Reborn Tokyo Golden Age

Although Paramount has encountered its own downturn, this does not mean that it does not have its own value.

Thanks to Barry Diller's pioneering work, Paramount has accumulated a large amount of IP in the fields of musicals, horror films, and action-adventure films.

These are Paramount's assets, and they are high-quality assets.

In addition, Paramount has its own independent studio, record company, and television company.

These are all conducive to Baichuan Interactive Entertainment's rapid development in the international media field. Therefore, acquiring a Hollywood media company is the best choice.

Facing the acquisition application sent by Shirakawa Group, Martin Davis, the boss of Gulf and Western Industries, gave it some thought, and the two parties began to contact.

Although Paramount was not suffering huge losses at this time, in Martin Davis' view, there was no possibility of its revival in the short term.

Paramount lost its troika and fell into chaos without a leader.

The reason why it has not made a big turnaround in recent years is directly related to the endless infighting at the top.

So from an investor's perspective, Martin Davis has no reason to force himself to stay at Paramount.

One is willing to take over, and the other is willing to take action. It is a perfect match for Lang Qing and Concubine.

The mutual intentions were confirmed, and soon in March 1989, the two parties began negotiations on the acquisition.

Because this is about a transaction between two large groups, it is a complex matter to deal with.

The Shirakawa Group sent Yu Arai as the leader of the negotiation team. In addition, a large number of lawyers and financial officers followed the negotiation team to North America.

Of course, Gulf and Western Industries have similar lineups, and even Shirakawa Electric's branch in North America is participating.

Because the entire company, including the assets and personnel of the media company, will be acquired, strict and detailed negotiations are required.

After more than a month of negotiations, the two sides have reached agreement on most issues.

However, there is a moderate difference between the two parties regarding the final purchase price.

Neon is now in the heyday of its bubble, and news of Japanese overseas purchases have repeatedly appeared in the pages of Western media.

So at this time, everyone knew that the Japanese were rich, especially Kaede Shirakawa, who had topped the Forbes rich list twice.

Therefore, Western Industries also has a big opening when it comes to asking prices, and there is no sign of loosening up at all.

After hearing the news, Bai Chuanfeng also sighed helplessly.

The nouveau riche was the West’s inherent impression of neon at this time, coupled with Sony’s acquisition of CBS Records in 1987, which made Westerners firmly believe in this.

At the end of 1986, Sony started acquisition negotiations with CBS, and CBS's bid at that time was US$1.25 billion.

However, in the end, the acquisition had to be temporarily shelved due to strong opposition from Chairman Palai.

Nine months later, CBS approached Sony again and raised the price to $2 billion.

In less than a year, prices soared by 60%. Faced with such a price increase, Sony agreed directly without even counter-offering.

So CBS Group sold its CBS music business for $2 billion.

There is no doubt that the story that CBS stopped raising prices and was fully accepted by Sony, a company from Neon, has been widely circulated in North America.

Thanks to this impression, although Gulf and Western Industries did not resort to this trick, they did not let up on the price.

They packaged the entire Paramount Group and offered $12 billion.

To be honest, although Paramount is a benign asset, the price is a bit outrageous.

So after the negotiations entered a stalemate, Bai Chuanfeng personally called Martin Davis.

He also mobilized the personal resources of Pioneer and IBM to take turns, and finally finally persuaded Martin Davis to make a discount.

Shirakawa promised to acquire Paramount for US$9 billion and assume its external debt of US$1.2 billion.

At the same time, Martin Davis guaranteed that Paramount would be completely handed over to the Shirakawa Group without any changes in the company's management and key talents.

This price is barely acceptable to Shirakawa Kaede. Although it is a bit overflowing, it is already the optimal solution at present.

In 1993, Viacom acquired Paramount for $10 billion.

Therefore, according to the comprehensive assessment, US$9 billion is a premium, but not too much.

After the plan was finalized and the contract was signed, Bai Chuanfeng himself made a trip to North America.

He went there mainly to visit a lady and to solve the problem of SIC at the same time.

After settling these matters, the Paramount acquisition was officially disclosed to the outside world.

On May 10, 1989, Shirakawa Holdings announced that the group would completely acquire Paramount Pictures for US$9 billion.

While assuming its $1.2 billion in debt, Paramount Pictures officially changed its name to Shirakawa Paramount Worldwide.

As soon as this announcement was issued, it caused waves in the global media industry.

Western media directly accused, "The Shirakawa Group's acquisition of Paramount is an atrocity!" and "Japanese companies are buying the soul of the United States!".

Even here in Neon, there are doubts about the deal of Baichuan Holdings.

"With US$9 billion, it is impossible for the layman Shirakawa Group to make money in the film business!"

"It's obviously not worth spending $9 billion to buy a Hollywood company that's going downhill."

It can be said that this wave of operations of Baichuan Holdings has received criticism from all parties.

