thefictionvixens Page 755
Page 755
The thick (bbaj) cheese sauce perfectly masks the rough texture of the turkey meat, creating a completely different flavor experience.
Xu Fu raised his glass of juice and gently touched it. As the food in front of them gradually disappeared, their conversation slowly shifted from initial pleasantries to more serious topics.
"It is said that Mr. Otto Kahn is personally restructuring Paramount."
OK?
Upon hearing Xu Fu's seemingly casual question, Otto Kahn's heart tightened slightly. He picked up his wine glass, took a sip of lemonade, and nodded in response.
"That's right. Paramount had serious internal financial problems due to overexpansion in the early stages of the economic recession. Therefore, after it was declared bankrupt in the New York Federal District Court, it began a restructuring assessment with the permission of the banks."
This is all publicly available information, and Otto Kahn has no intention of hiding it.
Does Mr. Otto Kahn believe that a restructuring of Paramount is highly likely?
"We have a high chance of successfully completing the restructuring: Paramount's real problems stem from the company's overexpansion and the inflated valuation of Paramount stock used and purchased. Therefore, once the financial statements are revised to eliminate some of the distortions, we can complete the restructuring process and even retain the original team."
Retaining the original management team might be beneficial for Paramount, but Xu Fu was not satisfied with it.
If Paramount simply retains the team and completes the restructuring, then his idea of interfering in studio affairs would naturally not exist.
"As far as I know, Paramount's problems are not just about overexpansion."
Xu Fu put down his knife and fork, picked up a handkerchief to wipe the sauce from the corner of his mouth, and looked at Otto Kahn standing in front of him.
"Paramount's bundling practices and antitrust violations have led to antitrust lawsuits against Paramount in both Los Angeles and Chicago."
The question raised by Xu Fu is actually one that Otto Kahn has been debating.
In fact, the Holliday House Company was originally founded to fight against Edison's patent monopoly.
As early as 1891, Edison and his assistant William Dixon completed the invention of the moving image projector and applied for a patent.
In 1909, he joined forces with nine other film studios to form the Edison Motion Picture Company Patent Alliance to collect copyright fees. A theater wishing to screen a film had to pay $5 per week in copyright fees; to distribute a film, it had to pay $5,000 per year. Failure to pay these fees was considered copyright infringement.
By creating the Motion Picture Patents Consortium, Edison not only sued those who made and screened films, but also began copying other people's films and screening them without paying royalties, arguing that only he had the right to legally screen them.
To monitor filmmakers, Edison even created an extensive intelligence network aimed at identifying those who secretly made films without patent licenses.
Then, he hired a hitman to infiltrate the film set and steal his unauthorized movie projector.
Under pressure from Edison, the filmmaker left his hometown of New Jersey and came to Los Angeles on the west coast of the United States.
Of course, the initial choice of Los Angeles as Holywood's base was not because of the weather or scenery, but because it was close to Mexico, making it easy for Edison to escape if he sent someone there.
Fortunately, a group of filmmakers did not wait to search for Edison's patent.
On the contrary, the monopoly was created by Edison and his patent company.
In 1915, Edison's patent company was dissolved in accordance with a Supreme Court ruling.
This marks the first time that the United States' "anti-monopoly law" has been applied to the film industry.
It was through Edison's downfall that a group of former filmmakers were able to stick to their principles and, in the following years, gradually became the power center of the film industry by using coercive means, creating film studios and forming a new monopoly.
The dragon slayer will eventually become the dragon, and so will the film industry.
Paramount Pictures, as one of the leading companies in the industry, has maximized its monopoly position by merging and acquiring smaller companies, forming a giant corporation that integrates film production, distribution, and exhibition.
Chapter 923 New Choice
Like many brilliant businessmen, he knew that free competition was wasteful, while monopoly was efficient. Therefore, his goal was to achieve this efficient monopoly. - The Godfather
This film, later produced by Paramount, perfectly illustrates the essence of capital.
After Edison's downfall, Paramount used coercive tactics to seize a central position in the film industry, forming a new monopoly.
Throughout the 1920s, Paramount owned approximately 500 cinemas, most of which were first-run screenings.
In the era before simultaneous releases, a premiere meant box office headlines.
At the same time, independent cinemas were forced to sign five-year "package deals," or "bundled sales" contracts. Under these contracts, if a cinema wanted to screen a Paramount film, it had to purchase other films from Paramount's portfolio, ranging from as few as 10 to as many as dozens or even hundreds, including various short films and feature films.
In this bundled model, independent moviegoers, as the counterparties in the deal, have absolutely no autonomy in choosing what to watch. In other words, even if Paramount makes a lot of bad movies, they are not afraid of not being able to sell them, and the risk will be transferred to these moviegoers.
If the property owner disagrees, Paramount will arrange to open a better movie theater across the street, using tactics such as temporary price reductions to quickly steal away most of the movie theater's customers, forcing the operator to make a choice.
Throughout the 20s, Paramount, which relied on revenue from blog contracts, grew rapidly, naturally attracting the attention of regulatory agencies.
In fact, as far as Xu Fu knows, the Federal Trade Commission had already filed a lawsuit against Famous Actors-Lasky Co. in 1921.
In 1927, after collecting 17,000 pages of testimony and 15,000 pages of evidence, the American Federal Trade Commission concluded that Paramount's "bundling" was indeed an unfair trade practice and ordered it to cease immediately. Paramount had 60 days to comply with these conclusions or submit a written report.
