PS: VIP is blocked, this chapter is a free chapter, and there will be no duplicate subscriptions

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After eating something, Simon got up and began to socialize in the crowd.

Janet is not with Simon, and Sandra unceremoniously begins to make a cameo appearance as his female companion, and Courtney knows that her relationship with Simon is not close enough to this level of intimacy, and she takes the initiative to leave with interest.

Sandra waited for Simon to chat with Mike Meadow, president of Orion Pictures, and the two walked to the villa together and asked, "When are you going to Australia?"

Simon raised his glass to a guest who was not too familiar, did not stop, and said, "The day after tomorrow." ”

"The day after tomorrow?" Sandra was a little surprised: "In such a hurry?"

"It's not in a hurry, it's been arranged a long time ago," Simon looked at Sandra's surprised look and said, "I'll probably stay in Melbourne for more than three months, if you have time, you can come to visit the class." ”

Sandra's eyes searched nearby, and she pretended to be worried: "Australia is Jenny's home base, her family is still mining, will I be arrested and filled in the pit if I go?"

Simon nodded with a heavy expression: "Very likely." ”

When Sandra saw Simon's appearance, she became dissatisfied again, and said, "You don't care?"

Simon had a smile on the corner of his mouth, but his tone was very embarrassed: "It's not easy to manage, her family has a lot of mines, and some of them are still in Africa." ”

Sandra rolled her eyes: "Bastard." ”

Laughing like this, Simon came to Wes Craven, the director of "Scream", and started talking.

Although the two sides previously had some friction over the director's salary for the sequel to "Scream", after some consideration, Wes Craven still accepted the $15 million package salary for the two sequels of Daenerys Entertainment.

Apparently, Wes Craven was not carried away by the success of Scream, repeating his exit from the Ghost Street series. The director's salary of $15 million for the two sequels is already difficult to reach higher for horror films.

After chatting a few words, Simon and Sandra were about to move on, and Nancy Brill, the president of the consumer products division who had just joined Daenerys Entertainment some time ago, walked over with a middle-aged man about fifty years old and a little fat.

"Nancy, you're so beautiful tonight," Simon shook hands with Nancy Brill and looked at the middle-aged man curiously, waiting for Nancy's initiative to explain.

Nancy Brill smiled and shook Simon's hand, then said hello to Sandra before saying, "Simon, this is Mr. Wayne Hueyzanga, who is the chairman of Blockbuster." ”

Simon originally thought that this middle-aged man was Nancy Brill's husband, and sighed in his heart that a flower was inserted in cow dung, and after listening to Nancy's introduction, he realized that he had misunderstood.

After talking about the possibility of getting involved in the video chain business at the last meeting, Nancy has been gathering information on Daenerys Entertainment Consumer Products while juggling it. It can be seen that this woman is not willing to be in charge of just one consumer goods department.

Simon actually likes ambitious women, especially ambitious beautiful women. Of course, the premise is that they need to have the ability to match. Although he doesn't know Nancy too well, Simon can basically tell that this is a very capable woman.

Thinking so, Simon did not hesitate, stretched out his hand to Wayne Huyzzanga, and said with a smile: "Hello, Mr. Hueyzanga, your surname is really special. ”

"Hello Simon, the surname Westeros is really unique," Wayne Hueyzanga shook Simon's hand with a smile, and then added obviously, "Our family is a Nordic immigrant, and Hueyzanga is a Dutch surname." ”

Simon suddenly said: "Nordic surnames, I know some, they seem to be quite awkward." ”

During a casual conversation with Wayne Huizzanga, Simon's mind also came up with the details of Blockbuster.

The company was founded in 1985 by a Texas-based software engineer named David Cook, but after just over a year in business, David Cook sold Blockbuster and exited the company.

Wayne Huizzanga, who runs a garbage transport business, discovered the company, bought Blockbuster with several other partners, and began investing heavily in its expansion earlier this year. In just one year, Blockbuster has grown from dozens of chain stores to 386 on Simon's recent data, growing at a rate of almost one per day.

At this time, the cost of investing in a video tape rental and sales store was about $500,000, which was considered other expenses, but in just one year, Wayne Hueyzanga and several of his partners had invested nearly $200 million.

