Chapter 400 Rolling wool!
Although Sony Music is indeed the world's largest music copyright company twenty years later, and can provide Sony Group with more than one billion in operating income every year, but now, it is actually a younger brother whose ownership cannot be determined.
The predecessor of Sony Music was American Records, which was established in 1929.
In 1938, it was acquired by CBS and changed its name to Columbia Records.
In 1987, Sony acquired Columbia Records for 2 billion. Since Sony did not own the right to use the Columbia trademark, in order to avoid disputes, Columbia Records was renamed Sony Music by Sony in 1991.
Thus, Sony Music was born.
At this time, Sony Music is actually only one of the five largest music copyright companies in the world.
In addition to it, there are American music on the market that was later renamed Universal Music, Warner Music under Time Warner, Polygram that will be acquired by Universal Music, and EMI that will be divided up without leaving any bones.
This is an era of contention among a hundred schools of thought, so various classics emerge one after another, but for capital, monopoly is the maximization of profits. Therefore, in order to become bigger and stronger and squeeze the living space of other companies, Sony and Michael- Jackson reached a cooperation agreement to acquire half of the shares of ATV Music Publishing Company at a price of 110 million US dollars, and then merged it with Sony Publishing Company, sounding the clarion call for embezzlement in the capital struggle.
Sony’s approach is actually very understandable. After all, ATV Music owns a bunch of copyrights of the Beatles. After the merger, Sony/ATV instantly became the second largest music publisher in the world, and its operating income soared wildly in the second year. !
How else to say that financial instruments are the best means in the Red Sea struggle?
Since I can buy the market with money, why should I do it slowly?
It is precisely because the coin makes everything easier, so after tasting the sweetness, Sony wants to continue to acquire the other half of Michael Jackson's shares, while at the same time, seeing that it has not taken advantage of the transaction Michael Jackson wanted to get back half of the copyright he had previously sold from Sony, so the two parties fought because of this matter!
Last year, that is, two thousand years, Michael Jackson cried to the media, saying that he had been deceived by Sony.
He said that when negotiating with Sony in 1995, he made a five-year merger agreement with Sony. After the deadline, he could buy back his equity from Sony at the original price. Sony colluded, so this clause was removed by the other party behind his back. Not only that, he also found that Sony had recently put pressure on him, wanting to **** the other half of Sony/ATV Publishing Company's shares from him.
Faced with such accusations, how could Sony admit it?
Moreover, to be honest, Michael Jackson's words are actually full of countless loopholes.
Which capital will agree with the other party when signing the contract to allow the other party to buy back the equity at the current selling price after five years?
If there is a guy who does this, well, all the mergers in business can be ignored!
For example, today I merged with you, and you released the content and I released the channel. Five years later, when your content is up, you think you can switch to a better channel and charge a higher price, and then directly kick the channel?
How could such a thing exist!
There are only two kinds of people who can say such things!
The first one, that’s a newbie who doesn’t even have capital!
The second type is the silly beep who was born with a golden spoon in his mouth!
Is Sony a capital?
yes!
Is Sony the second generation?
no!
So the result is obvious!
Michael Jackson felt that he was earning less! I regret it!
If everyone is just making a fuss, then it’s fine, but bloodthirsty capital has never given up until it reaches its goal, and Michael Jackson is a guy who hopes to become capital, so...
Until the matter is resolved, Roland Allen will never be blindly optimistic.
After all, when Sony merged with Germany's Bertelsmann Music Group in 2004 to form Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Michael Jackson appealed that the case of getting back the ATV equity was lying in the Los Angeles court;
In 2008, when Sony spent 900 million to buy 50% of the shares of Sony BMG Music Entertainment from Bertelsmann and turned it into its own independent subsidiary, Michael Jackson was still complaining there, wanting to take Back to ATV equity;
Even though Michael Jackson passed away, the battles related to him did not stop. In 2010, Sony only signed a cooperation agreement with Michael Jackson, and took back the initiative in the company;
In 2012, when Sony acquired EMI Music Publishing Company and became the world's largest music publisher, 50% of the company's shares were still owned by Michael Jackson's heirs;
It wasn't until 2016 that Sony reached an agreement with Michael Jackson's estate, spending 750 million to buy back the remaining 50% of Sony/ATV's shares. In 2018, it took nearly three Hundred million bought back Michael Jackson's shares in EMI, and after all this was done, the entire company was truly unified.
A mess has been going around for twenty years, and this kind of trouble like a dog's skin plaster is not what Roland Allen wants.
Especially Roland Allen knew in his heart that even if he swallowed Sony Music Entertainment now, he would have to spend 2.5 billion to buy Bertelsmann Music Group, and spend nearly 6 billion to acquire EMI Music, in order to become the real No. 1 in the world At that time, his interest in Sony Music Entertainment actually became more limited.
