Chapter 741 (1/2)

The blizzard that affected many states on the east coast lasted for three days. Fortunately, only Sunday was overwhelming and the new week began to weaken.

The sudden cold weather inevitably impacted the public's desire to watch movies, and Hollywood studios generally lowered their North American box office expectations during this period.

However, a lot of recent news hot spots, such as the Weimi show, the good news of the new technology industry, and the upcoming IPO of igritte, continue to cause widespread hot discussion. As a result, the media and the public pay less and less attention to last week's mid-term election.

It's not over yet.

On November 16, the day before the third Vermeer TV show was broadcast, media opinion was once again ignited by a heavy news: after more than a month of negotiation and review, the U.S. Department of justice officially approved the acquisition of Disney Company by Vivendi group of France after agreeing to split some assets such as TV business that do not meet the federal media control regulations.

A stone stirs a thousand waves.

Among the top seven Hollywood movies, Disney's Native American cultural attributes far surpass Columbia, MGM and paramount, which were successively acquired by overseas capital. Disney's 2D classic animated films are not only the childhood memory of many Americans, but also an important symbol of American culture.

Simon did not use resources to suppress the relevant public opinion this time.

As a result, from the day when the news was announced to the morning of November 17, the newspapers were full of criticism and even abuse against the Federal Department of justice, the top management in Washington, as well as Disney shareholders and management.

One of the most intense reporters in the Washington Post even criticized the approval of the deal by the Justice Department as a traitor.

Then, the spearhead soon turned to the Democratic Party, which had just lost in the mid-term election.

And the White House.

In the face of public criticism, the White House made a timely response.

The president personally explained the inside story at a press conference on the morning of November 17. The Department of justice was not decided by White House Attorney General Janet Reynolds, but by a committee of seven, four of whom were Republicans.

So the decision on this is actually up to the Republican Party.

As for the president's explanation, the media didn't buy it. Everyone was concerned about how to stop the deal.

A reporter asked the president on the spot whether he would use the presidential order to send the deal back to the Department of justice for re examination. Clinton only said very tactfully that the White House was still discussing the matter. At the same time, he implied that there was no violation of the law in the deal. Unless the buyer voluntarily abandoned the deal, it would be difficult to reject the deal.

After the White House's statement, French Foreign Ministry spokesmen soon made a public response to the matter, saying that the French side is very optimistic about the development prospects of the entertainment industry. Vivendi group's attitude is even a bit tough, claiming that it has invested a huge amount of money in the acquisition transaction, and the US Department of justice has also approved that if it turns back, Vivendi will safeguard its own interests through litigation.

Then news came out.

In order to ensure that there will be no great changes in the transaction process, especially in order to avoid Vivendi's withdrawal, which will cause the company's share price to rise and fall sharply, Disney set a high breakup fee of up to 3% of the total transaction amount.

Large mergers and acquisitions have similar breakup fee provisions.

According to the volume of the transaction and the negotiation between the two parties, the break-up fee is usually between 1% and 5%. Of course, there is a higher proportion or no break-up fee at all. Everything depends on the game between the two parties. The core of the breakup fee clause is to avoid a sudden breach of contract after some twists and turns, causing huge losses to the other.

Therefore, this kind of breakup fee is actually two-way.

In the agreement reached at the end of September, the final transaction price of the two sides was $9.7 billion, and the 3% breakup fee was $291 million.

291 million dollars, no matter for Vivendi or Disney, is definitely not a small sum of money.

What's more, from Vivendi's point of view, once there is a change in Disney's side of the deal, there will be an additional lawsuit to pursue the loss. Although French companies are suing American companies in the United States, no one knows that they can't get much advantage, Disney, which has been declining in recent years, can't stand this kind of toss.

So, without Simon's quiet push, Disney's main shareholders began to operate quietly in Washington.

It's interesting to say.

Disney's two most important shareholders, the bass family in Texas, the Disney family in California, the Republican Party and the Democratic Party, are on both sides.

Both families have felt the decline trend of Disney before. Even if the Disney family is still reluctant, they all know that it is a very wise choice to accept Vivendi group's cash acquisition of up to US $9.7 billion.

Otherwise, we can only watch this asset shrink step by step, or even go bankrupt.

You know, before Vivendi launched the deal, Disney's market value was less than $7 billion, but it had a total debt of up to $5.3 billion. Coupled with the downturn in the film business, Disneyland Paris continued to lose money. It's hard to say when it suddenly became insolvent. At that time, if debtors put pressure on them and restructure their assets, their shares in the hands of major shareholders may be cleared directly.Now, with the completion of this transaction, both sides can put billions of cash into their pockets.

In front of interests, culture and feelings are all floating clouds.

In this incident, Simon's only action was to let the New York Times, which had a good relationship with westrow system, stir up the topic of lifting the ban on media integration, accusing that if it was not for Washington's delay in releasing the outdated ban on the industry, the Disneyland deal would have had local giants to compete, and American cultural treasures would have been lost It won't fall into the hands of the French easily.

In fact, we all know that even if the ban on media integration is lifted ahead of schedule, no other local giant has won the high cash offer of Vivendi group, except for danielis entertainment group, whose strength has exceeded several orders of magnitude in the industry. However, this does not prevent the bill to lift the ban on media integration, which was quietly suppressed by Congress in the first half of the year, from re entering the media and public view.

This time, Washington must also give a satisfactory answer.

Amid the uproar caused by Disney's acquisition, ABC TV officially broadcast the third Victoria's Secret Fashion Show in prime time at 9 pm on Thursday, November 17.

This big show, not only the production budget has reached 30 million US dollars, but also the associated publicity investment has reached 20 million US dollars.