Chapter 1326: Layout of Blockbuster

After February 22, it is impossible to say that there is no word about Simon's 30th birthday on various media platforms.

However, some people expected that, because Simon Westeros' 30th birthday sparked a news frenzy that brought the media and the public back to focus on the super rich personal wealth, and even whether it should be limited, and so on. The trend of public opinion, simply did not happen.

In the impression of most ordinary people, there are basically only some scattered and plain thoughts.

Oh, and Simon Westeros turns 30.

Then move on with your own life.

The few people who can see the essence through the phenomenon feel the Westeros system's increasingly powerful ability to control public opinion. You know, when Simon Westeros was 20 years old, there was a lot of noise all over the world. At that time, the other party was just a film and television upstart who had just risen in Hollywood, or, coupled with the huge original accumulation completed by taking advantage of the 87 stock market crash.

After all, it is not the same as now.

In any case, Simon has too much personal wealth. The hidden power represented by this wealth has reached the level that can easily control a country. This is the consensus of many people, and all parties are more or less or Feel the threat firsthand.

However, unless there is a strong shock-level social change in the United States, it is basically impossible to destroy the Westeros system. However, if there is such a change, whether the Westeros system can avoid it or not, can other capitals of the Federation stay out of it?

In fact, there is another way, which is more extreme.

However, the question is, who dares to take the lead in planning a related operation against Simon Westeros?

When Kennedy was assassinated, in order to avoid retaliation, the Kennedy family suffered a "curse" for decades, just to prevent this political family from returning to the political arena. The key to this matter is that the Kennedy family left the White House and Washington, and lost their power base, so they were powerless to revenge.

For the Westeros family, if Simon Westeros encounters the same incident, the power and wealth of this family will not disappear out of thin air.

Simon Westeros is a madman.

Whether it's a bombed-out estate in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, or a mafia family that disappeared overnight in Italy, or the war in Rwanda, it's all proof of this. Therefore, not to mention whether the extreme measures can be successful, even if it is successful, who can guarantee that under certain circumstances, in order to avenge Simon Westeros, there will not be a second lunatic in the Westeros family?

In the final analysis, the rise of Simon was so fast that many people had the idea of ​​suppressing it, and before they had time to implement it, they were already far behind.

For Simon himself, after his 30th birthday, no matter what many people in the outside world think, his life has not changed much. In the next few days, he spent time with some people who came from all over the world to attend his birthday party. important guests to meet and discuss a variety of topics.

So the time came to February 27th, Friday.

Finally, an important piece of news related to the Westeros system was publicly announced that Daenerys Entertainment and Philips of the Netherlands had formally reached an agreement to acquire Polygram, the record giant under Philips, in a stock-for-stock model. The transaction price between the two parties is US$9.5 billion, with shares and cash being divided in half. Including Polygram's total debt of US$1.2 billion in various aspects, the total transaction size is US$10.7 billion.

On the day when the news was announced, PolyGram's stock market value in Europe rose 6% in a single day, closing at US$9.26 billion.

As for Daenerys Entertainment Group, according to common sense, when a large-scale acquisition occurs, the stock price of the party that initiates the acquisition will inevitably fall. "Titanic" and the recent "Blair Witch" and a series of major benefits, especially the explosion of the game "Counter-Strike ol", let the market see the growth potential of this media giant outside the core film and television business. The stock price of Daenerys Entertainment has been rising continuously for several months.

On Friday, Daenerys Entertainment’s stock price rose 2.1%, and its closing market value reached 371.5 billion U.S. dollars. Compared with the market value of about 310 billion U.S. dollars when Forbes counted the new year’s rich list in October last year, the stock price accumulated over four months. It rose nearly 20%, still firmly leading the New York Stock Exchange.

In addition to the two companies involved, it was also reported that EMI Records was in acquisition negotiations with Daenerys Entertainment. Due to the announcement of this news, the stock price plummeted by 11% in one day, so that an executive of EMI Records Threatened to sue Daenerys Entertainment on his Facebook page.

It's a pity that when the reporter called to question him, he couldn't come up with a valid reason.

