American Gossip King

Chapter 162 News Can Also Have Sequels

In the early spring of 2002, it was a time of warm weather, blooming flowers, revival of all things, and vibrant spring.

On a highway outside Los Angeles, a car sped recklessly through the spring sunshine, pursued closely by a news van that cut through traffic and sped ahead, with police sirens blaring behind it.

"Chase them! Chase after them!"

Ian Carl was shouting loudly from inside the car.

Beside him was Brideson driving, and behind him was the new Butterfly Vincent, holding a camera and chasing after the robbers.

Upon seeing the news van approaching, the thugs in the car ahead cheered loudly, "Ian Carl, you're finally here! We've been waiting for you!"

Ian was amused.

Since the Palos Bank robbery, quite a few criminals have tried to emulate it... Gan Lun and his gang have been out on bail for a while now, giving interviews and making a lot of money, which makes countless criminals envious.

On TV, the kidnappers were grinning from ear to ear, exclaiming that this was faster money than robbing a bank, and repeatedly expressing their gratitude to Ian—something Ian had deliberately arranged.

Just like ByteDance's approach—to let news come to you, instead of you looking for news!

Ian's view is: Let violence come to you, instead of you going after violence.

This reasonably explains why I always seem to have good news!

So today was another incident like this, but instead of robbing a bank, it was just a car theft and a man kidnapping – a minor offense that made things easier for the subsequent actions.

Ian didn't even need to quote a price; the other party simply waited for him.

Ian laughed, "Let's begin then. Vincent, you go!"

As he spoke, he took the camera, and Vincent began the interview.

The bandit was somewhat dissatisfied: "Aren't you going to do it yourself, Ian Carl?"

"We have to give the newcomer a chance. He's the next Butterfly, and he's good!" Ian showed a magnanimous willingness to promote newcomers: "And you guys are the new Butterfly's first blockbuster."

A good boss should give his subordinates more opportunities!

"Alright," one of the thugs shouted, "Will you publish a book for us?"

Vincent lacks Phil Letso's decisiveness and courage, but he is intelligent and good at journalism; in contrast, Letso is an action-oriented person, good at being a do-or-die agent, but his independent reporting is only so-so, completely following Ian's path and lacking his own characteristics.

At that moment, Vincent exclaimed, "We're not so sure about that. It depends on how well Ganlen's books sell, and whether you have any interesting stories to tell."

Several thugs shouted in unison, "We can kill a few people."

Vincent shook his head repeatedly: "Then it won't be easy to bail you out."

"Fuck! Why can Ganlun and the others do it?"

Vincent replied, "Everything has a first-come, first-served order; the first one always has an advantage."

The bandits sighed together, "This line of work isn't easy."

Vincent exclaimed, "If you really want to be famous, you'll have to come up with something new."

"What should we do?"

Vincent shook his head slightly: "I'm just an interviewer, not an instigator."

Even if you can edit videos, you can't teach them how to commit crimes!

Then he made a gesture, drawing a circle with his left hand and moving his right index finger a few times inside the circle.

Good guy!

How could you even think of that?

Ian felt a sense of happiness, as if Vincent had greatly reduced the pressure on his mind.

He looked at the other person, his left eye gleaming slightly.

He wasn't trying to control them, but rather to use illusion to show them what to do... those guys might not be able to understand Vincent's gestures.

One of the bandits paused for a moment, then suddenly shouted, "Then I have no choice but to do it this way! Remember, I'll take the lion's share!"

As he spoke, he suddenly pushed the kidnapped man in the car against the window and pulled down his pants.

"Fuck! Gastan, what are you doing?" The other thugs were also dumbfounded.

The thug yelled at the kidnapped man, "Shut up! This is the price of fame. Come on, film it! Before you stands the great Gaston Bieber!"

He screamed wildly, opened the roof of the car, and wreaked havoc.

During the police chase, the criminal shouted loudly while completely naked, leaving the police officers bewildered.

So, you're stealing cars and kidnapping people just to export goods via highways?

Only Ian Carl and Vincent laughed heartily.

Ian had already said, "The next one to follow suit and want to stand out will probably have to kidnap a pig."

Even the usually taciturn Bledson chuckled: "This is fierce competition."

Only the unfortunate kidnapped man continued to scream, "No, Ian Karl, save me!"

Ian shouted, "I can save you, or you can choose to accept this reality and I can give you $100,000."

