25 September, 2000.

Abel returns to Texas,

Today is the fifth day.

On this day, he met a guest at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Houston.

The guest's name was Isaac Perlmutter.

According to the original itinerary, Abel was supposed to meet Isaac Perlmutter at Smith Capital in New York.

But he never returned, and Isaac Perlmutter arrived in New York early.

Forced by desperation, at the suggestion of David Mellon.

Isaac Perlmutter left New York and ran to Texas to find Abel.

The reason why he was so urgent and took the initiative to come to the door was for many reasons.

One is that Isaac Perlmutter now manages a company that was on the verge of bankruptcy in 1997.

It was true that he was rescued that time, but for this company, the situation did not get much better.

It is still on the verge of bankruptcy at any moment, or it may become insolvent.

All along, as the general manager of this company.

Isaac Perlmutter is looking for new investors to inject new money into the company.

Over the years, Isaac Perlmutter has sought out too much capital and interested businessmen.

But these people, either too demanding, or simply not interested.

Either they want the core property of this business, but they don't want to take over this business that has been losing money.

This is something that Isaac Perlmutter and the company's core management cannot tolerate.

All along, Isaac Perlmutter has been working hard to run the company, and by the way, he continues to look for new owners in the market.

As an investment businessman, Isaac Perlmutter is familiar with Wall Street.

After learning that the Wolf of Wall Street was interested in the company.

He couldn't wait to come.

He also knew that the wolf of Wall Street was also the chairman of the CAA.

This identity happens to be deeply in line with another senior executive of the company, one of the company's future plans.

This made him work tirelessly, running from Los Angeles to New York.

From New York, I found Houston, Texas.

Just to see Abel.

This is one of the reasons,

It was originally the main reason why Isaac Perlmutter wanted to meet Abel.

But now,

This primary reason has instead become a secondary factor.

It was another matter for Isaac Perlmutter to come to Abel so urgently.

That is, Isaac Perlmutter is not just the head of the board of directors of this company called "Marvel". Mat.

He is also a venture capitalist and businessman, the kind known for his caution.

It's just that no matter how cautious a businessman is, he will also encounter a downturn, or bad luck.

He's been a bit of bad luck lately, and the shares of several listed companies he's bought have been falling.

Several of the startups he has ventured into have also met with strong blows from their opponents.

In addition to Marvel's own poor condition, his own investment and financial situation is also terrible.

This forced him to seek more money to save Marvel or. Himself.

Fortunately, Abel is very interested in Isaac Perlmutter, and it should be said that the company behind him.

In the case of Isaac Perlmutter himself delivered to the door.

He chose to meet the other party.

The meeting took place at the Four Seasons Hotel, where he had stayed with Liv Taylor for two days before him.

Liv Taylor has now been temporarily housed in a property he recently purchased in Houston.

So she wasn't in the hotel, and he didn't bring her over to meet Isaac Perlmutter.

Four Seasons Hotel, restaurant.

Abel sits with Isaac Perlmutter.

Isaac Perlmutter is a white man about forty years old.

Looks ordinary, belongs to a casual search on the street, you can find more than a dozen of them.

"Good afternoon. Mr. Smith. "Isaac Perlmutter sat across from him with a very good attitude.

It's so good that when others look at it, they know that this guy has something to ask for.

"Good afternoon. Mr. Perlmutter. Able responded with a smile.

"I" Isaac Perlmutter perked up and was about to say something kind.

was stopped by Abel, who stretched out his hand and waved at him, and then said:

"Mr. Perlmutter, I know what you're here for. I'm also very interested in Marvel. When I was a kid, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Wolverine were all heroes in my mind. ”

"Now in my room when I was a kid, it's still full of Peter Parker stickers and posters."

"Now that I'm older, I'm no longer obsessed with them. But if I had the opportunity to get the company that created them, I would love to. ”

In the face of Abel's enthusiastic expression, the expression on Isaac Perlmutter's face was a little embarrassed.

Abel's emphasis on Spider-Man, Parker and X-Men, is indeed a creation of Marvel.

The problem is that the copyrights of these Marvel's most popular superhero characters no longer belong to Marvel.

In those difficult days, Marvel sold all its most valuable IPs.

At the time of the bankruptcy crisis in 1997, Marvel even planned to sell all the superhero rights.

It's just that those buyers don't want to, and they only pick off those copyrights that they themselves think are valuable.

The rest are basically what they don't look down on.

Like Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow and the like.

They don't look down on it.

Abel doesn't mention this pot, and those who are talking about are recognized as the most popular superhero IPs.

But now that they don't belong to Marvel, Isaac Perlmutter doesn't know how to express it.

Isaac Perlmutter muttered, "Mr. Smith, you're right. But."

