hollywood billionaire

Chapter 406: Public Enemy of the Industry
"Man, in case you forgot, I'm still at the festival."

Less than ten seconds after the last text message was sent, Lionel Richie's phone began to vibrate.

The 67-year-old man from the Deep South smiled, put on his reading glasses, glanced at the caller's information on the screen, then tried to press the call button and put the phone to his ear.

This is a habit that Lionel developed from his father since he was a child. His father, Lionel Brockman Richey Sr., was a system analyst working for the U.S. Army. More than half a century has passed, and Lionel Jr. can no longer remember what system Lionel Sr. analyzed for the U.S. Army and what problems he solved. But he can still clearly recall that in the cabin in Tuskegee, Alabama, whenever a work call came from the U.S. Army Reserve Training Base in Montgomery, his father would clear his throat, put on his reading glasses, and take a serious look at the receiver in his hand before starting the call.

This was one of the few surprises in the dull and boring life of the small town, which was not poor. Little Lionel would always sit at the dining table with his face in his hands, listening intently to his father's conversation, which actually did not contain any explosive information, imagining that it was himself who was answering the phone, and that he had become an important person needed and trusted by a powerful organization.

In 2016, the elder Lionel had been buried for years, and the younger Lionel had overshadowed his father's faint light and truly became a legend needed, trusted and even remembered by the Hollywood fame factory. The world no longer remembers that there was another system analyst in the US Army with the same name as the pop star, who had dedicated years of his youth to the country, but his habitual movements were left intact by his son who covered his records and used them very devoutly.

This is the power of inheritance.

"Leo."

This kind of power can also be seen in Bruce Eskowitz, except that the source of inheritance is not his father, but the long list of managers that Lionel Richie has worked with.

Everyone calls him Leo out of affection, and it has been that way since the 1970s.

"I know you're at the festival, but..."

"What do you mean by he offered to buy you out?"

"Relax, it's not what you think."

Recognizing the suppressed anxiety and urgency in Bruce Eskowitz's voice, Lionel Richie laughed heartily twice, stretched out his right hand and pressed it down, as if the manager was standing in front of him and could see his body movements.

At an age when stardom and fame are fading from him, Lionel Richie is relishing the attention that he avoided in his youth.

"He wants to buy me out, not you."

Hearing this, Bruce Eskowitz on the other end of the phone was silent for a moment in confusion and speculation, then slowly asked.

"What's the difference?"

"The difference is..."

Lionel Richie looked up at Barbara Pavon who was passing by him, and temporarily kept silent, smiling and nodding to the latter whom he had just met. He did not pick up the previous topic until Barbara, who was whispering with Cara Delevingne, walked away.

"The difference is, his goal wasn't to get involved in every aspect of my career. He wasn't trying to convince me to change labels, or agencies, or management companies... I mean, why would he want to change my manager when he was trying to buy Red Light outright, right?"

"That's right." Bruce Eskowitz thought for a few seconds, and his voice relaxed a little. "So what exactly is his proposal? What does he want from you?"

"my music."

"Your music?"

"To be precise, it's the copyright that I own... not the master copyright, but the music copyright."

"All the music and lyrics?"

"Obviously."

"He wants to buy them all out?"

"Yes."

"How is that possible?" Bruce's breath stagnated for a moment, "He knows that the copyright of your works is managed by UMPG, right?"

"know."

"Then how can he expect to buy the copyright from you?"

"Okay, maybe I was a little vague, my mistake." Lionel Richie licked his lips, trying to find the most direct way to let his manager understand Han Yi's offer. "Tell me, Bruce, how much can we get from the distribution agreement with UMPG?"

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean by that question."

"Share. How much share can we get for each transaction?"

“50%, same as always.”

"Yes. So his offer was that he would pay me a one-time buyout fee in exchange for 50% of the future copyright income."

“This is… crazy.”

Bruce Eskowitz, who was on the other end of the phone, was in his vacation home in Sunny Isles Beach, North Miami, enjoying the humid subtropical climate of 10 degrees Fahrenheit in late October. What should have been a very leisurely afternoon suddenly became a little difficult. Bruce propped himself up from the lounge chair and paced back and forth by his own swimming pool anxiously, wishing he could fly to Las Vegas the next second to find Lionel Richie and deal with this extremely serious, even severe, problem in person.

