Chapter 329: Netflix's big move

William Chen returned to America in a hurry and did not continue his trip in Russia.

The reason for making this choice is naturally that America has a major event that needs to be handled by him, and this matter is about Netflix.

Previously, after William Chen invested in Netflix, he took advantage of the subprime mortgage crisis to acquire some shares from Netflix's holding institutions, resulting in the total number of Netflix shares he held about 25.45 million shares, accounting for 25.45 million shares of Netflix. 37.6% of Fei's total share capital.

Then, when Netflix wanted to raise funds for self-made content, it bought 8 million preferred shares of Netflix at a price of $25, so that if these preferred shares were converted into common shares, then William Chen's Netflix stock Will reach 33.45 million shares, accounting for 44.2% of the total share capital.

At this time, even if William Chen still supports Hastings' management of Netflix, anyone with a discerning eye can see that Netflix will eventually merge into the Meta Group sooner or later.

Because although William Chen gave up the voting rights of the shares he held in Hastings' operation of the company, if Netflix continues to raise funds, then William Chen's side cannot be bypassed, and it is impossible to dilute his holdings through financing. It is very likely that he will even continue to accept Chen William's investment, thereby increasing his shareholding to an unshakable proportion.

This kind of result, others can see, Hastings is naturally a clear man, but he still will not give up control of the company easily, but shows his greater ambitions.

Not to mention Hastings is a lunatic, he made a proposal to William Chen, hoping to complete the puzzle of their content through Netflix's acquisition of 20th Century MGM.

Have to say, this is a crazy proposal, how crazy is it?

In the 20th century, after the merger, MGM acquired Summit Entertainment, and William Chen solved all the debt problems of the company. In addition, in less than a year, it released a series of box-office movies.

In addition, they have the authorization of almost all superheroes from Marvel Entertainment, and superhero movies have already proved their potential in "Iron Man" and "The Incredible Hulk".

Even MGM, which was previously pulled across, has handed over a perfect answer after being merged into the 20th Century MGM Films. So far, the global box office of "007: Skyfall" has exceeded 1 billion US dollars. It's the highest-grossing 007 movie of all time!

Therefore, at this time of the 20th century MGM, the valuation given by the industry will not be less than 20 billion US dollars!

Even at $25 per share, Netflix's current market capitalization would be less than $1.9 billion.

Therefore, the market value of MGM Pictures in the 20th century is more than ten times that of Netflix.

That's it, Hastings still boasted that he hoped that Netflix would buy 20th Century MGM Pictures. How crazy is this, and it is enough to show his confidence in Netflix.

It is for this reason that William Chen put down his affairs in Russia and rushed back to the United States as soon as possible.

You must know that this matter is not just a matter of the merger of two companies, otherwise it is just a word from Chen William. After all, 20th Century MGM Pictures is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Meta Entertainment and Media Company under the Meta Group.

But beyond that, all the aspects that need to be considered are very complicated.

The simplest point is that the emergence of an online streaming media platform such as Netflix has given Hollywood a great sense of crisis. Therefore, if the 20th Century MGM Studios is merged into Netflix, it will be very important to Hollywood. It is said that this is equivalent to a new thing - the network broadcast channel, which has begun to eat traditional Hollywood film and television companies.

Of course, this matter was not new in William Chen's previous life or later. After all, at that time, Amazon also acquired MGM.

It's just that the backgrounds of the two are different and cannot be compared.

In the era of Amazon's acquisition of MGM, Netflix has completed its counterattack against Hollywood, from initially being boycotted by Hollywood companies to successfully turning over by self-made content. In William Chen's previous life, in 2019, Netflix produced The film has made good achievements in Oscar nominations, and was accepted by the American Film Institute, becoming the "seventh largest" film and television giant outside the traditional Hollywood six.

After that, it was also announced that the online streaming media platform has become an emerging force that cannot be ignored in the American film and television industry. That is, in 2021 after that, Amazon announced the acquisition of MGM.

But even so, this acquisition was also subject to an antitrust investigation of the acquisition by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

So obviously, if Netflix publicly announced the acquisition of 20th Century MGM Films this time, it would definitely be subject to an antitrust investigation by the Federal Trade Commission of the United States, and the level of this investigation would be higher than that of Amazon's acquisition of MGM. Second, only high not low.

Imagine, why did Hollywood have the "Paramount Act"?

The Paramount Act is the US Department of Justice's anti-monopoly law against the film industry. In May 1948, the US Supreme Court ruled on the Paramount case based on anti-trust law, ruling that the vertical monopoly of major studios was illegal. Requiring studios to give up the business of film distribution and theatrical projections.

After this ruling, Paramount Pictures gradually sold its theater chain to become a company focusing on distribution and production, and could not own the theater chain business. Other Hollywood companies are also divesting their theater business, and the Paramount Act has completely changed the ecology of the Hollywood film industry.

Although over the years, calls for repealing the Paramount Act have continued to emerge, and in fact, many small film companies are allowed to own theater chains, the main reason for this is the rise of the network broadcasting industry, which makes people think Film and television companies only own theater chains, and in the current Internet age, it is no longer possible to create a monopoly.

But in the same way, the purpose of introducing the "Paramount Act" at that time was not to want Hollywood to be dominated by big companies and affect the healthy development of the industry.

Then, if Netflix, which currently holds the largest share of the global streaming media broadcasting industry, acquires MGM in the 20th Century, which ranks second only to Disney among the top five Hollywood film companies, it will definitely touch the nerves of relevant departments. This allows the FTC to focus its antitrust focus on this transaction.

At that time, how Microsoft was made to die by the anti-monopoly investigation, William Chen knew, so he did not want his company to suffer like this again.

But then again, the merger of Netflix and 20th Century MGM is a tempting proposition for him. Although in this way, when he feels threatened, the relationship between the 20th Century MGM Films and theatrical distribution will have many twists and turns, but he is very clear that online broadcasting will eventually become a trend. It can be seen from the market value of Netflix in the past and later.

Therefore, it is very feasible to combine the two and turn the two puzzles into a complete system.

And through this merger, William Chen can firmly control the shares of Netflix and incorporate this company that will miraculously rise in the future into the Meta Group. It is really a good opportunity.

This is also the reason why Chen William is hesitant. There are challenges and opportunities. Is it correct to do so?

This time, he couldn't use the experience of his previous life to make a decision, because in his previous life, there was no such exciting big merger.

The Airbus A380 landed at Los Angeles Airport. William Chen first returned to his villa on the beach in Malibu. When he got here, William Chen put aside other things and came to see Nozomi Sasaki, who was about to give birth at the villa.

At this time, Nozomi Sasaki was nearly 4 months pregnant, and her stomach was slightly bulging, but after seeing William Chen, she was still like a young girl, walking towards him happily.

Well, at this time, she had already started to pay attention subconsciously. If it was before she was pregnant, she would definitely have trotted over and rushed into William Chen's arms.

"Xiko, it's been hard work for you."

William Chen grabbed Nozomi Sasaki's hand, kissed her on the lips, and said softly.

"What's so hard about it, my pregnancy reaction is not serious, and my appetite is good, and my mother always finds a way to cook for me, I'm afraid I won't lose weight after giving birth."

Nozomi Sasaki was very happy to see William Chen, her hand just grabbed him, and her eyes had turned into crescents with laughter:

"But the doctor said that everything is normal. The baby is growing healthily in my belly. Whenever I think of this, I feel very happy."

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