America: My Time

Chapter 26 The Watch of Wall Street (Part Two)

Chapter Twenty-Six: The Gaze of Wall Street (Part Two)
"What a bunch of stupid guys! They don't understand how much of an impact it is to let their rivals grow. That damn kid not only has record companies, publishing houses, and the gaming world, but he even has an agency. Now he wants to get involved in the film industry. If he continues to develop, he will inevitably target television networks and newspapers. He's definitely going to become another media and entertainment giant. How can those bastards ignore him!"

"While that's true, other film studios face different pressures than we do. Only Warner Bros. is directly clashing with them, so they're naturally not in a hurry. It's us who are anxious. No matter what we think, we have to fight back. So they're all planning to sit back and watch the tigers fight, hoping we'll both perish and be severely injured, and then wipe us out in one fell swoop. They've calculated that we can't compromise!"

Warner Bros. was furious that its negotiations with other Hollywood giants had failed, but it was powerless to do anything about it. After all, none of the Hollywood giants were profitable these days, and none of them were willing to go to great lengths or make a big move for Warner Bros.' interests!

Warner Music's move to poach Legendary Records' veterans effectively left the company an empty shell. Most of Legendary's staff were thrilled when Warner offered them positions; they couldn't resist the temptation. This included the original artists. As a result, some naive individuals were lured away, while seasoned veterans ignored Warner's offers. Some even went so far as to report everything to the company to demonstrate their loyalty!

The so-called loyalty was just a facade. It wasn't that they were truly devoted to the company; the truth was they all knew that Warner Music poaching talent from a small company like Legendary Entertainment was simply a way to suppress Legendary. If they were foolish enough to trust them and go to Warner Music, they would be discarded very quickly. There was no place for them to survive in an industry giant like Warner!

Whether it was due to the high breach of contract fees or some other reason, Warner Music didn't poach John's two most valued divas, seemingly disregarding them entirely. This outcome relieved John; everyone else at the record company could leave, but the two divas couldn't. As long as they remained, Legendary Records could rapidly grow and expand.

With both divas unharmed, John chose to ignore Warner's outrageous actions, allowing them to poach talent and even cooperating fully with their efforts to clear out the company of useless people!
Every move Warner made was under the watchful eye of Wall Street. Seeing Warner's frantic actions, they also observed John's reaction, which left the Wall Street bigwigs with a headache. They couldn't understand why John would ignore Warner's poaching attempts and even cooperate with them. Legendary Records had no veteran artists signed, only two newly signed female singers—this was too unusual. Even if the record company wasn't that important, there was no need to give up so easily!
"Tell me, what is this kid doing? Even if Warner is a Hollywood giant and a media giant, he shouldn't be completely unresponsive, and instead, he should be cooperating with Warner so readily. This is too abnormal!"

"Boss, this really doesn't make sense. I can't figure out what this kid is thinking either. Could it be that he's only after that small amount of breach of contract fee!"

"Breach of contract penalty! I think I understand now. This kid probably had that in mind. He wanted to start from scratch and eliminate all the unstable factors in the company. Chacha Warner gave him this opportunity, so he went with the flow and sent these people away, not only reducing his own pressure but also getting a breach of contract penalty for free. It's a win-win situation!"

“Boss, I still don’t understand. Even if he wants to start over, there’s no need for that. This is just a small record company with hardly any staff. Is it worth doing this?”

"What you see as unnecessary is different in this kid's eyes. Don't forget his age. An eighteen-year-old kid in charge of the company—even if he's a genius, how many people in the company will obey his orders? A purge is inevitable. He was patient before, not rushing into action, but now Warner Bros., enraged, is trying to suppress Legendary Records, giving him the opportunity! A clever scheme, ruthless enough! The more capable this kid is, the faster we need to find him a big project that requires funding. He's definitely not playing around in the entertainment industry; he must have grand plans. We need to prepare for film production, public television networks, and if possible, newspapers!"

