My 1999

Chapter 529 Rising Flames (4K)

In 2001, MGM's "Hannibal", "Legally Blonde", "Cannibal", etc. were all box office hits, with total box office revenue of 448 million that year.

MGM seemed to be turning a corner, but in fact it only made money on a few movies, and most of them lost money.

In 2002, after the success of John Woo's "Face" and "Mission: Impossible 2", MGM hoped that the Asian action film director could also make some money for his company.

So he spent a huge sum of money and let John Woo make the war movie "Windtalkers" completely, but it failed miserably at the box office.

At this point, Lao Wu has completely exhausted his talents.

Mr. Wu, who left Hollywood in embarrassment, ended his directing career with another movie in China called "The Wheel".

The loss of "Windtalker" caused MGM's stock price to plummet. Kirk Sr. was furious, and the top management was forced to resign. MGM was once again put up for auction.

This is the dilemma MGM faces now.

If Xu Liang hadn't intervened, MGM would have been shaky and barely maintained for three years before being sold off by Old Cocker again.

A consortium of Time Warner and Sony will be the main bidders.

Time Warner is obviously interested in MGM's film library, while Sony hopes to achieve the two goals of increasing its strength and supporting Blu-ray through acquisition.

In the end, Sony acquired MGM for a high price of nearly US$5 billion, of which US$2 billion was used to pay off the debt owed by MGM.

Through this acquisition, Sony has increased its film library to 8,000 films, reorganized its business in the pay television field, and controlled 50% of the film resources in the US film market.

The biggest winner was Kerkorian, who made a lot of money by repeatedly buying and selling.

However, although Sony's price is high, it has played a lever operation with nothing but a white wolf.

He didn't spend a penny and used MGM's asset mortgage loan to pay for the acquisition.

This operation also allowed MGM's debt to accumulate to US$3.7 billion in 2008, and the annual interest payments alone were as high as US$250 million.

Under the pressure of huge debts, MGM declared bankruptcy protection in November 2010.

On December 20, MGM Pictures merged with Telescope Pictures. The $500 million financing transfusion allowed MGM to temporarily bid farewell to bankruptcy.

Since then, although digital transformation and cooperation with Sony, Warner, etc. have brought MGM a turnaround, under the impact of the new crown epidemic, the delayed release of the blockbuster film "No Time to Die" has put MGM in trouble.

At the end of 2020, MGM once again sought to sell.

After drifting for half a century, being repeatedly slaughtered by Old Cocker, and repeatedly played by Sony, MGM, which has grown gray-haired and floundering, finally found its own "rich woman."

In 2021, Amazon, which has deep pockets, acquired this handsome old guy at a high price of US$8.45 billion.

Classics such as "Gone with the Wind", the entire series of "007", and "The Pink Panther" also fell into the hands of Beitu.

After reading the information, Xu Liang also had a general understanding of the current MGM.

More detailed personnel and financial information will need to be cleared after due diligence.

However, given MGM's current predicament and the assistance of Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan DA, the acquisition is not difficult.

What he now needs to consider is how to bring MGM back to life.

This may be difficult for others.

But for him, it was easy.

In his last life, he watched too many classic Hollywood movies. Although the details were unclear, he could still remember the general context.

Write it down, give it to the MGM editorial department to perfect, and then you can start shooting.

Pick up the phone next to you.

"Lu Hui, ask your people to help me collect a list of Hollywood movies released in the past ten years, with brief introductions."

"When do you want it?"

"Don't worry, just help me get it done within half a month."

"OK."

After hanging up the phone, Xu Liang sat on the chair for a while.

Recalling the blockbusters I watched.

After a long time, I picked up a pen and wrote down a few names on the paper.

"Transformers", "2012", "The Da Vinci Code", "Night at the Museum", "Inception".

Of course he remembered many others.

But he's not sure if it's released now.

"Forget it, just these few. With MGM's current situation, it will be good to make these few movies within two years, but it won't be able to afford more.

But which one to start with? "

After thinking about it, I crossed out "Transformers" and "The Da Vinci Code". Both of these movies require the purchase of copyrights. Don't waste your time until you buy them.

