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Volume 1 Chapter 604 Secret Meeting with PolyGram

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    The 1990s were the best period of opportunity for any company interested in the world market.  As the world¡¯s most important market, the economies of most European countries have been in a period of transition since the 1980s. Except for a few countries such as Germany, the economy is generally in recession, with the United Kingdom being a typical example.  This once invincible empire that never sets in the world had a brief recovery after the war, but it declined to a low point when it was in the hands of the Iron Lady. Not only did the huge colony that had been built with hundreds of years of hard work completely fall apart, the former arrogant Royal Navy also  The last layer of glory was stripped off during the Falklands War with Argentina, the little overlord of South America, just like the British economy.  And in the past 1992, this country also enjoyed being attacked by international fast money, which caused the British national economy to suffer another heavy blow. Now is the best period for bargain hunting.  I learned from Ye Weixin that PolyGram finally nodded. All its UCT theaters were no longer not for sale, but became commodities on the table for anyone to ask for a price. How could Lin Xiaozhi be able to hold back, and showed the film to the crew the next day?  After a three-day vacation, he flew straight to the UK with Ye Weixin, preparing to have a good talk with PolyGram about the acquisition of UCT.  In the past few years, Media Asia's movies, which have only been released in the UK, have brought an average net profit of close to 15 to 6 million US dollars to Odeon, which they have been cooperating with, every year. This is not a small amount of money, almost as much as Odeon.  Before cooperating with Media Asia, it accounted for more than one-third of the annual net profit.  Although Lin Xiaozhi chose to give up profits in order to obtain tickets for European screenings, now that Media Asia has gained a lot of popularity in Europe and the United States, he feels a little unhappy if he continues to give away profits to others.  willing.  Giving up profits is actually secondary. The key is that Odeon is stuck with Media Asia's UK release channel. Whenever the two parties negotiate for the release of new movies, Media Asia has to give up some of its profits in order to obtain more resources. Otherwise, they will obviously have plenty.  American blockbusters are waiting to be released, and Media Asia is not the only one to choose them.  Lin Xiaozhi himself operates theaters in Hong Kong, mainland China and Japan, so he naturally understands the importance of having channels at hand.  So since a long time ago, he has been planning to purchase Media Asia cinemas in Europe and the United States.  The current president of PolyGram is named Anderson Maersk, who is said to be a Swedish man in his fifties.  Obviously, although he had already planned to buy his UCT theater chain, the white people's consistent arrogance made it obvious that the Swede did not put Media Asia and PolyGram in the same position. Lin Xiaozhi went to London to prepare for PolyGram.  Jin negotiated the acquisition of UCT, but the other party only sent a vice president to meet with him.  On February 25, at an inconspicuous four-star hotel in the West End of London, Lin Xiaozhi arrived at the agreed meeting place five minutes earlier than the agreed meeting time, only to find that he was still a little late.  When he and the Media Asia group arrived at their destination, PolyGram Vice President Anthony, who had made an appointment to meet them, arrived at the destination early. Looking at the half-empty black teapot in front of him, it was obvious that they had already arrived.  It's been a while.  "Mr. Anthony, I kept you waiting for a long time!" Although Lin Xiaozhi was a little dissatisfied with PolyGram's arrogance, Lin Xiaozhi did not show it.  He admitted that PolyGram does have arrogant qualifications now. It is the largest record company in Europe and even the world, and more than one-third of the world's top musicians, orchestras, and groups are under its umbrella.  In comparison, if we only look at his Media Asia Film Group, the two sides are indeed one level behind.  "Mr. Lin, please sit down, I'm just here a little early!" Anthony suddenly said a blunt Cantonese sentence, which made Lin Xiaozhi and others stunned.  He smiled proudly when he saw this, "Hong Kong is a beautiful place. Mr. Lin must not know that I was the first general manager of PolyGram Hong Kong Branch!" Lin Xiaozhi suddenly realized that he had learned that Maersk only sent  When he met a vice president to negotiate with him, he felt a little annoyed, and he forgot to ask people to find out information about the opponent who was about to meet with him.  Now it seems that the Swede is arrogant, but at least he has no intention of fooling Media Asia.  Although there was a little humor at the beginning, as a British guy, Lin Xiaozhi, who was ready to chat a little to get closer to each other, soon came to nothing.  After asking the guy who didn't know whether he was a deputy or a secretary to pour a cup of black tea for him and others, Anthony quickly got into the topic. He suppressed the smile on his face, stared at Lin Xiaozhi seriously and asked: "Excuse me.  