America's Road to Wealth

September 25, 2000.

Abel returns to Texas;

Today happens to be the fifth day.

That day, he met a guest at the Four Seasons Hotel in downtown Houston.

The guest's name is Isaac Perlmutter.

According to the original itinerary, Abel should have met Isaac Perlmutter at Smith Capital in New York.

But he never went back, and Isaac Perlmutter arrived in New York early.

Due to desperation, at the suggestion of David Mellon.

Isaac Perlmutter left New York and ran to Texas to find Abel.

There are many reasons why Isaac Perlmutter was so urgent and took the initiative to come to the door.

One is because the company now managed by Isaac Perlmutter was on the verge of bankruptcy once in 1997.

It was true that it was rescued that time, but for this company, the situation did not get much better.

It is still on the verge of bankruptcy or insolvency at any time.

All the while, as the general manager of this company.

Isaac Perlmutter is looking for new investors to inject new capital into the company.

Over the past few years, Isaac Perlmutter has found too many capital and interested businessmen.

But these people are either too demanding or not interested at all.

Either they want the core assets of the company, but don't want to take over a company that has been losing money.

This is something that Isaac Perlmutter and the company's core management cannot tolerate.

All this time, Isaac Perlmutter could only work hard to run the company and continue to look for new investors in the market.

As an investment businessman, Isaac Perlmutter was familiar with Wall Street.

After learning that the Wolf of Wall Street was interested in the company.

He couldn't wait to come.

He also knew that the Wolf of Wall Street was also the chairman of CAA.

This identity coincides with one of the company's future plans of another senior executive of the company.

This led him to travel from Los Angeles to New York.

From New York, I found Houston, Texas.

Just to see Abel.

This is one of the reasons,

It was originally the main reason why Isaac Perlmutter wanted to see Abel.

But now,

This main reason turned into a secondary factor.

It was already another thing to have Isaac Perlmutter come over to find Abel so urgently.

That is, Isaac Perlmutter is not just the chairman of the board of directors of this company called Marvel.

He is also a venture capital businessman, the kind known for his caution.

It's just that no matter how cautious a businessman is, he will encounter bad times or bad luck.

He has had some bad luck recently. The stocks of several listed companies he bought have fallen.

Several of the start-up companies he invested in also encountered strong attacks from rivals.

In addition to Marvel's own dire situation, his own investment and financial situation is also in bad shape.

This forced him to seek more funds to save Marvel or himself.

Fortunately, Abel was very interested in Isaac Perlmutter, or the company behind him.

With Isaac Perlmutter delivering it himself.

He chose to meet the other party.

The meeting place was at the Four Seasons Hotel where he had stayed with Liv Tyler for two days.

Liv Tyler has now been temporarily housed in a property he just bought in Houston.

Therefore, she was not in the hotel, and he did not bring her here to meet Isaac Perlmutter.

Four Seasons Hotel, restaurant.

Abel sits with Isaac Perlmutter.

Isaac Perlmutter is a white man about forty years old.

They are ordinary looking, the kind that you can find dozens of if you search them on the street.

Good afternoon, Mr. Smith. Isaac Perlmutter, who was sitting opposite, had a very good attitude.

So good that when others look at it, they know that this guy has something to ask for.

Good afternoon, Mr. Perlmutter. Abel responded with a smile.

I Isaac Perlmutter cheered up and was about to say some kind words.

He was stopped by Abel, who waved his hand towards him and said:

Mr. Perlmutter, I know why you are here. I am also very interested in Marvel. When I was a child, Spider-Man, X-Men, and Wolverine were all my heroes.

My room as a kid is still covered in stickers and posters of Peter Parker.

Now that I've grown up, I'm no longer obsessed with them. But if I had the opportunity to own the company that created them, I would still be very happy.

Facing Abel's passionate expression, Isaac Perlmutter looked a little embarrassed.

Abel emphasized that Spider-Man Parker and the X-Men, who have been repeatedly emphasized, are indeed the creations of Marvel.

The problem is that the copyrights to some of Marvel's most popular superhero characters no longer belong to Marvel.

During those difficult days, Marvel sold all of its most valuable IP.

During the bankruptcy crisis in 1997, Marvel even planned to sell off all superhero rights.

It's just that those buyers were unwilling, and they only picked out those copyrights that they thought were valuable.

The rest are basically disdainful to them.

For example, Thor, Iron Man, Captain America, Black Widow and so on.

They look down upon it.

I can't help but mention this one. The ones mentioned are all recognized as the most popular superhero IPs.

But now that they are not owned by Marvel, Isaac Perlmutter doesn't know how to express it.

Isaac Perlmutter said quietly: Mr. Smith, you are right. But...