"Boss, no way! He's only eighteen. How could he possibly have such a crazy plan? Even Hollywood moguls don't have such a crazy plan!"

"It's precisely because he's only eighteen that he dares to be so reckless. He's young, he can afford to lose; youth is his greatest asset. Do you think someone holding companies like Game World and Dream World would worry about insufficient cash? With his genius, surely he can support an entertainment conglomerate? If once isn't enough, try twice; success will come eventually. Focus on finding a target to sell. I believe it won't be long before we have a negotiation with this kid!" Morgan was indeed very astute. He could analyze so much from John's reaction alone, seeing through Legendary Entertainment's strategy—which suited Morgan perfectly. Morgan wasn't afraid of John's expansion, wasn't afraid of him establishing a media conglomerate and becoming a media and entertainment giant; he was afraid of John doing nothing!

It's better not to do anything than to do nothing! If we develop step by step without breaking the rules, Morgan can't do anything to John. As long as John does something, anything is possible. This is Morgan's thinking, and it's also the thinking of the entire Wall Street. All investment banks want to profit from the game world and dream world software, and they all want a share of the financing!

How should Dreamworld Software and Gameworld be valued? There's been considerable debate on Wall Street, with differing opinions. Dreamworld is relatively straightforward, with companies like Apple serving as precedents. However, Gameworld is the subject of much controversy, primarily because it doesn't manufacture its own game consoles, relying entirely on Japanese manufacturers, which significantly impacts its market capitalization!
If John knew about the debate on Wall Street, he would scoff. Neither of those companies had sought funding at that time, let alone gone public.

While Wall Street tycoons were secretly searching for a suitable acquisition target for Legendary Entertainment, Warner was still entangled in the obstruction of Legendary Music. After all the people who were supposed to leave had left, and the remaining people had no intention of leaving at all, Warner realized that it had paid a considerable price but had not caused any damage to Legendary Entertainment. The two new artists' singles were still being recorded on schedule without being affected at all, and Flash Dance was also continuing to be filmed.

At this moment, Warner finally realized what had happened: "Damn it, we were tricked by this kid! This bastard doesn't care about the people he poached at all!"

Warner Music now realizes it's too late; they've been outmaneuvered. The reason for this situation is simply that Warner Music was too hasty and didn't consider everything carefully. They only wanted to suppress Legendary Entertainment as quickly as possible, forgetting the most important issue: the employees in small record companies are useless to Warner Music. They have plenty of such employees within their own organization, but now they can't get rid of these bastards and have to keep them, wasting money.

If we abandon them now, who will dare to trust Warner in the future? Their reputation will collapse instantly, and the losses they suffer will be even more severe! Reputation is of paramount importance to any company, and Warner is no exception.

In a mere clash, Legendary Entertainment, without any external assistance, gained the upper hand, delivering a resounding slap to Warner Bros. and showcasing its formidable strength to everyone. Warner Bros.' defeat also pleased a host of Hollywood giants; rivals are mortal enemies, and Warner Bros.' humiliation of other major players was naturally a welcome sight!

Although Legendary Entertainment successfully outmaneuvered Warner Bros., it was just a minor conflict with little impact. Other Hollywood giants still didn't take it seriously. Warner Bros.' failure this time was simply due to overconfidence and impulsiveness, and Warner Bros.' own losses were limited.

Legendary Entertainment's performance in this conflict also relieved Hollywood giants. Faced with Warner's poaching, Legendary Entertainment seemed completely unconcerned, leading many to believe that John was not valuing Legendary Entertainment, and that his focus was on Silicon Valley. This was exactly the result John wanted, and also the result Wall Street was willing to see.

Before the plan was launched, Wall Street executives did not want information to leak and affect their financing plans for the game world and the dream world. Anyone who dared to disrupt their plans would have to bear the wrath of Wall Street.

(End of this chapter)