Heads Up Hollywood

By the time Tang En returned to Los Angeles, it was already the end of December.

At this time, "Spider-Man 3" has entered its third week of release. The North American box office is 280 million US dollars, the overseas box office is 440 million US dollars, and the global box office exceeds 720 million US dollars!

This year's last Hollywood blockbuster brought about the last movie-watching craze of this year!

At the same time, many films that hit the awards season have also begun to be screened, such as the project "Hotel Rwanda", which was previously invested by United Artists Pictures under MGM and has now been transferred to Focus Pictures, such as Joe Schumacher. "The Phantom of the Opera", such as Harvey Weinstein's last glory "Finding Neverland".

Although Miramax has done a good job of public relations, separating "Finding Neverland" from Harvey Weinstein, the main target of publicity is the actor Johnny Depp.

However, people in the industry know the inside story.

The film is lucky to be nominated in the awards season, and it is impossible to win.

There are not many popular award-winning films this year. Among them, "Soul Singer" and "The Departed Walker" under New Universal are the most favored by film critics. Plus, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Sideways, The Phantom of the Opera, and Stealing a Heart are pretty good too.

After spending a simple and relaxing vacation in Israel, when Tang En returned to the company, the first thing he did was to pay attention to New Global's consolidated financial statements for this year.

The specific list of details has not yet been counted.

However, the valuation data has come to fruition.

This year, New Universal Group's total revenue reached 35.3 billion US dollars, excluding Prada, which has not yet been integrated!

Compared with last year, it has increased by 46%!

Among them, the profit before interest and tax reached 4.5 billion US dollars, which also increased by 29%!

These two general data alone are enough to explain the current good momentum and rapid development trend of New Global.

It is simply higher than the potential of many Internet companies!

However, compared to last year, New Universal has a big business this year—Discovery Communications.

The company's total revenue for the year was US$5.56 billion, and its pre-tax profit even reached US$1 billion.

If this part is crossed out, the overall revenue and profit of New Universal in 2004 actually declined compared to 2003.

However, Tang En was not worried about this.

New Global has adjusted the four major business departments into five major business departments, and the tourism, vacation and consumer goods department has been split into two parts: the tourism and vacation department and the consumer goods department.

Among the five major business departments, except for the interactive entertainment department, the revenue and profits of other major departments are increasing.

As for the interactive entertainment department...

No way, this is a high-tech department.

Loss is a common problem encountered in the high-tech field in today's era, especially in the Internet field.

Among the several major departments under the Interactive Entertainment Department, except for Blizzard, which has actually made a lot of money, with a profit of more than 200 million US dollars, the other companies are maintaining capital and losing money.

Dolby Laboratories is developing technologies such as Dolby Atmos, Dolby Vision, upgrading Dolby sound effects, and transforming Dolby systems, laying the technical foundation for Dolby Cinema in the future. After accepting Tang En's request to develop a high-definition video player, the investment in research and development was even higher.

The imax company, according to Tang En's request, is actively moving closer to the digital age, and is currently working hard to develop the imax3d digital camera and a clearer projection system.

Rotten Tomatoes is not well-known enough, and the income from advertising fees is not high, making ends meet.

In order to fight a price war with Blockbuster, Netflix kept membership fees to a minimum, especially after getting Dunn's order to destroy Blockbuster as quickly as possible, they spared no expense. If it weren't for the increase in the number of members of the imdb film and television database and the increase in profits, Netflix will surely fall into a more serious loss this year.

This year, Netflix lost $320 million.

In addition, there are four intelligent service companies related to the Hollywood film industry that were just acquired this year, all of which are also upgrading their industries.

As for facebook...

Well, this is the most serious loss-making business under New Universal this year!

The amount of loss is 670 million US dollars!

In the previous life, Facebook did not have the big backing of New Global, and had to raise funds and develop slowly step by step. Although it has been losing money for many years, there are performance reports that increase year by year. As the company develops better and has greater potential, investors are also willing to invest more money so that Facebook will continue to lose money until it reverses itself one day.

Of course, Facebook in this life doesn't need to be so troublesome.

With New Universal as the big backer of the giant, do we still need to be so cautious?

The beginning is the pinnacle!

Directly develop with the grandest, most stalwart, and most detached pattern, at any cost!

server?

Buy directly!

Domain name dispute?

Buy out directly!

Is the spread of online communities limited? Can't enter the campus market?

Money clears the way!

Internal high-quality projects should be carried out step by step?

No, the research and development funds are sufficient, good projects can be started as soon as possible, launched as soon as possible, and seize the market as soon as possible!

Over the past year, the overall framework of Facebook has been very good, stable and fast.

The number of registered users has already exceeded 2 million.

In order to give users a better user experience, Tang En even issued an order directly from the headquarters to prohibit Facebook from using all external advertisements!

Without advertising, it means that there is no main benefit.

No wonder Facebook didn't suffer serious losses!

