Chapter 353: Chapter 77: Turning the Tables Chapter 353: Chapter 77: Turning the Tables Anywhere there is a government agency or the boardroom of a large corporation, struggles for power are inevitable. This is the best aphrodisiac, with no one wanting to miss out on its sweet taste. How could Disney be an exception?

Indeed, Michael Eisner was a strongman with formidable influence, and the Disney board of directors had nearly become his echo chamber. In fact, on another parallel timeline, he had monopolized power for nearly a decade; the board members were either his company confidants or his dependents. Eisner did almost whatever he pleased.

Although such a domineering figure would never have a good ending, and Eisner was eventually disgracefully ousted by the board, it was undeniable that he was still quite a legendary character. If he had succeeded in acquiring ABC, within another two or three years, the fate of the Disney board of directors as his echo chamber would have remained unescaped. Unfortunately, now there was Adrian.

Inside Disney, it was not a united front. Many people had reservations about the acquisition of ABC since ABC had been losing money for too long. It could potentially become a huge burden for Disney. Not everyone had the foresight, and after all, on another parallel timeline, ABC had indeed been losing money for over a decade before it started making a profit. Thus, Claude had no difficulty in making connections with those who wanted to replace Eisner, such as Geoffrey Craven.

Craven could be considered a fairly experienced director at Disney, having been on the board even before Eisner. Seeing Eisner gradually increase his power and drive his friends out of the board, he inevitably felt sympathy for the fallen. Moreover, having an emotional attachment to Disney’s animation and dissatisfied with Eisner’s strategy in that area, as well as opposing the ABC acquisition, he found common ground with Claude. The only question was whether the other party could offer the opportunity.

After Pixar’s “Toy Story” made a splash, internal discussions within Disney began to swirl. Most people knew that Cox, the head of the animation department, had repeatedly urged Eisner not to let go of Pixar, but Eisner didn’t take it to heart. Therefore, sensing the opportunity, Craven immediately began to challenge him with the people he had in touch with.

Regrettably, Eisner was still Eisner. Having sat in that position for seven or eight years, he had a certain level of control over Disney. Even with Adrian, the butterfly, without an intersection of paths, Eisner would undoubtedly have completely dominated Disney. So how could Craven have been his opponent?

After the meeting, Eisner immediately took decisive actions to reorganize internally, unhesitatingly asserting his authority. Craven was caught off guard, and the several people he had aligned with quickly fell apart under Eisner’s maneuvering: deserters deserted, resignations were handed in, and finally, he himself was driven out of the board.

For a time, the atmosphere inside Disney was one of panic and unease, permeated with a sense of insecurity. Many economic commentators also criticized Eisner’s resoluteness, believing that such actions did not help in stabilizing the situation.

“No matter what, Michael Eisner indeed made mistakes in decision-making, and Geoffrey Craven’s demands were not unreasonable. However, not only did Michael fail to give an appropriate response, but he also ousted him from the board, which, while solidifying his position, also brought about a significant negative impact,” said an article in the Wall Street Journal.

Therefore, Eisner immediately started non-stop to pacify the situation. Despite being in power for quite some time and having a strong style, his achievements were still there for all to see. Along with the help of his confidants, and by claiming to the outside world that this was just an ordinary adjustment, as well as assuring the animation department of unwavering support, the internal situation soon calmed down.

It seemed as though they hadn’t achieved the effect Adrian and his colleagues had anticipated. However, in many matters, even a momentary hesitation or confusion was enough to be overturned by the opposition.

“Alright, you’ve won again. Although I believed we would be successful, your insight is always sharp, but I didn’t expect it to be this successful,” Claude said in a tone filled with pleasure over the phone, sounding very happy.

“So you plan to worship me now?” Adrian joked, then sighed, “But I didn’t expect Craven to lose so quickly and thoroughly. It would’ve been better if he could have held on a little longer.”

“No matter, we have already got what we wanted,” Claude said indifferently.

Taking advantage of the opportunity presented by Eisner’s dealing with Disney’s internal chaos, Claude quickly turned the negotiation situation with ABC around. Look at Eisner; although he was very capable and had many enemies, he couldn’t possibly consider everything perfectly. What they were most interested in was your position and influence within the broadcasting company. We are different. Though we are young, we have more vitality, free from so many constraints, and our prospects for development are far better than theirs.

Of course, Adrian’s renowned keen eye also played a significant role; everyone knew the state that Silicon Valley’s ugly duckling, Pixar, was in when he first took over, and yet in just two years, it had transformed into a swan that was the envy of all. Look at how TBS is developing now, and considering the various achievements the ‘Miracle Director’ flaunted in television, it seems AC media was also a good choice.

“If Crawen had known that the end result would be like this, I wonder if he would have agreed to your proposal,” Adrian said with a sigh.