If Sony Music Entertainment does not have Michael Jackson as the point of dispute, then he is actually quite willing to spend 1.5 billion to take over the disk according to the principle of halving the acquisition, but if this problem cannot be solved, then 1.5 billion plus 20 Five hundred million plus six billion is a ten billion transaction. For him, the profit is limited and the meaning is not great.
Use 20 years and 10 billion investment to change to the world's number one music publishing company?
Isn't this brain broken?
With this skill, wouldn’t it be nice to invest in Qualcomm?
Even if you don’t invest in Qualcomm, the Chrysanthemum Factory, which will cut the Honor mobile phone business at a price of 15 billion dollars in the future, will have a hard time now! When the other party wants to sell Motorola at a price of 7.5 billion knives but is tricked by Motorola, jumping out and acting as a taker, isn't it more enjoyable than building the world's number one music company in 20 years?
No way, who makes time go by, and things change?
For Roland Allen three years ago, it was a very good decision to hold Sony Music Entertainment for a long time, but from the perspective of his current mixed business operation, the troubled Sony Music Entertainment is actually a negative asset .
After all, his goal is not to build an entertainment empire at all!
Instead, **** Disney! !
Because of this, after discovering that other capital wanted to besiege Sony and keep Sony Music Entertainment to himself, Roland Allen, who thought it was beneficial and less troublesome, put his true thoughts on the table.
"According to the current state of Sony Music Entertainment, even if I pay one billion based on the two billion discount that Sony bought Columbia Records back then, I still think this deal is a huge loss...
If there is no way to solve the problem of Michael Jackson's shareholding in Sony/ATV, then I personally feel that even if it is put on the open market, few entertainment companies will be willing to take it..."
As soon as these words came out, the other five people remained silent.
Because they are capitalists, they know that Roland Allen is right!
"Michael...is unlikely to sell his stake..."
Steven Spielberg, who worked with Michael Jackson, pushed his glasses on the bridge of his nose and said: "Buying ATV is the most wise decision Michael has ever made in his life, just like I can't sell it. Like Amblin, it is impossible for him to directly sell this asset that can support his descendants to live a good life..."
“He had an almost obsessive fascination with his accomplishments…”
Steve Jobs, who had crossed paths with Michael Jackson in the arcade field, crossed his hands, leaned back, and said, "Actually, the Beatles, The Beatles, Elvis Presley...these copyrights are more symbolic to him than money meaning.
When Michael owned them, whenever people mentioned these legends, they would add at the end that the copyright of their songs is now controlled by Michael. Michael is a genius businessman, and this kind of praise will make him feel happy...
Because when comparing the entertainment achievements of these people horizontally, Michael cannot become the number one in history in everyone's mind, but if comparing the entertainment empire they built vertically, then Michael will surpass all other Uranus superstars.
It's like you don't care about any achievements you have made in Hollywood now, because all your peers now have to please you, and when they take the initiative to show weakness, wealth is the source of your happiness. "
Rough words are not rough!
Steve Jobs went straight to Huanglong and told the reason why Michael Jackson refused to let go!
If, in the eyes of capital, ATV may just be a company that proves its market share and can make a lot of profits, then for Michael Jackson, ATV is actually everything to satisfy his own vanity.
Doesn’t exist, okay!
Michael Jackson not only wants to be the king of his own time! He still wants to be the king of his ancestors!
To control the songs of the ancestors, and use the songs of the ancestors to create wealth for oneself, that is the most perfect control!
"That means, do you also think that embezzling ATVs is wishful thinking?" Roland Allen asked with a smile.
"I guess."
Michael Dell nodded.
"When the honor brought by something is greater than money, then it is priceless to the guy who likes honor."
Warren Buffett did not hide, and directly expressed his views.
"Actually, co-owning Sony/ATV with Michael Jackson isn't such a bad thing?"
Bill Gates looked at Roland Allen and said, but when he found that the other party had been smiling and not responding, he shrugged and gave up the idea of brainwashing, "Okay! Okay! This is indeed not a satisfactory result. ..."
Although the wealth of the five people present is not equal, everyone is actually the same kind of person.
Bill Gates is a smiling tiger. Microsoft, who bought and bought all the way, had no dreams from the beginning.
Warren Buffett is an old cunt, who can still chat and laugh with rich women when the prairie is green above his head.
Steve - Jobs is a paranoid, he can see the existence of the eldest daughter as a stain in life.
And Michael Dell and Steven Spielberg…
The former used accounting algorithms to drag Compaq to death.
The latter was not revealed to hold a large share until Universal acquired DreamWorks Animation in 2017!
How could they put on a show in front of Roland Allen when they were ruthless to others and even more ruthless to themselves?
After all, a guy who can sell his marriage for capital expansion has no heart at all!
