At the end of the month, the Oscar nominations were announced. "brokeback mountain" received eight nominations, trailing only "the aviator" which had ten. However, "brokeback mountain" virtually swept all the major awards nominations!
best picture, best director, Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as Best Actor, Best Supporting Actor and Actress, and other non-technical awards.
The clean sweep at the three major Hollywood guilds and the Golden Globe Awards gave "brokeback mountain" its greatest confidence. Meanwhile, the hong kong film "house of flying daggers," which Charles was also following, also returned empty-handed at the Golden Globe Awards, but it was nominated for the Oscar for Best Cinematography, a technical award.
Starting in 2005, major events seemed to be happening at various Hollywood film companies. Sony Columbia officially took control of MGM in a large merger and acquisition deal totaling $4.8 billion.
Time Warner announced the sale of its Warner Music Group for a total of $2.6 billion.
Sherry Lansing, chairman of Paramount Pictures, announced her upcoming departure from Paramount. Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone also announced the split of Viacom's CBS television and broadcasting group.
Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corporation, the parent company of 20th Century Fox, had just used a poison pill preferred stock plan to prevent Liberty Media Group, the second-largest shareholder, from acquiring more than 15% of the shares. Murdoch owned % of News Corporation shares, while Liberty Media Group owned 9%. However, it had reached an agreement with Merrill Lynch, which owned 8% of the shares, to acquire those shares from Merrill Lynch after six months.
Rupert Murdoch did not want News Corporation to potentially fall out of the murdoch family's control in the future, so he immediately released an anti-takeover shareholder rights plan: when someone acquires more than 15% of the company's shares, or a shareholder already holding more than 15% of the shares increases their holdings by 1%, every existing shareholder of the company will have the right to purchase the company's stock at half price, in an amount equal to half of their already held shares.
It was clear that if the deal between Liberty Media Group and Merrill Lynch went through, this poison pill would be immediately activated. If Liberty Media Group wanted to continue acquiring more shares of News Corporation at that time, it would have to pay several times the additional cost.
Soon, Liberty Media Group, upon learning of this announcement, immediately abandoned its idea and declared that it would hold a maximum of 15% of News Corporation's shares and would not continue to increase its holdings, thereby maintaining its position as the second-largest shareholder.
Universal Pictures, which had a new owner in General Electric, also needed further reform.
Currently, Disney's situation was even worse, with increasing and now fully public conflicts with Miramax. Negotiations for a split with the Weinstein Brothers had been ongoing for more than half a year.
"Disney pursues family-friendly types, but what kind of movies do the Weinstein Brothers not get involved in? Sex, religious controversy, political thrillers, bloody violence—they completely offended Michael Eisner," Charles said, sitting on the sofa in his office, chatting with his mother.
Evelyn laughed, "Michael Eisner isn't having an easy time now either. The collaboration with Pixar ended due to the breakdown of Michael Eisner's relationship with Steven Jobs; Disney, being solely profit-driven, underinvested in Disneyland, leading to a decrease in visitor numbers and a significant drop in financial revenue. Now Disney can be described as low in morale, creatively dry, and without a soul!"
Charles chuckled, "Michael Eisner is truly too self-centered. He squeezed Pixar, that cash cow, too hard. In the six-film distribution contract with Pixar, Pixar only owned about 15% of the animated feature film revenue and the patent for the production software; everything else belonged to Disney."
"Not to mention animation copyrights and the consumer product market, even animated feature film sequels couldn't be counted as part of the six contract works. Disney could completely produce sequels to 'Toy Story' and other feature films itself."
"Steve Jobs always hoped to change this unbalanced contract, but Michael Eisner completely ignored it!"
Evelyn continued, "At the recently held Disney shareholder meeting, Disney shareholders and the Board of Directors jointly targeted Michael Eisner, not supporting him to continue as chairman. Michael Eisner has already been removed from his position as Disney chairman, with senator George Mitchell temporarily taking over. Michael Eisner's resignation as Disney ceo will be no later than mid-next year!"
Charles thought for a moment and said, "If I'm not mistaken, the person replacing Michael Eisner as ceo should be Robert Iger, Disney's current chief operating officer."
"It's highly possible, but it's also possible they might hire from outside!" Evelyn nodded.
"The most important thing for Disney now is to resolve the cooperation issue with Pixar. The best solution is to acquire it directly," Charles sighed. This was the first major acquisition made by Disney's new ceo, Robert Iger, after he took office.
"Is Pixar willing? Pixar's brand value isn't low right now," Evelyn asked, confused, as many media outlets had similar doubts, wondering if Pixar could develop animated feature films on its own after fulfilling its remaining film contracts with Disney.
"What if they're not willing? The copyrights to the animated feature films Pixar produced previously all belong to Disney. If they want to develop sequels, they can't bypass Disney," Charles shook his head.
"Develop new animated stories? How much would the production and distribution costs be? Even if Pixar found a large distribution company to rely on, given Steve Jobs' and Disney's new contract requirements, which company would agree?"
Besides, Disney's shareholders weren't fools. What was the point of forcing Michael Eisner out? Wasn't it to ease relations with Pixar?
How much profit did Pixar bring to Disney? Never mind movie box office and the audio-visual market, just look at how many popular toys and games in Disneyland are characters from Pixar animations, and you'll know!
Otherwise, why hadn't other Hollywood distributors contacted Pixar? After all, Pixar had refused to renew its contract negotiations with Disney last year.
Wasn't Disney's swift action to remove the culprit, Michael Eisner, just giving Steve Jobs a way out?
As for Michael Eisner, who had led Disney for 20 years? When you can no longer contribute to the group's growth, and even become an obstacle, the shareholders will naturally act against you.
Evelyn was a little surprised; her son seemed to see everything so clearly. She had at least graduated from university, yet she wasn't as insightful as her high school graduate son?
"By the way, I'm going to acquire Marvel this year. How much support can ETA provide?" Charles asked.
Evelyn thought for a moment and said, "Marvel's current market value is $300 million. The difficulty isn't high, but the shares are somewhat concentrated, so the major shareholders must be dealt with!"
Charles nodded, "Okay, I'll let you know when we move together!"
Evelyn nodded. She would certainly give her son's endeavors her full support.