However, Tang En's order was supported and recognized by many executives in the Interactive Entertainment Department.

The current Internet speed is not fast enough, and it is still a "narrowband" market.

When the network speed is not fast enough, if too many commercial advertisements are loaded on a community website such as Facebook, it will inevitably affect the user's login speed.

And then seriously affect the user experience!

For example, MySpace, the largest community platform in the United States, Dunn has used it a few times, because there are too many commercial advertisements, which affects the experience.

However, MySpace is in the form of a blog. In addition to social interaction, there are also portal content such as music and videos. The elements are more substantial than the current Facebook, and the reputation is even greater!

That's right, despite the fact that Facebook is behind New Global Group, but in terms of fame and influence, it is still not as good as MySpace.

MySpace was launched earlier, and the financial backer behind it is not much worse than New Global, Murdoch's News Corporation!

Especially now that myspace is getting better and better and there are more and more users, News Corporation pays more attention to it.

There have been rumors in the industry that News Corporation is no longer satisfied with being a minority shareholder, and plans to spend huge sums of money to acquire MySpace in its entirety and formally enter the Internet!

In this situation, Dunn had to plan for the long-term of Facebook and not care about immediate interests.

Burning money in the short term is a must.

In the previous life, Facebook did not surpass MySpace until 2009 and became the largest community platform in the United States. That was when News Corp. made repeated mistakes in its strategy and could not spend more money on MySpace during the financial crisis.

Tang En couldn't pin his chances on other people's mistakes.

Blacksmithing must be hard on its own!

To lay the foundation of facebook's early research and development, framework structure and user reputation, even if myspace makes no mistakes in the future, it must defeat its opponents!

Moreover, the time should be greatly advanced!

If Facebook is used well, it will become the largest advertising platform in the world, much better than TV advertising. This will play a vital role in New Global's internal transactions, cost control and promotion in the future.

Therefore, for the huge loss of US$1.28 billion in the Interactive Entertainment Department this year, Twain is happy to see it succeed.

Even if it lost a full $1.02 billion more than last year.

The research and development investment of the Interactive Entertainment Department this year is as high as 3.9 billion US dollars!

Last year, it was only $1.8 billion.

If the increase in research and development investment is not included, the profit of the interactive entertainment department has actually achieved growth.

"Dang En, the plan for the allotment of shares has been prepared."

Tang En read the rough form of the annual report, and the secretary, Ella Fisher, brought over another report.

Award distribution of 13 million shares.

Isla Fisher walked over with a smile on her face: "I didn't expect you to have allotment of shares!"

"Me?" Tang En was a little surprised, but also a little puzzled, "How could I have it? Didn't I say that executives who have resigned to the second line do not allot shares."

He is the chairman of New Global.

In fact, most of his powers have been delegated.

Just like shareholders like Jack Welch and Rudy Giuliani, they belong to second-tier consultants.

Theoretically speaking, he will not have a share of the allotment.

Could it be that the personnel department is flattering?

probably not!

Ira Fisher smiled and said, "As the chairman of New Universal Group, you are of course second-tier. However, you also serve as the chairman of Tang En Pictures. In the film industry, you have always been in the first-tier. Production film, director, screenwriter, and even personally helped Universal Music to expand the market. From the perspective of the film and television entertainment department, you are the front line."

Tang En couldn't help laughing. If he said that, there was some truth to it.

"What's my quota?"

"54157 shares."

"More than 50,000 shares? Not too many."

Tang En was slightly taken aback and shook his head lightly.

There are too many employees in New Global. There are more than 3,000 managers who are eligible to enjoy the allotment of shares, plus some outstanding employees who have made special contributions... The reward of 13 million shares, if it is distributed, everyone will also share. Not much.

"That's not much?" Ira Fisher's eyes widened. "In the entire film and television entertainment department, you have the most allotment shares! Mr. Bill McNick only has 30,000 allotment shares."

Tang En waved his hand, "Hollywood has never had a tradition of stock awards, and 30,000 shares is already a lot. Besides, movies... don't directly contribute much economic benefits. From the perspective of contribution, 30,000 shares are about the same gone."

The film and entertainment department is the foundation laid by Tang En, and its development has been on the right track.

Whether there is a stock award is not very meaningful.

Giving is affection, not giving is justified.

This is completely incomparable with David Saslav, who led Discovery Communications to fight alone and achieved miraculous success in the face of adversity.

"By the way, how many shares did you share?" Tang En asked Ella with a smile.

A blush flashed across Isla Fisher's face, "I distributed a full 10,000 shares, I'm sorry. I know, they are looking at your face..."

"You deserve it!" Tang En waved his hand, frankly, "You are the secretary of the board of directors, and you only got 10,000 shares... In my opinion, it's still too little!"

That's right, Ira Fisher is the chairman's secretary, a very important position that also belongs to half of the executives.

However, a chairman like Tang En is in the second tier, so of course her secretary is not too competent.

. Nine Heavens Emperor