nashuaworldcup Chapter 972 Compared to that, what is $185 billion?
Chapter 972 Compared to that, what is $185 billion?
Lin Haoran was somewhat disappointed that Universal Pictures was not a possibility for acquisition, as he had originally harbored a tiny bit of hope for this leading Hollywood giant.
But thinking about it, it's quite normal. Universal Pictures is the current leader in Hollywood, with the largest market share, so there's simply no room for them to acquire it.
Even if there were an opportunity to acquire it, the cost would be extremely high, making it completely unnecessary.
This is reality.
Lin Haoran put the Universal Pictures file aside and picked up the next file.
This is a document from Paramount Pictures.
Paramount Pictures ranks second in Hollywood market share, second only to Universal Pictures.
According to data provided by Citigroup, Paramount Pictures has been 100% owned by Gulf Western Industries since 1966 and is the group's core entertainment division.
In 1982, with several blockbuster films such as "An Officer and a Gentleman" and "Friday the 13th Part 3", it took the second place in the North American market share. It is the group's cash cow business and there is absolutely no intention to sell it. It will be privatized and wholly owned, with no circulating shares. Neither friendly nor hostile takeovers are possible!
Lin Haoran is not interested in companies that offer no acquisition opportunities.
He directly placed Paramount Pictures' information on top of Universal Pictures' information.
Next up is information about Orion Pictures.
This company no longer exists because it went bankrupt in 1991 and was broken up by its competitors.
In this era, Orion Pictures is undoubtedly one of the eight giants. Although it was founded in 1978 and has only been around for nearly five years, it has top-notch connections, project judgment, and a mature distribution system because its founders are top Hollywood professionals. It was led by three senior executives, including the former president of United Artists, and jointly invested with former Warner executives.
This group consists of Hollywood's old elites; they understand content, capital, and rules, and they started as near-top-tier studios.
Moreover, Orion is one of the few independent film production companies that can manage the entire chain of production, distribution, and home video, without relying on other major film studios' channels. It has the autonomy to set prices, produce films, and control cash flow, and its distribution network covers theaters across the United States and major overseas markets.
However, in the future, the company expanded too much and most of its business segments were not profitable. Ultimately, due to talent loss and financial collapse, it went bankrupt and was broken up in 1991.
Therefore, this giant disappeared into the annals of history decades later.
According to Citigroup, Orion Pictures currently has no controlling shareholder, with its equity highly dispersed among Wall Street institutions and retail investors. Management holds only a small number of shares, and there are no anti-takeover clauses or defensive barriers.
If Lin Haoran wants to acquire it, he can do so through a friendly takeover with the cooperation of management, or he can launch a public tender offer. Its market value is not very high, about $2 to $3 million. Citigroup predicts that Lin Haoran can acquire Orion Pictures with an all-cash investment of about $2.5 million.
However, due to its short history of less than 5 years, Orion's film library is not large, and it has very few valuable IPs.
The most famous one is "The Amityville Horror". As for other IPs such as "Perfect 10", "Crazy Golf", and "Time Travel", they are not valuable assets at all.
After reading Orian's information, Lin Haoran shook his head and placed the information on top of the Paramount Pictures information.
Although this company has low acquisition barriers and low prices, its film library has limited value and its long-term development potential is not great.
Moreover, he knew that the company would go bankrupt in a decade or so, and that if he acquired it now, unless he could completely reverse the business strategy, it would be difficult to avoid repeating the same mistakes.
Instead of wasting time and energy trying to rebuild a new company with an unstable foundation, it would be better to concentrate resources on established giants like MGM.
Therefore, this company can be ruled out!
Lin Haoran did not stop what he was doing and picked up the next document.
The next document is from 20th Century Fox.
Currently, this Hollywood giant ranks fourth in market share and was wholly owned by oil tycoon Marvin Davis and financier Marc Rich in 1981, each holding 50% of the shares.
According to Citibank data, the two individuals completed the acquisition just over a year ago and are currently in the asset integration period, with no plans to actively sell at present.
Davis, a multi-billionaire oil tycoon, is not short of money and ordinary premiums cannot sway him; Richie is busy with global commodity trading and has no intention of selling his Hollywood assets.
Therefore, Citigroup's final assessment was that only by offering an exorbitant price far exceeding the market valuation could there be any theoretical possibility of negotiation, and they did not recommend the acquisition!
After reading the information, Lin Haoran placed it above the information on Universal Pictures, Paramount Pictures, and other companies with some regret.
To be honest, he really wanted 20th Century Fox. The intellectual property that the company owned was simply drool-worthy. They had classic IPs such as Star Wars, Alien, Planet of the Apes, Die Hard, and The Sound of Music. Any one of them could be a cash cow.
In particular, "Star Wars," George Lucas's space opera, raked in $7.7 million worldwide after its release in 1977, and its sequels "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" were also box office bombs.
This one series alone is enough to feed us for decades.
The problem is, they won't sell.
Marvin Davis is an oil tycoon with a net worth of billions of dollars; he's not short of money at all.
Although Marc Ritchie is not as famous as Davis, he is also a big name in the global commodities trading industry and is equally wealthy.
