Despite pressure from Firefly as a Disney shareholder, Disney management delayed a full week before releasing a copy of Disney's latest financial report to investors.

Because of the sluggish performance for two consecutive years, Michael Eisner did not release quarterly earnings reports as usual, but spent a lot of time reviewing the overall development of Disney since Michael Eisner became CEO in 1984, and focused on describing the fact that Disney's market value grew at a rate of 27% per year before 1990, emphasizing that the failure of several films such as "Cut Throat Island" and last year's "Rocket Expert" was just a fortuitous event. Theme parks and resorts, as well as the consumer product development business, are all generating solid profits for the company, so the failure of a few movies won't hurt Disney.

At the end of the report, Michael Eisner confidently pledged that Disney's film and television division would be reformed and that the company would soon return to the pace it had just had a few years ago, calling on Disney shareholders to stand on their side and resist the hostile takeover by Firefly.

Faced with Michael Eisner's attempt to downplay Disney's recent financial situation, Firefly quickly fought back, breaking the news in the New York Post about an insider story about the production of "Cut Throat Island".

“…… According to the crew of "Cut Throat Island", during the production of the film, from script revision to post-editing, Michael Eisner had to personally take care of everything, and even the set style of the movie and the costume design of the actors needed to be nodded by Michael Eisner.

It was Michael Eisner's brutal intervention in the filming of "Cut Throat Island" that caused director Rainey Haring to be unable to develop his own directing ideas. In the end, the failure of "Cut Throat Island".

Michael Eisner is a micromanager. This management style is a situation in which a manager's desire for power is inflated during the day. It will strongly limit the enthusiasm of the specific person in charge, so as to lead the truly talented people to find other jobs, leaving those mediocre people who can only figure out the thoughts of the superiors.

There is no doubt that Michael Eisner made great contributions to the company in the early years of Disney, but from the development of Disney in the last two years, it can be seen that Michael Eisner's rigid management style has begun to show its drawbacks, which will cause immeasurable damage to Disney in the long run. ”

Immediately after the article was published, Michael Eisner's agent responded. Claiming that the New York Post article was a defamation of Michael Eisner, Michael Eisner would have the right to sue for the defamation.

The media is full of people coming and going, but the real battlefield is out of sight of the public.

In the conference room of the Burbank Firefly headquarters, Bernie Sanders, the head of Morgan Stanley's acquisition team, is discussing the specific acquisition strategy after the Disney board of directors rejects the bona fide takeover.

"In 1984, Saul Steinberg took over Disney's hostile takeover, and Disney finally adopted a 'blackmail ransom' anti-takeover strategy and redeemed Saul Steinberg's shares worth less than $200 million for a huge sum of $300 million. But this time, unlike in the past, Disney shareholders are clearly on the sidelines about the Firefly acquisition, so so far, most shareholders have only agreed to Michael Eisner's 'golden parachute' agreement, because it will not harm their interests. The agreement stipulates that once the acquisition is successful. If 76 Disney executives are forced to leave within two years, Firefly will need to pay compensation totaling $500 million. ”

Eric asked, "What if I just want Michael Eisner to leave alone?"

Bernie Sanders glanced at the information in his hand. "Michael Eisner was the first to mention scorched earth tactics, in which any of the 76 executives were fired, and in retaliation, all the other 75 left voluntarily, turning Disney's management into a barren 'scorched earth'." But Disney's management didn't go along with Michael Eisner's suggestion, and the board of directors didn't get in touch. Therefore, if only Michael Eisner is allowed to leave, the Firefly will need to pay Michael Eisner 30 million personally. ”

"$30 million, so little?" Eric couldn't help but ask, remembering that Michael Ovitz had only worked at Disney for a little more than a year, and when he was forced to leave the position of president, he took more than 100 million in compensation.

Chris, who was sitting next to Eric, rolled his eyes: "Eric, Michael Eisner's current annual salary is $750,000, and $30 million is equivalent to Michael Eisner's annual salary for 40 years, do you think it's less?"

Eric wondered, "What about option incentives and profit dividends?"