However, judging from the revenue data of previous quarters, in 1988, Blockbuster's total turnover was only about 130 million US dollars, because of the continuous large-scale investment, the annual financial report was naturally loss-making.

Wayne Hueyzanga was also self-made at the time, with more than 20 years in business and less than $300 million in personal assets, so he could no longer continue to support BestView's rapid expansion, even if he shared the investment with several other partners, Blockbuster still accumulated as much as $80 million in debt in the past year.

Now, the North American stock market has not fully recovered, and Blockbuster is not suitable for raising funds through listing, and if it wants to continue its current expansion frequency, Wayne Huizzanga can only seek other investors to take shares.

In my memory, 5 years later, Blockbuster was acquired by Viacom for a huge amount of more than $8 billion, and now Blockbuster's valuation will not exceed $300 million in all aspects of its conditions, and its share of the North American video tape chain market is less than 5%.

So, while Simon has always had concerns about the videotape chain, this is definitely the best time to enter Blockbuster, and it will certainly bring very good returns.

Because it was a New Year's Eve party to celebrate entertainment, Simon didn't discuss too formal issues with Wayne Hueyzanga. After making an appointment for tomorrow morning's meeting, Wayne Hueyzanga took the initiative to leave.

Simon looked at Wayne Huyzzanga's figure and walked away, looked at Nancy, and said, "How's the talk?"

The day after tomorrow is to leave for Australia, Simon has no time to see Wayne Huey Zangara. At tomorrow's meeting, the two sides will basically determine whether they can reach a cooperation. Prior to this, Simon had instructed Nancy and Wayne Hueyzanga to consult.

"He initially wanted to be able to get $100 million in investment from Daenerys Entertainment by transferring a 30% stake in Blockbuster, and I talked about 35%, $120 million," said Nancy Brill. Simon, we're not the only company interested in investing in Blockbuster, as Summer-Raystone's Viacom Group has been in contact with Wayne Hueyzenga. ”

Simon thought for a moment and said, "$120 million shouldn't be enough for Blockbuster's expansion next year, right?"

Blockbuster has invested $200 million this year, and continues to grow at the rate of one store per day, the number of Blockbuster stores by the end of next year is estimated to reach 800, even if the company's own revenue will offset some of the financial pressure, but next year's investment should not be less than $200 million.

Nancy shook her head and explained, "It's not enough, but the transfer of 35% of the shares is already the limit of what Wayne Hueyzanga and others can accept, and they don't want to lose control of this company." Viacom just wanted to get more shares, so the two sides couldn't negotiate. As for the remaining funds, Blockbuster should settle through loans, and if necessary, they may bring in other investors or conduct an early IPO. ”

Simon nodded slightly.

If Daenerys Entertainment is now in desperate need of funds, even if he owns 100% of the factory, Simon is only willing to transfer 35% of the shares.

Wayne Hueyzanga, along with other partners, owns the company Blockbuster, and no one originally held more than 30% of the shares, and Daenerys Entertainment spent $120 million to get a 35% stake in the company, which should already be the largest shareholder of the company.

It is conceivable that in tomorrow's talks, Wayne Hueyzanga will definitely put forward the clause that Daenerys Entertainment must not excessively interfere with Blockbuster's operation as a major shareholder.

However, if he can't meddle in Blockbuster's operations, Simon really doesn't have much confidence in the company's long-term development.

David Cook previously founded Blockbuster, only to a certain extent to imitate Wal-Mart's warehousing logistics and information co-ordination system, this management and operation model was very successful in the first few years of Blockbuster's expansion, but the development and change of the video rental and sales industry is much faster than that of supermarket stores, entering the nineties, Blockbuster's business strategy at this time will soon seem out of place.

In my memory, an important inflection point in BesTV's development was its acquisition by Viacom five years later.

Since then, under the control of Somer Leishidong, who no longer has enough energy to manage Viacom's business empire, Blockbuster has continued to grow in size, but in fact it has been declining, as is the case with the entire Viacom Group.

Although Blockbuster still existed until Simon's rebirth, compared to its successor, Netflix, the two are completely different.