“Even if he hadn’t agreed, someone else would have. There will always be people who don’t like Eisner, always those who believe that they are the right ones,” Claude said with a laugh, “Besides, Crawen wasn’t prepared at all. If it had been me, even if I was inevitably swept out in the end, it definitely wouldn’t have been so soon. It just shows that Crawen had the vision but lacked the capability.”

“I heard that you ran into Eisner at a party before, and he didn’t seem too friendly,” Adrian suddenly remembered.

“That’s not quite right; it was just a bit of mocking, as if he couldn’t completely accept it,” Claude reminisced, “Don’t worry. You’ve said it yourself, at these events everyone wears a mask. Even if you can’t wait to beat the crap out of someone, you have to keep smiling and make conversation. As for Eisner’s possible retaliation, heh heh, since we hold the initiative now, how could I let him succeed?”

“It sounds like The Godfather and my uncle have both made preparations,” Adrian suddenly sighed. If the scale of AC Media were to surpass Disney’s in the future, this kind of situation would inevitably occur.

“Sometimes thinking too much does no good,” Claude seemed to know what he was thinking and said so, “I remember you previously referenced a saying, was it from Japan or China? It means even if there’s no path on the mountain, a path will emerge once people start walking.”

“Of course, it’s Chinese,” Adrian replied with a laugh, “Alright, I get it.”

Sharing is inevitable, so it was inevitable that this situation would arise. But that is a problem for the distant future. As long as profitability can be maintained, plus his own support for Claude, grasping control of the company is no difficult matter. Why was Eisner able to wield so much power at Disney? Because he developed the company from a few billion in market value to hundreds of billions now. So why bother worrying about this now?

“Let’s get back to Pixar. After such a dazzling success, don’t you plan to continue pushing forward?” Claude swiftly changed the topic.

“You know, my principle is not to interfere with Pixar’s internal affairs. They have their own system, the soul of their animation production,” Adrian replied, “Of course, I’ll offer them suggestions, but how they act on them is up to them.”

If memoy serves me correctly, after the unprecedented success of Toy Story, Jobs had Pixar go public. But Adrian doesn’t plan to follow that path; the timing isn’t right to go public now. Pixar’s prospects are much broader than imagined, and its animations are extremely popular. Waiting another two or three years before going public could multiply the market value several times over.

Adrian understood Jobs’s actions; after all, Pixar had suffered losses for nearly a decade, and although Toy Story was a huge hit, they had to share box office revenue with Disney, and Disney owned all the related intellectual property rights. It was merely a bit more glamorous. Jobs’s main focus wasn’t on Pixar, and he couldn’t invest more money, so he chose to go public to raise funds.

Now the situation is different. Adrian had bought back the contract with Disney early on, and all the derived rights for things like Woody and Buzz’s toys, which caused a frenzy of buying, were in the hands of Pixar and AC Media. Everyone knows, in animation, the real profits lie in the merchandise. Disney was able to grow to its current size, thanks in large part to the profits from animation merchandise. This is also one of the reasons why there was such an uproar within Disney. It’s odd for the chairman of a well-known legacy animation company to lose out on such a lucrative market and ignore the part they were famous for. The directors would have had something to say about it, but most didn’t dare to challenge Eisner, except for a few like Crawen.

“I promise you, their glory has only just begun,” Adrian said, and then he thought of Jobs.

After Pixar’s great success, while the media lavished praise on them, they didn’t hold back from mocking Jobs, saying he had missed a golde opportunity or had toiled for years only to make a bridal gown for someone else, conveniently forgetting that just a few months prior they had praised him for making a good deal.

But Jobs himself didn’t seem to take it to heart. Two days ago, when Adrian reluctantly attended a party with Claude, they ran into the middle-aged man. He calmly congratulated him and inquired about Camor, Rast, and the others, promising Adrian that he would visit Pixar when he got the chance, although it was mostly polite talk. Jobs behaved properly, without any signs of bad feelings. Of course, in other respects, it was business as usual; after a few words, he quickly began talking about his company and introducing new technology.

He didn’t revel in his own success, nor did he regret his own mistakes. After being ousted from Apple, his changes were indeed significant, but this was the mark of someone destined for great things. His subsequent successes were not accidental, and it seemed about time for him to prepare for a return to Apple. That’s what Adrian was thinking. There was no rush; if he remembered correctly, an opportunity to get involved would soon present itself.

The opportunity came unexpectedly, much like in his previous life when he had stumbled upon it while looking for movies online. He hadn’t expected it to come in handy now, but it would still require at least two more years of waiting.

“By the way, Claude, how’s that thing we discussed earlier going?” Adrian remembered something else related to the internet.

“Which thing?” Claude immediately asked in return. With the multitude of daily tasks on his plate, he couldn’t recall the one Adrian referenced.

“The movie website from the United Kingdom.”

“Oh, yes, I remember now. After making contact, it seems they are interested in forming a commercial company, but they’re skeptical of our motives.”

“What do you plan to do?”

“There are many ways to acquire a small website if that’s really what you want.”

