Wang Jie sat in the back row of the auction hall, quietly watching the teams of several major companies participating in the auction take a stand.

The sudden announcement of the addition of the rights to The Lion King is also the result of careful consideration by Disney's top brass. In order to ensure that no other forces would come forward to make trouble during the auction process, Wang Jie hung the animation department's 'water cabbage' for more than a month. Calm down in the excitement and other emotions, and determine the final upper limit of the offer in detail according to their own financial situation, and even the possibility of a tandem between each company cannot be ruled out.

The people in the hall were almost gone, and Michael Eisner stepped down from the podium and sat down next to Eric, asking excitedly and expectantly, "William, how much do you think you can shoot this time?"

Wang Jie said: "It will definitely break through 2 billion US dollars, a few days ago, the unified boycott of the studio's reduction of remuneration by big-name stars should bring them some touch, and raise the price higher, after all, animated films can not only bring more revenue than live-action movies, but also the characters in them will not ask for high salaries like big-name stars, and they can also reduce their dependence on live-action movies." ”

Monica Bellucci, who was sitting on the other side of Wang Jie, also asked: "William, in this case, do you think it is possible to reach 3 billion?"

"It's unlikely," Wang Jie shook his head, although in his memory, the market value of Pixar animation in the original time and space immediately rushed to $1 billion after the success of "Toy Story", but the technical differences between hand-drawn animation and computer animation also limited the value of Disney's animation division: "Unless we expand the scope of copyright authorization for several animations such as "The Lion King", or even transfer the copyright completely, but Disneyland and Disney stores need the copyright of these animated characters, we can't do this." ”

A few people chatted casually, and the bidding team that had just left gradually returned to the hall, and half an hour later, Michael Eisner returned to the stage.

After a few brief words to liven up the atmosphere, Michael Eisner picked up the gavel and loudly announced the official start of the auction.

Then, there was a moment of silence in the hall, and no one seemed to intend to make the first move, and after a few seconds of stalemate, a middle-aged man sitting in the third row raised the number plate for the first time: "$1 billion." ”

Wang Jie looked over, and it was John Cali, the president of MGM, who was holding the sign, shook his head and smiled, he knew that MGM was completely here to join in the fun. Of course, John Carley's first sign must have some unrealistic fantasies, such as when other buyers hesitated, the small gavel in Michael Eisner's hand suddenly fell, then MGM would definitely happily snatch the animation department away with $1 billion, even if MGM has not fully recovered, Wang Jie believes that MGM's shareholders and creditors will not be stingy with the $1 billion.

The reality, of course, is that this is not possible.

"No. 9, $1 billion......" Michael Eisner gestured in the direction of John Kali, and before he could say more, another bidder had already raised his sign: "1,010,000,000." ”

The minimum bid for this time was $10 million, and although the second bidder only cautiously added $10 million, the competition began to heat up and the auction price began to break through.

1.3 billion, 1.5 billion, 1.7 billion, 1.9 billion......

Less than 10 minutes into the auction, with Summerey Shidong personally bidding $1.9 billion, more than half of the potential buyers in the auction hall have been eliminated, and only Paramount, Sony Columbia, Warner, and the soon-to-be-acquired Seagram Group are still active.

After obvious hesitation at the $1.9 billion price, Sony Colombia's president Joe Ross raised his number plate: "$2 billion!"

"Number four, from Sony Columbia Pictures, $2 billion," Michael Eisner's voice on the auction table rose again, full of demagogy: "I want to say that just one slice of 'The Lion King' can bring a $1 billion net profit to the studio." Therefore, $2 billion only represents the net profit of the two "Lion King", and I believe that it is only a matter of time before a brilliant team like Disney's animation department, which has been accumulated over half a century, produces a second, third or even more "The Lion King", then, $2 billion, the first ......."

Wang Jie listened to Michael Eisner's flickering efforts and looked in the direction of Paramount's team.

Lei Shidong is really getting older and more able to toss, Wang Jie sighed.

After the price rose to $2 billion, the frequency of bids from the audience was much slower, and many times, almost at the moment Michael Eisner dropped the hammer, the sound of quotations appeared in the audience.

After several rounds of bidding, after Paramount, Seagram's CEO Edgar Bronfman also chose to go out at the $2.2 billion price point, and in the end there were only two competitors left, Sony Columbia and Warner.

This result did not surprise Wang Jie, buying Universal is Sigram's first priority, if he gets the Disney animation department at an exorbitant price before buying Universal, it will mean that Seagram has fewer chips to buy Universal. If the animation division is won at a high price, but the acquisition of Universal fails, then Edgar Bronfman will cry without tears.

In the hall, Time Warner CEO Terry Semel once again shouted out a price of $2.33 billion, but Wang Jie could hear that compared to Joros, who was still high-spirited, Trissemel was no longer so neutral.

