384, Stock market gains and the under-promising 'Jaws'
New York, 5 Beekman Street, Beekman Hotel!
This is a landmark building in Manhattan, only 500 meters away from the World Trade Center and the Brooklyn Bridge!
Gould liked it very much and chose to stay here every time he came to Manhattan.
The interior of the Beekman Hotel is a huge nine-story atrium with a pyramid-shaped skylight on the top. The first floor has the hotel lobby, lounge, and bar!
Gould was sitting in the lounge, holding in his hand the "Wall Street Journal" that was freshly released this morning. In a position of the supplement, there was a message. The message was not very word-length, but it left Gould's back.
Chill!
Yesterday, Gould learned from Brown that someone was buying up a large amount of his company's stock. This made Gould fly to New York early this morning and meet Brown.
He came here this time just to see who wanted his company and what did he mean?
There is no need to ask now, because there is an answer in the newspaper. A company called Beihai Investment has taken a liking to my company and proposed to acquire the current Sears shares at a price of US$18 per share. At the same time, in the announcement
Among them, Beihai Investment also pointed out that they already owned 22.5 million shares of Sears Department Store at this time, accounting for 15% of the issued shares of Sears Department Store.
The goal of Beihai Investment is to acquire 52.5 million shares of Sears Department Store, accounting for 35% of the issued shares of Sears Department Store.
With this announcement, it has been explained that the other party wants to acquire control of Sears Department Store in a hostile manner.
“Where did this North Sea investment come from?”
Gould's hand holding the newspaper showed veins, and his thick hair was clearly visible.
Brown said helplessly, "Now I only know that the other party is an investment company registered overseas. It has never appeared on Wall Street before!"
Gould was not only laughing, but also angry. He said in a cold voice, "Does this mean that the first company they acquired in North America was my Sears department store?"
Brown nodded helplessly again.
Gould, who didn't know whether to be happy or angry, continued to ask, "Which securities company is helping them acquire my company's stocks? You should know this, right?"
Brown replied, "We have already investigated clearly, it's American Express!"
Gould asked "Can they be found?"
Brown said, "It should be possible, but it will take time!"
Gould preached, "Then go find it!"
Brown looked at his watch and said, "It's less than ten minutes until the market opens!"
Gould said, "Go to your securities firm. No matter what, I will never hand over the company to outsiders!"
Brown nodded.
The two got up, walked out of the Beekman Hotel, and soon arrived at Brown's securities company. Then Gould saw his company's stock price opening at $18 on the blackboard!
And the trading volume of my own company's stock has become the stock with the largest trading volume during this period.
Brown's colleague Persky was already fighting for Gould's and North Sea Investments' odd shares in Sears on the stock market.
"The other party has increased the price!"
An hour later, Persky reminded Gould at this time, "The other party raised the price per share to $19 per share!"
"Follow me!" A vein appeared on Gould's forehead!
In addition, he was still looking at the gate in the distance from time to time. Brown had already gone to investigate the situation of Beihai Investment, and now he could only wait for the other party to come back!
Time passed by, and Gould turned a deaf ear to the noisy sounds around him. He was now staring closely at the trading situation of his company's stock in black and white.
10,000 shares!
30,000 shares!
10,000 shares!
Fortunately, so far there has not been a large-scale transaction like yesterday, which allows Gould to still appear calm and composed.
As long as the purchase price of both parties is the same, and his own shares of Sears are twice as large as those of the other party, as long as he maintains this rhythm, he can guarantee sole control of the company.
"There are market rumors that American Express has contacted Goldman Sachs and is negotiating with the other party to acquire the Sears shares from Goldman Sachs!"
Persky answered a phone call and immediately shouted.
Gould's expression suddenly changed. When Sears went public, it was Loudsheng who made the announcement. Goldman Sachs still had shares in many companies at this time. If the other party got the shares of Sears in Goldman Sachs' hands, there would be a conflict between the two parties.
The gap will definitely be narrowed immediately.
"Look, they have raised the purchase price again, it has reached $2 per share!"
As a stock analyst on Wall Street, the most basic ability is to be able to see all directions and listen to all directions.