"Ha~" Abel laughed, "But these most popular heroes, they don't belong to Marvel now, right?" ”

Now that you know everything, why do you keep emphasizing this?

Isaac Perlmutter complained in his heart, but he naturally didn't dare to say it.

"Yes." Isaac Perlmutter said: "Marvel has had a low point, and during that low period, it almost went bankrupt. ”

"In order to maintain its existence, it had to sell these things in that particular time."

"But in fact, these superhero copyrights left by Marvel, they are the real Kuibao!!"

That's what Isaac Perlmutter said.

But as far as Abel knew, this was not the case.

Isaac Perlmutter had the financial resources to support Marvel.

It's just that this kid is very stingy, filming "Iron Man" in a parallel time and space.

You can change the ten Humvees that escorted Tony to four in the setting.

He didn't spend much money to control Marvel, mainly using his own toy company to take a stake in Marvel.

It is impossible for him to come out with money to save Marvel.

So after he took charge of Marvel, this guy couldn't find the gold owner.

His way of keeping Marvel alive is to start selling Marvel's most valuable copyrights.

Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc., are all out of the Marvel copyright sequence in this situation.

Isaac Perlmutter is at the moment, trying to convince the rich young man in front of him to invest in the dying Marvel company.

In this way, he himself can also get the turnover of funds.

to save your investment.

But he soon saw it again, and Abel waved his hand to himself again.

"Alright. You don't have to persuade me, Mr. Perlmutter. The fact that you can meet me proves that I still have a little bit of interest in Marvel. ”

Abel made a look of interest, and said as if he didn't care:

"Please tell me directly, how do you want me to invest in Marvel?"

"After getting my investment, what will Marvel do?"

Although it was a little different from the imaginary persuasion plan, Abel's reaction gave Isaac Perlmutter some confidence.

Isaac Perlmutter hurriedly said:

"The Marvel Company wants to get a mortgage from you, Mr. Smith. The collateral can be the copyright of those heroes left by Marvel. ”

Marvel used to be a public company, but it almost went bankrupt.

Marvel was delisted after a restructuring on the verge of bankruptcy, and Isaac Perlmutter is currently its largest shareholder.

At this time, Marvel's market value was extremely low in the market.

This makes it completely impossible to use shares as collateral, and the remaining hero IPs and toy companies are worth a little money.

Hearing Isaac Perlmutter's request, Abel shook his head slightly:

"My analyst told me. Marvel's most valuable copyright is Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. They also said that all the remaining Marvel hero lists don't add up to a single Spider-Man worth. ”

"Marvel sold Spider-Man to Sony at the time, and it only sold for seven million dollars."

"According to this analysis, if inflation is counted. The copyrights of Marvel's remaining superheroes, they are only worth 10 million dollars at most. ”

"According to this data, dear Isaac, you can only use these collaterals at most to get a loan of six to seven million dollars from me."

"Even if that's the case, do you want a loan?"

After listening to Abel's accurate and sharp analysis of Marvel's remaining hero copyrights.

Isaac Perlmutter was silent.

In fact, the current Marvel company, the remaining superhero IP copyright, is indeed very worthless in the US capital market.

In parallel space-time,

Later, Iron Man, who became very popular, can only be regarded as a third-line superhero in the Marvel superhero sequence.

On the front lines are Wolverine, Spider-Man, X-Men, and the Fantastic Four.

Thor and Captain America and the like, are second-tier.

Tony Stark later became so valuable purely because of the movie.

Because the movie became popular, Iron Man's status in the Avengers rose again and again, and he directly became the Big Three of the Avengers.

Little Spider, the first giant, in turn, actually became his godson.

Around 2000, Marvel was not really worth the copyrights of these heroes.

What really worth it is the former Toy Biz toy company that merged a few years ago and changed its name to Marvel Toys.

Isaac Perlmutter is the owner of Toy Biz.

The business of this toy company is also the biggest driving force that supports Marvel's survival now.

According to the current market situation, Marvel's remaining superhero copyrights are not worth much.

Toy Biz toys are transformed into Marvel toys that are worth the money.

Use it as collateral to borrow at least tens of millions of dollars or more.

However, the toy company is now the lifeblood of Marvel and the most important factor in Isaac Perlmutter's ability to master Marvel.

Isaac Perlmutter has no feelings for superheroes, but a lot for toy companies.

Naturally, he was reluctant to take out the toy company as a mortgage.

Gritting his teeth, Isaac Perlmutter said softly, "So. . . Mr. Smith, what do you mean? ”

Isaac Perlmutter felt that Able had asked someone to find him.

Then it must be interested in Marvel somewhere, otherwise this kind of Wall Street capitalists will not waste time talking to themselves.

So it must be Marvel, something that the other party has taken a fancy to.

And this is also the biggest reliance he can rely on to get money on Abel at present.

Abel smiled, and he made two conditions for Isaac Perlmutter.