The two had just joined forces to acquire 20th Century Fox and had great ambitions, so how could they possibly have the intention to sell?
Unless Lin Haoran offers a price far exceeding the market valuation, such as a premium of one or even two times, it is impossible to sway them.
However, it would be unnecessary for Lin Haoran to spend $30 billion, $40 billion, or even more to buy a 20th Century Fox.
Lin Haoran sighed and picked up the next document.
This document belongs to Columbia Pictures.
Lin Haoran couldn't help but browse through it carefully, because he remembered that Columbia Pictures was eventually acquired by Sony in 1989 and was later renamed Sony Pictures Entertainment.
While Colombia's top-tier IPs aren't particularly outstanding, it boasts a plethora of mid-budget hit IPs.
Founded in 1924, Columbia Pictures has been around for nearly 60 years and owns top-tier IPs such as "Dragon Boys" and "Ghostbusters".
While its film library may not have the top-tier IPs like Star Wars, Alien, and Planet of the Apes that 20th Century Fox possesses, it boasts a large quantity and wide variety of genres, and enjoys stable revenue in the television broadcasting and home video markets.
If he could, he would naturally be willing to target Sony and acquire Columbia Pictures ahead of time.
However, after Lin Haoran read the information carefully, he frowned.
According to reports, just on June 22, 1982, Coca-Cola had acquired Columbia Pictures for $750 million. Coca-Cola wanted to use the film and television content for advertising, and it also coveted Columbia's copyright revenue.
Moreover, the recently released film "My Fair Lady" is currently experiencing a box office boom in North America, and Coca-Cola is in a honeymoon period after the acquisition, extremely satisfied with the return on this investment. Citigroup analysis suggests that Coca-Cola has absolutely no intention of selling, meaning there is no room for negotiation!
Lin Haoran looked at the information and couldn't help but sigh.
$7.5 million is not too expensive for Lin Haoran, and he wouldn't even care about a 30% premium. The problem is that Coca-Cola has just completed the acquisition and is in the honeymoon period. They are very satisfied with the deal. It would be pointless to talk about acquisitions at this time.
Lin Haoran couldn't help but carefully recall Sony's acquisition of Columbia in his later years.
The reason Coca-Cola ultimately sold Columbia Pictures to Sony was likely due to the epic losses Columbia suffered in 1987 with its big-budget film, "One Flew Over the City."
The film cost a whopping $55 million to make, but its box office was a paltry $14.3 million, essentially a global flop. Including other expenses, it suffered a net loss of nearly $50 million.
While such losses wouldn't have a substantial impact on Columbia Pictures, Coca-Cola's annual net profit was around $10 billion at the time, so losing 5% of that profit on a single film naturally enraged shareholders. Coca-Cola's stock price was also affected, which likely triggered the sale of Columbia Pictures.
In other words, he could acquire Columbia Pictures, but the time is not right yet.
Once he has businesses in Hollywood and is fully aware of the situation there, it won't be too late to make his move then.
Colombia is now in Coca-Cola's hands, like an undercooked steak that's served hot and unappetizing.
The best time to make a move will be when Coca-Cola loses patience due to the uncertainties in the film industry, and when shareholders begin to question why they should waste their energy on a film company.
So, although it's a bit of a shame that there's no acquisition window at the moment, Lin Haoran isn't disappointed.
Sooner or later, he will beat Sony to the punch and take over Columbia!
Setting aside the information about Colombia, Lin Haoran picked up the remaining two documents and began to examine them.
One is Warner Bros., and the other is Walt Disney.
Warner Bros. was 100% owned by Warner Communications in 1969 and was the core business of the group. Legendary CEO Steve Ross firmly controlled the company, which had a highly concentrated shareholding and extremely stringent anti-takeover clauses.
Last year, Warner Bros.' performance was stable, and its market share remained among the top five. It was the core profit pillar of the group and had no intention of selling. Hostile takeovers could not break through its defenses and there was no possibility of acquisition.
As for Walt Disney, the core controlling stake is held by the Disney family and their family trust, with Ron Miller, the son-in-law of founder Walt Disney, serving as CEO, firmly controlling the company's operations. Moreover, the company has set up multiple defense mechanisms against hostile takeovers.
Based on available information, Disney possesses top-tier global IP and brand barriers, and the family has an extremely strong obsession with controlling the company, making it absolutely impossible for them to sell it.
Although Disney's performance last year was not strong among the Big Eight, ranking only 7th in market share, its cash flow was stable and there was no operational crisis.
Lin Haoran finished reading the information on the eight Hollywood giants in less than an hour.
Based on this information, only MGM and Orion are currently the only companies that can be acquired.
As for the other six giants, if Lin Haoran wants to acquire them in the future, he can only wait and see.
20th Century Fox needs to wait for Marvin Davis or Marc Ritchie to face a financial crisis, or for the two to have a falling out.
Colombia needs to wait for Coca-Cola to lose patience due to the uncertainties in the film and television industry.
Unless their parent companies undergo major strategic adjustments or financial crises, it is highly unlikely that Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros., and Disney will be able to achieve this.