Let me speak frankly, Mr. Lin. You suddenly proposed to PolyGram that you wish to acquire our UCT Cinema Holdings Co., Ltd. Although UCT is not for sale to PolyGram, it is also an important part of PolyGram's diversified operations.  , please give me a reason why I have to sell it, otherwise I can¡¯t convince the board of directors!¡± Lin Xiaozhi almost didn¡¯t laugh out loud. He suddenly remembered the two years ago when the UK was discussing the release of a new film.??I read the British evaluation of PolyGram in a newspaper - "It is cloaked in the guise of a British company, but there are only two people sitting on their (referring to PolyGram) board of directors, one is the German Juncker,  One is a Dutch coachman'!  Although Siemens has sold most of its PolyGram shares to Philips in the past few years, and even though PolyGram has resold some shares to the original shareholders in the process of acquiring some record companies in recent years, it can  The will of PolyGram is still determined by its two major shareholders-Philips and Siemens.  So his excuse to convince the board was nothing more than a joke.  Fortunately, although Lin Xiaozhi knew this, he would not reveal it to make people unhappy. He looked at Anthony aggressively until the British guy looked a little unhappy, and then he said pointedly: "Your company has recently been  Hasn't it been proven over the past few years that your diversified business is not working? In that case, why not focus on the main business? As far as I know, whether it is Bertelsmann, Sony Columbia, or Universal Music (this Universal is not that Universal),  It is a record company affiliated with Universal Pictures) and has been poaching PolyGram frequently in the past two years!" Anthony's face suddenly sank, and he looked extremely ugly.  Lin Xiaozhi suppressed the laughter in his heart, asked his assistant for some milk, poured it into the black tea cup and stirred it gently.  The reason why he thought he could seize food from the giant record giant, Polygram, and successfully acquire UCT Cinemas was entirely because he was reborn and knew the hidden dangers of PolyGram very well.  Like most Chinese companies whose future lies many years from now, PolyGram Records today has also fallen into the trap of blind expansion and diversification.  Since the economic crisis that swept the world in the mid-1980s, the global record market has begun to decline, and the profits of PolyGram records have not only stopped growing but even declined.  In sharp contrast, the profits contributed by the film industry are gradually increasing every year. American blockbusters are plundering Europe and plundering billions of dollars in huge profits from Europe every year.  Americans are happy, Europeans are unhappy.  During this period, many countries, including Britain, France, Germany, etc., began to encourage and support domestic films. Although Europe has been losing a large number of outstanding artists and directors over the years, the effect has not been obvious yet.  Around 1990, PolyGram executives also proposed a new business strategy that would frustrate PolyGram a few years later. They first established PolyGram International Film Company, and then planned to invest 4.27 in five years.  A huge sum of 100 million pounds was spent on filming movies, and it entered the film market in a big way.  This cross-industry business strategy has led many analysts in later generations to believe that the heads of PolyGram Records¡¯ top executives at that time can only be described as being caught in the door. Not to mention that PolyGram had no experience in making movies at all, not to mention that it was like across the sea.  If it were more prudent, it would invest less money to make a few low-cost films and gradually accumulate experience. Relying on the strong strength and influence of PolyGram, it might not be able to take up the banner of supporting local European films.  No matter how bad it is, or simply directly investing in and acquiring a relatively mature American film company to intervene in this industry, it is absolutely impossible to create a tragic legend of losing at least 200 million a year in history. You must know that it is a dollar, not a yen.  ¡°We don¡¯t blame PolyGram for being too ambitious, we can only blame European movies for being too deceptive!¡± Lin Xiaozhi actually knows very well that behind this, PolyGram cannot be blamed for being too ambitious.  Although PolyGram's business strategy seems to be a bit too realistic, the current European film atmosphere is too heavy on the literary and artistic atmosphere, and the commercial elements are seriously insufficient, especially some British, German, and French directors that PolyGram Records has invested heavily in, so that they  He is a first-rate expert in making literary and artistic films, but making commercial films is just like the directors of the fifth generation of the later Republic. They can only entertain themselves or say something that no one will understand in a few years. In the end, they can¡¯t even support domestic productions.  Domestic audiences who just bought tickets to watch the movie have to curse themselves after seeing it, how stupid they are to support these funny people again and again.  ¡° Moreover, the European box office is the most attractive overseas market for American blockbusters. If the local film industry wants to rise, it also depends on whether the established American film giants are willing.  