At the same time, on the other side, the person in charge of Merrill Lynch Securities in the reception room introduced Zhang Bowen: "The current head of Marvel Comics is called Avi Arad, who took over the company as chairman and CEO in 1997 and founded Marvel Studios, and he began to enter Marvel Comics in the 1990s. And in 1998, Stan Lee left the company, he created 80% of the well-known comic book characters, is the miracle of creating Marvel Comics company, and is therefore known as the leader of the North American comic industry. ”

There is a reason why Bluestar Technology wants to acquire Marvel Comics, and Merrill Lynch suddenly appears here, because they have a huge relationship with Marvel Comics.

It all started in 2005, when Marvel Comics decided to break the bank, in order to raise money to shoot Marvel movies, and made a desperate bet, using the copyrights of several famous characters such as Captain America and Thor as collateral, and signed an agreement with Merrill Lynch on Wall Street: if the film is not profitable, Merrill Lynch will immediately own these characters

In the end, the two parties reached an agreement, and Marvel Comics finally raised enough money to start with "Iron Man" as the first independent production project.

The film "Iron Man" is now set and will be released in early May, less than a month away.

At this moment, Zhang Bowen chatted with the people of Merrill Lynch Securities for a while, and did not wait too long, and the head of Marvel Comics came to the reception room to meet them.

The two sides exchanged a few polite greetings, and after Zhang Bowen was invited to a seat by the other party, he immediately looked at the head of Marvel Comics Company and smiled: "Mr. Arad, I will get straight to the point when I come uninvited this time, Bluestar Technology Group has taken a fancy to Marvel Company and wants to merge this North American comic giant into its subsidiary." ”

Arad, who had just sat down and had no hot buttocks, was stunned, and looked at Zhang Bowen's smiling face in amazement, unable to speak for a while.

It's really straightforward, without any beating around the bush.

At this time, someone from Merrill Lynch said: "I want to tell you a piece of news, Mr. Arad, Marvel Comics will mortgage Captain America and several other characters to Merrill Lynch's agreement, we have signed a new agreement with Bluestar Technology yesterday, transferred to Bluestar Technology, simply put, Bluestar Technology is now your creditor." ”

Arad looked at both sides again in amazement: "This ......"

The news was so abrupt that Marvel Comics didn't hear anything about it.

It is normal not to receive it, because this transaction is between Bluestar Technology and Merrill Lynch, and there is no special agreement on the right to know between Merrill Lynch and Marvel Comics, so if you want to transfer this debt to anyone, you don't need to notify Marvel Comics, let alone Marvel Comics' consent.

Zhang Bowen went to Wall Street before coming here, and it was for this purpose, because he learned that the agreement between Marvel Comics and Merrill Lynch Securities was not kept secret, and the news of Marvel Comics' ruin had already come out a few years ago.

Arad came back to his senses from his astonishment, and instead of speaking immediately, he pondered the matter inwardly.

The No. 2 person of Bluestar Technology personally visited the door, and Merrill Lynch Securities had transferred its debts to Bluestar Technology, obviously, the other party was really interested in acquiring Marvel Comics.

And for the Marvel comics themselves, Arad was frankly moved.

Without him, Marvel Comics is currently facing a life-and-death situation, and it is still unknown how the upcoming "Iron Man" will end up at the box office, and in fact the whole company is very worried.

Once the box office fails, Marvel Comics will face an unprecedented predicament, the company has been having a hard time, otherwise it would not have sold the film and television rights of its well-known comic book characters, packaged and sold "Spider-Man" and related characters to Sony, and packaged and sold the "X-Men" series to Twentieth Century Fox Films.

Basically, Marvel Comics has sold everything its first-line character IP can sell, and they are also very heartbroken, especially when they see the success of "Spider-Man", they regret it if they don't feel heartache, but there is no way, you can't open the pot if you don't sell it.

So this time, Marvel Studios' first step of independent production is to use a second-tier comic book character "Iron Man", which actually makes them even more bottomless, and they are worried that the film will lose blood, which is simply the darkest moment of Marvel.

No, now is the darkest hour of surprise.

Arad finished thinking, immediately looked at Zhang Bowen and asked, "What price does your company plan to offer?" ”

Bluestar Technology came straight to the point, and brought Merrill Lynch Securities, so there is no need to hide it, and the current bad situation of Marvel Comics Company can't hide these big groups.

This comic giant is really miserable now, especially compared to DC next door, which is sad for those who hear it, and tears for those who see it.

How miserable is it?

Even if he wanted to sell himself, no one cared, and this time Bluestar Technology Group was an exception.

Because in the eyes of the industry and capital, Marvel Comics has no value, the "Spider-Man" IP is gone, the "X-Men" IP is gone, and the "Fantastic Four" IP is gone.

Surprise, what else can you do?

Basically gone!