As for Orion, although it is cheap and has a low acquisition threshold, it should be the company with the lowest acquisition difficulty if Lin Haoran wants to make a move.
However, Orion Films' film library has limited value and little potential for long-term development. Moreover, Lin Haoran knows that it will go bankrupt in a dozen years, so even if it is cheap, it is not worth investing in.
The only remaining option is MGM!
Lin Haoran took out the MGM documents separately, and put the other seven documents back into his handbag.
He leaned back in his chair and carefully reviewed MGM's information again. In fact, if he successfully acquired MGM in the United States this time, it would be a good investment.
Although MGM's film division is currently experiencing losses, its Las Vegas hotel business generates over $100 million in profit annually. This stable cash flow is sufficient to cover most of the debt interest, and coupled with licensing revenue from its film library, the company's fundamentals are not bad.
Moreover, after the acquisition, he can completely reorganize MGM Studios. Although MGM has a huge film library, Kirk Kocorian has only been focused on running the Las Vegas hotels in recent years and has hardly paid attention to the film sector, leaving many classic IPs dormant.
As long as he injects funds and revitalizes these IPs, MGM's film division can completely turn a profit!
Most importantly, he has a lot of future classic movie IPs in his mind, such as Terminator, Back to the Future, Jurassic Park, Fast and Furious, and many superhero IPs, such as Spider-Man, X-Men, and Avengers. Although most of these IPs are currently dormant in the piles of comic book companies or have not been created at all, Lin Haoran knows their future value.
All he needs to do is acquire the adaptation rights to these IPs at the right time and at the right price, then hand them over to the MGM team for development, or describe the plot orally based on his memories from his previous life, have a professional screenwriter refine the script, and then invest in filming. This is a sure-fire way to make money.
Now that he had traveled through time and possessed a perspective decades ahead of his time, he naturally couldn't waste it.
He knows which movies will be hits, while others don't; he knows which intellectual property rights are valuable, while others don't.
This information gap is his biggest advantage in establishing himself in Hollywood.
Compared to that, what is MGM's debt?
Of course, this method should not be overused. Using it occasionally is fine, but using it too often will inevitably arouse suspicion.
But even seizing just a few key opportunities would be enough to transform MGM's film division.
For example, Michael Christon's novel *Jurassic Park* wasn't published until 1990, and Spielberg's film wasn't released until 1993.
What would it have been like if he had acquired the adaptation rights to this novel a few years earlier and started the project sooner?
Similarly, the Harry Potter series of novels wasn't published until 1997, but J.K. Rowling should still be in London now.
If he could find her sooner...
These thoughts flashed through Lin Haoran's mind, but he did not delve into them further.
These are all things that happened after the acquisition of MGM. There's no point in thinking about them too much now. The most important thing right now is to acquire MGM Studios.
According to available information, MGM's owner, Kirk Corrian, currently holds 47% of MGM Studios and 52% of MGM Grand Hotels & Resorts.
The two companies have effectively been split up by Kirkko Corian, but according to Citigroup's professional analysis, Kirkko Corian will not hesitate to sell all of his shares in the two MGM companies if the price is right.
MGM Studios, with its extremely high debt ratio, could theoretically be sold for $1.5 million. However, if a quick deal were to be made, a price of $2 million would be readily accepted.
As for the other MGM hotel business, a reasonable negotiable deal would be between $3.6 million and $4.2 million.
If the investment reaches $4.5 million, the acquisition will face absolutely no obstacles. In other words, as long as Lin Haoran is willing to offer around $6.5 million, he can buy MGM Studios and MGM Hotels from Kirk Kocorian and gain absolute control.
If Lin Haoran wants to completely privatize the two companies under MGM, he will need to acquire the remaining shares.
The remaining 53% stake in MGM Studios is held by Wall Street institutional investors, which would cost approximately $1.7 million at current market value.
The remaining 48% stake in MGM's hotel business is also held by institutional investors, which would cost approximately $3.8 million at current market value.
Including the approximately $6.5 million needed to acquire Kirk Kocorian's shares, the total cost is just over $11 billion. Adding MGM's $7.5 million debt, the total cost is approximately $18.5 billion.
Lin Haoran could accept this price.
$18.5 billion was enough to completely privatize a century-old Hollywood giant, plus two large casino hotels in Las Vegas. In today's world, that price would be considered a steal.
Lin Haoran made his decision in his heart almost without hesitation.
Today, he has over $40 billion in cash at his disposal, so what is $18.5 billion in comparison?
Lin Haoran put away the MGM information, stood up, stretched, and then walked to the window.
The study in the hotel suite had a small window, but it still offered a view of the other side of Manhattan.
This direction is no longer just about skyscrapers, but rather the shimmering surface of the Hudson River in the distance, and the low skyline of New Jersey on the opposite bank.
The afternoon sun shone on the river, like a layer of scattered gold, a sight so beautiful it was breathtaking.
Having set his goal, Lin Haoran was in a good mood.
Although he only has one target for now, which is a bit of a pity, he may still have opportunities with other giants in the future.
However, none of that is urgent; let's take care of what's in front of us first! (End of Chapter)