Chapter 482: Internal Strife

[Chapter 482: Internal Strife]

Strictly speaking, Hook was not a commercial failure, actually managing to turn a slight profit. However, this success came at the expense of Steven Spielberg's personal reputation, and the film's earnings fell far short of the industry's initial projection of $200 million. Therefore, Hook could be considered a significant failure.

Martin Davis was all too aware of the situation, but he didn't want Eric to steer the conversation away from Hook: "Eric, when Sony and Panasonic acquired Columbia and Universal, didn't you cooperate with them before? In that case, what's the problem with working with Paramount? After all, it would be a win-win situation."

Eric smiled slightly, looking at Martin Davis. "Martin, you have to understand that the situation now is quite different from a few years ago."

Back when they collaborated with Columbia and Universal, Firefly was still relatively small, relying on the distribution channels of the two major film companies to bolster its strength. Now, however, things had changed completely. Firefly's strength and status had become equivalent to the other six major studios. Without sufficient benefits to justify it, partnering with Paramount solely based on some old grudges with Viacom would simply mean aiding one's competitor.

Martin Davis understood that too, but he had already considered the relevant issues and quickly replied, "Eric, do you remember the movie Hot Shots! that you collaborated with Fox?"

Eric nodded slowly, sensing what Martin Davis was hinting at.

"Paramount also has some film projects in storage. We could replicate the collaboration model from Hot Shots!; you just need to select a project to invest in, and we'll let Paramount handle the rest. What do you think?"

Most Hollywood films typically had a long project incubation period, which usually began when a book or script was chosen by a producer until the film officially started shooting. During this time, the project often went through prolonged stages of script revision, finding investors, and selecting directors and actors. Over 90% of projects could stall during these incubation phases, and less than 10% would eventually secure filming. After all, compared to investments that ran in the tens of millions, a story merely existing on paper wasn't worth much.

The project reserves that Martin Davis mentioned referred to film projects still in this incubation phase.

Upon hearing the suggestion, Eric's expression shifted slightly. After considering for a moment, he nodded, saying, "That could be worth considering. But Martin, you know the situation regarding a sequel to Hot Shots!. If we were to collaborate, I could never agree to the last set of terms."

"Of course, everything is negotiable," Martin Davis said with a broad smile. "Eric, I have the materials prepared already; I'll have someone send them over shortly."

"One more thing. If nothing satisfactory comes up..." Eric shrugged toward Martin Davis with an expression that said you know what I mean. He was just curious about Paramount's rights library, but the rights to some of Paramount's most successful films in the '90s like Forrest Gump and the Mission: Impossible series were already with Flower Films, so Eric didn't have high hopes for Paramount's rights library.

After finishing dinner, Eric excused himself from Martin Davis and left the restaurant, as the crew would have a meeting later that night.

...

The next morning, shortly after Eric woke up, there was an urgent knock at his door.

"Eric, take a look at this," Allen said as he entered the room, immediately handing Eric the document he was holding.

Eric took it and glanced down; it was a copy of a newspaper faxed from Los Angeles.

"Martin Davis met with Williams in Hawaii; there are significant cooperative endeavors suspected."

Below the bold headline were photos of Martin Davis on the set of Jurassic Park, as well as a picture of him leaving in a car with Eric.

Allen followed Eric into the room, closing the door behind him before speaking again. "Yesterday outside the set, I encountered a photographer and thought he was just another paparazzo, so I didn't pay much attention. It seems, however, that it was all arranged by Martin Davis. In New York, this morning after the stock market opened, Paramount Communications saw a short-term price increase of 1.2 percent sparked by this news. I've already received many inquiries about it. Mr. Hansen even called me at 4 AM about it." Allen handed Eric a memo. "There's the call log."

Eric took the memo and glanced through the list of contacts; it included several high executives from the Firefly network and a longer list of others. Eric looked at his watch; it was just 6 AM in Hawaii, which was three hours behind Los Angeles, meaning it was only just starting work hours over there. These people sure were quick to react. Luckily, Eric hadn't disclosed his room number to many; those who knew understood his circumstances and didn't bother him at dawn but instead went to Allen. Otherwise, he would have surely been woken up.

Just as he was about to call Jeffrey and explain the situation, the phone in his room began to ring.

"Hello, this is Eric Williams... Jeffrey, good morning. I was just about to call you..."

After briefly explaining the situation, Eric hung up and handed the memo to Allen. "Things are fine on this end. Can you help me screen calls from everyone else? Just say Martin Davis happened to be on vacation in Hawaii and we ran into each other."

Allen nodded but couldn't help asking, "Eric, are we really going to collaborate with Paramount?"

"What do you mean?" Eric replied with a question instead of an immediate answer.

Allen had just heard Eric's explanation to Jeffrey and thought for a moment before saying, "I believe collaborating now might not be a good choice. Firefly is entirely at par with the other six major studios now, and the pie each year is only so big. Even if it's a cooperative model like with Hot Shots!, it would certainly increase competition for us."

"You're absolutely right. But don't worry, Allen, this situation hasn't developed at all yet, and if we do end up collaborating, it will certainly only be under conditions that guarantee sufficient benefits for Firefly."

Allen raised the fax in hand. "Then what about this?"

"Just pretend it doesn't exist. Martin Davis is the one promoting this, and it doesn't pose any harm to us; it should be those in the positions of Summer Redstone or Barry Diller that need to get worried," Eric replied, laughing slightly. "So maybe it could even bring in some unexpected gains. Regardless, we won't lose out."

...

