Chapter 538: Take It

Although the box office for "The Taking of Tiger Mountain" is good, it cannot cause any impact on Bona's stock price.

This company is listed on the US stock market, and investors in the United States do not have much interest in our film and television companies; one could say they are indifferent.

Fuxing has already informed Yu Pangzi of Bona that the matter of entrusting them to buy back the shares held by 20th Century Fox has fallen through.

As for the reason, naturally, a larger force has taken a fancy to Bona's shares and is competing with them, and they cannot compete.

As for who it is, Fuxing is not too clear, and 20th Century Fox will not say either.

Things discussed internally by those Hollywood bosses do not need to be explained to them.

This makes Yu Pangzi quite surprised, and he is somewhat uneasy inside; if he does not know who wants to acquire his Bona shares, then his privatization plan will have to be shelved.

Not knowing the target, he is also unable to communicate about the privatization, and most importantly, not knowing what the other party intends to do makes him somewhat restless.

Having no other choice, Yu Pangzi has to head to the United States to meet Murdoch of 20th Century Fox in person; these two know each other.

I don't know how he will communicate, but in any case, Fang Hong will not wait for Yu Pangzi.

Originally, Fang Hong had money on hand, though that 500 million USD in cash is gone; it's just that this money is in Liu Tianxian's hands, and he has to find a way to wheedle one or two hundred million out of Liu Tianxian.

Acquiring Bona shares is not expensive; back then, 20th Century Fox got 19.9% for only 60 million USD, and after these few years, even with a premium, how much of a premium could there be?

Moreover, Bona's stock price has basically not risen in these few years.

In the first-class cabin of the plane heading to Macau, Liu Tianxian heard what Fang Hong said, widened her eyes, and was very surprised: "You want to acquire Bona?"

"Mm!" Fang Hong nodded.

"No, why are you acquiring this company? Don't you already have Yutu? They are both for investing in and producing film and television." Liu Tianxian was very puzzled.

If acquired, wouldn't this business be redundant?

"No other meaning; after fighting for so many years, the grudges should end. If we miss this acquisition opportunity, Bona will be carved up by domestic capital, and at that time, if we want to own this company again, it will be basically impossible."

Fang Hong looked at her and said again: "Without the ability for one side to completely beat the other into submission, competition will always exist."

If the shares of the overseas institution and 20th Century Fox are bought up by Bona and domestic capital, it will be very difficult for Fang Hong to buy them over again.

It might take paying many times the price to even have a possibility.

Once Bona completes its privatization and re-lists domestically, it won't be something that can be settled with this little bit of money.

And there are many personal connections involved here; if they don't sell to you, then you have no way at all, and only acquiring a portion is not of much use; you can only control it.

Some capital is not short of money at all; they just want to enter this industry to complete their puzzle, such as Alibaba and Tencent.

Liu Tianxian could also roughly understand his meaning, which is that if they don't acquire it this time, the Bona that capital gets involved in will not be owned by them, and then the competition in the future will always be there.

Because Bona will have the support of those domestic capitals behind it, such as Tencent and Alibaba, these forces will keep fighting against Yutu.

Bona is afraid of Yutu, but those capitals are not.

"Alright then, take it." Liu Tianxian clenched her small fist, her eyes determined.

She also doesn't want her man to be constantly troubled by others; it's quite annoying. After all, she has seen all the competition and setbacks of these many years.

Two years ago, Yu Pangzi even mocked her in public under the eyes of everyone; she remembers it very clearly.

If Bona has capital backing, and Yu Pangzi meets her again, wouldn't his tail be up in the sky?

Fang Hong smiled, held her small fist with both hands, lowered his head, and kissed it; this little look of hers was quite charming.

Liu Tianxian felt those warm lips on her fist: "What are you doing?"

"Nothing, just infected by your strength." Fang Hong raised his head.

"Cut it out." A charming smile appeared on Liu Tianxian's face.

She will definitely support this man in his career, regardless of right or wrong, because she doesn't know what is right or wrong about this thing either; supporting him is just the right thing to do.

She grabbed a few almonds from a bag and chewed them, saying: "Hey, then how will you handle it after you acquire it?"

"I don't know yet. I was thinking of letting Yutu annex Bona, but I estimate the authorities won't agree." Fang Hong also grabbed a handful of almonds from her bag and stuffed them into his mouth.

Holding shares is fine, but if it's a merger and acquisition, that is likely not allowed; this involves issues of market development, competition, and monopoly.

If you are the sole dominant player in the market, it is not conducive to the healthy development of an industry; there must be competition.

"You mean, if you acquire it in the name of Yutu, it probably won't work?" Liu Tianxian asked.

"You could say that; I can only hold shares, not necessarily have Yutu acquire it." Fang Hong nodded.

He remembers that later on, Tencent wanted to merge Douyu and Huya, but it was stopped by the authorities.

The scale of these two companies wasn't even that big, and there were many other various live-streaming platforms outside, yet they weren't allowed to merge.

The scale of Yutu and Bona is definitely much larger than Huya and Douyu, and it's one swallowing the other; more importantly, it's in the cultural field, which is even worse than that.

"Oh," Liu Tianxian nodded lightly to show she understood: "Then what to do? Are you still going to acquire it?"

"We'll see when the time comes; if it doesn't work, we'll talk about it then. Anyway, it must be acquired; even if we don't use Yutu's name, we must acquire it." Fang Hong said in an unquestionable tone.

If you're going to do it, do it to the end; once you make a move, there is no such thing as stopping.

Liu Tianxian was silent, not knowing how he would do it.

On Christmas Day, the plane that had flown for 3 hours landed at Macau International Airport.

As soon as the two got off the plane, they felt the warm weather. The weather in Macau at this time of year is a completely different world from the bone-chilling cold in the north.

