Before I knew it, it was five o'clock in the afternoon, outside the glass curtain wall of the seaside of Liberty City, the setting sun dyed the horizon of the sky and the sea in the distance a magnificent orange red, and Eric and Chris were still in their original seats, as if they had not moved all day.

Half a year has passed since Eric made up his mind to buy Disney, and in the past six months, in addition to secretly absorbing Disney shares, Chris has also done a lot of detailed investigations on the entire Disney Group, including Disney's shareholders, Disney's creditors and these people's attitudes towards Disney's management, as well as the details of the Disney Group's assets.

Throughout the day, Eric spent most of the day as a listener, asking his own questions. Chris is always patient with Eric to answer.

But when the sunset completely sank into the horizon, things were almost discussed, and Chris finally said: ""Cut Throat Island" has just been drawn, because of the huge losses, now is the moment when Disney shareholders and creditors are most dissatisfied with the management, and it is also the best time for us to launch a takeover, so we try to launch a takeover bid after a week, we need a week to integrate the scattered Disney shares in our hands, and set up an acquisition team, by the way, I just forgot about it......"

With a list of Disney's upcoming movies in the second half of the year in his hand, Eric raised his head and asked, "What?"

"I don't have enough people to put together a professional acquisition team, so I want to work with Morgan Stanley, you know. I also have some connections at Morgan Stanley. And they have a ready-made M&A team. We can take care of all acquisition matters such as asset valuation, legal affairs, and price negotiations. ”

Eric said, "That's fine. ”

Chris added: "Actually, I mean, you should have heard that Michael Ovitz led the CAA team to help Panasonic acquire Universal, and finally got a commission of $70 million, and Morgan Stanley's sale price will not be cheap." ”

Eric smiled: "Everyone knows that the Japanese are fat sheep who come to the slaughter by themselves, but we are not, how much does it cost to hire a team from Morgan Stanley?"

"If you were to use a team of 100 people, I would estimate it at $50 million. Once the hostile takeover is initiated, it will take at least half a year for the acquisition to be completed, and it is not impossible to delay it for a year or two," Chris said and looked at Eric, waiting for his decision.

Although Disney's current market capitalization is only more than $3 billion, the final acquisition will involve no less than $5 billion, and Morgan Stanley is equivalent to taking a 1% commission from it, which is very reasonable, because Eric vaguely remembers that these big investment banks charge more than 10% commission for helping shareholders of listed companies sell their shares.

Thinking of this, Eric quickly made a decision. "Then hire Morgan Stanley's team, besides." Tell the head of Morgan Stanley that if they can complete the acquisition in half a year, I can increase the remuneration by 30% on the basis of the original commission. ”

For mergers and acquisitions, the longer it drags on, the greater the variables, the higher the price to pay, and many hostile takeovers are finally closed in a long delay, so Chris not only did not dissuade Eric's proposal, but showed appreciation for Eric's decisiveness: "I will convey this condition to Morgan Stanley." ”

For the next week, while Chris was secretly making the final deployment, Eric was not imsided.

With the box office of "Toy Story" breaking 100 million on the first release day of the third week, and the box office of "Terminator 2" climbing, professional box office statistics agencies have made a valuation of 200 million US dollars at the total box office of these two films in North America.

As a result, Firefly Films held a grand celebration at Eric's Jianjiao Manor, which was the third time that Jianjiao Manor had held a large-scale party, and it was unusually low-key, Eric not only invited a large number of Hollywood stars and film company executives, but also approved dozens of media reporters to enter the party.

It is no surprise that this is to build momentum for the next acquisition, and the greater the influence of the firefly, the more beneficial it will be for the next acquisition.

In just one week, not only were the box office results of "Terminator 2" and "Toy Story" hyped, but "Cut Throat Island" and Fox's "Toy Condor 2" were shot again, and Eric planned to make a wholly-owned acquisition like Sony and Panasonic from the beginning, and was not prepared to exchange Firefly shares for shares in the hands of Disney shareholders.

So this series of campaigns is not intended to make Disney investors full of confidence in Firefly and sell their stocks, in many newspaper articles, Eric has been explicitly or implicitly expressing a point of view, if you don't sell, Disney will continue to appear "Cut Throat Island" or "Toy Condor 2" and other bad movies, and will also be sniped by Firefly blockbusters. Of course, while many people were keenly aware of some of the smell of gunpowder, it wasn't until Firefly submitted a takeover offer to Disney that anyone realized what Eric meant in his previous remarks.

On Monday, July 22, 1991, Michael Eisner didn't take the slightest break because of the box office failure of "Cut Throat Island", and he spent more than half a month trying to appease Disney's shareholders and creditors.

Eric's remarks about the so-called "Cut Throat Island" trilogy made Michael Eisner hate it even more, and a short sentence made his situation worse, and a large number of shareholders accused Michael Eisner of bending on giving up a good cooperative relationship with Eric, Michael Eisner also had a hard time, of course he wanted to cooperate with Eric, but after the turmoil last year, it was difficult for the two sides to cooperate again.

After breakfast at his villa in Malibu, Michael Eisner had no intention of going to Disney's headquarters.

He has already asked people to buy plane tickets and is going to visit Disney's current largest shareholder today. Bass family in Texas.

Disney has grown to the present. The Disney family, which created the brand of Disney, has long ceased to be the majority shareholder of Disney. At present, the Disney family foundation only owns about 3% of Disney's shares, while the Bass family, which made its fortune in Tongguò Oil, successively acquired 16% of Disney's shares in the seventies and eighties, becoming Disney's largest shareholder.

