Chapter 256： [Tie heart]

At the same time, the head of Merrill Lynch in the guest room introduced Zhang Bowen: "The current head of Marvel Comics is Avi Arad, who took over the company in 1997 as chairman and chief executive officer. , And founded Marvel Pictures, he began to enter the Marvel Comics company in the 1990s. In 1998, Stan Lee left the company, he created 80 well-known comic characters, created Marvel Comics Miracle is also known as the leader of North American comics. "

Blue Star Technology wants to acquire Amazing Comics, and Merrill Lynch suddenly appeared here for a reason, because they have a huge relationship with Amazing Comics.

Things should start in 2005. That year, Amazing Comics decided to break the boat, desperate to raise money to shoot Marvel movies, used the copyrights of several famous characters such as Captain America, Thor, etc. as collateral, and signed with Wall Street Merrill Lynch Agreement: If the film is not profitable, Merrill Lynch will immediately have these roles

In the end, the two parties reached the agreement, and Marvel Comics was almost worth the money and finally raised enough money, and decided to start "Iron Man" as the first independent production project.

钢铁 "Iron Man" this film has now been finalized, will be released in early May, less than a month.

At this moment, Zhang Bowen chatted with the people of Merrill Lynch for a while, and did not wait too long, and the head of Marvel Comics came to the meeting room to meet them.

The two sides gave a face-to-face polite greeting, and after Zhang Bowen was invited to the seat by the other party, he immediately smiled at the head of Marvel Comics and said, "Mr. Arad, this time I opened the door uninvited and said straight away. Bluestar Technology Group is fancy about Amazing and wants to merge this North American comics giant into its portfolio. "

Arad, who hadn't been hot just after sitting down, froze, and looked at Zhang Bowen's smiley face, and couldn't talk for a while.

Is really straightforward, without any corners.

At this time, someone from Merrill Lynch said: "I want to tell you a news, Mr. Arad, the agreement that Marvel Comics will mortgage Captain America and several other characters to Merrill Lynch. We have signed a new agreement with Bluestar Technology yesterday. The agreement was transferred to Bluestar Technology. Simply put, Bluestar Technology is now your creditor. "

Arad looked at the two sides again suddenly: "This ..."

The news was so abrupt that Marvel Comics didn't hear anything.

It is normal to not receive it, because this transaction is between Bluestar Technology and Merrill Lynch, and there is no special agreement on the right to information between Merrill Lynch and Marvel Comics, so no one needs to be notified to transfer this debt. Marvel Comics, let alone the consent of Marvel Comics.

Zhang Bowen made a trip to Wall Street before coming here for this purpose. Because of the agreement between Marvel Comics and Merrill Lynch, this has not been kept secret. The news that Marvel Comics broke the boat has been heard a few years ago.

Arad came back from the mistake, and did not speak immediately, but thought about it deep down.

The No. 2 person from Blue Star Technology personally visited the house. Merrill Lynch has transferred the creditor's rights to Blue Star Technology. Obviously, the other party really intends to acquire Amazing Comics.

For the Marvel Comics itself, frankly, Arad was excited.

Without him, Marvel Comics is currently facing a life of nine deaths. The final box office performance of the upcoming "Iron Man" is still unknown. In fact, the whole company is very embarrassed.

Once the box office fails, Amazing Comics will face unprecedented difficulties. The company's life has been difficult, otherwise it will not arbitrarily transfer the film and television rights of its well-known comic characters to the "Spider-Man" and its related characters. The package was sold to Sony, and the "X-Men" series was sold to the 20th Century Fox Film Company.

Basically, Marvel Comics has sold all of its first-line characters, ip, and they are also very heartbroken, especially when they see the great success of "Spider-Man", and regret the pain when they are not careful, there is no way, If you do n’t sell it, you wo n’t be able to boil it.

So this time the first independent production of Marvel Pictures used a second-line comic character "Iron Man", which actually made them even more bottomless, all worried that the film would lose blood, which was a dark moment for Amazing Company.

No, now is the darkest moment of surprise.

Arad stopped thinking, then stared at Zhang Bowen and asked, "What price is your company planning to offer?"

Bluestar Technology opened its doors and brought Merrill Lynch. It was not necessary to hide it, and Marvel Comics' bad situation can not hide these big groups.

漫画 This comic giant is really miserable now, especially when compared with the next door dc, it is sad for the smeller and tears for those who see it.

How miserable?

No one even asked for help, but this time Bluestar Technology Group was an exception.

In the eyes of the industry and capital, Marvel Comics has no value. The "Spider-Man" IP is gone, the "X-Men" IP is gone, and the "Fantastic Four" IP is gone.

What else can surprise you?

Basically gone!

"We have estimated the value of Marvel Comics based on information provided by Merrill Lynch and audits by third-party institutions ..." Zhang Bowen said, looking at Avi Arad, and added a moment: "Our audit results It's Amazing Comics Inc.'s $ 22.5 billion, and $ 1.5 billion merger and acquisition of 67 shares. "

"What? The $ 1.5 billion acquisition?" Arad opened his eyes wide and immediately said indignantly: "nonono, Marvel Comics has thousands of well-known characters ip, your audit must be problematic, and the value of surprise is seriously underestimated."

