Chapter 681 ABC TV Network Starts (4000+ Chapters~)
"Warren Buffett took the initiative to contact you!" Wu Jianye learned the news from Linda.
Linda has been in a very beautiful mood recently, because after the top ten box office lists in North America were released last year, many voices against Phantom disappeared at this time, and they were all praised instead. For such a result, Linda is naturally
Very satisfied!
The ongoing negotiations with Berkshire have suddenly made a breakthrough, and it is clear that everything is moving in a favorable direction.
"Yes, just yesterday, we had a phone call. According to the information disclosed by Buffett, we hope that both of us can meet and discuss the formal details of the acquisition of ABC Television Network!" Linda said with a cheerful face.
Wu Jianye nodded, and after thinking about it for a moment, he understood Buffett's intention. Now that Phantom's development speed has obviously exceeded their imagination, Buffett must also be anxious.
"If you want to talk, let's talk. Again, Berkshire's shareholding in Phantom must not exceed 10%!" Wu Jianye said.
Linda glanced at Wu Jianye and asked, "Aren't you going?"
The two men had discussed before this, involving mergers and acquisitions worth tens of billions of dollars, and Wu Jianye, as the boss behind Phantom Entertainment, should be present, not to mention that there were also negotiations on Lutai Investment's investment in Berkshire.
Wu Jianye smiled and shook his head and said: "I will not be present during the negotiation. Someone from Lutai Investment will contact you. When the negotiation between the two parties is successful and the contract is signed, it will not be too late to meet again!"
"
"You are too cautious!" Linda couldn't help but said.
She naturally understood what Wu Jianye meant. Wu Jianye did this simply because he did not want to expose his identity to Buffett prematurely.
"Haha, be careful and you won't make a big mistake!" Wu Jianye said with a smile.
As for the management of Lutai Investment, professional managers have always been in charge in North America. When the time comes, just let their people join Linda!
When Buffett becomes a shareholder of Phantom, Wu Jianye can meet Buffett as the boss of Phantom. At that time, everyone will have a cooperative relationship and a community of interests. Only then will Wu Jianye be assured that his identity will not be exposed.
, and also to reduce Buffett's ability to obtain more benefits in his own capacity during negotiations with Phantom!
"What about the company's loan?" Linda asked.
Although the recent movies have brought a lot of profits to Phantom, Phantom still does not have enough cash to acquire the ABC TV network, and will definitely need a loan when the time comes!
Wu Jianye said: "Contact Standard Chartered Bank's branch in Los Angeles and Morgan Bank!"
Many people know that Standard Chartered Bank's basic base is in Hong Kong, but they don't know that although Standard Chartered Bank is not as prosperous overseas as its old rival HSBC, it still has its own development trajectory.
As early as 1900, Standard Chartered Bank had become the first foreign bank approved to open business in New York. Standard Bank, which had not merged with Standard Chartered Bank at that time, also had a branch in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, and also opened branches in many African countries.
However, due to business problems and the situation in Africa, some of them were closed!
In 1957, Standard Chartered Bank acquired Oriental Bank, thus gaining its branches in Aden (Yemen), Bahrain, Beirut, Cyprus, Lebanon, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates.
During this period Standard Bank also had more than 600 branches and offices in Africa.
In 1965, after the merger with the original British West Africa Bank, its network was fully expanded. The British West Africa Bank has branches in Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Cameroon and The Gambia.
In 1969, Standard Bank and Standard Chartered Bank merged to form Standard Chartered Stock Exchange. Standard Chartered subsequently acquired the British Hodge Group and Wallace Brothers Group.
After the establishment of the Standard Chartered stock listed company, its branches spread across Europe, Argentina, Canada, Panama, Nepal and the United States.
Standard Chartered acquired three American banks, including Union Bank of California, giving Standard Chartered access to Brazil and Venezuela.
Later, Standard Chartered Bank was acquired by Wu Jianye's Yiwang Group, and delisted to become a holding subsidiary of Yiwang Group!
Although Standard Chartered Bank has its own branches in most countries, its scale is not large, so even though it seems to be full of flowers, there is still a big gap between it and HSBC.