Ha~ Abel laughed, But these most popular heroes no longer belong to Marvel, right?

Since you already know this, why do you keep emphasizing this?

Isaac Perlmutter complained in his heart, but naturally he did not dare to say it out loud.

Yes. Isaac Perlmutter said: Marvel has experienced troughs, and during that trough, it almost went bankrupt.

In order to maintain its existence, it had to sell these things during that special period.

But in fact, these remaining superhero copyrights from Marvel are the real bosses!!

This is what Isaac Perlmutter said.

But as far as Abel knew, that was not the case.

Isaac Perlmutter had the financial resources to support Marvel.

It's just that this guy is very stingy, filming Iron Man in a parallel time and space.

You can change the ten Hummers escorting Tony into four in the setting.

He didn't spend much money to control Marvel. He mainly used his toy company to invest in Marvel.

It is impossible for him to spend money to save Marvel.

So after he took charge of Marvel, this guy couldn't find a sponsor.

His approach to sustaining Marvel's life was to start selling Marvel's most valuable copyrights.

Spider-Man, X-Men, Fantastic Four, etc. are all separated from the Marvel copyright sequence under this circumstance.

Isaac Perlmutter was eloquent at the moment, trying to persuade the wealthy young man in front of him to inject capital into the dying Marvel company.

In this way, he himself can also get the turnover of funds.

So as to save your investment.

But he soon saw that Abel waved to himself again.

Okay. Mr. Perlmutter, you don't need to persuade me anymore. The fact that you can see me proves that I still have a little interest in Marvel.

Abel looked uninterested and said indifferently:

Please tell me directly, how do you want me to invest in Marvel?

After getting my investment, what plans will Marvel have?

Although it was somewhat different from the imagined persuasion plan, Abel's reaction gave Isaac Perlmutter some confidence.

Isaac Perlmutter said quickly:

Marvel wants to get a mortgage loan from you, Mr. Smith. The collateral can be the copyrights of Marvel's remaining heroes.

Marvel actually used to be a public company, but it almost went bankrupt later.

Isaac Perlmutter is now the largest shareholder in Marvel, which has delisted after reorganizing on the brink of bankruptcy.

At this time, Marvel's market value is extremely low in the market.

This makes it impossible to use shares as collateral for loans, and only the remaining hero IP and toy companies are worth a little money.

Upon hearing Isaac Perlmutter's request, Abel shook his head slightly:

My analysts told me that Marvel's most valuable copyrights are Spider-Man, the X-Men, and the Fantastic Four. They also said that there is no Spider-Man in all the remaining Marvel hero lists combined. valuable.

Marvel sold Spider-Man to Sony for only $7 million.

According to this analysis, if inflation is taken into account, the remaining copyrights of Marvel's superheroes are only worth US$10 million at most.

According to this data, dear Isaac, you can only get a loan of six to seven million dollars from me using these collaterals.

Even if this is the case, do you still want a loan?

After listening to Abel’s precise and sharp analysis of Marvel’s remaining hero copyrights.

Isaac Perlmutter was silent for a moment.

In fact, the current Marvel company’s remaining superhero IP copyrights are indeed very worthless in the U.S. capital market.

In parallel space and time,

Iron Man, who later became very popular, can only be regarded as a third-tier superhero in the Marvel superhero sequence.

On the front line are Wolverine, Spider-Man, the X-Men and the Fantastic Four.

The likes of Thor and Captain America are second tier.

Tony Stark became so valuable purely because of the movies.

Because the movie became popular, Iron Man's status in the Avengers has risen again and again, directly becoming the three giants of the Avengers.

Little Spider, the number one giant, turned out to be his godson.

In Marvel around 2000, the real value was not the copyrights of these heroes.

What is really valuable is the former Toy Biz toy company that was merged a few years ago and renamed Marvel Toys.

Isaac Perlmutter is the owner of Toy Biz toy company.

This toy company's business is now the biggest driving force supporting Marvel's survival.

According to the current market conditions, Marvel's remaining superhero copyrights are worthless.

Marvel toys transformed from Toy Biz toys are valuable.

Use it as collateral to get a loan of at least tens of millions of dollars or more.

However, the toy company is now the lifeblood of Marvel, and it is also the most important factor in Isaac Perlmutter's ability to control Marvel.

Isaac Perlmutter has no feelings for superheroes, but he has feelings for toy companies.

Naturally, he was reluctant to take out the toy company as a mortgage.

Gritting his teeth, Isaac Perlmutter said softly: So, Mr. Smith, what do you mean?

Isaac Perlmutter felt that Abel actually asked someone to find him.

Then he must be interested in Marvel somewhere, otherwise such Wall Street capitalists would not waste time talking to themselves.

So it must be Marvel, and there is something that the other party is interested in.

