Chapter 129: Eventful Autumn

At the end of the month, the Oscars announced the list of nominated films. Brokeback Mountain received eight nominations, second only to The Aviator, which had ten. However, in terms of the most significant awards, Brokeback Mountain nearly swept them all!

Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, and other major non-technical awards.

Hollywood's three major guilds and the Golden Globe Awards gave Brokeback Mountain the most substantial backing. 

Starting in 2005, significant events seemed to happen to every major film company in Hollywood. Sony-Columbia officially took control of MGM in a large acquisition deal worth $4.8 billion.

Time Warner announced the sale of its Warner Music Group for a total of $2.6 billion.

Sherry Lansing, the President of Paramount Pictures, announced her upcoming departure from Paramount. Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone also declared the split of CBS from Viacom.

Rupert Murdoch, Chairman of News Corp., 20th Century Fox's parent company, just used a poison pill strategy to prevent Liberty Media, the second-largest shareholder, from acquiring more than 15% of the shares. Murdoch owned a significant percentage of News Corp., while Liberty Media owned 9%. Liberty Media had reached an agreement with Merrill Lynch, which held 8% of News Corp. shares, allowing Liberty Media to acquire these shares after six months.

Rupert Murdoch did not want News Corp. to leave Murdoch family control in the future, so he released an anti-takeover shareholder rights plan: if anyone acquired more than 15% of the company's shares, or if a shareholder owning more than 15% increased their shareholding by 1%, existing shareholders would have the right to purchase the company's stock at half-price, proportional to half of their current holdings.

Clearly, if Liberty Media's deal with Merrill Lynch went through, this poison pill would be triggered immediately. Liberty Media would then need to pay several times more to acquire additional shares in News Corp.

Upon hearing the announcement, Liberty Media quickly abandoned its plans and announced it would hold no more than 15% of News Corp. shares, maintaining its position as the second-largest shareholder.

Universal Pictures, now under the new ownership of General Electric, also needed further reform.

Currently, Disney's situation was even worse, with increasing public disputes with Miramax. The breakup negotiations with the Weinstein brothers had been going on for more than half a year.

"Disney aims for family-friendly content, and what kind of movies do the Weinstein brothers produce? Sex, religious controversies, political thrillers, and violent stories - they've completely offended Michael Eisner," Charles said, chatting with his mother in his office.

Evelyn smiled. "Michael Eisner isn't having an easy time either. The collaboration with Pixar ended because of his relationship with Steve Jobs. Disney's lack of investment in the theme parks led to a drop in visitor numbers and a significant decrease in revenue. Now, Disney's morale is low and creativity is dry; it's soulless!"

Charles laughed. "Michael Eisner is just too self-centered. He squeezed Pixar too hard. In the distribution deal for six movies, Pixar only got about 15% of the profits and some software patents; the rest went to Disney. Not only did the rights for the animated films and the consumer products market belong to Disney, but even sequels for animated feature films weren't counted in the six-movie contract. Disney could make sequels like Toy Story themselves."

"Steve Jobs always wanted to change this unbalanced contract, but Michael Eisner completely ignored him!"

Evelyn continued, "At the recent Disney shareholders' meeting, shareholders and the board united against Michael Eisner, not supporting him to continue as chairman. Michael Eisner was ousted, and Senator George Mitchell temporarily took over. Michael Eisner would step down as CEO of Disney by mid-next year at the latest!"

Charles thought for a moment and said, "If I guess correctly, the one succeeding Michael Eisner as CEO should be Robert Iger, the current COO of Disney."

"Very likely, but they might also hire someone externally," Evelyn nodded.

"Disney's most crucial issue now is to solve the collaboration problem with Pixar. The best way is to buy Pixar directly," Charles sighed, foreshadowing Robert Iger's first major acquisition as Disney's new CEO.

"Would Pixar be willing? Pixar's brand value isn't low now," Evelyn asked skeptically. After all, many media outlets had raised this question, noting that Pixar could develop its own feature animations after fulfilling its movie contract with Disney.

"What can Pixar do if they aren't willing? The rights to Pixar's animated films belong to Disney. Any sequels would have to involve Disney," Charles shook his head.

"Develop new animated stories? How much would it cost to produce and distribute? Even if Pixar found a major distributor, which company would agree to Steve Jobs' requirements for the new contract with Disney?"

Besides, Disney's shareholders aren't fools. They ousted Michael Eisner to ease tensions with Pixar.

How much profit has Pixar brought Disney? Not just box office and home video sales, look at how many popular toys and games in Disney parks are Pixar characters!

Why haven't other Hollywood distributors approached Pixar, especially since Pixar rejected Disney's renewal talks last year?

Disney's quick move to remove the main culprit, Michael Eisner, was to give Steve Jobs a way out.

As for Michael Eisner, who ran Disney for 20 years, if you can't grow the group and even become a hindrance, of course, the shareholders will move against you.

Evelyn was a bit surprised. Her son seemed to understand everything clearly. Though she had finished college, she felt inferior to her high-school-graduate son.

"By the way, I plan to acquire Marvel this year. How much support can you provide on the ETA front?" Charles asked.

Evelyn thought for a moment and said, "Marvel's current market value is about $700 million. It's not too difficult, but the shares are somewhat concentrated, so we need to deal with the major shareholders."

Charles nodded. "Alright, I'll let you know when to join me in the action."

Evelyn nodded, fully supporting her son's endeavors.

*****

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