Lionsgate, Navas hurried into the office of his boss, Frank Gusta.

"What's the matter?" Frank Gusta, seeing Navas's face full of anxiety, asked, "In a hurry?"

Navas couldn't sit down, and hurriedly said: "Chairman, I just got the news that the people of Relativity Entertainment are in contact with Artisan Pictures, and Robert Iger's subordinates have already interviewed several shareholders of Artisan Pictures, and someone saw with their own eyes that Robert Iger himself went to Artisan Pictures yesterday. ”

Frank Gusta was rather surprised: "What?Relativity Entertainment?" he reassured himself and asked, "Are you sure Relativity Entertainment is interested in Artisan Pictures." ”

Navas said without hesitation: "I have checked with someone, Robert Iger and Emile Marin talked about something, but Robert Egger's subordinates met with several shareholders of Artisan Pictures, and they talked about equity transactions. ”

Frank Gusta has calmed down: "Relativity Entertainment wants to buy Artisan Pictures. ”

"Yes. Navas continued: "Now you can be sure of that. ”

He then asked, "Chairman, what should we do? We've been making preparations for almost half a year, so we can't let Relativity Entertainment take the lead, right?"

Frank Gusta raised his hand and silenced Navas for a moment.

Since August last year, Lionsgate has received news that Artisan Pictures has an intention to sell the company, and after several discussions, Frank Gusta has decided to make the acquisition of Artisan Pictures one of the important plans for the future, and at the same time hire a third-party agency to start evaluating Artisan Pictures.

Buying a company with assets of hundreds of millions of dollars is not a simple matter, and it is not a decision made this month and the transaction can be completed next month.

Lionsgate's preparations have been going on in secret, and Frank Gusta has raised funds from several Canadian banks to fund the acquisition.

According to Lionsgate's plan, it will soon formally approach Artisan Pictures and strive to complete the acquisition in the first half of 2004.

Who would have thought that suddenly jumped out of a relativistic entertainment!

Frank Gusta thinks about it carefully, Relativity Entertainment is not a sudden jump, the first to cooperate with Lionsgate, Lionsgate released Relativity Entertainment's Shahai Entertainment's "Human Eradication Project", and later the two companies also cooperated, but more of a competition, there were several times Lionsgate seemed to win Relativity Entertainment, and the result was a big loss.

Let's just say that "City of God", which has a good reputation and is scary to death, ranks on various annual top ten lists, but for Lionsgate, which bought out the rights in North America, it is a standard money-losing product.

I don't know how many years it will take to recoup the cost of buying out the copyright.

It seems that in the competition with Relativity Entertainment, Lionsgate has never been cheap, and sometimes it seems to win, but the result is the same as "City of God", and it still loses in the end.

Frank Gusta suddenly asked Navas, "Who is stronger Lionsgate or Relativity Entertainment?"

Navas hesitated a little, but chose to tell the truth: "Relativity entertainment is stronger." ”

"So, Artisan Pictures is even more important to Lionsgate. Frank Gusta emphasized, "If Lionsgate wants to grow, it needs a much better distribution channel than it does now, especially overseas. In the same way, we also need the film library of Artisan Pictures, which is the foundation of a film company and the foundation for continuous and stable income. ”

His tone became extremely tough: "Whether it is facing the competition of Relativity Entertainment or the bidding of the six major companies, we cannot give up Artisan Pictures." ”

"Chairman, I've dealt with Ronan Anderson a lot and I'm not someone who gives up easily, and we need to be prepared, especially the money," Navas said. ”

Frank Gusta nodded and said, "I'll figure out how to solve the funding." ”

In the past two years, Lionsgate has developed, but it has not been particularly smooth, and the funds have been relatively tight, and Frank Gusta has already raised a fund in the secondary market for this purpose, but most of the funds raised have been invested in film projects, and the company's internal funds are not abundant.

Fortunately, since preparing to acquire Artisan Pictures, Frank Gusta has been trying to raise funds, and in nearly half a year, he has also prepared a fund of nearly $300 million.

Originally, raising some more would almost complete the plan to acquire Artisan Films.

But with the advent of Relativity Entertainment, I'm afraid more money will have to be raised.

Navas reminded at this time: "Chairman, we have to speed up the plan and act quickly." ”

Frank Gusta is also a decisive person, and he said directly: "You approach Emile Marin, and if the opportunity is right, make an offer, and increase it by ten percent from our initial estimate, up to a maximum of $350 million." ”

Navas knew it was a critical moment and immediately said, "I'm going to contact Artisan Pictures." ”

That afternoon, Navas walked into Artisan Pictures and met Emile Marin.

