Chapter 455 Treating the symptoms and root cause
"I don't know what your father and eldest brother's motives were for participating in the acquisition of MGM. They were probably confused by Sony..."
Barron said calmly:
"This company can only rely on the 007 series to survive. Its financial situation is extremely poor. If it wants to save it, it needs a lot of funds. But when Sony took the lead in the acquisition, most of the money was given to the original shareholders, and there was not much left. MGM.”
"I heard that the new "007" is currently being filmed and will be released this year, but as you said, MGM can only survive by relying solely on 007 movies..."
John Smith shrugged and said:
"At least we can get the rights to those movies in MGM's library."
"This is the only thing you have that is better than other Wall Street capital. Sony will not invest in MGM, but will streamline their expenditures. I believe it is only a matter of time before MGM declares bankruptcy next time."
"But these can't be solved immediately, right? The first thing we have to face is the bank's debt problem."
Barron said nonchalantly:
"The debt problem is very easy to solve. If we just hope that the company's stock price will not be lower than 19.5 US dollars, then we can definitely increase our holdings of stocks, but in the words of Chinese people, this is just a 'treating the symptoms but not the root cause' approach, because After all, even if you keep these shares, you still have no control over them for the time being, and they may even be harmful to you..."
"I know, but..."
John Smith understood what Barron meant, and the crux of the problem was here——
If the stock price is manipulated to make profits, it will definitely be investigated by the SEC. However, there is nothing wrong with major shareholders increasing their stock holdings to boost the confidence of investors. Many companies will do this.
Therefore, if shareholders, including DS Capital, agree to increase their holdings of stocks in the secondary market, Sinclair Group's share price can rise in a short period of time, at least not falling below $19.5.
What really makes John Smith hesitate is that he can retain the Sinclair Group shares held by the family trust in this way, but the problem is that after retaining these shares, they cannot be used by him...
Because as long as his eldest brother David Smith "awakens" in the hospital, he will still control the shares of the family trust with his dual voting rights, but will use it as a tool against John.
If this is the result, it would be very ironic.
As for the method of "treating the root cause"...
Once some thoughts appear in your mind, you will be deeply aware of them and come out to tempt you from time to time.
Just as Barron hinted to John Smith - from their father's will, the double voting rights of the family trust were only given to David Smith, but this double voting rights cannot be passed by his descendants. Instead, one vote would go to the widow of Julian Sinclair Smith, the biological mother of John Smith.
In other words, if David Smith dies, his children can only have beneficial interests in the family trust, and one of them can get one vote.
In this case, John Smith's side would have an advantage in the family trust's vote.
Although Barron didn't make it too obvious, it was enough.
Many accidents happen every day - hospital nurses may be negligent, and critical equipment may have sudden power outages. This is very normal, isn't it?
"You can think about it, John. I'm waiting for news about you."
…
After Barron had this conversation with John Smith, he left Maryland and went to Los Angeles, a city on the west coast of the United States.
In just over two months, Barron and Rebecca's daughter, Jennifer, his first child, will be two years old.
The little girl is very cute now. When Barron returned to his estate in Beverly Hills, Jennifer was a little scared at first when she saw him, but soon, she staggered towards Barron and wanted to hug him. Hug.
At this moment, when Barron held his daughter, he could feel that everything in the world was no longer important, and only the elf in his arms was worth cherishing.
Rebecca looked at Barron, who was regarded by others as a noble Duke, a super rich man who controlled the fate of countless people, playing with his daughter with a doting look on his face, and her eyes were full of love.
"How's it going, honey."
After Jennifer was tired from playing and started to take a nap, Barron handed her over to the care of the servant, and took Rebecca to sit in front of the floor-to-ceiling window. The two of them were bathing in the California sunshine, and Barron asked.
"Summit Entertainment has begun preparations for the filming of the "Twilight" movie, and I am also learning along the way... I feel that there are still many things to learn from the front to the back, which is very fulfilling."
In the original time and space, the first "Twilight" part of "The Twilight Saga" did not start filming until February 2008.
But before that, they had already started preparations for the movie and casting for it in 2007.
This is mainly because the film and television rights to "Twilight" were initially obtained by a large company and were later handed over to Summit Entertainment for this project.
And it is the right time to start filming the first part of the "Twilight Saga", "Twilight", because after a year, the popularity of this novel has become extremely high.
In 2005, the sales of the first "Twilight" novel soared within just a few weeks of its release. After that, the book topped the New York Times bestseller list for 56 weeks, becoming The most talked about bestseller of 2005.
After Summit Entertainment invested US$40 million to start this project, it also received a lot of attention.
The investment for the film "The Original Spacetime" was around US$37 million. It is a low-cost youth film. It eventually grossed US$390 million at the global box office. It can be said to be a classic case of making a big difference with a small amount.
And among the later "Twilight" series of movies, although the first one had the least investment, it was the most popular and considered the most classic one. Therefore, this time the "Twilight" project, Still, female director Catherine Hardwicke was hired to direct.
They are currently working on a script adaptation of the original novel, and will start casting for it next.
After chatting about this topic, Barron only had a general understanding of the current situation of Summit Entertainment. Projects like "Twilight" are naturally very critical for a small film company like Summit Entertainment. of.
But in Barron's eyes, it is just a test for the current Summit Entertainment. If he can succeed in this project, it means that the current team of Summit Entertainment can still satisfy him, and he can invest more in the future. H.
Otherwise, Blue Valley Capital's current investment in Summit Entertainment is not large anyway. If you give up, you will give up. You can choose other film companies to try again.
In addition, in the film industry, Barron also has alternatives - the CEO of Blue Valley Capital had already gone to New York to negotiate with Marvel as early as the end of last year.