The other person paused, then roared, "I want $100,000! Come on, Gastan baby, love me well! Harder!!! Fuck, you're too hard, I need oil!"

So that's how fat oil is made?

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An hour later.

Ian returned to the headquarters of Carl Media Group.

As soon as I arrived at the office, I saw my secretary, Ida, walk over with a big smile: "Congratulations, boss, you've made headlines again."

Ian casually tossed his coat onto the sofa and opened the liquor cabinet.

He poured himself a bottle of wine, sat down in the boss's chair, and said casually, "It's not that big. It's like making a movie, just Palos Bank car chase case 2. Maybe there will be 3, 4, and 5, but they'll all be living off the old ones."

While it's true that making money isn't about relying on past achievements, Ian always strives for innovation. An excellent journalist, like an excellent director, must be able to create all sorts of entirely new topics.

Therefore, he no longer wants to handle sequels like the Palos Bank car chase case news 1234; he'll just leave it to Vincent and the others.

Great directors rarely make sequels, and if they do, it's because they have enough confidence and creativity.

He then looked at Ida: "What's going on today?"

Ida stood respectfully before Ian: "Twentieth Century Fox rejected your request to buy the rights to X-Men, Disney rejected your request to buy the rights to Pirates of the Caribbean, ABC sternly and angrily rejected your request to buy the Oscar broadcasting rights, and Mr. Murdoch of News Corporation said he could have dinner with you, but that would be three months from now, and he also said that Fox Television Network was not on the agenda for the dinner."

Ian sighed, "It's all bad news!"

With the support of Linuo Bank, Ian was finally able to make extravagant spending without restraint.

The first step is to acquire and invest in all the businesses and projects you already know about.

Not long ago, Google finally launched its fundraising campaign, and Ian successfully acquired a 10% stake. In addition, he also made some small investments in other areas, such as some well-known future tycoon companies in China, spending only a few million dollars.

The investment division under Carl Media Group is now becoming Ian's focus, but only temporarily.

For Ian, making money through rebirth is not his main focus, not only because the world is very different, but also because, influenced by Gaskell, he has become increasingly aware that money is not the key.

Although these internet companies are very profitable, their impact on the national economy and people's livelihood is far less than that of the real economy—less in terms of equivalent value, except for certain special industries.

Therefore, for Ian, those internet companies that will make a lot of money in the future are just good investors who can get the profits they need. What Ian is really concerned about are companies that have a significant impact on society.

Industries such as finance and military industry, which involve a wide range of employment, require the most control.

When your company has millions of employees, you control the United States. You can decide who the president is, and you can make the president issue any decree you want. All laws can be trampled under your feet if you want!

Even control of the world—at least for the next twenty years.

The problem is, they won't sell!

Despite Hollywood's fear of Ian, it can't always get what it wants.

For example, 20th Century Fox can invest in X-Men without a problem, and they can also do publicity and distribution, but they can't agree to your copyright.

So even if Jim Genebriis was afraid of Ian, he would never agree to this.

Of course, he spoke very kindly, indicating that he was truly powerless to help and asked for understanding.

Ian didn't mind, and it was indeed understandable—after all, he didn't have any dirt on Jim Genebriis right now.

At that moment, Ida smiled and said, "There's also good news. Actoz and Marvel have accepted your investment."

Ian muttered, "This is not bad."

The latest novel is first published here!

Actoz is the parent company behind Legend of Mir. Ian invested in Shanda last year, acquiring a 49% stake, and earlier this year contacted them to buy Actoz. Actoz alone can generate a quarter of Legend of Mir's annual revenue, and crucially, the price is cheap at this time. With his involvement, future leaks of Legend of Mir's source code can be avoided, making it his most important cash cow.

The same goes for Marvel; it's worthless at this stage.

What about Pixar?

"Mr. Steve Jobs has no plans to sell Pixar at the moment."

"He's just waiting for the right price. He will sell, but I don't want to wait until then. It will be too expensive then, and I don't want to spend billions to buy it," Ian sneered.

Pixar was sold in 06 in the original timeline for $74 billion, but now it lacks blockbuster hits and isn't worth that much.

Ian didn't want to wait that long.

After thinking for a moment, he said, "Tell him that if he's willing to give me Pixar for two billion this year, I can hold 15% of Apple's shares until the end of 03, and he can hold them all on my behalf for a permanent period."

For Steve Jobs, Apple was the most important thing to him.

"Permanently?" Ida asked in astonishment.