Gould was trembling slightly. Without knowing the situation of his opponent, if he continued like this, would he be able to keep the company?
Just when Gould was doubting himself, Brown finally came back!
"We have found Linda, the manager of American American Express Securities Department, who is willing to negotiate with us!" After meeting Gould, Brown directly pointed out the key to the problem!
After hearing what Brown said, Gould almost didn't stop at all and said, "Take me there!"
After walking out of the securities house, a gust of cool breeze blew, which cleared up Gould's platform. He looked at Brown next to him and asked, "Is the other party willing to see me at this time?"
Now that the fierce battle between the two sides is in full swing, the other party is actually willing to see me?
There are only two possibilities. The first one is that he wants to divert the tiger away from the mountain and continue to acquire Sears’ stock while he is away. The second possibility is that the other party did not really want to acquire his company from the beginning!
Brown obviously thought about it, and said apologetically, "My previous analysis may be wrong. The other party does not really want to acquire your company, but wants to acquire it."
"p(sniper)!" Gould spat out one word.
Brown nodded silently.
Gould's head was as big as a bucket. How could his Sears department store be targeted by these robbers?
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! Stock market sniping, no matter what kind of operation it was before, there are actually only two results in the end, either you will lose money and avoid disaster, or the other party will get what you want.
The benefit is that either the company changes hands and the other party carries out drastic spin-offs and sales to obtain the benefits they want.
It was in this mood that Gould came to the place where the other party met, and then Gould's expression became even more complicated.
Because he just left the Beekman Hotel here this morning!
Still in the same lounge as before.
Gould saw a white male in his thirties sitting across from him.
"Make a price!"
At this time, Gould's mind was heavy, but he had no idea what to do. The other party's appearance was so sudden that it still felt like a dream to him.
Calculating with intention but without intention, this already gave Gould the upper hand.
The most important thing is that he can't even let the other party become the company's second largest shareholder, because Gould understands that his insistent expansion plan in recent years has already caused dissatisfaction among some people on the company's board of directors. Many directors think that
Such an expansion plan is a bit too aggressive.
But this kind of voice could be suppressed by myself before, but what about now?
If the other party contradicts him on this point, Gould does not doubt this at all. These people who play stock market sniping are actually a group of predators without mercy. They only want profits!
If the stocks in their hands cannot be bought, they will definitely use their behaviors that have no moral bottom line to seduce the company's directors. They may even obtain the majority of shareholders' shares with less than their shareholding ratio.
Support, and still oust yourself from the position of company manager!
Gould is not unfamiliar with this situation at all, because many of his friends have had such experiences.
Henrik Laiwei was a little excited. He didn't expect that Chu Huan would leave such an important matter as negotiation to him, but after the excitement, he calmed down.
He has been working on Wall Street for so many years. If he didn’t have this bit of determination, he wouldn’t be what he became!
"If Mr. Gould is willing, we are willing to sell all 25.86 million shares of Sears in our hands to Mr. Gould at the current price!"
After a morning of acquisitions, Henrique LaVie had 5 million more shares of Sears Department Store in his hands.
The lion opens his mouth!
When Gould heard Henry Lave's quotation, he was shocked even though he was prepared, and then he preached.
"This is impossible. The real stock price of Sears Department Store is not that high at all. If this is the case, then we can only break up and see the real deal in the stock market!"
Faced with Gould's rejection, Henrique Levy showed no emotion at all. He just said calmly, "Mr. Gould, I always like to be straightforward in business.
I think after Mr. Gould knows the bargaining chip we hold, you won’t be so hasty to reject us!"
"Invincibility starts with sacrificing the ancestor"
Gould's chest was heaving violently. He could tell that the other party was threatening him, but his obsession with Sears couldn't make him leave the meeting angrily. He just gave a dull lecture.
"you say!"
Henrique Levi smiled and said, "We, Beihai Investment, currently hold 25.86 million shares of your company's shares, accounting for the shares issued by Sears Department Store. At the same time, we have signed a loan contract with American Express Bank, and the other party can provide you with it at any time."