“No, no, no, it’s their brand that we are interested in. If it were just the website, we could simply fund and build one ourselves. However, reputation is a tricky matter. Even though their site is free, it was built with the collective effort of many movie enthusiasts. Online reputation is even more important than in reality. If we forcefully take over the site, those fans could easily set up another and shift the popularity there,” Adrian explained, pausing for a moment, “So my suggestion is to start by talking to them. For example, we might sponsor them to form a commercial company, and in return, we get priority access to their database–they have an abundant one. We will be able to use their collected data for promotions or special projects, and if we have new or updated movie data, we can make sure it’s on their website first.”

“So, we infiltrate gradually over time, maintaining the reputation of the site while ultimately taking control of it? Is that the idea?” Claude immediately smiled in response, “Alright, I like this approach. It’s very much my style.”

“Then let’s go with that, I’ll leave it to you.” With these words, Adrian finally hung up the phone and handed it over to Charlize, who was sitting next to him in the car.

“British movie website? Is that the one you had me gather information on six weeks ago?” Charlize asked as she put away her phone. She paused, glanced at the driver and the bodyguard seated in front of her, then chose to ignore them, continuing to stroke her hands which were resting on her thighs.

“Yes, IMDb, an impressive film information website founded in 1990 that enjoys a good reputation among movie fans,” Adrian said with a smile as he appraised Charlize, not withdrawing his hand.

In formal settings, such as in the office or when out negotiating with stars in her producer role, Charlize dressed very professionally. Frankly, her business attire, always black or grey, gave her a dignified air. Despite only having been a model for a short period, she carried herself with poise. Moreover, her slender legs sheathed in sheer black stockings were both sexy and enticing.

“Yeah, your judgment seldom fails, does it?” Charlize shot him a glance.

Adrian let out a laugh and finally pulled back his hand.

The Internet Movie Database, IMDb for short, held information about film actors, movies, TV shows, television stars, video games, and movie production. At that point, it was only a medium-sized website, but Adrian knew the site and its top 250 movie rankings would become famous in the future.

Countless people searched for movies within these rankings, and countless argued over positions, as if one wasn’t qualified to discuss films without having seen the top ten ranked movies. Adrian acknowledged the films on the list were indeed excellent, but were they so good that everyone should and must watch them? Not necessarily. In the end, it was just herd mentality.

Even though IMDb’s voting system was indeed good, those eligible to vote were at best a few hundred thousand, a fraction of the world’s population, which stood at 5 billion and would eventually reach 6 billion. How representative could a few hundred thousand members be? However, ordinary moviegoers were drawn to IMDb; that was the power of a brand.

As Adrian aimed to develop AC Media into a powerhouse, how could he miss this opportunity? He knew the big wave of internet development was about to arrive.

With IMDb and Rotten Tomatoes, his influence on critics and data collection would increase greatly, but Rotten Tomatoes would likely take a few more years to establish. Perhaps he could beat them to the punch?

This idea had barely surfaced before Adrian dismissed it. He knew less about Rotten Tomatoes than IMDb, and premature action could backfire. Better to wait for them to emerge. As for any potential disruptions his ‘butterfly effect’ might cause, he already had IMDb in hand, and if there were no Rotten Tomatoes, perhaps ‘rotten apples’ or similar would suffice. He would just need to pay a bit of attention when the time came.

As he pondered, the car pulled up to a grandiose mansion.

“Hi, Tommy,” Adrian greeted Tom Cruise as he got out of the car, regaining his composure.

“Ah, there you are at last, Ed. You’re really slow, you know.” Standing by the door, Cruise shook hands with him, smiling, and then glanced at Charlize beside him, “Your secretary is as beautiful as ever.”

Charlize offered a faint smile in return but said nothing.

“I had to come from a different district, you know how bad the traffic can be in some parts,” Adrian shrugged helplessly as he looked around, not noticing Nicole anywhere.

“Do you have any suggestions, Tommy?” Adrian greeted Cruise’s agent and the representative from Bossworth who had arrived earlier, then went straight to the point as he sat down.

“Oh, sure. Regarding the supporting male role, I think Cuba Gooding Jr. would be the best choice from the options you provided. I know him, he’s a talented black actor,” Cruise replied, a hint of superiority in his voice.

“Is that so?” Adrian raised an eyebrow; it seemed Gooding had a good relationship with him, “I think he could work, too.”

Cruise’s smile immediately grew warmer as he sat up straighter, “And for the supporting female role, I recommend Renee Zellweger.”

“Really?” Adrian narrowed his eyes, “I’ve already decided on the female supporting role. It will be played by Kate Blanchett, a brilliant Australian actress.”

“No, no, no,” Cruise shook his head vehemently, “Kate Blanchett isn’t the right fit, Renee is the best choice.”

(To be continued. If you like this work, please visit Qidian (wuxiaworld.site) to cast your recommendation tickets and monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation.)