I've never seen anyone so generous.

Ian was certain: "Yes, that means as long as he's alive, he has all the power over the Apple shares I own. 15% of Apple shares, no more, no less. If I can't do it, Pixar will give them back to him for free."

If Jobs still doesn't agree to these conditions, then there's a problem.

Apple is a publicly traded company, but as long as an agreement is reached with the board of directors, buying more shares won't have a significant impact. The reason Ian only committed to 15% is because Apple hasn't reached its peak yet, and there's no need to tie up too much capital.

Good business management requires careful timing of capital investment!

With the 15% success story as a precedent, it will be much easier to acquire shares in Apple and other companies in the future.

The only regret is that some of the high-quality companies Ian remembers are hard to find due to the differences in time and space. Fortunately, giants like Google and Apple are still around, so the future "Seven Sisters of Wall Street" shouldn't be a problem.

"Yes, sir." Ida quickly jotted it down: "Anything else?"

Ian said, "Contact Eisner. I can offer $3 million for Pirates of the Caribbean. The copyright for the merchandise will still belong to them, and the production will still be handled by them."

Ida was dumbfounded: "3 million US dollars?"

Pirates of the Caribbean is still in production with a budget of $1.5 million, and Ian is buying double that amount.

The first Pirates of the Caribbean film grossed $600 million, but after deducting theater revenue share, it was only around $300 million. After deducting marketing and distribution, it would have lost money. However, it could have made a small profit from the DVD sales. Good DVD sales can be twice the box office revenue.

But such a large investment and such high risk meant it wasn't worth it—before Pirates of the Caribbean, Disney hadn't achieved much in live-action films.

What's more, Ian doesn't even want the merchandise, which is practically giving money away to Disney!

Ian laughed and said, "Yes! The reason Disney made Pirates of the Caribbean was actually for their pirate ship attraction at the theme park. This attraction is the least popular in Disney parks. In order to make the pirate ship attraction take off, they made Pirates of the Caribbean."

Ian spread his hands and said, "Tell Eisner that Disney can own the game rights to the Pirate Ship project for free, and he'll agree. I'm not going to compete with him for the ultimate profits."

Ida remained silent.

These conditions couldn't be better.

Disney's ultimate goal is the pirate ship project in the amusement park, so it doesn't matter who shows the movie. In fact, Disney will still be responsible for its publicity and distribution.

This deal is even more profitable than Spider-Man's!

She just couldn't understand what benefit this would bring to Ian.

It's actually very simple; what Ian wants is the copyright!

After the Pirates of the Caribbean became a huge hit, pirate ship projects also emerged. However, in order to continue to tap into this gold mine, Disney must continue to develop Pirates of the Caribbean.

But by then the Pirates of the Caribbean rights were already in Ian's hands, so he couldn't make it himself; Disney had to buy it back.

Then it was Ian's turn to set a price.

Everything we buy is ultimately for the purpose of selling—if we buy it at a high price, we can sell it for an even higher price!

Pixar, Pirates of the Caribbean, and so on are all the same.

For Ian, projects are just a means to an end; the real goal is to control these guys and make them obey him!

Spider-Man and the grand Greek wedding haven't been released yet, so these big things need to be settled before Ian's "film vision" becomes known, otherwise it will be difficult to buy projects later.

At that moment, Ian took out a report and handed it to Ida: "Give this to the Disney board as well."

Date took the report and read it aloud: "Pirate ship capsized, resulting in one death and two injuries?"

She looked at Ian in horror.

Boss, you have all of these?

Ian chuckled. "They covered up what happened at Disneyland last year. But when something happens, there's always news. Pirates of the Caribbean is for their pirate ship project... They don't want this kind of reporting."

This news story wasn't fabricated by Ian himself; it was written by one of his reporters, who was bought by Ian and then suppressed.

A combination of carrot and stick is a timelessly effective approach.

Ida happily accepted the documents: "Okay, boss."

"Is there anything else?" Ian asked.

"Chairman Ascot would like to have dinner with you tonight."

"Okay. Anything else?"

"Jessica Alba and Amanda said that Miss Barbara, Helen, and Claire are free these days, and Miss Scarlett and Miss Shauna will also be coming."

"Good heavens!" Ian slapped his forehead. "I'm really stretched thin right now."

Although the girls usually go their separate ways, there are always times when they bump into each other.

Did they fly to seven Bird's Nests in one go this time?

My head hurts!

(End of this chapter)