Chapter 498: Infiltrating
According to Shirakawa Kaede's plan, Shirakawa Electric and Shirakawa Interactive Entertainment will both be listed in the United States in the future.
Even for the sake of brand effect, it is not impossible to combine the two into one.
Just like Sony, it has become a giant integrating manufacturing and entertainment.
Only in this way can the two words "Baichuan" be truly recognized by the international community and become a first-class brand.
Again, an unlisted company has limited prospects, especially under the capitalist social system.
Looking at any influential large company in the world, is there any one that is not listed?
The reason why Baichuan Interactive Entertainment has not yet been listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange or Nasdaq is simply to maximize profits.
In this acquisition of Paramount, Shirakawa Interactive Entertainment and Shirakawa Electric will both hold shares.
After all, it is a century-old company, and Paramount's reputation needs no further explanation. After the internal affairs are sorted out, Paramount will launch two hit movies.
That was the right time for Baichuan Interactive Entertainment to go public. Otherwise, how could it reap the benefits and sell itself at a good price?
Of course there is still some way to go, but it won’t be too far.
As for the acquisition of Paramount, as mentioned before, Shirakawa Kaede is not really optimistic about the film and entertainment industry.
They published an advertisement in the newspaper to explain that this was not an invasion of Japanese culture, and successively appointed two North American Hollywood people to become the heads of Shirakawa Paramount.
After doing all this, and after sending a signal to the outside world that the Baichuan Group wanted to integrate into North America, Baichuan Feng turned around to calm the doubts within the group.
Seeing that many of the group's senior executives, including Yu Arai, were all confused, Shirakawa Feng couldn't help but reveal the real reason why he acquired Paramount.
"Perhaps everyone is wondering why I chose to invest $9 billion to get involved in the film and entertainment industry, which I am not very good at?"
Although Shirakawa Holdings owns Daiei, its importance is minimal and its performance in the neon market is average.
This is exactly what everyone is confused about. If Shirakawa Holdings is already a giant in the entertainment industry, then it is understandable that it wants to go further.
But now, let alone a giant, it is still far behind Sony.
Arai Yu, Hasegawa and the others looked at Shirakawa Feng eagerly. Although they knew there were other reasons behind this, they also hoped that Shirakawa Feng could help them solve their doubts.
"The real purpose of acquiring Paramount is to deepen exchanges with the political and financial circles of the United States."
Shirakawa Kaede's simple words made Arai Yu and the others widen their eyes slightly.
There was surprise, realization, and a hint of helplessness in their eyes.
The previous explanation to the outside world, the so-called "hardware and software are the two wheels of business", is nothing more than superficial rhetoric.
“Shirakawa Electric has been established in North America for many years and even has a good market share.
But I have been to North Mina many times and even lived there for a while.
But he was never invited to local gatherings attended by politicians and business people.
Ladies and gentlemen, although we have achieved certain success in business, Shirakawa Electric is not yet a first-class company in the United States."
Baichuan Feng felt a little helpless when he said this, as this was his true experience over the years.
Although Shirakawa Electric's products are sold all over the world and SIC's chips are adopted by Apple, Compaq, IBM and others, Shirakawa Kaede is successful from a business perspective.
He also has extensive connections in the North American business community, and the name "Shirakawa Kaede" is one of the most well-known names among Japanese business people in the United States.
However, all this cannot change the fact that Baichuan Feng has never integrated into the North American world or been recognized by the North American world.
Is it because he doesn't want to? No, as a business person, no one will refuse to be accepted by a wider market.
For example, financial people in New York would book the Metropolitan Museum of Art and hold grand parties.
VIPs from the political and financial circles gathered together, but Baichuan Feng had never been invited.
In other words, although there are business dealings, they have not yet been recognized as partners.
It’s not that Baichuan Feng is in a hurry to be a bootlicker, but he can’t be recognized as a partner.
The influence of Shirakawa Electric or Shirakawa Holdings will always remain superficial and will not be able to truly become a world-class enterprise.
After all, when it comes to overseas markets and overseas capital, the world's attention will be focused on North America.
This is why Shirakawa Kaede seeks to list SIC in Mi, but this is not enough.
Economic ability alone does not allow entry into the local community, and even the oil tycoon with a camel will not be invited to the party.
Attending banquets is part of diplomatic tactics, and at parties you can often gain things that you cannot get at the negotiating table.
Since financial means don't work, there is one way, and that is to bring in Hollywood actresses.
If your wife is a Hollywood actress, she will be invited to the party. Even if you are a small-time thug, it doesn't matter.
After all, the party is invited to wives, and the husband will not be blamed for being a foil.
But obviously this does not apply to Shirakawa Kaede. Although his wife is also an actor, she is not a Hollywood actor.
Since this one doesn't apply, just become a boss in Hollywood.
Film companies are a special existence in American society. Film is an industry that originated in the United States and is the pride of American culture itself.
This is different from the positioning of automobiles and electrical products, so after the Shirakawa Group acquired Paramount, it was attacked as "buying the soul of the United States."
Of course, Shirakawa Kaede's acquisition of Paramount was not just for the purpose of attending the party. What he wanted to do was to make Shirakawa Electric an insider of the United States.
