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There are two major obstacles to the marriage of AOL and Time Warner Turner. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

Internally, the management of both sides needs to coordinate how to distribute power.

Regardless of AOL's market capitalization, it is 10th in the list, but this does not mean that it has surpassed Time Warner Turner in the media field - this is also the marriage of their "merger" into "AOL" and "Time Warner Turner", not "acquisition" as "AOL" or "Time Warner Turner".

In fact, Times Group's first major expansion in the late 1980s, its marriage to WarnerMedia, was plagued by problems such as how to distribute power.

At the beginning, Times Group planned to acquire Warner Media, but Paramount came out halfway and also wanted to compete for Warner Media, which not only forced Time Group to increase its offer, but also tilted the next company structure and power distribution from "acquisition" to "merger".

The final compromise was that Steve Ross of WarnerMedia and Richard Munroe of Time Group became the co-CEOs of the new Time Warner Group.

However, this state of affairs did not last long before it was broken by Steve Ross, a generation of mall tycoons who quickly gained the upper hand - he managed to squeeze out Richard Munro and monopolize the power of Time Warner, which is equivalent to Warner controlling the era.

If it weren't for the fact that Steve Ross died "young" at the age of 65 due to cancer in 1992, it would not have been the turn of the current Time Warner Turner CEO Gerard Levine to take the original Time Group.

Then, in the 1990s, Time Warner underwent its second major expansion – a marriage to Turner Broadcasting.

Ted Turner, who had the financial backing of the richest man and Rupert Murdoch, sniped at the expansion of the American cable television field in the mid-1980s -- from the results of the disappearance of the "Fox News Network" in the original time and space, we can see how much nutrients Turner Broadcasting, especially its flagship media, CNN, plundered and how strong it grew.

In this context, it is not difficult to imagine that the process of merging Time Warner and Turner Broadcasters into the Time Warner Turner Group was also fraught with power distribution games.

Generally speaking, Ted Turner, who became the largest individual shareholder of Time Warner Turner Group, and Tang Huan, who followed in, showed a more moderate attitude in exchange for more "real" power - for example, Gerard Levine, the CEO, although he has great power, but in such a large group, the authority of the vice president should not be underestimated; When Time Warner Turner merged with AOL, it was quietly able to go straight to AOL's Steve Case's helper.

Another major obstacle is that, externally, review bodies, including the Federal Trade Commission, cannot hold on to the marriage of AOL and Time Warner Turner in the industry's monopoly evaluation.

Fortunately, there is no need for AOL, which currently has more than 40 million users and a market value of nearly $160 billion, to make efforts, and Time Warner Turner, who wants to enter digital media and can't wait to "marry" himself, took the initiative to go to public relations.

It can be said that the marriage between AOL and Time Warner Turner is not a big problem through the government~government review, it is nothing more than a little earlier and a little later - AOL just waits for the "daughter-in-law" to sit back and wait.

But Tang Huan knows too well how this "sooner and a little later" is mysterious - you must know that a large part of AOL's current market value of nearly $160 billion is an Internet bubble, so it is necessary to use this once-in-a-lifetime "good market" with an Internet valuation far exceeding that of traditional industries to fully digest the marriage with Time Warner Turner.

The richest man has supported AOL from scratch for more than ten years, is it just to make money for the listing?

Of course, this is not the case - the ultimate goal is to meet up with AOL and Turner to harvest the power of traditional media.

And now in this closing stage, the "time difference" is becoming more and more important -- let's imagine that if AOL has joined hands with Turner Broadcasting, which has successfully "lurked" in, to digest Time Warner Turner since this year, then when the current round of economic cycle in the United States is down, and the nature of its "foreign power and middle work" is exposed, will "divorce" still happen?

For the sake of this "time gap", Mr. The richest man has been secretly active - for example, the development of AOL has been far more successful than the original time and space.

And now, there is another opportunity to advance, that is, the house of cards, which has made many American political dignitaries "zipper" scandals in broad daylight, can also be used as a bargaining chip for the exchange of interests after completing its historical mission -- such a killing of birds with one stone, it is estimated that only the richest man with deep calculations can do it!

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Barack O's eight-yard errand is very efficient - the richest man saw that he had an affirmative answer, so he took the other party to AOL's headquarters in Rockefeller Center in New York to have a face-to-face communication with Steve Case.

Tang Huan, the "mediator" in the middle, is actually a "performer" - Steve Case, who has long been aware of it, and Ba Ba Ba yard of Ba Ba Ma argued for a long time before the other party left with the joy of reaping a great achievement.

Seeing that when the big boss shook hands with Bayard O'Bama and said goodbye, patted each other on the shoulder with great seriousness and encouraged him a few words, Steve Keys quipped: "It seems that this Obayard state senator is still very admired." ”

"Shiya! Luck also! The richest man smiled playfully.

Steve Keys tasted something else in his words, so he asked tentatively: "You mean that the negotiations between AOL and Time Warner Turner can no longer be used as bargaining chips by delaying and then using a higher market capitalization?" ”

"Emphasizing this point over and over again can easily lead to boredom and even reveal the details." The richest man bowed slightly, "Isn't it basically finalized at present, the shareholders of AOL own 55% of the shares of the new AOL Time Warner Turner." ”

Steve Case understands too well the ultimate meaning of this marriage that "Time Warner Turner is eager to embrace the cross-media revolution and AOL is desperate to turn its high market capitalization into a tangible asset".

