National Tide 1980

In order to sign Ken Utsui and Tomokazu Miura, Keiko Matsumoto's additional expenses were not just the termination fees between them and the original agency. In fact, the cost was almost 200 million yen.

You know, in order to really achieve the effect of buying a horse with a lot of money, and to let these two famous actors feel at ease to shoot after joining the Mist Studio, Keiko Matsumoto completely followed Ning Weimin's advice and gave them the treatment of real first-line stars.

For example, each of them was assigned a support team.

Including full-time agents, public relations personnel, life assistants, stylists and car drivers.

So at least eight or nine people had to be added to the agency, and the monthly salary alone would cost an extra 5 million yen.

In addition, the agency contract signed by Keiko Matsumoto with the two people in the name of Matsumoto Agency also offered very generous conditions.

The contract stipulates that in addition to starring in film and television dramas and related publicity activities, Ken Utsui and Tomokazu Miura will not be forced to participate in programs and performances they don't like.

Moreover, the profit-sharing contracts signed by Matsumoto Agency, Ken Utsui and Tomokazu Miura are 40% and 60% respectively.

The agency takes 40%, Ken Utsui and Tomokazu Miura take 60%.

It should be said that this is a very rare benevolent contract in the entire Japanese entertainment industry.

Because usually, even the top stars in Japan are treated 50% at best.

Moreover, this kind of contract can only be seen in small and medium-sized agencies, and large entertainment agencies will never give such conditions.

For example, when Keiko Matsumoto was under the contract with Shochiku, even though she was the well-deserved "Shochiku No. 1".

But she still only took 40% of the salary income from filming, and 60% belonged to Shochiku.

This is why Japanese big-name stars finally have to become independent.

It is because of the atmosphere in the Japanese industry that the agencies squeeze the artists too hard.

Whether it is the original big studios or the current TV entertainment agencies, they are all the same in this regard.

Only when the agencies make enough money first, the artists may have a chance to share some meat.

Therefore, a financial contract like the one in Mist Studio, which offers generous treatment but demands little, is unique in the current Japanese entertainment industry. Ordinary agencies cannot do such a stupid thing.

From this point of view, Matsumoto Agency has completely deviated from the original intention of capital, which is worthy of the integrity and goodwill of Ken Utsui and Tomokazu Miura.

Besides, as the old saying goes, people scatter and money gathers, and money scatters and people gather.

For Keiko Matsumoto, although she is not smart in economics, she has successfully gained the loyalty of Ken Utsui and Tomokazu Miura.

And such an "iron triangle" is exactly the support that Mist Studio, which is the least short of money, really needs.

Whether it is a loss or a profit, stupid or smart, this is a matter of opinion.

As for Ning Weimin, he understands this principle better than Keiko Matsumoto.

And when it comes to spending money, he is much better than his wife.

Two hundred million yen is nothing. He really doesn't blink an eye when it comes to spending money, like a landslide or tsunami.

In fact, just when Matsumoto Keiko signed Utsui Ken and Miura Tomokazu, Ning Weimin was leading Watabe Mitsuru and the lawyer Mamiya of the law firm to conduct a business negotiation with the major shareholder of Taurus Palace, Hirohira Saburo, and the president Funaki Minoru, which is likely to be very expensive - to buy Taurus Palace shares for Matsumoto Keiko.

As long as this deal is done, I don't know how many two hundred million yen he will have to spend.

Of course, some people may be curious.

Isn't Taurus Palace well managed? It has a double-crown singer like Teresa Teng under its command, and the record sales are flying.

Moreover, once "Crazy Rich Asians" is released and sells well, it is completely foreseeable that Teresa Teng and her new song "The Flowing River" will definitely be able to ride on the sedan chair and become popular again.

Why do they suddenly want to sell shares?

Isn't this equivalent to selling the golden chicken that lays golden eggs? It's too stupid.

In fact, this is not surprising at all. It is not for anything else, but because the Taurus Palace has to take this step now, and there is really no better choice.

Why?

It turns out that after seeing Suho Ikuo being threatened by him, Minoru Funaki immediately called Teresa Teng out of fear and wanted to discuss with her what to do.

Unexpectedly, Teresa Teng is Ning Weimin's staunch ally, and the two have already had a full communication about the pressure faced by "Crazy Rich Asians". Teresa Teng stood on Ning Weimin's side without thinking, and her attitude was very tough and resolute.

After she understood Minoru Funaki's intention, she only said one sentence, "I will definitely stand with President Ning on this matter. I can't leave the crew, and I can't help outsiders to deal with my friends. If you insist on me doing this, then I can only consider leaving the Taurus Palace."

