As a capitalist country dominated by financial interests, most of the policies in the United States are closely tied to economics. Even when it comes to waging wars, the underlying motive is ultimately profit. Likewise, when it comes to corporate mergers, whether a deal passes the Department of Justice's scrutiny is not just a matter of legalities but, more importantly, a question of how the various stakeholders play the game. Competitors are naturally opposed to the rise of a powerful rival, leading to inevitable conflicts of interest.
The rise of Daenerys Entertainment in Hollywood had been a relatively gradual process. However, the acquisition of Metropolis ABC represented a rapid, large-scale expansion in a short period. If successful, the deal would grant Daenerys significant advantages in a new sector, with the potential for stronger synergies post-merger.
The U.S. market is only so large, and Daenerys' expansion inevitably meant encroaching on the territory of other competitors.
Even though the federal government had lifted the media consolidation ban, if the entire industry, except for the companies involved in the deal, opposed the merger, the Department of Justice could not easily approve it. Doing so would antagonize too many stakeholders.
This was the problem Simon needed to solve.
On June 19, after the announcement of the acquisition, CBS, feeling blindsided by being "abandoned," reacted most strongly. Another major competitor, NBC, owned by General Electric (GE), quickly responded as well.
On June 20, the day after the deal was made public, a Republican congressman from Pennsylvania, speaking on NBC's Today Show, declared that the scale of Daenerys Entertainment posed a severe threat to the balance of the industry. He argued that allowing Daenerys to continue expanding would harm small and medium-sized media companies and even threaten federal protections on freedom of the press.
The Westeros family's political advisory team promptly provided Simon with a dossier on the congressman.
As expected, the congressman was a representative of GE's interests in Washington. GE's influence in U.S. politics was deeply entrenched. In fact, behind the infamous Alstom affair—where the U.S. government played a relentless role in breaking up the French industrial giant—was none other than General Electric.
And General Electric just happened to be the parent company of NBC.
The announcement of the Daenerys-ABC merger had even impacted GE, the only U.S. industrial giant in the trillion-dollar market capitalization club. On Monday, GE's stock price fell by 2.6%, dropping its market value from $123.9 billion to $120.6 billion—a $3.3 billion loss in a single day. Although GE's spokesperson quickly downplayed the significance of its media division, which accounted for only 12% of GE's revenue, the stock continued to fall.
A Citibank analyst commented on Facebook that GE's biggest mistake had been missing the opportunity to merge its media division with Daenerys and thus become a major shareholder in Daenerys Entertainment.
Following the news of the merger, market analysts grew more bullish on Daenerys' stock. Some aggressive industry analysts even predicted a market cap of $300 billion for Daenerys Entertainment.
Given the ongoing bull market, a $300 billion valuation was not out of reach for Daenerys.
In addition, NBC's two major hit shows—Friends and Survivor—were both produced by Daenerys Entertainment. If Daenerys and ABC merged, NBC could lose these key programs in the future, severely weakening its lineup.
Moreover, NBC had other collaborations with Daenerys in recent years.
With interests diverging, the outcome seemed predictable.
Daenerys Entertainment had already cornered its competitors in Hollywood, and with its performance in television over the past few years, a merger with Metropolis ABC could turn the "Big Three" television networks into an industry dominated by a single player, with the other networks becoming mere subsidiaries.
The Citibank analyst even suggested that NBC should sell off its media assets to avoid long-term losses.
Simon had deliberately placed the hit shows Friends and ER on NBC and CBS rather than ABC, his intended acquisition target, as part of a strategy to infiltrate the television industry and earn profits even after acquiring ABC. As long as NBC and CBS didn't push too hard, Simon was happy to continue leveraging their platforms to broadcast Daenerys' television projects.
After the Today Show broadcast on the morning of June 20, Simon quickly instructed Robert Iger to reach out to NBC. If NBC had concerns, Daenerys was willing to renegotiate a long-term agreement. Daenerys' track record of collaborating with other production studios in Hollywood demonstrated that Simon was not in the business of maliciously abandoning contracts to suppress competitors.
Of course, Simon had to guard against NBC and CBS intentionally undermining his projects.
For instance, they could reduce the promotion of his shows or move them to less favorable time slots, causing a gradual decline in viewership.
For both Friends and ER, the profits from syndication far outweighed the network's initial broadcast revenue. For example, even 10 to 20 years later, streaming giants like Netflix were paying up to $100 million a year for the rights to stream Friends, provided Time Warner, the rights holder, was willing to sell.
While privately working to calm and appease his competitors, the Westeros network also began releasing public statements to guide public opinion.
Just as the GE-backed congressman made his statement on the Today Show, politicians in Washington countered by accusing him of being biased in favor of large corporations. They argued that in the information age, only the continued consolidation of traditional media could ensure its survival.
Meanwhile, the Westeros family's lobbying team resumed its activities in Washington, keeping a close eye on anyone trying to sabotage the deal.
In short, the coming months would involve ongoing negotiations.
As long as Simon could balance the various power players and prevent an industry-wide backlash, the merger could proceed smoothly.
To further deflect attention from this particular deal, Simon began actively advising his competitors on other potential mergers.
If Daenerys' merger was the only one happening, it would draw too much attention. However, if other companies initiated similar mergers, the Daenerys-ABC deal would seem less conspicuous.
In simple terms, Simon was planning to encourage other media companies to merge.
It all started with rumors.
