Chapter 0743 - MCI whose days are sad

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Among the various intrigues of the ultimate battle of the personal computer standard, he was sent away in 1986 and came in 1987. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Compared with the boom in Silicon Valley, Hollywood is becoming more and more sluggish. This is reflected in the 1986 highest-grossing film in the United States, the $180 million "Top Gun." Compared with previous years, the domestic box office in the United States is less than $200 million, and it has fallen to a new level.

What makes people break through the glasses is that Hollywood has also seen a special case of "foreign monks chanting scriptures".

For example, Twentieth Century Fox obtained the distribution rights to an Australian comedy film "Crocodile" Dundee, "Crocodile" Duncan, which grossed more than $170 million in the United States, and is close to catching up with "Top Gun".

In addition, the American kung fu film "Thekaratekid" discovered by Columbia Pictures, "Kid Difficult", after getting $90 million at the box office in 1984, launched a sequel this year, with a box office of more than $110 million, while the shooting cost was only $13 million.

Generally speaking, the current Hollywood, while developing in horizontal fields such as television, is making a fuss about profits in the main business of film.

In this case, the unprecedented prosperity of the film industry in Hong Kong will inevitably emerge several works that cater to the tastes of American audiences, replicating the miracle of Warner's $850,000 investment and $22 million at the U.S. box office return from Bruce Lee's "Enter the Dragon".

There is no doubt that Hollywood has no patience and cannot have the leisure to cultivate the development of Xiangjiang films, and after Bruce Lee could not quickly become famous and squeezed the oil and water, he lost interest, which made all walks of life in Xiangjiang films, who had no choice, gather around Tang Huan with the desire of the people.

Kung fu films with a completely Chinese lineup created around Jet Li, basically every year, there will be works coming out and being operated into American theaters, until this year's "Tai Chi Zhang Sanfeng" and "Zhongnan_Hai Bodyguard", the box office has maintained a steady upward trend, and the two together can be compared to "Kid Difficult", and the return on investment is better, after all, the shooting cost in Xiangjiang is easier to control.

However, "Dragon Brother and Tiger Brother", which Golden Harvest has high hopes for, is a bit ill-fated. The leading actor Cheng Long was unexpectedly seriously injured during the reshooting of the scene, and he didn't want to come in handy within a year.

Originally, according to Golden Harvest's meaning, since "Dragon Brother and Tiger Brother" has been basically completed, let's release it as soon as possible, and make as much money as you can, especially in Japan, where the local audience is obsessed with Cheng Long's movies.

Tang Huan saw that Zou Wenhuai and others had no bottom about Cheng Long's future, so they were a little eager for quick success, Cheng Long couldn't cooperate with the public appearance to promote "Dragon Brother and Tiger Brother", and they were still eager to squeeze out the oil and water of this movie.

Tang Huan said in a rare way for this: "Even if you wait for a year, the level of "Dragon Brother and Tiger Brother" is still first-class in Asia, and there is no need for everyone to rush to cash out." What's more, this year, the Xiangjiang Cinema Group has a lot of excellent film sources in its hands, and Cheng Long, the leading actor, cannot assist in publicity, and the box office performance may be difficult to grasp, so it is better to wait until the second half of 1987, when Jackie Chan can appear in public, and he is operating the release. ”

Seeing that Tang Huan still maintained confidence in Cheng Long's future, this suggestion was accepted.

As for "The True Color of Heroes", which has the potential to sweep Asia, the response in the United States is also good, the heroic blood type created by John Woo does cater to the appreciation of this era, and Zhou Runfa, who has the most outstanding performance, has caught up with Jet Li, who has worked hard for several years, just the promotional poster he lit a cigarette with counterfeit money in the movie was snatched up by fans who shouted cool enough.

Taking advantage of this craze, "The Story of the Loyal Dog Hachiko" starring Zhou Yunfa also began to be screened on a small scale, and Tang Huan took the time to look at the copy sent over.

In fact, the filming progress of "The Story of the Loyal Dog Hachiko" was a little delayed, and the problem was the three Akita dogs who played the loyal dog Hachiko, and the director Xu Anhua's team was still a little unaccustomed to animal actors, and there was a mistake in "communication".

