America: Starting with the acquisition of MGM

Chapter 2 Acquisition of MGM

"Eric, you brat, I knew the Cooper men wouldn't be knocked down so easily!"

On the hospital lawn, Eric was walking with his mother, when his brother Joshua Cooper jumped out of nowhere and punched him in the chest. 【】

"Joshua, you will hurt him!" Mom stared.

"Don't worry, Mom, I didn't use much force."

Eric looked at the strong man in front of him strangely: "Joshua, aren't you training in San Francisco? Why are you here?"

Joshua Cooper, the eldest son of the Cooper family, is 23 years old this year.

Unlike his younger brother, Joshua's academic performance can only be said to be barely adequate, but his physical fitness is even better.

Joshua has been a member of the varsity football team since high school and continued in college.

After graduating from college, he went to San Francisco and now plays for the 49ers. Although he is not the core player, he can always get playing opportunities in ordinary games.

Joshua Cooper pointed at his mother and said, "Why am I here? Of course it's our dear mother. I got the call last night and drove back immediately early this morning."

"Is the team allowed to take a vacation? It should be the competition season now."

Joshua smiled mysteriously: "I have a good relationship with Mrs. Brown from the management department, so I got three days off."

After speaking, he gave Eric a knowing look.

Before Eric could speak, the face of the mother next to him had changed. As a more traditional woman, Emily's tone had a hint of anger.

"Joshua, if you dare to mess around outside, I can't spank you, but you will never want to enter Eric's house again!"

Joshua waved and backed away: "Wow, wow, wow, what are you going to do, mom? It feels like I have committed some heinous crime."

Emily snorted coldly: "You know what I'm talking about."

"Well Mom, I'm close with Mrs. Brown because I always bring her donuts and hot dogs and she loves it, that's all."

As Joshua spoke, he made obscene movements with his hands behind his back at an angle that only Eric could see. He made a circle with one hand and thrust the fingers of the other hand.

Well it's really just donuts and hot dogs.

Eric slapped his forehead: "Okay Joshua, I think you don't need to explain. Instead of wasting time explaining, why not do me a favor."

Joshua put his arms around his younger brother's neck and said, "Of course, if you have anything to do, just ask. As your brother, it's my duty to do so!"

"Party, throw a party for me."

Joshua understood immediately: "How about we are brothers, because we have the same idea. After going through such a lot of suffering, you really need to relax."

As he said that, he leaned close to Eric's ear and whispered: "I'll find the location, hot girls are in charge!"

Eric looked at his cheap brother speechlessly, thinking to himself, do Americans think of this kind of thing when they talk about parties?

Unfortunately, as a Chinese person in his heart, he doesn't really accept fast food and feels a bit dirty. He prefers home-cooked food because it is clean and exciting.

"Joshua, the venue is set at home. I don't care who you want to invite, but I will give you a list. These guys must be informed."

"What do you want to do? It's mysterious, who are they?"

"My college classmates are the ones I have the best relationship with. Anyway, if you want to invite a girl, I won't object, as long as my mother agrees.

Next to her, Emily Cooper crossed her arms and looked like you were doing whatever you wanted.

Joshua suddenly showed a bitter look on his face: "Then I think it's better to forget it. Watching a movie, eating barbecue and drinking beer are quite good."

Ever since he knew the time he was in, Eric realized that something was wrong, because the "Windtalker" was coming soon.

"Windtalkers" is John Woo's last film in the United States. I remember it was released in June 2002.

However, this war movie, which invested a lot of money, almost caused MGM to go bankrupt, and it can be said that it almost lost its pants.

Since then, John Woo's reputation created by "Face/Off" and "Mission: Impossible 2" has collapsed.

The following year's "Memory" also lost money. Although the loss was not as tragic as "Windtalkers", no one in Hollywood was willing to invest in him anymore.

But John Woo, who couldn't survive, had no choice but to return to China, and under the name of a major international director, he lured companies such as China Film, Galloping Pony, and Youzu Pictures to invest in the filming of "Red Cliff" and "Peace Wheel".

However, his old film concepts and models can no longer keep up with the needs of the times. The audience's aesthetic level is improving day by day. To put it bluntly, it is difficult to fool them.

The result was no surprise. All the movies were sold out, and even "The Wheel" caused Galloping Pony to be acquired at an accelerated pace. It can be said that it was a complete failure.

And having MGM wear pants is not the most terrible thing. What is more serious is that many executives of MGM resigned due to this.

However, everyone focused on directors and actors. Except for Hollywood insiders, no one noticed who the executives who resigned were. They did not expect that their cheap daddy, Charlie Cooper, was one of them.

No wonder Dad has been working overtime at the company recently and looks very worried. It seems that MGM has conducted an internal evaluation of "Windtalkers" and the results are self-evident.

Once Charlie Cooper fails and resigns, it will have a huge impact on the entire family, especially his own future plans. His movie path will probably become bumpy and bumpy, so dad must not be allowed to resign.

Eric had been thinking about countermeasures. After thinking about it for a day, he suddenly had an idea. Why am I obsessed with not letting my father resign?

The purpose of not letting Charlie Cooper resign is to make it easier for him to make movies. After all, movies are what he is most proficient in, and it is also a career that is certain to succeed.

And since the goal is to make movies by myself, what could be more convenient than setting up a film company of my own?

And since we want to build our own movie company, what is more appropriate than acquiring MGM?

As one of the seven major Hollywood film companies in existence, although MGM is the weakest, it is still stronger than Lionsgate, Royal Gate, New Line, etc. Especially now it is only 2002. Although this giant is in its final years, it has not yet collapsed. Down.

And compared with the complex equity structures of other companies, the vast majority of MGM's equity is in the hands of one person. Moreover, this person has no interest in making movies at all, so it is relatively easy to acquire it, as long as the money is available.

Then the key question that remains is to figure out how much money it will cost to acquire MGM, and where to get the money?

I remember that before time travel, Amazon seemed to have spent more than 8 billion US dollars to acquire MGM, but the debt accounted for half or more of it.

In 2002, MGM's assets and liabilities were not so exaggerated. You can ask about this from your father, who estimated that it was about three to four billion.

And it is not easy to get billions in a short period of time.

Stocks, futures, Bitcoin, etc. were all too slow and he couldn't wait. Besides, he had never paid attention to these aspects in his previous life, so he couldn't handle them.

So Eric's attention is focused on the crooked path, which is the upcoming World Cup in South Korea and Japan.