"2012" is still too early. This kind of disaster movie will attract more attention the closer it is to 2012.

After excluding these, we are left with "Night at the Museum" and "Inception."

The former is a trilogy, and although there is only one film of the latter, it grossed US$836 million at the box office.

If TV rights, DVDs and peripherals are included, an Inception movie can increase Hongmeng’s revenue by at least US$1.5 billion.

This is why Xu Liang, as the CEO of Hongmeng, is still willing to manage a movie.

A hit movie can generate more revenue than a large multinational company.

Too profitable.

Thinking of this, he suddenly remembered that he had been busy with Hongmeng's financing during this period and had not been involved in Marvel's acquisition for a long time.

Compared to MGM, Marvel is the cornucopia.

Picked up the phone and called Liao Yan, the head of the Atlantic Fund.

"Mr. Xu."

Xu Liang was not polite to his own people and said directly.

“What’s going on with the Marvel acquisition now?”

"Since we made an offer for Pixar, Disney was in a stalemate for a while and then withdrew from the competition. The only one still holding on is Oracle.

However, since we chose the strategy of retreat to advance, Oracle has also died down.

Ike Perlmutter talked with Oracle several times, but after achieving no results, he gradually understood Oracle's plan. Just three days ago, he called me and asked if we still had the idea of acquiring Marvel. In compliance with your instructions, I declined.

But the situation at Marvel is very bad now, and the price we offered before was very tempting. I believe he will call again. "

Xu Liang said, "If he calls again next time, you can reveal a little bit about it, but don't take the initiative to agree."

"clear."

Although fishing requires patience, you cannot let the fish run away.

——

Looking at the smug smile on the face that he hated on TV, Ellison looked extremely gloomy.

He knows that Hongmeng, as the world's leading Internet company, will definitely have a high valuation in Series B financing. But he didn't expect it to be so high.

53.5 billion US dollars, which has exceeded Oracle's market value.

"These damn bastards actually licked that yellow-skinned monkey's ass."

Obviously, he even hates investment institutions including Goldman Sachs and Citigroup.

After Wu Zi cursed for a while, Ellison suddenly turned around and picked up the phone on the table.

After pressing the key quickly.

"Hey, it's me."

"BOSS."

"How are you preparing for what I asked you to prepare?"

"Five places have been arranged."

"It took so long to solve five?" Ellison said dissatisfied.

"BOSS, it's only been half a month since you handed down the explanation, and it's not easy to find someone you can trust..."

"Okay, I don't want to hear you complain. I'll give you another week, and we'll start after one week."

"clear."

"So be it."

After hanging up the phone, Ellison looked at the face on TV that made him hate him more and more, and the anger in his eyes became stronger.

Since he became rich, he has never suffered such a big loss from anyone.

US$2.4 billion, a full US$2.4 billion, close to one-tenth of his net worth.

And if he hadn't recovered some of his money by going long oil in the later period, he would have suffered even more losses.

What made him stumble especially was a Chinese person whom he despised.

This intensified the hatred in his heart.

"Be proud of it. In a few days, I will give you a big gift. I hope you can still smile by then."

The sinister voice echoed in the room.

——

Rio Grande is the main export port in southern Brazil. Because of its close proximity to the La Plata plain, more than 50% of Brazil's crops are exported from here.

Taking advantage of the convenience of the port, a series of storage-focused companies were born here.

Brazilian Grain Storage Company is one of the giants.

A large number of grain storage depots were built in the small town of Berg, thirty kilometers away from the Rio Grande port area.

In order to guard the grain depot, the Brazilian Grain Storage Company arranged more than 100 armed guards.

After all, Brazil is not a peaceful place.

boom.

The door opens.

Along with a cold wind, a middle-aged man wearing a police uniform walked in.

The people in the room who were watching TV shivered instantly.

He was about to turn around and curse, but when he saw the person coming, he changed his words.

"Head, it's freezing to death. Close the door quickly."

Casemiro closed the door and said, "Boys, turn off the damn TV. It's time for you to patrol."

Wails sounded.

"Boss, today is the highlight match between Santos and Cruzeiro. Can you not go on patrol?"