However, Paramount was full of doubts and did not submit a report until a year later, in which it even vehemently denied its monopolistic practices.
On the other hand, Paramount's expansion also marked Hollywood's first period of rapid growth. During its initial run alone, Hollywood quickly became one of the top ten industries in the United States. It could invest approximately $2 billion annually, produce more than 500 films, and had over 20 theaters nationwide, attracting approximately 8000 million viewers per week.
Such a huge market naturally attracts a large amount of capital investment.
Initially, following standard legal procedures, regulatory agencies prepared to take action, in fact, in 1930. The American Department of Justice filed two more antitrust lawsuits, which were later merged into one. The defendants expanded from Paramount to include: Paramount, MGM, RTTW, Fox, Warner Bros., Universal, American, and the First National Screenings, a group of ten film studios.
It is fair to say that once a lawsuit is filed, the entire Holywood Company will be severely punished, just as Edison Company was once punished.
But during this period, something unexpected happened: the Great Depression.
Paramount was hit hardest by the disaster that swept across the United States, feeling the harmful effects of its rampant expansion and becoming the first Hollywood giant to fall.
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Although the newly appointed Roosevelt administration did not address the lawsuits during the Great Depression, given the current situation, if Hollywood were to launch another judicial investigation, the entire film industry could collapse instantly.
However, everyone knows that government agencies will not easily let go of these major film studios.
"At least it's not a problem now, is it?"
Otto Kahn frowned, suppressing his anxiety, and looked at Xu Fu standing in front of him, forcing himself to remain calm as he spoke.
"But this will become a problem sooner or later. The federal government will not allow a giant like Paramount to continue to monopolize the entire film industry, even after the restructuring is complete."
.. ...... ...
As a latecomer to the market, Xu Fu was keenly aware that in 1938, shortly after the Great Depression, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a new lawsuit against Paramount and the other eight major film studios under the Sherman Eucalyptus Act.
This case is also known as the American v. Paramount Pictures case.
"That's not something I need to consider..."
After a moment's thought, Otto Kahn gave his answer.
"All I need to do is complete Paramount's restructuring. Paramount's future problems will be Paramount's problems."
Otto Kahn actually represented the power of Wall Street. Paramount needed to use a lot of money in the process of acquiring theaters, which was a huge amount even for Paramount. So Paramount raised $1000 million from Wall Street investment firms as soon as the acquisition was completed.
Otto Kahn was originally a partner at this investment firm.
Therefore, Otto Kahn was not as indifferent as he claimed.
Paramount's interests are actually represented by Otto Kahn's interests.
"I want to buy Paramount."
Chapter 924 Focus
Just as Otto Conn was deliberately making excuses, Georgie, who was standing in front of him, suddenly spoke up and directly stated his purpose.
Xu Fu's sudden question froze Otto Kahn's face for a moment. Otto Kahn picked up a napkin to wipe his sauce-stained beard, concealing the surprise at the corner of his mouth, and looked at Xu Fu, saying, "Now is not a good time to make an appearance."
Although Otto Kahn had begun restructuring Paramount, he was well aware that it was absolutely impossible for a company, especially a studio with such a large stake as Paramount, to complete restructuring in a short period of time. In particular, before the Great Depression, Paramount's banner was strong enough to acquire more than 500 theaters, which were all issues that needed to be carefully considered.
Even the regulatory portion of the initial investigation into Paramount's monopoly issues took about seven years, and Otto "293"-Kahn conservatively estimates that Paramount will need at least a year, no, about two years, to complete its restructuring.
"But it is undeniable that Paramount is the largest film studio in the Netherlands, and it retained a significant amount of ownership even during its restructuring."
Of course, Paramount's most important asset is its large number of movie theaters.
They were also a focus of Georgie's attention.
His reason for traveling to Los Angeles to meet with Otto Kahn was obvious: it wouldn't be long before a group of people like him would set their sights on Hollidaywood and pour money into the film industry mafia.
The reason that prompted the rioters to easily jump onto the scaffolding in Holywood was, of course, the soon-to-be-repealed Prohibition.
As the group that benefited the most from Prohibition, it had to find a new foothold after the ban was lifted. With legal liquor no longer generating excessive profits, finding new targets became the group's primary choice. Moreover, the profits gained from Prohibition were ultimately illegal, so investments that could be legally laundered were also what they were looking for.
The film industry seems to have responded quite positively to their demands.
With the entire Holliday estate soon to be flooded with a new sum of money, Xu Fu needs to act in advance.
However, Paramount has always been his first choice.
After all, regardless of the size and number of cinemas, once he successfully acquires them, it will greatly increase the speed at which Xu Fu gains [faith] in the future.
But if there's no other way, he wouldn't mind giving up and choosing to buy from another studio.
From Roy Disney, Xu Fu already knew that in addition to Paramount's formal restructuring, Fox and 20th Century Studios were also in dire financial straits. Therefore, of the two film companies on the verge of bankruptcy, 20th Century Fox was the more important one.
"..."
Otto Kahn was not the first to react to Xu Fu's positive attitude.
In the safest course of action, Paramount's restructuring should not include any new third parties to ensure, as far as possible, that Paramount's internal interests are not seriously harmed.
Otto Kahn himself did not want to invest too much money in Paramount, as this would undoubtedly affect his own interests.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Xu Fu, I cannot make a decision regarding the acquisition of Paramount Corporation. This requires discussions with the bank's restructuring team before I can give you a formal reply."