Chapter 293 Acquisition Target and Summit Entertainment

May 1st, Labor Day.

Liu Zhou, who was at home with Zeng Li and the children, suddenly received a call from Anthony Edwards.

Liu Zhou answered the phone and his somewhat excited voice came from the microphone:

"Liu, today I officially resign from Lionsgate."

"Really? That's great. I was wondering if you've changed your mind and don't want to change jobs."

Nearly three months have passed since the beginning of February, but there is still no news from Anthony Edwards.

To be honest, Liu Zhou was indeed a little anxious about this.

Liu Zhou's plan is for Golden Harvest to start the listing process after acquiring the Hollywood film company.

It is already May, and considering the time it takes to complete the acquisition, it will take until August or September at the earliest, or even longer, to complete this cross-border acquisition.

This is in the context of the financial crisis. Under normal circumstances, cross-border acquisitions would take even longer, at least half a year.

If Anthony Edwards doesn't take office, Liu Zhou is ready to go to a headhunting company to find another person to helm the company.

However, Liu Zhou and Anthony Edwards have known each other for several years and are aware of his abilities. In Liu Zhou's mind, he is undoubtedly the best candidate for president of a Hollywood company.

So if it wasn't really impossible, Liu Zhou wouldn't want to look for anyone else.

But Liu Zhou is willing to wait for him, but the entire Jiahe Group cannot wait for him.

If he continues to procrastinate and fails to join the company as soon as possible and we keep waiting for him, the acquisition will not be completed until the end of the year at least.

Then Golden Harvest's listing will be delayed until the end of next year or even the year after, which will completely disrupt Golden Harvest's strategic planning.

Fortunately, Anthony Edwards did not break his promise.

"How is that possible? I have already made an agreement with you and I will not go back on my word. The main reason is that my job responsibilities at Lionsgate are relatively important and there are a lot of tasks that need to be handed over.

And Gustav has not found a successor for me, so he has been unwilling to let me go, so it has been delayed until now."

"None of this matters anymore, as long as you can come over. When can you start working?"

"immediately!"

"Ok, then go meet up with the people from Goldman Sachs. I'm on a tight schedule, so I need you to acquire the company as soon as possible."

"Don't worry, Liu. Although I have been staying at Lionsgate for some time, I have also been paying attention to the trends in the industry. I have spotted a very suitable company."

“Oh, which company?”

"Summit Entertainment! The same company that produced Mr. and Mrs. Smith."

When Liu Zhou heard Anthony Edwards say the name of Summit Entertainment, the corners of his mouth couldn't help but curl up slightly.

In fact, over the past three months, Goldman Sachs has conducted careful investigations and selected three Hollywood film companies in accordance with Liu Zhou's requirements.

One of them is called Relativity Entertainment. This company was founded in 2004. The Hollywood investor of "The Forbidden Kingdom" which is currently being screened in mainland China is Relativity Entertainment.

This company was founded with the support of Wall Street capital, so it attracted a lot of attention as soon as it debuted, and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in some films from the Big Seven Hollywood studios.

It then acquired Rogue, a label from Focus Features, a subsidiary of Universal Pictures, which specializes in the production and distribution of low-budget films.

This label is somewhat famous, having produced film series such as "American Pie" and low-budget blockbuster projects such as "Underground".

After several years of development, Relativity Entertainment has become a second-tier film company in Hollywood with its financial strength.

The financial crisis hit Wall Street hard, which directly interrupted the development momentum of Relativity Entertainment and even deprived it of funds to continue investing in film production.

Relativity Entertainment is indeed a suitable acquisition target, but one of the shortcomings of this company is its weak distribution capabilities.

For example, the North American distribution of "The Forbidden Kingdom" needs to be handed over to Lionsgate.

Another is Dimension Films, an independent production company that started out by distributing low-budget and horror films.

The boss of this company is none other than the fat guy Harvey Weinstein.

In 1979, he and his brother founded Miramax Films, which, under the leadership of the brothers, developed into a well-known independent production company in Hollywood.

In order not to affect Miramax's brand image, they established Dimension Films.

Later, Miramax was acquired by Disney. Although the company was still run by the brothers, they were still kicked out by Disney in 2005. Then they founded Weinstein Company.

Dimension Pictures was not sold as a package to Disney at the beginning, so after more than ten years of development, it has grown into a well-known independent production company.

The most important thing is that Dimension Pictures has a certain distribution capability and can attract up to 500 cinemas.

This result is already very good. There are no more than 30 companies in Hollywood that can reach the distribution capability level of Dimension Pictures.

But everything about this company is good, the only bad thing is that its boss is that fat guy Harvey Weinstein.

In addition to his most well-known ability to win awards and become a celebrity, Harvey is also famous in Hollywood for his ability to cheat people.

