novelraw Chapter 549: Chapter 550: DreamWorks
Chapter 549: Chapter 550: DreamWorks
Chapter 549: Chapter 550: DreamWorks[Chapter 550: DreamWorks]
After Eric finished discussing the terms of the swap, Marcel Novare immediately showed his reluctance. He felt that even considering the 75% stake in MGM held by Lyon Credit Bank, the price of $1.2 billion was somewhat undervalued. Eric offered an overall valuation of MGM at only $1.2 billion, yet the company known only in whispers was valued by Eric at an astonishing $800 million.
"Eric, this is too harsh of a condition. Even if MGM's overall market value is barely $1.2 billion, the production company is definitely not worth $800 million."
Eric didn't bother to counter Marcel's statement. Instead, he gave a teasing smile to the Frenchman and nodded, saying, "Of course, if you don't agree, we can negotiate."
Marcel Nova were taken aback for a moment. Noticing the gazes of others in the meeting room, he couldn't help but show a wry smile. He realized that since Eric had already spoken, there was no room for bargaining regarding MGM.
Currently, MGM was clearly in a passive position. With the production company plan Eric proposed, the other major film companies in Hollywood surely would be eager to take on the distribution. The opportunity MGM had was primarily due to Eric's personal intentions. If he chose to ignore MGM, he could simply assist in the production of the 007 series and rid himself of the shadowy agreements tied to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade without having to go through all this.
Thinking about these things, Marcel Novare nodded helplessly, "Alright, Eric, I'll submit this proposal to the board for discussion as soon as possible."
With that, the matter was essentially settled. As the host, Nicolas Seydoux was about to ask everyone to dinner when he suddenly remembered a question: "Eric, what do you plan to name the production company?"
Without hesitation, feeling somewhat lazy, Eric blurted out, "Let's just call it DreamWorks."
"DreamWorks, nice name," someone said.
"Yeah, the Dream Factory -- great connotation," another chimed in.
Everyone nodded in agreement while Eric chuckled mischievously. However, the new production company indeed bore a striking resemblance to the DreamWorks of the original timeline. The name was quite fitting, but if Spielberg wanted to make big waves again, he would definitely need to choose a different name for the film company.
...
After dinner at the Seydoux family's mansion, Eric took a car back to his hotel. It was already 10:30 PM, and since it was still working hours in Los Angeles, he called the Firefly headquarters to discuss the day's events with the Firefly Films management and asked Michael Lynn to send a senior executive to participate in the negotiations for the new production company.
A few days later, a vice president from Firefly Films arrived in Paris to handle the negotiations for Firefly's interests in the DreamWorks film production company. The last stop of Jurassic Park's European promotion in Madrid, Spain, also held its premiere. Meanwhile, the box office data for Jurassic Park in Paris was quickly released. In its first week in France, Jurassic Park grossed over 27 million francs, while its competitor, Germinal, managed only around 6 million francs in its opening week. Even converted to dollars, Germinal's production cost was only half of Jurassic Park's, but its production cost of over 160 million francs was still the highest in French film history. Following the release of these figures, the French media was, of course, in an uproar, demanding that the French government pay attention to local films. However, Eric was well aware that many matters had already been settled behind the scenes. As the negotiations for the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade were in their final stages, the U.S.government issued a final ultimatum to several European governments: if an agreement was not reached by December 15, 1993, the entire pact would be void. European countries understood that if the agreement was indeed voided, international trade would fall into a prolonged state of chaos, which Europe, in its economic recovery phase, could not afford.
By the time Eric received this news, he had already taken the creative team of Jurassic Park to Tokyo, Japan, preparing for the movie's premiere on July 29.
...
At the same time, Chris's negotiations with Nokia Group also yielded some results. The main shareholders of Nokia agreed to divest several companies unrelated to mobile communications from the group and to continue negotiating solely on Nokia's mobile communications division with Firefly.
After this agreement, the total assets involved in the negotiations were reduced from $1.1 billion to around $700 million.
Furthermore, Eric learned from Chris that, due to the gradual recognition of the GSM network by various European countries, many telecom companies were starting to shift their focus towards re
at this moment.
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