After Barry Diller left Fox, he received dozens of cooperation offers in a short period of time, but he rejected them, and finally chose QVC, in addition to being optimistic about the prospects of TV shopping, the most important thing is that QVC agreed to Barry Diller's shareholding conditions.

Hearing Barry Diller say 'I won't sign an employment contract again', John Malone just shrugged: "Okay, Barry, I'm going to cancel Telecom's plan to buy Paramount and fully support your side, but what are you going to do with the current situation?"

Barry Diller glanced at John Malone and said lightly: "When I have to do something, remote communication only needs to give support." ”

John Malone snorted and waited for Barry Diller to continue, but Barry Diller just threw out the sentence and looked down at the document in front of him. John Malone also quickly realized that Barry Diller had lost trust in him, and laughed wryly, knowing that he would not gain anything by staying any longer, and stood up and said, "In that case, then I'll wait for your news." ”

After John Malone left the conference room, Barry Diller patiently read the documents in his hand, tapped his fingers on the desktop and thought for a while before pressing the call button on the phone on the desktop: "Jack, help me book a plane ticket to Hawaii." ”

"All right, Mr. Diller," the assistant's voice quickly came out of the speaker.

Barry Diller finished the order, and was just about to end the call, but after thinking about it, he suddenly said, "Forget it, let's go to Los Angeles first." ”

"No problem, Mr. Diller. The assistant replied again. There was a pause. He didn't hear Barry Diller continue to speak, and then asked, "Is there anything else?"

"No, for now," Barry Diller cut off the call, once again pondering the situation.

Although reluctant to admit it, there is also some pessimism about the prospect of buying Paramount in the mind of Barry Diller, who met John Malone in the early eighties. He knew very well that John Malone was a man who had no position at all, and that he was good at seeing the wind and steering the rudder.

In other words, John Malone will not hesitate to choose a side where to get the benefits. If it weren't for the series of actions of Lei Shidong and Martin Davis, who saw the slim chance of Telecommunications buying Paramount alone, Barry Diller would have been sure that John Malone would not have been in his office today.

With a soft sigh in his heart, Barry Diller opened his eyes again, which was a relevant assessment of the cooperation between Firefly and the two film companies in the film industry when the Japanese acquired Columbia and Universal successively.

Among them, "Instinct", which cooperated with Universal, did not cause much hindrance to Panasonic, but it also had a positive impact on the stock price of MCA, the parent company of Universal. Going forward, Sony made a wholly owned takeover offer for Colombia until the deal was completed. It happened to span the release period of "Home Alone" and "Dark War", two high-grossing films, and during this period, Colombia's market capitalization skyrocketed from 2.2 billion to 5.5 billion, and anyone can see that these two films played a very important role in it.

Thinking of Eric, Barry Diller always has a sense of powerlessness in his heart, he spent more than 20 years chasing the pinnacle of power in Hollywood, but in the end, he went around and around, but he got out of that circle, tried his best to go back, and the success rate was so low that people were powerless, and that young man only took four years to easily have all this. Moreover, judging from the shooting plan of a series of special effects blockbusters of Firefly, he has no intention of stopping to expand and waiting for his opponent to catch up.

……

“…… At a recent press conference, Michael Lynn, CEO of Firefly Pictures, said that he had no comment on the news that Paramount will cooperate with Firefly Pictures, but according to sources, Eric Williams and Martin Davis have been negotiating the final details of the cooperation, which will be announced in the near future. ”

“…… It is rumored that Firefly intends to cooperate with Paramount on the project of the "Star Trek" series of movies, and the two parties attempt to use the advanced CG special effects technology of Firefly's digital field special effects company to create an interstellar legend beyond "Star Wars". “

“…… Summer's Rayshidong has publicly stated that it will acquire Paramount in the near future, and said that Viacom is bound to win this merger. ”

“…… Barry Diller, who is rumored to have retired from Hollywood, suddenly appears in Los Angeles to have lunch with Bruce White, one of Paramount's shareholders, and the little-known QVC Media's purpose of acquiring Paramount is revealed. ”

“……”

Martin Davis put down his thick stack of newspapers with a worried expression on his face, having been on the island of Kauai for more than a week, even though Paramount's share price rose 5.7 percent during that time as a result of his trip to Hawaii Since he revealed the news of the cooperation between the two sides to the media, some of Paramount's shareholders who were originally ready to move have also stood on his side, and the overall situation looks good, but Martin Davis is very clear that if Paramount's cooperation with Firefly cannot be negotiated, the stock price that has improved will definitely fall again, and those shareholders who have just leaned towards him will definitely centrifuge again.

On Eric's side, although Martin Davis had already handed over the relevant project information to the other party, he did not get any response for a long time. He could see that Eric was not enthusiastic about the partnership, and Martin Davis was not like the two columbia helmsmen, even if he was forced to sell in the end, he would not be able to do the kind of Columbia that almost quenched his thirst.

While many people who don't know the inside story envy Columbia's five-film contract with Firefly Pictures, Martin Davis knows what a price Columbia has paid. This can be seen just from Firefly, Terminator 2 and Tornado at the same time in 1991 and 1992.

Last year's overseas distribution of "Terminator 2", Firefly Pictures took half a year to complete, it was originally a film in the summer file, and many European box office countries were not released until the end of the year, although the quality of "Terminator 2" is excellent enough, but the long distribution process and the impact of piracy. and weakness in the negotiation of sharing. has shrunk the benefits that Firefly Pictures should have obtained.