Thankfully, everyone worked hard to complete this work with the theme of loyalty and trust.

Tang Huan didn't expect the commercial performance of the film to be outstanding, and if he treated it from the perspective of a literary film, there might be unexpected surprises. Just like the literary film "The Story of Rose" starring Zhang Manyu adapted from Yishu's novel of the same name, the box office of Xiangjiang can actually exceed 10 million.

Obviously, the setting of "The Story of Hachiko the Loyal Dog" was naturally moved from Japan to Xiangjiang, and the male protagonist played by Zhou Yunfa became a professor at Xiangjiang University.

Taking on this drama is not a small challenge for the leading actor, after all, it is necessary to cooperate with the dog tacitly to reflect that sincere feeling. And at this stage, most of the roles played by Zhou Runfa are some cynical and ruffian marginal characters, and he has a limited education, so if he wants to interpret a good university professor, he really needs to work hard.

Looking at Zhou Runfa wearing glasses on the screen, looking polite, Tang Huan smiled at Zhou Runfa, who came to the United States for a vacation with his wife Yu Anan, "Don't say it, go to the university podium to stand on the stage, full of culture." ”

"The director's guidance is good." Zhou Yunfa smiled modestly, "It's not the first time I've watched this movie, but I'm still quite surprised by my performance." ”

Tang Huan pointed out: "After "The Story of Hachiko the Loyal Dog" was released in Japan, the response was good, and it is estimated that you will have to go there a few more times to expand your popularity while the iron is hot." ”

"It's not hard, I'm ready." Zhou Yanfa, who has always behaved hard-working, did not pretend to be garlic in front of Tang Huan, and his performance was really heartfelt.

Since he moved to DreamWorks, Zhou Yunfa has immediately undergone earth-shaking changes in his star journey, and he has worked hard in TVB for so many years, of course he understands the rarity of this kind of opportunity to get ahead, and then he can't afford to be a double actor.

"If you can meet Miss Deng when you go to Japan, please take care of it." Zhou Yanfa, who was clever, began to curry favor with Deng Lijun again.

"I can't talk about taking care of it, if I need help, I'll do my best." Deng Lijun, who was moved by the movie, wiped the corners of her eyes and happily agreed.

Deng Lijun's development achievements in Japan in recent years, let alone the first among Chinese peers, are not inferior even compared with local Japanese first-line stars. The third time I participated in the NHK Red and White Song Battle, this is illustrated.

The reason for this, in addition to Deng Lijun's hard work and outstanding talent, also has Tang Huan's secret help. After all, the resources of various rankings are limited, and Japanese record companies have exhausted all means to arrange their own artists, not to mention an outsider.

With the achievements so far, Deng Lijun can still play some obvious role in helping to boost the popularity of DreamWorks stars in Japan.

It is no exaggeration to say that Deng Lijun, who already has a strong influence, can no longer be simply regarded as a big singer, if she really wants to use it well, she can gather a non-negligible appeal on the treasure island, and helping Zhou Yanfa this little favor will inevitably be a waste of talent.

……

After the movie ended, Tang Huan said, "I still have something to do, so I won't accompany you", and then got up to meet MCI CEO William McGovern, who was already present after the assistant's report.

"I'm still quite proficient in Chinese medicine, so please allow me to say more, there seems to be something wrong with your health." In the process of greeting, Tang Huan looked at the other party's expression, and reminded him very seriously.

"Heart surgery is almost scheduled." A hint of depression flashed on William McGovern's face, and he asked bluntly: "You are so observant, is it because when I approached you for MCI financing, you expected the problems MCI would encounter, so you rejected it optimistically?" ”

"I just feel that although AT&T has been dismantled, the eight companies that have split out still have a huge monopoly advantage, in contrast, MCI has only cared about fighting lawsuits and grabbing land with AT&T in recent years, and has done little in research and development, so it is difficult to resist the competition of the Bell family, which has been dismantled on the surface and actually let go." Tang Huan did not give up the opportunity to pretend to be a god stick, and analyzed it carefully.

After the dismantling of AT&T officially took effect on January 1, 1984, MCI did not show its strength in the open space as expected by the outside world, but became more and more lame, and life became sad, which made investors extremely disappointed.