"There is an electric grid around the grain depot. Not even a mouse can get in. It doesn't matter whether it is patrolled or not."

"As God testifies, what I hate most is patrolling the grain depot in the cold winter."

Casemiro, who had a stubble on his face, cursed and said: "Shut your stinky mouth, hurry up if you don't want to lose your job."

Everyone did not dare to neglect and quickly changed their clothes.

Although he complained, it was not easy to find easy, well-paying and stable jobs like guarding grain warehouses in Puerto Rio Grande.

After getting dressed, holding a flashlight and carrying the Brazilian army's L-type rifle on his back, he boarded the old pickup truck outside and started patrolling the storage area.

The entire grain storage area covers an area of thousands of acres and has more than a hundred huge grain storage tanks.

It not only stores a large amount of soybeans, but also stores hundreds of thousands of tons of corn.

Patrolling such a large factory area would be impossible without a car.

The dim headlights dispersed the darkness, and the old pickup truck drove slowly.

Except for the howling cold wind, the surroundings seemed quiet.

All this made the guards, who were still a little vigilant, quickly relax.

"Guys, I heard that Sao Paulo's Kaká is transferring?"

"Stupid Mawei, the league has started, how can it be possible to transfer?"

"Damn it Toldo, I'm talking about the winter break."

"It's still early for winter break..."

The words are not finished yet.

Crunch.

A sudden brake caused the person behind to almost flip over to the front.

The car behind also stopped.

"Rafinia, I'm going to kill you..."

"Shut up, everyone."

Casemiro shouted loudly and suppressed everyone.

He turned his head and looked at the hesitant young man sitting in the driver's seat.

"Rafinia, what's wrong?"

"Head, I just saw something shaking on the wall in front of me."

Rafinha pointed tremblingly at a wall not far away, more than three meters high, with barbed wire wrapped around the top.

Everyone looked in the direction of his finger and saw nothing strange under the dim moonlight.

Casemiro, who retired from the Brazilian BOPE special police force, is a cautious man.

"Open the fuse, Rafinha stays in the car, Mavie, Toldo, you guys go down with me and take a look. Keep the cars behind you on alert."

Casemiro gave an order, and everyone opened the safety of their guns and followed the order.

The flashlight was turned on, and the strong light broke the darkness.

Plop….

Accompanied by the sound of flapping wings, an owl was disturbed by the light and suddenly flapped its wings and flew away into the distance.

The nervous people almost passed by in a hurry.

"Head, it's an owl."

Ma Wei lowered his voice and reminded.

Casemiro nodded, observed for a while, and found nothing unusual, then turned off the safety and put down the gun in his hand.

Seeing him like this, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"It's okay, go back."

The people who were completely relieved immediately started to complain.

“Raphinha is so timid.”

"Next time he should wear goggles so he can see if it's an owl or a thief."

"Raphinha is only interested in the pussies of Rose Street in Puerto Rio Grande."

Talking and laughing wantonly, the two cars drove away again.

After a long time, a strong black figure emerged from the wall.

After he cut the wire, he jumped down from the top silently like a gecko swimming on the wall.

After holding the gun on alert for a while.

Clicked on the headset.

"Boss, those idiots are far away."

"Act according to plan."

"yes."

Soon, several more black figures came over from the other side of the wall.

Several people put down the things on their backs and connected them to form an iron frame that could span the entire wall.

There were pulleys on the iron frame, and several people worked together to pull plastic barrels that smelled strongly of gasoline from the other side of the wall.

One or two, in the blink of an eye, forty barrels have been placed.

Finally, a dozen more people climbed over from the other side of the wall.

"Act according to plan."

Everyone said nothing, each picked up two barrels of gasoline and quickly ran towards the depths of the warehouse.

The grain depot here is somewhat similar to an oil storage tank, only not as big.

Climb up the iron ladder to the door.

Although the door to the grain depot is locked, it is not a very tight lock.

He took out the key he had prepared in advance, inserted it in and tried it, then applied a little force.

Snapped.

The lock is open.

The heavy barn door also opened.

The infrared imager clearly showed the mountains of soybeans in the warehouse.