Chapter 445: The Battle of Information

In downtown Los Angeles, Mayor James Hahn, Archbishop Roger Mahony of the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Arthur Smith, and others participated in the closing ceremony of the Cathedral of St. Vibiana.

Arthur Smith personally invested six million dollars to restore the Cathedral of St. Vibiana.

At the same time, Archbishop Roger Mahony announced the construction of a new Cathedral of Our Lady of Angels as the Cathedral for the Archdiocese.

Once restored, the Cathedral of St. Vibiana would stand as a historic landmark in Los Angeles.

After making the sign of the cross, Roger Mahony expressed his gratitude to Arthur, "Arthur, thank you for your contribution that saved St. Vibiana from demolition. God bless you!"

Arthur smiled and looked at the Catholics in the square, "I too revere the will of God!"

Over seventy percent of Americans were religious, with an additional ten percent who might not hold a specific faith but belonged to a church.

Among the religious folks, most were either Catholic or Protestant Christians, while Buddhists, Muslims, Jews, and others made up a smaller portion.

Afterward, Arthur left the Cathedral of St. Vibiana with James Hahn.

Looking at the under-construction Galaxy Sports Arena, James Hahn smiled, "The opening of this arena next year will mean something special for Los Angeles. This year, Los Angeles lost two NFL teams!"

Arthur shook his head, "Although Los Angeles has a huge market, it still lacks a professional NFL stadium. Renovating the Memorial Stadium would require significant funding. Or a new stadium altogether; otherwise, even if the NFL expands, Los Angeles might miss out because it doesn't have a usable stadium."

James Hahn chuckled, "Building an outdoor stadium in Los Angeles is incredibly tough!"

"Difficult? As long as there's enough profit, someone will get it done," Arthur thought back to how the Rams moved back to Los Angeles and built a modern stadium at Hollywood Park in Inglewood.

...

When the news broke that Galaxy was acquiring CBS, various TV and film groups in the U.S. expressed their opinions.

Some felt that the young Arthur Smith lacked experience in running a large broadcasting network and thought Galaxy's move was hasty.

Others believed that Galaxy's immense profits far surpassed Hollywood's standards; no one could rival them in content creation. If they owned their own broadcasting network, it could become a nightmare for other media groups!

At the Warner Bros. conference room at Time Warner's Los Angeles headquarters, Chairman and CEO Gerald Levin, Co-Chair Terry Semel, and Bob Daly met with TBS Chairman Ted Turner.

"The Bridges of Madison County, directed and starred by Clint Eastwood, features Meryl Streep as the lead. It had a low budget but great reviews. It has made 66 million dollars at the box office and is expected to cross 70 million before leaving theaters.

Batman Forever has made 170 million dollars in North America and is currently the number one movie of the year, leading second place Toy Story by over 30 million dollars!"

Terry Semel was all smiles, "Warner Bros. projects are always worth the wait. We also have Jim Carrey's sequel, Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls, set to launch later this year. Jim Carrey comedies guarantee box office success. Columbia is even willing to pay him twenty million dollars to star in the comedy The Cable Guy!"

Ted Turner remained stoic, "Right now, Hollywood only has Galaxy MGM and a few other companies. The Turner Broadcasting System owns TBS, TNT, CNN, Cartoon Network, and TCM; even in film production, we have Hanna-Barbera, New Line Cinema, and Castle Rock Entertainment! In the future, if Time Warner acquires the TBS Group, have you considered how to position and arrange each subsidiary?"

Did Ted Turner want to sell TBS? He definitely wasn't keen and preferred to merge with Galaxy.

Unfortunately, Time Warner owned 20% of TBS, and The Washington Post Group also supported Time Warner, with the Graham family having a good relationship with Gerald Levin!

Gerald Levin pondered, "The TBS Group will remain unchanged; Hanna-Barbera will still be managed by the network, and Castle Rock will merge into New Line. Then, New Line will operate as an independent production and distribution label under Time Warner, on par with Warner Bros.!"

Time Warner had a massive array of businesses, including Time Warner Cable, Time Publishing Group, Warner Bros. Films and Television, movie theater chains, Warner Records, and HBO.

Ted Turner stared at Gerald Levin, "Time Warner wants to exchange shares for TBS; if successful, I will become the largest individual shareholder of Time Warner. After merging with TBS, Time Warner will undoubtedly emerge as the leading media group, even surpassing Disney's acquisition of ABC!"

Gerald Levin chuckled, understanding the implication: who would be in charge after the merger?

Back when Time and Warner combined, Steve Ross and N.J. Nicholas fought over control; Ross won, and Nicholas left.

After Steve Ross's death, did Gerald Levin comfortably steer Time Warner?

And what about if Ted Turner joined? In terms of status and fame, Gerald Levin could not compare to Ted Turner.

After all, Ted Turner had built CNN from the ground up!

"Also, Liberty Media had invested in TBS when it was in trouble," Ted Turner knew very well that John Malone admired Arthur Smith. Otherwise, Liberty Media would not have partnered with Galaxy to form Starz pay-TV.

And wasn't Starz's primary competitor HBO?

What was John Malone's stance on Time Warner's acquisition of TBS?

Gerald Levin furrowed his brow; Ted Turner was not satisfied with the Jewish management of Time Warner and CNN.

Now, he needed to deal with John Malone?

As the only 24-hour cable news channel in America, the Jews would never let CNN fall into non-Jewish hands.

This was the battle of information!

"Mr. Turner, feel free to state your requests," after all, TBS belonged to Ted Turner, and his decision was the most crucial!

"Keeping the current management of CNN is my bottom line," Ted Turner felt he already had insufficient control over CNN and absolutely did not want Time Warner to completely sideline him...

*****

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