As long as this can be achieved, Shirakawa Electric will be recognized as a first-class brand.
After listening to Shirakawa Kaede's explanation, Arai Yu and the others finally understood the deep meaning behind Shirakawa Kaede's actions.
But isn’t it too expensive to spend $9 billion to buy a ticket to enter the circle?
From a long-term perspective, it would be impossible to earn back the $9 billion from Paramount within five or even ten years.
But again, investing in Paramount cannot be considered solely from its own perspective; improving the overall business environment is the top priority.
Just a few days after the merger, after releasing a series of signals to the outside world, the recently popular Baichuan Feng received an invitation to a party.
The host of this party was none other than Wasserstein, who facilitated the merger of Time and Warner.
Yes, it was the same month that Shirakawa Holdings acquired Paramount.
Two weeks later, Time and Warner also announced that they had reached an agreement to initiate the merger of Time Group and Warner Group.
In this acquisition, Time paid a total of US$12 billion in cash and stock, and finally welcomed Warner back home.
Wasserstein's M&A advisor and asset management company Lazard also played a crucial role as the advisory group in this merger and acquisition case.
So while holding a party to celebrate, Wasserstein naturally thought of Shirakawa and Paramount, which had also completed a merger two weeks ago.
"Mr. Shirakawa, you should have come to me.
With Lazard’s help, the integration of Shirakawa and Paramount will be faster, more efficient, and of course more cost-effective.”
Holding the champagne, Wasserstein winked at Shirakawa Kaede and Shirley Lanxing beside him.
Baichuan Feng laughed loudly, while Shirley put her arm around his and greeted Wasserstein skillfully.
As a manager who has been working in Hollywood for more than a decade, Shirley Lanxing can handle these things easily.
In fact, Wasserstein didn't know that if Shirakawa Kaede hadn't appeared, the merger between Time and Warner would not have been so smooth.
Historically, when the negotiations between the two parties entered a critical period this year, Paramount suddenly jumped out and expressed its willingness to acquire Warner for US$12.2 billion.
Because of its disruption, after a series of lawsuits and negotiations, Warner was finally acquired for US$14.9 billion in the 1990s.
Now, because Shirakawa Kaede suddenly took over Paramount, without its interference, the negotiations between Time and Warner are going smoothly.
So strictly speaking, Wasserstein, who is holding the champagne now, should thank Shirakawa Kaede.
Without Paramount's interference, Time saved nearly $3 billion.
"Mr. Wasserstein, speaking of M&A advisors, I'll have to trouble Lazard later."
"Oh?" Wasserstein's eyes lit up. "Which company is Mr. Shirakawa optimistic about? Please rest assured that Lazard's professional team has strong connections.
As long as the merger is completed through us, it will never trigger a backlash from the U.S. media.”
The recent acquisition of Paramount by Shirakawa has become known to almost everyone in North America.
By saying this, Wasserstein was assuring Shirakawa Kaede that there was no need to worry about public opinion after the merger was completed.
Well, Baichuan Feng was a little embarrassed. It seemed that the previous acquisition case did touch the sensitive nerves of Americans.
Baichuan Feng glanced at Shirley Lansing beside him, and the latter immediately began to speak skillfully.
"Mr. Wasserstein, Paramount is planning to acquire a comic book company called Marvel."
"Marvel?" Wasserstein was a little surprised. He had heard of this comic company.
Of course he knew that Captain America was such a popular comic that sold nearly a million copies.
Even Marvel collaborated with other film companies in 2004 to produce the live-action Captain America movie, but due to technical limitations, the results were far from satisfactory.
With a production cost of $200,000 and black-and-white film images, the influence of the first generation of superheroes was minimal.
So now Marvel is somewhat famous, but it is limited to the comics industry.
When Wasserstein heard it was Marvel, he couldn't help but feel a little disappointed.
If it was a merger and acquisition case of the level of Paramount, his commission would be at least tens of millions of dollars.
But if it's Marvel, it's probably a few million at most.
Tsk, Marvel is really worthless now.
"Paramount is ready to develop new film themes, and we are optimistic about the future potential of Marvel Comics."
Shirakawa Kaede has also talked with Shirley Lansing about Paramount's future business direction.
In addition to some stories with excellent scripts, Paramount will focus on the development of IP series films in the future.
Although superheroes will not be produced on a large scale for the time being due to technological limitations, it is necessary to reserve IP in advance.
As for the current stage, "The Godfather 3" and "Ghost" are the focus of Shirakawa Kaede's attention, and their production is given priority.
And after hearing Shirley Lansing's explanation, Wasserstein nodded.
"Please rest assured that Marvel will smoothly become a subsidiary of Shirakawa Paramount, and there will be no surprises."
Although the commission has been greatly reduced, several million dollars is still not a small amount of money.
Several people raised their champagne bottles and clinked them, and a deal was reached again with smiles on their faces.
The reason why Shirakawa asked Wasserstein to acquire Marvel was to save trouble.
Moreover, many Americans are anti-Japanese now, and he is not sure how Marvel feels about Neon.
Therefore, it is better to let a professional M&A company come forward, which will save you a lot of trouble and give you a better chance of success.