Now that Phantom wants a loan, Wu Jianye naturally wants to support Standard Chartered Bank's business in North America. If Phantom Entertainment wants a loan, the bank must beg him, not him. If Standard Chartered Bank can reach an agreement with Phantom in North America,
This cooperation will also greatly improve Standard Chartered Bank's influence in North America.
However, Standard Chartered Bank's business in North America is limited after all, and it cannot bring all the loans to Phantom, so it has to find another bank to continue cooperation. In the early days, Wu Jianye had cooperated with Morgan Bank, but now it is just to find a partner.
If you are familiar with it, just continue to cooperate!
Linda nodded and said: "Okay, I will contact the heads of these two banks now!"
Wu Jianye said: "Go deal with these things!"
Once both parties were willing to negotiate in depth, the negotiations between Phantom and Berkshire became much smoother and no longer the slow grind that they had been before.
Especially after Linda met with Buffett, the negotiations between the two parties became even faster.
When the time entered late January 1991, the two parties finally reached a consensus on the acquisition of ABC Television Network!
According to the results of the negotiations between the two parties, the valuations of Phantom Entertainment and ABC Television Network are US$13.5 billion and US$10 billion respectively, of which Phantom Entertainment will take out 10% of its shares and exchange them with Metropolis Communications for shares in exchange for ABC.
13% stake in the television network.
Subsequently, 13% of the Phantom shares in the hands of Metropolitan Communications were exchanged by Buffett in the name of Berkshire with his own shares of Metropolitan Communications. At the same time, the remaining shares of Metropolitan Communications in Buffett's hands were transferred to Metropolitan Communications in cash.
Returned to Buffett.
As for the remaining 90% of the shares of abc television network held by Metropolitan Communications, it was acquired by Metropolitan Communications for US$8.7 billion in cash.
When the news was announced, the entire United States was dumbfounded!
No one thought that Phantom would be so generous and courageous to acquire ABC Television Network, one of the three major television networks in North America, and acquire it entirely!
For a time, all newspapers, media and television stations were reporting on this matter, including "Wall Street Journal", "Washington Post", "Los Angeles Report", "Times", CBS, NBC...
Among them, the "Wall Street Journal" even listed the details of the transactions between the two parties, and Buffett was once again promoted to the altar.
When Metropolitan Communications wanted to acquire ABC Television Network, Buffett spent US$517 million to acquire 15% of Metropolitan Communications' shares (the previous 25% data was skewed and has now been corrected.).
Nowadays, only 10% of Phantom's shares are worth up to 1.35 billion U.S. dollars, plus the cash that has not been disclosed by Metropolitan Communications and Berkshire, which means that in this transaction, Buffett directly profited at least
Over $800 million!
Metropolitan Communications also did not suffer a loss. When they acquired ABC Television Network, they only spent US$3.5 billion, but now they sold it to Phantom Entertainment for US$10 billion!
Also achieved high profits!
As for Phantom Entertainment, according to the analysis of several major newspapers and various financial experts, Phantom Entertainment has not suffered any loss. Phantom Entertainment, which owns the ABC TV network, has officially become one of the largest media groups in the United States and even the world.
It also makes up for one of the most important shortcomings in their industrial chain!
Nowadays, if Phantom Entertainment still has its own shortcomings, then it only has two major shortcomings: the traditional newspaper industry and the video tape company. But looking at the current development speed of Phantom Entertainment, will they not notice this?
This is a win-win-win battle!
The Wall Street Journal concluded the acquisition with such a report!
In this report, Standard Chartered Bank also appeared. For this acquisition, Phantom needed to come up with US$8.7 billion in cash. The acquisition report showed that Phantom itself came up with US$2.5 billion in cash, and the remaining
6.2 billion US dollars, all from bank loans!
Among them, Standard Chartered Bank provided a loan of up to US$2.2 billion to Phantom Entertainment, while Morgan Bank provided the remaining US$4 billion in loans!
.......
At this time, Buffett looked very surprised because he saw the boss behind Phantom Entertainment!
"Director Wu... I didn't expect you to be the boss of Wuzang Investment behind Phantom Entertainment!" Buffett felt that he had not been so surprised in many years!