Our company provides a loan of US$30 million, and in addition, we have US$14 million in cash on hand.
In addition, Goldman Sachs is very satisfied with the quotation proposed by our company.
Finally, we have also contacted Glens Department Store. The other party is very interested in our shares of your company. As long as we are willing to sell, the other party can take over at any time!"
There was air conditioning in the lounge, but Gould's body was already covered in sweat.
Glens Department Store has always been the most important competitor of Sears Department Store. If the other party becomes the second largest shareholder of Sears Department Store, then you will be finished!
Unless you want to give up control of Sears.
It has to be said that Chu Huan and Jerry Kohlberg have studied Sears and Gould very thoroughly. The other party can give up anything, but they cannot give up Sears!
In fact, the most difficult part of this sniper war is not the process of fighting Gould in the stock market. The most difficult thing is to investigate the situation of Sears and Gould. Only in this way can we contact Goldman Sachs based on their situation.
Glens Department Store!
Goldman Sachs and Glenn's Department Store acted as Chu Huan's wingmen in this sniper war.
But they don't do any good.
At a price of $2 per share, no matter who asks Goldman Sachs, Goldman Sachs will be willing to sell, and the same is true for Glen's Department Store. If their largest rival can be acquired, they cannot remain indifferent to such temptation.
Of course, if the transaction does not succeed in the end, both parties will definitely feel cheated.
But Chu Huan doesn’t care about this at all!
The atmosphere at the scene was a bit condensed, and Gould felt helpless, because the attitude of the man in front of him was already obvious, and he was determined to take advantage of him!
Either way, they themselves have nothing to lose!
But it's different here!
After thinking about this, Gould said with all his strength, "I need time to raise this fund!"
"We are aware of Mr. Gould's situation. I think two days should be enough!" Henrik came to defend Danding's sermon.
"no problem!"
After the two parties signed a private agreement, American Express's traders stopped the acquisition of Sears Department Store and announced the cessation of the acquisition of Sears Department Store.
In the eyes of those leeks, this acquisition was like a farce.
This chapter is not finished yet, please click on the next page to continue reading the exciting content! But among these elites on Wall Street, some people smell something different.
This is the most classic stock market sniper nowadays!
After signing the contract with Beihai Investment, the first thing Gould did was to fire Brown!
Two days later, Beihai Investment's account had an extra 16 million, and now it had 70 million US dollars in cash!
Chu Huan learned about the records of Henry and George from Jerry Kohlberg, and said with a smile, "I can start my next company."
Jerry Kohlberg suggested to Chu Huan, "Because of the Sears incident, someone on Wall Street will definitely pay attention to this matter, and our timeline may be extended next!"
Chu Huan must be aware of this. Although it is not enough to alert others, some listed companies must have begun to take precautions.
So extending the planning time is a sure thing!
"Can!"
Just when Henrique Levi and George Roberts started to take action on the second company chosen by Chu Huan, the promotion work of "Jaws" was also proceeding in an orderly manner.
With the capital injection from Apex Pictures, the publicity level of "Jaws" has obviously gone up a lot.
"Ah Huan, why did I hear that the major movie studios in Hollywood are all waiting to see your friend's company's jokes recently?"
Chu Huan came to Li Xiaolong's home in Hollywood today. At the dinner table, Li Xiaolong talked about the hottest things in Hollywood right now.
Promotional matters for "Jaws".
Li Xiaolong knew the relationship between Chu Huan and Kelly. In addition, Li Xiaolong was now in Hollywood and had met Kelly at several cocktail parties, so he was familiar with them.
Chu Huan said indifferently, "What did they say?"
Li Xiaolong said, "According to Universal Pictures' predictions, the box office of this movie is only about 10,000 US dollars. Originally, the investment in this movie was only 7 million US dollars, so there must be some profit, but now if we add the publicity expenses, the entire movie will be profitable."
The cost of the movie has reached 20 million US dollars.”
Hollywood movie box office sharing is a very complicated matter, even down to the different weekly box office sharing ratios. For example, the box office sharing in the first two weeks of a movie is higher than the box office sharing in the third week, and so on!