You need to be very careful when dealing with him, otherwise you will be cheated by him in a blink of an eye. Let's not talk about whether he has the idea of ​​selling Dimension Films. Even if he does, you should be careful when negotiating with him about the acquisition, otherwise he will directly empty Dimension Films and leave you with an empty shell.

There is no doubt that he would do such a thing. He even dared to cheat Disney. Otherwise, how could his Weinstein Company become a big company in the industry in such a short time.

Therefore, he would be even more ruthless when it came to cheating Liu Zhou, a foreigner.

Liu Zhou was too lazy to deal with him. There were many things that money could not buy, so why bother to intrigue with him?
What's more, there is a better option.

That’s right, the third company that Goldman Sachs found for Liu Zhou was also Summit Entertainment.

Summit Entertainment is also a famous independent production company in Hollywood, and its strength is stronger than Dimension and Relativity Entertainment.

It started out by distributing independent films. Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, which Ning Hao borrowed from, and Christopher Nolan's debut film Memento, were both distributed by Summit Entertainment.

Later, it produced well-known commercial films such as the "Step Up" series and "Mr. and Mrs. Smith".

In addition, Summit Entertainment's distribution capabilities are much stronger, and it can attract up to 1,500 theaters, which is not much inferior to Lionsgate.

Most importantly, the copyright of the famous Hollywood film series "Twilight" has fallen into the hands of Summit Entertainment, and the first film has been completed and is currently in post-production.

Although "Twilight" is not as famous as "Harry Potter", it is also a film series that is famous all over the world in later generations.

Even for the Big Seven in Hollywood, it is a rare thing to have such a series of movies.

Just like Paramount Pictures, before the release of "Transformers", it had no outstanding film series, so it had to rely on Tom Cruise's "Mission Impossible" series.

This allowed Tom Cruise, an actor, to take the initiative in front of them and even pocket more profits from the movie.

Fortunately, the first "Twilight" movie produced at this time had not been released yet, otherwise it would not be so easy to acquire Summit Entertainment, and even if it could be acquired, it would cost more money.

Among the three companies recommended by Goldman Sachs, Liu Zhou chose Summit Entertainment without hesitation.

And he has arranged for Goldman Sachs to start contacting Summit Entertainment's shareholders.

What Liu Zhou didn't expect was that Anthony Edwards also took a liking to Summit Entertainment at first sight. It seemed that he was really serious about it.

"Of course I've heard of this company. Since you think highly of Summit Entertainment, then go and work with the people at Goldman Sachs to acquire this company as soon as possible."

"Liu, do you trust me so much? Do you want to investigate first?"

"No need. In fact, Goldman Sachs has already done the investigation. They also recommended Summit Entertainment to me, so you can go there and directly participate in the acquisition negotiations."

"I thought you really trusted me unconditionally."

"Haha, Anthony, stop joking, help me take over Summit Entertainment as soon as possible. Although the people at Goldman Sachs are great at negotiating, they don't understand Hollywood.

You see, they spent nearly three months investigating and analyzing before selecting the top one, but you didn’t even have to investigate to lock it in.

So I need you to be a part of this acquisition, otherwise I'm worried that the people at Goldman Sachs will make it cost a lot more money."

"No problem. I understand that the three shareholders of Summit Entertainment are not in a good financial situation right now. As long as the funds are in place, it shouldn't be a problem to take over this company."

"Okay, as soon as possible. I'll go over there in a few days."

The two chatted for a few more sentences and then hung up the phone. Liu Zhou couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

"Zhou Zhou, is there anything going on in Hollywood again?"

At this time, Zeng Li had already coaxed her son to sleep and sat next to Liu Zhou.

"Yes, I plan to let Golden Harvest acquire a Hollywood film company, and now we have some clues on the way."

“Is this the first time that a domestic company has acquired a Hollywood film company?”

"That's right, so I also hope to acquire the company as soon as possible this year. When Jiahe goes public, it will be more eye-catching."

"You know what, this will really increase the attractiveness of Jiahe shares to investors."

"Of course, for many people, being associated with Hollywood means you are awesome."

"So when are you going to the United States?"

"Maybe after a while. We are still in the negotiation stage now, so my presence won't be of much help."

Time passed slowly, and in the blink of an eye, eleven or twelve days had passed.

During this period, Liu Zhou lived a life of going back and forth between two points, either at home or checking the special effects post-production of "The Martian".

However, in recent days, Liu Zhou has become increasingly anxious.

He knew something big was going to happen, but he couldn't do anything.

Until this day, Liu Zhou was visibly shocked. He immediately dropped the work at hand and called all the companies under his control, asking them to buy drinking water and tents as soon as possible.

There wasn't much he could do, he could only try his best.

(End of this chapter)