American History 1988
Chapter 333 - 322: Making Consecutive Appearances_2

Chapter 333: Chapter 322: Making Consecutive Appearances_2

We have the resources, connections, and industry influence, making a film is a piece of cake for us.

But what we’re missing now is a hefty investment, you know, Dean, animation is costly."

Glancing around at the three of them, a name suddenly popped into Dean’s head, DreamWorks?

"So, roughly how much funding do you need?" Dean asked, his expression unreadable.

"For starters, at least five hundred million US Dollars!" Katzenberg threw out a ballpark number.

"That much?!" Even with Dean’s considerable net worth, he was shocked by the figure.

"Dean, our target is to become a top animation studio in Hollywood.

Its competitor is Disney, and this might just be the first round of funding."

Having been in charge of Disney’s animation division, Katzenberg knew all too well that building a studio to compete with Disney animation would be a cash-burner.

It would be a long-term process, as the production cycle for an animated film starts at a minimum of two years.

And why had Katzenberg set Disney as the competitor? Well, that involved a rather lengthy saga of friendship and enmity.

The story goes back to 1984 when Disney was in a management crisis.

Subsequently, the higher-ups brought in Michael Eisner, president of Paramount Pictures, and Frank Wells, vice chairman of Warner Bros.

At the time, Katzenberg was Eisner’s subordinate, and he followed him in making the move from Paramount to Disney.

On the first day of work, pointing to a building across the parking lot from the window, Eisner told Katzenberg, "That place is now your responsibility!"

That was the Disney animation department, which he witnessed revitalize over the next decade.

The struggling company’s market value soared from 1.4 billion US Dollars to 28 billion US Dollars.

Just then, Frank Wells, one of Disney’s key executives, died in a helicopter crash.

Ah, another irony of fate.

This event also sparked Katzenberg’s departure from Disney.

Years before, Eisner had promised Katzenberg, "If Wells leaves, you’ll take his place."

Now that Wells was truly gone, Katzenberg approached Eisner to hint at the promised position and compensation.

But Eisner skirted the issue, dodging the topic.

After several attempts, Katzenberg was finally disheartened and laid it on the line.

"If I don’t get a promotion, I’ll leave Disney."

A few weeks later, Eisner called his lawyer and then fired Katzenberg.

Moreover, he refused to give Katzenberg the small portion of the bonus he was owed, amounting to over one hundred million US Dollars.

He also stopped the Disney board from giving him anything, completely abandoning Katzenberg.

All this happened when Katzenberg, at 43, had been working for Eisner for 19 years, his entire career.

He had thought Eisner would cherish his loyalty, at least treat him as one of his own.

But the harsh reality shattered all his illusions, along with years of hard work.

Katzenberg’s animosity towards Eisner needs no elaboration, though he never admitted it publicly to the media.

But his motive for establishing a new animation studio was unmistakable.

Disney was his target for revenge, well aware that he couldn’t challenge a giant like Disney on his own.

So he sought out Spielberg, equally influential, and David Geffen, adept in business competition.

Initially, Spielberg disagreed with bringing in David Geffen, considering him a terrifying person.

He often resorted to any means to achieve business ends, and his treatment of his former boss was criticized.

But Katzenberg convinced him because they needed such a person to help DreamWorks break ground quickly.

However, just the three of them was not enough, for as mentioned, animation production was an expensive affair.

They needed substantial financial support, preferably from a friend.

Dean’s arrival was perfectly timed; he and Spielberg had just completed a grand-slam collaboration.

Most importantly, he was wealthy, the very wealthy kind.

Under their expectant gazes, Dean asked another question.

"How much equity can I get?"

"One third, and then the three of us will additionally raise another hundred million US Dollars." Katzenberg immediately answered.

Dean remained noncommittal to the figure, the rules of Hollywood were indeed very different from those of Silicon Valley.

In Silicon Valley, venture capitalists often took a large percentage of a company’s stock equity, but it was the other way around in Hollywood.

He funded over 80% of the new studio but could only get 33% of the shares.

This valuation was not cheap at all, and the valuation was entirely based on the resources and influence of those three individuals.

"I need to think about it, you know, it’s not a small number."

"Of course, DreamWorks will announce the establishment of the new studio in October, we have four months to plan it."

David Geffen gave a subtle hint, his subtext being that Dean had roughly two to three months to consider.

"I will," Dean nodded with a smile, "Actually, I think the video game business could be a good one too."

He said this last sentence to Spielberg.

Beep beep beep...

Caitlin came over with the phone, "Boss, Mr. Durell is on the line."

Dean greeted the three men and stood up to take the call.

"Dean, are you interested in an investment?"

"What?" Dean was taken aback.

"About handheld computers..."

"Come on, your EO company has already been sold to AT&T~" Dean almost hung up the phone.

"No, this time it’s not my business, I’m just the middleman," Durell quickly explained.

"Go on," Dean felt relieved it wasn’t Durell’s venture; he had thought the guy was trying to make a fool out of him.

"Bill Campbell, you should know him."

"The CEO of Intuit?" Dean had some recollection; Campbell had just been appointed as the executive director of Intuit that year.

As a shareholder with extraordinary influence, Dean had talked to him before.

"Yes, he’s got a similar project, and he knows you once acquired the Penpoint system from Go Company."

In fact, Bill Campbell wasn’t only the CEO of Intuit; he had briefly served as the executive director of Go.

Therefore, he knew Durell, and he had even met Dean a long time ago.

"Why didn’t he contact me himself?" Dean wondered.

"Because you didn’t take his call," Durell said with a peculiar tone.

"When?" Dean was somewhat confused.

"Last night."

Alright, Dean looked back at a certain room inside the mansion.

At that time, he was having a conference call, a clothing-optional kind.

"So what exactly is the project?"

"A former subordinate of Bill’s is running a PDA company named Palm."

"They are currently looking for investment, Bill knows you have a related system and wanted to see if you were interested?"

Dean raised an eyebrow, another familiar name.

"I’ll probably head back the day after tomorrow."

"Shall I tell him to contact you?"

"OK," Dean was ready to hang up the phone.

"By the way, when is Explorer 2.0 being released?"

"Pretty soon, no more than two months, we still need a bit more preparation."

"I’ll wait for your good news." Durell hung up the phone, satisfied.

"Steve, how about another party tonight, this time at my villa?" Dean turned to ask the three men on the lawn.

"No problem, I guarantee that all the girls I bring will be from Hollywood," David Geffen laughed heartily.

"Good!" Dean decided to adjust for another night and then head back to Silicon Valley to get to work.

Compared to Hollywood, the business there interested him more.