Hollywood What If Chapter 259
"Ptui--! What did you say?"
Tom Rothman coughed out the coffee he was drinking when he heard a certain rumor from his secretary. Life as the CEO of 20th tury Fox was not so easy.
In a year or two, Tom Rothman would bee part of News Corporation and leave the position of CEO of 20th tury Fox. He worked hard for that pany, but he knew he was just a worker. The real owner of 20th tury Fox was News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch to be exabsp;
Well, at least he got some stock options and the credits he accumuted were enough for him to have a good position in News Corporation.
As for the CEO of 20th tury Fox, Tom Rothman had no idea who it would be.
He thought his job would be smooth sailing for the wo years, but he didn't expee of their rivals to actually start a takeover!
"Some of our spies admitted that they had seen Terry Semel visit Grey Pictures."
Corporate spies were real. They were hard to find because it was easier to send information now that there was the I and teleunications.
"They said that Terry Semel and Warner Brothers inteo buy stock of Grey Pictures."
'Buy shares? Kazir is already a multimillionaire and the guy is not greedy. Because if he is greedy, he would easily accept the tract that 20th tury Fox and LucasFilm offered him to direct Star Wars. That's a lot of money.' He thought.
Tom khat Kazir was a tough guy to crack, and it would be impossible for the guy to just sell part of Grey Pictures to one of the Big Six.
'I say he trades stock for stability.'
At best, Kazir could get 2% of Warner Brothers in exge for 30 to 40% of Grey Pictures.
The worth of Warner Brothers was 27.97 billion, while Grey Pictures was expected to be around 1 billion to 1.5 billion. Grey Pictures was not a publicly traded pany, so they had to determihe worth through researbsp;
Tom Rothman put down his coffee and wiped his mouth. Like him, Terry Semel was nearing the end of his term, and Yahoo had already ihe guy to be chairman and CEO.
An Frederick Horn would be the COO of Warner Brothers while Barry Mayer would be the Chairman now that Terry Semel po end his job at Warner Brothers.
'This is strahis guy should have focused on training his successor instead to acquire Grey Pictures. Was this ordered by Time Warner? Are they ied in Grey Pictures?' Tom couldn't get it.
Unlike him, who had at least a year to move a job, Terry Semel was already in his st quarter at Warner Brothers. Yet the guy tacted Grey Pictures.
Tom Rothman narrowed his eyes and thought seriously.
'Should I tact Rupert? News Corporation might also be ied in Grey Pictures.'
Uher produ panies, Grey Pictures had a good ce of being a world-css studio.
'Kazir is a smart guy, he didn't try to create a distribution el at all. Maybe he expected this oute... Is he really fident about CCU?'
Well, Kazir proved himself right, and now Grey Pictures' worth was over 1 billion, even though it was less than a decade old. It was already making millions in profits, sometimes over 100 million a year. Last year's revenue was over 1 billion because of Wahe box office of Wanted was now 1.21 billion and some tries were still showing the movie.
On top of that, Bruce Almighty es run with more than 484 million worldwide. The movie premiered in August st year and seven months have already passed.
Do you know a director who could write a script that had a 100% aking a profit at the box offio, because being a director and a swriter are two different jobs.
But Kazir had the two talents, they plemented each other and made a fantastic chemical rea.
'Most of his movies were inal spys, except for The Bourne Identity and the uping Spider-Man. Well, the guy had the talent to make the movie a box office hit.'
Tom Rothman admitted as mubsp;
The first time was nothing but a bluff. The sed time was iing. But the third, fourth and even fifth were no miracles. It was talent and sistency, and Kazir has been making successful movies for years.
But Grey Pictures is useless without Kazir.
Obviously, Warner Brothers wanted Kazir Grey more than they wanted Grey Pictures. They wanted his creative mind. If Kazir Grey owned shares of Warner Brothers, he would focus on it to make sure his shares didn't go to waste.
Also, Grey Pictures was in desperate need of distribution. Paramount Pictures and Sony-bia deals were ing to an end and Grey Pictures had to find another pany to hang on to. Grey Pictures also had no distribution el. They also didn't have Via, Time Warner and News Corporation trolling the media around the world.
Grey Pictures may be flourishing right now, but it won't be long before it reaches its limit.
The Big Six became the Big Six because they trolled the media and movie distribution.
In a way, it was a win-win situatioweewo if Grey Pictures allied with one of the Big Six.
"What time is it in Australia?"
Rupert Murdoch was Australian, and he had tremendous authority in the try. One of the reasons why 20th tury Fox was able to get tax breaks from the Australian gover when they filmed in the try.
"Sir, it's 1 a.m. in Sydney right now."
"..."
The time differeween Los Angeles and Sydney was 17 hours.
Anyway, if Warner Brothers was ied in Grey Pictures, 20th tury Fox had to be very careful about this acquisition. It could affect them for better or worse.
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[Author's note: I 't find the worth of Warner Brothers in the 2000s, so I decided to use the curre worth, which was 27 billion.]
[This is the sed chapter for today].