I'm in an American comic book world, and I'm starting out giving Aunt May special treatmen

……

"Hehe, this amount of money is enough to buy a movie company, right?"

Hawke shook the bearer bond in his hand and muttered to himself.

"So fast?"

Christina Hendricks exclaimed in surprise.

She only spent about twenty minutes washing up, and Hawke got back enough money to buy a medium-sized film company.

"When talking to a man, don't say 'fast,' say 'fierce'!"

Hawke gave Christina Hendrix a heartfelt lecture.

"Oh, I know."

She said obediently.

Christina Hendrix approached Hawke and noticed the bearer bonds in his hand. Curious, she asked:

"These were all stolen from another person who shorted Stark Industries?"

Once 168 has 20 billion in hand, they'll then rake in another 30 billion.

“Yes.” Hawke said with a smile, “Not only this $10 billion in bearer bonds, but in three days, he will also have to give me another $20 billion in bearer bonds.”

In half a day, he got $10 billion without even having to run around. He could just sit in his office and direct Obama to deliver the money to the designated location. Is there a better way to make money?

A wave of riches!

No wonder our ancestors said, "A man cannot get rich without unexpected wealth, and a horse cannot get fat without night grass."

What a profound truth!

"So much money?" Christina Hendrix exclaimed in surprise. "Young master, won't they resort to desperate measures and pose any danger to you?"

"Even a cornered dog can't jump over the wall. He's in the open while I'm in the shadows. He doesn't even know who I am, so how can he jump?"

Hawke said with a smile:

"Don't worry, once we get the other $20 billion, we'll squeeze another big one out of him, another $30 billion."

[Obadi: "..."]

If Obadi uses Jarvis to track Hawk, he might be able to find Hawk's trail, but that's obviously impossible. Jarvis is absolutely loyal to Tony. If Jarvis finds out that Obadi is looking for an assassin organization and attacking Tony, then Jarvis will probably take all means to strike Obadi. With a powerful artificial intelligence relentlessly pursuing him... Obadi will probably have nowhere to hide in this world.

Therefore, Obama didn't dare to act recklessly, and Hawke naturally had nothing to fear.

To be honest, hacking into Obama's computer was surprisingly easy. Obama is too old and his thinking is outdated; he can't keep up with the times. The computer's defense system is incredibly simple to operate. But Obama didn't dare connect his computer to Jarvis because he had done too many things behind Tony's back, such as selling Stark Industries' weapons on the black market. His partner, the Ten Rings, had a large amount of Stark Industries' weapons in their possession—all of which were Obama's doing.

Once Tony finds out that Obama sold large quantities of Stark Industries' weapons on the black market, their relationship will probably be over.

"Alright, let's not talk about that anymore," Hawke said. "Let's think about which film company we should buy."

"Ah."

Christina Hendrix sat obediently next to Hawke.

Hawke reached out and pulled her close, hugging the round, plump peach sitting on his lap, their bodies pressed together perfectly.

After giving him a big kiss on the cheek, Hawke turned on his computer and started looking up information about the film company:

"Let's first take a look at which film companies are worth buying."

When it comes to Hollywood, the first thing that comes to mind is definitely the "Big Six," which are the six major film studios in Hollywood today: Disney, Warner Bros., Universal, Sony Pictures Entertainment, 20th Century Fox, and Paramount.

"Uh...We probably can't afford the six major Hollywood studios right now; each one costs at least tens of billions of dollars."

Even if he could afford it, Hawke had no interest in spending so much money on film companies.

In fact, the six major Hollywood studios are not simply film companies. They have all merged with media groups and become part of the media industry chain. The real names of the six major Hollywood studios should be ABC Disney, Time Warner, NBC Universal, CBS Paramount, and Fox Entertainment Group. Sony Columbia, on the other hand, has not merged with a media group but is a subsidiary of Sony Group, which immediately pushed their market value up to tens of billions of dollars.

