Dominating Hollywood: Starting with Scarlett

Chapter 256 Offense and Defense Transition
"We have basically investigated the situation of Clooney Capital."

In the quiet office, Tang De put his feet on the table, looking at the sunset outside the window and listening to the detective's voice on the phone.

"Tell me."

"They are related to Ronald Tuttle and are a profit group."

"Is it the Los Angeles billionaire Ronald Tuttle that I know?"

"Yes, it's them."

Tang De was silent for a moment and said, "So they are interested in the Eye of Norton?"

The detective was a little surprised. "Your sense of smell is really sharp. According to our investigation, after Victor announced that he would sue you, the stock of Norton Eye fell slightly. During this period, they bought a lot of stocks."

“But what do they have to do with Miramax?”

"Because Disney is about to announce that they are selling Miramax to Ronald Tuttle and his investment group."

Tang De nodded. After learning about this, everything became clear to him.

Ronald Tuttle and his team should have negotiated with Disney to purchase Miramax last year, but they seemed not to be satisfied with just one film company and set their sights on Donder's Norton Eye.

Whether they just want to become shareholders or want to gain the initiative, they are secretly helping Victor to discredit Norton's Eye and try to lower the stock price of Norton's Eye.

Fortunately, Tang De and his team responded appropriately, and the stock price only fluctuated slightly, which did not give them too many opportunities.

But I'm sure they won't give up, and who knows how many shares of Norton's Eye they have acquired during this period.

However, if they really thought that Norton's Eye would be so easily controlled, they were wrong, because Tang De had already made preparations in advance and cross-held shares of Norton's Eye with the company he established in the Cayman Islands. This strategy can prevent someone from directly controlling the board of directors by purchasing a large number of shares.

Not to mention the conventional means of preventing takeovers, such as poison pills, white knights, and so on.

Of course, other shareholders are not pushovers either. Everyone knows that Norton Eye has been on the rise, so how could they easily give up their shares?

Therefore, even if Ronald Tuttle and his team tried their best to acquire shares, they would have no chance of directly controlling the company.

At most, they can become a small shareholder and pose little threat to Tang De.

It’s just that their methods were a bit despicable, which made Tang De disgusted.

"Did you find any evidence against Victor?"

"There have been videotaped meetings between him and Clooney Investments, but I don't think the evidence is strong enough."

"Yes, it would be best if you could get a recording. I allow you to alert the enemy."

"clear."

After hanging up the phone, Tang De pressed the bell on the table, and You Fei walked in and stood beside him.

"Boss." She looked at Tang De's face covered in shadow. His expression was dark and unclear. The scene projected by the dusk was baring its fangs and claws behind him, like the incarnation of the devil in the world.

"Contact the company's shareholders. I need to hold a meeting. Also, contact Disney and tell them that we also want to acquire Miramax."

Although Tang De couldn't remember how much money Ronald Tuttle paid for Miramax's successful acquisition, based on Miramax's current size, it should not be more than 8 million US dollars.

Of course he doesn't have that much money, but the interest groups represented by his shareholders have sufficient cash flow.

As long as they can be persuaded to agree to Norton Eye's acquisition plan, Miramax can be snatched away from Ronald Tuttle.

In the field of interests, only money is eternal.

No matter how long Ronald Tuttle talked to Disney, it was useless.

Since he used Victor to disgust Tang De, Tang De had to make his plan fail.

Moreover, it is not a loss to acquire Miramax, because it is not his money that is being spent, and Miramax's film library is still very good. In the Internet era, these films will bring him huge profits.

"Okay." Youfei nodded, turned around, turned on the record player in the office, and started playing songs.

Tang De closed his eyes and gently waved his fingers, enjoying the music like a conductor.

The next day, after the board meeting, the acquisition request was formally submitted to Disney.

Disney responded quickly. They had no intention of saving Miramax any longer. However, after bidding for more than a year, only a few companies were interested in Miramax.

It’s great that Norton’s Eye is interested now.

It would be even better if the price could be raised.

But compared to Disney's offer of $7 million, Norton Eye only offered $6.6 million. Although it was more than what Ronald Tuttle and others offered, it still did not meet Disney's psychological expectations.

However, Clooney Group soon got wind of the news and raised its offer to £6.62 million.

Norton Eye again mentioned 6.63 million.

This price made Ronald Tuttle and others very uncomfortable, because this was their psychological price range. They couldn't really spend 7 million to buy Miramax.

They were unwilling to just hand the property over to the owner, so they had no choice but to raise their offer to US$6.65 million.

Norton's Eye increased to 6.66 million.

The tables in the Clooney Group suffered during those days because they found that Norton's Eye seemed to be monitoring them and was always only one million dollars higher than them, as if humiliating them.

Although the amount is not large, it is extremely insulting.

They could only follow up and increase it to 6.67 million.

They have also become smarter and have improved by millions.

But Norton Eye seemed to be tired of this routine and actually raised its offer to US$6.7 million.

Then, before the Clooney Group could make another offer, Disney suddenly made a move and announced that it had sold Miramax to Norton Eye!

"WTF!" Ronald Tuttle, a curly-haired man, lost his temper in the office and slammed the documents on the table angrily.

"How could this happen!" he questioned his investment partner Tracy.

Tracy, who was wearing a suit and a colorful tie, shrugged: "I don't know, I wanted to raise the offer, but Disney announced it on their own. Damn, are they kidding us?"

"The important thing is what exactly did Tang De discuss with Disney? How could they agree to sell immediately?" Ronald Tuttle slammed the table hard: "Isn't Disney afraid of cultivating a rival?"

Tracy rubbed her temples. "It's no use yelling at me now. The key is what to do next? We wanted to enter Hollywood, but Miramax is gone. Are we going to acquire MGM?"