As a result, Minoru Funaki was completely dumbfounded and never dared to mention it again.

To be honest, Taurus Palace Records was originally a record company that couldn't be any smaller.

In recent years, it seems to be developing rapidly, and it is about to evolve into a medium-sized company with about 50 people, which seems to be a great achievement.

But in fact, it is just a scene supported by Teresa Teng alone.

Funaki Minoru knows it best. As a record company, 90% of the annual operating income of his Taurus Palace is earned through Teresa Teng.

Without this queen of singing, Taurus Palace is no longer a palace, I am afraid it can only be called a cowshed.

So once Teresa Teng said something, everyone in the Taurus Palace, including him, had to obey unconditionally, and they would never force the queen of singing.

But then again, the problem now is, if Suho Ikuo's Burning Group gets angry and regards them as enemies, what will happen to the small Taurus Palace in the future?

Funaki Minoru really doesn't think he can withstand the Burning Group's tossing.

For this reason, as a little kid who was trembling with fear at the fight between two gods, he thought about it and was in a dilemma.

He couldn't persuade Teresa Teng to quit, and he didn't dare to offend the "leader" of the Japanese entertainment industry.

In the end, he had no choice but to ask for help from another major shareholder of the Taurus Palace, Hirohira Saburo.

This was his boss in the planning department when he worked at PolyGram.

He was also the person who funded him to establish the Taurus Palace after he left PolyGram.

As it turned out, the boss is still the boss, and his views are indeed different. Guangping Saburo broke through the limitations of Funaki Minoru's thinking with just a few words.

"Don't think too much, fence-sitters will not end well. Since Teresa has made her decision, what else can we do? We have to stand with the Mist Studio. But if you ask me, while the company is now performing best, we might as well sell half of the company's shares. In this way, no matter what happens in the future, we will not bear all the risks ourselves."

I have to say that this idea is really good, and it is quite clever to be able to attack and defend.

Funaki Minoru immediately realized that if he could really sell some of the shares of Taurus Palace.

Then as shareholders, they can not only get a large sum of money immediately and become rich.

And with new shareholders as allies, the ability to withstand pressure will be strengthened.

Especially at this time, because the stock market and the real estate market are in a state of raging.

Then it seems that selling the company that you have worked hard to run is not so painful, at least the money you get can be used to buy a house and speculate in stocks.

If you really invest in it, you will catch a good market, and then you may earn more than running the company.

So, Minoru Funaki, who suddenly realized the truth, immediately reached a consensus with Hirohira Saburo who came up with the idea.

The two of them acted immediately and soon went their separate ways to find buyers.

Needless to say, if you want to sell your shares, you must find someone with deep pockets in order to get a good price.

But on this basis, Minoru Funaki actually has his own little thoughts, that is, he still has demands for management rights.

He is different from Hirohira Saburo, Taurus Palace is the foundation of his entire career.

If possible, even if he sells his shares, he does not want to be marginalized in the company in the future and stand aside.

He still hopes to continue to serve as the president and manage the operation of Taurus Palace.

So Minoru Funaki does not like to follow Hirohira Saburo's ideas to contact major record companies and become a small label under a large enterprise.

The first buyer that comes to his mind is the Mist Studio.

The reason is very simple. In addition to the close cooperation relationship and common interests, there is no need to worry about the change of cooperation by absorbing such shareholders.

The key is that Matsumoto Keiko is not the kind of boss who likes to stretch his hands and has a strong desire for control. In the future, Taurus Palace should still be the master of the house.

This can be seen by looking at the fact that the management rights of Mist Studio have actually always been in the hands of Akira Okamoto and Mitsuru Watanabe.

Even Matsumoto Keiko's husband Ning Weimin is young and rich, friendly, considerate of friendship, and generous.

In addition, he once helped Teresa Teng win the record award regardless of gains and losses, and thus won Teresa Teng's trust.

Aren't they the best trading partners?

Even if we take a step back, Teresa Teng's contract with Taurus Palace will have to be renewed in two years. Whether he can keep Teresa Teng by then, Funaki Minoru is not sure.

If there is a shareholder of Mist Studio, it will be different.

Presumably, for the favor to Ning Weimin, Teresa Teng would still choose to stay in Taurus Palace two years later.

Therefore, Funaki Minoru called Ning Weimin, hoping to find out from him the strength of Mist Studio and whether he was interested in becoming a shareholder of Taurus Palace?

At this time, Funaki Minoru was most worried about whether Mist Studio was short of funds as rumored.

Unexpectedly, Ning Weimin responded to him very positively.