"First of all, I can give you money. But instead of a loan, I want to buy the rights to all the superheroes that are left of Marvel. However, in addition to this regulation, certain licenses will be opened to toy companies. ”

"For a certain period of time, your toy company doesn't need to pay me the copyright, and you can produce superhero toys for a certain period of time."

"The price is doubled, 18 million dollars."

Hear about Abel's condition, especially the article on the copyright of toys that are free for a period of time.

Isaac Perlmutter, the former chairman of the toy company, was a little moved, and he couldn't help but say, "What about the other condition?" ”

"Another?"

Abel smiled, "I'll buy the entire Marvel company." There are two ways to buy, one is to buy only Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios. ”

As early as 1993, Marvel established a film company.

But it happened to be a movie winter, and the market was sluggish.

Marvel filmed a Thor and a Hulk at the time.

In the end, none of them were released, firstly, because these two movies were shoddy, and secondly, because the market did not accept them.

"The toy company will give you back, and in the same way, will give your toy company at least two years of free copyright."

Abel continued:

"Another way to buy is to sell me all of Marvel, including your toy company."

"Whew-"

Isaac Perlmutter exhaled softly, and he looked deeply at Abel.

"So, Mr. Smith, what about the price? The price of the first plan, and the price of the second plan. ”

"If I only buy Marvel Studios and Marvel Comics, my bid is $30 million. Because right now, they're only worth that much. ”

The current market situation is very optimistic about Marvel's remaining superhero IP copyrights.

However, it is a comic book publisher in its own right, and it is still one of the top ones in the United States.

Even if the comic book publishing industry is sluggish, it is still worth some money.

Not to mention the Marvel movie with an empty shelf, which is also worth millions of dollars.

There are some talents in it.

"If I were to buy the whole Marvel company, I would be bidding 100 million dollars. Their price is only worth so much. ”

Don't look at the fact that Marvel was worth more than $200 billion later.

That's because after the success of the Avengers universe, it has such value.

In 2009, before the Avengers did not really succeed.

The entire Marvel package was sold to Disney, and it was only sold for about $4.2 billion.

At the moment in 2000, Marvel has just experienced a bankruptcy crisis.

The sales of comics, its main business, are sluggish, and it is all supported by toys.

At this time, it's really only worth so much money.

Such a cheap Marvel, not many people have seen it before.

The value of Marvel has only improved a little after the release of the first part of "X-Men" this year.

But it's also average, because the global box office of the first part of "X-Men" is only $290 million.

Although it ranked sixth at the annual box office, its budget was $75 million, and more than $20 million in publicity funds were not put in.

This box office, after deducting the cost, earned less than 10 million US dollars.

Counting the peripheral and subsequent sales of DVDs, etc., it can be regarded as profitable.

Marvel was really taken seriously, so much so that it was able to successfully get a loan later, after Maguire's first Spider-Man was released.

And after a huge success, Marvel was really taken seriously by the market.

At that time, Marvel's market value was at least several times different from now.

Look at Isaac Perlmutter's hesitant appearance after he said the conditions.

Abel was a little anxious, because he knew that in another year or two, it would be impossible to buy Marvel for one or two hundred million dollars.

It's just that he can bear it, and he has already prepared some moves.

Isaac Perlmutter is an investor in the midst of an investment crisis.

Several of Isaac Perlmutter's ventures, as well as several of Wall Street's investments, have lost money to varying degrees.

Isaac Perlmutter will need a margin call in the near future to avoid these investments going down the drain.

In other words, Isaac Perlmutter is in a hurry now than he is.

And at least half of Isaac Perlmutter's current investment situation is fueled by David Mellon!

Able can bear it, it's a big deal to add a little more money after a while.

As long as the first Spider-Man is released, Marvel will not be worth anything.

And the first Spider-Man will not be released until 2002.

There are still about two years to go, and Abel can wait.

Of course.

He won't sit still, he's already told David Mellon and he's ready to step up.

If only Isaac Perlmutter couldn't make up his mind.

He's going to let David Mellon, continue to snipe Isaac Perlmuttert's investments in the market.

This behavior is not costly, and it only costs millions of dollars when leveraged.

David Mellon even said that the company has already made millions of dollars in doing so.

Continuing to operate, the company could at least make millions of dollars on the investment in Sniping Isaac Perlmutter.

Smith Capital makes money, and naturally some people lose money.

It was Isaac Perlmutter who was sniped again, and he was naturally the one who lost the money.

Since Isaac Perlmutter couldn't make up his mind so quickly.

Then Abel thinks that he should let himself help him make up his mind as soon as possible.

Dare to refuse,

Or hesitation.

Smith Capital is going to continue to teach Isaac Perlmutter to be a man in the capital market.

This is the means of the financial capitalists.

(End of chapter)