It felt as if they were in spring here; it was very pleasant.

Liu Tianxian took off her bulky clothes and put on a casual sweatshirt; it wasn't time for the Macau Film Festival to open yet, so there was no need to dress so beautifully.

A business car picked them up and drove on the wide streets of Macau. There were not many vehicles on the road, and the way was clear. On both sides of the road were buildings in the style of European medieval castles, as if they had arrived in Europe, and from time to time, one could see light-box posters of "Liu Tianxian" hanging high.

The poster showed Liu Tianxian with a light, gauze-like skirt fluttering in the wind, with the blurred maritime city of Macau in the background.

Beside it was a Golden Lotus, and below it was artistic font: The 6th Macau International Film Festival.

The Macau Film Festival was about to open, and Liu Tianxian's artistic photos had already been plastered all over the streets, alleys, and buses of the main urban area.

Including shopping malls and the big screens in the squares, they were also playing her promotional short film.

Not only that, the internet was also promoting this Macau Film Festival. Platforms with video attributes such as iQIYI, Youku, Bilibili, A Zhan, Kuaishou, Chang'e Video, and Toutiao all pushed the promotional film for this Macau Film Festival.

Including information portals like Sohu and Wangyi also pushed the news that the Macau Film Festival would open on December 30th.

Social media platforms like Weibo, Qzone, and Tieba also pushed this year's Macau Film Festival.

This all cost money; it could be said they spent a fortune.

That wasn't all; posters for the Macau Film Festival were posted in offline cinemas across the country, and internet TV and broadcast TV also reported on it.

CCTV-6, Macau Satellite TV, Lian Satellite TV, Zhonghua Satellite TV, Star TV, Phoenix Satellite TV, and others all broadcast that the Macau Film Festival was about to open.

It basically covered regions including Hong Kong, Macau, and Southeast Asia.

The local government's brand is still very useful; if Fang Hong had done it himself, many television channels would not have been accessible.

To open up domestic popularity, one must also let foreigners see it; this is not fawning over foreign powers, but a form of cultural dissemination.

Exporting to sell domestically—the domestic market buys this approach.

Moreover, Liu Tianxian also has some influence in the Southeast Asian region, and this time she was representing the image of Macau.

Some people who had never heard of this film festival and were quite vague about it gained an impression of it through this promotion.

Someone asked like this: "Macau, there's a film festival? I've never even heard of it."

"It's already the sixth edition, what do you think?"

"A 'water' award, an award no one watches. I don't know why Liu Tianxian accepted being such an Image Ambassador; it lowers her level."

"There's news and information about it, how does it lower her level? Many people want to take it but can't get it."

"Recently, this Macau Film Festival is very hot."

Wangyi's comments were quite lively, but the most comments were still from Liu Tianxian's fans; most people were indifferent to such a film festival.

Even with the Macau Film Festival's comprehensive online, offline, and television promotion this time, it only left people with an impression.

This time, even brands that Liu Tianxian endorses, such as Tissot, Shiseido, Dior, and Armani, helped with the promotion.

And they launched products exclusive to the Macau Film Festival.

Liu Tianxian is the Image Ambassador for the Macau Film Festival, so the brands she represents have to contribute some resources and sponsor a little.

Otherwise, is this level of heat so easy to piggyback on?

You have to know that now Liu Tianxian represents the image of Macau; she represents Macau itself.

Such great promotional heat and support from the local government is not a treatment every star gets.

And the opening film arranged for Macau this time was the film "Bad Genius" from a few years ago.

This film was very hot in Southeast Asia back then, and it became hot again during the National Day holiday this year, being hailed by some as a masterpiece.

Just because the cheating methods in the film actually happened in reality; that Asian exam cheating case that shocked the world was exposed.

And the methods were similar to those in the film.

At one point, some people suspected whether the Principal and Bao Jingjing had experienced it themselves; otherwise, how could they be so clear and invent such a story in advance?

This story was indeed written by the two of them at the time; back then, Fang Hong's team was not yet very large.

When Bao Jingjing was asked about this by a reporter, she said: "The story concept was provided by the Principal; I just polished and fleshed out the plot. We also asked the Principal back then, and the Principal said this was a story provided to him by a friend.

Maybe his friend experienced it; as for who his friend specifically is, I don't know."

Some people feel that it was the Principal himself who experienced it, which is why he invented the 'a friend' series; otherwise, he wouldn't have directed it so well.

But there is no evidence to show that the Principal took the United States college entrance exam; he doesn't even know English, so why would he take the United States college entrance exam?

Others feel that before the Principal made movies, he must have been in the business of cheating for those rich second generations and red third generations.

He must have been the planner, or one of the masterminds.

Otherwise, how did he rise so quickly? There must be help from some official second generation or red third generation behind him.

This theory is somewhat plausible and sounds quite like it; after all, Fang Hong's rise was indeed very fast, leaping from being penniless and a very ordinary person to becoming a giant in one field.

He also has such a beautiful star girlfriend as Liu Tianxian, which is somewhat dreamy.

Conspiracy theorists say that the Principal is actually a black glove, and Liu Tianxian is the woman of some big shot, just letting the Principal help look after her.

Anyway, people say all sorts of things; it's all blind guessing, and there is absolutely no evidence to show that Fang Hong has done these things.

There is also no evidence to show that there is someone behind Fang Hong.

If there really were someone, Fang Hong would not have been targeted all the way and would not have had to fight for himself all the way; he could have just revealed his identity.

The deeper reasons are unknown to the outside, and they won't go exploring them.

Once a person is famous and the things they do are bizarre, there will always be all kinds of guesses and stories; Fang Hong and Liu Tianxian don't care either, letting those people say whatever they want.

This does not affect the promotional work of the Macau Film Festival.

(End of this chapter)