So, he immediately suggested with understanding: "Since you are already here, it is just right for everyone to have a meeting at the highest level." ”

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AOL's and Time Warner Turner's headquarters are both in Rockefeller Center — and it's easy for executives from both sides to get together.

The richest man took a look at the top of the boulder, the viewing platform of Rockefeller Center.

This place has been renovated and opened to the public again - although it is surpassed by the Empire State Building and the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in height, the cruise ship landscape launched by the movie "Titanic" still attracts a large number of enthusiastic tourists and leaves a piece of praise for it.

Jack Welch, CEO of General Electric, who looked down on New York with Tang Huan, said with admiration: "The big deal of "Titanic" is simply a miracle. ”

If tens of millions of dollars in publicity expenses are included, the investment in the "Titanic" project has exceeded 250 million US dollars.

After its full release last June, although it was not as explosive as "Jurassic Park: The Lost World," which grossed a record $72 million in its first weekend, it still had a long time to win — about three months later, it became the first film in history to break $1 billion at the box office, and in the following period, it surpassed $1.1 billion, $1.2 billion, $1.3 billion, and $1.4 billion in succession...... Until now, the sword is 2.1 billion US dollars.

Among them, North America contributed almost $700 million at the box office; And with the help of Mr. the richest man's careful management to avoid the impact of the Asian financial turmoil, the overseas box office is almost twice that number.

Up to now, "Titanic" has been in theaters in North America for almost 10 months, and until now it can still sit on the top of the weekend box office list, and even earned $15 million in one day on February 14 ~ People's Day.

One of the reasons why the box office of "Titanic" can be so strong is that under the promotion effect including traditional word-of-mouth and viral spread of the Internet, the movie-watching group is extremely large, and many people have watched it more than once, especially those American girls who were deeply moved by the love story of the movie, walked into the cinema more than once, so that Leonardo DiCaprio, who played the male protagonist Jack, became a phenomenal heartthrob, and even more than 200 fans. Because he failed to be nominated for Best Actor at the 70th Academy Awards, he went to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to protest.

This phenomenon reflects the essence of "Titanic" that can amaze business leaders like Jack Welch -- not only attracts a lot of money, but also has crazy fans, and has brushed up on the aura of prestige that can blind people's eyes -- take China as an example, the official is cooling down the excessive popularity of "Titanic", while big cities such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou are reluctantly organizing vigorous "farewell screenings" activities.

Mr. The richest man also used the movie "Titanic" to develop a lot of peripheral things, such as in addition to the new version of the Rockefeller Center viewing platform in front of him, the top of the boulder, there is also an aircraft carrier resort hotel, etc., and actively fed back to the old IT industry.

Twentieth Century Fox has confirmed that it will release the Titanic DVD by the end of this year, and optimistically sets sales at 1 million copies.

You know, at this stage, the proportion of American households owning DVD players is about 5% - since the "Titanic" movie is so popular, then the "Titanic" DVD will definitely promote the further development and growth of DVD in the field of digital media.

It can be said that under the operation of Mr. the richest man, "Titanic" not only created a miracle for Hollywood - Jack Welch had to convince himself of the vision and skill to do business so far.

Listening to the compliment of the CEO of General Electric, Tang Huan smiled slightly at self-deprecation, "I'm afraid that in the next time, I will often come to the top of the boulder to blow the wind." ”

Jack Welch laughed knowingly, "Are you being troubled by the antitrust lawsuit in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit?" ”

Although there is competition between Fangyuan and General Electric in the medical equipment business, Zheru Software and General Electric in the first place in market capitalization, etc., they all belong to the level of the game between the harmless strong, and Tang Huan has never been shy about learning from General Electric's example, such as creating his own business school and cultivating managers who are in line with his own corporate culture.

Therefore, Tang Huan has a good relationship with Jack Welch, who is known as "Neutron Bomb Jack", and General Electric.

So he didn't hide his feelings, and frankly admitted: "Isn't this annoying enough? ”

"I think that Zheru Software's response strategy is still very right." Jack Welch said meaningfully: "It is true that there are some successful dispositions that can be learned from IBM back then. ”

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After relaxing at the top of the rock, the richest man attended a joint meeting of AOL and Time Warner Turner.

On such an occasion, Steve Keys did not hide his words, and directly invited credit: "The United States is thinking that it will stop the service of the House of Cards website on the grounds of infringing the copyright of Twentieth Century Fox, in exchange for the efficiency of the Federal Trade Commission, the Federal Communications Commission and other censors in evaluating the monopoly link of the industry." ”

From the marriage between Time Group and Warner Media, to the marriage between Time Warner and Turner Broadcasting, and now to the marriage between Time Warner Turner and AOL, the current CEO of Time Warner Turner, Gerard Levine, who has always played an active role in promoting it, immediately waved his hand excitedly, "In this way, we just need to take care of things within our own scope." ”

Tang Huan glanced at Ted Turner, the largest shareholder of Time Warner Turner, and slowly opened his mouth to confirm: "You have no objection to AOL's 55% stake in AOL's Time Warner Turner in the future, right?" ”

Gerald Levine looked around at his side and said, "We've agreed on this - the merger of the two companies will give birth to an empire worth more than $300 billion, spanning media, entertainment, and the Internet, and that's in everyone's interest." ”