Of course, once Hawke successfully shorts Stark Industries, he will certainly have tens of billions of dollars in his hands. But with that money, Hawke will definitely choose to expand Lane Financial Group rather than acquire film companies that do not have much room for growth.

Hawke's numerous investments are, of course, prioritized. The highest priority is Lane Financial Group and the business of its subsidiary Lane Capital. The second priority is Lane Technology, which includes social or internet platforms such as Twitter and Snapchat. The third priority is Lane Bio, but Lane Bio is not yet fully on track.

Because the main research force is currently working on the extinction virus, and Zhao Hailun is working on the cradle of life, once everything is almost done, the next target will be Lange Technology and Longgu.

As for the Ryan Entertainment project, it was just something we did on the side when the idea first came up, because for internet companies, film companies make money too slowly, unacceptably slowly.

Hawke's acquisition of the film company was a spur-of-the-moment decision. He wanted to form a media conglomerate centered around Lane Entertainment and Lane Technology to enhance its actual influence, and he did not expect to make money from the film company.

“Young Master, even if you want to buy it, I have to advise you against it!” Christina Hendrix said with a smile, “Such a big company is definitely not easy to control. How can you just buy it like that? Besides, outsiders who acquire Hollywood film companies are basically going to get ripped off. I heard that Sony was ripped off badly when it bought Columbia, losing at least several billion dollars.”

“I know about this matter.”

Hawke nodded.

Columbia's market price was $12 per share at the beginning of the year, and $21 when Sony announced the acquisition, but Sony's final offer was $27 per share.

The stock price has skyrocketed, doubling in value!

On September 25, 1989, Sony announced that it would spend $34 billion to buy Columbia's shares from Coca-Cola and assume Columbia's $16 billion in debt, for a total of $5 billion.

On November 17, 1994, Sony announced in its quarterly financial report that the book value of its investment assets in Columbia Pictures had decreased by $27 billion.

This loss is the largest ever recorded by a Japanese company.

It's fair to say that Hollywood ripped off Sony, a complete sucker, $27 billion. They essentially bought Columbia Pictures for the price of two Columbia Pictures, making them a notorious scapegoat in Hollywood.

Even though everyone knows this well-known past event.

Christina Hendrix shrewdly remarked:

"So, young master, let's buy a small to medium-sized film company first, get a foothold in Hollywood, and once we're familiar with the rules of Hollywood and won't get ripped off by those people, then we can try to acquire the Big Six. I believe that with your abilities, young master, that day won't be too far away."

Of course, it doesn't seem far off, but considering that Hawke's Lane Capital can earn at least $10 billion in the capital market at once, is it really that difficult to acquire the six major Hollywood studios that cost tens of billions of dollars?

"You understand me so well."

Hawke chuckled and continued his search for a suitable film company.

169 Film Company [Seeking flowers and subscriptions]

Legendary Pictures, DreamWorks, Lionsgate, Summit Entertainment, Lakeview Pictures, Dimension Films, Screen Gem...

"Lionsgate is probably the best-performing company after the Big Six Hollywood studios. It's also an independent film company, so its valuation isn't high. We should be able to acquire it for around $700-800 million."

In his previous life, Hawke's impressions of Hollywood, besides the Big Six studios and Netflix, were most profound from Lionsgate and DreamWorks.

Lionsgate is one of Hollywood's most renowned independent film production companies, having received 66 Academy Award nominations and won 17 Academy Awards. It's worth noting that the company's most profitable revenue doesn't come from box office receipts; nearly 70% of its income comes from its library of 13000 film and television titles.

Lionsgate uses the funds raised through financing to continuously acquire and expand its film library, then generates profits, raises more funds, and expands its film library again.

If this process proceeds smoothly, the film storage facility will become a continuous source of revenue for Lionsgate.

Relying on this business model, Lionsgate's profitability even surpasses that of the lower-ranked Hollywood Big Six studios.