Bowen Zhang said, "I don't want to belittle it deliberately, but IMHO Mr. Arad, the business value of your company's thousands of characters is not as good as a" Spider-Man ", you know I mean the entire Marvel Comics company. It's not as valuable as a "Spider-Man", and it is now Sony Columbia Pictures, and other well-known characters have been sold out by you, basically you can be sold out, please tell me, surprise What else can be done now? "

This word made Awei Arad stunned for a while. It can be said that the company's psychology has been bleeding recently.

Zhang Bowen is right, the IP value of a "Spider-Man" is worth the whole amazing company multiplying by 2, even 3 is not exaggerated.

The first "Spider-Man" was released in 2002, and in that era, it made a huge 82.2 billion US dollars in horror box office, and opened the curtain of superhero movies.

Immediately after the release of "Spider-Man 2" in 2003, the worldwide box office gained 78.4 billion U.S. dollars, and last year, when "Spider-Man 3" was released in 2007, the worldwide box office smashed 89.1 billion U.S. dollars, the highest in the series.

At the box office, the trilogy alone reached US $ 249.7 billion. According to the rigorous box office division, the producer divided the box office by 33. Sony Columbia Pictures generated US $ 84.2 billion in box office revenue, which is a dream. Wake up laughing.

The box office share is only one part. A large part of the IP income of "Spider-Man" is derived from the sales of peripheral products, and the other part is the movie box office sub-account income, and Marvel Comics currently only has the comic book copyright of "Spider-Man". Compared to value?

According to Luo Sheng's previous situation, the IP value of "Spider-Man" has reached a height of 23.4 billion U.S. dollars, and the entire Marvel universe that was a great success later is only 23 billion U.S. dollars.

I was really a little spider hanging over the entire Marvel universe.

I can say that Sony is laughing in dreams and crying in surprise and dreams.

At the end, I could only say that Arad struggled with a slightly lackluster expectation: "It is true that you are right, but as long as Sony has no subsequent movies in five years, the IP of" Spider-Man "will automatically return to Amazing company. "

Zhang Bowen smiled and said lightly: "In my opinion, even if Sony shoots a bad movie every five years, it must hold this ip in his hands, you think he will give up comparable to the" Pirates of the Caribbean "series , "Harry Potter" series, "The Lord of the Rings" series, ip value can be a cash cow with it? "

Arad was speechless again.

That ’s right, the little spider is now the platoon of Sony Columbia Pictures. It has a proper cash cow-like existence. It will definitely not let go of this IP without watts, and it will be carefully operated as a long-term Money maker.

维 Avi Arad couldn't refute for a moment.

I just regret not being there, but regret everything is too late.

Suddenly, the surprised head of the poker suddenly looked at Zhang Bowen and still wanted to sell his company for a good price and was too high. He asked: "Surprisingly surprised comics are worthless in your company's eyes. ? "

Zhang Bowen smiled and said that the other party listened and said, "It's still a bit valuable, but that's it. The core business of Bluestar Technology is the IT industry, but the content of the Internet's eb20 era is king. There is a bv video website, and the streaming video business needs some content support. I don't know if Mr. Arad knows some time ago that our company signed a US $ 5.2 billion digital movie license agreement with six major Hollywood movie giants and a dozen independent studios. ? "

Arad nodded: "I know this, your company's skills are quite scary."

To be honest, Marvel Comics has such a thought, just want to sell itself immediately, and quickly called Blue Star Technology Group "Dad" to report the thigh of such a gold master father, wondering why the company should rely on selling "son "Stay?

Arad realizes that Marvel Pictures, a company of Marvel, wants to make a breakthrough in the film industry, and must rely on the big group ~ www.novelhall.com ~ especially the bad situation at the moment.

Even those traditional Hollywood film giants are backed by large groups. Sony Columbia Pictures is backed by Sony Group. Do n’t look at Sony ’s market value, but its assets have reached hundreds of billions of dollars. Superpower, the pride of the Japanese;

Disney Pictures is backed by Walt Disney, Paramount Pictures is backed by media mogul Viacom, and Warner Bros. is backed by Time Group.

It ’s all because of the existence of a “dad” that can only be mixed if you rely on it. You can pull it out at critical moments. Like those independent film companies, there is no big group support behind them. This year may be a good mix, but you may not see it next year. He died, and because of bankruptcy and closure, only studios with large groups can stand up in the industry for a long time.

Marvel Pictures is backed by Marvel Comics ... who depends on who is talking about each other. My dad is really too lame, and I ’m almost out of food. I can only admit that my father has a way out.

At the moment, there is a big group to recognize his son. Maybe it is the only one. Although Bluestar Technology Group ’s attitude towards Marvel Comics is average, it is at least willing to claim it, and others are unwilling to do so.

Although he is worried, this is the amazing status quo.

To be honest, Arad himself also knows that Marvel Comics does not have too many negotiation chips. Missing this opportunity may not surprise Marvel Comics for the second time.

Uh ...