But in general, the production company can get between 50% and 40% of the box office in North America.
Of course, this is a normal situation. A strong film studio and a sequel to a blockbuster movie can allow the film production company to increase its box office share when negotiating with theater chains.
The most classic one is that in the next century, when Disney was producing "Star Wars: The Last Jedi", it negotiated with theaters for a 70% box office share!
"Jaws" is not a sequel to a blockbuster movie, and Apex Pictures is not one of Hollywood's top seven companies, but because it handed over the film to Universal Pictures for distribution, the final agreement with theaters was a 50% box office share.
Universal Pictures, as the film's distribution company, originally was able to take 55% of the 50% box office share according to the contract finalized by both parties.
In other words, if the box office of "Jaws" in North America is US$50 million, Universal Pictures can take away US$13.75 million, which means they made US$2.75 million!
However, Apex Pictures could only take away US$11.25 million and earn US$4.25 million!
And that's after Jaws, the movie that earned the top-grossing forecast!
This is why Universal Pictures' Lew Zeman ultimately chose to downgrade the film's publicity.
But as Kelly re-signed a distribution contract with Universal, Apex Pictures will bear 50% of the distribution and promotion costs, which is $6.5 million.
Universal Pictures' box office share has also dropped to 28, which is no longer the previous total box office!
If the movie "Jaws" can still reach the box office of another time and space of US$2.6 billion in North America, then Apex Pictures will receive a box office share of US$93.6 million.
Net profit of $73.1 million!
There is still more than 20 million dollars left before Chu Huan and Yoshiaki Tsutsumi agreed to invest 100 million US dollars in the Japanese real estate market!
But Hollywood's movie income has never just been box office income, peripherals, TV rights, and video tape income that Chu Huan has now obtained in advance.
The most important thing is that the movie "Jaws" is a blockbuster series, and there will definitely be a sequel!
As for whether to sell the rights to the sequel or let Apex Pictures develop it themselves, that is a matter for the future!
"It's just their pride that keeps them aloof!"
After Chu Huan took a sip of the red wine in the glass, he spoke nonchalantly.
Li Xiaolong thought for a moment, and these studios in Hollywood were indeed accustomed to this. If his movies had not been successful one after another, Hollywood would definitely criticize his own movies now.
Later, Chu Huan originally wanted to tell Li Xiaolong about Lin Zhengying. The film in Xiangjiang can be made without a charterer, but it cannot be made without Uncle Jiu.
Lin Zhengying is with Li Xiaolong. Even if he reaches the top in Hollywood, he is still at the level of Chang Wei. Instead, he might as well follow him back to Hong Kong to shoot "Mr. Zombie" that should belong to him.
But then I thought about it, this movie won't be released until at least the 1980s. It doesn't make sense to let people follow me back to Hong Kong now. Who doesn't have a Hollywood dream?
So after thinking about it for a while, I gave up.
After dinner at Li Xiaolong's home, Chu Huan returned to the apartment.
In the next few days, Chu Huan basically ran between apartments and hotels, listening to Kelly talk about the promotional activities of "Jaws", and remotely controlling Henrique Levy and George Roberts in New York with Jerry Kohlberg.
A sniper attack on the second company.
As the publicity for "Jaws" gets better and better, there are naturally more and more reports about this movie in the market.
But just because there are many reports, doesn’t mean they are all good reports.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading!' The investment in a film is only 7 million US dollars, but it chooses to use high-end publicity specifications. This kind of situation is very rare in Hollywood. Most of the cases are from seven-year-old films.
Big, but now the movie "Jaws" comes from a newly founded film company-Apex Pictures!
There is not a lot of information about this film company in Hollywood. I just know that they were founded last year and have two film projects under their name.
The first movie project is "Jaws" which is about to be released now, and the second project is "Star Wars" produced by Lucasfilm.
Nowadays, some professionals in Hollywood, after watching the samples of the movie "Jaws", are not very optimistic about the future box office potential of this movie. This is why Universal Pictures, which was originally responsible for distributing this movie, will
This is because the film's promotional rating was downgraded from A to B.