Specifically, in 1985, the year after the dismantling of AT&T, which took effect, MCI's revenue was only $2.5 billion, less than 10 percent of the total revenue of the new AT&T, and basically the same as the previous year, that is, in 1984, and the profit declined; By 1986, MCI had lost $448 million and its stock price had fallen to $6.

As a result, William McGovern, who was ambitious to find financing everywhere and even borrowed a lot of money from junk bonds, was speechless, and could not even find an excuse to defend himself in the face of investors' doubts.

William McGovern is a super workaholic, and he has bad habits, drinking a lot of strong coffee and smoking a lot of cigars every day to keep his energy high and deal with the overload of work for the average person.

As a result, under this relentless blow, his health finally went terribly wrong, and he had to step down from his position as MCI CEO for a considerable period of time to undergo surgery and recuperate.

You know, William McGovern is 60 years old this year, and it's really hard to say whether he can get through this.

He was left with a market share of only 10 percent of MCI's main business, the long-distance telephone business, while another new competitor, Sprint, had reached 8 percent, and the new AT&T had 70 percent.

The reason why MCI has been so embarrassed to lose one after another is that although the old AT&T has been dismantled, as a kind of compensation, the new AT&T has no restrictions imposed by the federal government in view of its previous monopoly position, and can directly free its hands and feet to face the price war of these challengers of MCI.

In the 1970s, MCI was 70 percent cheaper than AT&T in terms of long-distance access costs, which became one of the strong evidence for the U.S. Department of Justice to dismantle this behemoth.

But this advantage ceased to exist after January 1, 1984, and the New AT&T Company simply smoothed the gap.

At the same time, due to the fact that MCI's communication network was completed by surprise, there were many technical problems, and it was no longer able to challenge the blessing of the aura of the dragon warriors, so it was naturally more and more unable to get tolerance and understanding from customers; The communication network inherited by the new AT&T Company is the most excellent. Under the same tariff, it is obvious what kind of choice the user makes.

As a result, AT&T retained more than 75 percent of its subscribers, while MCI poached only 10 percent.

This is the dilemma that MCI is currently facing, it has lost its original ideals, and it has become a company driven by purely commercial interests, and can only accept the reality of the capital market and mercilessly sneer.

Saying those nonsense in front of people who understand doesn't make any sense except to waste time.

No matter how shrewd William McGovern is, he can't stand the difference between strong and weak mentality, and he was quickly impressed by Tang Huan's divine posture, so he had to say with a wry smile: "Okay, I hope that you, who know everything, will not take advantage of the fire to rob and can give a fair price." ”

Speaking of this, William McGovern did not forget to add, faintly threatening: "You should know that Craig McCaw, who has been buying cellular phone licenses all over the United States like you, is also interested in this business." ”

William McGovern could not have left his successor with no room for manoeuvre before he abdicated. Otherwise, maybe by the day he recovers and wants to return to MCI to continue challenging AT&T, which has collapsed because it can't survive.

Therefore, William McGovern had to leave a considerable amount of cash to ensure that the MCI would not be consumed by AT&T for at least a year. With little choice, he finally decided to sell Airsignal, a subsidiary that runs a cellular phone and paging business, to cash out.

"Craig McCaw, who doesn't dare to wean on money from gambling banks and junk bonds, has a very limited confidence to spend a lot of money, and I can also provide MCI with resources that he does not have, including technology, in addition to money."

After Tang Huan unceremoniously exposed William McGovern's threat as pure paleness, he took a document from the assistant's hand and handed it to the other party, and said lightly: "My team has carefully and comprehensively evaluated, cellular phones and paging are not MCI's core business, and the level of development is quite average, that is, the license can be called a valuable asset, Craig McCaw's bid will not be higher than $130 million, now I will give you an additional $10 million, so that MCI has more possibilities, Weather the storm when you can't take the helm. ”

William McGovern, whose momentum was suppressed so powerlessly that he had no power to resist, twitched the corners of his mouth, and asked with a slight sarcasm: "Thank you Don for your generosity, can you tell me why you are so 'helping' MCI so quickly?" (To be continued.) )