27 billion US dollars. From this point of view, in terms of "Only" is not an exaggeration to describe it.

"What about the valuation of our Artisan Entertainment?" After sighing, Guo Tailai asked about the value of his company.

"At least 1.5 billion dollars." Annie said proudly.

When Guo Tailai bought Artisan Entertainment, he only spent more than 200 million yuan. After a few years, he created a "God Walk" universe series. He still held the copyright of "Terminator" and "Avatar" in production. It is said that This is another series. The external valuation of 1.5 billion is still relatively cautious.

Anyway, Guo Tailai knew that once "Avatar" was released, the global box office of 2.8 billion US dollars was unprecedented. But isn't "Avatar" not released now, and others don't know that the box office can set a record?

However, it only took a few years to go from 200 million US dollars to 1.5 billion US dollars, and the market value has doubled seven times, which is enough to show Anne's excellence.

"A small company worth 1.5 billion dollars is going to acquire a media group worth 50 billion dollars?" Guo Tailai looked at Annie with a wry smile again: "Did you say it wrong or did I hear it wrong?"

"Boss, it's a rare opportunity!" Of course, it wasn't wrong or heard wrong. Annie understood Guo Tailai's meaning, but she still reminded her seriously: "Last time I failed to catch up with MGM's auction, but this time it's Warner Bros. Ah! Not the MGM mess."

"Where can I find 50 billion U.S. dollars for the acquisition?" Guo Tailai almost wanted to ask Annie for money directly: "There is no premium for the acquisition? Then you can't raise 60 billion U.S. dollars?"

"Boss, it's Warner Bros. Entertainment, a subsidiary of Time Warner, not the parent company Time Warner." Only then did Annie realize that she hadn't made it too clear and Guo Tailai had misunderstood her, so she hurriedly explained.

"I thought it was Time Warner, and the parent company I always thought it was America Online." Guo Tailai suddenly realized, and then realized that he had made an own goal. There is Warner in English, and Guo Tailai thought it was a company.

"AOL is now a division of Time Warner Group." Lin Jiayi added next to it: "They lost more than 90 billion in 2004."

"Admiration!" Guo Tailai also had to admire. He lost more money than the world's richest man, so he couldn't help but admire.

No matter how bad Warner Bros. is, it is much better than MGM. Now MGM is relying on a 007 series to support, can there be any blockbuster movies? But Time Warner is different. It owns Harry Potter, owns half of DC Comics, Batman series, Superman series, Matrix series and so on. If it hadn't been jointly suppressed, Warner Bros. would be the strongest among the top seven in Hollywood in the next two years.

Now, this Warner Bros., who wanted to merge and acquire because they owed Artisan Entertainment a share of the money, has completely fallen to the bottom two, only a little bit better than the poor MGM who has just been tossed and auctioned several times.

"Warner Bros. is not cheap, right?" Although Guo Tailai understood, he was still a little hesitant. Now is the time when he has allocated a large amount of funds to stir up troubles in the subprime mortgage market. How can he get more funds? To buy Warner Bros.?

"At least eight billion dollars." Annie smiled a little embarrassedly this time, and said the answer: "There will definitely be competition, so there will be a premium, and it is estimated that one hundred to twelve billion dollars will be prepared. possible."

Guo Tai looked at Lin Jiayi and Mi Feifei who were beside him, and the two women also frowned at this moment. Recently, Lin Jiayi's focus was still on the subprime mortgage crisis, and she didn't pay attention to the movement in Hollywood. When such a mess suddenly appeared, the two women were caught off guard.

"Do you have any detailed information?" Lin Jiayi asked Annie, "Give me some detailed information and an evaluation report."

It's about tens of billions of dollars of acquisitions, and it's absolutely impossible to just report to the boss Guo Tailai. It will definitely require a detailed evaluation report, as well as various analysis and judgments. Of course Annie understands this, and replied quickly with a smile. : "Of course, I'll send it to your email right away."

Annie's phone call was just to let the boss know about it, and she didn't expect the boss to make a decision on the phone, so she hung up the phone quickly.

Time Warner, which was acquired for more than 180 billion US dollars, now has an overall market value of only 50 billion US dollars, which is unbelievable. In seven years, an average of more than 50 million U.S. dollars was lost every day. It is estimated that hiring a group of people to throw money out every day is not so fast, right?

"Want to buy it?" Guo Tailai turned around and asked Lin Jiayi and Mi Feifei. To be honest, Guo Tailai bought Artisan Entertainment just to give Chu Fei a place to develop in Hollywood. Now that Chu Fei is on a firm footing, with the support of AMC, the second largest theater chain in North America, and Marvel Entertainment, is it really necessary to buy Warner Bros.?

"See if you like it." Lin Jiayi said indifferently: "If you want to buy it, buy it, if you don't want to buy it, don't buy it."

"Can we still withdraw so much cash?" Guo Tailai asked with some doubts. If this affects the layout of the subprime mortgage crisis, then Guo Tailai would rather not consider it.

"For the time being, only domestic funds are being used. To be on the safe side, the shares of Google, Apple, Amazon, and Microsoft have not been touched. You can borrow enough money to buy them at any time." Lin Jiayi smiled confidently: "In addition, leveraged buyouts are also possible. After the acquisition is completed, Warner Bros. can be used as collateral. It is not impossible to acquire large companies with small funds."