The only regret for the Marvel Universe right now is that characters like Spider-Man and the X-Men are no longer in Marvel's hands.
Spider-Man, in particular, is the most popular of Marvel's superheroes.
But Spider-Man is owned by Sony, while the X-Men and the Fantastic Four are owned by News Corporation. At this point, News Corporation's film and entertainment division hadn't yet been spun off to form 21st Century Fox. Acquiring them back wouldn't be easy, and Baron could only wait and see if there were any opportunities during this subprime mortgage crisis.
Besides Marvel Studios, MGM Studios has completed filming on the second installment of "The Twilight Saga" and "Quantum of Solace,"
both slated for release at the end of the year. Furthermore, the reboot of the "Rocky" series is also underway.
It can be said that the success of this film series has put the Marvel-MGM group on the path to revitalization.
"Another thing is about Netflix. They've agreed to our investment request..."
Previously, DS Capital held less than 15% of Netflix's shares, making them a major shareholder.
Netflix's video platform was also developing quite well, until... Hulu was established.
Just last October, Hulu, a video website jointly invested in by NBCUniversal, News Corporation, and Disney, began its trial run.
Initially, few in Silicon Valley and the broader IT industry were optimistic about it—people thought it was just another "death struggle" for legacy media.
But when Hulu concluded its beta test with 5 million users, this video website, backed by traditional entertainment media, began to garner countless accolades. It was considered the most successful example of the traditional television and film industry's integration with the internet to date, a powerful challenge to YouTube and Netflix, and potentially disruptive to the entire video industry.
The most concerned about Hulu's success wasn't YouTube, owned by Walt Disney, but Netflix.
In addition to NBC and Fox content, Hulu also partners with over 80 content producers, including Sony, Warner Bros., Lionsgate, and the NBA. Websites like America Online, Yahoo, MSN, and MySpace are also its distribution partners.
This robust content and distribution network is also due to the influence of Hulu's three major shareholders.
However, before this, Netflix's video platform primarily relied on content provided by these television stations and film studios. With the emergence of Hulu, Netflix faced significant competition, making it difficult to guarantee the continuity of its content.
To prepare for this, Netflix founder Hastings began contacting these content providers, hoping to secure a more permanent and stable source of content.
Marvel-MGM, owned by Blue Valley Capital, should have supported Hulu. Unfortunately, when Hulu was established, Marvel-MGM wasn't well-regarded by Hollywood's biggest players, and thus didn't become a shareholder.
Consequently, while Marvel-MGM had received Hulu's invitation to collaborate on content, they still had another option: Netflix.
Of course, the prerequisite was whether Netflix could cede a sufficient stake to align the interests of both parties.
Clearly, Hastings made a wise choice under these circumstances. He agreed to Blue Valley Capital's investment and planned to issue new shares to Blue Valley Capital, bringing its stake in Netflix to 15% of the total share capital after the additional issuance.
If this partnership goes through, Baron's control of Netflix will reach 27.41% (DS Holdings' original 14.6% stake in Netflix will be diluted to 12.41% after this additional issuance), making him Netflix's largest shareholder. However, because Blue Valley Capital didn't appear to have a direct relationship with Barron, others viewed it as just two separate shareholders.
...
After leaving Barron's place last time, there had been no news of Amanda.
Barron had only learned from Lydia Hearst, who had come to California to see him, that during a phone call with her cousin, Amanda had said she didn't want to see anyone and was going out to relax...
Given that, Barron could only ask Lydia to stay tuned for Amanda's news and spend a few days with her.
As July approached, the impact of the subprime mortgage crisis continued to unfold.
Almost all eyes were now on Lehman Brothers.
Lehman Brothers' stock price had been plummeting since last year, and in the two months from late April to early July of this year, Lehman Brothers had lost nearly $4 billion!
So, at the end of June, Lehman Brothers' owner, Fuld, began to rescue himself.
He planned to sell 55% of the asset management business and establish a new company to divest $30 billion in commercial real estate assets.
But this measure had no effect. Investors no longer believed Lehman Brothers could escape its predicament through such tactics.
Under these circumstances, Lehman Brothers began to put itself on the market. At
this time, there were still many interested parties in Lehman Brothers, a major investment bank on Wall Street. Among those involved in acquisition negotiations were the Development Bank of Korea, Bank of America, Barclays, and Standard Chartered.
Lehman Brothers first approached the Development Bank of Korea.
However, these negotiations were not smooth, and could even be described as difficult.
According to Barron's, the Development Bank of Korea was willing to acquire a controlling stake in Lehman Brothers for $6.40 per share—a 30% premium to Lehman Brothers' current share price, which the Development Bank considered sufficient.
However, Lehman Brothers' owner, Fuld, insisted on $17.50 per share—
more than three and a half times the current share price!
Just as their negotiations reached an impasse, South Korean financial regulators publicly warned on July 5th that South Korean banks should consider the financial risks when acquiring overseas bank assets.
Under domestic pressure and Lehman Brothers' insistence on not lowering the price, the Development Bank of Korea ultimately abandoned its acquisition of Lehman Brothers.
Lehman Brothers then began negotiations with remaining suitors, including Bank of America, Barclays, and Standard Chartered.