In 1984, it was with the support of Roy Disney, the patriarch of the Bass and Disney families, that he was able to sit as CEO of Disney.

The driver drove Michael Eisner to the Los Angeles airport, and a small private jet was already ready to be parked, which was one of Michael Eisner's perks as chairman of the board of directors and CEO of Disney.

After the plane took off, Michael Eisner explained a few words to his assistant. I was going to go to the lounge to rest for a while, these days he was physically and mentally exhausted in order to cope with the box office fiasco of "Cut Throat Island".

Not long after falling asleep, there was a knock on the door of the cabin lounge, and the assistant's voice was a little urgent: "Mr. Eisner, Mr. Eisner, Mr. Wells has an urgent call." ”

Michael Eisner, who was suddenly woken up, frowned and got up and walked out of the lounge, the assistant looked at Michael Eisner's gloomy expression, handed over the microphone of the cordless phone, and explained softly: "I said you were resting." But Mr. Wells said there was an urgency. ”

Michael Eisner nodded expressionlessly and took the phone. Closing the lounge door, he turned to the couch and poured himself a glass of wine, and asked, "Frank, what's the matter?"

“……”

Frank Wells, the president of Disney on the other end of the phone, spoke in a hurried tone, and spoke for more than a minute before Michael Eisner reacted, and a large piece of red wine had overflowed from the goblet, but Michael Eisner had no heart to care about these anymore, put the empty red wine bottle on the table, hung up the phone and walked out of the lounge, and shouted to the assistant: "Nick, inform the captain that the plane will return to Los Angeles as soon as it lands." ”

Near noon, Michael Eisner finally returned to Disney headquarters, and the members of the Disney board of directors who had been notified were already waiting in the conference room in advance.

Sitting at the conference table, Michael Eisner read the acquisition plan submitted by Firefly in detail without saying a word, scolded in a low voice, and then asked Frank Wells: "Frank, are you sure this is not a joke, where did Firefly get the money to buy Disney, how can they have so much money?"

Looking at Michael Eisner, who looked excited and could jump up at any moment, Frank Wells patiently explained: "I have personally called Eric Williams to confirm this. ”

"I'm asking where they got the money?" said Michael Eisner's voice, which had turned into a growl.

Frank Wells shook his head, and Michael Eisner was about to continue his seizures when one of the directors sitting at the bottom suddenly said tentatively, "Could it be the oil crisis before?"

Michael Eisner was stunned, thinking of Eric's actions in July and August last year, and he quickly determined this, when Eric raised a full $700 million

It's been almost a year since Eric, and Eric didn't do anything before, everyone thought that Eric didn't make much money that time, but seeing the takeover offer in front of him, Michael Eisner realized that everyone had been deceived by Eric.

Shaking his fist with an embarrassed face, Michael Eisner raised his head and said, "Now, let's talk about it, what to do, if Eric Williams buys it successfully, then all of us here may have to pack up and get out." Therefore, we must not let him succeed. ”

The conference room soon resounded with gossip and discussion, Disney's 16 directors are either friends with Michael Eisner, or former Disney employees, because Michael Eisner's monopoly on power, these people's power has been greatly weakened, but these directors don't care about this, anyway, if Disney makes a serious decision-making mistake, it will definitely be Michael Eisner himself to carry the black pot, just like "Cut Throat Island". Therefore, no one will be dissatisfied with this kind of job that is not responsible and can still get a good salary, so they don't want to lose their jobs because of the acquisition.

"The most important thing now is to stabilize the shareholders, as long as they stand with us, it is unlikely that the Fireflies want to buy Disney. ”

"Hey, it's a pity that "Cut Throat Island" has just caused such a big loss, and the timing of the fireflies is very good. ”

"Don't forget that there are creditors, we just discussed the plan of deferring the payment of the principal and interest of the due claims last week, and now this plan must not be taken out again, otherwise the creditors will definitely put pressure on us, after all, the performance of Firefly is too good. ”

"Fireflies already have an 11 percent stake in them, which is a big problem. ”

“……”

“……”

The room was buzzing for five minutes, and Michael Eisner couldn't hear anything useful from them, which made him so angry that he even ignored that he had caused the situation himself, and that the more mediocre people on the Disney board of directors the better, in order to consolidate his power.

Ignoring the nonsense of these people, Michael Eisner said to his assistant: "Call a meeting of all the management, and in addition, ask the legal department to send a letter to Firefly, we refuse to buy." ”

"Mr. Eisner, according to the process, we should disclose this to the shareholders," the assistant reminded softly.

Michael Eisner glared at his assistant dissatisfied: "You just have to do what you have to do." ”

The assistant answered weakly and left silently.

Michael Eisner slapped the table and asked everyone to stop the discussion before saying, "Okay, don't make any noise, wait until the management comes." ”

A bunch of directors fell silent.

On the day Firefly submitted the takeover offer to the Disney board of directors, the Disney board of directors made a decision to reject the acquisition, and selectively disclosed part of Firefly's acquisition plan to shareholders, accompanied by a letter from Michael Eisner.

At the same time as the takeover offer was disclosed to shareholders, the Disney board of directors had the first counterattack plan in just three days, the golden parachute, to protect the interests of all Disney management personnel.

At the same time as the takeover offer was disclosed to shareholders, the Disney board of directors had the first counterattack plan in just three days, the golden parachute, to protect the interests of all Disney management personnel.

At the same time as the takeover offer was disclosed to shareholders, the Disney board of directors had the first counterattack plan in just three days, the golden parachute, to protect the interests of all Disney management personnel. (To be continued......)