"It looks like the results are already clear," Monica Bellucci whispered beside Eric.

Wang Jie nodded slightly, listening to Sony's quick follow-up offer, and said: "Compared to Joros, Trissemel has been constrained too much. Only people like Steve Ross can fully control Time Warner, and the current situation within Time Warner is almost caused by Steve Ross, unless there is a long-awaited manager again, it will be impossible for Time Warner to stabilize for a long time in the future. ”

Monica Bellucci nodded in agreement when she heard this, but shook her head slightly, and said: "The kind of manager you said is unlikely to appear at all, the leaders of the current Warner Communications Company, Turner Broadcasting, Times Publishing Group and Warner Bros. Entertainment in the Time Warner system are very strong in their respective fields, and they will not agree with a new manager at all, let alone be willing to let the other party occupy the high position of CEO of Time Warner." Only a strong man like Steve Ross, who single-handedly created Time Warner, would make them bow down, but unfortunately, Rose died too soon. ”

Steve Ross is similar in age to Warren Buffett, Summerray Stone and Rupert Murdoch, all of whom are just over 60 years old.

Wang Jie glanced at Trissemele, who was hesitating again with Joros's offer, and said: "If I were a shareholder of Time Warner, since everyone couldn't twist the rope, I would rather choose to split the group." Otherwise, this long-term internal friction will only cause the decline of Time Warner's overall strength. ”

In the end, before 2018, the market value of Time Warner, which was originally on par with the Disney Group, was only about 50 billion, less than one-third of its heyday, while the market value of the Disney Group in the same period was once close to $200 billion.

Monica Bellucci said regretfully: "Everyone now thinks that the bigger the group, the better, and it is not easy for Time Warner to coexist peacefully, but it is also not easy for them to part ways." William, if some of the companies under your umbrella are too bloated in the future, will you be willing to break up the group?"

Wang Jie smiled and pointed to Michael Eisner on the stage and said, "Aren't I doing this now?"

Monica Bellucci said coquettishly: "That's different, aren't you making way for Pixar?" ”

The two chatted in a low voice, and the auction in the venue also entered the final stage, Wang Jie obviously heard Trisemel's tone almost trembling and quoted the price of $2.4 billion, looking up at Trisemel's back.

Before Wang Jie's gaze locked on Trisemel could be turned away, only after a brief hesitation, Joros raised the number plate in his hand on behalf of Sony Colombia and shouted with full anger: "$2.5 billion." ”

Warner's Terry Semel's shoulders visibly collapsed.

Michael Eisner on the stage said a few more words in confusion, and after counting three times in a row, Trisemel did not raise the card again, so he dropped the small gavel in his hand.

The tapping sounded, and Michael Eisner raised his voice, "Congratulations to Mr. Joros, Sony Columbia Pictures for the Disney Animation Division." ”

In the gradual applause, everyone in the stadium stood up, and many people walked towards the Colombian team.

Wang Jie also walked over with Monica Bellucci and others, and said congratulations enthusiastically.

The news of the successful auction of Disney's animation division for a sky-high price of $2.5 billion has once again caused a lot of media coverage. After the successful signing of the two parties, Joros announced the establishment of Paramount Animation while the iron was hot, and appointed Roger Elles, the director of "The Lion King", as the CEO of Sony's Columbia animation division, and Hayao Miyazaki as the executive director.

The day after Roger Elles got the CEO of Columbia Animation, he held another press conference, announcing that the sequel to "The Lion King", "Pocahonta" and "Mulan" brought from Disney were launched at the same time, which is quite aimed at the old club Disney.

The continuous positive news in a short period of time directly pushed the stock price of Sony Columbia up 5.6%, and the stock price of the parent company Sony Group also increased slightly.

Most of the media generally believe that the auction price of $2.5 billion for Disney's animation division is still far below its actual value, and there is no need to pay attention to what the future holds, as evidenced by the still released "The Lion King", "The Lion King" is expected to have a net profit of $1 billion, which means that it will bring Disney more than $300 million in net income on average every year, according to the general law that the company's market value is usually more than 10 times its annual profit, the media believes that the actual value of Disney's animation division should definitely exceed $3 billion.

Immediately after the spin-off of the hand-drawn animation division, Michael Eisner began work on the rebuilding of Disney's animation division. Although most of the best digital animators are concentrated in Pixar, in recent years, there have been many advertising design companies and special effects studios that use computer graphics technology, and from these companies a group of excellent professional and technical personnel with both computer and artistic skills are tapped for training, it can be said that it is easy to restart Disney's animation department in the short term, and Pixar studio can also provide a full set of mature animation technology and some management talents for the new Disney animation department.