According to Michael Eisner's 1984 agreement with Disney, he would only receive option incentives and profit dividends based on his performance statement after five years at Disney. At the beginning of last year, the Disney board of directors officially announced the corresponding plan, "Speaking of which, Chris seems to be a little gloating:" But then Disney's performance took a sharp turn for the worse, and several films in the summer last year caused losses of up to $100 million, and in 1990, Disney's profits from other channels other than film distribution in addition to making up for this part of the loss, it also needed to pay $150 million in due debt and interest, and in the end Disney could only barely break even, and options and dividends were out of the question. ”

After Chris, Bernie Sanders added: "But I want to remind you that Eric, 18 of the 75 executives other than Michael Eisner are very close to Michael Eisner, so to speak, his henchmen, and the compensation for these people alone accounts for $220 million." ”

Eric glanced at Michael Lynn, who was sitting not far away, without a trace, and didn't care too much in his heart, after the completion of the acquisition, it would be good to look at the tables of these people and make corresponding arrangements, just like the executives left over from the new line, most of them have now become the backbone of Firefly, and no one will be unable to get along with high salaries and benefits.

"Let's wait until the acquisition is completed, and I still hope that the current management of Disney can be retained intact. Of course. Mr. Michael Eisner will certainly not be able to stay in his place any longer. ”

Bernie Sanders nodded. He flipped the page of the article in his hand and said: "In addition, Eric, according to our team's assessment, the wholly-owned acquisition plan is not the best choice, if you only get a controlling stake in Disney, with Firefly's excellent performance in movies, most Disney shareholders will be happy to sell some of their shares." ”

Eric shook his head and said, "Bernie." As I've said, I don't want outside investors to interfere with the company's development, and I want Disney to be privatized to integrate with Firefly. ”

Bernie Sanders just adhered to his professional ethics and provided more professional advice to Eric, but seeing Eric's resolute attitude, he did not persuade him, and continued to talk about other topics.

Immediately after the meeting, Firefly held a press conference, and Michael Lynn, CEO of Firefly Films, made his first official offer to Disney. Wholly acquired all of Disney's shares at a 20% premium on the date of Firefly's public offer.

Also located at Disney's headquarters in Burbank. Michael Eisner sat on the chair in his office, looked at the latest quotation materials of Firefly that the secretary had just delivered, and said to Frank Wells on the other side: "$4.2 billion, the first offer is a 20% premium, I don't know what the bottom line of Firefly will be." ”

Frank Wells looked at Michael Eisner's visibly sunken eye sockets and didn't know what to say, and Michael Eisner seemed to be talking to himself, not expecting an answer.

In the week that Firefly issued the takeover offer, Michael Eisner visited more than 30 investment institutions and creditors day and night, hoping to gain support, but this time the situation was completely opposite to the attitude of shareholders in 1984 when they faced the hostile takeover of Wall Street tycoon Saul Steinberg.

Although Michael Eisner chose to be vague in announcing the financial report, most investors know very well that Disney's film business has been declining in the past two years, even if Disney's other businesses are still bringing stable profits, but as a film company, developing excellent movies will always be the most important cornerstone of the company, without enough hot movies to support, Disney parks and Disney stores all over the world will not be able to launch new products, and Disney TV ratings based on Disney content will also decline.

And Firefly, which is very strong in terms of film and television content, even strong enough to cover up the disadvantages of its channel, and Disney, which has a very well-established peripheral channel, can form a perfect complementary, and this complementary effect has become more obvious after the success of Pixar's "Toy Story".

If Firefly's acquisition plan is to choose Disney Holdings rather than a wholly-owned acquisition, perhaps most shareholders have already turned to Firefly.

Frank Wells waited for a while, and saw that Michael Eisner did not speak again, so he had to take the initiative to say: "This acquisition cannot be completed in a short time, and if Disney's New Year's movie schedule is excellent, it may be able to regain the support of shareholders." ”

"I'm not Eric Williams, where can I find ......" Michael Eisner said halfway, paused, reluctant to mention Eric's name again, and continued: "I went to see a few movie demos yesterday, and the scheduled "Beauty and the Beast" and Elizabeth Taylor's "New Father-in-Law" are both good, but Robert Benton's "Righteous Courage" The quality is not satisfactory, the film cost $48 million, which is the sum of the cost of the first two films, but everyone who has seen it thinks that this movie is worse than "Cut Throat Island", and I wonder if it will be changed to next summer. ”

"It's better to change the schedule, and not let this movie affect this anymore," Frank Wells said before suddenly thinking of something, "I remember that Nicole Kidman was invited to play the heroine in "Righteous Courage", and she refused. ”

"Eric Williams' lover?"