"MGM? That's not something that can be done with 6 million!" Ronald Tuttle rejected the proposal.

"Then what should we do? Norton Eye's stock has risen again, and those who originally wanted to sell their stocks no longer agree. I heard that Tang De held a shareholders' meeting for them, saying that Norton Eye promised to become a major Hollywood film company like Universal within five years!"

"Tang De, fuck, it's him again!" Ronald Tuttle sighed helplessly, "Is there nothing new from Victor?"

"He has now found a few people who were badly treated by Tang De in the past, and they are publicly opposing Tang De's film in the media, but I don't think it's very effective."

"Of course not, they are just a bunch of rabble. Even if all of them were put together, they are not as famous as Scarlett." Recently, after the filming of "Lucy" was completed, Scarlett spoke well of Tang De again and was about to praise the movie to the sky.

Seeing how confident the leading actors are, the fans are naturally full of expectations and simply ignore the barking of those losers.

After all, they couldn't make a movie for the audience. "What should we do?" Tracy was also helpless. Even if they had money, they had to spend it, otherwise the money would be just waste paper.

Moreover, their restrictions are much greater than Tang Deke's. Those investment groups are very shrewd. It is impossible to give them too much authority before they have proved their outstanding investment vision.

This means that if the budget exceeds the range of their actuaries' estimates, their acquisition is likely to be terminated.

After all, this investment group just wants to rely on Hollywood to avoid the crazy depreciation caused by the financial crisis. Stable profit is what they need most at the moment.

"If we can't gain the upper hand openly, we can only strike in secret." Ronald Tuttle thought for a moment and said, "Can we bribe someone to destroy the film of Lucy?"

"I think it's quite difficult." Tracy did not question why she should do this, but instead began to consider the feasibility.

"But there is still a chance. Let's do it. As long as Lucy encounters an accident and cannot be released on time, the share price of Norton Eye will definitely fall. I have some personal evidence of Tang De in my hands. When the time comes, I will release them all together, which will definitely cause the share price to collapse."

"That's great." Seeing that there was still hope, Tracy's expression returned to normal.

"When the time comes, let's leave this matter to Victor. It would be better if he makes the announcement."

"Okay, I'll go talk to him then."

Tracy walked out of the office and went to the public telephone booth downstairs. After looking around and seeing no strange people, he dialed the number.

"Victor... contact the reporters and tell them that some explosive news will be announced soon, of course, about Tang."

"So keep a low profile recently, understand?"

"That's it, hang up."

Tracy walked out of the public telephone booth, gathered her clothes on the spot, glanced around again, and then went upstairs.

But just as he walked into the hall, a girl in professional attire walked into a public telephone booth, pretended to make a call, and took out a small eavesdropping device from the bottom of the phone.

The girl put it in her bag, replaced it with a new one, hung up the phone and walked out of the phone booth.

Not long after, Tang De received the detective's report.

"How interesting...they actually have some explosive news about me."

Tang De raised the corner of his mouth slightly and narrowed his eyes, as if he was thinking about what explosive news he had that was worth reporting.

"We will continue to investigate."

"That's not necessary, because I roughly know what the news is." Tang De pulled himself out of his thoughts and said, "What I'm more curious about is why they are still so persistent?"

"What do you mean?" The detective on the phone asked confusedly.

"Because logically speaking, if Miramax's goal was not achieved, shouldn't they continue to choose the next target? Or why didn't they come to me for negotiation before, using this handle to make me give Miramax to them?"

Tang De's thinking was very tricky: "If it were me, I would definitely not mind what means I used, but they didn't do that. This means that this handle is only against me personally and has nothing to do with the company. Even if the shareholders know about it, they won't care."

"If they are releasing him now, I believe it is definitely not just to vent their anger. I think their current target must still be the Eye of Norton."

"They want the stock price to drop, and exposing my scandal is one way, but it's not enough. They must have other ways."

Tang De knocked on the table: "What on earth is it?"

"You mean we should investigate all of Trish's movements?"

"Not only that." Tang De added: "You also have to investigate all the movements of the Norton Eye."

"Oh, this is a big project."

"Don't worry, I will give you overtime pay." Tang De smiled and said, "They are very confident, which means that there may be people from their company who can cause serious damage."

"Okay, I'll transfer all the people over here."

"Okay, that's it. Report to me every day from now on."

"clear."

"Drip drip..."

Tang De listened to the voice on the phone, thought about it, and called Jessica again.

"Hey?"

"Baby, I'll be back tonight."

"Really? That's great. Elena has been calling you daddy for several days."

"Haha, I'm looking forward to seeing my sweet daughter too."

"Are you going to have dinner at home tonight?"

"of course."

After Tang De finished talking to Jessica, he called Anne Hathaway again: "Honey, are you still busy now?"

"It's very busy. I have to wear very heavy clothes every day for this film, but fortunately, the filming is about to be completed."

"That's great. By the way, is there anyone around you now?"

"No one, you say..."

"Is such that……"

Ten minutes later, Tang De called Avril.

"Avril, how did the concert go?"

"Great! I'm finally back on stage. I feel so good!"

"It's nice to enjoy the stage. Is there anyone with you now?"

"No, Tang, is there something wrong with you?"

"Yes, that's right..."

After talking to several women on the phone, Don finally called Scarlett: "What are you doing?"

"I'm practicing yoga. I haven't had time to exercise recently because of filming, so my body flexibility has decreased a lot."

"Are you free tonight? I want to treat you to dinner."

"Really? Just having a meal?" Scarlett clearly felt that there was something else hidden in Tang De's words.

"Maybe it's not just about eating. I have to introduce someone to you..."

"who?"

"A lovely little angel."

(End of this chapter)