Chapter 368 (1/2)
Same Sunday, Los Angeles.
Michael owitz watched James Leibold's ”Today Show” completely at breakfast, and naturally he didn't believe James's ambiguous response at all.
According to the information recently inquired, Denise entertainment is preparing to bid for MCA, which is an indisputable fact.
Originally planned to spend the weekend with his family, because yesterday's Hollywood Reporter suddenly exposed Denise Entertainment's acquisition intention and today's ”Today Show” interview, owitz had to continue to work at the weekend.
Since the second half of last year, CAA's team has been busy with the MCA acquisition for a whole year.
If this acquisition fails, not only the whole team's busy work in one year, but also tens of millions of dollars of consulting fee loss, which is not what owitz would like to see.
However, owitz also knows that the problems he faces at this time are very thorny.
In the initial contact with owitz last year, Panasonic indicated that it was willing to offer a price of up to US $90 for the acquisition of MCA, which is equivalent to the total transaction amount of US $9 billion based on the total equity of nearly 100 million shares of MCA.
However, with the continuous deterioration of Japan's economy in the past half year, Panasonic's attitude has become more and more conservative. On the other hand, the outbreak of the Kuwait war triggered a decline in the U.S. stock market. At the close of last Friday, the share price of MCA had fallen to $36, and Panasonic was even less likely to bid $90 a share.
The problem now is to speed up the acquisition and urge Panasonic to further increase its offer to MCA.
Before eight o'clock in the morning, Michael owitz arrived at CAA's headquarters in Century City. Members of MCA's acquisition core team also arrived, along with Matsushita representative keitaniko.
The meeting to discuss various coping strategies lasted all morning, and owitz also spoke on the phone with Matsushita President Akio Gujing of Osaka at noon.
Since taking office as president of Panasonic in 1986, Akio gutai has always hoped to enter the United States, but before last year, he was suppressed by the conservative founder of Matsushita.
However, to owitz's disappointment, Akio Guei did not accept his proposal to raise the offer to $75 per share and complete the transaction as soon as possible. At the same time, he did not give up the acquisition plan because of the competition from danilisi entertainment.
After a busy morning, we finally decided to start a new round of negotiation with MCA next Wednesday to further discuss the details of the acquisition.
After lunch, we saw off keiguchiko, a core member of MCA's acquisition team, Michael owitz, Bob Goldman, CAA's financial director and co-founder, and two other senior executives, sandy Kleiman and ray ketzman, and returned to the meeting room in the morning.
Panasonic's attitude towards the acquisition is not firm enough, which makes everyone a little worried.
As everyone gathered around the conference table and waited for his secretary to deliver coffee, Bob Goldman suddenly said, ”a lot of people in Hollywood don't want to see Denise's entertainment expand any more.”
”So what? Do you think Warner, fox, MGM and Columbia will jump out and oppose this acquisition now?” said sandy kliman, who helped owitz start the agency business of CAA enterprises?
In this summer program, ”sleeping with the enemy” and ”shaking the cradle's hand” in Denise Entertainment's 10 film plans have all achieved success. Not only Fox and Disney have benefited from them, but also Warner, MGM, Columbia and other companies have close cooperation with Denise entertainment.
Ray ketzman said at this time: ”and paramount,” rocket expert ”and” Firebird attack ”two project failures, Martin Davis must be very dissatisfied with westero.”
”It's just that the paramount family isn't enough,” Sandy kliman said
Bob Goldman then said, ”you've made a mistake. It's not necessarily the same industry that can prevent a studio from being merged. I mean, the three major unions in Hollywood.”
Bob Goldman's voice dropped, and the other three people in the conference room all looked suddenly.
Danielis entertainment had a quarrel with the American writers' Union two years ago because of the strike. Now Simon westero has been suppressing stars' remuneration through long-term contracts and strictly controlling film production costs on budget. Although these are beneficial to the development of the studio, they have obviously damaged the interests of the Hollywood writers' Union, the directors' Union and the actors' Union.
What's more, for two consecutive years, Denise entertainment has accounted for the majority of the top ten box office places in the United States. If it merges MCA again, it will obviously become a monopoly.
If the three major trade unions make efforts to file a lawsuit against the Federal Department of justice at the same time, together with the cooperation of Hollywood studios such as paramount, they want to prevent the acquisition of danielis entertainment, it should be very likely.
”I remember last Wednesday's bill of Texas Republican Senator Peter Bridger,” ray ketzman quickly mentioned another thing. Seeing the other three people's eyes confused, he said, ”I'll ask someone to collect a piece of information for you. In a word, the White House should not like westero now. In this case, the justice department may not easily pass it Danielis Entertainment's application for MCA. ””And last year's Dustin, cruise and others.”
”Matthew Broderick, do you remember that young man?”
“……”
“……”
After more than ten minutes of discussion, Michael owitz quickly made a decision and said, ”Bob, you are familiar with Martin Davis. Please make an appointment with him as soon as possible. Sandy and ray, you two are responsible for connecting with Washington. I will personally communicate with the three trade unions and Dustin.”
To finalize these, the four soon began to act separately.
The weekend passed in a flash.
Monday, September 10.
Following the Hollywood Reporter's exposure on Saturday that Denise entertainment intends to acquire MCA, the Wall Street Journal also exposed the progress of MCA's acquisition on Monday, saying categorically that Panasonic's acquisition team will start formal negotiations with MCA on Wednesday.
After the Wall Street Journal news came to light, Michael owitz called Lou wassalman's home, accusing him of leaking the news and threatening to cancel Wednesday's agenda. Lu wassalman firmly denied owitz's accusation. After several disputes, the meeting on Wednesday will be held as usual.
However, after continuous media reports, Denise entertainment and Panasonic may bid for MCA news, is completely on the table.