And when Roland Allen found out that these guys couldn't come up with a good solution, he shrugged his shoulders and said, "Since we can reach a consensus on the concept of 'Sony Music is a negative asset,' then In fact, everything has nothing to do with me, you can completely disassemble Sony by yourself, and you don’t need to drag me into the gang.”
What?
The five people at the scene were shocked.
'What does it mean? '
Everyone was deeply puzzled.
They just finished talking about their needs, but Roland Allen turned the table and stopped playing?
this…
Isn’t this just teasing them?
Although in the current situation, even if Roland Allen does not intervene, they still have a way to dismantle Sony and forcibly swallow the assets they want, but if Roland Allen does not take the lead, the difficulty of the matter will increase several times An order of magnitude!
After all, Roland Allen and Little Bush are now the union of interests!
And they are a group of people who want to steal the fruits of success!
However, just when they were confused, Roland Allen, who frowned one after another when he saw these big guys who had cheated him before, laughed happily, clapped his hands, and said, "Just kidding! Just kidding! Don't So serious!
But I’m serious, if it’s just Sony Music, I’m really not interested in it! "
Hearing what Roland Allen said, after capturing the undisguised shave on his face, the guys present immediately guessed his true thoughts. Obviously, they felt that the benefits were less!
In the eyes of everyone, if Roland Allen took the lead, he would most likely choose Sony Music as an asset. At that time, as the active initiator of the incident, he fell into a passive position.
But now?
The one who sits at home and is blocked by everyone is the banker, and those guys who came here after smelling the smell are gamblers!
Since this is the case, how can a gambler have any reason to arrange a game for the dealer?
Of course, arrangements are not impossible.
But if you don’t pay something, it’s not justified in terms of emotion and reason!
Thinking of this, Steven Spielberg and Steve Jobs immediately relaxed and leaned back.
At this moment, they don't feel any pressure in their hearts.
After all, Roland Allen is the major shareholder of Apple and DreamWorks!
These two companies have benefited, doesn't it mean that Roland Allen himself has also benefited?
And Michael Dell, Warren Buffett and Bill Gates...
They all shook their heads one after another.
Those who really wanted to make a deal did not intend to play charades, their thoughts turned, and they gave the compensation they could provide.
"An order of 200 million is placed on ATi." Michael Dell said directly, "When Dell successfully acquires Sony's TV business, Dell will place an order of 100 million for CPU and 100 million for GPU to ATi. "
"This is good news." Roland Allen laughed and complained, "However, I think Intel will be unhappy."
"They can understand an order of 200 million." Bill Gates continued: "Before you acquired ATi, we had already given the Xbox order to Intel and Nvidia, so...
After we Microsoft bought Sony Video Games, the Xbox CPU and GPU orders are all given to ATi, right? "
"Is it just an Xbox?" Roland Allen asked with a smile.
Although he is very satisfied with this chip, but...
And more!
"Is it okay to give you all the console business? If we keep the PlayStation series." Bill Gates was helpless.
For the first time, he found out that the guy who sold Yahoo to him before was such a rascal.
Roland Allen was quite satisfied!
If Sony Music is not a good business, then the rise of ATi is now a new point?
Under the circumstances of being able to open up a complete set of industrial chains, if you don’t go crazy with these giant wool, then you are not a qualified capitalist!
While Roland Allen was satisfied with these new gains, Warren Buffett, who wanted an Asian non-life insurance license, also said, "Although I can't help you solve the problem of Michael Jackson's shareholding, I can let Sony The music continues to swell.
After Berkshire Hathaway successfully acquired Sony Finance, whether it is Bertelsmann Music in Germany or EMI in the UK, we can help you. You choose one and tell me, and then I will push your music company to go up. World No. 1, Okay? "
"Okay!"
Roland Allen loves this decision!
Note: ①MJ regretted the Sony/ATV merger, so it is not my point of view to turn black and white and accuse Sony of cheating in two thousand years. In 2009, the Jackson family's lawsuit report on the unnatural death case recorded the legal disputes before the release of "Invincible", saying that MJ's remarks made the jury feel absurd. Because ATV was only worth 200 million when he was in his hands, but with the promotion of Sony's global channels, its value soared to 700 million. Before the merger, Sony had channels, so the judges and juries couldn't understand, knowing the content Why did Sony sign an original price repurchase agreement with MJ when adding channels can make the content value soar, and they believe that this accusation is false when MJ can't produce actual evidence. ②According to the valuation algorithm of Tencent’s acquisition of 10% of the shares of Universal Music for 3 billion, the current market value of Sony Music is basically around 38 billion. Don't think this number is high, because the assets purchased by Sony alone are more than 10 billion yuan without inflation. From the perspective of market share, this is a good deal, but if it is from investment From a different point of view, this is simply a **** loss!
(end of this chapter)