At the same time, select multiple potential acquisition targets for negotiation to avoid one party sitting on the ground and raising the price. This is a strategy that many companies will adopt when initiating mergers and acquisitions. Because it is not clear that Simon's fundamental goal is only Polygram, in many people's eyes, it is only to blame that EMI has been holding back and refusing to reach an agreement as soon as possible, and as a result missed the opportunity.

The entire recording industry is in a rapid downturn, missing this great opportunity to integrate into Daenerys Entertainment, EMI's slump on February 27 will only be the beginning. Because of this defeat, some of EMI's major shareholders expressed strong dissatisfaction with the management, and internal turmoil is likely to follow, which happened to give Daenerys Entertainment another opportunity to poach some famous EMI singers.

malibu.

Daenerys Studios, the meeting about the acquisition lasted two hours and was in charge of acquiring

Nancy Brill, who was involved in the purchase negotiations, reported to Simon in detail the details of the preliminary agreement, and everyone discussed some matters that should be dealt with by various authorities in the future, and even the longer-term formal merger plan.

When the meeting was over, Daenerys Records CEO Richard Palmes and other senior executives left, Simon called Amy and Nancy and said another thing: "About Blockbuster, because the Internet The recovery of the industry is much earlier than I thought, and we need to win this company ahead of schedule, at least to achieve an absolute shareholding.”

When Huviacom realized the control of Blockbuster’s video chain, Simon began to vigorously promote reforms. Over the years, Blockbuster has been constantly innovating its business model, especially the launch of Blockbuster Online. With the concept of the Internet, At the peak of the new technology wave last year, the video rental chain giant once had a market value close to $40 billion.

However, it seems that success is also 'online', and failure is also 'online'.

In order to promote online business, in the past two years, Blockbuster has completely stripped off the previous franchise store model, leaving only self-operated stores that can smoothly cooperate with online business, and the scale of self-operated stores is also constantly shrinking. With more than 5,000 chain stores across the country, Blockbuster currently has less than 3,000 stores left, half of which are local and half overseas.

It is still the golden age of the video tape and DVD rental business. Blockbuster has voluntarily cut down 40% of its stores and abandoned the franchise model, which is almost equivalent to handing over a large amount of physical rental business to others.

On the other hand, although Blockbuster's hybrid online business accounted for 38% of the total revenue, due to the sharp reduction in stores, the total revenue in 1997 not only did not grow positively, but shrank cumulatively compared to the peak in 1995. More than 10%, even profits continue to decline due to the large investment in online business.

That was fine during the heyday of the new tech bubble, and as the bubble burst, Blockbuster's stock price plummeted all the way down.

Even if the Nasdaq began to recover during this period, Blockbuster's recent market value is only about 14 billion U.S. dollars. Compared with the peak of nearly 40 billion U.S. dollars, the market value has shrunk by 65%.

Simon originally expected Blockbuster's market value to drop to less than 10 billion U.S. dollars before making a move. Now it seems that it is better to win it as soon as possible to avoid accidents.

When Amy heard Simon mentioning this matter, she immediately thought of the plan she had talked about: "Simon, it's true that the Internet industry has begun to recover recently, but Blockbuster is generally not very optimistic about Blockbuster in all aspects. Didn't you also say that, Can we wait any longer?"

Nancy nodded in agreement.

Because she is directly responsible for this part of the business, she is more aware of the negative attitude of Blockbuster's internal shareholders and external capital markets towards the company than Daenerys' other executives.

It has been nearly a year since the new technology bubble burst. Some shareholders and some core executives of Blockbuster have been hoping that the video rental giant can reverse its operating strategy, return to tradition, and increase the layout of physical stores again.

Unfortunately, it has not been able to do so.

As a result, Blockbuster's share price has fallen more deeply than many other new technology companies.

Simon shook his head: "There is no need to wait any longer. Blockbuster is related to a series of important layouts for our future. I have told you this more than once. You should make a plan as soon as possible, and immediately set up a team. The market absorbs Blockbuster's stock, and at the same time, it starts negotiations with other Blockbuster shareholders to initiate a full acquisition."