It is also an acquisition case. When Shirakawa Holdings acquired Subaru last year, most of the outsiders gave it affirmation.

Because Shirakawa Holdings started in the physical manufacturing industry, its acquisition of Subaru is not a cross-industry move, and it can even leverage its strengths.

However, the film media industry is different, although Baichuan Holdings also has Baichuan Interactive Entertainment.

But compared with Shirakawa Electric, SIC, Subaru, etc. in the real industry, it undoubtedly pales a lot.

Therefore, Neon is also criticized for this transaction.

There are even many people within Shirakawa Holdings who can't figure it out. Yu Arai once expressed doubts to Shirakawa Kaede.

However, we will discuss internal issues later. What we need to do now is urgent public relations overseas.

While the Western media was furious, Shirakawa Kaede also personally made a statement in North American media newspapers.

"This is not an invasion of Japanese culture, and we don't want to send Japanese managers to Paramount."

Of course this is rhetoric, but no matter what, let’s get over the current situation first before talking about it.

Movies have always been the pride of Americans. Baichuan's acquisition of Paramount, one of the seven largest companies in Hollywood, really caused a panic in public opinion in North America.

In order to appease the emotions of the people in North America, Bai Chuanfeng came forward to explain in person.

In addition, the next day he announced the acquisition of the independent film company "Jaffy Lansing Films" for US$200 million.

At the same time, Stanley Jaffe was officially appointed as general manager of Paramount Media, and Shirley Lansing was appointed executive president of Paramount.

The front page of the New York Times that day was a photo of Kaede Shirakawa and Shirley Lansing embracing intimately.

The headline of this news is, "First woman in Hollywood history to lead seven major film groups."

The publication of the "New York Times" once again detonated public opinion in North America.

Shirley Lansing is not unknown in Hollywood. She served as general manager at 20th Century Fox in the 1980s.

He entered the industry as an actor in 1970 and switched to a producer in 1974. He has produced many excellent films.

Although he established a film company with his friend Jia Fei in 1984, he still has strong connections in the industry.

Of course, there is no doubt about her personal abilities, but this still shocked Bei Mi.

The first female CEO of one of the seven major studios in Hollywood history, this stunt is so topical.

The Women's Rights Defenders Association was the first to jump out and praise Baichuan Holdings' decision.

They claimed that this was a reflection of women's fair treatment of their working abilities and that the Shirakawa Group was an enlightened company.

With their lead, people here in Hollywood who were close to Shirley Lansing also began to tell the media that this was a pioneering move.

Of course, Shirley Lansing's own ability is also qualified for this appointment. In short, the appointment of Shirakawa Group is an extremely correct decision.

However, while some people appreciated it, others opposed it, and those conservatives began to ridicule the Shirakawa Group for handing over Paramount to a woman and waiting for it to go bankrupt.

Hearing what they said, the Women's Rights Defenders Association was not happy.

So a daily scene happened again. Women's rights defenders and New Right organizations began to have a verbal spat in the newspapers.

There was a flurry of public opinion, and Shirley Lansing became the first female leader in Hollywood.

These hot topics even overshadowed the depth charges of Shirakawa Holdings' acquisition of Paramount.

This method of diverting the focus of public opinion was of course the work of Shirakawa Kaede.

If you want to get off the hot search list, of course you have to find something more popular to get in front of.

In addition to announcing Paramount’s new president, Shirakawa Holdings also announced SIC’s listing plan.

In addition, Baichuan Electric and Baichuan Interactive Entertainment will also seek to be listed on Mi in the future. After this series of plans were announced, public opinion reports about Paramount's change of ownership gradually decreased.

While winning a Paramount, it also gave some rewards to Bei Mi.

In particular, SIC is a high-tech enterprise, and its listing in the United States is enough to demonstrate the Shirakawa Group's determination to develop deeply in North America.

Wall Street is not very interested in Paramount, but it is very concerned about SIC.

In recent years, as Apple, Compaq and IBM have successively cooperated with SIC, this company, which was the first to focus on the processor field, has become enough to compete with Intel.

The computer wave has gradually begun, and the importance of chip companies has become increasingly prominent.

Therefore, SIC's first listing in North America is definitely a good time for Wall Street to launch new stocks.

Taking away Paramount from BeiMi, but launching SIC again, it is a balance of interests.

As for Shirakawa Electric's listing in Mi, it is just taking advantage of the trend.

A company can be listed on exchanges around the world at the same time without conflict.

Of course, being listed several times does not mean that its market value will change. After all, the total value is certain.

The only difference is that in addition to the primary listing place, the issuance of new shares also has the option of a secondary listing place.

If we want Shirakawa Electric to truly go abroad and exert influence around the world, then the globalization route is inevitable.

But having said that, Shirakawa Kaede’s choice to acquire Paramount was not entirely because he wanted to enter the film and entertainment industry.

For the sake of Baichuan's brand awareness, he had further considerations.