The "Star Wars" project was purchased from Twentieth Century Fox by Apex Pictures and a film company in Hong Kong. According to this newspaper's internal inquiry at Twentieth Century Fox, Alan Husband of Twentieth Century Fox
Mr. Schiffield is not very optimistic about the movie.
It is a bit strange for a new film company to enter Hollywood for the first time and have the idea of proving itself, which is understandable. However, it pins its company's development prospects on two projects that are not promising.
Is it because Apex Pictures doesn't understand the operating rules of Hollywood, or is it convinced by the box office success of these two movies?
It seems that all this will have to wait until the movie "Jaws" is released!'
"It seems that "Hollywood Report" doesn't think highly of you either!"
Chu Huan looked at the contents of the "Hollywood Report" in his hand and spoke to Kelly.
Kelly has become somewhat immune to the reports about the negative box office performance of "Jaws" during this period. She said nonchalantly, "It's useless to explain now. Let's wait until the movie is released!"
"Yes, the box office of a movie is the only way to survive in Hollywood!" George Lucas also had a copy of "Hollywood Report" in his hand, but when he said this, George Lucas had already put the copy in his hand.
The newspaper was thrown aside.
Today Chu Huan and Kelly came to Lucasfilm to check the progress of "Star Wars".
Uh, filming hasn't officially started yet
Chu Huan smiled and teased George Lucas, "George, don't you want to finish your movie early so that you can slap those people who look down on us in the face?"
Previously, Chu Huan had discussed with George Lucas about launching fan comics for "Star Wars". As a result, a year has almost passed and George Lucas's "Star Wars" has not officially started filming. Regarding the launch of "Fan Fan Comics"
The matter of "Comics" will naturally be postponed!
If everything goes according to George Lucas's filming schedule, it will be too late to launch a "Star Wars" fan comic next year!
After all, the movie "Star Wars" would not be released until 1977!
George Lucas laughed and said, "I'm not that stupid. If the movie is made in a hurry, it will be easier for these people to laugh at it. It's better to wait longer and release a movie that can shock everyone!"
Having said this, George Lucas expressed his gratitude to Chu Huan and Kelly.
"Chu, Miss Kelly, I am very grateful for your trust in me. If it were another film company, countless people would have been sent to urge me to complete the filming of this movie as soon as possible!"
Chu Huan and Kelly looked at each other and smiled. Are they worried?
In fact, I was anxious before this. According to Chu Huan's plan, even if the film was released later, it would need to use the distribution channel of 20th Century Fox.
But now with the lessons learned from the movie "Jaws", Chu Huan is determined to let Apex Pictures establish its own distribution channels.
Chu Huan believed that after completing the construction of sales channels in Jiuzhou, the huge funds provided could easily allow Apex Pictures to establish its own distribution channels.
"Because both of us believe in your ability and talent, George, and we also believe that this movie that you have put so much effort into will definitely be successful!"
Chu Huan encouraged with a smile.
"The same is true for us at Apex Pictures!" Kelly echoed.
George Lucas was a little excited. A film company that supported him made him feel extremely envious!
Then Chu Huan and Kelly visited for a while and then left.
On the way out of Lucasfilm, Chu Huan saw a brother's video on the roadside, stopped the car, and got out of the car with Kelly.
"I have nothing to do tonight. Let's go back and watch two movies!" Chu Huan said to Kelly with a smile.
Kelly held Chu Huan's arm and said with a smile, "Okay!"
People come and go in Brother Audio and Video, some choose video tapes, some choose Kyushu VCRs, and some choose cameras.
Chu Huan glanced at Kelly. He originally wanted to pick a camera to go back for fun, but after thinking about it, he forgot it. This thing is actually about who has a higher status and who is more susceptible to influence.
Finally choosing two movies, the two got back in the car and went straight back to the apartment.
Time soon came to May 20, the day of the premiere of "Jaws".
But at this time, Jerry Kohlberg handed Chu Huan a copy of the Wall Street Journal.
‘A mysterious stock market sniper reappears in the North American securities market – who is Beihai Investment!’