Hollywood What If

"Ptui--! What did you say?"

Tom Rothman coughed out the coffee he was drinking when he heard a certain rumor from his secretary. Life as the CEO of 20th Century Fox was not so easy.

In a year or two, Tom Rothman would become part of News Corporation and leave the position of CEO of 20th Century Fox. He worked hard for that company, but he knew he was just a worker. The real owner of 20th Century Fox was News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch to be exact.

Well, at least he got some stock options and the credits he accumulated were enough for him to have a good position in News Corporation.

As for the next CEO of 20th Century Fox, Tom Rothman had no idea who it would be.

He thought his job would be smooth sailing for the next two years, but he didn't expect one of their rivals to actually start a takeover!

"Some of our spies admitted that they had seen Terry Semel visit Grey Pictures."

Corporate spies were real. They were hard to find because it was easier to send information now that there was the Internet and telecommunications.

"They said that Terry Semel and Warner Brothers intended to buy stock of Grey Pictures."

'Buy shares? Kazir is already a multimillionaire and the guy is not greedy. Because if he is greedy, he would easily accept the contract that 20th Century Fox and LucasFilm offered him to direct Star Wars. That's a lot of money.' He thought.

Tom knew that Kazir was a tough guy to crack, and it would be impossible for the guy to just sell part of Grey Pictures to one of the Big Six.

'I say he trades stock for stability.'

At best, Kazir could get 2% of Warner Brothers in exchange for 30 to 40% of Grey Pictures.

The net worth of Warner Brothers was $27.97 billion, while Grey Pictures was expected to be around $1 billion to $1.5 billion. Grey Pictures was not a publicly traded company, so they had to determine the net worth through research.

Tom Rothman put down his coffee and wiped his mouth. Like him, Terry Semel was nearing the end of his term, and Yahoo had already invited the guy to be chairman and CEO.

Alan Frederick Horn would be the COO of Warner Brothers while Barry Mayer would be the Chairman now that Terry Semel planned to end his job at Warner Brothers.

'This is strange, this guy should have focused on training his successor instead of trying to acquire Grey Pictures. Was this ordered by Time Warner? Are they interested in Grey Pictures?' Tom couldn't get it.

Unlike him, who had at least a year to move a job, Terry Semel was already in his last quarter at Warner Brothers. Yet the guy contacted Grey Pictures.

Tom Rothman narrowed his eyes and thought seriously.

'Should I contact Rupert? News Corporation might also be interested in Grey Pictures.'

Unlike other production companies, Grey Pictures had a good chance of becoming a world-class studio.

'Kazir is a smart guy, he didn't try to create a distribution channel at all. Maybe he expected this outcome... Is he really confident about CCU?'

Well, Kazir proved himself right, and now Grey Pictures' net worth was over $1 billion, even though it was less than a decade old. It was already making millions in profits, sometimes over $100 million a year. Last year's revenue was over $1 billion because of Wanted, the box office of Wanted was now $1.21 billion and some countries were still showing the movie.

On top of that, Bruce Almighty ended its run with more than $484 million worldwide. The movie premiered in August last year and seven months have already passed.

Do you know a director who could write a script that had a 100% chance of making a profit at the box office? No, because being a director and a screenwriter are two different jobs.

But Kazir had the two talents, they complemented each other and made a fantastic chemical reaction.

'Most of his movies were original screenplays, except for The Bourne Identity and the upcoming Spider-Man. Well, the guy had the talent to make the movie a box office hit.'

Tom Rothman admitted as much.

The first time was nothing but a bluff. The second time was interesting. But the third, fourth and even fifth were no miracles. It was talent and consistency, and Kazir has been making successful movies for years.

But Grey Pictures is useless without Kazir.

Obviously, Warner Brothers wanted Kazir Grey more than they wanted Grey Pictures. They wanted his creative mind. If Kazir Grey owned shares of Warner Brothers, he would focus on it to make sure his shares didn't go to waste.

Also, Grey Pictures was in desperate need of distribution. Paramount Pictures and Sony-Columbia deals were coming to an end and Grey Pictures had to find another company to hang on to. Grey Pictures also had no distribution channel. They also didn't have Viacom, Time Warner and News Corporation controlling the media around the world.

Grey Pictures may be flourishing right now, but it won't be long before it reaches its limit.

The Big Six became the Big Six because they controlled the media and movie distribution.

In a way, it was a win-win situation between the two if Grey Pictures allied with one of the Big Six.

"What time is it in Australia?"

Rupert Murdoch was Australian, and he had tremendous authority in the country. One of the reasons why 20th Century Fox was able to get tax breaks from the Australian government when they filmed in the country.

"Sir, it's 1 a.m. in Sydney right now."

"..."

The time difference between Los Angeles and Sydney was 17 hours.

Anyway, if Warner Brothers was interested in Grey Pictures, 20th Century Fox had to be very careful about this acquisition. It could affect them for better or worse.

+++++

[Author's note: I can't find the net worth of Warner Brothers in the 2000s, so I decided to use the current net worth, which was $27 billion.]

[This is the second chapter for today].

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