Domination in America, Starting from being a Boxing Champion-Chapter 494 - 403 Withdrawal from the Market

"Lionsgate Films changes ownership!"

"Boxing champion Link successfully takes over Lionsgate Films, but how far can Lionsgate's cinematic journey go?"

"Harvey Weinstein and several other major film company executives state that Lionsgate Films is entering the countdown to bankruptcy..."

After Link acquired Lionsgate Films, over a hundred media outlets such as the "Los Angeles Times," "Hollywood Reporter," and "USA Today" made extensive reports on the matter.

Over ninety percent were pessimistic, with the remaining ten percent just watching the excitement.

The mainstream media's view was that Link was a boxer, a singer, and knew nothing about managing a company or investing in film production.

Letting a layman lead Lionsgate Films was bound to end poorly.

Many media outlets judged Link's acquisition of Lionsgate as an extremely wrong decision, which would not only cause his net worth to plummet but also cost Hollywood a film production company with great potential.

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Due to the collective bearish view of the media on Lionsgate Films, its stock price plummeted on the New York Stock Exchange, from a high of $10.2 per share to $6.8, bringing the market capitalization below $600 million US Dollars, a 30% decrease from the previous month.

Faced with this situation, Lionsgate decided to quite simply throw in the towel and announced that it would delist from the NYSE and restructure.

Link announced he would purchase the remaining share of Lionsgate Films at $7.2 per share, within one month.

If this timeframe was exceeded, the company would not offer any more subsidies, and shareholders would have to bear the losses themselves.

News of Lionsgate's delisting caught the attention of many in the entertainment industry and on Wall Street.

The announcement of a publicly-traded company going private has a severe impact on the company, leading to the loss of a stable source of capital. If Lionsgate Films wanted to make movies or acquire other companies again, they couldn't get financial support from the stock market, and this move also weakened the company's ability to resist risks.

The renowned investment assessment institution, Moody's Corporation, saw its evaluation for Lionsgate Films plummet, with market value falling from $600 million to $520 million US Dollars, just the value of the assets under Lionsgate.

During Link's acquisition of Lionsgate, its peak market value reached $850 million.

After the successful acquisition, it instantly dropped to $520 million, a nearly 40% shrinkage, and after deducting $180 million in debt, the valuable assets were only $340 million.

Meanwhile, Link had spent over $300 million in cash and 5.2% of Twitter stock to acquire 87.7% of Lionsgate's stock, with the transaction amount nearing $700 million. To recoup the remaining 12.3% of stocks, he would need to spend about $85 million US Dollars.

By this calculation, in just over a month, he had lost nearly $300 million on Lionsgate Films.

And rumors had it that he did this solely to snag a film role for his scandal-ridden girlfriend, Jennifer Lawrence.

"Lost $300 million? Haha, not much, Link Baker's worth tens of billions, $300 million is nothing to him," Harvey said, laughing while puffing on his cigar.

"Harvey, I heard it was you who caused this, with just a word you made Link lose $300 million. Impressive," Matt Damon said with a laugh.

"Haha, don't put it like that, this has nothing to do with me. I just made a small suggestion to 'The Hunger Games' crew, who knew Link would do such a stupid thing? Hehe, youngsters care too much about face," Harvey said, his toad-mouth grinning with some satisfaction, especially after hearing Matt Damon say his word caused Link to lose $300 million felt fantastic.

"Harvey, are you going to continue fighting with Link now that he has Lionsgate Films, with production and distribution capabilities not inferior to Weinstein Company? Continuing the fight might be difficult," Ben Affleck said.

Harvey scoffed, his cigar in hand, "Ben, do you think Link is qualified to fight with me? No, no, I don't think so."

Lionsgate Films' production and distribution capabilities are indeed good, but it depends on who's in charge. They were alright during Fellemay's era, but Link? How could a layman like him properly manage Lionsgate Films and develop competitive film projects?

That's impossible.

If just any outsider could come to Hollywood and make a profit, the place would have turned into paradise for capitalists by now.

But in reality, this place is a graveyard for capitals—only those who understand the operational rules of cinema can produce successful movies.

Link certainly doesn't have that ability," Harvey said waving his arm, brimming with confidence.

Ben Affleck, Matt Damon, and others nodded in agreement; in Hollywood, money alone wasn't enough—one also needed connections.

Like Harvey currently had a great script in his hand and could appoint any director or actor he wanted.

All he needed to do was make a call to the director and actor's agencies.

The agencies would immediately coordinate with his work, regardless of how busy the director and actors were, they would help adjust their schedules, and even make concessions on their fees.

The reason for doing so was simple, because Harvey was an Oscars-making machine.

In the century-long history of the Oscars, films produced and distributed by Harvey Weinstein have received more than 300 nominations, with four Film Emperors, four Film Empresses, fourteen supporting actor and actress awards, and four best directors.

Once their artists won Oscars and other film awards, their pay could significantly increase, allowing the agency to profit more from the celebrities.

The mutual benefits were one of the reasons why the major agencies valued Harvey.

For instance, Hollywood's number one agency, CAA, was a close ally with Harvey.

Meanwhile, Link, who was new to the field, without connections, accomplishments to boast of, couldn't enjoy such treatment.

Besides connections, there were other aspects like capital, promotional distribution, media, film critics circles, major film unions, the Motion Picture Association of America, film rating websites, etc., that all played a significant role during the process of film production and promotion.