Chapter 939 I Want to Buy Something

To use an old-fashioned phrase to describe it: Columbia Pictures has also been brilliant.

In the 1960s and 1970s, they once dominated the top eight film companies in Hollywood at that time, and the annual production volume of one company accounted for nearly one-third of the total production volume of the eight companies! Even counting back, in the 1940s and 1950s, they were all-powerful!

If the time ends in 1980, it can be said that Columbia Pictures is the best operating of all Hollywood film companies, and they are the standard-bearers of the Hollywood film industry!

At that time, their peak work was the acquisition of United Artists, one of the eight major Hollywood film companies at that time, at a price of 780 million U.S. dollars in exchange for shares in 1979. Domineering attitude, disdainful.

However, later, dragged down by the performance of United Artists, coupled with repeated failures in its own investment and production, when the time entered the 1980s, the status of Columbia Pictures began to decline rapidly.

In 1987, Coca-Cola acquired Columbia Film Company at a price of US$3.9 billion at the time. However, after entering the Coca-Cola era, Columbia still showed no signs of recovery and has since become a huge burden on Coca-Cola.

In 1991, Sony Japan once wanted to take over Columbia from Coca-Cola to complete their overall global layout from the electronics industry to the film industry and music industry, and the negotiations once entered a substantive stage. At that time, it was widely rumored that Columbia would change hands at any time, but at that time, The deal was questioned by people across the United States who saw it as a Japanese invasion of the United States.

Of course, what the public thinks can't change Coca-Cola's determination to get rid of this big burden, but helplessly, just when this deal is about to be finalized, in 1992, Japan broke out in a large-scale economic crisis. Enterprises, as well as Japan as a whole, have been severely damaged in this economic crisis, and Sony is of course no exception. They were quickly overwhelmed by this economic crisis, and they were unable to launch acquisitions involving huge amounts of money. The acquisition was stillborn.

In 1997, Coca-Cola finally found another next home, which was a film company jointly founded by several major American directors at that time-Dreamers Films.

Dreamers Films, as an independent film company, dreams of obtaining the film library of Columbia and United Artists, as well as their powerful distribution channels, but they don't have enough money.

Coca-Cola offered Columbia a price tag of 2.7 billion US dollars-note that during the ten years they took over Columbia, all major Hollywood production companies were making money and developing, but Coca-Cola wanted to be in this deal Lost $1.2 billion! But even so, they want to sell as soon as possible!

However, Dreamers Film Company, which had only been established for a few years at that time, could only spend 500 million to 800 million U.S. dollars at most even if it tried its best. Within a year, the astonishing transactions of snake swallowing elephants were successively completed.

But Coca-Cola firmly refused.

They would rather let Columbia continue to be so rotten in their own hands, and absolutely cannot accept such a long and painful acquisition, and they are even more unwilling to let this business of getting rid of the burden become a ladder for several directors to realize their dreams step by step-think Buy, yes, bring the money, and sell it to you anytime!

But phased transactions are never accepted!

This kind of large-scale acquisition really cannot bear any risk-what if the acquisition is halfway through, and Dream Creator goes bankrupt instead? They have only been established for a few years, but they have no family background, and they can't afford to fail a few times in production!

As a result, the deal stalled again.

And sure enough, after a few years of prosperity in the early days of entrepreneurship, when the time entered the new century, Dream Creator appeared in several films with investment losses, and soon fell into financial crisis!

Needless to say, it must have scared Coca-Cola into a cold sweat-fortunately, it was firmly rejected at the time!

And Columbia, a former Hollywood giant, has been reduced step by step-it has the largest film resource library in Hollywood in the United States, and has the top distribution capabilities in the United States, but it has not recovered since the 1980s. Afterwards, they never regained their former glory. Instead, they continued to slump amid repeated acquisition negotiations and management turmoil.

Up to now, among the seven major Hollywood film companies, they rank at the bottom. Everyone is supported by the global market that has been developed since the 1990s. Only Colombia is getting weaker and weaker.

…………

Before coming to the United States this time, although Li Qian had paid attention to the seven major Hollywood production companies, he really hadn't paid special attention to any single company. But for John Days, who has entered the film production industry since he was an adult, he can tell a lot about the ups and downs of Hollywood in the past two decades-Columbia has experienced countless acquisition negotiations over the years. One of them is of great concern to film producers like them. Speaking of it at this time, it is naturally flesh and blood.

Then, Li Qian suddenly became interested.

After John Days finished introducing Columbia's ups and downs over the years, Li Qian didn't even ask what conditions Columbia gave for the release of "Calabash Baby" and the two-way distribution between the two parties, but directly asked: "John , Can you collect as much information as possible for me about the acquisitions that Columbia has experienced in the past few years, as well as their current operating conditions, including their financial status and production status in recent years?"

John Dyce was a little confused when he heard the words, "Boss, what do you mean?"

Li Qian smiled and said, "I suddenly have an idea."

…………

After John Dyce left, Li Qian watched his car drive out of the manor, and stood under the porch by himself, with various thoughts advancing rapidly in his mind.

Raise your wrist and look at your watch, Chinese time, it should be late at night.

But he knew that Qi Jie hadn't slept before two o'clock in the past few nights - yes, going to bed late and waking up early. From 2:30 at night to 6:30 in the morning, sleeping for four hours, and adding another hour at noon, she can already deal with all kinds of things energetically throughout the day.

She has been doing that for the past few years.

But think about it again, if this call comes through, she probably won't be able to sleep even for a few hours tonight.

So he finally didn't call, turned around and walked back to the room.

