Reborn Tycoon Rise

Disney's re-listing was an agreement made with the U.S. Department of Commerce when it acquired Disney. Two years later, in 1986, if Disney could achieve financial independence and no longer rely on Midea's debt guarantee, it would Discuss re-listing matters with major investment banks and financial institutions in the United States.

At the same time, the U.S. stock market at that time became extremely prosperous due to the rapid growth of the U.S. economy after the Plaza Accord. As long as there was a large amount of financing during the 1987 stock market crisis and the stocks in hand were sold, after the stock market crashed, the funds raised from the listing could be used to repay Buy stocks or invest in other companies.

Moreover, Disney's target is the global market, and its background must have sufficient influence. Going public is also the best way to attract capital from all parties.

"If it can be relisted, the company can also get enough funds for the next step of expansion." Mike Eisner is quite happy. Going public also means that a group of managers can receive certain stock rewards.

"I need certain performance before going public. Otherwise, the IPO will have no gimmicks and I won't be able to raise much money," Xu Zhi said.

Mike Eisner nodded and said: "I understand that I will continue to work in the film industry while restoring the performance of other businesses. Moreover, building Disney in Europe, no matter what the future holds, is also a very good publicity target now."

Xu Zhi nodded and said, "I'm going to let Disney acquire a company. Have you heard of Marvel?"

"Marvel? Of course I've heard of it, one of the largest comics in the United States." Mike Eisner was stunned for a moment, then asked: "Boss, do you want to acquire Marvel?"

Xu Zhidao: "Marvel's main business, comics, has not been popular in recent years. Its major shareholder, the Goodman family, has already intended to sell its shares. I hope you can acquire these shares as soon as possible and then fully privatize them."

Martin Goodman, the founder of Marvel, was committed to creating popular magazines when he started his business. However, the competition in this industry was fierce and had long been monopolized by giants. By 1938, he decided to look for a new direction and finally chose comics.

At that time, the comic market was dominated by DC. Its main comic characters, Superman and Batman, were already popular throughout the United States. However, Marvel still found its own way and created a series of unforgettable new characters, such as the Fantastic Four, Spider-Man, etc. Man of Steel, Captain America, X-Men, etc...

By 1968, Marvel surpassed DC and became the new dominant player in the comics industry. The entire comics industry also became heated due to the competition between the two giants. The entire industry developed rapidly, and this era was also called the Marvel Era.

But the sad thing is that capital is never satisfied. In order to ensure the smooth progress of the entire Marvel universe, various superheroes have been created, but the copyrights of these characters are held by Marvel Company, and they are not responsible for the creation of them. There is no relationship between employees, and differences in interests have led to serious personnel turnover. At the same time, even the remaining employees have become weak in innovation because they do not have any rights.

Throughout the 1970s, a large number of content creation teams except Stanley Lee left Marvel, and the company became chaotic. By the end of the 1970s, Marvel had not launched a new superhero for two or three consecutive years. The journals could only feature stories about previous characters and some new faces without any deep meaning. At that time, even some die-hard fans of Marvel wrote letters saying that Marvel had embarked on the path of self-plagiarism.

The logic here is very simple. The entire Marvel series of decades of comic strips, thousands of different characters, and thousands or even tens of thousands of different superpowers are all the work of countless content creators who have worked hard day and night. accumulation.

However, these people became "shooters"!

They are just tools!

They do not have any rights to their own works, not even the right to sign them. Marvel has been established for decades. Apart from Stan Lee, how many people in the outside world know about other creators?

People who don’t know the inside story of the industry think that the entire Marvel world was created by Stan Lee.

And no matter how good the stories of these "shooters" are, the company can always find someone to replace them if they are not satisfied!

These problems have actually existed for decades, but before the company was doing well and its employees were receiving generous returns, all the problems were overshadowed by the benefits of rapid growth.

However, with the outbreak of the video games and TV and movie industries, the entire comics industry was in a cold state. Marvel's revenue plummeted, so capital took a butcher's knife at its employees.

Although there is some meaning in killing the goose that lays the goose to lay eggs, capital is like this and only cares about short-term profits. What’s more, at that time, Marvel’s income from IP licensing had exceeded the comics themselves.

As a result, comic book writers began to resist, and a large number of top figures such as Jerry Kirby and Saul Brodsky left one after another. Even if the bottom staff did not resign due to financial reasons, they became too busy and had no enthusiasm to create at all. So Marvel The company was in ruins and completely gone.

Mike Eisner quickly understood what Xu Zhi meant, and after thinking about it, he said, "Boss, are you interested in Marvel's superhero copyright?"

"Yes." Xu Zhi nodded and said. At present, in the capital market, this is not a secret. Everyone knows that the copyright in Marvel's hands is of great value. Many entertainment giants are also interested, but these giants do not want to acquire it. Marvel as a whole just wants to acquire the character copyrights from Marvel.

Although Marvel is currently half-dead, the Goodman family is not stupid. Once the rights are sold, Marvel will be completely finished. Moreover, among the companies intending to acquire the copyright, there is no outstanding vision. They do not know how valuable the Marvel series will be in the future, so the bid will naturally not be too high, which will not impress the Goodman family, so This is where both sides spend their time.

Mike Eisner said: "When I was still at Paramount, I participated in the discussion of acquiring Marvel at a high-level meeting. Paramount's board of directors was also optimistic about Marvel's future value, but they did not agree with Marvel's acquisition of Marvel. quotations."

"How much does the Goodman family offer?" Xu Zhi asked.

"$50 million is the price quoted by the entire Marvel company." Mike Eisner said: "This price is too high. At the time, Paramount executives were only willing to pay 20 million."

"Well, let's get in touch with the Goodman family as soon as possible. It would be great if the price can be reduced. If it's about the same, I'll get it." Xu Zhi didn't want to waste any more time. In his previous life, Marvel changed hands many times in the 1980s, which shows that Small capital is still very optimistic about its value, especially in the mid-to-late 1980s, when the movie box office exploded and computer technology advanced by leaps and bounds. People with real vision can still recognize the value of Marvel's copyright.

Now the whole of Hollywood has been disrupted by Xu Zhi, a time traveler. No one knows what kind of butterfly effect it will cause. If a certain company decides to develop Marvel movies with all its strength and acquires Marvel first, then Xu Zhi can It would be a big loss.

"The various characters in the Marvel series are indeed very well-known, but the risk seems a bit high at spending such a high price." Mike Eisner asked with some confusion.

"Having widespread popularity is already the first step to success." Xu Zhi shook his head and said: "In recent years, individual heroism has been popular in the United States. The entire Marvel series is based on this theme. As long as a successful movie is made, , we make money, not to mention, you understand better than me that the real money-making side of IP is various peripherals."

"Marvel has licensed many Hollywood companies before, but most of the movies they produced have lost money," Mike Eisner reminded.

Xu Zhidao: "That's because of the special effects problem. All those who love Marvel love the unbridled imagination in comics. This is something that was simply not possible in previous movies, not even now!"

But I am optimistic about the future of Marvel. Computer technology is advancing rapidly. Sooner or later, supercomputers will be able to produce the most complex special effects. By then, computer special effects will be enough to convince comic fans across the United States. And you also said before that the copyrights of Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck and Snow White have expired. I think the Marvel series is the most likely to become Disney's new pillar industry. "

Mike Eisner thought for a while, nodded and agreed: "Okay, then I will arrange this matter immediately."

Xu Zhidao: "In a short period of time, we will not be able to film and television film the Marvel series, so the main task after the acquisition is to invest heavily to improve the entire Marvel universe."

"Okay, I understand." Mike Eisner agreed.