Just one day later, Lionsgate made a $330 million offer to Artisan Pictures and held a press conference to publicly announce Lionsgate's plan to acquire Artisan Pictures.

This news is somewhat surprising, because Lionsgate itself is not large, at best comparable to Artisan Pictures.

On the day Lionsgate officially contacted Artisan Pictures, Relativity Entertainment received news that Robert Iger had already prepared, this was not an acquisition of a small company, but a large and influential Hollywood Artisan Pictures, and it was strange that there were no competitors.

Judging from his contact with Emil Marin and the preliminary negotiations between Relativity Entertainment and Artisan Pictures, even if Relativity Entertainment makes a low-key acquisition and has no competitors for the time being, Artisan Pictures will make a high-profile noise to attract competitors.

Now it's Lionsgate that jumps out, not the Big Six or anything like that, and there's not a lot of pressure on Robert Iger and Relativity Entertainment.

Considering the situation at Lionsgate, Robert Iger also thought of a solution.

Of course, if you can solve it yourself, Relativity Entertainment doesn't want to ask for trouble.

Since mid-January, Relativity Entertainment's acquisition team has begun formal negotiations with Artisan Pictures, which has another team in talks with Lionsgate.

The emergence of Lionsgate also represents the transfer of this acquisition from the dark to the light, and the minority shareholders of Artisan Pictures quickly joined together for their own interests, temporarily giving up private contact with Relativity Entertainment, hoping that their shares could be sold at a better price.

No one is stupid, no one's money is blown by the wind, and they all want to complete the deal in the way that best suits their interests.

The professional team is talking, and the contact at the highest level has not been interrupted.

After several contacts, Robert Iger found Emile Marin again, who is not only the chairman and largest shareholder of Artisan Pictures, but also the representative of many shareholders.

In fact, as long as the general transaction price is negotiated at the top level, the following negotiations will immediately make flying progress.

In the reception room of Artisan Pictures, Robert Iger looked at Emile Marin and said: "The third-party valuation of your company is $300 million, and based on the fact that your company has only made more than $12 million a year in the past three years, Relativity Entertainment is willing to offer a premium of $340 million to acquire." ”

In an acquisition like this, it is impossible to acquire it at actual value.

Emile Marin said: "Bob, I remind you that although Artisan Pictures has not released a hit film in recent years, it has been able to generate a steady profit every year. He strengthened his tone: "Artisan Pictures is a profitable company!"

A premium acquisition is inevitable, and Robert Iger is well aware of this, calmly saying: "The premium offered by Relativity Entertainment has exceeded your company's expected profit for three years. ”

The price is fair, and if Lionsgate hadn't joined the fray, Emile Marin would have been tempted.

But Emil Marin was unwavering and said lightly: "I'm not afraid to tell you the truth, Lionsgate offered $350 million, but I rejected it." ”

"Artisan Pictures has been your work for many years. Robert Iger wouldn't be stupid enough to raise the price outright, saying: "Lionsgate hasn't been doing very well, and it's a well-known fact in Hollywood, where too many studios have gone bankrupt." Mr. Marin, do you want to leave your years of hard work to an unstable company?"

Emile Martin was moved, from founding Artisan Pictures many years ago to growing step by step, he invested not only time and energy, but also his own feelings.

If it weren't for the old age, Artisan Pictures was also in trouble, and Emile Marin would not have agreed to sell the company.

This emotion did not last a few seconds, and Emile Martin's businessman nature finally overwhelmed his feelings for the company, saying: "I will retire soon, and Artisan Pictures will complete the deal, and I will have nothing to do with it anymore." ”

Robert Iger sighed secretly, it was really too difficult to impress the old fox who had worked hard in business for decades with his feelings.

The interview between the two was a bit deadlocked, and Robert Iger suddenly thought of last year's Universal Pictures Entertainment Group, which fanned the flames everywhere last year and used various conditions to make profits, and now Lionsgate is not playing its role last year?

There is some truth in what Ronan said, and he always has to pay it back when he comes out.

Robert Iger didn't make any more hasty offers, and later used words to temporarily stabilize Emile Marin, and began to consider whether there was another way to achieve the goal.

News about Artisan Pictures quickly spread in Hollywood, attracting the attention of many people and companies, as well as companies like Relativity Entertainment and Lionsgate that were interested in Artisan Pictures.

Artisan Pictures' film library and decades of building distribution channels in North America and overseas are intriguing.