American Gossip King

Chapter 306 The Rise of LANN

After completing the acquisition of Mirac Bank, Ian, as Clara had instructed, bought Minovar's Lear Corporation.

Because of his influence, when he asked for 80 million, no one competed with him, allowing Ian to easily win the bid.

Next, Ian merged Mirac Bank into First Linuo and renamed it... Renaming is a good way to eliminate past problems.

In a sense, no matter what bad things this company has done in the past, as long as it changes its owner, its name, and makes some minor changes to its decor, it can be reborn with a clear conscience.

How shameless!

Very effective!

Then, we continued to push forward with negotiations with JPMorgan Chase.

As usual, Ian first went out to find some materials, and then attended a banquet.

Upon returning to the office at noon, the newly appointed Secretary General Edith walked straight in.

The young woman said with a beaming smile, "Disney's Eisner has said he can offer $4.5 million to buy back Pirates of the Caribbean."

Ian laughed: "That's impossible! Tell him it's either 600 million or 10% of the profits from Pirates of the Caribbean merchandise plus 300 million."

Pirates of the Caribbean isn't just about pirate ships; their various toys are the real highlight.

Eisner certainly couldn't agree to this condition, but doing business means giving the other party a choice.

If you're willing to forgo paying for the merchandise, then you can just buy back Pirates of the Caribbean for double the price.

That's good enough. Ian Carr's investments have always yielded tenfold or even hundredfold returns, and I only want onefold profit from you.

Edith laughed and said, "He said he could give you follow-up publicity for Pirates of the Caribbean."

Ian shook his head: "That's outside the scope of negotiation."

Carl Media is constantly releasing explosive news, and coupled with Ian Carl's intimidating presence, no Hollywood company dares not to promote him; it's just a matter of proportion.

For example, 60% of the movie promotion for 20th Century Fox is now handled by the Carl Group.

Other film companies take between 20% and 40%, while DreamWorks gives him 50%.

Even Paramount Pictures, with whom he has a strained relationship, would give him 5%.

Disney's marketing and distribution business previously accounted for around 20%, but as Ian's influence in Hollywood grows, that percentage will increase.

Therefore, Ian will not bring this up in negotiations.

After a moment's thought, Ian added, "But if he's willing to pay $7.5 million, I can offer him a low-salary contract like Johnny Depp's."

Johnny Depp's salary for Pirates of the Caribbean was astronomical, exceeding 100 million!

Moreover, since he was with UTA from the beginning, his share was only 5%, and since the contract period hadn't expired, Depp had the right to refuse.

The key point is that this person doesn't have any scandals.

No child molestation, no drug use, no domestic violence...

I hate people like that!

A celebrity who doesn't stir up trouble isn't a good artist!

After all, even if you get a 100 million yuan salary, 5% is only 5 million yuan.

Since that's the case, then let's sacrifice your profits in exchange for my gains.

No big boss is immune to ripping people off.

It's worth noting that Ian Carr had already signed Johnny Depp to a fixed salary contract for the Pirates of the Caribbean series, and it was given top priority—so this can't be considered cheating; it's just that you misjudged the prospects of Pirates of the Caribbean.

If Eisner agrees, the agreement will be handed over to him, and Depp's salary for Pirates of the Caribbean will be reduced by half.

But if Eisner doesn't agree, I'll use this salary agreement to exchange for a new UTA revenue sharing agreement with Depp.

Edith nodded: "Yes, sir."

She flipped through the documents in her hand and said, "Meihe Construction Company said that there are no major projects this year, and the revenue in the first half of the year is only 20 million."

California Highway 1 has been renovated, but Bowden Transportation's overloaded drivers failed to properly damage the highway.

Why do you Chinese laborers build such good highways for no reason?

Hate!

There aren't any major projects in California right now, and the key issue is that California isn't ruled by just one legislator like Ian, which resulted in Ian not securing any big business for the construction company in the first half of this year.

The main problem is that the governor isn't in their own hands.

Ian narrowed his eyes.

In the original timeline, after California Governor Davis was re-elected, his performance was poor, the fiscal deficit increased dramatically, and the Republican Party launched a recall campaign.

The recall election was held on October 7, 2003, and Schwarzenegger took office shortly thereafter.

Over the past period, Ian and Schwarzenegger had met a few times and had developed some acquaintance, but they were still not close enough.

Should we launch a recall campaign ahead of schedule?

The crucial point is that there's the Michael Jackson child molestation case waiting for him to deal with in November... The Michael Jackson child molestation case actually came out as early as 1993, and it has been intermittent ever since, becoming the biggest shadow in his life.

It reappeared at the beginning of this year, but the real outbreak will not occur until November 18th.

The latest novel is first published here!

Ian doesn't intend to suppress this matter; he wants it to erupt so he can resolve it himself, and only then will Michael Jackson be grateful to him... He already has a contract with UTA, with a share of only 3%.

It must be 20%!

Since that's the case, there's no need for us to get together.

Good news needs to be told in a controlled manner!

Thinking of this, Ian said, "Ask Jody Harry what major projects California is planning to undertake recently, and give me a list."

………………

Two days later, Lockbridge Pictures and Disney officially reached an agreement.

Lockbridge Pictures sold the Pirates of the Caribbean rights back to Disney for $3 million. Lockbridge Pictures will also receive 12% of the box office revenue from any subsequent Pirates of the Caribbean sequels developed by Disney, excluding merchandise.

Eisner didn't accept Johnny Depp's contract; he hadn't yet realized how many Pirates of the Caribbean films he would develop in the future... Pirates of the Caribbean's total box office is projected to reach $45 billion, with the first film only grossing $6 million, meaning there's still around $4.6 million in revenue to be made.

Eisner therefore did not realize Johnny Depp's central importance to the film.

Ian then informed UTA to use this agreement to change Johnny Depp's share to 12%.

It's less than 20%, what a pity.

Lockbridge Pictures earned $6.5 million from Pirates of the Caribbean (plus the $3 million break-even from the first film), which will be used to continue investing in new copyright acquisitions and other ventures. With its ongoing acquisitions, Lockbridge Pictures will soon become a major Hollywood studio.

This is also the only film industry giant that does not engage in any film and television development, and it also employs the fewest people in the entire film industry—21 people in total, mainly responsible for legal, financial and communication coordination.

After completing this, Ian continued his investment business, acquiring a stake in Netflix. By this time, Netflix was already gaining momentum, but it wasn't quite as powerful as it would later become. He also acquired shares in game companies like Blizzard, but these were only temporary holdings, intended for future sale, primarily to repay debts owed to Japan without fundamentally altering its operations.

At the same time, Ian Carr also used his unique position in Hollywood to acquire a large number of excellent Hollywood films and television series at low prices, which led to the rapid development of LANN and a surge in the number of users.

With the added boost of a series of major news events, including "Walking with Saddam" and the Miraak bank robbery, Ian Carr once again fulfilled his bet ahead of schedule, reaching the agreed number of users and achieving a valuation of over 10 billion. Moreover, the number of users continues to grow rapidly, and it is expected that 20 billion is not far away.

In this situation, Rudolf Murdoch did not hesitate to invest additional funds to secure his shares.

He paid Ian 18 billion for this.

LANN's rapid expansion represents the rise of another powerful news network in the United States, officially making the top five news networks in the US the sixth.

(End of this chapter)