He only asked about his offer, and soon expressed strong interest, replying that whoever was willing to make an appointment to meet and discuss in detail.

So much so that with Guan Ping Saburo's qualifications in the record industry, he had not yet had time to find out whether Sony Music and Victory Records were interested in investing in Taurus Palace.

Funaki Minoru successfully invited Ning Weimin to Taurus Palace and took him to meet Guang Ping Saburo.

All of a sudden, they entered the substantive contact stage.

At this moment, as expected, the focus of everyone's attention was nothing more than how to bargain.

However, speaking of this, what surprised Funaki Minoru and Guangping Saburo was that Ning Weimin did not take the conventional approach to discuss the offer of Jinniu Palace in detail, but took the initiative to give them two different acquisition plans.

Even the price difference between the two plans was a bit big, which was really puzzling.

So Guangping Saburo opened his eyes wide and asked with doubts.

"Oh, excuse me, the price of the plan you provided seems to be problematic?"

He first pointed at the first document handed to him by Mitsuru Watanabe and said, "President Ning, in this plan, you plan to purchase 34% of the shares of Taurus Palace for 1.2 billion yen. That is to say , in your heart, the value of Taurus Palace is about 3.5 billion yen, but this one..."

He said, holding the second document next to him in front of him, "This plan is that you want to acquire 90% of the shares of Taurus Palace. The price you gave is 4.5 billion yen. So in this plan, you The estimated value of the Taurus Palace is 5 billion yen. This is very strange. Is it because the valuation of the two plans differs by 1.5 billion yen? Is it because you are negligent?"

"No mistake. That's what I meant."

Ning Weimin coughed a little, then faced the astonished Saburo Hirohira and Minoru Funaki and said seriously, "Please allow me to explain it to you two."

"Okay, please speak."

"Actually, ever since I received President Funaki's offer, I have been seriously considering investing in Taurus. But to be honest, with our mutual friendship and the good cooperation with Taurus, I don't want to be like a see-saw. It's the same bargaining. So I'm here today. In order to avoid such disrespect, I will act according to our own circumstances and come up with two plans for you two with the greatest sincerity. refer to."

"Oh, you mean, this is the final price you gave. To be honest, I hope you will calculate it item by item with us. After all, there is still a gap between the first plan and our quotation. And your shares The demand reached 34%, which is a bit more than we expected. As for the second option, although the price is better, it can't be said to be a share purchase, right? It looks like a full acquisition. We envisioned it differently, and even so, I still don’t fully understand the difference in valuation between your two options.”

As Saburo Hirohei said, he turned to look at Minoru Funaki.

Funaki Minoru, the middleman, could only smile awkwardly and nodded in agreement, expressing his agreement with his opinion.

Although it made him a little embarrassed at this time, he could finally tell which one was closer.

"Please don't worry, Guangping-san, I will talk about these issues soon."

Ning Weimin didn't mind, he responded in a neither humble nor condescending manner, and continued to explain, "The price of the first plan is mainly based on the needs of the two of you to realize. Didn't you two offer 1.5 billion yen for 30% of the shares? , we can offer 1.5 billion yen. It’s just that the shares to be purchased have been changed from 30% to 34%. I think this price discount is completely acceptable in normal business negotiations. A normal space that can be compromised, right?”

"As for why we need to increase the four percent shareholding? Of course it is for the veto power. We spend money to buy shares, at least hoping to have the right to avoid decisions that may be detrimental to ourselves in major company decisions. It's very important, otherwise we wouldn't have to spend this money. But frankly speaking, even so, this plan is not worthy of our expectations, because at most only one-third of the share transaction can only guarantee the safety of both of us. The cooperation is just stable. From our standpoint, we don’t get much benefit from it.”

"But the second plan is different. If you two are willing to sell most of the shares of Taurus Palace, we would be happy to completely take over Taurus Palace. After that, we can not only integrate Taurus Palace and Fog Studios in business-related aspects We will make integration adjustments and reduce operating costs. We will also find ways to increase investment in Taurus, further expand the music business, and truly make Taurus a powerful record company. Since this plan can bring us considerable benefits. In terms of price, we also hope to satisfy our friends, so we have a considerable premium.”

"Of course, even if we acquire a full acquisition, we hope that President Funaki can continue to serve. In fact, the reason why our second plan only requires 90% of the shares is to leave that achievement to President Funaki. We are very clear that no matter for Taurus Palace, In other words, President Funaki is an indispensable person for Theresa, so if you two are willing to make it happen, in addition to being willing to invest 4.5 billion yen to purchase 90% of the shares of Taurus Palace, we will also accept Funaki. Chang became our partner and will be responsible for all the record business in the future.”