And this is also the biggest reliance he can rely on to get money from Abel.

Abel smiled and made two conditions for Isaac Perlmutter.

First of all, I can give you money. But it's not a loan. I want to buy the copyrights of all the remaining superheroes from Marvel. However, outside of this regulation, certain licenses will be opened to toy companies.

For a certain period of time, your toy company does not need to pay me the copyright and can produce superhero toys for a period of time.

The price is double that, eighteen million dollars.

I heard Abel’s conditions, especially the toy copyright that would be free for a period of time.

Isaac Perlmutter, the former chairman of the toy company, was a little moved. He couldn't help but said: What about the other condition?

another?

Abel smiled and said, I will buy the entire Marvel company. There are two ways to buy it. One is to only buy Marvel Comics and Marvel Studios.

Marvel established a film company as early as 1993.

But it happened to be a film winter, and the market was sluggish.

Marvel was filming a Thor and a Hulk at the time.

In the end, none of them were released. Firstly, the two films were shoddy, and secondly, the market did not accept them.

The toy company will also give you free copyright for at least two years.

Abel continued:

Another way to buy it is to sell me all of Marvel, including your toy company.

call--

Isaac Perlmutter let out a breath and looked deeply at Abel.

So, Mr. Smith, what's the price? The price of the first option, and the price of the second option.

My bid for just Marvel Studios and Marvel Comics would be $30 million. Because right now, they're only worth that much.

The current market conditions are very unfavorable to Marvel's remaining superhero IP copyrights.

But it is a comic publishing house, one of the top ones in the United States.

Even if the comic book publishing industry is in recession, this aspect is still worth some money.

What's more, there is an empty Marvel movie, which is worth millions of dollars.

There are some talents in it.

If I were to buy the entire Marvel company, my offer would be US$100 million. Their price is only worth so much.

Don’t look at the fact that Marvel was later valued at more than 200 billion US dollars.

That's because it only has such value after the Avengers Universe becomes successful.

In 2009 before Avengers was really successful.

The entire Marvel package was sold to Disney for only about US$4.2 billion.

In 2000, Marvel had just experienced a bankruptcy crisis.

The sales of comics, its main business, are sluggish, and they are all supported by toys.

At this point, it’s really only worth so much.

Not many people could appreciate such a cheap Marvel movie before.

The value of Marvel has only improved a little after the first part of X-Men was released this year.

But it's average, because the first X-Men only had a global box office of $290 million.

Although it ranked sixth at the box office for the year, its budget was US$75 million, and more than US$20 million in publicity and distribution funds were not included.

This box office, after deducting costs, earned less than 10 million US dollars.

Counting the sale of peripheral products and subsequent DVDs, it is profitable.

Marvel was really taken seriously enough to successfully obtain loans after Maguire's first Spider-Man was released.

And after achieving great success, Marvel was really taken seriously by the market.

At that time, the market value of Marvel was at least several times different from what it is now.

Look at Isaac Perlmutter's hesitation after he stated the conditions.

Abel was a little anxious, because he knew that in another year or two, it would be impossible to buy Marvel for one or two billion US dollars.

But he could bear it, and he had already prepared some actions.

Isaac Perlmutter, an investor, is currently in an investment crisis.

Isaac Perlmutter's several venture capital investments, as well as several Wall Street investments, all suffered losses to varying degrees.

Isaac Perlmutter will need a margin call in the near future to prevent these investments from going up in smoke.

In other words, Isaac Perlmutter is now more anxious than himself.

At least half of Isaac Perlmutter's current investment situation is caused by Abel letting David Mellon fuel the situation behind the scenes!

If Abel could bear it, he would probably add a little more money after a while.

As long as the first Spider-Man is released, Marvel won't be worth anything.

The first Spider-Man will not be released until 2002.

There are almost two years left, Abel can wait.

Of course.

He will not sit still and wait for death. He has told David Mellon that he is ready to increase his efforts at any time.

If Isaac Perlmutter couldn't make up his mind.

He will let David Mellon continue to snipe Isaac Perlmutter's investments in the market.

This kind of behavior is not expensive. After using leverage, it only costs millions of dollars.

David Mellon even said that the company has made millions of dollars doing this.

If it continues, the company can at least make millions of dollars by sniping Isaac Perlmutter's investment.

When Smith Capital makes money, some people naturally lose money.

It was Isaac Perlmutter who was sniped again, and he was naturally the one who lost the most money.

Since Isaac Perlmutter couldn't make up his mind so quickly.

Then Abel felt that he should help him make up his mind as soon as possible.

Dare to refuse,

Or hesitate.

Smith Capital will continue to teach Isaac Perlmutter how to behave in the capital market.

This is the method of financial capitalists.