Liao Liao was sweating profusely on the treadmill.

Li Qian stood aside and watched for a while, and couldn't help laughing at her, "You said it would be nice for you to play tennis with me, running alone, or on the treadmill, how boring it is!"

Liao Liao waved his hands, "Go away!"

Li Qian shrugged and had no choice but to turn around and walk away.

Li Qian is a tall man of about 1.8 meters, agile and explosive, and the key is that he can last, so a game of tennis can't last long, that is, ten or twenty minutes, Liao Liao has been abused to the point of losing interest , once, twice, three times, five times, gradually people stopped playing, and Li Qian couldn't even lose on purpose.

So Li Qian went back to the living room, took the materials left by John Dyce, went back to his own study, sat down, made a pot of tea, and slowly calmed down his heart with the help of boiling water. After coming down, I felt calm in my heart, and the impulsive heat gradually subsided, so I opened the folder.

About the situation of other companies, John Deiss has already explained in more detail. When Li Qian flipped through the pages, he just glanced at them. He focused on the Columbia that John Deiss hadn’t said in time, and he didn’t ask about it at the time. on the conditions given on the side.

Compared with several other companies, Colombia's various conditions are quite favorable.

They basically agreed to a two-way open cooperation between the two parties. The so-called open cooperation means that you can choose my film, and I can choose your film, but neither party can choose—this is a framework agreement at best.

Then, the focus of the discussion between the two parties was on the next few films that Minghu Culture will release, from "Calabash Baby" to "The Matrix", John Dice and Columbia's negotiators have negotiated a rough Issuance framework - of course, it is divided, and it is a step-by-step accounting method.

With this distribution method, the two parties can sign five films at one time.

In exchange, Minghu Culture needs to start from 2004 and within the next two years, provide China with a split-account introduction and distribution of films produced and produced by Columbia and its affiliated labels.

Also five.

This is very reasonable, and can even be said to be a completely reciprocal cooperation model.

In the current era when Hollywood is sweeping the world, a company that is one of the seven major Hollywood studios is willing to reach such an agreement with a Chinese company like Minghu Culture, which can definitely be called airless— —It can be seen how urgently they need distribution performance in other markets, and it can also be seen how weak their previous overseas distribution capabilities, especially in terms of attractiveness to Chinese publishers.

After reading all the cooperation framework discussed by the two parties, he went back and read it again, and carefully touched some potential information revealed in it. Li Qian couldn't help but sigh.

No, it's really heartbreaking.

Regardless of past life or present life, in Li Qian's impression, the seven major Hollywood studios are all top-level existences. It is no exaggeration to say that in the world of movies all over the world, they are the evils in Jin Yong's novels. The supernatural powers of the Southern Emperor and the Northern Beggar belong to the kind of top master who is invincible in the world!

After coming to this time and space, after so many years, from a music producer to a band lead singer, to a singer, to a director, to an actor, Li Qian's biggest goal has always been to make Minghu culture bigger, Then try to be able to lead China's cultural industries such as music, movies, and TV dramas, and break through to some extent on a global scale.

Don't dare to say that it is a bayonet fight with Hollywood on a global scale. At least we should avoid waiting until the two rounds of special effects and 3D movie technology tides pass. variety movie".

Therefore, he has been doing it conscientiously, trying to take every step steadily, and trying not to make any mistakes.

And now, Minghu culture has indeed risen smoothly in China, no matter whether it is music or film and television, it is the top group in the country, but Li Qian still feels that what he has to do has not been done well or finished. , the next step, he plans to lead Minghu Culture to start doing something that integrates the culture of the Chinese nation but is more adaptable to the global vision, start to learn from Hollywood, and try to carry out global distribution-in his opinion, this is to drive the entire Chinese A crucial step in the rise of the film.

However, he never thought that he could have a better way!

Yes, buy Columbia!

He had never thought about it before, and he never thought about it at all, but once he thought about it, Li Qian immediately discovered that as long as he can succeed, this is definitely a shortcut!

Today, and in the world film market in the next few years, the three largest markets must be North America, China and Europe-demographics and consumption power determine this.

Minghu Culture itself has quite strong distribution capabilities in China and Southeast Asia. It also has stable and strong distribution partners in Japan and South Korea. If Colombia is taken down, then the distribution in North America and Europe Channels will be replenished overnight!

At that time, Minghu Culture will directly become a god in one step, and directly have the top distribution ability in the world - and this is something that neither the Chinese film companies nor the big Hollywood film companies in the United States have!

Domestic policy conditions do not allow American companies to come to do the distribution, and even the related companies in the United States are not allowed to hold shares in companies engaged in the distribution of cultural products in China. Therefore, no matter how powerful the Big Seven of the United States is in the world, it will still not work in China. Luzi, as for domestic companies, even if they are as powerful as the Oriental Media Group, they can't afford it, and they dare not buy an American distribution company!

And to be honest, they don't even think about doing global distribution at all!

Their favorite thing is to fight in the nest, that is, to be able to dominate China!

But Minghu Culture is not.

Minghu Culture has never regarded being the first in the industry in China as its goal.

The goal of Minghu Culture from the beginning is to do Chinese culture, Chinese music and Chinese film and television business on a global scale! The Chinese market is only a part of it!

It's just that if you really do this, will you have a feeling of "speculating stocks and becoming shareholders"?

When I came to the United States, I really came here to distribute "Calabash Baby", but when I left, I bought a Hollywood film company...

…………

At eight o'clock in the evening, Li Qian calculated that Qi Jie should have woken up, so he called her.

When the phone was connected, he said, "I want to buy something, you can bring someone over here!"