In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past, Blockbuster will have to adjust its development strategy at any time in the course of its development in the next few years. Simon has not the slightest confidence that Wayne Hueyzanga is capable of this. Therefore, if Simon wants to get involved in the video tape chain business for a long time, it is obviously the best choice to snatch control of Blockbuster.

However, this matter is not in a hurry.

Now is the most important thing to get a 35% stake in Blockbuster first, and Daenerys Entertainment only needs to make sure that this stake is not diluted in the next few years, and if necessary, Simon has enough leverage to seize control of Blockbuster.

Simon was talking to Nancy in a low voice, and a hearty greeting rang out next to him.

Turning around and seeing that it was Robert Redford, Simon smiled and said, "Bob, I'm so glad you were able to come over tonight, how are you doing?"

"Very well, Simon," Robert Redford shook Simon's hand and said, "I saw that "Metropolitan, a movie with a lot of ideas." ”

Simon smiled, although Sundance only accepted one movie from Daenerys Entertainment this year, he has no resentment towards Redford, everyone is in the circle, Redford is also one of the most important stars of CAA, and he cannot be completely unaffected by the people around him.

Moreover, after all, this Hollywood celebrity helped him a lot at the beginning, except for "Lola Run" unexpectedly pushed the Sundance Film Festival into the fast lane of development, Simon himself did not repay the other party much, and after careful calculation, he actually owes Redford some favors.

After chatting casually about the recent situation, Redford restrained his expression a little, lowered his voice a little, and said: "Simon, there is one more thing, Michael hopes to talk to you in person, are you free tomorrow?"

The Michael in Redford's mouth is naturally Michael Ovitz, president of CAA.

Recently, "Rainman" has been unexpectedly popular at the box office, and CAA's situation in this turmoil is very embarrassing. Moreover, CAA should have felt the complete ban on its artists by Daenerys Entertainment by now.

Not to mention anything else, it's just that at tonight's cocktail party, except for a few people such as Redford who have cooperated, Daenerys Entertainment did not invite CAA's other obvious, and the big names at the party are basically obvious under companies such as MA and ICM.

Daenerys Entertainment and CAA have never publicly torn their faces, and Simon and Ovitz have met several times that can even be described as pleasant, but, after a series of entanglements in "Rain Man", the huge rift between the two sides is almost universally known.

Ovitz asked Redford to help pass the word this time, probably considering that he was likely to be rejected by Simon if he contacted this side in person. If Ovitz had been able to dissuade Barry Levinson and others from seeing through their faces, if CAA hadn't made those small moves in private before the release of "Rain Man", and if CAA hadn't asked for a lot of money on Meg Ryan's issue, the two sides might have some room to maneuver.

Now, Simon will indeed turn the other down, and he feels that he and Ovitz have nothing to talk about.

As for the fact that this will completely fall out with CAA, Simon doesn't care too much. The very nature of a talent agency already determines its dependence on Hollywood studios, rather than dominance. To be sure, because CAA has continued to dramatically increase the cost of studios' film and television project budgets in recent years, even without this incident, Daenerys Entertainment and CAA are destined to go against each other because of their conflict of interest.

Although he had a good relationship with Redford, Simon couldn't agree to his lead without principle, so he shook his head regretfully and said, "I'm sorry, Bob, my schedule for tomorrow is full." ”

Redford didn't give up and said, "Simon, it's just a movie, not to mention that Daenerys Entertainment has been successful, so there's no need for everyone to be like this." ”

Because of his alienation from the world, Simon rarely gets too emotional about things, but at the same time, he has never been a forgiving person. How is it possible for one person to almost beat another person to vomit blood with various black punches in the back, and then want to reconcile with the words 'everyone doesn't have to do this'?

Shaking his head again, Simon smiled and changed the subject: "Bob, what are you planning to do in your next movie, I'm looking forward to it?"

Robert Redford could only sigh in his heart when he saw that he was turning around to no avail. Although he has some friendship with Simon, with Simon's current net worth, he doesn't feel that he can influence this young man too much. Now that the word has arrived, Redford didn't waste any more words.