"Yes, if we had realized this, maybe we should have ...... for the project "Righteous Courage" Be a little more cautious. ”

"Maybe it's just an accident," Michael Eisner waved his hand irritably, "and don't talk about him anymore." ”

While the two were talking, the phone on the desk rang, Michael Eisner picked up the receiver, and the secretary opposite said, "Mr. Eisner, I just received a phone call, the other party said that he is Summer, Lei Shidong, do you need me to pick it up?"

"Sommer Rayshidon, Viacom's Somer Rayshidon?" confirmed Michael Eisner, and Frank Wells pricked up his ears when he heard the name.

The secretary on the other side gave a definite answer, and Michael Eisner said, "Take it in." ”

After saying that, Michael Eisner looked at Frank Wells and pressed the hands-free button on the landline so that Frank Wells could hear the conversation between the two.

An old but angry voice soon came from the landline.

……

In the villa at the Sharp Corner Manor in Malibu, Eric sits on the couch in the lobby and watches the list of Disney movies in his hand, Frank Wells can think about the importance of the New Year's file to Disney, and Eric certainly thinks about it, and he is thinking about how to snipe Disney's movies at the end of the year.

In the movie that is being produced in zuò, the pinnacle of 2D animation in my memory, "The Lion King", has not yet appeared, but another "Aladdin" has already been established and is in the process of being produced.

In addition, among the movies to be released at the end of the year, Eric saw two more familiar movies, "Righteous Courage" and "Beauty and the Beast", Eric's most impressive impression of "Righteous Courage" is Nicole's frontal nude shots, as for the plot, there is nothing to say at all, an ambitious work that wants to imitate "The Godfather" and "Once Upon a Time in America", but the result is nondescript and has no highlights.

Eric focused more on Beauty and the Beast, the first animated film in Oscar history to be nominated for Best Picture, and although the information in his hand showed that the cartoon had only more than 900 premieres, Eric did not dare to take it lightly.

If Home Alone is still made of fireflies, it would be a good sniper to release the film at the same time as Beauty and the Beast. Fox has now started the production of "Home Alone 3", but the schedule has not been announced, according to the schedule of the first two parts, "Home Alone 3" may still be released on Thanksgiving, the same as "Beauty and the Beast", but who knows if Fox will change his mind, maybe you can find a time to test it.

Eric was considering putting Jim Carrey's "Dumb and Dumb" on the Thanksgiving schedule, when Nicole walked out of a bathroom with two long white legs and bare feet wrapped in a short bath towel.

Seeing Eric staring at her, Nicole, who was wiping her wet hair with a towel, asked, "What are you looking at?"

"Legs!"

Nicole gave Eric a blank look, walked over and sat down beside him, and looked curiously at the information in Eric's hand, she knew that what Eric was looking at outside the study was usually not something that needed to be kept secret, so she had no scruples.

Eric stretched out his hand and pointed at the information: "Do you know "Righteous Courage"?"

"Well, I got an offer to work with Dustin Hoffman and Bruce Willis at the same time, but there were some nude shots, and I communicated with the director a few times, and the other party didn't agree to delete these scenes, so I didn't take them. ”

Eric smiled: "It's a good thing you didn't pick it up, otherwise two movies in a row would have failed, and you wouldn't be far from box office poison." ”

Nicole wondered, "How do you know that this movie is a Disney film, and it hasn't been released yet." ”

"You look at its schedule, on November 1st, a movie that cost close to $50 million was placed on a schedule like November 1st, except that the movie was smashed, I can't think of a second reason. ”

Nicole agrees with Eric's point of view, and is a little glad but jokes at the same time: "Maybe Disney thinks it's the same as "Island Cry", and can ignore the schedule?" (To be continued......)