You come up with a nondescript commercial film and prepare it for release. Well, we will present several wonderful movies with big casts in the same period and let¡¯s see who the audience chooses!  The failure of diversification into the film industry resulted in PolyGram losing money every year in the last few years.  In addition, the record industry has become increasingly sluggish with the birth of digital products. Look at the fate of PolyGram. This giant, which has dominated the world record market for more than 20 years since its establishment, finally closed in 1998.  It was sold to Canada's Seagram Group by Philips and merged with Universal Records, a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, which became a tragic history.  According to information obtained by Lin Xiaozhi, PolyGram International Film Company has invested in a number of films in Europe in recent years. The most famous one is its partnership with the American Film Company."Columbus" co-produced by the company.  The total investment in this movie exceeded 70 million US dollars, and the publicity costs were another expense, but the total box office was a joke. PolyGram International Film Company lost money because of it, and it also suffered from the media's heat.  sarcasm.  Lin Xiaozhi's 'well-intentioned' reminder was directed at PolyGram's scar, so that Anthony's face turned gloomy for a while before he could barely suppress his displeasure and replied arrogantly: "PolyGram is strong, even if it encounters a short setback, it will not  It affects our business strategy. Your Majesty, although your Media Asia Film Group has made gains in Europe and the United States in recent years, it has to face competition from American movies and European local movies, and life is not easy. " This is a standard dead duck!  Lin Xiaozhi naturally heard that he was tough, but he smiled and did not refute. He was just about to make a quotation, but Anthony paused for a moment and then spoke again. The opening of his mouth shocked him.  "We will not sell UCT easily, but this does not affect the cooperation between the two of us. Mr. Lin may not know that when the board of directors approved my contact with you, they also asked me to say something, our Baoli  Jin intends to acquire Media Asia, what do you think of Mr. Lin? " "Well, I have always been thinking about the meat in people's pockets, but I didn't expect that people would also be thinking about it.  Lin Xiaozhi was surprised at first when he heard this, but he soon felt relieved after thinking about it.  Lin Xiaozhi has never doubted that PolyGram has the strength to acquire his Media Asia Film Group, but his Media Asia is not a soft persimmon, and anyone who wants to can eat it can take it.  It is actually very easy to make statistics on Media Asia, because Media Asia is a listed company. Even though it is far away in Hong Kong, most of its data is published. Anyone who is interested can get it by just asking around.  After more than two years of development since its listing, Media Asia Film Group today is far from what it was when it was listed, and has suddenly become a giant in the Hong Kong stock market.  Last year, thanks to "League of Assassins" sweeping the global box office of nearly 370 million U.S. dollars, Media Asia's stock price continued to rise for many days. In addition, some buildings in Shenzhen Cinemas have been completed and can be put into use. Media Asia, ATV,  Many film and television companies such as Yongsheng began to shift their location shooting to Shenzhen Cinemas, and the emergence of Media Asia SVCD gave movies a new profit channel of SVCD discs. Three major positive effects, the overall market value of Media Asia Group once rose.  The conflict exceeded HK$30 billion.  Even at the beginning of this year, the market value fell below 30 billion again after the British Hong Kong government signed an agreement with the United States, but now the market value has been fluctuating between 28 billion and 30 billion.  From the books alone, we know that if PolyGram wants to bypass him as the major shareholder and absorb shares from the stock market to complete the acquisition of Media Asia Film Group, it will have to invest at least US$1.5 billion. This is the data that he will not mess with.  Of course, there is still some moisture in the stock price. The reason why Media Asia¡¯s stock price has skyrocketed repeatedly in the past few years since it was listed is all because of the twenty or thirty movies produced by the group every year, which can bring more than one billion Hong Kong dollars to the group almost every year.  Profit, so it can be sought after by Hong Kong shares and some investment institutions.  However, although Media Asia's true value is not comparable to that of Columbia Pictures, which was acquired by the tycoon Sony for a whopping US$6 billion a few years ago, Hong Kong's mainstream evaluation agencies are considering Media Asia's ample liquidity of nearly US$400 million.  , and because it rarely co-produces movies with other companies and keeps all the profits alone, it is highly profitable, and valuations ranging from US$3 billion to US$3.5 billion have been given to it.  Is PolyGram willing to spend such a large amount of money?  