Nancy is still hesitant: "If other capital initiates an acquisition of Blockbuster, it can be won within the current 15% premium. If we sell, the premium will hardly be lower than 20%, and the estimated expenditure may exceed 17 billion US dollars. Simon, frankly speaking, I don’t think Blockbuster is worth so much at least at this stage, and $15 billion is already the limit?”

Simon said: "Try to talk about the exchange of shares, this time the cash ratio should not exceed 30%."

According to the estimated transaction price of US$17 billion, 30% cash payment, minus the shares held by Daenerys Entertainment, the final cash expenditure will only need US$3.5 billion.

Amy said again at this time: "Simon, our adherence to the online operation strategy has already caused many shareholders to criticize. Daenerys' stock price during this period is obviously high in the eyes of many people, and they will definitely want more cash. , 30% is probably hard to talk about."

Theoretically, the stock obtained through the exchange of shares is equivalent to cash, and it seems that there is still so much cash after cashing out.

actually not.

In order to avoid immediate large-scale sell-offs and impact on stock prices, the stocks acquired through share swaps and acquisitions usually also have a lock-up period.

Daenerys Entertainment currently has a market value of more than 370 billion US dollars. Even compared with the market value of 569.1 billion US dollars at its peak last year, the cumulative decline has reached 35%, and the price-earnings ratio of about 70 times is still too high. If the transaction is completed, the stock price of Daenerys Entertainment will continue to fall, which will naturally mean that the market value of the stock exchanged will shrink, and there will be no loss.

Simon is not worried about this: "The problem now is that most of the other shareholders of Blockbuster are not optimistic about our strategy, so they are the ones who want to exit, and those people should understand that selling the stock to us , it is more cost-effective than keeping it in our own hands or selling it to other capitals, in short, we insist on our own price."

Seeing that Simon had made up his mind, Nancy said, "In this case, I will try my best to make Blockbuster's financial report for the next quarter less ugly."

The control of Blockbuster is still in the hands of Daenerys Entertainment. It is not easy to do a good job in a company, but there are too many ways to screw it up.

Blockbuster is related to all aspects of Simon's future for at least two decades.

Long-term layout, short-term ups and downs are irrelevant, and there is no objection to Nancy's proposal.

Amy said: "Simon, I remember you also said that if you can't completely eat it, you can also take the absolute controlling stake in Blockbuster. In this way, the price we pay will be much less?"

"This is also a choice," Simon said, "However, if possible, try not to do this. Even if we have absolute control, if we continue to forcibly recommend our own operating strategy, we will still be criticized by other shareholders. We will definitely win the whole it's the best."

Daenerys Entertainment Group is very large, coupled with Simon's long-established prestige and a high percentage of shares in this company, even if it has been listed, it is still Simon's word here.

Blockbuster is different.

Simon doesn't want to implement his online leasing and future streaming media plans step by step, with a group of small shareholders who are constantly chattering behind him.

The three discussed some details. After talking about the matter, Amy left the meeting room wisely, leaving only Simon and Nancy.

Sensing the change in the gaze of the man opposite him, the petite executive lowered his eyes slightly and pretended to pack up the documents in front of him, while saying: "The box office of "Titanic" was so high in the past week, it seems that the local market has at least 600 million US dollars." ?”

"The local is second, and the overseas is the big one," Simon replied, and then changed the subject: "How about we fly to Mexico after get off work, I'm at the manor in San Lucas, and spend the weekend together?"

Nancy glanced at someone: "Is it just the two of us?"

"It's up to you."

"I..." Nancy didn't pretend to be coy, she considered her appetite a little and said, "I'm only staying for one night, and I'll be back tomorrow."

If she really spent a weekend with a certain animal, Nancy felt that there was a good chance that she would break down.

Of course Simon didn't force it: "Okay."

Thinking of something, Nancy curled her lips and said, "Then, you can fool around for the rest of the time."

"You can stay and promise that no one else will appear to disturb us."

Nancy crumpled a ball of paper and threw it over, her voice revealing a bit of unconscious coquettishness: "Bad guy, you want to murder, but I don't want to commit suicide yet."

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