"Based on the information provided by Merrill Lynch and the audit of a third-party institution, we have estimated the value of Marvel Comics ......," Zhang Bowen said, looking at Avi Aradd, paused for a moment and added: "Our audit result is that Marvel Comics is worth $2.25 billion, and $1.5 billion acquires 67% of the equity." ”

"What? A $1.5 billion acquisition? Arad's eyes widened, and he immediately said indignantly: "NONONO, Marvel Comics has thousands of well-known character IPs, there must be something wrong with your audit, and you seriously underestimate the value of Marvel." ”

Zhang Bowen spread his hands and said: "I don't want to deliberately belittle, but with all due respect, Mr. Arad, the commercial value of your company's thousands of characters is not as good as a "Spider-Man", you know what I mean is that the value of the entire Marvel Comics company is not as good as a "Spider-Man", and it is now Sony Columbia Pictures, and other first-line well-known characters have also been sold out by you, basically everything that can be sold has been sold out by you, please tell me, what else can Marvel do now?" ”

These words made Avi Arad speechless for a while, it can be said that the packaging and sale of "Spider-Man" and its related IP characters has been bleeding from the company's psychology recently.

Zhang Bowen is right, the IP value of a "Spider-Man" is worth multiplying by 2 by the entire Marvel Company, or even 3 is not an exaggeration.

The first "Spider-Man" was released in 2002, which grossed $822 million at the global box office and opened the curtain on superhero movies.

The following year, "Spider-Man 2" was released in 2003, earning $784 million at the global box office, and by the release of "Spider-Man 3" in 2007 last year, the global box office dropped by $891 million, the highest in the series.

The trilogy alone reached $2.497 billion at the box office, and according to the loose box office distribution, the producers shared 33% of the box office, and Sony Columbia Pictures recorded $824 million in box office revenue, which is almost a dream to wake up.

And the box office share is only a part, a large part of the IP income of "Spider-Man" comes from the sales of peripheral goods, and the other part is the income from the movie box office, and Marvel Comics currently only has the comic copyright of "Spider-Man", how can it be compared with the value of the movie copyright?

According to the situation of Luo Sheng's previous life, the IP value of "Spider-Man" has reached a high of 23.4 billion US dollars, compared with the entire Marvel Universe, which was a great success later, is only more than 23 billion US dollars.

It's really a little spider hanging the entire Marvel Universe.

It can be said that Sony is laughing in his dreams, and he is crying in surprise.

In the end, I saw Arad argue with a slightly unconfident expectation: "Admittedly, you are right, but as long as Sony does not release a follow-up movie within five years, the IP copyright of "Spider-Man" will automatically return to Marvel's company." ”

Zhang Bowen smiled and said lightly: "In my opinion, Sony has to hold this IP in his hands even if it makes a bad movie every five years, do you think he will give up the "Pirates of the Caribbean" series, "Harry Potter" series, "Lord of the Rings" series, which are cash cows with IP value? ”

Arad was again speechless.

That's right, Little Spider is now the face of Sony Columbia Pictures, a proper cash cow-like existence, and he will definitely not let go of this IP if his brain is not wit, and he will continue to operate it carefully as a long-term cash cow.

Avi Arad was at a loss for a moment.

Some just regret not being at the beginning, but regret that everything is too late.

The head of Marvel, who was short of words for a while, suddenly looked at Zhang Bowen, still wanting to sell his company at a good price but was too expensive, and asked: "Marvel Comics is worthless in the eyes of your company, why did you come to buy us?" ”

Zhang Bowen smiled, and said that the other party listened to the heart-wrenching words: "It's still a little valuable, but that's all, the core business of Bluestar Technology is the IT industry, but the content of the Internet in the web2.0 era is king, our group company has a BV video website, and the streaming video business needs some content support, I don't know if Mr. Allad understands the $5.2 billion digital film licensing agreement signed by our company with the six major Hollywood film giants and more than a dozen independent studios some time ago?" ”

Arad nodded: "I know this, your company's handiwork is quite scary." ”

To be honest, Marvel Comics has such an idea, that is, I can't wait to sell myself immediately, and quickly call Bluestar Technology Group a "Dad", reporting the thighs of such a gold owner's father, why does Marvel Company have to rely on selling "sons" to survive?

Arad realizes that Marvel Studios, owned by Marvel, must rely on large groups if it wants to break out in the film industry, especially in the current bad situation.

Even those traditional Hollywood movie giants are backed by large groups, Sony Columbia Pictures is backed by Sony Group, don't look at Sony's market capitalization is not high, but its assets are hundreds of billions of dollars, and in the last century, it is a supergiant that calls for wind and rain, the pride of the Japanese;

Disney Pictures is backed by Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures is backed by media tycoon Viacom, and Warner Bros. is backed by Time Group.

is like those independent film companies, without the support of large groups, they may mix well this year, but you may not see him next year, because of bankruptcy and bankruptcy, only studios backed by large groups can stand tall in the industry for a long time.

Marvel Studios is backed by Marvel Comics...... Whoever relies on whom is said in two ways, my father is so much more profitable, I am almost out of food, and I can only recognize my godfather as a way out.

And now there is a big group to recognize the godson, maybe it is still the only one, although the attitude of the Blue Star Technology Group towards the amazing comics is average, but at least it is willing to claim it, and others are willing to do it or not.

It's heart-wrenching, but that's the surprising status quo.

To be honest, Arad himself knows that Marvel Comics doesn't have much bargaining chip, and if he misses this opportunity, Marvel Comics may not have a second time.

……

()

Chinese Net