But only a year has passed. Integrating the overseas distribution resources of Columbia and Disney, "Tornado" has been on the screens of European countries in less than a month after its release in North America, not only that, but "Tornado" even got the end of the summer schedule in the closed Japanese market, which is definitely a treatment that most Hollywood movies envy and hate.

So far, the overseas box office of "Tornado" has reached $180 million, while last year's "Terminator 2" overseas box office in the same period can even be ignored.

These things are being considered. Martin Davis' assistant, Danny Coke, hurried into the café: "Mr. Davis, something is wrong. ”

Martin Davis subconsciously wanted to reprimand the assistant for his gaffe, but finally suppressed the thought and only frowned slightly.

Danny Cork noticed Martin Davis's expression, quickly put away his flustered expression, silently took a deep breath, and said calmly: "That's the case, the news revealed by Viacom is that Lei Shidong has planned to make the first offer to the company. ”

Instead of doubting the accuracy of Danny's message, Martin Davis asked, "How much?"

"Sixty-five billion dollars. Danny Cork gave a number.

Martin Davis sneered: "Lei Shidong wants to fall from where he wants to get up?"

Danny Cork was stunned. I didn't know how to answer, just stood quietly aside.

The figure of $6.5 billion is exactly the transaction amount of Firefly's acquisition of Disney.

After the failure of the Disney acquisition, Lei Shidong learned his lesson and reformed Viacom's shareholding structure again, confirming that there would be no more internal opposition in the next acquisition.

At the same time, Lei Shidong did not repay the financing obtained for the acquisition of Disney to investors, but turned to start acquisition negotiations with Blockbuster, a video rental company similar to commodity retail, Blockbuster's biggest advantage is its abundant cash flow, which can provide a large amount of funds for Viacom's acquisition of Paramount.

Although the simple Paramount Pictures is definitely not worth $6.5 billion, Viacom's acquisition target is not simply Paramount Pictures, but Paramount Communications, the parent company of Paramount Pictures, Paramount Communications' main assets not only include Paramount Pictures, but also have a series of assets involving television, publishing, music and other fields, but these assets are much larger than the original Disney.

Martin Davies did not receive an answer from his assistant and did not pursue it, motioned for Danny Cork to settle the bill, and left the café in the small town of Lihuya.

It's close to noon, and "Jurassic Park" is still filming behind closed doors, although Martin Davis knows that if he does go to the set, he won't be stopped outside, but doing so is also his eagerness, leaving Williams with a negotiating handle.

But after all this time, Eric did not offer any intention of cooperation, Viacom was about to make a move, and Martin Davis knew that he could not continue to spend in Hawaii.

The driver pulled the car over, and Danny Cork pulled the door open for Martin Davis and asked, "Mr. Davis, where are you going now?"

"Get people to book a plane ticket back to Los Angeles, the sooner the better, and now we're going to the set of Jurassic Park. ”

"All right, Mr. Davis," said Danny Coke, closing the door for Martin Davis, motioning for the driver to drive to his destination, and then hastily booking his ticket.

……

Eric was watching the footage through the monitor with Nickel when a staff member hurriedly walked over and said to Eric, "Director, Mr. Davis is here." ”

"I know, take him to the rest area, and inform him that the crew will have lunch early," Eric said skillfully, as if he had expected it, and discussed the camera with Nickel casually.

It was only five minutes before Eric appeared in the crew's makeshift lounge and slipped into a tent.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Davis, for keeping you waiting," Eric said.

Martin Davis still had a smile on his face, and when he heard this, he couldn't help but say, "It's been a long time, Eric, I may be going back soon, that's why I have to come over." ”

"Mr. Davis, why don't you continue to play in Hawaii for a while?"

"Haha, if you keep playing, Paramount will be someone else's," Martin Davis said nonchalantly.

Eric realized that the old man's patience had run out, and told his assistant to fetch two lunches, before he sat down around a table with Martin Davis, and half-truthfully explained, "I'm sorry, Mr. Davis, and you know I've been too busy lately. ”

"It's okay," Martin Davis shook his head, not wanting to go around with Eric any longer, and he didn't have the time, "Eric, I just want you to give me an accurate answer." ”

"Now?" asked Eric.

Martin Davis nodded firmly, "Now!"

Eric hesitated for a moment, as if he couldn't bear to let the old man be disappointed, but finally said, "Mr. Davis, I've read the information that Paramount gave me, but, to be honest, it doesn't make me feel very potential. ”

"Sixty-five carefully selected scripts, not a single one?" said Martin Davis, incredulous.

Eric nodded honestly, and Paramount gave him information about sixty-five reserve items, but none of them really included the movie items that Eric remembered would be a big hit. In fact, it is also understandable that Paramount has not performed so well at the box office throughout the nineties.

Although some of these projects do not appear in memory, Eric seems to have a very promising script, but in the absence of a memory reference, the future of the film is completely unpredictable. After all, there are too many movies that seem to have great potential, but end up being a box office fiasco, not to mention that Eric himself is not too interested, and he has no intention of taking risks.

Seeing Eric's determined expression, Martin Davis's face was a little embarrassed, of course he couldn't think that all those projects were rubbish, but that Eric was probably perfunctory, or that he had taken a fancy to some projects, and wanted to wait for Paramount to give up, and then the fireflies would snatch it, which is not unheard of in Hollywood. (To be continued......)