"You can't just sell your portion... Strictly speaking we have no control over who owns the copyright."

Bruce rubbed his swollen temple and said.

“UMPG is the only party that can make the decision.”

“I know,” Lionel responded. “But we’re not selling so-called shares. You see? We’re not selling the actual copyrights. We’re selling the right to collect future royalties from those copyrights.”

"I understand." Bruce Eskowitz is obviously not a stupid fool who knows nothing about music and entertainment, as he has achieved such outstanding success in the field of artist management. "They brought the Wall Street approach to the music industry, using an immediate cash payment in exchange for future returns over the next few decades."

"Completely correct."

"If I'm not mistaken, the organization responsible for completing the acquisition should not be Han Music itself, right?"

"What do you mean?"

"If I were him, this Mr. Han, I would set up a completely independent fund to manage all the copyrights I purchased... no, all the fee rights, so that I can package them up, attract more investors to buy, and then cash out before the fund makes a profit."

"I don't know if this is his plan." Lionel hesitated for a moment, "But you are right, the acquirer is not Han Music, but the music copyright management fund he is about to establish."

"It's about to be established?" Bruce asked, "So... the organization he invited you to has not yet officially started operations."

"correct."

"Then how can we trust him? Just because he bought shares in UTA and produced a few number one singles, should we assume that he has enough money to achieve his next goal?" Bruce asked sharp questions one after another. "This is not on the same level as what he did before, man. Imagine how many Lionel Richie-level copyright libraries he has to buy before he can make this music copyright management fund with no foundation be taken seriously by the big sharks on Wall Street, so that they will feel profitable and willingly spend huge amounts of money to enter the market?"

"The Carlyle Group, the company we discussed, has always stood behind him." Although Bruce Eskowitz couldn't see, Lionel Richie raised his left hand. "Isn't that enough?"

"It is indeed a large group, but..." Bruce licked his lips and organized his words, "Did you see any representatives from the Carlyle Group in the crowd around Mr. Han today?"

"I don't remember, I don't think so."

"Yeah, I think so. I mean, Carlyle might want to invest in a boutique studio label for some reason, I don't want to speculate what it is. But running a fund is completely different. These people are running the fund themselves. They know how much resources, how much effort, and...expertise! It takes to really make it stand out from the competition."

"What if, so far, there is no competitor for the music copyright management fund he wants to establish?" Lionel coughed twice and asked, "Has anyone proposed a similar idea in the past? Not trading the copyright itself, but only trading the artist's share?" "No, as far as I know."

"So, he is a pioneer in this field. I like pioneers, they take the path that no one dares to take or even dreams of taking."

“Many of them will fall off the cliff.”

“But some of them survive and reshape the world.”

"Do you think he can do that?"

"I'm willing to take the risk of guessing."

"Take this risk with him?" Bruce's tone became urgent again. "Risk everything you've earned in the past forty years?"

"That sounds harsh and even extreme, Bruce." Lionel laughed twice. "Why would I risk everything I've earned in the past forty years? It's just the copyright, nothing else. My performances, my sponsorship agreements, all remain the same. He can't touch anything. To be honest, I don't even think he's interested in those benefits."

"But copyright is everything, Leo. It's your work, your art, your brainchild. You can't just hand it over to him when Carlisle hasn't even…"

"He offered $125 million."

Lionel Richie's light interjection brought Bruce Eskowitz's dissuasion to an abrupt end.

"One hundred million..."

"One hundred and twenty-five million dollars. One hundred million plus a quarter of a billion. You heard me right." Lionel Richie exhaled a sigh of relief and brushed off the water drops that had slid down the glass onto his pants. "You're getting $1875 million, Bruce. Did you ever dream about this? You're getting $70 million from an artist this old with a '1875s beard?"

"I……"

$1875 million in manager commissions.

His six-bedroom, six-bathroom, 306-square-foot inner-bay oceanfront mansion at 4891 Atlantic Avenue in Sunny Isles Beach, Miami, is currently on the market for around $550 million.