Who would have thought that the boss of the largest media group in North America would be Wu Jianye?
At first, the media in North America had speculated about the relationship between Wu Jianye and Phantom, but later with the joint statement between Phantom and Fengge Media, many people gave up the idea. In fact, everyone thought that they had overreacted at the time.
!
The announced background of Wu Jianye has long been investigated clearly. He was an ordinary person born in rural China, and later was admitted to the Yanjing Film Academy, one of the two most famous art schools in China.
Such a person with no official background, no matter how successful he is, cannot possibly own the two most famous companies in Asia and the United States at the same time!
but now......
"Hello Warren, we have been friends for a long time!" Wu Jianye shook hands with Buffett with a smile on his face.
Buffett had returned to normal at this time and sighed: "Director Wu, you really scared me this time!"
Wu Jianye smiled and said: "This is also a last resort. Everyone knows the current environment!"
Buffett nodded, believing that whether it was Hollywood or the American people, if they knew Wu Jianye's true identity, it would definitely cause an uproar, and the Phantom would also face more targets from the top.
"But Director Wu, I'm afraid you won't be able to hide your identity for long!" Buffett said. Now he is a shareholder of Phantom Entertainment. If Wu Jianye's identity is exposed, the blow to Phantom Entertainment will be his.
Loss, now he has begun to consider the problem from the perspective of the phantom!
Wu Jianye laughed and said: "How long can I hide it? I believe that after "Jurassic Park" is released, the Phantom will be able to cope with some attacks!"
Wu Jianye himself also knows that after Phantom Entertainment acquires ABC, it will no longer be a simple production company, but a media group with a huge say. For such a group, it is impossible for the top management of the United States not to ignore it.
Investigate clearly.
Buffett heard another meaning from Wu Jianye’s words!
"Director Wu seems to be very confident in his new film!"
As long as "Jurassic Park" is successful at the box office, Phantom Entertainment will have a firm foothold. Even if some senior executives will target Phantom at that time, Phantom's own coping mechanism will be enough to deal with these problems.
Wu Jianye smiled and said: "If I didn't have confidence, I wouldn't think about investing in Warren's Berkshire!"
Regarding your Berkshire, Wu Jianye also indirectly told Buffett that he was only optimistic about the development of Berkshire and was simply investing in shares!
At this time, Buffett also had a deeper impression of Wu Jianye.
In fact, when he saw Wu Jianye, Buffett had already thought that Lutai Investment was very likely to be Wu Jianye's company. Now that he heard what Wu Jianye said, he was still quite surprised.
Lutai Investment, which owns many high-quality company stocks! Wuzang Investment, which holds 73% of the shares of Phantom Entertainment! There are also Fengge Media, Yaoguang Group and Yiwang Group in Xiangjiang!
Buffett suddenly discovered that Wu Jianye was already at the top of the world's businessmen at this time!
Now that he knew that Wu Jianye was the boss behind Lutai Investment, Buffett did not hide it and asked directly: "How many shares of Berkshire are Director Wu prepared to acquire?"
Wu Jianye smiled and said: "Of course the more the merrier!"
Buffett smiled. Everyone knows that the more the better must have a major premise, that is, no one can affect Buffett's right to speak in Berkshire.
Naturally, Buffett has no objection to the introduction of funds from Lutai Investment. For Buffett, the more funds, the happier he is!
In the end, the two parties finalized that Lutai Investment will acquire 10% of Berkshire’s shares at a price of US$924 million at a premium of 20%!
The negotiation process went very smoothly. Buffett got the cash he wanted, and Wu Jianye's Lutai Investment successfully became Berkshire, the largest shareholder under Buffett.
"Happy cooperation!" Wu Jianye shook hands with Buffett.
Buffett smiled and said: "This is the fastest decision I have ever made!"
Wu Jianye said with a smile: "I believe it will be the most successful decision!"
After the two parties had dinner, Buffett flew back to New York, while Wu Jianye continued to focus on the post-production of "Jurassic Park".
As for Linda….
The first press conference after Phantom Entertainment acquired ABC Television Network was held!