“Young Master, I’ve heard that Lionsgate’s chairman, Frank Gustave, is a very stubborn man who treats Lionsgate as his own business. Investing in a stake might not be a problem, but acquiring Lionsgate entirely would be a huge issue,” Christina Hendrix said. “Moreover, Lionsgate has been mired in a debt crisis for the past two years, and its operations haven’t been very good. It’s very likely that in addition to the acquisition, we’ll have to put in extra money to solve Lionsgate’s debt problems.”

“Hmm…” Hawke thought for a moment and said, “Lionsgate only makes bloody, crude and rule-breaking movies. They take an unconventional approach, so there probably aren’t many movies suitable for you to play the female lead. Forget it, let’s find another one.”

She paused for a moment, realizing that she simply didn't want Hawke to buy such an expensive company as Lionsgate so soon after entering Hollywood. She hadn't expected that Hawke's thought was that the company's films weren't suitable for her...

"hey-hey."

Christina Hendrix gave a silly laugh.

What about Legendary Pictures?

Hawke asked again.

He discovered that Christina Hendricks knew far more about these film companies than he did, so he figured he might as well just ask her directly.

“Uh…” After considering it for a moment, he said, “Young Master, let’s forget about this. Legendary Pictures has too complicated a relationship. It’s not a company that makes movies properly, but a company that specializes in money laundering.”

Are there any Hollywood film studios that don't launder money?

Hawke said.

Christina Hendrix: "Everyone is laundering money, but other companies launder money secretly, while this company launders money openly and brazenly... Legendary Pictures is essentially a private equity firm."

"Now I understand, so you're talking about a film company that preys on investors, right?" Hawke himself enjoys this tactic of exploiting investors, but he's not keen on being exploited himself, which naturally eliminates Legendary Pictures as an acquisition target. He points to another name on the computer and asks, "What about Summit Entertainment? What do you think of this company?"

“Peak Entertainment…” After thinking for a moment, he said, “This company is not bad. The shareholder structure is simple, unlike Lionsgate and Legendary Pictures. In the early years, it was a company that operated overseas film distribution. However, in the last two years, they have been transforming and building a distribution network. They have achieved some success and can be considered a medium-sized film company that is small but complete.”

Hawke also had some impression of Summit Entertainment, which made a name for itself in 2008 with the Oscar-winning film "The Hurt Locker," directed by James Cameron's ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow.

Later, Summit Entertainment hit the jackpot with "Twilight," grossing a staggering $3700 million worldwide on a budget of only $3.9 million. From then on, Summit Entertainment truly joined the top tier of Hollywood's money-sharing club.

At the same time, Summit Entertainment has produced a number of independent films that, while not commercially successful, feature heavyweight stars and have distinctive characteristics.

However, Summit Entertainment later blindly invested in big-budget productions, ran out of cash, and had to sell itself to Lionsgate for $4.125 million.

“Very good, then add this company to the acquisition list.”

Next, Hawke and Christina Hendrix reviewed various independent film companies in Hollywood, comparing their advantages and disadvantages, and found several high-quality companies that could be acquired.

"Well, that's about it."

Hawke stopped the screening.

Hollywood has thousands of film studios, but apart from the Big Six, there are only a handful of truly good ones. It's like finding gold in a pile of garbage; it's really not easy.

"I will instruct them to contact the heads of these film companies and see which one is suitable for acquisition. If possible, we can acquire them all. After all, the combined valuation of these film companies is less than $10 billion, which is too cheap."

Christina Hendrix: "..."

Are companies valued at less than a billion dollars considered cheap?

Only a burly young master could say something like that.

"It's almost time to get off work, let's go get lunch together."

Hawke glanced at the time and said.

"Ok."

Christina Hendrix smiled sweetly.

The two then went downstairs together, with Hawke's arm linked with hers, and said:

"Young master, I know a pizza place nearby that's really good. How about we go get some pizza?"