"Mr. Malone," as a neatly dressed, meticulous middle-aged man walked by, Barry Diller's assistant stood up to greet him outside the CEO office of QVC.

John Malone acknowledged with a nod and knocked a few times on the door before stepping inside. The assistant opened his mouth but hesitated to stop the head honcho of the parent company, Tele-Communications Inc..

"Barry, have you gotten in touch with Eric Williams yet?"

Barry Diller, who had been reading documents behind his desk, glanced at John Malone and said, "Eric's assistant just returned my call. He said Martin Davis is just in Hawaii for a vacation and they ran into each other."

"Ran into each other? Come on, that's too coincidental," John Malone scoffed, suddenly remembering Barry's earlier words. "So you haven't directly contacted Williams?"

"No, my relationship with him isn't at the level where he would call me directly," Barry replied nonchalantly.

John Malone detected traces of boredom in Barry's tone and couldn't help but say, "Barry, you should be more upbeat about this. The acquisition proposal for Paramount was brought up by you personally, and this is just a small setback."

"Just a small setback? Really?" Barry Diller shot him a pointed look. "You've made at least four trips to Los Angeles in the past few months. I suspect Martin Davis has probably already received the acquisition plan I drafted. John, tell me if I'm right."

By the end, there was an edge of suppressed anger in Barry's tone. He feared neither enemies nor setbacks; he only felt betrayed by his allies. Barry had faced several roadblocks in probing into Paramount over the last few months, with the impression that they had preemptively taken precautions against his methods.

Realizing the issue, Barry promptly conducted a relevant investigation and easily uncovered the truth. Although Tele-Communications Inc., as one of the parent companies, had authorized QVC's acquisition of Paramount, John Malone had started thinking about monopolizing the acquisition for himself. He showed no intention of hiding this ambition, visiting Martin Davis's office multiple times.

Thus, Barry Diller could piece together the timeline easily, figuring out everyone who had knowledge of his acquisition plan. The only ones who knew were Comcast's CEO Brian Roberts and the head of Tele-Communications, John Malone, along with Barry's own team. Barry was confident his team wouldn't leak any information, and John Malone was just being too obvious.

As John Malone heard Barry Diller's blunt accusation, he shook his head with an expression of calm denial. "Barry, I think you've misunderstood. My visits to Martin Davis were also about the acquisition."

"About Tele-Communications acquiring Paramount, not QVC, right?"

Feeling increasingly irked by Barry's relentless questioning, John Malone stated plainly, "What if that's true? Barry, I also gave you a chance, but there has been no progress from you these past months, has there?"

Barry Diller nearly laughed out loud at John Malone's clever words. If it weren't for Malone's betrayal, leaking details of his acquisition plan, Barry felt confident that QVC could at least secure a percentage of Paramount's shares on the secondary market to reach boardroom status.

Though John Malone always presented himself as a fastidious gentleman, Barry Diller knew better; this was merely a facade, and the essence of who he was had already been revealed by his desperate words.

Acquiring Paramount and returning to the office he'd left long ago as the owner was a long-held dream for Barry Diller, and he didn't possess that capital himself; he could only rely on funds from Tele-Communications and Comcast.

The two men stared at each other across the desk for a moment, and Barry Diller finally sighed internally, compromising first. "John, even if Paramount collaborates with Firefly, it doesn't change much. While Eric Williams might be young, he is definitely not someone who would allow himself to suffer loss. Their collaboration would at most just cost us a bit more. Our true enemies are Martin Davis and Summer Redstone. Based on my understanding of Davis, he doesn't want to sell Paramount at all. So even if you spent a year in his office, the situation wouldn't change. The only way to take Paramount would be through a forced acquisition. In this respect, Summer Redstone's style is much more hardline; we can see that from Viacom's acquisition attempts in the '80s and last year's Disney acquisition. Summer Redstone is someone who places all his chips on the table."

As he spoke, Barry Diller paused, looking at John Malone with a slightly disappointed expression. "Summer Redstone is currently trying to leverage the financing he prepared for last year's Disney acquisition to secure control of the video rental giant Blockbuster. If he succeeds, with Blockbuster's robust cash flow, we will have no advantage in a bidding war. Meanwhile, Martin Davis is also reaching out to Williams for self-preservation. They're all striving for their goals, and what are we doing?" Barry exclaimed, hammering the table with a loud bang. "We're busy fighting among ourselves!"

"Mr. Diller, is everything okay?" Hearing the thud from the office, Barry Diller's assistant, worried that the two were about to come to blows, slightly pushed open the door to check.

Before Barry could say anything, John Malone turned with a scowl to the assistant, barking, "Get out! Who let you in?"

The assistant shrank back, glancing at Barry Diller. After receiving a nod from him, he wordlessly melted back out.

The office fell silent again as John Malone silently pulled out two cigars, offering one to Barry. The two men lit their cigars and took a long drag simultaneously.

"Brian Roberts doesn't seem very enthusiastic about acquiring Paramount; it's only because of you that they agreed to this acquisition plan. Tele-Communications doesn't want Comcast to take advantage of this ride, so I don't think I did anything wrong. Besides, even if Tele-Communications were to acquire Paramount on our own, I personally would be very willing for you to take the helm."

"I've long made it clear to many that I won't sign another employment contract," Barry Diller replied steadily through the swirling smoke. He held shares in QVC and held control over QVC based on the initial agreements, with the aim of acquiring Paramount on QVC's behalf -- he was the owner. But if parent company Tele-Communications Inc. moved to acquire Paramount, what relation did that have to him?

*****

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