This commission can buy three such houses.

The remaining money was enough for him to buy ten more Bentleys for the garage.

Bruce sat back down on his beach chair.

"1.25 million dollars, in exchange for how much time?"

"Of course it's the rest of my life, plus 70 years after the work expires." Lionel Richie spread his hands, "Or we'll see how the next new copyright law stipulates the statute of limitations for copyright."

“It’s been a long time.”

"It's also a 'time' that I don't have enough time to wait." Lionel's response sounded mysterious, but it was actually quite clear. "I'm going to be 70 years old soon, and so are you, Bruce. The only money that makes sense for us is the money we can have now. Not some long-term investment that we can collect dividends in years."

"You are... not wrong."

"But you don't sound very excited." Lionel stroked his beard and laughed softly, "1.25 million US dollars, my old friend!"

"It's certainly an attractive proposal," Bruce muttered. "I'm just not sure if it's feasible. If Carlyle Group wasn't involved, I don't know if he would have enough money to complete the acquisition. You should be used to seeing those guys who are full of empty words, right? Using the success of a certain thing as a cover to deceive others into believing that he can accomplish the same feat in other fields. We have been in this circle for a long time, and most of the time, so-called successful people spend their time like this - trying to make a deal by fraud, failing a hundred times, succeeding once, and then using this success to lure more people."

"Of course, our game only attracts ambitious people, and ambition is often equated with recklessness."

"Don't you think that Mr. Han from China might also be a reckless and ignorant player?"

"Reckless, maybe. Ignorant..." Lionel paused, "I don't think this word can be used to describe him. Regarding this matter, I'm talking about the music copyright fund. He is fully prepared. I saw it."

"What do you see?"

"An Arab man. The Arab man standing next to him - Turki al-Sheikh, chairman of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority."

"he is……"

"He is one of the investors." Lionel answered word by word, "And I just did some simple research. The so-called Saudi Entertainment General Authority is backed by the Saudi royal family and their sovereign fund. The sovereign fund is worth more than one trillion US dollars."

Enough said.

All that was left for Bruce Eskowitz was speechless silence.

"Are you confident now, Bruce?"

Lionel Richie, looking quite pleased with his victory over his manager in the debate, danced leisurely on his knees with his knuckles and smiled as he asked.

"Are you willing to make this history with me? Oh, by the way, I forgot to tell you. Mr. Han also provided the two of us with a very good opportunity to work behind the scenes."

"Behind the scenes?"

"If we accept this agreement, he and Turki will nominate me as chairman of the board of directors of this music copyright management fund, and you, Bruce, my close partner, will also be a member of the board of directors." Lionel Richie's voice was passionate and exciting. "Imagine how much valuable legacy and profound changes we can leave to this industry with... petrodollars. Think about it, Bruce."

“The petrodollar… is of course what everyone dreams of.”

"You still don't sound very excited, and that's starting to worry me a little."

"You should be worried, Leo. You should be as worried as I am. You should even be worried enough to keep you awake all night."

"I don't know."

"This Mr. Han and... Mr. Saudi are not the only ones who can control petrodollars. Do you know whose bank accounts are filled with oil-stained cash? Universal, Sony, Warner! Any of them is backed by several or even dozens of financial institutions that may not be as wealthy as the Saudi royal family, but are more influential in our society."

"What you mean is..."

"While you are doing our research, I am also doing our research, Leo. Your research is a one-on-one interview, while mine is a user sampling."

Bruce Eskowitz's next words made Lionel Richie's expression gradually become solemn.

"Yi-Han, this name is now a high-frequency word among all the executives of the Big Three. They observe him, study him, discuss him, think of him when they are working, working out, eating, and even when they are sleeping, they think of 'Han Music'."

"Why? Because every label executive I've discussed this with has the same view."

"This is an elephant in the china shop, and to quote them, 'he's going to fuck it up for everybody'. He will upset the delicate but stable balance of the industry. He is the public enemy of the industry that Universal, Sony and Warner all feel threatened by."

"He's already in their crosshairs, Leo."

“He’s gonna die.”

(End of this chapter)