On the weekend following the announcement of the Daenerys-ABC merger, June 24, a story suddenly surfaced online that GE was in talks with Sony to buy back Columbia Pictures. The idea was that GE wanted to strengthen its media portfolio by re-entering Hollywood, which had recently experienced a major revival.
This was a fabricated rumor orchestrated by Simon.
But just like when Larry Tisch had spread rumors of Daenerys' impending acquisition of CBS, this story quickly gained traction within the industry.
And many people believed it.
Sony had been struggling in Hollywood for years, barely holding on while losing money. There had been countless rumors about Sony withdrawing from Hollywood. Inspired by Daenerys' acquisition of ABC, the idea that GE might buy a major Hollywood studio made perfect sense.
Acquiring a major studio would greatly enhance NBC's production capabilities, allowing it to reduce its reliance on content producers like Daenerys Entertainment. This had previously been impossible due to the media consolidation ban.
In short, it seemed like a perfect fit for both companies.
Then, on June 26, new rumors began circulating on internet forums. Allegedly, another industrial giant, Westinghouse Electric, was in talks to buy CBS, following GE's lead in the media business.
This rumor, however, was based on truth.
In fact, in the original timeline, Disney's acquisition of ABC was a massive and highly publicized deal. In the same year, Westinghouse's acquisition of CBS garnered much less attention due to CBS's relatively smaller size.
Westinghouse had indeed approached CBS recently.
However, in the past few months, with the news of Daenerys' expansion into television, the stock prices of all the major networks had risen sharply. CBS, for example, had reached a market value of $8.7 billion before being "abandoned" by Daenerys, compared to less than $5 billion just months earlier.
While Daenerys had the financial clout to handle the inflated price, Westinghouse, with far fewer resources than GE, was unwilling to pay such a premium. Furthermore, Larry Tisch had been singularly focused on selling CBS to Daenerys, so talks with Westinghouse had stalled.
Now, by reviving the rumor, Simon was essentially playing matchmaker.
Since CBS's stock price plummeted on June 19, it had continued to slide over the next few trading days, reaching $4.9 billion by the Friday close on June 23, almost halving in value.
By releasing the rumor, Simon hoped to encourage the two companies to reconnect.
If the deal happened, that would be great.
If not, Simon had nothing to lose.
More importantly, Simon wanted to push CBS's stock price back up. A higher stock price would lessen Larry Tisch's resentment toward Daenerys, potentially reducing behind-the-scenes interference.
The main goal of the industry merger rumors, though, was to instill a sense of urgency in the market. With so many players eyeing the industry, those who moved too late would be left with nothing.
In reality, since the media consolidation ban had been lifted, many companies in the sector had already been eager to make moves.
On the same day CBS's stock was boosted, June 26, Simon received word that Viacom's owner, Sumner Redstone, had discreetly made overtures to CBS.
After missing out on acquiring Paramount, Viacom's trajectory had completely diverged from its original path. With no suitable Hollywood studios available for purchase in the short term, Redstone's best option was to target
a broadcast network.
With ABC already taken by Daenerys and any move toward NBC potentially leading to a clash with GE, CBS was his only option.
This was not the outcome Simon wanted.
Viacom's cable channels, like MTV, Showtime, and Nickelodeon, were highly coveted assets for Simon. Ideally, Simon would want to acquire Viacom after securing ABC. However, if Viacom merged with CBS, future acquisition attempts would be blocked by antitrust regulations, given Daenerys' ownership of ABC.
But for now, Simon had to focus on the ABC deal.
While Daenerys Entertainment worked tirelessly to secure the Metropolis ABC acquisition, North America's summer box office season entered its hottest phase.
The highly anticipated Jurassic Park 2, in its third week of release from June 16 to June 22, saw its weekly revenue decline by 33%, a smaller drop than the previous week due to lackluster performances by two new releases: Braveheart and Pocahontas. The film grossed $55.36 million that week.
After three weeks, Jurassic Park 2 had grossed a total of $267.12 million domestically.
This made it increasingly likely that the film would surpass the $400 million mark in the domestic box office.
Disney's 2D animated film Pocahontas took second place.
Despite the unrelenting support of Disney's new parent company, Vivendi, Pocahontas was targeting the same all-ages audience as Jurassic Park 2. Moreover, audiences had become accustomed to Daenerys' cutting-edge 3D animated films in recent years, and the story of Pocahontas was not particularly appealing. Opening on 2,569 screens, it earned just $27.95 million in its debut week, barely crossing the $10,000 per-screen threshold for a hit.
Although Pocahontas ranked second at the box office, this was primarily due to Disney's aggressive marketing. With a mediocre rating of 5.5, the film lacked momentum, and whether it would reach $100 million in total box office earnings remained to be seen.
Another new release, Braveheart, opened to universal acclaim, with critics giving it a classic 9.0 rating. Directed by and starring Mel Gibson, the epic film was already being hailed as a frontrunner for next year's Oscars.
However, the production budget had ballooned to $72 million. Although Paramount had secured a prime release window for the film, even clashing with DreamWorks in the process, they were unwilling to spend more on marketing, limiting the promotional budget to $28 million and capping the project's overall cost at $100 million.
With limited promotion, Braveheart opened on only 2,035 screens—fewer than Pocahontas. Despite its critical acclaim, the film grossed just $17.14 million in its first seven days, failing to meet the benchmark for a major hit.
As Jurassic Park 2 began to lose steam, Braveheart was unlikely to face much competition moving forward.
However, given its modest start, the film's domestic box office was projected to reach around $70 million, putting it in the same league as summer releases Die Hard with a Vengeance and Casper.
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