Well, That Took Long Enough: The Soros Scam
Four years ago, when George Soros allegedly purchased the DreamWorks library for an insanely overpriced $900 million, I was already questioning whether it was being bought with, “real money or “Weinstein money.”
I’ve had plenty of arguments over the years about the $900 million… which didn’t make sense when it happened… and didn’t make sense until today… when it turned out to be a no-interest loan that Soros was presumably hoping would increase in value.
Soros, it seems, never actually paid $900 million, but $400 million for 51% of the rights revenues coming off of the library. And now, he has it back. Little or no profit. But with the value of libraries dropping like a stone, the ONLY reason why Paramount would be eating this $400 million now – all added debt – is because that was always the deal.
Unlike Sony in the MGM affair or those chasing the Miramax library – anything less than $750 million makes it the stupidest sell-off in modern studio history – Soros had no reason to want the library for strategic purposes. It never made sense… and the media just played along as though it was business as usual.
Besides patting myself on the back for observing the obvious – and I am, since I was alone in doing so in this case – the point I hope you all take away from this is… Think For Yourself. Entertainment journalists are not actually doing their jobs, in terms of unearthing truth. Press releases are being regurgitated and most people now think that “First!” is the measure of journalism. It is not.
And I can’t count the number of times I toldja this.
I’m not saying that I am the greatest journalist in the world. Far from it. My choices are not the choices I would expect mainstream reporters and editors to make. I am not deluding myself into thinking otherwise. But I do know when I am being lied to by a studio… when we are all being told that 10+14 = 279. And you all should, as Mamet would say, go and do likewise, gents, go and do likewise.
It seems like a reasonable deal on Soros’ part – he gets a fairly predictable cash flow and insider tracking for media values, which offset the opportunity cost for not being able to use that $400mil for other investment purposes. Meanwhile Viacom’s acquisition of Dreamworks becomes much more manageable and they aren’t tied down with the debt and the interest payments that entails.
You don’t necessarily have to have strategic operational benefits to undergo acquisitions, but given how difficult it is to get ANY synergies most deals should be approached with a degree of skepticism as to where the value is coming from.
Yes, you are superjournalist.
Just remember: No Capes!
Poland, do you have an actual column you can point to to show that you saw this coming (beyond “this deal doesn’t make sense” type of entries)? As in, were you able to actually explain it and get it semi-right? I am not doubting that you did. I’m really interested in reading what you said in the past and have no idea where to go looking for it.
And here’s something *I* find interesting:
A couple of days ago Paramount announced that the Blu-Ray edition of “Saving Private Ryan” was going to be released on the fifth of May. This announcement came just a few days after Fox announced a Blu-Ray release of “Minority Report”.
Now here’s the real interesting thing: Both movies will come in 2 disc packs with extras. However, unlike “Minority Report”, which will contain brand new and exclusive extras, all of them in HD, “Saving Private Ryan” would simply combine all of the extras from the two previous “DVD” releases with the previously DVD released Spielberg/Hanks documentary “Shooting War” and present them both in their old standard definition. Only trailers got the HD treatment, which is irrelevant to the point I’m about to make.
I didn’t really pay much attention to this before (and will be picking up both releases due to better transfers alone) but reading that Bloomberg article had me wondering if the timing of SPR’s release and the fact that it exactly the kind of a RECYCLE job (the kind some expected from Soros) wasn’t completely coincidential and whether Paramount/Viacom was using this timing/content to rush SPR in time for Memorial Weekend. I mean, completely unlike “Minority Report” those SPR extras almost scream to me: Spielberg wasn’t really part of this.
I’m not saying that I’m right (and please point out if I am not) but the fact that we are getting two major Spielberg Blu-Ray releases so close to each other over a relatively long drought makes me think that I may not be entirely wrong either. Any thoughts?
Update: I just looked into some of the other “Sapphire Releases” from Paramount (of which “Saving Private Ryan” is a part of).
“Gladiator”, which was the first or second ever-“Sapphire” release is the closest match. It too, seems to contain all of the extras from the previous DVD releases, all presented in standard definion.
With “Forrest Gump” and “Braveheart”, however, it’s different story – they both have a ton of exclusive new extras, most of them in HD, all with the creators input.
My theory that this “Saving Private Ryan” release didn’t much involve Spielberg could be true. Not sure what that means though.