Lin Xiaozhi thinks it is unlikely. Looking at the past acquisition cases of PolyGram, there were two or three acquisitions of over 100 million US dollars. PolyGram¡¯s board of directors was reluctant to use all cash to acquire them. Although they paid most of the cash, part of them was still used.  PolyGram's stock is discounted, which shows that although the family has a big business, they will never be taken advantage of easily.  The emergence of PolyGram International Film Company is an example. As the overlord of the world's recording industry, PolyGram's strength is far from comparable to that of Sony, which has already shown its conglomerate atmosphere. But if it really wants to diversify its business and start making movies, it is not a bad idea.  Can't take down a giant American film company.  But it was reluctant to pay that money. As a result, it kept going back and forth, spending a lot of money in vain, and it still hasn't seen a year when it will make a profit!  After analyzing in his mind, Lin Xiaozhi suddenly had a clue. Regardless of the red and white faces of several Media Asia personnel who came with him behind him, he still looked at Anthony with a smile and shrugged freely: "I admit that PolyGram has that  I have the strength to acquire Media Asia, but with Media Asia¡¯s current profitability and market value, your senior management will never be able to offer a price that satisfies me.¡± Anthony¡¯s eyes flickered. It was obvious that he had studied Media Asia, but he still acted after hearing this.  Dudu: "Eight hundred million dollars to buy you and your family's shares?" Lin Xiaozhi smiled, although after the listing, he successivelyA lot of Media Asia shares have been released, but so far he, his two wives and the Lin family's family investment fund still hold more than 40% of Media Asia shares, which is enough to ensure that anyone who wants to take a large sum of money from the stock market will not be able to do so.  The purpose of acquiring Media Asia is that as long as there is a slight disturbance, he will definitely move faster than the other party and hold more than 51% of the shares.  Regardless of whether Anthony¡¯s words are true or false, it is clear that in the eyes of Polygram executives, Media Asia¡¯s true value is at most US$2 billion, which is far lower than its current market value.  Although this may have the intention of lowering the price and negotiating, Lin Xiaozhi had no intention of continuing to discuss this topic with him.  He shook his head at the moment, "If the offer is less than three billion US dollars, there is no need to mention the acquisition to me. Remember, I will only accept cash and never PolyGram stock! Media Asia is a movie that I created with my own hands."  Although Empire is not priceless in my mind, its value will never be lower than that of Columbia. So unless Philips makes a move, there is no need to negotiate the acquisition. Well, since PolyGram has already quoted the price, why not come and listen to us.  Make an offer for UTC!¡± He asked for three billion dollars, and it was in cash.  Anthony immediately understood that there was really no need to talk about this topic any further. Lin Xiaozhi¡¯s attitude was very firm, just as he said that he regarded Media Asia in no way lower than Colombia.  Although Anthony had inquired and learned that Media Asia had been on the rise in the past few years and had become the largest film company outside of the Big Five in the United States, he still sneered at the white man's consistent sense of superiority over the yellow race.  The continuous losses of PolyGram International Film Company in the past two years have indeed made the top management of the record company, especially the board of directors, quite dissatisfied. They do have plans to acquire a mature film company with more vitality and strength.  In the past two years, Sony¡¯s $6 billion acquisition of Colombia shocked the world. It not only dissatisfied the American people but also raised the value of the five American giants.  They had previously contacted MGM, which was most likely to be sold, but they offered a price of US$7 billion. They simply wanted to kill them as the second victim after Sony.  Unfortunately, only this company among the five giants has any intention of selling it, and they look down upon other small and medium-sized film companies in the United States.  It was because of the failure of MGM that someone at the top level of PolyGram noticed UTC, which is now the most successful non-American film company in the world, when Media Asia came to their doorstep and proposed to acquire UTC.  Unfortunately, although PolyGram has the intention to acquire Media Asia, its market value is generally believed to be too high, and the estimated price given is even lower than its current stock price.  Although he felt that this matter might not need to be discussed from the beginning, Anthony still did his best. At least now he knew Lin Xiaozhi's attitude.  At that moment, he picked up the already cold black tea cup in front of him and took a sip without looking away from Lin Xiaozhi.  When Lin Xiaozhi saw this, he knew that he was waiting for his quotation for UTC.  Then he stretched out three fingers and said loudly: "Cash, 300 million pounds, to fully acquire all UTC theater chains in the UK, as well as its 11 theater equity in Spain and France!" Anthony's eyes suddenly flickered even more!
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